The events of the Civil War have caused debate for many years - the historiography of the issue allows us to identify the main reasons that could provoke hostilities that dragged on for more than 5 years.

The Civil War of 1917-1922/23 was a series of conflicts based on political, social, and ethnic problems that existed in the country. During the war, new state systems began to emerge on the territory of the weakened Russian Empire, which sought to fight for self-determination and independence. During the conflict, several multi-vector forces emerged.

The conflict was preceded by several historical events that led to a complete change in the form and system of government in the country. The main historical prerequisites for the civil war are the revolution of 1905-1907, the First World War. These are the basic events that led to the economic, political and social crisis.

Over the years, the events of 1917-1922 have caused controversy among historians. In Soviet and modern historiography, the causes and prerequisites of events are interpreted differently. Modern experts identify several groups of causes of conflict:

• Political;
• Social;
• Economic;
• National-ethnic.

The first group of reasons is associated with the growing influence of the Bolshevik forces after the political crisis that began during the First World War. The social aspect of the reasons is connected with the fact that the events of the war can be considered in the context of the class struggle of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Economic problems arose as a consequence of a serious economic crisis - primarily caused by military destruction. In addition, the agrarian question, unresolved after the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, intensified and took on new shapes. National-ethnic difficulties in the state were associated with the desire of some nationalities within the Russian Empire to gain statehood and independence. The desire for secession arose as a response to the political situation in the country - the political crisis in the Russian Empire weakened statehood and gave a chance to peoples seeking independence to form a sovereign state entity.

Modern historians believe that the events of 1917-1922 were caused by the popularity of the Bolshevik ideology. The coming of the Bolsheviks to power can be called one of the main prerequisites for the overthrow of the monarchical system.

In Russia in 1917, two events merged into one - the October Revolution and the beginning of the civil war. In the historiography of the Soviet period, these events were equated, without separating them from each other. Theorists of Bolshevism considered these events the most significant and inseparable from each other: the civil war was seen as a logical consequence of the proletarian revolution. Without military action, according to the ideologists of the Soviet period, the fundamental change necessary for the establishment of Bolshevism could not have occurred. Civil war, according to historians, is the highest form of class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The next “stop” after the civil war was supposed to be the world proletarian revolution.

The Bolsheviks themselves formulated the idea this way: the civil war is interclass and should develop into the worldwide establishment of the communist system.

Foreign historians of the 20th century argued that the civil war was planned and provoked by the Bolsheviks specifically - it was precisely for its organization and the dissemination of its ideology that this political force came to power through the revolutionary events of 1917. A number of events related to the Bolsheviks’ rise to power can be attributed to the leading causes of the civil war:

• Establishment of a dictatorial regime of one party.
• Exit from the First World War by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This alliance was absolutely disadvantageous for Russia and showed the political shortsightedness of the Bolsheviks. The signing of the document entailed the foreign policy isolation of the state, economic devastation, and the loss of important strategic territories.
• Loss of social support in the form of the peasantry, which suffered from the economic measures taken by the Bolsheviks at the beginning of their rule. In addition to the peasants, the Bolsheviks were losing support from former nobles - this was a consequence of the complete nationalization of banks and enterprises that were previously owned by representatives of the bourgeoisie.
• The means that the Bolsheviks resorted to can be called violent and undiplomatic.
• Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.

In a politically tense situation, the outbreak of a civil war can be considered inevitable. Foreign states constantly interfered in internal events in Russia. Their goal was to promote national elements on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire who sought to secede and form their own statehood.

The constant military intervention of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente, which continued to conduct military operations in 1917-1918, including on Russian territory, aggravated the political and social situation in the country. The pretext for intervention was the desire to fight Germany. There were other reasons for intervention - the desire to extend and strengthen control over the territory of a weakened Russia, to expand spheres of influence by supporting certain parties to the conflict. Western countries saw a threat in the growing power of the Bolshevik regime and supported the “white” army that fought against it. But the interventionists themselves were weakened by the war, a serious economic crisis began in many states, so the ability to provide support to the “white” army was limited.

The civil war, according to modern historians, was inevitable under the conditions that developed in 1917-1918. It is worth noting that the fighting during the civil war in Russia took place far beyond its borders - in China, Iran, and Mongolia. Thus the new regime strengthened its influence.

The main prerequisite for the civil war was the coming to power of the Bolsheviks and the desire of this political force to assert its power, first within Russia, and then throughout the world.

1.1. The essence of the concept “Civil War in Russia” - This, according to the definition of academician Yu. A. Polyakov, “armed struggle between different groups of the population, based on deep social, national and political contradictions”, which initially had a regional (local) and then acquired a national scale.

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

1.2. Main causes of the Civil War:

- change in the nature of political power- the overthrow of the Provisional Government by the Bolsheviks and the establishment of Soviet power caused resistance not only from the right and monarchists, but also from liberals;

- Bolsheviks' rejection of the idea of ​​a homogeneous socialist government and the principles of parliamentarism(dispersal of the Constituent Assembly) led to the participation of moderate socialists in the fight against the Bolsheviks;

Others undemocratic measures of the Bolsheviks (dictatorship, repression, activities of emergency bodies, persecution of the opposition), causing discontent not only among the intelligentsia and peasants, but also among workers. So, the ban on strikes in January 1918, the beginning of the nationalization of trade unions, the subordination of factory committees to them led to the revival of Menshevik influence in the working environment;

- conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk peace caused discontent among wide sections of the population and caused protests against the Bolsheviks by their former allies - the Left Socialist Revolutionaries;

- economic policy of Soviet power in the countryside, which led to the actual abolition of the Decree on Land, the establishment of the Pobedy Committee, the establishment of a food dictatorship, the organization of food detachments (the number of fighters of which increased in three months from 12 to 80 thousand), decossackization, pushed the multimillion-dollar peasantry to fight against the Bolsheviks and became the main factor that gave rise to the war nationwide scale.

1.3. Foreign military intervention was also due to a number of factors:

Non-recognition by capitalist states of a new form of political power in Russia;

Rejection of the Bolshevik slogan of world revolution and hence the desire to help the overthrown classes (albeit unselfishly);

Dissatisfaction with Russia's violation of allied obligations and its withdrawal from the war;

Protest against the nationalization of foreign property and refusal to pay foreign debts;

Own economic and geopolitical interests aimed at weakening Russia and separating certain territories from it. In December 1917, world powers actually divided Russia into zones of interest. An integral part of the intervention was the military-economic blockade of Russia established by the Entente after the end of the First World War in November 1918.

2. Alignment of political forces

2.1. Anti-Bolshevik camp. The armed confrontation between opponents and supporters of Soviet power began from the first days of the revolution. By the summer of 1918, the entire spectrum of political forces opposing the Bolsheviks was divided into three main camps:

Frankly anti-Soviet, represented by a coalition of large entrepreneurs, the nobility, and the political elite with the leading role of the Cadets Party;

Camp "third way" (or " democratic counter-revolution") were composed of the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks who joined them at various stages, whose activities in practice were expressed in the creation of self-declared governments - Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) in Samara, Directory in Omsk, Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, etc.;

The third political camp was represented mainly former allies of the Bolsheviks- anarchists and left Socialist Revolutionaries who found themselves in opposition to the RSDLP (b) after the Brest Peace Treaty and the suppression of the left Socialist Revolutionary rebellion in July 1918.

2.2. White movement. During the Civil War, the leading military force in the fight against the Bolsheviks and Soviet power became White movement. The “white idea” itself arose among the generals of the Russian army and part of the Octobrist-cadet leaders back in August 1917, during the Kornilov rebellion.

The main slogan of the White movement was the fight against the Bolsheviks “for the salvation of Russia”, as well as

The requirement to convene the Constituent Assembly;

Protection of private property rights;

Restoration of the Russian army on the basis of genuine military discipline;

The national idea and slogan of a united and indivisible Russia.

The number of white armies was relatively small. Yes, Admiral A. V. Kolchak at the moment of highest activity mobilized about 500 thousand people, generals A I. Denikin- 100 thousand, N. N. Yudenich- 20 thousand. The decisive factor in the foreign policy activities of the white governments was the factor of dependence on military assistance and supplies from the allies. This help, in turn, was directly linked to the military successes of the White movement.

2.3. Peasantry during the war. The position of the peasantry was of particular importance during the war years. A consequence of the agrarian reforms in the first months of Soviet power was the abolition of private ownership of land and the prohibition of wage labor. As a result of the established food dictatorship and the activities of the poor committees, peasants, especially owners of commercial grain, became the main object of non-economic methods of its seizure. The middle peasants who had supplies of bread were equated to kulaks, which aggravated the confrontation in the countryside and caused a wave of peasant uprisings already in the summer of 1918 (more than 200). One of the forms of resistance to the authorities was the mass evasion of peasants from the announced mobilization into the Red Army. In 1918, the villages gave the Bolsheviks only Vs of the planned number of conscripts, and desertion of mobilized peasants became widespread.

Later, the peasants changed their attitude towards Soviet power. It was the behavior of the peasantry that ultimately decided the outcome of the civil confrontation in the country.

3. Stages of the Civil War

3.1. First stage (October 1917 - May 1918). During this period, armed clashes were local in nature. After the October uprising, a general rose up to fight the revolution A. M. Kaledin, followed by the ousted prime minister A. F. Kerensky, Cossack general P. N. Krasnov, in the south of the Urals - ataman A. I. Dutov. By the end of 1917, a powerful center of counter-revolution arose in the south of Russia. Here the Central Rada of Ukraine spoke out against the new government. On the Don was formed Volunteer Army(supreme leader - A. V. Alekseev, commander-in-chief - L. G. Kornilov, after his death - A.I. Denikin).

In February, Turkey launched an offensive in Transcaucasia, which led to the capture of part of Transcaucasia by the Turks, the disintegration of the Transcaucasian Commissariat into independent Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan (May 1918) and the entry of German troops into the region. In March - April 1918, units of British (in Murmansk), American and Japanese (in the Far East) troops landed. (On the German intervention, see topic 57, section “Foreign Policy of the Bolsheviks.”)

3.2. Second stage (May - November 1918).

. Expanding the intervention. In May - June 1918, the armed struggle acquired a national scale. IN end of May an armed uprising began in Siberia in the 45th thousandth Czechoslovak Corps(formed in 1914-1917 from Czechs and Slovaks - prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army and Russian subjects who advocated the independence of Czechoslovakia. By agreement with the Czechoslovak government in Paris, the corps began evacuation to Europe through Vladivostok). In Kazan, the Czechoslovaks seized Russia's gold reserves (over 30 thousand pounds of gold and silver with a total value of 650 million rubles).

In July, Japanese and US troops landed in Vladivostok. In August, the British ousted German troops from Transcaucasia; The Anglo-American landing force occupied Arkhangelsk.

. Transformation of the war into a national one. At the same time, in many central provinces of Russia, peasants dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks joined the armed struggle. More than 200 peasant uprisings took place in the summer (108 in June alone). Peasant uprisings in the Volga region and the Urals became one of the reasons for the fall of Soviet power in these regions. Some peasants participated in the People's Army of Komuch; The Ural and Siberian peasantry served in the Siberian army.

In August 1918 there was an anti-Bolshevik uprising of workers of the Izhevsk and Botkin factories in the Urals, who created an army of about 30 thousand people and held out until November, after which the rebels were forced to retreat and leave with their families to join Kolchak’s army.

. Formation of "democratic governments"" Socialist parties, relying on peasant rebel groups, formed a number of governments in the summer of 1918 in the cities of Arkhangelsk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, Omsk, Ashgabat, etc. Their programs included demands for a new convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of citizens, and the rejection of a one-party dictatorship and strict state regulation of the economic activities of peasants, etc.

- Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), consisting mainly of Socialist Revolutionaries (chairman - V.K. Volsky), was created on June 8, 1918 in Samara and governed the Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk, Kazan and Ufa provinces. The main objectives were declared to be the repulsion of German aggression, the rejection of the Brest Peace Treaty, and the overthrow of the Bolsheviks. In the territory under its control, the Committee proclaimed the restoration of democratic freedoms, an 8-hour working day, allowed the activities of workers and peasants' congresses, conferences, trade unions, convened the Council of Workers' Deputies and created the People's Army. Here, the decrees of the Soviet government were canceled, industrial enterprises were returned to their previous owners, banks were denationalized, and freedom of trade was allowed; previously confiscated lands were retained by the landowners.

Eserovskoe Provisional Siberian government, formed in June 1918 in Vladivostok (branch - in Omsk), in July adopted a declaration of independence of Siberia and transferred power to the coalition Siberian government that arose in Omsk (chairman - former cadet 17. V. Vologodsky).

Social Revolutionary-Kadet Ufa directory(All-Russian Provisional Government, Chairman - Social Revolutionary N. D. Avksentiev) was formed in September 1918. Directory, Having begun the fight against the Bolsheviks, she advocated continuing the war and restoring the alliance with the Entente powers. Members of the Directory achieved the abolition of all regional, national and Cossack “governments”. In October Komuch dissolved itself, but the Omsk government did not cease its activities.

The attitude of peasants towards “democratic governments” changed after they attempted to create their own armed forces by mobilizing the local population, including using repressive measures. In addition, regional democratic governments suffered defeats from the Red Army units that were successfully advancing in the Volga region.

November 18, 1918 in Omsk, Admiral A. V. Kolchak carried out a coup, as a result of which provisional governments (including the Directory) were dispersed and a military dictatorship was established. Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Under him, the Omsk government was created, under whose authority all of Siberia, the Urals, and the Orenburg province came to be.

. Organization of defense. 2 September 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee made a decision about turning the Soviet Republic into a military camp. Was created in September Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic chaired by L. D. Trotsky- the body that stood at the head of all fronts and military institutions. On November 30, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decree on education was adopted Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense headed by V.I. Lenin. The head of the military department, L. D. Trotsky, took energetic measures to strengthen the Red Army: strict discipline was introduced, forced mobilization was carried out, including former officers of the tsarist army, and the institution of military commissars was created to control the “political line” of the commanders. By the end of 1918, the strength of the Red Army exceeded 1.5 million people.

As a result, Kazan and Simbirsk were taken in September, Samara in October, and Izhevsk in November. But % Russia remained in the hands of anti-Bolshevik forces.

3.3. Third stage (November 1918 - spring 1919). At this stage, the leading force in the fight against the Bolsheviks became the military dictatorial regimes in the east (Admiral A V. Kolchak), south (General A I. Denikina), northwest (general N. N. Yudenich) and the north of the country (general E.K. Miller).

. Mass intervention against Russia. The third stage of the Civil War was associated with changes in the international situation. The end of the First World War made it possible to free up the fighting forces of the Entente powers and direct them against Russia. At the end of November 1918, French and British troops landed in Novorossiysk, Batum, Odessa and Sevastopol. Back to top

In 1919, the number of foreign armed forces reached 130 thousand soldiers in the south, and up to 20 thousand in the north. In the Far East and Siberia, the Allies concentrated up to 150 thousand troops.

The military intervention caused a patriotic upsurge in the country, and in the world - a solidarity movement under the slogan “Hands off Soviet Russia!”

In the fall of 1918, the main thing was the Eastern Front. Here a counteroffensive of the Red Army unfolded under the command of I. I. Vatsetis, during which the White Guard units were driven out of the Middle Volga and Kama regions.

3.4. Fourth stage (spring 1919 - April 1920).

. Combined offensive of anti-Bolshevik forces. By the beginning of 1919, the military-strategic situation had noticeably worsened on all fronts. IN March 1919 from East, in order to unite with Denikin’s troops for a joint attack on Moscow, the army launched an offensive A. V. Kolchak(the offensive was repelled by the Eastern Front under the command of S. S. Kameneva And M. V. Frunze), in the northwest - the army N. N. Yudenich in June she approached Petrograd. But to summer 1919 the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front, where the army of General A. I. Denikina began its movement towards Moscow, taking Voronezh and Orel in October and approaching Tula.

. Peasant movement. Simultaneously with the actions of the white armies in the spring, peasant uprisings began in Ukraine, the Urals, Stavropol region, and the Volga region. In March 1919, an uprising of 30 thousand Cossacks broke out on the Don, which lasted until the summer, after which it merged with the White movement.

However, gradually the peasant war changed its direction. The decisive role was played by the fact that White Guard forces did not recognize the results of the agrarian reform and tried, like the Denikin government, to ensure the return of the land to the old owners. A certain role was also played by the adjustment of the Bolsheviks’ course towards the middle peasants, the rejection of disorderly confiscation and beginning of 1919 transition to surplus appropriation with a fixed amount of household duty. Peasant armies in Ukraine (from 12 to 20 thousand soldiers under the command N.I. Makhno), in Siberia and other regions, having initially acted against both the whites and the reds, they were increasingly inclined to fight for land against the whites. The change in the mood of the peasantry at the decisive stage of the war ultimately predetermined the outcome of the civil confrontation in the country in favor of the Bolsheviks.

. Actions of the Red Army. At the end of October 1919, the Whites were stopped by the troops of the Southern Front (commander A. I. Egorov) and with the support of the peasant army N. I. Makhno thrown back to the Black Sea region. Yudenich's army was pushed back to Estonia, the remnants of Denikin's troops, led by P. N. Wrangel, strengthened in Crimea. At the end of 1919 - beginning of 1920, under the attacks of the Red Army and peasant rebel detachments, Kolchak’s troops were finally defeated with the neutrality of the Czechoslovak corps.

3.5. Fifth stage (May - November 1920).

In May 1920, the Red Army entered war with Poland, trying to take possession of the capital and create the necessary conditions for the proclamation of Soviet power there. However, this attempt ended in military failure. Due to inconsistency in the actions of the troops, the army M. N. Tukhachevsky was destroyed near Warsaw. IN March 1921 was signed Riga Peace Treaty, under the terms of which a significant part of the territory of Ukraine and Belarus went to Poland.

The main event of the final period of the Civil War was defeat Armed forces of the South of Russia, headed by General P. N. Wrangel. Troops of the Southern Front under the command M. V. Frunze V November 1920 completely captured Crimea.

3.6. The last centers of the Civil War. Late 1920-1922 During 1920-1921 with the help of Red Army units ended the process of Sovietization in Central Asia and Transcaucasia.

TO end of 1922 hostilities in the Far East ceased. 14 November Far Eastern Republic(educated as "buffer" state on April 6, 1920) reunited with the RSFSR.

3.7. The peasantry in the final stages of the Civil War. The civil war ended, but when the danger of the whites returning practically disappeared, peasant protests against the Bolsheviks resumed.

In the Tambov province in August 1920, an anti-Bolshevik uprising broke out, led by the Social Revolutionary A. S. Antonov, on whose side by the beginning of 1921 there were two peasant armies of 20- 25 thousand people each. The uprising was suppressed by Tukhachevsky's troops.

In January 1921, an uprising of peasants in Western Siberia began, covering the Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg provinces (over 100 thousand peasants). Common forms of resistance to the surplus appropriation policy were also sabotage, concealment of grain reserves, evasion of conscription, terror against communists, and destruction of communes.

4. Conclusions

1. The civil war on Russian territory finally ended by the end of 1920, with the exception of certain regions of Transcaucasia, Central Asia and the Far East. The Bolsheviks, during the most fierce resistance, managed to retain power, and in the fight against intervention forces to preserve Russian statehood.

2. The Bolshevik victory was due to a number of reasons.

The deciding factor was change in the mood and behavior of the peasantry towards the end of the war. The return of the landowners and the “bar” in general, who were seen in the White Guards; the threat of losing land; The harsh dictatorship of white generals turned out to be more alien to the Russian peasantry than the military-communist methods of rule of the Bolsheviks.

played a huge role successes in the formation of the Red Army. The new regime, based on universal conscription, managed to create a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of 5 million people. In addition, the success of the Bolsheviks was facilitated by the mobilization of 75 thousand former Russian army officers who had knowledge and experience. Some of them were brought to the side of the Soviets, others fought under the threat of execution of families left hostages. In the Red Army units, it was possible to achieve strengthening of discipline, including through the execution of deserters and other punishments for failure to comply with orders.

played a big role militarization and centralization of the economy within the framework of the policy of “war communism”. The Bolsheviks managed to mobilize all economic resources.

An important factor was unity and organization of the Soviet government, the mobilizing role of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the over-centralized economic policy of the state.

3. Reasons for the defeat of the White movement were conditioned

Its heterogeneity, the presence internal contradictions and, accordingly, the impossibility of developing a comprehensive program. The lack of popular political slogans significantly narrowed the social base of the movement. As a result, the number of white troops was significantly inferior to the Red Army units.

Antagonisms among anti-Bolshevik forces led to refusal to recognize Soviet agrarian reform and the “non-resolution” of the issue before the Constituent Assembly (only Kolchak in Siberia, where there was practically no landownership and the land issue was not acute, legalized the temporary use of land seized by peasants, mostly state-owned). Various half-hearted projects were developed, which drew accusations from the right (of destroying large “cultural” farms) and from the left (of preserving landownership”). During the last phase of the war, White governments began to pass laws on labor (including the 8-hour workday, freedom of trade unions and insurance) and agrarian issues. But the land reforms begun (in particular by Wrangel in the Crimea) were not radical enough for the majority of peasants and were too late.

In some manuals you can find statements about the return of land to landowners in territories captured by whites. In reality, the process did not become widespread, although there were quite a few isolated cases; In addition, the peasants were repulsed by the uncertainty of the return to power of the “former” ones, as well as punitive measures, food requisitions, and forced mobilizations. The Reds also used violence, but guaranteed that the “old order” could not return.

. Commitment to the ideas of a united and indivisible Russia alienated potential allies in the form of national movements from whites. Thus, the Finnish army refused to support the decisive offensive of Yudenich (located several miles from Petrograd), who rejected the demand for Finnish independence. Estonia, which the Bolsheviks promised independence, disarmed Yudenich's army. At a certain stage, even the Cossacks turned their backs on Denikin due to disagreements over “Cossack autonomy.” Intransigence on foreign policy issues (in particular, in relation to the northwestern territories of Russia) weakened international support for Kolchak.

. White use of interventionist forces caused the rise of a patriotic movement in the country, close in spirit to the ideas of Bolshevism. The powerful movement of international solidarity with the Russian revolution ultimately became the main factor that undermined the unity of action of the Entente powers and weakened the strength of their military onslaught on Soviet Russia.

3. Consequences of the war.

. Civil war and foreign intervention caused enormous damage Russian economy. The Entente blockade following the November 1918 armistice isolated the Soviet Republic both politically and economically at a time when internal conditions within Soviet-ruled territory were close to catastrophic. The amount of damage in 1922 was 39 billion gold rubles, which exceeded a quarter of the country's pre-war wealth. Demographic losses from the autumn of 1917 to 1922 amounted to almost 13 million people; emigration - about 1.5 million people.

The experience of the Civil War had a decisive influence on the formation political culture of Bolshevik leaders. Military considerations played a decisive role in the party's movement towards centralism, bureaucratic hierarchy and command-and-control methods of management. There was a process of militarization of the party. Emergency wartime conditions made it easier to roll back democracy and establish a harsh one-party dictatorship in the country.

An important consequence of the Civil War was the formation new consciousness, characterized by a combination of revolutionary romanticism with an extremely low assessment of individual human life and personality.

Some exalt on posters
Your nonsense about bourgeois evil,
About the bright proletariats,
A bourgeois paradise on earth.
In others, all the color, all the rot of empires,
All gold, all decay of ideas.
The shine of all the great fetishes
And all scientific superstitions.
Both here and here between the rows
The same voice sounds:
“Whoever is not for us is against us.
No one is indifferent: the truth is with us.”
M. Voloshin

The Russian Civil War is controversial, and most questions about its history have no generally accepted answers.

Issues for discussion:

1. Fratricidal civil war.
2. Periodization of the Civil War.
3. Prerequisites and causes of the civil war in Russia.
4. The two main camps are red and white.
5. Creation of the Red Army.
6. The policy of “war communism”.
7. Military intervention.
8. Main events of the civil war.
9. Violence.
10. The relationship between Soviet power and the peasantry.
11. Results and consequences of the Civil War.
12. Who won the civil war.
13. Lessons from the Civil War.

1. Civil war is called:

Fierce armed struggle for power between different social groups;

There is always tragedy, turmoil, the decomposition of a social organism that has not found the strength to cope with the disease that has struck it, the collapse of statehood, a social catastrophe;

This is a war between citizens of the same state;

It is a conflict within a society caused by attempts to gain or maintain power through illegal means;

This is an armed struggle for power between different groups and segments of the population within a country, caused by deep social, political, economic and other contradictions.

In relation to Russia - the civil war of 1918-1920. - is an armed struggle for power caused by deep social, political, economic, national and other contradictions between various groups and segments of the country's population, which took place with the active intervention of foreign states and included military operations of regular armies, uprisings, rebellions, partisan and sabotage-terrorist actions.

Fratricidal war... The term “fratricidal” is often used in journalism in relation to the assessment of the civil war in Russia. Yes, the Russians shot at the Russians, the flaring up confrontation put fathers and sons, brothers on opposite sides of the barricades. It's like that. But can we forget why, in fact, there was a fierce struggle, for the sake of what goals forces were strained to the point of impossibility, blood was shed? Can it be denied that the civil war reflected the aggravation of class confrontation in specific historical conditions? I think not.

If you do not notice the social-class background of the confrontation, then, for example, the struggle of Razin and Pugachev will fall under the assessment of “fratricidal actions”. From a universal human standpoint, any war is fratricidal and therefore has no moral justification. Reducing a complex of complex problems to a national aspect is unlikely to provide a true answer. There is no direct answer - the line did not represent a geometric straight line (on one side of the barricades are entrepreneurs, landowners, generals, and on the other - proletarians, the peasant poor), but had the character of a winding, zigzag line.

2. When did the Civil War begin?

The opinions of historians differ: some attribute the beginning of the war to the spring - summer of 1917, considering the July events in Petrograd and the “Kornilovism” as its first acts;

others tend to associate it with the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks’ rise to power.

Most researchers believe that before the summer of 1918 it was impossible to talk about the Civil War in the exact sense of the word: the events mentioned were only its prologue, its prehistory. There are also differences in determining the end date of the war. Most often, it is recognized in 1922, and the entire period since the end of 1920 is assessed as the time of its last outbreaks.

What stages in the war stand out?

The problem of periodization of the history of the Civil War has repeatedly been the subject of scientific discussions. But to this day, there is no single point of view.

V.I. Lenin viewed the civil war in two aspects:

a) civil war as the most acute form of class struggle (lasted in Russia from October 1917 to October 1922);

b) the civil war as a special period in the history of the Soviet state, when the military issue acted as the main, fundamental issue of the revolution (from the summer of 1918 to the end of 1920).

Second (Leninist) period, Soviet historians of the 60-80s. usually divided into three stages:

But there were also other approaches: both 4 and 5 periods were distinguished in the war. During Stalin's reign, naturally, his periodization dominated:

• Kolchak's campaign,
• Denikin's campaign,
• campaign of Poland and Wrangel.

Western historians give their periodization of the civil war in Russia:

1st period - 1918 - is called anarchist;

2nd period - 1919 - struggle between the Reds and the Whites;

3rd period - 1920 - the struggle of the Bolsheviks against the peasantry. At the same time, they believe that the peasants won the civil war, since the Bolsheviks abandoned the policy of “war communism” and switched to the NEP.

In the 90s, at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (academician Yu.A. Polyakov) a new periodization of the history of the civil war in Russia was proposed. It covers the period from February 1917 to 1922. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yu.A. Polyakov identifies 6 stages of the civil war in our country:

February-March 1917 - violent overthrow of the autocracy, an open split in society mainly along social lines;

March-October 1917 - failure of Russian democracy in an attempt to establish civil peace, increased socio-political confrontation in society, escalation of violence;

October 1917 - March 1918 - the overthrow of the Provisional Government by the Bolsheviks, the establishment of Soviet power, a new split in society, the spread of armed struggle (including the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty as one of the factors of the split);

March-June 1918 - local hostilities, the formation of white and red armed forces, terror on both sides, further escalation of violence;

summer 1918 - end of 1920 - "a major civil war between massive regular armies, foreign intervention, partisan warfare in the rear, militarization of the economy, etc. (this is actually a civil war in the full sense of these words, although it would be more accurate to call this time - stage of the “big” civil war).

1921-1922 - gradual attenuation of the civil war, its localization on the outskirts and complete end.

At the same time, in the educational and methodological literature for schoolchildren, two stages of the civil war in Russia are distinguished:

The second stage - from the summer of 1918 to the end of 1920.

or there are four stages of war:

1. summer - autumn 1918 (stage of escalation: rebellion of the White Czechs, Entente landings in the North and Japan, England, USA - in the Far East, formation of anti-Soviet centers in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the North Caucasus, Don, execution the family of the last Russian Tsar, the declaration of the Soviet Republic as a single military camp);

2. autumn 1918 - spring 1919 (stage of increased foreign military intervention: annulment of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, intensification of the Red and White Terror);

3. spring 1919 - spring 1920 (stage of military confrontation between the regular Red and White armies: campaigns of the troops of A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, N.N. Yudenich and their reflection, from the second half of 1919 - decisive successes of the Red Army);

4. summer - autumn 1920 (stage of military defeat of the whites: war with Poland, defeat of P.P. Wrangel).

The civil war should be considered as the result of a multi-stage process of growth and aggravation of socio-political confrontation in Russian society.

3. What were the causes of the Civil War? Who is to blame for unleashing it?

Representatives of the white movement laid the blame on the Bolsheviks, who tried to forcefully destroy the centuries-old institutions of private property, overcome the natural inequality of people, and impose a dangerous utopia on society.

Currently, under the influence of publicists and especially electronic media, the point of view that the Bolsheviks unleashed the civil war has become widespread in Russian society. They, they say, usurped power, killed the most humane king in the world, exacerbated confrontation in society and, in the name of the approaching world revolution, unleashed a fratricidal war.

The Bolsheviks and their supporters, Soviet historians, considered the overthrown exploiting classes to be guilty of the Civil War, who, in order to preserve their privileges and wealth, unleashed a bloody massacre against the working people. The point of view of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, enshrined in numerous books and school textbooks of the Soviet period, seems more reasoned. Its essence: In 1917, workers and peasants came to power in Russia. The bourgeoisie and landowners did not want to come to terms with this. But they did not have the strength for any serious resistance to Soviet Power. The rebellion of Krasnov-Kerensky, Kaledin on the Don and Dutov in the Southern Urals was easily and quickly suppressed. However, foreign states organized open intervention, provided assistance to the internal counter-revolution, etc. Thus, the initiator and catalyst of the civil war in Russia was international imperialism.

Today historians recognize that Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. needed deep reforms, but the authorities and society showed their inability to solve them in a timely and fair manner. The authorities did not want to listen to society; society treated the authorities with contempt. Calls for struggle prevailed, drowning out timid voices in support of cooperation. The guilt of the main political parties in this sense seems obvious: they preferred division and unrest to agreement.

The causes of the war cannot be reduced to the guilt of any of the parties in starting it. Its historical prerequisites should be sought in the state of Russian society before February 1917, when Russia was permanently entering a state of civil war, and the reasons - in the actions or inaction of the main political forces of the country in the period from February 1917 to approximately the summer of 1918.

Prerequisites and causes of the civil war in Russia.

1. Exacerbation of social contradictions in Russian society, which accumulated over decades and even centuries and deepened to the utmost during the First World War. In Russia, violence against the people was the leading principle of the functioning of power. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Particularly noticeable was the stubborn reluctance of the autocracy to carry out significant reforms of the political and economic system. The conflict between government and society was so deep that the autocracy had no defenders in February-March 1917; they simply were not there in the country of millions.

2. The policies of the leading political parties (cadets, socialist revolutionaries, mensheviks), which were unable to stabilize the situation after the overthrow of the autocracy. The struggle for the army in the conditions of the ongoing war led to its collapse.

3. The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and the desire of the overthrown classes to restore their dominance.

4. Contradictions in the camp of socialist parties, which received more than 80% of the votes in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, but were unable to ensure agreement at the cost of mutual concessions.

5. Interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia. The intervention became a catalyst for the civil war, and the support of the Entente countries for the White Guard troops and governments largely determined the duration of this war.

6. Gross mistakes and miscalculations of the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government in a number of important issues of domestic policy.

7. Psychology and psychopathology of the revolutionary era largely predetermined the behavior of each person and large social groups of people during the war. The habit was formed of first making a control shot, and then checking the documents. Violence was perceived as a universal method of solving many problems.

4. What social forces and programs collided in the Civil War

There are two main camps - red and white. In the latter, a very peculiar place was occupied by the so-called third force - “counter-revolutionary democracy”, or “democratic revolution”, which from the end of 1918. declared the need to fight both the Bolsheviks and the general dictatorship.

The backbone of the red camp was the Bolshevik party, which created a powerful vertical structure and, under the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat, actually established its own dictatorship. In January 1918, the poet Alexander Blok wrote the poem “The Twelve,” where he presented the role of the Bolsheviks in his own way: “How our guys went, To serve in the Red Guard - To serve in the Red Guard - I’ll lay down my head! We are on the woe of all the bourgeoisie, we will fan the world fire, the world fire in the blood - God bless!”

The social base of the Soviet camp consisted of:

• workers of the central industrial region;
• a significant part of the peasantry, which ultimately largely predetermined the victory of the Reds;
• part of the officer corps of the Russian army (about 1/3 of its composition);
• petty officials who quickly made their careers under the new government;
• marginal strata who have seized power.

Goals of the red movement:

• preservation and establishment of Soviet power throughout Russia;
• suppression of anti-Soviet forces;
• strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat as a condition for building a socialist society.

White. Usually this concept unites the entire camp of counter-revolution that opposed the Reds. The anti-Soviet camp consisted of:

• landowners and bourgeoisie deprived of power and property. The number of people with family members is approximately 6 million people. High level of education, management skills, communications, money and values;
• Cossacks - about 4.5 million people, united in 13 Cossack troops. Usually this military class is portrayed as an irreconcilable opponent of Soviet power. But the Don Army was extremely reluctant to leave the Don Army Region. The leadership of the Kuban Cossacks pursued an openly separatist policy aimed at the formation of an independent state. Similar aspirations were characteristic of the activities of atamans Semenov and Kalmykov in the East.
• part of the officer corps of the Russian army (about 40%);
• clergy. There were more than 200 thousand clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church alone, many of them fought against the Bolsheviks;
• workers and peasants living in the territory occupied by the white armies. At the same time, some were mobilized, others, mainly from among the wealthy peasants, joined the ranks of the resistance on the basis of dissatisfaction with the policies of the Bolsheviks; a significant part of the intelligentsia;
• the top of political parties (the Socialist Revolutionaries and, to a lesser extent, the Mensheviks), and the various governments they created during the civil war.

The white camp was heterogeneous. It included monarchists and liberals, supporters of the Constituent Assembly and open military dictatorship, supporters of pro-German and pro-Entente orientations, people of ideas and people without specific political convictions. In terms of civilization, the anti-Soviet camp included both supporters of the traditional path of development and those who advocated the development of Russia according to Western models. However, extreme monarchists like V.M. Purishkevich, as well as extreme socialists like Kerensky and Savinkov, did not find their place in the white movement.

Due to political differences, the whites had no generally accepted leader. The programs of the whites (Kolchak, Denikin, Wrangel) did not take into account the interests of the majority of the population. Thus, the program drawn up at Denikin’s headquarters provided for:

• the destruction of Bolshevik anarchy and the establishment of legal order in the country;
• restoration of a powerful, united and indivisible Russia;
• convening a national assembly on the basis of universal suffrage;
• democratization of power through the establishment of regional autonomy and broad local self-government;
• guarantee of complete civil and religious freedom; - implementation of land reform;
• introduction of labor legislation, protecting workers from exploitation by the state and capital.

Kolchak’s program contained similar measures:

• convening of the Constituent Assembly,
• market economy,
• protection of private property, etc.

In general, the white movement advocated the overthrow of Soviet power, the power of the Bolsheviks, the restoration of a united and indivisible Russia, the convening of a national assembly on the basis of universal suffrage to determine the future of the country, the recognition of private property rights, the implementation of land reform, and the guarantee of fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.

The Civil War as one of the most important events in Russian history

1. Prerequisites and causes of the civil war

After the October Revolution, a tense social and political situation developed. When embarking on a grandiose transformation of Russia, the Bolsheviks needed calm on the external borders. On October 26 (November 8), the Decree on Peace was adopted. “The just or democratic peace that the overwhelming majority of the exhausted, exhausted and war-torn workers and laboring classes of all the warring countries yearn for - the peace that the Russian workers and peasants most definitely and persistently demanded after the overthrow of the tsarist monarchy - is what the government considers an immediate peace. without annexations (i.e. without the seizure of foreign lands, without the forced annexation of foreign nationalities) and without indemnities. The Russian government proposes to conclude such a peace to all warring peoples immediately..."

The Entente countries ignored the Peace Decree. The governments of the USA, England and France were determined to wage the war to a victorious end. Economically exhausted and on the verge of military defeat, Germany and Austria-Hungary expressed their readiness to negotiate with Russia. On December 12, 1917, peace negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk.

Due to disagreements in the Bolshevik leadership, the agreement was signed only on March 3, 1918, under enslaving conditions for Russia. Under the terms of the treaty, Germany ceded the lands of Bessarabia, the occupied lands of Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia. Türkiye received some regions of Transcaucasia (Kars, Ardahan, Batum). In total, land with a total area of ​​780 thousand square meters was torn away from Russia. km with a population of 56 million people (a third of the population of the former Russian Empire, including 40% of industrial workers). Almost a third of the country's railway network was located in this territory, more than 70% of iron and steel were smelted, and 89% of coal was mined. In addition, Germany demanded the demobilization of the Russian army and navy, payment of an indemnity of 6 billion marks and duty-free export of raw materials.

Thus, at the cost of unprecedented concessions that hurt the patriotic feelings of millions of Russian citizens, the Bolsheviks retained power over Russia and received a short peaceful respite.

The internal situation in Russia was no less tense. Already on October 30 (November 12), an 8-hour working day, insurance in case of illness or unemployment, free healthcare and training were introduced. Wages were increased and the disability pension was increased. In December 1917, the Labor Code was introduced.

By decree of November 10 (November 22), the class division of society was abolished. A single name was introduced for the entire population of Russia - citizen of the Russian Republic. Decisions were made to equalize the rights of men and women in the field of family law, in political terms.

Together with the Decree on Peace, on October 26 (November 8), the Decree on Land was adopted: “Landownership of land is abolished immediately without any redemption.” The multimillion-dollar peasantry of Russia received free of charge tens of millions of hectares of land that belonged to landowners, the bourgeoisie, and monasteries. The peasants were freed from annual payments for land rent, and their three million dollar debt to banks was liquidated.

In November 1917 a decree on workers' control was issued, which caused sharp discontent among the capitalists. They began to close factories, and in response, such enterprises began to be nationalized. Entire industries have been nationalized since January. At the same time, banks were nationalized. To manage the economy, the Supreme Council of the National Economy was created on December 1, 1917.

Along with these, measures such as surplus appropriation, nationalization of small industry, prohibition of trade and markets, abolition of banknotes, strict centralization and regulation, military order system, naturalization of wages, equalization, and labor conscription were also applied. The implementation of this policy by local authorities, gross errors in the activities of many committees of the poor, food detachments, and revolutionary committees, which committed cases of looting and abuse of their power, pushed peasants and Cossacks to revolt.

A complex palette of forces was also observed among Russian political parties. There were many parties, and each of them expressed the interests of certain segments of the population, led them, and the forms and methods of struggle were different. Under these conditions, the ruling Bolshevik Party had to repeatedly change its line of behavior towards them.

In the face of the deepening crisis of Soviet power, the idea of ​​a possible political hybrid - a union of the Soviets with the Constituent Assembly - naturally disappeared. In the real situation of the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918, the Constituent Assembly could not carry a constructive principle: its work would have aggravated all the contradictions in society to the limit, becoming an open arena of fierce political struggle, an attempt to outplay October by anti-Bolshevik forces. Having convened the Constituent Assembly on January 5, 1918, the Soviet government dispersed it the next day. In the anti-Bolshevik camp, the slogan of convening the Constituent Assembly equally became a call for the overthrow of Soviet power and a return to the pre-October regime.

Today, the question is increasingly being asked: is every revolution necessarily associated with civil war, with bloody sacrifices, and the ruin of the country? Discussions about the exorbitantly heavy cost of the revolution lead to the conclusion that it is inexpedient. But can this or that historical event or phenomenon be expedient or inexpedient?

However, the law of all great revolutions is such that after the overthrow of the ruling classes, their aspirations and actions are inevitable to restore their position, and the classes that have come to power - to preserve it by all means.

Before October, the Bolsheviks put forward a whole program for the peaceful development of the revolution, and after it they entered into an alliance with the Menshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary parties not only in the Soviets, but also in the government. However, this alliance failed and not only due to the fault of the Bolsheviks, although the latter also did not make enough efforts to make it happen. Both of them showed revolutionary intolerance towards their former allies.

The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, the economic and socio-political measures of the Soviet government turned the nobles, the bourgeoisie, the wealthy intelligentsia, the clergy, and officers against it. The discrepancy between the goals of transforming society and the methods for achieving them alienated the democratic intelligentsia, Cossacks, kulaks and middle peasants from the Bolsheviks. Thus, the internal policy of the Bolshevik leadership was one of the reasons for the outbreak of the civil war.

The nationalization of all land and the confiscation of landowners caused fierce resistance from its former owners. The bourgeoisie, frightened by the scale of nationalization of industry, wanted to return factories and factories. The liquidation of commodity-money relations and the establishment of a state monopoly on the distribution of products and goods hit hard the property status of the middle and petty bourgeoisie. Thus, the desire of the overthrown classes to preserve private property and their privileged position was also the reason for the outbreak of the civil war.

On the other hand, the extreme aggravation of the class struggle between the oppressed and the oppressors, a huge reserve of hatred towards the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the generals, as well as the exhausting imperialist war were the reasons for the outbreak of the civil war.

The 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 its decree on the “Red Terror,” the Bolshevik leadership legislated the right to violent reprisals against its political opponents. Therefore, the Mensheviks, right and left Socialist Revolutionaries, and anarchists refused to cooperate with the new government and took part in the civil war.

The uniqueness of the civil war in Russia lay in the close intertwining of the internal political struggle with foreign intervention. The Entente countries had serious plans to support the anti-Bolshevik movement. Back in December 1917, England and France agreed on the division of spheres of influence and actions in Russia. Then they concluded new agreements, did not convene a peace conference in January 1919, and did not respond to dozens of requests from the Soviet government with peace proposals.

This is proof that the Entente countries reacted negatively to the Bolsheviks coming to power in Russia and planned to overthrow them. Both Germany and the Entente allies supplied the anti-Bolshevik forces with weapons, ammunition, and provided financial and political support. Thus, France spent 11 million francs to finance the Czechoslovak Corps, England - 80 thousand pounds sterling, and the USA provided a loan of 12 million dollars. On the one hand, the policy of the Entente countries was dictated by the desire to end the Bolshevik regime, to return the lost property of foreign citizens, and to prevent the “spreading of the revolution. On the other hand, they pursued their own expansionist plans aimed at dismembering Russia and gaining new territories and spheres of influence at its expense.

So in Russia the civil war turned out to be “programmed”, not by parties, but by objective conditions, a specific historical alignment of class and political forces.

2. Participants in the civil war

A civil war is an armed clash between various political forces, social and ethnic groups, and individuals defending their demands.

After October 1917, there were three major forces in Russia that were divided in relation to the new government.

Soviet power was actively supported by most of the industrial and rural proletariat, the urban and rural poor (small artisans, small trade employees, etc.), some of the officers and intelligentsia.

The forces actively opposing it included: the large industrial and financial bourgeoisie, landowners, a significant part of the officers, ranks of the former police and gendarmerie, and part of the intelligentsia.

The largest group is the wavering part, and often simply passively observing developing events. She looked for an opportunity to do without the class struggle, but was constantly drawn into it by the active actions of the first two forces. These are the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, the proletarian strata who wanted “civil peace,” part of the officers and a significant number of highly qualified intelligentsia.

But this division of forces should be considered conditional. In fact, they were closely intertwined, mixed together and scattered throughout the vast territory of the country. This was observed in any region, in any province, regardless of whose hands were in power. True, one force acted legally in this situation, and the other illegally. The decisive class force, which largely determined the outcome of revolutionary events, was the peasantry. It made up the bulk of the country's population.

The fluctuations of the peasantry depended on the degree of class struggle, on the balance of forces, on the peculiarities of the situation, and finally, on the region with its characteristic way of peasant life. The scope, depth and degree of peasant unrest, their direction during the civil war were different in the Volga region, on the Don, in Siberia, in the Urals and Ukraine.

The Bolshevik Party saw the main task as consolidating the emerging turn and winning the trust of the peasants and especially the middle peasants. In the first months after the victory of October, the social base of the anti-Bolshevik forces was so narrow that the new government managed to suppress their resistance without much difficulty.

An even more complex palette of forces was observed among Russian political parties. Each of them expressed the interests of certain segments of the population and led them. However, there were many parties, the forms and methods of struggle were different, and very complex processes and turns in politics took place within the parties themselves. Under these conditions, the ruling Bolshevik Party repeatedly had to change its line of behavior towards them.

Against the backdrop of all this, the two most organized and irreconcilably hostile forces stood out, fighting for mutual destruction - the Whites and the Reds.

However, initially military actions were local in nature and had the goal of preventing the establishment of Bolshevik power locally: the counter-coup of the Mensheviks and right Socialist Revolutionaries on October 29 (November 10) in Petrograd, the campaign of the 3rd cavalry corps of General P.N. Krasnov on October 27-30 (8- November 11) on Petrograd, the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow.

Ataman A.M. stood at the head of the anti-Bolshevik movement on the Don. Kaledin. he declared the Don Army's disobedience to the Soviet government. Everyone dissatisfied with the new regime began to flock to the Don.

However, most of the Cossacks at this time adopted a policy of benevolent neutrality towards the new government. And although the Decree on Land gave the Cossacks little, they had land, but they were very impressed by the Decree on Peace.

At the end of November 1917 General M.V. Alekseev began the formation of the Volunteer Army to fight Soviet power. This army marked the beginning of the white movement, called revolutionary in contrast to the red one. White color seemed to symbolize law and order. And the participants in the white movement considered themselves the spokesmen for the idea of ​​restoring the former power and might of the Russian state, the “Russian state principle” and a merciless struggle against those forces that, in their opinion, plunged Russia into chaos and anarchy - the Bolsheviks, as well as representatives of other socialist parties .

Simultaneously with the anti-Soviet protests on the Don, Cossack movements began in the Southern Urals. It was headed by the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army A.I. Dutov. in Transbaikalia, the fight against the new government was led by Ataman G.S. Semyonov.

However, the protests against Soviet power, although fierce, were spontaneous and scattered, did not enjoy mass support from the population and took place against the backdrop of the relatively rapid and peaceful establishment of Soviet power almost everywhere (“the triumphal march of Soviet power,” as the Bolsheviks declared). Therefore, the rebel atamans were defeated fairly quickly.

Anti-Bolshevik leaders created their armed forces separately from each other, using the experience of the former Russian army. In Novocherkassk in November 1917. Alekseevskaya organization was formed. Since the end of December, it began to be called the Volunteer Army, led by Army General L.G. Kornilov. In the Don region, General P.N. Krasnov in April 1918 began the formation of the Don Army. In the east of Russia at the beginning of 1918. with the assistance of English officers, detachments were formed under the command of the commissioner of the Provisional Government in Transbaikalia, the hereditary Cossack Yesaul I.M. Semenov and the ataman of the Ussuri Cossacks, Yesaul I.M. Kalmykova. On the territory of China, in Harbin, General L. Horvat created his own armed detachments, and in the Volga region, nobleman Colonel V.O. Kappel. Under the leadership of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly in Samara, work was carried out to organize the People's Army. In April 1918 The Ural military government, which was headed by the Menshevik G.M. Fomichev, created the Ural Army, and the Provisional Siberian Government (chaired by P.V. Vologodsky) in June - the West Siberian (from the end of July - Siberian) Army. In the north, with the active participation of the allies, the Slavic-British Legion was formed, in the Baltic states - volunteer rifle battalions from Russians, Baltic Germans, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians. Central Rada at the end of 1917 began the formation of Ukrainian units. In Transcaucasia, work began to create the Muslim, Armenian and Georgian corps. In Turkestan, the main support of the anti-Bolshevik forces became the Basmachi detachments.

In April 1919 The Provisional Government of the Northern Region recognized the supreme power of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. In May he appointed General E.K. Miller as commander-in-chief of the troops of the Northern region. The Northern Army, the formation of which began back in 1918. on the territory of the Pskov and Vitebsk provinces, was included in the Pskov Volunteer Corps. In June 1919 The corps was deployed to the Northern (from July 1 - Northwestern) army. At the same time, General P.R. Bermond-Avalov began the formation of the Western Volunteer Army, which, due to refusal to obey General N.N. Yudenich was disbanded in December. In Ukraine, the chairman of the Ukrainian directory S.V. Petlyura managed to create a Ukrainian People's Army of up to 30 thousand people.

The scale of anti-Bolshevik protests required a massive regular army. On January 15, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars proclaimed the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. On January 29, a decree on the organization of the Red Fleet was adopted. Both of these decrees, although they did not correspond to Lenin’s recent views, which proclaimed that after the victory of the socialist revolution the regular army should be replaced by a people’s militia, convened only in case of military danger, nevertheless bore traces of revolutionary romanticism: the army was built on the principles of voluntariness and a class approach that excluded the penetration of “exploiting elements” into it.

The volunteer principle of recruitment inevitably led to organizational disunity and decentralization in command and control, which had a detrimental effect on the combat effectiveness and discipline of the Red Army. Therefore, it was decided to return to universal conscription and unity of command.

In July 1918, a Decree on universal military service for the male population aged 18 to 40 was published. A network of military commissariats was created throughout the country to keep records of those liable for military service, organize and conduct military training, mobilize the population fit for military service, etc.

Much attention was paid to the training of command personnel. In addition to short-term courses and schools for training mid-level commanders of the most distinguished Red Army soldiers, higher military educational institutions were opened in 1917-1919. At the same time, military specialists from the old army were recruited to serve in the Red Army. On January 1, 1919, there were about 165 thousand former officers of the tsarist army in the Red Army.

On March 4, 1918, by decision of the Soviet government, the Supreme Military Council was created, at whose proposal on March 25, six military districts were created: Belorussian, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Oryol, Priuralsky, and Volga.

In September 1918, a unified structure for command and control of troops of the fronts and armies was created. At the head of each front (army), a Revolutionary Military Council (Revolutionary Military Council, or RVS) was appointed, consisting of the commander of the front (army) and two political commissars. All front-line and military institutions were headed by the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by L.D. Trotsky.

In connection with the intensifying onslaught of anti-Bolshevik forces in 1918, the Soviet government organized fronts: in June - the Eastern Front consisting of five armies (under the command of S.S. Kamenev), in July - the Southern Front consisting of five armies, in September - the Northern and Northern -Western fronts.

Analysis of the Russian Civil War

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2. The policy of “war communism” and its consequences.

3. Results of the Civil War.

4.1. Causes and main stages of the Civil War

In the broad sense of the word, the civil war as an armed confrontation between various political forces and social strata in Russian society began with the February Revolution. However, the overthrow of tsarism did not lead to a large-scale war, that is, to relatively long-term military operations by significant armed forces. The supporters of the monarchy did not have the strength to wage such a war. The October Revolution also triumphed against the backdrop of only isolated regional episodes of armed struggle for power. In the spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks believed that the civil war in Russia was already over. Lenin said: “We have conquered Russia,” and saw the main task as “learning to govern.” However, in the summer of 1918, a large-scale Civil War broke out in the country, which lasted almost three years.

The main reason for this war was the desire of all anti-Bolshevik forces to overthrow the Soviet government and revise the solution to the main issues of the revolution, which the Bolsheviks carried out through the decrees of the Second Congress of Soviets and subsequent legislative acts of the Soviet government. Socially, the most implacable enemies of the Bolsheviks were the overthrown exploiting classes, which had lost all their privileges. Bolshevism was not accepted by wide sections of the Russian intelligentsia, who were oriented primarily towards the parties of Cadets and moderate socialists. However, these social strata themselves could not launch large-scale military operations as long as the majority of the peasants supported the policies of the Bolsheviks, who gave them land. The introduction of a food dictatorship in May 1918 deprived the Bolsheviks of their previous support and gave their opponents a mass base to start the Civil War.

The most important factor in the outbreak of such a war was the foreign intervention carried out against the territories of the former Russian Empire by both Germany and the Entente countries. Germany occupied the western national outskirts of the Russian Empire from the Baltic states to Georgia. This occupation deprived Russia of traditional sources of raw materials and food, which became one of the most important reasons for the introduction of a food dictatorship. The German occupation basically lasted until November 1918, that is, until the revolution in Germany and its military defeat.

The Entente countries began to land their troops on the territory of Soviet Russia already in March 1918, when the British came to Murmansk. In April, the Japanese, Americans, British and French landed in Vladivostok. However, the most important action of the Entente, which became the impetus for the start of the Civil War in Russia, was the mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps in May 1918. The corps was created by the Provisional Government from captured soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army, Czechs and Slovaks by nationality, ready to fight on the side of the Entente, which promised to create an independent Czechoslovakia. The Soviet government, having concluded peace with Germany, granted the corps the right to travel to Vladivostok, from where it was to be evacuated to Europe by Entente ships. However, at the end of May, the corps launched a simultaneous uprising in all cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway, where trains with corps units were stationed - from Penza to Vladivostok. As a result, anti-Soviet governments were created in the areas of the rebellion, relying on Czechoslovak units.

Without this rebellion, without the subsequent support of the anti-Bolshevik forces with weapons and food from the Entente, the opponents of the Bolsheviks would not have been able to unleash a large-scale Civil War.

The first stage of the war. "Democratic counter-revolution". In June 1918, the most important role was played by the Provisional Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), created in Samara by the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, which declared itself the government, mobilized the population of the Volga region into the “People's Army” it created and began military operations against Soviet power. The Eastern Front emerges - the first major front that opened the first stage of the Civil War era. The first stage was a period of armed struggle between the Bolsheviks and the moderate socialist parties, which the Bolsheviks called the “democratic counter-revolution”.

By speaking out under the banner of defending the rights of the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks thereby opposed the power of the Soviets, which allowed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets to make a decision on June 14 to exclude representatives of these parties from the Soviets. Thus, already in June, the Soviets from multi-party bodies turned into practically bodies of two parties - the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.

However, in July this situation also changed. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries broke the bloc with the Bolsheviks and raised an uprising against them in Moscow during the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets. This action was dictated by two reasons. Firstly, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries did not agree with the signing of the Brest Peace Treaty, believing that the Soviet government had the opportunity to wage a revolutionary war. Secondly, they were categorically against the policy of food dictatorship, which affected the interests of the peasants. Having made sure that the Bolsheviks had secured the necessary majority at the V Congress of Soviets (746 mandates out of 1409), the Central Committee of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries decided to carry out a coup d'etat. Having killed the German ambassador Mirbach in order to break the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and surrounded the Kremlin, the leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries sent a telegram throughout the country about taking power into their own hands. But the initial success turned out to be ephemeral. The workers and soldiers of the Moscow garrison did not support the performance of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. On the side of the Bolsheviks there was also a division of Latvian riflemen, on whom the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries were counting heavily, since as a result of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, Latvia remained under German rule. The rebellion was suppressed. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was preserved, although the Soviet government had to make additional concessions. In particular, compensation in the form of indemnity had to be paid for the property of German citizens nationalized on the territory of the RSFSR.

The consequences of the rebellion were tragic for Soviet democracy. The congress annulled the parliamentary powers of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, and their leaders were arrested. True, soon the leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were forgiven and took part in the Civil War on the side of the Bolsheviks. But trust in the Left Socialist Revolutionaries as equal allies was lost. The Soviets effectively became organs of the one-party dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party, although throughout the Civil War the Soviets also included small groups of deputies from all other socialist parties. The essentially one-party composition of the Soviets had a negative impact on the development of Soviet democracy.

The V Congress of Soviets adopted the first Constitution of the RSFSR, which consolidated all the main achievements of the October Revolution, provided political rights only to working people, and confirmed the main goal of the revolution - building a society free from the exploitation of man by man. On the basis of this constitution, the Bolsheviks introduced suffrage, which gave workers an advantage over the peasantry in elections to the Soviets (1 worker vote was equal to 5 peasant votes).

In the summer of 1918, both warring sides resorted to terror. One of the acts of terror was the execution of the tsar and members of the royal family, which were carried out in June-July 1918. The Bolshevik leaders feared that members of the royal family would become the banner of the monarchist counter-revolution, which could attract a certain part of the peasants. On September 5, in response to a series of terrorist attacks committed by the Socialist Revolutionaries (the murder of Volodarsky, Uritsky, the wounding of Lenin), the Council of People's Commissars officially adopted a decree on the Red Terror. The decree stated that “in this situation, ensuring the rear through terror is a direct necessity; ...that it is necessary to secure the Soviet Republic from class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps; that all persons connected with White Guard organizations, conspiracies and rebellions are subject to execution; that it is necessary to publish the names of all those executed, as well as the reasons for applying this measure to them.”

The “Democratic Counter-Revolution” stage turned out to be very short. After the first successes, Komuch's army began to suffer defeats and was thrown back beyond the Volga. The main political center becomes the Ufa Directory created in Ufa, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary N.D. Avksentiev, which claims to be the role of an all-Russian government opposing the Bolsheviks. However, this government did not last very long. In November, Admiral A.V. Kolchak was appointed Minister of War and Naval Affairs of the Directory, who soon carried out a coup and established a military dictatorship, declaring himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Kolchak immediately received large military assistance from the Entente powers.

"The General's Counter-Revolution". White movement. From this moment, the second and main stage of the Civil War begins, where the main role is played by generals and officers of the Russian army and representatives of right-wing parties, united in a movement that the Bolsheviks called the white movement in association with the monarchist movement of the times of the French Revolution, which acted under the white royal banner .

By the spring of 1919, the main force of the white movement was Kolchak’s army, which numbered up to 400 thousand people. In the south of Russia, Denikin's Volunteer Army was formed, the striking force of which was made up of officer detachments and Cossack formations. In addition, the North-Western (N. N. Yudenich) and Northern (E. K. Miller) fronts emerged. As a result, the white armies encircled the central regions of European Russia, where Soviet power remained.

In 1919, the white armies numbered more than half a million people in their ranks. However, for the most part these were forcibly mobilized peasants who were not sincere supporters of the white movement.

In order to correctly assess the potential of the white movement, it should be taken into account that the victory of the whites, whose leaders were the generals of the tsarist army, was perceived by the majority of the people as a return to the old order, in which the high standard of living of the landowners and bourgeoisie was ensured by the merciless exploitation of the bulk of the population. The common people did not want such a return.

How justified was this attitude towards the leaders of the white movement? Official program the white movement was reduced to the following provisions: the overthrow of Bolshevism; restoration of Great, United, Indivisible Russia; convening a People's Assembly on the basis of universal suffrage, which will decide the question of the future social system of Russia. The White leaders did not directly say whether this system would be a republic or a monarchy, but indicated that it would be based on the principles of broad regional and cultural-national autonomy, guarantees of civil rights and freedoms, and recognition of private property rights. The peasants were promised a reform to satisfy their land needs, and the workers were promised the introduction of labor legislation that would free them from exploitation by the state and capital.

It is very characteristic that the Whites never offered a clear decoding of all points of their program, since such a decoding could only lead to a split. The white movement was very motley and included monarchists, republicans, reactionaries, and democrats. In reality, whites were united only by anti-Bolshevism.

However, people judged whites not by program, but by deeds. Kolchak used harsh methods to mobilize his army, shooting Siberian villages with artillery that did not provide soldiers. All those who collaborated with the Soviet regime were subjected to severe repression. Kolchak personally gave permission for the execution of captured Red Army soldiers. As a result, a large-scale guerrilla war broke out in Kolchak’s rear, which largely predetermined his defeat.

For the peasants of the southern and central regions of Russia, who were captured by the troops of A.I. Denikin during the offensive, the main thing was the fact that in the territories captured by the whites, the returning landowners dealt with the peasants who received the landowners' lands. The Russian peasantry was faced with the question: who to believe and who to help - the Bolsheviks, who gave the land, but are taking away the grain through surplus appropriation, or the whites, who promise to satisfy the land needs of the peasants in the future, but are now taking away both the land and the bread? Most of the peasantry in this situation supported the Bolsheviks, which led to their victory in the Civil War.

Having created a three-million-strong Red Army in 1919, the Bolsheviks by the spring of 1920 defeated all the main armies of the white movement. Kolchak's army was thrown back to the Far East. The remnants of Denikin's army took refuge in Crimea.

It should be noted that the adherence of the white movement to the slogan “United and indivisible Russia” played an important role in the defeat of Denikin’s army. This caused fierce resistance to Denikin’s forces in Ukraine and, on the contrary, allowed the Soviet government to conclude temporary agreements with Denikin’s Ukrainian opponents, in particular with the army of Father Makhno.

An important factor in the success of the Reds at the second and main stage of the Civil War was the sympathy felt for the country of the Soviets in many countries of the world. For this reason, the leaders of the Entente failed to launch a large-scale intervention in Soviet Russia. The soldiers sent often refused to take part in the hostilities. The sailors of the French squadron, which entered Russian ports on the Black Sea, were soon so propagandized by the Bolsheviks that the squadron had to be urgently withdrawn to Toulon, where they nevertheless raised an uprising under the red flag.

It is also important that at the second stage of the Civil War, many socialists abandoned the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks, and the Mensheviks officially decided on conditional support for Soviet power. In response to this, the Bolsheviks already on November 30, 1918 lifted their ban on the participation of Mensheviks in the work of the Soviets. Subsequently, some of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks fought in the Red Army against the Whites, and the other part organized strikes against the Bolsheviks.

With the defeat of the armies of A.I. Denikin and A.V. Kolchak, the main stage of the Civil War as a large-scale war with the participation of large armed forces was over.