Chronicle of White Terror in Russia. Repression and lynching (1917–1920). Civil War and Foreign Intervention in Russia Civil War May 1918 November
Causes of the Civil War.
A.A. Iskanderov identifies three main causes of the Civil War in Russia. The first is the conditions of the Brest Peace that were humiliating for Russia, which was regarded by people as a refusal of the authorities to defend the honor and dignity of the country. The second reason was the extremely harsh methods of the new government. Nationalization of all land and confiscation of the means of production and all property, not only from the big bourgeoisie, but also from medium and even small private owners. The bourgeoisie, frightened by the scale of the nationalization of industry, wanted to return factories and factories. Liquidation commodity-money relations and the establishment of a state monopoly on the distribution of goods and products hurt 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 also the cause of the outbreak of the Civil War. The third reason is the red terror, largely due to the white terror, but which has become widespread. In addition, an important reason for the Civil War was the internal policy of the Bolshevik leadership, which alienated the democratic intelligentsia and the Cossacks from the Bolsheviks. 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 associations from the Bolsheviks. By 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 substantiated the “right” to violent reprisals against their political opponents. Therefore, the Mensheviks, right and left SRs, and anarchists refused to cooperate with the new government and took part in the Civil War.
stages of the civil war.
1) End of May - November 1918- The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps and the decision by the Entente countries to launch a military intervention in Russia, the aggravation of the situation in the country in the summer of 1918 in connection with the rebellion of the Left Social Revolutionaries, the transformation of the Soviet Republic into a "single military camp" since September of this year, the formation of the main fronts.
2) November 1918 February 1919- Deployment after the end of the First World War of a large-scale armed intervention of the Entente powers, the consolidation of "general dictatorships" within the framework of the White movement.
3) March 1919 March 1920- The offensive of the armed forces of the white regimes on all fronts and the counteroffensive of the Red Army.
4) Spring autumn 1920 the final defeat of the White movement, under the command of Wrangel, in the South of Russia against the backdrop of an unsuccessful war with Poland for the RSFSR.
The war finally ended only in 1921-1922.
Prologue of the war: the first pockets of anti-government protests. One of the first acts of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets was the Decree on Peace, adopted on October 26, 1917. All warring peoples of the world were asked to immediately begin negotiations on a just democratic peace. On December 2, Russia and the countries of the Quadruple Alliance signed an armistice agreement. The conclusion of the armistice allowed the government of the Russian Soviet Republic to concentrate all its forces on defeating the anti-Soviet forces. On the Don, the ataman of the Don Cossack army, General Kaledin, acted as the organizer of the fight against Bolshevism. On October 25, 1917, he signed an appeal in which the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks was declared a crime. The Soviets were dispersed. In the Southern Urals, such actions were taken by the chairman of the Military Government and the chieftain of the Orenburg Cossack army, Colonel Dutov, a supporter of firm order and discipline, the continuation of the war with Germany and an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks. With the consent of the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, on the night of November 15, Cossacks and cadets arrested some of the members of the Orenburg Soviet who were preparing an uprising. On November 25, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars declared all the regions in the Urals and the Don, where "counter-revolutionary detachments are found," in a state of siege, and classified Generals Kaledin, Kornilov, and Colonel Dutov as enemies of the people. The general management of operations against the Kalinin troops and their accomplices was entrusted to the People's Commissar for Military Affairs Antonov-Ovseenko. At the end of December, his troops went on the offensive and began to quickly move deep into the Don region. The front-line Cossacks, tired of the war, began to abandon the armed struggle. General Kaledin, in an effort to avoid unnecessary casualties, on January 29 resigned as a military chieftain and shot himself on the same day.
A flying combined detachment of revolutionary soldiers and Baltic sailors under the command of midshipman Pavlov was sent to fight the Orenburg Cossacks. On January 18, 1918, together with the workers, they occupied Orenburg. The remnants of Dutov's troops withdrew to Verkhneuralsk. in Belarus against Soviet power the 1st Polish Corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky spoke. In February 1918, detachments of Latvian riflemen, revolutionary sailors and the Red Guard under the command of Colonel Vatsetis and Lieutenant Pavlunovsky defeated the legionnaires, pushing them back to Bobruisk and Slutsk. Thus, the first open armed uprisings of opponents of Soviet power were successfully suppressed. Simultaneously with the offensive on the Don and the Urals, actions were intensified in Ukraine, where at the end of October 1917 power in Kyiv passed into the hands of the Central Rada. A Difficult Situation Arose in Transcaucasia In early January 1918, an armed clash took place between the troops of the Moldavian People's Republic and units of the Romanian Front. On the same day, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on breaking diplomatic relations with Romania. On February 19, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. However, the German offensive did not stop. Then the Soviet government on March 3, 1918 signed a peace treaty with the Quadruple Alliance. The heads of the governments of Great Britain, France and Italy, having discussed the situation in Russia in March 1918 in London, decided to "render assistance to Eastern Russia to launch an allied intervention" with the involvement of Japan and the United States.
The first stage of the Civil War (end of May November 1918).
At the end of May 1918, the situation escalated in the east of the country, where echelons of units of a separate Czechoslovak corps stretched out at a great distance from the Volga region to Siberia and the Far East. By agreement with the government of the RSFSR, he was subject to evacuation. However, the violation of the agreement by the Czechoslovak command and the attempts of local Soviet authorities to forcibly disarm the corps led to clashes. On the night of May 25-26, 1918, a rebellion broke out in the Czechoslovak units, and soon they, together with the White Guards, captured almost the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. The Left SRs, considering the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a betrayal of the interests of the world revolution, decided to resume the tactics of individual terror, and then the central terror. They issued a directive on the universal assistance in the termination of the Brest Peace. One of the ways to achieve this goal was the assassination in Moscow on July 6, 1918 of the German ambassador to Russia, Count W. von Mirbach. But the Bolsheviks sought to prevent a break in the peace treaty and arrested the entire Left SR faction of the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets. In July 1918, members of the "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" rebelled in Yaroslavl. Uprisings (anti-Bolshevik) swept through the Southern Urals, the North Caucasus, Turkmenistan and other regions. In connection with the threat of the capture by parts of the Czechoslovak Corps of Yekaterinburg, on the night of July 17, Nicholas II and his family were shot. In connection with the assassination attempt on Lenin and the murder of Uritsky, on September 5, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on "On the Red Terror", which ordered to provide assistance to the rear through terror.
Chronology
- 1918 I stage of the civil war - "democratic"
- 1918 June Nationalization Decree
- January 1919 Introduction of the surplus appraisal
- 1919 Fight against A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, Yudenich
- 1920 Soviet-Polish war
- 1920 Fight against P.N. Wrangel
- 1920 November End of the civil war in European territory
- 1922 October End of the civil war in the Far East
Civil war and military intervention
Civil War - “the armed struggle between various groups of the population, which was based on deep social, national and political contradictions, took place with the active intervention foreign forces various stages and stages…” (Academician Yu.A. Polyakov).
In modern historical science there is no single definition of the concept of "civil war". In the encyclopedic dictionary we read: “Civil war is an organized armed struggle for power between classes, social groups the most acute form of the class struggle. This definition actually repeats Lenin's well-known saying that civil war is the most acute form of class struggle.
Currently given various definitions, but their essence basically boils down to the definition of the Civil War as a large-scale armed confrontation, in which, of course, the issue of power was decided. Capture by the Bolsheviks state power in Russia and the subsequent dispersal of the Constituent Assembly can be considered the beginning of an armed confrontation in Russia. The first shots are heard in the South of Russia, in the Cossack regions, already in the autumn of 1917.
General Alekseev, the last chief of staff of the tsarist army, begins to form a Volunteer Army on the Don, but by the beginning of 1918 it is no more than 3,000 officers and cadets.
As A.I. Denikin in "Essays on Russian Troubles", "the white movement grew spontaneously and inevitably."
During the first months of the victory of Soviet power, armed clashes were local in nature, all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics.
This confrontation took on a truly front-line, large-scale character in the spring of 1918. Let us single out three main stages in the development of armed confrontation in Russia, proceeding primarily from taking into account the balance of political forces and the specifics of the formation of fronts.
The first stage begins in the spring of 1918 when the military-political confrontation acquires a global character, large-scale military operations begin. The defining feature of this stage is its so-called "democratic" character, when representatives of the socialist parties came out as an independent anti-Bolshevik camp with slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains February Revolution. It is this camp that chronologically outstrips the White Guard camp in its organizational design.
At the end of 1918, the second stage begins- confrontation between whites and reds. Until the beginning of 1920, one of the main political opponents of the Bolsheviks was the white movement with the slogans of "non-decision political system and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction endangered not only the October, but also the February conquests. Their main political force was the Cadet Party, and the base for the formation of the army was the generals and officers of the former tsarist army. The Whites were united by their hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia.
The final stage of the Civil War begins in 1920. the events of the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against P. N. Wrangel. The defeat of Wrangel at the end of 1920 marked the end of the Civil War, but anti-Soviet armed uprisings continued in many regions Soviet Russia and during the years of the New Economic Policy
nationwide scale armed struggle has acquired since the spring of 1918 and turned into the greatest disaster, the tragedy of the entire Russian people. In this war there were no right and wrong, winners and losers. 1918 - 1920 - in these years the military question was of decisive importance for the fate of the Soviet power and the bloc of anti-Bolshevik forces opposing it. This period ended with the liquidation in November 1920 of the last white front in the European part of Russia (in the Crimea). On the whole, the country emerged from the state of civil war in the fall of 1922 after the remnants of white formations and foreign (Japanese) military units were expelled from the territory of the Russian Far East.
A feature of the civil war in Russia was its close interweaving with anti-Soviet military intervention powers of the Entente. It acted as the main factor in prolonging and exacerbating the bloody "Russian turmoil".
So, in the periodization of the civil war and intervention, three stages are quite clearly distinguished. The first of them covers the time from spring to autumn 1918; the second - from the autumn of 1918 to the end of 1919; and the third - from the spring of 1920 to the end of 1920.
The first stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1918)
In the first months of the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, armed clashes were local in nature, all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics. Armed struggle acquired a nationwide scale in the spring of 1918. Back in January 1918, Romania, taking advantage of the weakness of the Soviet government, captured Bessarabia. In March-April 1918, the first contingents of troops from England, France, the USA and Japan appeared on Russian territory (in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, in Vladivostok, in Central Asia). They were small and could not noticeably influence the military and political situation in the country. "War Communism"
At the same time, the enemy of the Entente - Germany - occupied the Baltic states, part of Belarus, Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus. The Germans actually dominated Ukraine: they overthrew the bourgeois-democratic Verkhovna Rada, whose help they used during the occupation of Ukrainian lands, and in April 1918 put Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky.
Under these conditions, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to use the 45,000th Czechoslovak Corps, who was (in agreement with Moscow) subordinate to him. It consisted of captured Slavic soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army and followed railway to Vladivostok for subsequent transfer to France.
According to an agreement concluded on March 26, 1918 with the Soviet government, the Czechoslovak legionnaires were to advance "not as a combat unit, but as a group of citizens with weapons in order to repel the armed attacks of counter-revolutionaries." However, during the movement, their conflicts with local authorities became more frequent. Since the Czechs and Slovaks had more military weapons than provided for in the agreement, the authorities decided to confiscate them. On May 26, in Chelyabinsk, conflicts escalated into real battles, and the legionnaires occupied the city. Their armed action was immediately supported by the military missions of the Entente in Russia and the anti-Bolshevik forces. As a result, in the Volga region, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Far East - wherever there were echelons with Czechoslovak legionnaires - Soviet power was overthrown. At the same time, in many provinces of Russia, the peasants, dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks, revolted (according to official data, only major anti-Soviet peasant uprisings was at least 130).
Socialist parties(mainly right SRs), relying on interventionist landings, the Czechoslovak Corps and peasant rebel detachments, formed a number of governments Komuch (Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly) in Samara, the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region in Arkhangelsk, the West Siberian Commissariat in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), The Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, the Trans-Caspian Provisional Government in Ashgabat, etc. In their activities, they tried to compose “ democratic alternative”both the Bolshevik dictatorship and the bourgeois-monarchist counter-revolution. Their programs included demands for the convening of a Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of all citizens without exception, freedom of trade and the rejection of strict state regulation. economic activity peasants with the preservation of a number of important provisions of the Soviet Decree on Land, the establishment of a “social partnership” between workers and capitalists during the denationalization of industrial enterprises, etc.
Thus, the performance of the Czechoslovak corps gave impetus to the formation of the front, which bore the so-called "democratic coloring" and was mainly Socialist-Revolutionary. It was this front, and not the white movement, that was decisive at the initial stage of the Civil War.
In the summer of 1918, all opposition forces became a real threat to the Bolshevik government, which controlled only the territory of the center of Russia. The territory controlled by Komuch included the Volga region and part of the Urals. Bolshevik power was also overthrown in Siberia, where a regional government of the Siberian Duma was formed. The breakaway parts of the empire were Transcaucasia, middle Asia, the Baltic States - had their own national governments. The Germans captured the Ukraine, the Don and Kuban were captured by Krasnov and Denikin.
On August 30, 1918, a terrorist group killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky, and the right-wing Socialist-Revolutionary Kaplan seriously wounded Lenin. The threat of losing political power to the ruling Bolshevik Party became catastrophically real.
In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of a number of anti-Bolshevik governments of democratic and social orientation was held in Ufa. Under the pressure of the Czechoslovaks, who threatened to open the front to the Bolsheviks, they established a single All-Russian government - the Ufa directory, headed by the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries N.D. Avksentiev and V.M. Zenzinov. Soon the directory settled in Omsk, where the well-known polar explorer and scientist, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V., was invited to the post of Minister of War. Kolchak.
The right, bourgeois-monarchist wing of the camp opposing the Bolsheviks as a whole had not yet recovered at that time from the defeat of its first post-October armed onslaught on them (which largely explained the “democratic coloring” initial stage civil war by anti-Soviet forces). The White Volunteer Army, which, after the death of General L.G. Kornilov in April 1918 was headed by General A.I. Denikin, operated on a limited territory of the Don and Kuban. Only the Cossack army of ataman P.N. Krasnov managed to advance to Tsaritsyn and cut off the grain regions of the North Caucasus from the central regions of Russia, and Ataman A.I. Dutov - to capture Orenburg.
The position of Soviet power by the end of the summer of 1918 became critical. Almost three-quarters of the territory of the former Russian Empire was under the control of various anti-Bolshevik forces, as well as the occupying Austro-German troops.
Soon, however, a turning point occurs on the main front (Eastern). Soviet troops under the command of I.I. Vatsetis and S.S. Kamenev in September 1918 went on the offensive there. Kazan fell first, then Simbirsk, and Samara in October. By winter, the Reds approached the Urals. The attempts of General P.N. Krasnov to capture Tsaritsyn, undertaken in July and September 1918.
From October 1918, the Southern Front became the main one. In the South of Russia, the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin captured the Kuban, and the Don Cossack army of Ataman P.N. Krasnova tried to take Tsaritsyn and cut the Volga.
The Soviet government launched active actions to protect its power. In 1918, a transition was made to universal conscription, a broad mobilization was launched. The constitution, adopted in July 1918, established discipline in the army and introduced the institution of military commissars.
As part of the Central Committee, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was allocated for the prompt solution of problems of a military and political nature. It included: V.I. Lenin --Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; L.B. Krestinsky - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities; L.D. Trotsky - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Candidate members were N.I. Bukharin - editor of the newspaper Pravda, G.E. Zinoviev - Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, M.I. Kalinin - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
Under the direct control of the Central Committee of the party, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by L.D. Trotsky. The institute of military commissars was introduced in the spring of 1918, one of its important tasks was to control the activities of military specialists - former officers. By the end of 1918, there were about 7,000 commissars in the Soviet armed forces. About 30% of the former generals and officers of the old army during the Civil War came out on the side of the Red Army.
This was determined by two main factors:
- speaking on the side of the Bolshevik government for ideological reasons;
- the policy of attracting "military specialists" to the Red Army - former tsarist officers - was carried out by L.D. Trotsky using repressive methods.
war communism
In 1918, the Bolsheviks introduced a system of emergency measures, economic and political, known as “ war communism policy”. Basic acts this policy became Decree of May 13, 1918 g., giving broad powers to the People's Commissariat for Food (People's Commissariat for Food), and Decree of 28 June 1918 on nationalization.
The main provisions of this policy:
- nationalization of all industry;
- centralization of economic management;
- prohibition of private trade;
- curtailment of commodity-money relations;
- food allocation;
- an equalizing system of wages for workers and employees;
- wages in kind for workers and employees;
- free public services;
- universal labor service.
June 11, 1918 were created combos(committees of the poor), which were supposed to seize surplus agricultural products from wealthy peasants. Their actions were supported by parts of the prodarmiya (food army), consisting of Bolsheviks and workers. From January 1919, the search for surpluses was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriations (Reader T8 No. 5).
Each region and county had to hand over a fixed amount of grain and other products (potatoes, honey, butter, eggs, milk). When the rate of change was met, the villagers received a receipt for the right to purchase manufactured goods (cloth, sugar, salt, matches, kerosene).
June 28, 1918 the state has started nationalization of enterprises with a capital of more than 500 rubles. Back in December 1917, when the Supreme Council of National Economy (Supreme Council of National economy), he engaged in nationalization. But the nationalization of labor was not massive (by March 1918 no more than 80 enterprises had been nationalized). It was primarily a repressive measure against entrepreneurs who resisted workers' control. Now it was government policy. By November 1, 1919, 2,500 enterprises had been nationalized. In November 1920, a decree was issued extending the nationalization to all enterprises with more than 10 or 5 workers, but using a mechanical engine.
Decree of November 21, 1918 was established monopoly on internal trade. The Soviet government replaced trade with state distribution. Citizens received food through the system of the People's Commissariat for Food on cards, of which, for example, in Petrograd in 1919 there were 33 types: bread, dairy, shoe, etc. The population was divided into three categories:
workers and scientists and artists equated to them;
employees;
former exploiters.
Due to the lack of food, even the wealthiest received only ¼ of the prescribed ration.
Under such conditions, the “black market” flourished. The government fought the "pouchers" by forbidding them to travel by train.
AT social sphere the policy of "war communism" was based on the principle "who does not work, he does not eat." In 1918, labor service was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, and in 1920, universal labor service.
In the political sphere"war communism" meant the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b). The activities of other parties (the Cadets, Mensheviks, Right and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries) were banned.
The consequences of the policy of “war communism” were the deepening of economic ruin, the reduction in production in industry and agriculture. However, it was precisely this policy that in many ways allowed the Bolsheviks to mobilize all the resources and win the Civil War.
The Bolsheviks assigned a special role in the victory over the class enemy to mass terror. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution proclaiming the beginning of "mass terror against the bourgeoisie and its agents." Head of the Cheka F.E. Dzherzhinsky said: "We are terrorizing the enemies of Soviet power." The policy of mass terror assumed a state character. Shooting on the spot became commonplace.
The second stage of the civil war (autumn 1918 - late 1919)
From November 1918, the front-line war entered the stage of confrontation between the Reds and the Whites. The year 1919 became decisive for the Bolsheviks, a reliable and constantly growing Red Army was created. But their opponents, actively supported by former allies, united among themselves. The international situation has also changed drastically. Germany and her allies in the world war laid down their arms before the Entente in November. Revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Leadership of the RSFSR November 13, 1918 annulled, and the new governments of these countries were forced to evacuate their troops from Russia. Bourgeois-national governments arose in Poland, the Baltic States, Belarus, and the Ukraine, which immediately took the side of the Entente.
The defeat of Germany freed up significant combat contingents of the Entente and at the same time opened up for her a convenient and short road to Moscow from the southern regions. Under these conditions, the intention to crush Soviet Russia with the forces of its own armies prevailed in the Entente leadership.
In the spring of 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente developed a plan for the next military campaign. (Reader T8 No. 8) As noted in one of his secret documents, the intervention was to be "expressed in the combined military operations of the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces and the armies of the neighboring allied states." At the end of November 1918, a combined Anglo-French squadron of 32 pennants (12 battleships, 10 cruisers and 10 destroyers) appeared off the Black Sea coast of Russia. British troops landed in Batum and Novorossiysk, and French troops landed in Odessa and Sevastopol. Total population the combat forces of the interventionists concentrated in the south of Russia was increased by February 1919 to 130 thousand people. Entente contingents increased significantly in the Far East and Siberia (up to 150,000 men) and also in the North (up to 20,000 men).
In Siberia, on November 18, 1918, Admiral A.V. came to power. Kolchak. . He put an end to the disorderly actions of the anti-Bolshevik coalition.
Having dispersed the Directory, he proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia (the rest of the leaders of the white movement soon declared subordination to him). Admiral Kolchak in March 1919 began to advance on a broad front from the Urals to the Volga. The main bases of his army were Siberia, the Urals, the Orenburg province and the Ural region. In the north, from January 1919, General E.K. began to play the leading role. Miller, in the northwest - General N.N. Yudenich. In the south, the dictatorship of the commander is being strengthened Volunteer army A.I. Denikin, who in January 1919 subjugated the Don Army of General P.N. Krasnov and created the united Armed Forces of the South of Russia.
In March 1919, the well-armed 300,000-strong army of A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive from the east, intending to unite with Denikin's forces for a joint attack on Moscow. Having captured Ufa, the Kolchakites fought their way to Simbirsk, Samara, Votkinsk, but were soon stopped by the Red Army. In the end of April Soviet troops under the command of S.S. Kamenev and M.V. The Frunze went on the offensive and in the summer advanced deep into Siberia. By the beginning of 1920, the Kolchakites were finally defeated, and the admiral himself was arrested and shot by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.
In the summer of 1919, the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front. (Reader T8 No. 7) On July 3, General A.I. Denikin issued his famous "Moscow Directive", and his army of 150,000 men launched an offensive along the entire 700-kilometer front from Kyiv to Tsaritsyn. The White Front included such important centers as Voronezh, Orel, Kyiv. In this space of 1 million square meters. km with a population of up to 50 million people located 18 provinces and regions. By mid-autumn, Denikin's army captured Kursk and Orel. But by the end of October, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Yegorov) defeated the white regiments, and then began to push them along the entire front line. The remnants of Denikin's army, headed by General P.N. Wrangel, strengthened in the Crimea.
The final stage of the civil war (spring-autumn 1920)
At the beginning of 1920, as a result of hostilities, the outcome of the front-line Civil War was actually decided in favor of the Bolshevik government. At the final stage, the main hostilities were associated with the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against Wrangel's army.
Significantly aggravated the nature of the civil war Soviet-Polish war. Head of the Polish State Marshal Y. Pilsudsky hatched a plan to create " Greater Poland within the borders of 1772” from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, including a large part of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, including those never controlled by Warsaw. The Polish national government was supported by the Entente countries, which sought to create a "sanitary bloc" of Eastern European countries between Bolshevik Russia and Western countries. On April 17, Pilsudski ordered an attack on Kyiv and signed an agreement with Ataman Petliura, Poland recognized the Directory headed by Petliura as the supreme power of Ukraine. May 7 Kyiv was taken. The victory was won unusually easily, because the Soviet troops withdrew without serious resistance.
But already on May 14, a successful counter-offensive of the troops of the Western Front (commander M.N. Tukhachevsky) began, and on May 26 - the South-Western Front (commander A.I. Egorov). In mid-July, they reached the borders of Poland. On June 12, Soviet troops occupied Kyiv. The speed of a victory won can only be compared with the speed of an earlier defeat.
On July 12, British Foreign Secretary Lord D. Curzon sent a note to the Soviet government - in fact, an ultimatum from the Entente demanding to stop the Red Army's advance on Poland. As a truce, the so-called “ Curzon line”, which took place mainly along the ethnic border of the settlement of the Poles.
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), clearly overestimating its own strength and underestimating the strength of the enemy, set a new strategic task for the high command of the Red Army: to continue the revolutionary war. IN AND. Lenin believed that the victorious entry of the Red Army into Poland would cause uprisings of the Polish working class and revolutionary uprisings in Germany. For this purpose, the Soviet government of Poland was promptly formed - the Provisional Revolutionary Committee consisting of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, F.M. Kona, Yu.Yu. Marchlevsky and others.
This attempt ended in disaster. The troops of the Western Front in August 1920 were defeated near Warsaw.
In October, the belligerents signed an armistice, and in March 1921, a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in the west of Ukraine and Belarus went to Poland.
In the midst of the Soviet-Polish war, General P.N. Wrangell. With the help of harsh measures, up to public executions of demoralized officers, and relying on the support of France, the general turned Denikin's scattered divisions into a disciplined and combat-ready Russian army. In June 1920, an assault was landed from the Crimea on the Don and Kuban, and the main forces of the Wrangelites were thrown into the Donbass. On October 3, the offensive of the Russian army began in a northwestern direction towards Kakhovka.
The offensive of the Wrangel troops was repulsed, and during the operation launched on October 28 by the army of the Southern Front under the command of M.V. Frunze completely captured the Crimea. On November 14-16, 1920, an armada of ships under the St. Andrew's flag left the shores of the peninsula, taking away the broken white regiments and tens of thousands of civilian refugees to a foreign land. Thus, P.N. Wrangel saved them from the merciless red terror that hit the Crimea immediately after the evacuation of the Whites.
In the European part of Russia, after the capture of the Crimea, it was liquidated last white front. The military question ceased to be the main one for Moscow, but fighting on the outskirts of the country continued for many more months.
The Red Army, having defeated Kolchak, went out in the spring of 1920 to Transbaikalia. The Far East was at that time in the hands of Japan. To avoid a collision with it, the government of Soviet Russia contributed to the formation in April 1920 of a formally independent "buffer" state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER) with its capital in the city of Chita. Soon, the army of the Far East began military operations against the White Guards, supported by the Japanese, and in October 1922 occupied Vladivostok, completely clearing the Far East of whites and invaders. After that, it was decided to liquidate the FER and include it in the RSFSR.
The Civil War became the biggest drama of the 20th century and the greatest tragedy of Russia. The armed struggle that unfolded in the vastness of the country was carried out with extreme tension of the forces of the opponents, was accompanied by mass terror (both white and red), and was distinguished by exceptional mutual bitterness. Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of a participant in the Civil War, who talks about the soldiers of the Caucasian Front: “Well, how, son, is it not scary for a Russian to beat a Russian?” — the comrades ask the recruit. “At first it really seems awkward,” he replies, “and then, if the heart is inflamed, then no, nothing.” These words contain the merciless truth about the fratricidal war, in which almost the entire population of the country was drawn.
The fighting parties clearly understood that the struggle could only have a fatal outcome for one of the parties. That is why the civil war in Russia became a great tragedy for all its political camps, movements and parties.
“Red” (Bolsheviks and their supporters) believed that they were defending not only Soviet power in Russia, but also “the world revolution and the ideas of socialism.”
In the political struggle against Soviet power, two political movements consolidated:
- democratic counterrevolution with slogans for the return of political power to the Constituent Assembly and the restoration of the gains of the February (1917) revolution (many Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks advocated the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, but without the Bolsheviks (“For Soviets without Bolsheviks”));
- white movement with the slogans of "non-decision of the state system" and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction endangered not only the October, but also the February conquests. The counter-revolutionary white movement was not homogeneous. It included monarchists and liberal republicans, supporters of the Constituent Assembly and supporters of the military dictatorship. Among the “whites” there were also differences in foreign policy guidelines: some hoped for the support of Germany (Ataman Krasnov), others - for the help of the Entente powers (Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich). The “Whites” were united by their hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia. They did not have a single political program, the military in the leadership of the “white movement” pushed politicians into the background. There was also no clear coordination of actions between the main groups of "whites". The leaders of the Russian counter-revolution were competing and at enmity with each other.
In the anti-Soviet anti-Bolshevik camp, part of the political opponents of the Soviets acted under a single SR-White Guard flag, part - only under the White Guard.
Bolsheviks had a stronger social base than their opponents. They received the decisive support of the workers of the cities and the rural poor. The position of the main peasant mass was not stable and unequivocal, only the poorest part of the peasants consistently followed the Bolsheviks. The peasants' vacillation had its own reasons: the "Reds" gave land, but then introduced a surplus appropriation, which caused strong discontent in the countryside. However, the return of the old order was also unacceptable for the peasantry: the victory of the “whites” threatened the return of land to the landowners and severe punishments for the destruction of landlord estates.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Anarchists hurried to take advantage of the vacillations of the peasants. They managed to involve a significant part of the peasantry in the armed struggle, both against the whites and against the reds.
For both warring parties, it was also important what position the Russian officers would take in the conditions of the civil war. Approximately 40% of the officers of the tsarist army joined the “white movement”, 30% sided with the Soviet government, 30% evaded participation in the civil war.
The Russian Civil War escalated armed intervention foreign powers. The interventionists conducted active military operations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, occupied some of its regions, contributed to inciting a civil war in the country and contributed to its prolongation. The intervention turned out to be an important factor in the “revolutionary all-Russian turmoil”, multiplied the number of victims.
3.2.1. Expansion of intervention.In May-June 1918, the armed struggle took on a national scale . At the end of May, an armed uprising of 45,000 Czechoslovak Corps in Siberia. In Kazan, the Czechoslovaks seized the gold reserves of Russia (over 30 thousand pounds of gold and silver with a total value of 650 million rubles).
In August, the British landed in Transcaucasia, driving out German troops from there, Anglo-French landing forces occupied Arkhangelsk and Odessa.
3.2.2. The 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). The uprisings of the peasants in the Volga region and the Urals became one of the reasons for the fall of Soviet power in these regions. Part of the peasants participated in the Komuch People's Army; the Ural peasantry served in Kolchak's army.
In August 1918 there was Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising of workers, who created an army of about 30 thousand people and held out until November, after which the rebels were forced to retreat and go with their families to Kolchak's army .
3.2.3. National Defense Organization. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to turn the Soviet Republic into a military camp. Created in September Revolutionary Military Council Republic under the presidency L.D. Trotsky- the body that was at the head of all fronts and military institutions. On November 30, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 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 of former officers of the tsarist army was carried out, and an institution of military commissars was created to control the political line of commanders. By the end of 1918, the strength of the Red Army exceeded 1.5 million people.
3.2.3. Formation of democratic governments. The socialist parties, relying on peasant rebel groups, formed in the summer of 1918 a number of governments in Arkhangelsk, Samara, Tomsk, Ashgabat, etc. Their programs included demands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of citizens, the rejection of one-party dictatorship and strict state regulation of economic activity peasants, etc.
- Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch). Komuch (predominantly a Socialist-Revolutionary organization, chairman - VK. Volsky) was created on June 8, 1918 in Samara and ruled the Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk, Kazan and Ufa provinces. On the controlled territory 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. Decrees of the Soviet government were canceled here, industrial enterprises were returned to their former owners, banks were denationalized, freedom of trade was allowed; previously confiscated lands were retained by the landowners.
- Provisional Government of Siberia was formed at the end of June in the city of Omsk (chairman of the Social Revolutionary P.V. Vologodsky). In July, it adopted a declaration on the independence of Siberia. In October Komuch dissolved itself, but the regional Provisional Siberian government did not cease operations.
Ufa Directory (All-Russian Provisional Government, chairman - N.D. Avksentiev) was formed on September 23, 1918. It included two Social Revolutionaries, a cadet, two non-party people, including the chairman of the Siberian government. Directory, having entered the struggle with the Bolsheviks, she advocated the continuation of the war and the restoration of treaty relations with the powers of the Entente . Members Directories achieved the abolition of all regional, national and Cossack governments.
Peasants' attitudes towards democratic governments changed after their attempts to create their own armed forces by mobilizing the local population, including using repressive measures . In addition, the regional democratic governments were defeated by the Red Army detachments successfully advancing in the Volga region.
November 18, 1918 in Omsk, Admiral A.V. Kolchak made a coup, as a result of which the provisional governments (including the Directory) were dispersed and a military dictatorship was established. Admiral Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler. Under him, the Omsk government was created, under whose authority all Siberia, the Urals, and the Orenburg province turned out to be.
3.3. Third stage (November 1918 - spring 1919). At this stage, the leading force in the fight against the Bolsheviks was the military-dictatorial regimes in the East (Admiral A.V. Kolchak), South (General A.I. Denikin), North-West (General N.N. Yudenich) and the North of the country (general E.K.Miller).
3.3.1. 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 release the fighting forces of the Entente powers and direct them against Russia. At the end of November 1918, French and British troops landed in the Black Sea ports of Russia. By the beginning of 1919, the number of foreign armed forces had reached 130,000 soldiers in the south and up to 20,000 in the north. The Allies concentrated up to 150,000 troops in the Far East and Siberia.
Military intervention caused a patriotic upsurge in the country, and in the world - a movement of solidarity under the slogan Hands off Soviet Russia!.
In the autumn of 1918, the Eastern Front was the main one. A counter-offensive of the Red Army under the command of I.I. Vatsetis, during which the White Guard units were ousted from the Middle Volga and Kama regions.
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Ruler: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars - V.I. Lenin Enemies: "Reds" - representatives of the Soviet government, allies of the new government among the people "Whites" - opponents of Soviet power intervention countries of England, USA, Japan Goals: Bolsheviks: defense of Soviet power, independence of Russia Whites and interventionists:
Russian commanders: S.S.Kamenev, M.V.Frunze, M.N.Tukhachevsky A.I.Egorov, S.M.Budyonny, A.I.Kork Main battles:
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Related information
Civil War - this is an armed struggle of social, national and political forces within the country for power.
Features of the Civil War :
- Accompanied by intervention
- Conducted with extreme ferocity (red and white terror)
Causes of the Civil War
- The aggravation of all contradictions in society as a result of the change of power.
- Dealing with political issues with weapons in hand
- The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918 showed the collapse of the alternative development of the country along the democratic path.
- Lack of compromise and experience of its implementation between the various political forces of the country.
- negative attitude towards Brest Peace opponents of the Bolsheviks
- The economic policy of the Bolsheviks in the countryside in the spring and summer of 1918.
- Religious policy of the Bolsheviks
- Intervention, foreign interference in the internal affairs of the country.
- An attempt by white governments to return power to the landowners and the bourgeoisie.
Viewpoints on chronological framework civil war
- October 1917 - December 1922 (the coming to power of the Bolsheviks - the elimination of the last centers of the White movement and intervention in the Far East)
- May 1918 - November 1920 (performance of the Czechoslovak Corps - the defeat of the troops of P.N. Wrangel in the Crimea)
- May 1918 - December 1922
Reasons for the Reds' victory
- It was possible to win over the peasantry with a promise to implement the Decree on Land after the victory
- Unity of action, one leader - Lenin.
- The slogan of national self-determination attracted many nationalities to the side of the Reds.
- Almost half of the tsarist officers went over to the side of the Reds
- The policy of "war communism" made it possible to mobilize all forces to fight the enemy.
Reasons for the defeat of the Whites
- The agrarian program of the whites provided for the return of land to the landowners
- Lack of unified command and plans
- Unsuccessful national policy6 "united and indivisible Russia"
- Reliance on the forces of the Entente, which was perceived by the people as an anti-national force
Material prepared: Melnikova Vera Aleksandrovna
The work was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Humanitarian Foundation (Project No. 01-01-00377a)
On May 25, 1918, an anti-Bolshevik uprising of the troops of the Czechoslovak Corps began in Novo-Nikolaevsk, which soon led to the fall of Soviet power in a vast area from the Volga to the Pacific Ocean. On November 18 of the same year, Admiral A. V. Kolchak, recognized as the Supreme Ruler, came to power in Omsk Russian state not only in the entire space of the east of Russia, but also in other "white" regions. In the interval between these two coups - anti-Bolshevik and Kolchak - power in "white" Siberia changed twice more. On June 30, the West Siberian Commissariat handed it over to the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Siberian Government, and on November 3, the latter, in turn, "ceded the throne" to the Provisional All-Russian Government elected at the State Conference in Ufa. Thus, in less than half a year, power changed four times in Siberia, and each time the new government had to explain to the population why this change took place, how this regime differs from the previous ones, what are its goals. The declarative acts of the governments of the Siberian counterrevolution issued for this purpose are a very valuable source that allows reconstructing the value systems, ideology and, to a certain extent, the political evolution of the anti-Bolshevik movement in the East of Russia.
The first government body that declared its rights to government power in the very first hours of the anti-Bolshevik uprising was the West Siberian Commissariat of the Siberian Provisional Government. The commissariat announced its accession to power in two acts: an appeal dated May 26, 1918 and a declaration “To the entire population of Western Siberia” dated June 1, 1918.
The new government was legitimized as revolutionary, opposing the "new autocracy". Its adherence to democratic principles (in particular, the separation of powers), its parliamentary origin, its connection with the Siberian Regional Congresses of 1917, and its commitment to convening a Siberian Constituent Assembly in the near future were emphasized. The supreme goal of the new government was proclaimed to be “the salvation of all the gains of the revolution and the restoration of national independence”, “the salvation of the Russian revolution”, the support was “the labor revolutionary democracy of Russia and Siberia”, and “all its detachments” were called for cooperation.
On June 30, 1918, the West Siberian Commissariat transferred power to the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Siberian Government. It was formalized by the publication of a number of acts: the letters of the chairman of the Siberian Regional Duma "To the Peoples of Siberia", the appeal of the authorized representatives of the Provisional Siberian Government "To all citizens of Siberia", and the letters of the newly formed Provisional Siberian Government: one general and three "addressed". In these declarations, the new government emphasized that its activities are carried out "in the implementation of the will of the Siberian Regional Duma and the further development of the activities of the Commissariat of Western Siberia." However, the wording of the declarations of the new government differed significantly from the wording of similar acts of the West Siberian Commissariat.
Firstly, the overthrown Soviet power was characterized not as a "Bolshevik autocracy", but as a "Bolshevik yoke", that is, in terms of not social, but national struggle. If the proclamation of May 26 spoke about the actions of the opponents of the Bolsheviks using the language of the revolution (“overthrowing the disgusting Bolshevik government to everyone”), then the acts of June 30 - using images of restoring order (“breaking the gangs of the Red Army”, “fighting the dark forces that destroyed the Russian statehood”) .
Secondly, the Siberian armed forces were described not as “revolutionary detachments”, but as a combination of officers, “who accepted the first and most cruel blows of the now overthrown Bolshevik government”, the Cossacks, “the always stronghold of statehood” and “ordinary volunteers”, embraced by a “patriotic upsurge ".
Thirdly, if the acts of the commissariat proclaimed the highest goal and value of the new government to be “saving all the gains of the revolution” and only then “restoring national independence”, then the declarations of the Provisional Siberian Government called for “the creation and strengthening throughout Siberia as an inseparable part of the Great All-Russian Democratic republics of unshakable law and order and powerful statehood.
Finally, it was not “labor revolutionary democracy” that was proclaimed to be the backbone of power, but “the entire population, without distinction of nationalities, classes and parties, all state-minded elements, all those who cherish the revival of Russia and the freedom of Siberia.”
Thus, it can be said that in the declarative acts of the Provisional Siberian Government there was a decisive rejection of the revolutionary rhetoric inherent in the legislation of the West Siberian Commissariat and the promotion of primarily national and, secondarily, democratic slogans.
Already in the second half of the summer of 1918, the anti-Bolshevik regimes that arose in the east of the country faced the task of forming a united central government in full growth. On September 23, the State Conference devoted to this issue elected the Provisional All-Russian Government as the organ of the national supreme power.
The first declarative document issued by the new government was the charter of the Provisional All-Russian Government "To all the peoples of Russia" dated September 26, 1918. The charter proclaimed that the main goal of the new government was "the restoration of the state unity and independence of Russia." To do this, on the one hand, she “seeks to free the regions of Russia that are still groaning under her yoke from Soviet power,” and on the other, to establish “the triumph of law, law and order and the secure enjoyment of civil liberties throughout the entire space of the State of Russia.” It was announced that "the government is again joining the ranks of the powers of Concord, in order to continue the war against the German coalition in unity with them." The means of achieving the indicated goals was determined by the “restoration of a strong combat-ready unified Russian army placed outside the influence of political parties and soldered by strong military discipline, based on the principles of legality and respect for the individual.
On November 18, 1918, the Ufa Directory, which had moved to Omsk, was overthrown. It was replaced by the Russian government, headed by Admiral A. V. Kolchak, who assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of the Russian state. The new government announced its formation with two declarative acts - the appeal of the Supreme Ruler "To the population" of November 18, 1918 and the order on the army of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander No. 46 of November 23, 1918.
First of all, these documents announced the termination of the existence of the former government and the emergence of a new one. The order for the army argued the need for the change of power that had taken place: “In the hour of fluctuations in state power and the threat of a new anarchy, I did not accept the terrible burden of supreme power and all the responsibility associated with it to our homeland ... By transferring supreme power to me, the government thereby recognized that in these last hours of the life of the state, only the armed force, only the army, can be salvation.
Further, A. V. Kolchak proclaimed the goals and objectives of the new government. The first, most urgent task was to strengthen and increase the combat capability of the army. The second, inextricably linked with the first, is "victory over Bolshevism." The third task, the solution of which was recognized as possible only under the condition of victory, was proclaimed "the revival and resurrection of the perishing state" (order), in other words - "the establishment of law and order" (appeal).
The solution of these immediate tasks was considered only as a guarantee of the achievement of the main goal. All the activities of the new government were declared aimed at ensuring that “the people could freely choose for themselves the form of government that they wish” (appeal), so that “the temporary supreme power of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief could transfer the fate of the state into the hands of the people, leaving it to arrange public administration voluntarily" (order).
Finally, in defining the highest goal of state building, these two documents differed from each other. The appeal to the population put forward as such a goal the possibility of "realizing the great ideas of freedom, now proclaimed throughout the world." The order for the army spoke about finding Russia "a proper place among the great states."
These two declarations also ended in different ways. The appeal of November 18 ended with an appeal formulated in the style of the French Revolution: “I call on you, citizens, to unite, to fight against Bolshevism, to work and sacrifice.” As for the order for the army, at the end of this document, for the first time in the history of the lawmaking of the Siberian counter-revolution, a religious motive sounded: “May the Lord God Almighty help us, whom many of us have forgotten in the years of great trials, to fulfill our obligations and duty to the Motherland.”
The intonational and semantic differences between these two declarative acts clearly testified to the duality of the ideological and political basis of the new regime.
So, successive Siberian authorities chose several legitimation strategies.
First, all anti-Bolshevik governments used emotional guarantees of their legitimacy, operating on the "image of the enemy" as the only alternative to their power.
Secondly, the authorities turned to values that were significant for certain parts of society, hoping to learn the legitimacy of their existence in familiarizing themselves with them. Here, too, the evolution of sets of such values is quite obvious. The West Siberian Commissariat appealed to revolutionary and democratic values, the Provisional Siberian Government to national and democratic ones, the Directory to democratic and national ones, and the Supreme Ruler to national, democratic and religious ones.
Finally, in justifying their right to power, various governments resorted to two variants of external legitimation. In the first case, the guarantee of the legitimacy of power was a direct or indirect origin from a certain surrogate of popular representation (the Siberian Regional Duma or the State Conference). This is how the West Siberian Commissariat, the Directory and, in the initial period of their activity, the Provisional Siberian Government positioned themselves. But soon, the Siberian government formulated a different approach to justifying its rights to power. It emphasized that it was based on the very fact of having power and on the recognition of this power by the population and society. The Supreme Ruler legitimized his power in a similar way. The fragility and conditionality of both methods of argumentation are obvious.
In general, the declarative acts of the counter-revolutionary governments reflected the not quite definite and unstable nature of the legal status of the state power of Siberian anti-Bolshevism. In a situation of a revolutionary split in society, when there were no universally recognized rules and norms of behavior, no power, in principle, could gain full legitimacy.
NOTES
- GARF. F. 176, op. 2, d. 5., l. 3.
- SPR. No. 1, art. one.
- SUR. No. 1, art. one.
- SUR. No. 1, art. 6.
- SUR. No. 1, art. 2.
- SUR. No. 1, art. 3, 4, 5.
- Application of the newspaper "People's Siberia". 1918. October 1.
- Government Gazette. 1918. November 20.
- Government Gazette. 1918. November 27.
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