Events and results of the civil war. History of Russia XX - the beginning of the XXI century

Chronology of the Civil War.

October 27 - 30, 1917 - an unsuccessful attempt by troops loyal to the Provisional Government, led by General P.N. Krasnov and A.F. Kerensky to recapture Petrograd from the Bolsheviks.

December 2, 1917: the Volunteer Army created by Generals Alekseev and Dukhonin occupies Rostov-on-Don.

On February 22, 1918, General Kornilov ordered his units to retreat beyond the Don. The beginning of the "Ice Campaign" of the Volunteer Army.

March 9, 1918 - the landing of the British infantry from the battleship ʼʼGloriaʼʼ in Murmansk. Beginning of foreign intervention against Soviet Russia.

April 13, 1918 - during the assault on Yekaterinodar, the commander and founder of the Volunteer Army, the founder of the "white" movement, General L.G. Kornilov.

May 29, 1918 - Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on compulsory recruitment into the Red Army. Previously, it was formed on the basis of military democracy, which assumed the voluntary principle of entry into military service and the election of command personnel. On May 29, Soviet Russia introduced universal military service for workers from 18 to 40 years of age. The election of command personnel is canceled, and the recruitment of old specialists from among former officers and generals into the army begins. In the same year, the main governing structures of the armed forces of Soviet Russia were created: the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the Defense Council, and the Field Headquarters of the RVS. The positions of commanders-in-chief and the states of divisions are established. A distinctive feature of the new army was a sharp increase in ideological work among the military personnel in it. For this purpose, the Political Administration of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic was created, and political departments were organized in the armies.

July 22, 1918 ᴦ. the defense of Tsaritsyn by the Red Army began from the troops of the Don ataman P.N. Krasnov.

August 6 - The Czechoslovak Corps and the White Guards capture Kazan, where part of the gold reserves of Russia evacuated here by the Bolsheviks falls into their hands. (40 thousand pounds of gold). The gold was handed over to the Committee of the Constituent Assembly, which ordered that the gold reserves be transferred to Samara and then to Siberia. There, the gold soon fell into the hands of Admiral Kolchak, who captured Omsk in November 1918. By order of the admiral in May 1919, a complete inventory of the gold reserves was carried out. Valuables with a face value of 651532117 rubles 86 kopecks were available. At the end of December, Kolchak, retreating, again transferred the gold under the protection of the Czechoslovak Corps. By agreement with the Reds February 7, 1920 ᴦ. the Czechs gave the gold in exchange for guarantees to let them through to Vladivostok to be sent home. 18 wagons were transferred. ʼʼEvaporatedʼʼ gold for 241,906,247 rubles, or 1/3. According to the most common version, Admiral Kolchak spent this amount on combat operations and maintaining his power.

August 15, 1918 ᴦ. - landing of the 9,000th American Expeditionary Force in Vladivostok.

September 2, 1918 ᴦ. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopts a resolution on turning the country into a military camp. The Revolutionary Military Council headed by Trotsky is being created. Beginning of the "Red Terror". Until the end of 1918 ᴦ. the press published reports of the execution of 50 thousand people.

September 10, 1918 ᴦ. The Red Army captured Kazan - the first major victory of the Reds in the Civil War.

November - December 1918 ᴦ. - Reds occupy part of the territory of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus.

November 18 - in Omsk A.V. Kolchak, who returned from the USA and was recognized by the Entente as the "supreme ruler of Russia", overthrows the Ufa directory and declares himself the supreme ruler of Russia. This draws a line under the democratic counter-revolution, which has shown its failure in the fight against Bolshevism, and opens a new page in the history of the fight against Bolshevism - military-patriotic counter-revolution, expressed through the dictatorship of the military. At the same time, such zealous support for Kolchak by the West pushed other leaders of the white movement away from him. Patriotically minded A. Denikin, N. Yudenich and other generals considered the "supreme ruler of Russia" to be just a puppet in the hands of the Entente, which would be able to thank the "Western helpers" with Russian territory. From their point of view, none of the commanders of the white armies had the right to declare himself "master of the country". The fate of Russia, the form of government in it, were to be decided only by the peoples of the former empire through the elected deputies of the Constituent Assembly.

January 8, 1919 ᴦ. General A.I. Denikin unites under his command the Volunteer Army, the Don and Kuban Cossack formations.

February 5, 1919 ᴦ. The Red Army entered Kyiv. At the same time, in a little over a year she will have to recapture the city again, this time from the Poles. Kyiv was not the luckiest of all - during the years of the civil war, it changed hands 18 times!

August 1919 ᴦ. the fall of Soviet power in Lithuania. Parts of the Red Army finally leave the territory of the Baltic republics.

October 10 - The Supreme Council of the Entente and the United States declare an economic blockade of Soviet Russia.

October 13 - Denikin's troops occupied the city of Orel. The last success of the white army in the Moscow campaign.

October - November 1919 ᴦ. - the defeat of Yudenich's troops near Petrograd.

November 14, 1919 ᴦ. The Red Army captured the capital of Kolchak - the city of Omsk. The liquidation of the largest front of the Civil War - the East.

January 4, 1920 ᴦ. Kolchak renounces his title of Supreme Ruler in favor of Denikin.

January 10 - The Red Army occupied Rostov - on - Don - the center of Denikin's armed forces in southern Russia.

January 16, 19120 ᴦ. - The Supreme Council of the Entente decided to lift the economic blockade of Soviet Russia.

On March 27, the Red Army captured Novorossiysk. The remnants of Denikin's troops are evacuated to the Crimea.

April 25, 1920 - Polish troops went on the offensive to expand the borders of Poland in the east. The beginning of the Soviet-Polish war.

On August 16, 1920, the Red Army under the command of Tukhachevsky was defeated near Warsaw. The victory of the Poles stopped the communist invasion of Europe (Mikhail Tukhachevsky's army fought 500 km in a month and numbered 55,000 fighters against 110,000 Polish troops). An attempt to "export communism" by means of bayonets failed. Leon Trotsky's doctrine of the "permanent revolution" suffered its first defeat.

On October 12, a truce was signed with Poland, which left the western part of Ukraine and Belarus behind.

On October 14, a peace treaty was signed with Finland. Finland retained the Karelian Isthmus.

November 17, 1920 ᴦ. the remnants of Wrangel's army and refugees totaling 140 thousand people on English ships left the Crimean peninsula.

On February 25, 1921, the Red Army occupies Tiflis (Tbilisi). The victory of Soviet power in Transcaucasia.

March 18, 1921 ᴦ. signed a peace treaty with Poland. The western regions of Belarus and Ukraine were returned to the Poles.

On March 12, 1922, the Transcaucasian Federation was formed - the ZSFSR as part of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On October 25, 1922, the Red Army occupies Vladivostok. The generally accepted date for the end of the Civil War in Russia.

III. ʼʼWar Communismʼʼ.

The internal policy of the Bolsheviks from the October Revolution to the spring of 1921 was formed under the influence of three basic components:

Russian historical tradition (active state intervention in the economy;

emergency conditions of war;

ideas of socialist theory.

The Bolsheviks, having come to power, not only inherited a ruined economy, but also state distribution and wartime production. By 1918, the situation worsened even more, war and famine did their job. The central regions of the country were cut off from the grain regions and in May 1918 a food dictatorship and a system of emergency measures were introduced.
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All this is superimposed on the so-called ʼʼdoctrinal syndromeʼʼ of socialist theory, according to which the new society was presented as a state - a commune without commodity-money relations, replaced by direct product exchange between the city and the countryside.

By the middle of 1918, the policy of "war communism" gradually took shape and included the following directions:

* nationalization of industry, incl. medium and small;

* naturalization of economic relations and the prohibition of private trade;

* state centralized distribution of food and goods according to cards and the class principle;

* the introduction of universal labor service and the militarization of labor;

* cancellation of money, free utilities;

* Prohibition of land lease and the use of hired labor in agriculture;

* policy of ʼʼred terrorʼʼ;

* over-centralization of economic and military management.

Naturally, not all of these measures were fully implemented during the period of ʼʼwar communismʼʼ. Thus, the liquidation of free trade announced by the Bolsheviks only confirmed the vitality of this ancient type of commodity-money relations, which was actually replaced by the spontaneously operating ʼʼʼʼʼʼ and railway fraud.

The policy of "war communism" most profoundly and negatively affected the basic methods of managing social and economic development. Power methods, transferred from the emergency, have become the main ones for regulating all aspects of life. At that time, the Soviet government did not have a clearly defined economic policy, each of its stages was characterized by a contradictory combination of various trends. For this reason, the economic policy of ʼʼwar communismʼʼ can least be considered as an integral economic program. Most likely, it is a set of hasty, forced and emergency measures laid on the euphoric basis of socialist theory.

The results of ʼʼwar communismʼʼ, as well as its essence, turned out to be contradictory. In military and political terms, he was successful, as he ensured the victory of the Bolsheviks in the civil war. But the victory stimulated the spirit of the barracks, militarism, violence and terror.
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This was not enough for economic success. Industrial production compared with 1913 decreased by 7 times, agricultural - by 40%. Coal production was less than a third of the pre-war level, pig iron - 2 times, 31 railways did not work, trains with bread got stuck on the way. Due to the lack of raw materials and fuel, the majority of factories and factories were idle. Gross agricultural output in 1921 was 60% of the level of 1913 ᴦ. Cultivated areas decreased by 25% in 1920, and crop yields by 43%. A crop failure in 1920, a drought in 1921, famine in the Volga region and the North Caucasus claimed the lives of about 5 million people.

The country lacked soap, kerosene, glass and shoes, bricks and matches. In January 1919, the minimum daily allowance of bread was 50 grams.
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The price of one ruble fell 800 times. A modest meal cost several million rubles.

The economic collapse entailed serious social consequences. The population of Russia has decreased by 10.9 million people compared to 1917. The number of industrial workers has halved. Many workers left for the countryside. The peasantry began to oppose the surplus appropriation more and more actively.

The policy of "war communism" after the end of the Civil War did not meet the interests of the people. A wave of peasant uprisings, anti-Soviet revolts in Ukraine, Siberia, Central Asia, Tambov, Voronezh and Saratov provinces swept across the country. The social support of these rebellions was the peasantry, dissatisfied with the surplus appropriation. The military anti-communist mutiny of sailors in Kronstadt - a general political crisis in March 1921, the threat of loss of power, made the Soviet government realize the inevitability of a turn in politics. Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, the turn to the new economic policy was carried out under the severe pressure of general discontent in the country to normalize domestic economic, social and political relations.

Chronology of the Civil War. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Chronology of the Civil War." 2017, 2018.

After the demise of the Soviet Union, the spirit of the Civil War is in the air. Dozens of local conflicts have brought countries to the brink of war: in Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, Ukraine. All these regional clashes require contemporary politicians of all states to learn from past mistakes in the bloody Civil War of 1917-1922. and prevent their repetition in the future.

Learning facts about the Russian Civil War, it is worth noting the moment that it is possible to judge it only unilaterally: the coverage of events in literature occurs either from the position of the white movement or the red one.

The reason for this lay in the desire of the Bolshevik government to create a long time interval between the October Revolution and the Civil War, so that it would be impossible to determine their interdependence, and to lay responsibility for the war on intervention from outside.

Causes of the bloody events of the Civil War

Russian Civil War was an armed struggle that flared up between different groups of the population, which initially had a regional, and then acquired a nationwide character. The reasons that provoked the Civil War were the following:

Members of the Civil War

As noted above, G civil war is an armed clash of different political forces, social and ethnic groups, specific individuals fighting for their ideas.

Stages of the Russian Civil War 1917-1922 (briefly)

Most of today's Russian historians believe that the initial stage of the local conflict is the clashes in Petrograd that took place during the October armed uprising, and the final stage is the defeat of the last significant armed groups of the White Guards and interventionists during the victorious battle for Vladivostok in October 1922.

According to some researchers, the beginning of the Civil War is associated with the battles in Petrograd, when the February Revolution took place. A preparatory period from February to November 1917, when the first dismemberment of society into different groups took place, they are singled out separately.

In the years 1920-1980, there were discussions that did not cause much controversy about milestones of the Civil War isolated by Lenin, which included the “Triumphal March of Soviet Power”, which took place from October 25, 1917 to March 1918. Another part of the authors is associated with Civil war is only time when the most intense military battles took place - from May 1918 to November 1920.

In the Civil War, three chronological stages can be distinguished, which have significant differences in the intensity of military battles, the composition of the participants and the conditions of the foreign policy situation.

It is useful to know: who are they, their role in the history of the USSR.

First stage (October 1917 - November 1918)

During this period, the creation and the formation of full-fledged armies of opponents of the conflict, as well as the formation of the main fronts of confrontation between the conflicting parties. When the Bolsheviks came to power, the White movement began to take shape, whose mission was to destroy the new regime and, in Denikin's words, to restore health to "the country's weak, poisoned organism."

Civil war at this stage gained momentum against the backdrop of the ongoing world war, which led to the active participation of the military formations of the Quadruple Union and the Entente in the struggle within Russia of political and armed groups. The initial hostilities can be described as local clashes that did not lead to real success for either side, eventually developing into a large-scale war. According to the former head of the foreign policy department of the Provisional Government, Milyukov, this stage was a general struggle of forces opposing both the Bolsheviks and the revolutionaries.

Second stage (November 1918 - April 1920)

Characterized by major battles between the Red and White armies and a turning point in the Civil War. This chronological stage stands out due to the sudden decrease in the intensity of hostilities carried out by the interventionists. This was due to the end of the World War and the withdrawal of almost the entire contingent of foreign military groups from Russian territory. Military operations, the scale of which covered the entire territory of the country, first brought victories to the whites, and then to the reds. The latter defeated the enemy's military formations and took control of a large territory of Russia.

Third stage (March 1920 - October 1922)

During this period, significant clashes took place on the outskirts of the country and ceased to be a direct threat to the Bolshevik government.

In April 1920, Poland launched a military campaign against Russia. In May, the Poles were Kyiv was captured, which was only a temporary success. The Western and Southwestern fronts of the Red Army organized a counteroffensive, but due to poor preparation, they began to suffer losses. The warring parties were no longer able to conduct military operations, therefore, in March 1921, peace was concluded with the Poles, according to which they received part of Ukraine and Belarus.

At the same time as the Soviet-Polish battles, there was a struggle with the whites in the south and in the Crimea. The fighting continued until November 1920, when the Reds completely took over the Crimean peninsula. With the taking Crimea in the European part of Russia the last white front has been eliminated. The military question ceased to occupy a dominant place in the affairs of Moscow, but the battle on the outskirts of the country lasted for some more time.

In the spring of 1920, the Red Army reached the Trans-Baikal District. Then the Far East was under the control of Japan. Therefore, in order to avoid clashes with it, the Soviet leadership assisted in the creation in April 1920 of a legally independent state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER). After a short period of time, the FER army began hostilities against the whites, who were supported by the Japanese. In October 1922, Vladivostok was occupied by the Reds., completely cleared of the White Guards and the interventionists of the Far East, which is displayed on the map.

The reasons for the success of the Reds in the war

Among the main reasons that brought the Bolsheviks victory are the following:

Results and consequences of the Civil War

It is worth noting, that a victorious outcome for the Soviet government did not bring peace to Russia. Among the results, it is worth highlighting the following:

It is important that the Civil War of 1917-1922. and remains one of the most important events in Russian history. The events of those times left an unforgettable imprint in the memory of people. The consequences of that war can be traced in various spheres of life and modern society, from political to cultural.

works, covering the events of the Civil War, have found their reflection not only in historical literature, scientific articles and documentary publications, but also in feature cinema, theatrical and musical creativity. It is worth mentioning that there are more than 20 thousand books and scientific papers on the topic of the Civil War.

So, summing up all of the above, it is worth noting that contemporaries have ambiguous and often distorted visions regarding this tragic page in Russian history. There are supporters of both the White movement and the Bolshevik movement, but often the history of that time is presented in such a way that people are imbued with sympathy even for bandit groups that bring only destruction.

On November 2, the Bolsheviks take power in Moscow.
- October 27 - 30, 1917 - an unsuccessful attempt by troops loyal to the Provisional Government, led by General P.N. Krasnov and A.F. Kerensky to recapture Petrograd from the Bolsheviks.
- December 2, 1917: the Volunteer Army created by Generals Alekseev and Dukhonin occupies Rostov-on-Don.
- December 18, 1917 Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of Finland.
On February 22, 1918, General Kornilov ordered his units to retreat beyond the Don. The beginning of the "Ice Campaign" of the Volunteer Army.
March 9, 1918 - the landing of the English infantry from the battleship "Gloria" in Murmansk. Beginning of foreign intervention against Soviet Russia.
April 5, 1918 - Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok.
-April 13, 1918 - during the storming of Yekaterinodar, the commander and founder of the Volunteer Army, the founder of the "white" movement, General L.G. was killed. Kornilov.
- May 25, 1918 - the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps.
May 29, 1918 - Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on compulsory recruitment into the Red Army. Previously, it was formed on the basis of military democracy, which assumed the voluntary principle of entry into military service and the election of command personnel. From May 29, Soviet Russia introduces universal military service for workers from 18 to 40 years old. The election of command personnel is canceled, and the recruitment of old specialists from among former officers and generals into the army begins. In the same year, the main governing structures of the armed forces of Soviet Russia were created: the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the Defense Council, and the Field Headquarters of the RVS. The positions of commanders-in-chief and the states of divisions are established. A distinctive feature of the new army was a sharp increase in ideological work among the military personnel in it. For this purpose, the Political Administration of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic was created, and political departments were organized in the armies.
- On June 23, 1918, the Provisional Siberian Government was established in Omsk.
- on the night of July 16-17, the royal family was shot in Yekaterinburg.
-July 22, 1918, the defense of Tsaritsyn by the Red Army began from the troops of the Don ataman P.N. Krasnov.
- August 6 - The Czechoslovak Corps and the White Guards capture Kazan, where part of the gold reserves of Russia evacuated here by the Bolsheviks falls into their hands. (40 thousand pounds of gold). The gold was handed over to the Committee of the Constituent Assembly, which ordered that the gold reserves be transferred to Samara and then to Siberia. There, the gold soon fell into the hands of Admiral Kolchak, who captured Omsk in November 1918. By order of the admiral in May 1919, a complete inventory of the gold reserves was carried out. Valuables with a face value of 651532117 rubles 86 kopecks were available. At the end of December, Kolchak, retreating, again transferred the gold under the protection of the Czechoslovak Corps. By agreement with the Reds, on February 7, 1920, the Czechs gave up gold in exchange for guarantees to let them through to Vladivostok to be sent home. 18 wagons were transferred. Gold “evaporated” by 241,906,247 rubles, or 1/3. According to the most common version, Admiral Kolchak spent this amount on combat operations and maintaining his power.
-August 15, 1918 - landing of the 9,000th American Expeditionary Force in Vladivostok.
-2 September 1918 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopts a resolution on turning the country into a military camp. The Revolutionary Military Council headed by Trotsky is being created. Beginning of the Red Terror. Until the end of 1918, reports were published in the press about the execution of 50 thousand people.
-September 10, 1918 The Red Army captured Kazan - the first major victory of the Reds in the Civil War.
-September 16, 1918, the first Soviet Order of the Red Banner was established.
- October 7, 1918 The Red Army captured Samara.
- November - December 1918 - the Reds occupy part of the territory of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus.

Civil War is a fierce armed struggle of various social, national and political forces for power within the country.

Causes of the Civil War:

1. a nationwide crisis in the country, which gave rise to irreconcilable contradictions between the main social strata of society;
2. features of the socio-economic and anti-religious policy of the Bolsheviks, aimed at inciting hostility in society;
3. the desire of the nobility and the bourgeoisie to regain the lost position;
4. the fall in the value of human life during the First World War is a psychological factor.

Specific features of the Civil War:

1. was accompanied by the intervention of foreign powers, seeking to weaken Russia as much as possible;
2. was carried out with extreme bitterness ("red" and "white" terror).

Major events of the Civil War.

The first stage (October 1917 - spring 1918): the victory of the armed uprising in Petrograd and the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Military operations were local in nature. Anti-Bolshevik forces used political methods of struggle or created armed formations (Volunteer Army).

The second stage (spring - December 1918): the formation of anti-Bolshevik centers and the beginning of active hostilities.

Key dates

March, April- the occupation by Germany of Ukraine, the Baltic states and the Crimea, in response, the Entente countries decide to send their troops to the territory of Russia. England lands troops in Murmansk, Japan - in Vladivostok => intervention

May- the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, which consisted of captive Czechs and Slovaks who had gone over to the side of the Entente and was moving on echelons to Vladivostok for transfer to France. The reason for the uprising was an attempt by the Bolsheviks to disarm the corps. Results: the simultaneous fall of Soviet power along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

June- the creation of a number of Socialist-Revolutionary governments: the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly in Samara, the Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, the Ural Regional Government in Yekaterinburg.

September- the creation in Ufa of the "All-Russian government" - the Ufa directory.

November- dispersal of the Ufa directory by Admiral A. V. Kolchak, who declared himself "the supreme ruler of Russia."

The third stage (January - December 1919) - the culmination of the Civil War: the relative equality of forces, large-scale operations on all fronts. By the beginning of 1919, three main center of the White movement:

1. troops of Admiral A. V. Kolchak (Urals, Siberia);
2. Armed forces of the South of Russia, General A. I. Denikin (Don region, North Caucasus);
3. troops of General N. N. Yudenich in the Baltic.

Key dates

March, April- the general offensive of Kolchak's troops on Kazan and Moscow, the mobilization of all possible resources by the Bolsheviks.

End of April - December- the counter-offensive of the Red Army (S. S. Kamenev, M. V. Frunze, M. N. Tukhachevsky), the expulsion of Kolchak's troops beyond the Urals and their complete defeat by the end of 1919

May— June Yudenich's first offensive against Petrograd. Hardly beaten off. General offensive of Denikin's troops. Captured Donbass, part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn.

September October- the beginning of Denikin's offensive on Moscow (maximum advance - to Orel). The second offensive of the troops of General Yudenich on Petrograd. The counteroffensive of the Red Army against the forces of Denikin (A.I. Ego-ditch, CM. Budyonny) and Yudenich (A.I. Kork).

November- Yudenich's troops were driven back to Estonia.

Results: By the end of 1919, there was a clear preponderance of forces in favor of the Bolsheviks, in fact, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion.

The fourth stage (January - November 1920): the defeat of the White movement in the European part of Russia.

Key dates

April - October- Soviet-Polish war. The invasion of Polish troops into Ukraine and the capture of Kyiv (May). Counteroffensive of the Red Army.

October— Riga Peace Treaty with Poland: Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were transferred to Poland. But due to this, Soviet Russia managed to free up troops for an offensive in the Crimea.

November- the offensive of the Red Army in the Crimea (M. V. Frunze) and the complete defeat of the troops of Vran-gel. Completion of the Civil War in the European part of Russia.

Fifth stage (late 1920-1922): the defeat of the White movement in the Far East.

October 1922- liberation of Vladivostok from the Japanese.

Reasons for the victory of the Reds in the war:

• managed to win over the peasantry with a promise to implement the Decree on Land after victory in the war. The agrarian program of the whites provided for the return of the seized lands to the landowners;
• the lack of a unified command and plans for waging war among the whites. The Reds, on the contrary, had a compact territory, a single leader - Lenin, single plans for conducting military operations;
• the unsuccessful national policy of the Whites - the slogan of "one and indivisible Russia" alienated the national outskirts from the White movement, while the slogan of freedom of national self-determination provided the Bolsheviks with their support;
• the whites relied on the help of the Entente, i.e. interventionists, and therefore in the eyes of the population looked like their accomplices, acted as an anti-national force. For the same reason, almost half of the officers of the tsarist army went over to the side of the Reds as military experts;
• the reds managed to mobilize all the resources through the policy "War Communism" what whites couldn't do. The main measures of this policy are: the introduction of surplus appropriation (in fact, the confiscation of food from the peasants for the needs of the army) and general labor conscription (i.e., the militarization of labor), the ban on private trade, the nationalization of medium and even small enterprises, the course to curtail commodity-money relations

Consequences of the Civil War:

• a severe economic crisis, economic ruin, a 7-fold drop in industrial production, and a 2-fold drop in agricultural production;
• huge demographic losses - during the years of the First World War and the Civil War, about 10 million people died from hostilities, famine and epidemics;
• the final formation of the Bolshevik dictatorship, while the harsh methods of governing the country during the Civil War began to be considered as quite acceptable for peacetime.

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

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

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

The nationalization of all the land and the confiscation of the landowner's aroused fierce resistance from its former owners. The bourgeoisie, confused by the sweep of the nationalization of industry, wanted to return factories and factories. The liquidation of commodity-money relations and the establishment of a state monopoly on the distribution of products and commodities dealt a painful blow to the property position of the middle and petty bourgeoisie. Thus, the desire of the overthrown classes to preserve private property and their privileged position was the reason for the start of the Civil War.

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), pushed the socialist parties and democratic public organizations away from the Bolsheviks. With the Decrees "On the Arrest of the Leaders of the Civil War against the Revolution" (November 1917) and on the "Red Terror", the Bolshevik leadership legally justified the "right" to violent reprisals against their political opponents. Therefore, the Mensheviks, right and left SRs, anarchists refused to cooperate with the new government and took part in the Civil War.

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

Civil War in 1918

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Escalation of the Civil War

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The final stage of the Civil War

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

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

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

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

Reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks

The defeat of the anti-Soviet forces was due to a number of reasons. Their leaders canceled the Decree on Land and returned the land to its former owners. This turned the peasants against them. The slogan of preserving "one and indivisible Russia" contradicted the hopes of many peoples for independence. The unwillingness of the leaders of the white movement to cooperate with the liberal and socialist parties narrowed its socio-political base. Punitive expeditions, pogroms, mass executions of prisoners, widespread violation of legal norms - all this caused discontent among the population, up to armed resistance. During the Civil War, the opponents of the Bolsheviks failed to agree on a single program and a single leader of the movement. Their actions were poorly coordinated.

The Bolsheviks won the Civil War because they managed to mobilize all the resources of the country and turn it into a single military camp. The Central Committee of the RCP(b) and the Council of People's Commissars created a politicized Red Army, ready to defend Soviet power. Various social groups were attracted by loud revolutionary slogans, the promise of social and national justice. The Bolshevik leadership managed to present itself as the defender of the Fatherland and accuse their opponents of betraying national interests. Of great importance was international solidarity, the help of the proletariat of Europe and the USA.

The civil war was a terrible disaster for Russia. It led to a further deterioration of the economic situation in the country, to complete economic ruin. Material damage amounted to more than 50 billion rubles. gold. Industrial production decreased by 7 times. The transport system was completely paralyzed. Many segments of the population, forcibly drawn into the war by the opposing sides, became its innocent victims. In battles, from hunger, disease and terror, 8 million people died, 2 million people were forced to emigrate. Among them were many members of the intellectual elite. Irreplaceable moral and ethical losses had profound socio-cultural consequences, which for a long time affected the history of the Soviet country.