Russian Civil War

For other uses, seeRussian Civil War (disambiguation).

Russian Civil War
Part of theRussian Revolution,theaftermath of World War I,and theinterwar period
Clockwise from top left: Soldiers of theDon Army Soldiers of theSiberian Army Bolshevik suppression of theKronstadt rebellion American troops in Vladivostok during theAllied intervention Victims of theRed TerrorinCrimea Hanging of Bolsheviks inYekaterinoslavby theAustrians A review of Red Army troops in Moscow
Date 7 November 1917 – 25 October 1922 Location FormerRussian Empire Result Bolshevik victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union RSFSR BSSR UkSSR TSFSR Regional socialist forces	White movement Russian State	Separatists: Poland Finland Ukraine Belarus Estonia Latvia Lithuania Georgia Armenia Azerbaijan Northern Caucasus
Anti-Bolshevik left: Left SRs Green Army Makhnovshchina	Allied intervention: Japan United Kingdom United States France Czechoslovakia	Central Powers: Germany Austria-Hungary Ottoman Empire Freikorps
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Yakov Sverdlov# Jukums Vācietis Sergey Kamenev Nikolai Podvoisky Nikolai Krylenko Joseph Stalin Yukhym Medvedev Vilhelm Knorin Alexander Krasnoshchyokov	Alexander Kerensky Alexander Kolchak Lavr Kornilov† Anton Denikin Pyotr Wrangel Nikolai Yudenich Grigory Semyonov Yevgeny Miller Mikhail Diterikhs Pyotr Krasnov Roman von Ungern-Sternberg	Józef Piłsudski Symon Petliura C.G.E. Mannerheim S. Bułak-Bałachowicz Konstantin Päts Jānis Čakste Antanas Smetona Ion Inculeț Noe Zhordania A. Khatisian Nasib Yusifbeyli† Enver Pasha†
Vladimir Volsky Maria Spiridonova Nykyfor Hryhoriv† Nestor Makhno Stepan Petrichenko	Otani Kikuzo Edmund Ironside William S. Graves Radola Gajda Maurice Janin	H. von Eichhorn† Nuri Pasha Jan Sierada Pavlo Skoropadskyi P. Bermondt-Avalov
Strength
Red Army:5,498,000 (peak) Makhnovtsi:103,000 (peak) Green Army:70,000 Kronstadt mutineers:17,961	White Army:1,023,000 (peak) Japanese Army:70,000 (peak) Czechoslovak Legion:50,000 (peak) AEF, Siberia:7,950 British Army:57,636 Romanian Army:50,000	Polish Army:1,000,000 (peak) Ukrainian Army:100,000 (peak) Finnish Army:90,000 (peak) German Army:547,000 (peak) Ottoman Army:20,000 (peak)
Casualties and losses
1,500,000	1,500,000 13,000 killed 6,500 killed 938 killed 596 killed 350 killed 179 killed	250,000 125,000 5,000 3,000 killed 3,888 killed 3,046 killed 1,444 killed 500 killed
7,000,000–12,000,000 total casualties 1–2 million refugees outside Russia

TheRussian Civil Warwas a multi-partycivil warin the formerRussian Empiresparked by the overthrowing of the social-democraticRussian Provisional Governmentin theOctober Revolution,as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of theRussian Socialist Federative Soviet Republicand later theSoviet Unionin most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of theRussian Revolution,which was one of thekey events of the 20th century.

TheRussian monarchyended with the abdication ofTsar Nicholas IIduring theFebruary Revolution,and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in theOctober Revolution,where theBolsheviksoverthrew theprovisional governmentof the newRussian Republic.Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were theRed Army,fighting for the establishment of aBolshevik-ledsocialist stateheaded byVladimir Lenin,and the loosely allied forces known as theWhite Army,which functioned as a politicalbig tentforright- andleft-wingopposition to Bolshevik rule. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably theUkrainian anarchistsof theMakhnovshchinaandLeft Socialist-Revolutionaries,were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideologicalgreen armies,opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists.Thirteen foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably theAllied intervention,whose primary goal was re-establishing theEastern FrontofWorld War I.Three foreign nations of theCentral Powersalso intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in theTreaty of Brest-Litovskwith Soviet Russia.

The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of the former empire. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an emergency peace with theGerman Empire,who had captured vast swathes of the Russian territory during the chaos of the revolution. In May 1918,the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia revoltedin Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began theirNorth RussianandSiberian interventions.That, combined with the creation of theProvisional All-Russian Government,saw the reduction of Bolshevik-controlled territory to most ofEuropean Russiaand parts ofCentral Asia.In 1919, the White Army launched severaloffensives from the eastin March,the southin July, andwestin October. The advances were later checked by theEastern Front counteroffensive,theSouthern Front counteroffensive,and the defeat of theNorthwestern Army.

By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts.Although the Bolsheviks were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used the disarray to push for national independence.In March 1921, duringa related war against Poland,thePeace of Rigawas signed, splitting disputed territories inBelarusandUkrainebetween theRepublic of Polandand Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newlyindependent nationsof the former Empire, although their success was limited.Estonia,Finland,Latvia,andLithuaniaall repelled Soviet invasions, whileUkraine,Belarus (as a result of thePolish–Soviet War),Armenia,AzerbaijanandGeorgiawere occupied by the Red Army.By 1921, Soviet Russia had defeated the Ukrainian national movements and occupied theCaucasus,althoughanti-Bolshevik uprisingsin Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s.

The armies underKolchakwere eventually forced on amass retreat eastward.Bolshevik forces advanced east, despite encountering resistance inChita,YakutandMongolia.Soon the Red Army split theDonandVolunteer armies,forcing evacuations inNovorossiyskin March andCrimeain November 1920. After that, anti-Bolshevik resistance was sporadic for several years until the catpure ofVladivostokin October 1922, but continued on with the MuslimBasmachi movementin Central Asia andKhabarovsk Kraiuntil 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during the war, mostly civilians.

Background

World War I

Main article:World War I

The Russian Empire fought in World War I from 1914 alongside France and the United Kingdom (Triple Entente) against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire (Central Powers).

February Revolution

Main article:February Revolution

The February Revolution of 1917 resulted in the abdication of EmperorNicholas II of Russia.As a result, the social-democraticRussian Provisional Governmentwas established, andsoviets,elected councils of workers, soldiers, and peasants, were organized throughout the country, leading to a situation ofdual power.TheRussian Republicwas proclaimed in September of the same year.

October Revolution

Main article:October Revolution

The Provisional Government, led bySocialist Revolutionary PartypoliticianAlexander Kerensky,was unable to solve the most pressing issues of the country, most importantly to end the war with the Central Powers. Afailed military coupby GeneralLavr Kornilovin September 1917 led to a surge in support for theBolsheviks,whotook control of the soviets,which until then had been controlled by the Socialist Revolutionaries. Promising an end to the war and "all power to the Soviets", the Bolsheviks then ended dual power by overthrowing the Provisional Government in late October, on the eve of theSecond All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies,in what would be the second Revolution of 1917. The initial stage of the October Revolution which involved the assault onPetrogradoccurred largely without any humancasualties.Despite the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, they lost to the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election,and the Constituent Assembly was dissolved by the Bolsheviks in retaliation. The Bolsheviks soon lost the support of other far-left allies, such as theLeft Socialist-Revolutionaries,after their acceptance of the terms of theTreaty of Brest-Litovskpresented by the German Empire.Conversely, a number of prominent members of theLeft Socialist Revolutionarieshad assumed positions in Lenin's government and lead commissariats in several areas. This included agriculture (Kolegaev), property (Karelin), justice (Steinberg), post offices and telegraphs (Proshian) and local government (Trutovsky).The Bolsheviks also reserved a number of vacant seats in the Soviets andCentral Executivefor theMenshevikandLeft Socialist Revolutionariesparties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress.The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was also approved by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries andanarchists,both groups were in favour of a moreradical democracy.

Formation of the Red Army

Main article:Red Army

From mid-1917 onwards, theRussian Army,the successor-organisation of the oldImperial Russian Army,started to disintegrate;the Bolsheviks used the volunteer-basedRed Guardsas their main military force, augmented by an armed military component of theCheka(the Bolshevik statesecret police). In January 1918, after significant Bolshevik reverses in combat, the futureRussian People's Commissar for Military and Naval AffairsLeon Trotskyheaded the reorganization of the Red Guards into aWorkers' and Peasants' Red Armyin order to create a more effective fighting force. The Bolsheviks appointedpolitical commissarsto each unit of the Red Army to maintain morale and to ensure loyalty.

In June 1918, when it had become apparent that a revolutionary army composed solely of workers would not suffice, Trotsky instituted mandatoryconscriptionof the rural peasantry into the Red Army.The Bolsheviks overcame opposition of rural Russians to Red Army conscription units by taking hostages and shooting them when necessary in order to force compliance.The forced conscription drive had mixed results, successfully creating a larger army than the Whites, but with members indifferent towardscommunist ideology.

The Red Army also utilized former Tsarist officers as "military specialists" (voenspetsy);sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty.At the start of the civil war, former Tsarist officers formed three-quarters of the Red Army officer-corps.By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers.

Anti-Bolshevik movement

Main articles:White movement,Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine,Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War,andPro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War

AdmiralAlexander Kolchak(seated) and GeneralAlfred Knox(behind Kolchak) observing military exercise, 1919

TheWhite movement(Russian:pre–1918Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение,romanized:Beloye dvizheniye,IPA:[ˈbʲɛləɪdvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ])also known as theWhites(Белые,Beliye), was a loose confederation ofanti-communistforces that fought the communistBolsheviks,also known as theReds,in the Russian Civil War and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders inSiberiauntil roughlyWorld War II(1939–1945). The movement's military arm was theWhite Army(Бѣлая армія / Белая армия,Belaya armiya), also known as the White Guard (Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия,Belaya gvardiya) or White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы / Белогвардейцы,Belogvardeytsi).

When the White Army was created, the structure of theRussian Army of the Provisional Government periodwas used, while almost every individual formation had its own characteristics. The military art of the White Army was based on the experience of World War I, which, however, left a strong imprint on the specifics of the Civil War.

During the Russian Civil War, the White movement functioned as abig tentpolitical movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to the Bolsheviks—from the republican-minded liberals and Kerenskyite social-democrats on the left through monarchists and supporters of a united multinational Russia to the ultra-nationalistBlack Hundredson the right.

Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, early Constituent Assembly rebellions

TheRussian Constituent Assemblyhad been a demand of the Bolsheviks against the Provisional Government, which kept delaying it. After the October Revolution the elections were run by the body appointed by the previous Provisional Government. It was based on universal suffrage but used party lists from before the Left-Right SR split. The anti-Bolshevik Right SRswon the electionswith the majority of the seats,after which Lenin'sTheses on the Constituent Assemblyargued inPravdathat formal democracy was impossible because of class conflicts, conflicts with Ukraine and the Kadet-Kaledin uprising. He argued the Constituent Assembly must unconditionally accept sovereignty of the soviet government or it would be dealt with "by revolutionary means".

On December 30, 1917, the SRNikolai Avksentievand some followers were arrested for organizing a conspiracy. This was the first time Bolsheviks used this kind of repression against a socialist party.Izvestiasaid the arrest was not related to his membership in the Constituent Assembly.

Viktor Chernov

On January 4, 1918, theAll-Russian Central Executive Committeemade a resolution saying the slogan "all power to the constituent assembly" was counterrevolutionary and equivalent to "down with the soviets".

Maria Spiridonova

The Constituent Assembly met on January 18, 1918. The Right SR Chernov was elected president defeating the Bolshevik supported candidate, the Left SRMaria Spiridonova(she would later break with the Bolsheviks and after the decades ofgulag,she was shot on Stalin's orders in 1941). The Bolsheviks subsequently disbanded the Constituent Assembly and proceeded to rule the country as aone-party statewith all opposition parties outlawed.A simultaneous demonstration in favor of the Constituent Assembly was dispersed with force, but there was little protest afterwards.

The first largeChekarepression involving the killing oflibertarian socialistsin Petrograd began in April 1918. On May 1, 1918, a pitched battle took place in Moscow between the anarchists and the Bolshevik police.

Constituent Assembly uprising

The Union of Regeneration was founded in Moscow in April 1918 as an underground agency organizing democratic resistance to the Bolshevik dictatorship, composed of the Popular Socialists, Right Socialist Revolutionaries, and Defensists, among others. They were tasked with propping up anti-Bolshevik forces and to create a Russian state system based on civil liberties, patriotism, and state-consciousness with the goal to liberate the country from the "Germano-Bolshevik" yoke.

On May 7, 1918, the Eighth Party Council of theSocialist Revolutionary Partycommenced inMoscowand recognized the Union's leading role, putting aside political ideology and class for the purpose of Russia's salvation. They decided to start an uprising against the Bolsheviks with the goal of reconvening the Russian Constituent Assembly.While preparations were under way, theCzechoslovak Legionsoverthrew Bolshevik rule inSiberia,theUralsand theVolgaregion in late May-early June 1918 and the center of SR activity shifted there. On June 8, 1918, five Constituent Assembly members formed the All-RussianCommittee of Members of the Constituent Assembly(Komuch) inSamaraand declared it the new supreme authority in the country.The Social RevolutionaryProvisional Government of Autonomous Siberiacame to power on 29 June 1918, after the uprising inVladivostok.

Exclusion of Mensheviks and SRs

At the5th All-Russia Congress of Sovietsof July 4, 1918, theLeft Socialist-Revolutionarieshad 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The Left SRs raised disagreements on the suppression of rival parties, the death penalty, and mainly, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks excluded the Right SRs and Mensheviks from the government on 14 June for associating with counterrevolutionaries and seeking to "organize armed attacks against the workers and peasants" (though Mensheviks had not supported them), while the Left SRs advocated forming a government of all socialist parties. The Left SRs agreed with extrajudicial execution of political opponents to stop the counterrevolution, but opposed having the government legally pronouncing death sentences, an unusual position that is best understood within the context of the group's terrorist past. The Left SRs strongly opposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and opposed Trotsky's insistence that no one try to attack German troops in Ukraine.

According to historianMarcel Liebman,Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties was prompted by the fact that several political parties eithertook up armsagainst the newRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic,or participated in sabotage, collaboration with the deposed Tsarists, or madeassassination attempts against Leninand other Bolshevik leaders.Liebman noted that opposition parties such as the Cadets andMenshevikswho were democratically elected to the Soviets in some areas, then proceeded to use their mandate to welcome in Tsarist andforeign capitalist military forces.In one incident in Baku,the British military, once invited in, proceeded to execute members of the Bolshevik Party who had peacefully stood down from the Soviet when they failed to win the elections. As a result, the Bolsheviks banned each opposition party when it turned against the Soviet government. In some cases, bans were lifted. This banning of parties did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under theStalinistregime.

Repression

In December 1917,Felix Dzerzhinskywas appointed to the duty of rooting outcounter-revolutionarythreats to theSoviet government.He was the director of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (akaCheka), a predecessor of the KGB that served as thesecret policefor the Soviets.

The Bolsheviks had begun to see the anarchists as a legitimate threat and associate criminality such asrobberies,expropriationsandmurderswith anarchist associations. Subsequently, theCouncil of People's Commissars(Sovnarkom) decided to liquidate criminal recklessness associated with anarchists and disarm all anarchist groups in the face of their militancy.

From early 1918, the Bolsheviks started physical elimination of opposition, other socialist and revolutionary fractions.Anarchistswere among the first:

Of all the revolutionary elements in Russia it is the Anarchists who now suffer the most ruthless and systematic persecution. Their suppression by the Bolsheviki began already in 1918, when — in the month of April of that year — the Communist Government attacked, without provocation or warning, the Anarchist Club of Moscow and by the use of machine guns and artillery "liquidated" the whole organisation. It was the beginning of Anarchist hounding, but it was sporadic in character, breaking out now and then, quite planless, and frequently self-contradictory.

— Alexander Berkman,Emma Goldman,"Bolsheviks Shooting Anarchists"

On 11 August 1918, prior to the events that would officially catalyze theRed Terror,Vladimir Leninhadsent telegrams"to introduce mass terror" inNizhny Novgorodin response to a suspected civilian uprising there, and to "crush" landowners inPenzawho resisted, sometimes violently, the requisitioning of their grain by military detachments:

Comrades! Thekulakuprising in your five districts must be crushed without pity... You must make example of these people.

(1) Hang (I mean hang publicly, so that people see it) at least 100 kulaks, rich bastards, and known bloodsuckers.

(2) Publish their names.

(3) Seize all their grain.

(4) Single out the hostages per my instructions in yesterday's telegram.

Do all this so that for miles (versts) around people see it all, understand it, tremble, and tell themselves that we are killing the bloodthirsty kulaks and that we will continue to do so...

Yours, Lenin.

P.S. Find tougher people.

— Lenin's Hanging Order

In a mid-August 1920 letter, having received information that in Estonia and Latvia, with which Soviet Russia had concluded peace treaties, volunteers were being enrolled in anti-Bolshevik detachments, Lenin wrote to E. M. Sklyansky, deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic:

Great plan! Finish it with Dzerzhinsky. While pretending to be the "greens" (we will blame them later), we will advance by 10–20 miles (versts) and hang kulaks, priests, landowners. Prize: 100.000 rubles for each hanged man.

Leonid Kannegisser,a youngmilitary cadetof theImperial Russian Army,assassinatedMoisey Uritskyon August 17, 1918, outside the Petrograd Cheka headquarters in retaliation for the execution of his friend and other officers.

Vladimir Pchelin's depiction of the assassination attempt on Lenin

On August 30, the SRFanny Kaplanunsuccessfullyattempted to assassinateLenin,who sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power.As a result of the failed attempt on Lenin's life, he began to crack down on his political enemies in an event known as theRed Terror.More broadly, the term is usually applied to Bolshevik political repression throughout the Civil War (1917–1922),

During interrogation by theCheka,she made the following statement:

My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured theConstituent Assemblyand am still for it.

Kaplan referenced the Bolsheviks' growing authoritarianism, citing their forcible shutdown of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, theelectionsto which they had lost. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she was executed inAlexander Garden.The order was carried out by the commander of the Kremlin, the former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov and a group of Latvian Bolshevikson September 3, 1918, with a bullet to the back of the head.Her corpse was bundled into a barrel and set alight. The order came fromYakov Sverdlov,who only six weeks earlier had ordered themurderof the Tsar and his family.

These events persuaded the government to heed Dzerzhinsky's lobbying for greater terror against opposition. The campaign of mass repressions would officially begin thereafter.The Red Terror is considered to have officially begun between 17 and 30 August 1918.

Revolts against grain requisitioning

Protests against grain requisitioning of the peasantry were a major component of theTambov Rebellionand similar uprisings; Lenin'sNew Economic Policywas introduced as a concession.

The policies of "food dictatorship" proclaimed by the Bolsheviks in May 1918 sparked violent resistance in numerous districts ofEuropean Russia:revolts and clashes between the peasants and theRed Armywere reported inVoronezh,Tambov,Penza,Saratovand in the districts ofKostroma,Moscow,Novgorod,Petrograd,PskovandSmolensk.The revolts were bloodily crushed by the Bolsheviks: in the Voronezh Oblast, the Red Guards killed sixteen peasants during the pacification of the village, while another village was shelled with artillery in order to force the peasants to surrender and in the Novgorod Oblast the rebelling peasants were dispersed with machine-gun fire from a train sent by a detachment of Latvian Red Army soldiers.While the Bolsheviks immediately denounced the rebellion as orchestrated by the SRs, there is actually no evidence that they were involved into peasant violence, which they deemed as counterproductive.

Allied intervention

Main article:Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War

The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks. They were worried about a possible Russo-German alliance, the prospect of the Bolsheviks making good on their threats to default on Imperial Russia's massiveforeign debtsand the possibility that Communist revolutionary ideas would spread (a concern shared by many Central Powers). Hence, many of the countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies.Winston Churchilldeclared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".The British and French had supportedRussia during World War Ion a massive scale with war materials.

After the treaty, it looked like much of that material would fall into the hands of the Germans. To meet that danger, theAllies intervenedwith Great Britain and France sending troops into Russian ports. There were violent clashes with the Bolsheviks. Britain intervened in support of the White forces to defeat the Bolsheviks and prevent the spread of communism across Europe.

Buffer states

Borders of the buffer states drawn by theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk

The German Empire created several short-livedbuffer stateswithin its sphere of influence after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: theUnited Baltic Duchy,Duchy of Courland and Semigallia,Kingdom of Lithuania,Kingdom of Poland,theBelarusian People's Republic,and theUkrainian State.Following Germany's Armistice in World War I in November 1918, the states were abolished.

Finland was the first republic thatdeclared its independence from Russiain December 1917 and established itself in the ensuingFinnish Civil Warbetween pro-independenceWhite Guardsand pro-Russian BolshevikRed Guardsfrom January–May 1918.TheSecond Polish Republic,Lithuania,LatviaandEstoniaformed their own armies immediately after the abolition of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the start of theSoviet westward offensiveand subsequentPolish-Soviet Warin November 1918.

Geography and chronology

Main articles:Southern Front of the Russian Civil War,North Russia Campaign,Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War,Yakut Revolt,andFinnish Civil War

In the European part of Russia the war was fought across three main fronts: the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into the following periods.

Anti-BolshevikVolunteer Armyin South Russia, January 1918

The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice, or roughly March 1917 to November 1918. Already on the date of the Revolution,CossackGeneralAlexey Kaledinrefused to recognize it and assumed full governmental authority in theDonregion,where theVolunteer Armybegan amassing support. The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk also resulted in direct Allied intervention in Russia and the arming of military forces opposed to the Bolshevik government. There were also many German commanders who offered support against the Bolsheviks, fearing a confrontation with them was impending as well.

During the first period, the Bolsheviks took control ofCentral Asiaout of the hands of the Provisional Government and White Army, setting up a base for the Communist Party in theSteppeandTurkestan,where nearly two million Russian settlers were located.

Most of the fighting in the first period was sporadic, involved only small groups and had a fluid and rapidly shifting strategic situation. Among the antagonists were the Czechoslovak Legion,the Poles of the4thand5th Rifle Divisionsand the pro-Bolshevik RedLatvian riflemen.

The second period of the war lasted from January to November 1919. At first the White armies' advances from the south (under Denikin), the east (under Kolchak) and the northwest (under Yudenich) were successful, forcing the Red Army and its allies back on all three fronts. In July 1919 the Red Army suffered another reverse after a mass defection of units in the Crimea to the anarchist Insurgent Army under Nestor Makhno, enabling anarchist forces to consolidate power in Ukraine. Leon Trotsky soon reformed the Red Army, concluding the first of two military alliances with the anarchists. In June the Red Army first checked Kolchak's advance. After a series of engagements, assisted by an Insurgent Army offensive against White supply lines, the Red Army defeated Denikin's and Yudenich's armies in October and November.

The third period of the war was the extended siege of the last White forces in theCrimeain 1920. GeneralWrangelhad gathered the remnants of Denikin's armies, occupying much of the Crimea. An attempted invasion of southern Ukraine was rebuffed by the Insurgent Army under Makhno's command. Pursued into Crimea by Makhno's troops, Wrangel went over to the defensive in the Crimea. After an abortive move north against the Red Army, Wrangel's troops were forced south by Red Army and Insurgent Army forces; Wrangel and the remains of his army were evacuated toConstantinoplein November 1920.

Warfare

October Revolution

Main article:October Revolution

European theatre of the Russian Civil War

In the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Party directed the Red Guard (armed groups of workers and Imperial army deserters) to seize control ofPetrogradand immediately began the armed takeover of cities and villages throughout the former Russian Empire. In January 1918 the Bolsheviks dissolved theRussian Constituent Assemblyand proclaimed the Soviets (workers' councils) as the new government of Russia.

Initial anti-Bolshevik uprisings

Main articles:Kerensky-Krasnov uprising,Junker mutiny,andVolunteer Army

The first attempt to regain power from the Bolsheviks was made by the Kerensky-Krasnov uprising in October 1917. It was supported by the Junker Mutiny in Petrograd but was quickly put down by the Red Guard, notably including the Latvian Rifle Division.

The initial groups that fought against the Communists were local Cossack armies that had declared their loyalty to the Provisional Government. Kaledin of theDon Cossacksand GeneralGrigory Semenovof theSiberian Cossackswere prominent among them. The leading Tsarist officers of the Imperial Russian Army also started to resist. In November, GeneralMikhail Alekseev,the Tsar's Chief of Staff during the First World War, began to organize the Volunteer Army inNovocherkassk.Volunteers of the small army were mostly officers of the old Russian army, military cadets and students. In December 1917, Alekseev was joined by General Lavr Kornilov, Denikin and other Tsarist officers who had escaped from the jail, where they had been imprisoned following the abortive Kornilov affair just before the Revolution.On 9 December, theMilitary Revolutionary CommitteeinRostovrebelled, with the Bolsheviks controlling the city for five days until the Alekseev Organization supported Kaledin in recapturing the city. According toPeter Kenez,"The operation, begun on December 9, can be regarded as the beginning of the Civil War."

Having stated in the November 1917 "Declaration of Rights of Nations of Russia"that any nation under imperial Russian rule should be immediately given the power of self-determination, the Bolsheviks had begun to usurp the power of the Provisional Government in the territories of Central Asia soon after the establishment of the Turkestan Committee in Tashkent.In April 1917 the Provisional Government set up the committee, which was mostly made up of former Tsarist officials.The Bolsheviks attempted to take control of the Committee in Tashkent on 12 September 1917 but it was unsuccessful, and many leaders were arrested. However, because the Committee lacked representation of the native population and poor Russian settlers, they had to release the Bolshevik prisoners almost immediately because of a public outcry, and a successful takeover of that government body took place two months later in November.The Leagues of Mohammedam Working People (which Russian settlers and natives who had been sent to work behind the lines for the Tsarist government in 1916 formed in March 1917) had led numerous strikes in the industrial centers throughout September 1917.However, after the Bolshevik destruction of the Provisional Government inTashkent,Muslim elites formed an autonomous government in Turkestan, commonly called the "Kokand autonomy" (or simplyKokand).The White Russians supported that government body, which lasted several months because of Bolshevik troop isolation from Moscow.In January 1918 the Soviet forces, under Lt. Col.Muravyov,invaded Ukraine and investedKiev,where theCentral Council of Ukraineheld power. With the help of theKiev Arsenal Uprising,the Bolshevikscaptured the cityon 26 January.

Peace with the Central Powers

Main article:Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Soviet delegation withTrotskygreeted by German officers at Brest-Litovsk, 8 January 1918

The Bolsheviks decided to immediately make peace with the Central Powers, as they had promised the Russian people before the Revolution.Vladimir Lenin's political enemies attributed that decision to his sponsorship by the Foreign Office ofWilhelm II, German Emperor,offered to Lenin in hope that, with a revolution, Russia would withdraw fromWorld War I.That suspicion was bolstered by the German Foreign Ministry's sponsorship of Lenin's return to Petrograd.However, after the military fiasco of the summer offensive (June 1917) by the Russian Provisional Government had devastated the structure of the Russian Army, it became crucial that Lenin realize the promised peace.Even before the failed summer offensive the Russian population was very skeptical about the continuation of the war. Western socialists had promptly arrived from France and from the UK to convince the Russians to continue the fight, but could not change the new pacifist mood of Russia.

On 16 December 1917 an armistice was signed between Russia and the Central Powers inBrest-Litovskand peace talks began.As a condition for peace, the proposed treaty by the Central Powers conceded huge portions of the former Russian Empire to the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire, greatly upsettingnationalistsandconservatives.Leon Trotsky, representing the Bolsheviks, refused at first to sign the treaty while continuing to observe a unilateral cease-fire, following the policy of "No war, no peace".

Therefore, on 18 February 1918, the Germans beganOperation Faustschlagon the Eastern Front, encountering virtually no resistance in a campaign that lasted 11 days.Signing a formal peace treaty was the only option in the eyes of the Bolsheviks because the Russian Army was demobilized, and the newly formed Red Guard could not stop the advance. They also understood that the impending counter-revolutionary resistance was more dangerous than the concessions of the treaty, which Lenin viewed as temporary in the light of aspirations for aworld revolution.The Soviets acceded to a peace treaty, and the formal agreement, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was ratified on 3 March. The Soviets viewed the treaty as merely a necessary and expedient means to end the war.

Ukraine, South Russia, and Caucasus (1918)

Main articles:Ukrainian People's Republic,Kiev Arsenal January Uprising,Ice March,26 Baku Commissars,German Caucasus Expedition,Battle of Baku,Central Caspian Dictatorship,andRomanian military intervention in Bessarabia

February 1918 article fromThe New York Timesshowing a map of the Russian Imperial territories claimed by theUkrainian People's Republicat the time, before the annexation of the Austro-Hungarian lands of theWest Ukrainian People's Republic

In Ukraine, the German-Austrian Operation Faustschlag had by April 1918 removed the Bolsheviks from Ukraine.The German and Austro-Hungarian victories in Ukraine were caused by the apathy of the locals and the inferior fighting skills of Bolsheviks troops to their Austro-Hungarian and German counterparts.

Under Soviet pressure, the Volunteer Army embarked on the epic Ice March fromYekaterinodartoKubanon 22 February 1918, where they joined with the Kuban Cossacks to mount an abortive assault on Yekaterinodar.The Soviets recaptured Rostov on the next day.Kornilov was killed in the fighting on 13 April, and Denikin took over command. Fighting off its pursuers without respite, the army succeeded in breaking its way through back towards the Don by May, where the Cossack uprising against the Bolsheviks had started.

The Baku Soviet Commune was established on 13 April. Germany landed its Caucasus Expedition troops inPotion 8 June. The OttomanArmy of Islam(in coalition withAzerbaijan) drove them out of Baku on 26 July 1918. Subsequently, theDashanaks,Right SRs andMensheviksstarted negotiations with Gen.Dunsterville,the commander of the British troops inPersia.The Bolsheviks and theirLeft SRallies were opposed to it, but on 25 July the majority of the Soviets voted to call in the British and the Bolsheviks resigned. The Baku Soviet Commune ended its existence and was replaced by the Central Caspian Dictatorship.

In June 1918 the Volunteer Army, numbering some 9,000 men, started itsSecond Kuban campaign,capturing Yekaterinodar on 16 August, followed byArmavirandStavropol.By early 1919, they controlled theNorthern Caucasus.

On 8 October, Alekseev died. On 8 January 1919, Denikin became the Supreme Commander of theArmed Forces of South Russia,uniting the Volunteer Army withPyotr Krasnov'sDon Army.Pyotr Wrangelbecame Denikin's Chief of Staff.

In December, three-fourths of the army was in the Northern Caucasus. That included three thousand ofVladimir Liakhov's soldiers aroundVladikavkaz,thirteen thousand soldiers under Wrangel and Kazanovich in the center of the front, Stankevich's almost three thousand men with the Don Cossacks, whileVladimir May-Mayevsky's three thousand were sent to theDonets basin,and de Bode commanded two thousand in Crimea.

Eastern Russia, Siberia and the Far East (1918)

Main articles:Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion,Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly,andProvisional All-Russian Government

The revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion broke out in May 1918, and proceeded to occupy theTrans-Siberian RailwayfromUfatoVladivostok.Uprisings overthrew other Bolshevik towns. On 7 July, the western portion of the legion declared itself to be a new eastern front, anticipating allied intervention. According toWilliam Henry Chamberlin,"Two governments emerged as a result of the first successes of the Czechs: theWest Siberian Commissariatand the Government of theCommittee of Members of the Constituent Assemblyin Samara. "On 17 July, shortly before the fall ofYekaterinburg,the former tsar and his family weremurdered.

Czechoslovak legionaries of the 8th Regiment atNikolsk-Ussuriyskykilled by Bolsheviks, 1918. Above them stand also members of the Czechoslovak Legion.

The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries supportedpeasantsfighting against Soviet control of food supplies.In May 1918, with the support of the Czechoslovak Legion, they tookSamaraandSaratov,establishing theCommittee of Members of the Constituent Assembly—known as the "Komuch". By July the authority of the Komuch extended over much of the area controlled by the Czechoslovak Legion. The Komuch pursued an ambivalent social policy, combining democratic and socialist measures, such as the institution of aneight-hour working day,with "restorative" actions, such as returning both factories and land to their former owners. After the fall ofKazan,Vladimir Lenin called for the dispatch of Petrograd workers to the Kazan Front: "We must send down themaximumnumber of Petrograd workers: (1) a few dozen 'leaders' likeKayurov;(2) a few thousand militants 'from the ranks' ".

After a series of reverses at the front, the Bolsheviks' War Commissar, Trotsky, instituted increasingly harsh measures in order to prevent unauthorised withdrawals, desertions, and mutinies in the Red Army. In the field, the Cheka Special Investigations Forces (termed theSpecial Punitive Department of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combat of Counter-Revolution and SabotageorSpecial Punitive Brigades) followed the Red Army, conducting field tribunals and summary executions of soldiers and officers who deserted, retreated from their positions, or failed to display sufficient offensive zeal.The Cheka Special Investigations Forces were also charged with the detection of sabotage and counter-revolutionary activity by Red Army soldiers and commanders. Trotsky extended the use of the death penalty to the occasional political commissar whose detachment retreated or broke in the face of the enemy.In August, frustrated at continued reports of Red Army troops breaking under fire, Trotsky authorised the formation ofbarrier troops– stationed behind unreliable Red Army units and given orders to shoot anyone withdrawing from the battle line without authorisation.

AdmiralAlexander Kolchakreviewing the troops, 1919

In September 1918, the Komuch, the Siberian Provisional Government, and other anti-Bolshevik Russians agreed during theState Meeting in Ufato form a newProvisional All-Russian Governmentin Omsk, headed by a Directory of five: twoSocialist-Revolutionaries.Nikolai AvksentievandVladimir Zenzinov,theKadetlawyer V. A. Vinogradov, Siberian Premier Vologodskii, and GeneralVasily Boldyrev.

By the fall of 1918, anti-Bolshevik White forces in the east included the People's Army (Komuch), the Siberian Army (of the Siberian Provisional Government) and insurgent Cossack units of Orenburg, the Urals, Siberia, Semirechye, Baikal, and Amur and Ussuri Cossacks, nominally under the orders of Gen. V.G. Boldyrev, Commander-in-Chief, appointed by the Ufa Directorate.

On the Volga, Col.Kappel's White detachment captured Kazan on 7 August, but Red Forces recaptured the city on 8 September 1918 following a counteroffensive. On the 11thSimbirskfell, and on 8 OctoberSamara.The Whites fell back eastwards to Ufa and Orenburg.

In Omsk, the Russian Provisional Government quickly came under the influence and later the dominance of its new War Minister, the rear-admiralKolchak.On 18 November, acoup d'étatestablished Kolchak as supreme leader. Two members of the Directory were arrested, and subsequently deported, while Kolchak was proclaimed "Supreme Ruler", and "Commander-in-Chief of all Land and Naval Forces of Russia."By mid-December 1918, the White armies had to leave Ufa, but they balanced that failure with a successful drive towardsPerm,which they took on 24 December.

Barrier troops

In the Red Army, the concept of barrier troops first arose in August 1918 with the formation of the заградительные отряды (zagraditelnye otriady), translated as "blocking troops" or "anti-retreat detachments" (Russian:заградотряды, заградительные отряды, отряды заграждения).The barrier troops comprised personnel drawn from the Cheka punitive detachments or from regular Red Army infantry regiments.

The first use of the barrier troops by the Red Army occurred in the late summer and fall of 1918 in theEastern frontduring the Russian Civil War, when Leon Trotsky authorizedMikhail Tukhachevsky,the commander of the1st Army,to station blocking detachments behind unreliable Red Army infantry regiments in the 1st Red Army, with orders to shoot if front-line troops either deserted or retreated without permission.

In December 1918, Trotsky ordered that detachments of additional barrier troops be raised for attachment to each infantry formation in the Red Army. On December 18 he cabled:

How do things stand with the blocking units? As far as I am aware they have not been included in our establishment and it appears they have no personnel. It is absolutely essential that we have at least an embryonic network of blocking units and that we work out a procedure for bringing them up to strength and deploying them.

In 1919, 616 "hardcore" deserters of the total 837,000 draft dodgers and deserters were executed following Trotsky's draconian measures.According to Figes, "a majority of deserters (most registered as" weak-willed ") were handed back to the military authorities, and formed into units for transfer to one of the rear armies or directly to the front". Even those registered as "malicious" deserters were returned to the ranks when the demand for reinforcements became desperate ". Forges also noted that the Red Army institutedamnestyweeks to prohibit punitive measures against desertion which encouraged the voluntary return of 98,000-132,000 deserters to the army.

The barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army as part of Lenin'swar communismpolicies, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population. These policies in part led to theRussian famine of 1921–1922,which killed about five million people.However, the famine was preceded by badharvests,harsh winter,droughtespecially in theVolga Valleywhich was exacerbated by a range of factors including the war, the presence of the White Army and the methods of war communism.The outbreaks of diseases such ascholeraandtyphuswere also contributing factors to the famine casualties.

Central Asia (1918)

London Geographical Institute's 1919 map ofEuropeafter Brest-Litovsk andBatumand before thetreaties of Tartu,Kars,andRiga

In February 1918, the Red Army overthrew the White Russian-supported Kokand Autonomy of Turkestan.Although that move seemed to solidify Bolshevik power in Central Asia, more troubles soon arose for the Red Army as the Allied Forces began to intervene. British support of the White Army provided the greatest threat to the Red Army in Central Asia during 1918. Britain sent three prominent military leaders to the area. One was Lieutenant ColonelFrederick Marshman Baile,who recorded a mission to Tashkent, from where the Bolsheviks forced him to flee. Another was GeneralWilfrid Malleson,leading theMalleson Mission,who assisted the Mensheviks in Ashkhabad (now the capital of Turkmenistan) with a small Anglo-Indian force. However, he failed to gain control of Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva. The third was Major General Dunsterville, who was driven out by the Bolsheviks of Central Asia only a month after his arrival in August 1918.Despite setbacks as a result of British invasions during 1918, the Bolsheviks continued to make progress in bringing the Central Asian population under their influence. The first regional congress of the Russian Communist Party convened in the city of Tashkent in June 1918 in order to build support for a local Bolshevik Party.

Left SR Uprising

Main articles:Left SR uprisingandYaroslavl Uprising

On 6 July 1918, twoLeft Socialist-Revolutionariesand Cheka employees,Yakov Blumkinand Nikolai Andreyev, assassinated the German ambassador, CountMirbach.In Moscow aLeft SR uprisingwas put down by the Bolsheviks, mass arrests of Socialist-Revolutionaries followed, and executions became more frequent. Chamberlin noted, "The time of relative leniency toward former fellow-revolutionists was over. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries, of course, were no longer tolerated as members of the Soviets; from this time the Soviet regime became a pure and undiluted dictatorship of the Communist Party." Similarly,Boris Savinkov's surprise attacks were suppressed, with many of the conspirators being executed, as "Mass Red Terror" became a reality.

Estonia, Latvia and Petrograd

Main articles:Estonian War of Independence,Latvian War of Independence,andBattle of Petrograd

Estoniacleared its territoryof the Red Army by January 1919.Baltic German volunteerscapturedRigafrom the RedLatvian Riflemenon 22 May, but the Estonian 3rd Divisiondefeatedthe Baltic Germans a month later, aiding the establishment of theRepublic of Latvia.

GeneralNikolai Yudenich

That rendered possible another threat to the Red Army, from General Yudenich, who had spent the summer organizing the Northwestern Army in Estonia with local and British support. In October 1919, he tried to capture Petrograd in a sudden assault with a force of around 20,000 men. The attack was well-executed, using night attacks and lightning cavalry maneuvers to turn the flanks of the defending Red Army. Yudenich also had six British tanks, which caused panic whenever they appeared. The Allies gave large quantities of aid to Yudenich, but he complained of receiving insufficient support.

By 19 October, Yudenich's troops had reached the outskirts of the city. Some members of the Bolshevik central committee in Moscow were willing to give up Petrograd, but Trotsky refused to accept the loss of the city and personally organized its defenses. Trotsky himself declared, "It is impossible for a little army of 15,000 ex-officers to master a working-class capital of 700,000 inhabitants." He settled on a strategy of urban defense, proclaiming that the city would "defend itself on its own ground" and that the White Army would be lost in a labyrinth of fortified streets and there "meet its grave".

Trotsky armed all available workers, men and women, and ordered the transfer of military forces from Moscow. Within a few weeks, the Red Army defending Petrograd had tripled in size and outnumbered Yudenich three to one. Yudenich, short of supplies, then decided to call off the siege of the city and withdrew. He repeatedly asked permission to withdraw his army across the border to Estonia. However, units retreating across the border were disarmed and interned by orders of the Estonian government, which had entered into peace negotiations with the Soviet Government on 16 September and had been informed by the Soviet authorities of their 6 November decision that if the White Army was allowed to retreat into Estonia, it would be pursued across the border by the Reds.In fact, the Reds attacked Estonian army positions and fighting continued until a ceasefire went into effect on 3 January 1920. After theTreaty of Tartu,most of Yudenich's soldiers went into exile. Former Imperial Russian and then Finnish GeneralMannerheimplanned an intervention to help the Whites in Russia capture Petrograd. However, he did not gain the necessary support for the endeavour. Lenin considered it "completely certain, that the slightest aid from Finland would have determined the fate of [the city]".

Northern Russia (1919)

Main article:North Russia intervention

The British occupiedMurmanskand seizedArkhangelskalongside United States forces. With the retreat of Kolchak in Siberia, they pulled their troops out of the cities before the winter trapped them in the port. The remaining White forces underYevgeny Millerevacuated the region in February 1920.

Siberia (1919)

Russian soldiers of the anti-BolshevikSiberian Armyin 1919

At the beginning of March 1919, the general offensive of the Whites on the eastern front began. Ufa was retaken on 13 March; by mid-April, the White Army stopped at theGlazov–Chistopol–Bugulma–Buguruslan–Sharlyk line. Reds started theircounteroffensive against Kolchak's forcesat the end of April. The Red 5th Army, led by the capable commanderTukhachevsky,capturedElabugaon 26 May,Sarapulon 2 June andIzevskon the 7th and continued to push forward. Both sides had victories and losses, but by the middle of summer the Red Army was larger than the White Army and had managed to recapture territory previously lost.

Following the abortive offensive at Chelyabinsk, the White armies withdrew beyond theTobol.In September 1919 a White offensive was launched against the Tobol Front, the last attempt to change the course of events. However, on 14 October the Reds counterattacked, and thus began the uninterruptedretreat of the Whites to the east.On 14 November 1919 the Red Army captured Omsk.Adm. Kolchak lost control of his government shortly after the defeat; White Army forces in Siberia had essentially ceased to exist by December. Retreat of the eastern front by White armies lasted three months, until mid-February 1920, when the survivors, after crossing Lake Baikal, reached theChitaarea and joinedAtaman Semenov's forces.

South Russia (1919)

Anti-Bolshevik propaganda poster "For united Russia" representing Soviet Russia as a fallen communist dragon and the White Cause as a crusading knight

PolonophobicSoviet propaganda poster, 1920

The Cossacks had been unable to organise and capitalise on their successes at the end of 1918. By 1919 they had begun to run short of supplies. Consequently, when the Soviet Russian counteroffensive began in January 1919 under the Bolshevik commanderAntonov-Ovseenko,the Cossack forces rapidly fell apart. The Red Army captured Kiev on 3 February 1919.

Denikin's military strength continued to grow in 1919, with significant munitions supplied by the British. In January, Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) completed the elimination of Red forces in the northern Caucasus and moved north, in an effort toprotect the Don district.

On 18 December 1918, French forces landed inOdessaand Crimea, but evacuated Odessa on 6 April 1919, and the Crimea by the end of the month. According to Chamberlin, "France gave far less practical aid to the Whites than did England; its sole independent venture in intervention, at Odessa, ended in a complete fiasco."

Denikin then reorganized the Armed Forces of South Russia under the leadership ofVladimir May-Mayevsky,Vladimir Sidorin,andPyotr Wrangel.On 22 May, Wrangel's Caucasian army defeated the10th Army (RSFSR)in the battle forVelikoknyazheskaya,and then captured Tsaritsyn on 1 July. Sidorin advanced north towardVoronezh,increasing his army's strength in the process. On 25 June, May–Mayevsky capturedKharkov,and thenEkaterinoslavon 30 June, which forced the Reds to abandon Crimea. On 3 July, Denikin issued hisMoscow directive,in which his armies would converge on Moscow.

Although Britain had withdrawn its own troops from the theatre, it continued to give significant military aid (money, weapons, food, ammunition and some military advisers) to the White Armies during 1919. MajorEwen Cameron Bruceof the British Army had volunteered to command a British tank mission assisting the White Army. He was awarded theDistinguished Service Orderfor his bravery during the June 1919Battle of Tsaritsynfor single-handedly storming and capturing the fortified city of Tsaritsyn, under heavy shell fire in a single tank, which led to the capture of over 40,000 prisoners.The fall of Tsaritsyn is viewed "as one of the key battles of the Russian Civil War" and greatly helped the White Russian cause.The notable historianSir Basil Henry Liddell Hartcomments that Bruce's tank action during the battle is to be seen as "one of the most remarkable feats in the whole history of the Tank Corps".

On 14 August, the Bolsheviks launched theirSouthern Front counteroffensive.After six weeks of heavy fighting the counteroffensive failed, and Denikin was able to capture more territory. By November, White Forces had reached theZbruch,the Ukrainian-Polish border.

GeneralPyotr WrangelinTsaritsyn,15 October 1919

Denikin's forces constituted a real threat and for a time threatened to reach Moscow. The Red Army, stretched thin by fighting on all fronts, was forced out of Kiev on 30 August.KurskandOrelwere taken, on 20 September and 14 October, respectively. The latter, only 205 miles (330 km) from Moscow, was the closest the AFSR would come to its target.The CossackDon Armyunder the command of GeneralVladimir Sidorincontinued north towardsVoronezh,butSemyon Budyonny's cavalrymen defeated them there on 24 October. That allowed the Red Army to cross theDon River,threatening to split the Don and Volunteer Armies. Fierce fighting took place at the key rail junction of Kastornoye, which was taken on 15 November. Kursk was retaken two days later.

Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge,a famous BolshevikConstructivistpropaganda poster byEl Lissitzky,which abstractly represents the defeat of the Whites by the Red Army

Kenez states, "In October Denikin ruled more than forty million people and controlled the economically most valuable parts of the Russian Empire." Yet, "The White armies, which had fought victoriously during the summer and early fall, fell back in disorder in November and December." Denikin's front line was overstretched, while his reserves dealt with Makhno's anarchists in the rear. Between September and October, the Reds mobilized one hundred thousand new soldiers and adopted the Trotsky-Vatsetisstrategy with the Ninth and Tenth armies forming V. I. Shorin's Southeastern Front between Tsaritsyn and Bobrov, while the Eighth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth armies formedA.I. Egorov's Southern Front between Zhitomir and Bobrov.Sergey Kamenevwas in overall command of the two fronts. On Denikin's left wasAbram Dragomirov,while in his center wasVladimir May-Mayevsky's Volunteer Army,Vladimir Sidorin's Don Cossacks were further east, withPyotr Wrangel's Caucasian army at Tsaritsyn, and an additional was in the Northern Caucasus attempting to capture Astrakhan. On 20 October, May–Mayevsky was forced to evacuate Orel during theOrel-Kursk operation.On 24 October,Semyon Budyonnycaptured Voronezh, and Kursk on 15 November, during theVoronezh-Kastornoye operation (1919).On 6 January, the Reds reached the Black Sea at Mariupol and Taganrog, and on 9 January, they reached Rostov. According to Kenez, "The Whites had now lost all the territories which they had captured in 1919, and held approximately the same area in which they had started two years before."

Central Asia (1919)

By February 1919 the British government had pulled its military forces out of Central Asia.Despite the success for the Red Army, the White Army's assaults in European Russia and other areas broke communication between Moscow and Tashkent. For a time, Central Asia was completely cut off from Red Army forces in Siberia.Although the communication failure weakened the Red Army, the Bolsheviks continued their efforts to gain support for the Bolshevik Party in Central Asia by holding a second regional conference in March. During the conference, a regional bureau of Muslim organisations of the Russian Bolshevik Party was formed. The Bolshevik Party continued to try to gain support among the native population by giving it the impression of better representation for the Central Asian population and throughout the end of the year could maintain harmony with the Central Asian people.

Communication difficulties with Red Army forces in Siberia and European Russia ceased to be a problem by mid-November 1919. Red Army successes north of Central Asia caused communication with Moscow to be re-established and the Bolsheviks to claim victory over the White Army in Turkestan.

In the Ural-Guryev operation of 1919–1920, the RedTurkestan Frontdefeated theUral Army.During winter 1920,Ural Cossacksand their families, totaling about 15,000 people, headed south along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea towardsFort Alexandrovsk.Only a few hundred of them reached Persia in June 1920.TheOrenburg Independent Armywas formed fromOrenburg Cossacksand other troops who rebelled against the Bolsheviks. During the winter 1919–20, the Orenburg Army retreated toSemirechyein what is known as theStarving March,as half of the participants perished.In March 1920 her remnants crossed the border into the Northwestern region of China.

South Russia, Ukraine and Kronstadt (1920–21)

Polish anti-Soviet poster depictingLev Trotsky.

At the beginning of 1920, Denikin was reduced to defending Novorossia, the Crimean peninsula, and the Northern Caucasus. On 26 January, the Caucasian army retreated beyond theManych.On 7 February, the Reds occupied Odessa, but thenMakhno's anarchistsstarted fighting the Fourteenth Red Army. On 20 February, Denikin succeeded in recapturing Rostov, his last victory, before giving it up soon after.

By the beginning of 1920, the main body of the Armed Forces of South Russia was rapidly retreating towards the Don, to Rostov. Denikin hoped to hold the crossings of the Don, then rest and reform his troops, but the White Army was not able to hold the Don area, and at the end of February 1920 started a retreat across Kuban towardsNovorossiysk.Slipshodevacuation of Novorossiyskproved to be a dark event for the White Army. Russian and Allied ships evacuated about 40,000 of Denikin's men from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, without horses or any heavy equipment, while about 20,000 men were left behind and either dispersed or were captured by the Red Army. Following the disastrous Novorossiysk evacuation, Denikin stepped down and the military council elected Wrangel as the new Commander-in-Chief of the White Army. He was able to restore order to the dispirited troops and reshape an army that could fight as a regular force again. It remained an organized force in the Crimea throughout 1920.

TheTambov Rebellionwas one of the largest and best-organisedpeasant rebellionschallenging the Bolshevik regime

After Moscow's Bolshevik government signed amilitary and political alliancewithNestor Makhnoand theUkrainian anarchists,theInsurgent Armyattacked and defeated several regiments of Wrangel's troops in southern Ukraine, forcing him to retreat before he could capture that year's grain harvest.

Stymied in his efforts to consolidate his hold, Wrangel then attacked north in an attempt to take advantage of recent Red Army defeats at the close of thePolish–Soviet Warof 1919–1920. The Red Army eventually halted the offensive, and Wrangel's troops had to retreat toCrimea in November 1920,pursued by both the Red and Black cavalry and infantry.Wrangel's fleetevacuatedhim and his army to Constantinopleon 14 November 1920, ending the struggle of Reds and Whites in Southern Russia.

After the defeat of Wrangel, the Red Army immediately repudiated its 1920 treaty of alliance with Nestor Makhno and attacked the anarchist Insurgent Army; thecampaign to liquidate Makhno and the Ukrainian anarchistsbegan with an attempted assassination of Makhno by Cheka agents. Anger at continued repression by the Bolshevik Communist government and at its liberal use of the Cheka to put down anarchist elements led to anaval mutiny at Kronstadtin March 1921, followed by peasant revolts – all of which were put down by the Bolsheviks. The outset of the year was marked by strikes and demonstrations – in both Moscow and Petrograd, as well as the countryside – due to discontent with the results of policies that made upwar communism.The Bolsheviks, in response to the protests, enacted martial law and sent the Red Army to disperse the workers.This was followed up by mass arrests executed by theCheka.Repression and minor concessions only temporarily quelled the discontent as Petrograd protests continued that year in March. This time the factory workers were joined by sailors stationed on the nearby island-fort of Kronstadt.Disappointed in the direction of the Bolshevik government, the rebels demanded a series of reforms including: reduction in Bolshevik privileges, newly electedsovietsto include socialist and anarchist groups, economic freedom for peasants and workers, dissolution of the bureaucratic governmental organs created during the civil war, and the restoration of worker rights for the working class.The workers and sailors of the Kronstadt rebellion were promptly crushed by Red Army forces, with a thousand rebels killed in battle and another thousand executed the following weeks, with many more fleeing abroad and to the countryside.These events coincided with the10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).There, Lenin argued that the soviets and the principle ofdemocratic centralismwithin the Bolshevik party still assured democracy. However, faced with support for Kronstadt within Bolshevik ranks, Lenin also issued a "temporary"ban on factions in the Russian Communist Party.This ban remained until therevolutions of 1989and, according to some critics, made the democratic procedures within the party an empty formality, and helped Stalin to consolidate much more authority under the party. Soviets were transformed into the bureaucratic structure that existed for the rest of the history of the Soviet Union and were completely under the control of party officials and thepolitburo.Red Army attacks on the anarchist forces and their sympathisers increased in ferocity throughout 1921.

Siberia and the Far East (1920–22)

Main article:Far Eastern Front in the Russian Civil War

In Siberia, Admiral Kolchak's army had disintegrated. He himself gave up command after the loss of Omsk and designated Gen.Grigory Semyonovas the new leader of the White Army in Siberia. Not long afterward, Kolchak was arrested by the disaffected Czechoslovak Legion as he traveled towardsIrkutskwithout the protection of the army and was turned over to the socialistPolitical Centrein Irkutsk. Six days later, the regime was replaced by a Bolshevik-dominated Military-Revolutionary Committee. On 6–7 February Kolchak and his prime minister Victor Pepelyaev were shot, and their bodies were thrown through the ice of the frozen Angara River, just before the arrival of the White Army in the area.

Remnants of Kolchak's army reachedTransbaikaliaand joined Semyonov's troops, forming the Far Eastern army. With the support of the Japanese army, it was able to hold Chita, but after the withdrawal of Japanese soldiers from Transbaikalia, Semenov's position became untenable and in November 1920 he was driven by the Red Army from Transbaikalia and took refuge in China. The Japanese, who had plans to annex theAmur Krai,finally pulled their troops out as Bolshevik forces gradually asserted control over the Russian Far East. On 25 October 1922 Vladivostok fell to the Red Army, and theProvisional Priamur Governmentwas extinguished.

Aftermath

A map of Europe in 1923 after the Russian Civil War, among otherrevolutions.

With the end of the war, theCommunist Party of the Soviet Unionno longer faced an acute military threat to its existence and power. However, the perceived threat of continued popular discontent, combined with the failure of socialist revolutions in other countries—most notably theGerman Revolution—contributed to the continued militarization of Soviet society.

The Bolsheviks managed to consolidate control overRussia,but were only partially successful at re-establishing territorial control of the other provinces of the formerRussian Empire.ThePeace of Riga,signed in March 1921 after thePolish–Soviet War,split the territories inBelarusandUkrainebetween theRepublic of Polandand Soviet Russia.Estonia,Finland,Latvia,andLithuaniaall repelled Soviet invasions, whileArmenia,AzerbaijanandGeorgiawere occupied by the Red Army.

Evacuations

Main article:White émigré

See also:Evacuation of Novorossiysk (1920)andEvacuation of the Crimea

Refugees onflatcars

Around one to two million people known as theWhite émigrésfled Russia, many with General Wrangel, some through the Far East and others west into the newly independent Baltic countries. The émigrés included a large percentage of the educated and skilled population of Russia.

Ensuing rebellion

In Central Asia, Red Army troops continued to face resistance into 1923, wherebasmachi(armed bands of Islamic guerrillas) had formed to fight the Bolshevik takeover. The Soviets engaged non-Russian peoples in Central Asia, likeMagaza Masanchi,commander of the Dungan Cavalry Regiment, to fight against the Basmachis. The Communist Party did not completely dismantle the group until 1934.

GeneralAnatoly Pepelyayevcontinued armed resistancein theAyano-Maysky Districtuntil June 1923. The regions ofKamchatkaand NorthernSakhalinremained under Japanese occupation until theirtreatywith the Soviet Union in 1925, when their forces were finally withdrawn.

Casualties

Street children during the Russian Civil War

See also:Red Terror (Russia)andWhite Terror (Russia)

The results of the civil war were momentous. Soviet demographer Boris Urlanis estimated that 300,000 men were killed in action during the Civil War and Polish-Soviet War – 125,000 in the Red Army, 175,500 White armies and Poles – and the total number of military personnel from both sides dead from disease as 450,000.Boris Sennikov estimated the total losses among the population ofTambov regionin 1920 to 1922 resulting from the war, executions, and imprisonment in concentration camps as approximately 240,000.By 1922, there were at least 7,000,000street childrenin Russia as a result of nearly ten years of devastation from World War I and the civil war.

At the end of the Civil War the Russian SFSR was exhausted and near ruin. The droughts of 1920 and 1921, as well as theRussian famine of 1921,worsened the disaster still further, killing roughly 5 million people. Disease had reached pandemic proportions, with 3,000,000 dying oftyphusthroughout the war. Millions more also died of widespread starvation, wholesale massacres by both sides andpogroms against Jews in Ukraine and southern Russia.

Civilian casualties

Victims of theRussian famine of 1921

As many as 10 million people died as a result of the Russian Civil War, and the overwhelming majority of these were civilian casualties.There is no consensus among the Western historians on the number of deaths from the Red Terror. One source gives estimates of 28,000 executions per year from December 1917 to February 1922.Estimates for the number of people shot during the initial period of the Red Terror are at least 10,000.Estimates for the whole period go for a low of 50,000to highs of 140,000and 200,000 executed.Most estimations for the number of executions in total put the number at about 100,000.According to Vadim Erlikhman's investigation, the number of the Red Terror's victims is at least 1,200,000 people.According toRobert Conquest,a total of 140,000 people were shot in 1917–1922, but Jonathan D. Smele estimates they were considerably fewer, "perhaps less than half that many".Candidate of Historical Sciences Nikolay Zayats states that the number of people shot by the Cheka in 1918–1922 is about 37,300 people, shot in 1918–1921 by the verdicts of the tribunals — 14,200, i.e. about 50,000–55,000 people in total, although executions and atrocities were not limited to the Cheka, having been organized by the Red Army as well.In 1924, an anti-BolshevikPopular SocialistSergei Melgunov(1879–1956) published a detailed account on the Red Terror in Russia, where he cited ProfessorCharles Saroléa's estimates of 1,766,188 deaths from the Bolshevik policies. He questioned the accuracy of the figures, but endorsed Saroléa's "chracterisation of terror in Russia", stating it matches reality.Modern historian Sergei Volkov, assessing the Red Terror as the entire repressive policy of the Bolsheviks during the years of the Civil War (1917–1922), estimates the direct death toll of the Red Terror at 2 million people.Volkov's calculations, however, do not appear to have been confirmed by other major scholars.

Ethnic violence

See also:Pogroms during the Russian Civil War

Victims of a pogrom perpetrated by Ukrainian forces in Khodorkiv, 1919

Some 10,000–500,000Cossackswere killed or deported duringDecossackization,out of a population of around three million.An estimated 100,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine.Punitive organs of the All Great Don Cossack Host sentenced 25,000 people to death between May 1918 and January 1919.Kolchak's government shot 25,000 people in Ekaterinburg province alone.The White Terror, as it would become known, killed about 300,000 people in total.

Economic Impact

The civil war had a devastating impact on the Russian economy. Ablack marketemerged in Russia, despite the threat ofmartial lawagainst profiteering. Therublecollapsed, with barter increasingly replacing money as a medium of exchangeand, by 1921, heavy industry output had fallen to 20% of 1913 levels. 90% of wages were paid with goods rather than money.70% of locomotives were in need of repair,and food requisitioning, combined with the effects of seven years of war and a severe drought, contributed to a famine that caused between 3 and 10 million deaths.Coal production decreased from 27.5 million tons (1913) to 7 million tons (1920), while overall factory production also declined from 10,000 million roubles to 1,000 million roubles. According to the noted historian David Christian, the grain harvest was also slashed from 80.1 million tons (1913) to 46.5 million tons (1920).

War communism saved the Soviet government during the Civil War, but much of the Russian economy had ground to a standstill. Some peasants responded tofood requisitionsby refusing to till the land. By 1921, cultivated land had shrunk to 62% of the pre-war area, and the harvest yield was only about 37% of normal. The number of horses declined from 35 million in 1916 to 24 million in 1920 and cattle from 58 to 37 million. The exchange rate with the US dollar declined from tworoublesin 1914 to 1,200 Rbls in 1920. Although Russia experienced extremely rapid economic growthin the 1930s, the combined effect of World War I and the Civil War left a lasting scar on Russian society and had permanent effects on the development of the Soviet Union.

Political impact

Main article:Revolutions of 1917-1923

See also:Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

The complete failure of theCommunist International-inspired revolutions was a sobering experience in Moscow, and the Bolsheviks moved fromworld revolutiontosocialism in one country,theSoviet Union.

TheTreaty of Rapallo (1922)was an agreement signed on 16 April 1922 between theWeimar Republicand Soviet Union, under which both renounced all territorial and financial claims against each other and opened friendly diplomatic relations.

In fiction

Literature

• The Road to Calvary(1922–41) byAleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
• Chapaev(1923) byDmitri Furmanov
• The Iron Flood(1924) byAlexander Serafimovich
• Red Cavalry(1926) byIsaac Babel
• The Rout(1927) byAlexander Fadeyev
• Conquered City(1932) byVictor Serge
• Futility(1922) byWilliam Gerhardie
• How the Steel Was Tempered(1934) byNikolai Ostrovsky
• Optimistic Tragedy(1934) byVsevolod Vishnevsky
• And Quiet Flows the Don(1928–1940) byMikhail Sholokhov
• The Don Flows Home to the Sea(1940) byMikhail Sholokhov
• Doctor Zhivago(1957) byBoris Pasternak
• Holidays in Caucasus(1965) byMaria Iordanidou
• The White Guard(1966) byMikhail Bulgakov
• Byzantium Endures(1981) byMichael Moorcock
• Chevengur(written in 1927, first published in 1988 in the USSR) byAndrei Platonov.
• Fall of Giants(2010) byKen Follett
• A Splendid Little War(2012) byDerek Robinson (novelist)

Film

• Arsenal(1928)
• Storm Over Asia(1928)
• Chapaev(1934)
• Thirteen(1936), directed byMikhail Romm
• We Are from Kronstadt(1936), directed byYefim Dzigan
• Knight Without Armour(1937)
• The Year 1919(1938), directed byIlya Trauberg
• The Baltic Marines(1939), directed by A. Faintsimmer
• Shchors(1939), directed by Dovzhenko
• Pavel Korchagin(1956), directed by A. Alov and V. Naumov
• The Forty-First(1956), directed byGrigori Chukhrai
• The Communist (film)(1957), directed byYuli Raizman
• And Quiet Flows the Don(1958), directed bySergei Gerasimov
• Doctor Zhivago(1965), directed byDavid Lean
• The Elusive Avengers(1966)
• The Red and the White(1967)
• White Sun of the Desert(1970)
• The Flight(1970), directed by A. Alov and V. Naumov
• Reds(1981), directed byWarren Beatty
• Corto Maltese in Siberia(2002)
• Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno(2005/2007)
• Admiral(2008)
• Sunstroke(2014), directed byNikita Mikhalkov

Video games

• Last Train Home (video game)(2023)
• Battlefield 1 In the Name of the Tsar(2017)

See also

• Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
• Index of articles related to the Russian Revolution and Civil War
• Nikolayevsk incident
• Revolutionary Mass Festivals
• Timeline of the Russian Civil War
• Pro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War

References

Bibliography

See also:Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War

• Allworth, Edward (1967).Central Asia: A Century of Russian Rule.New York: Columbia University Press.OCLC396652.
• Avrich, Paul(1970).Kronstadt, 1921.Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-08721-0.
  • Kronstadt, 1921(in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Libros de Anarres. 2004.ISBN9-872-08753-9.
• Andrew, Christopher; Mitrokhin, Vasili (1999).The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB.New York: Basic. p.28.ISBN978-0-465-00312-9.
• Bullock, David (2008).The Russian Civil War 1918–22.Oxford: Osprey.ISBN978-1-846-03271-4.Retrieved26 December2017.
• Calder, Kenneth J. (1976).Britain and the Origins of the New Europe 1914–1918.International Studies. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-20897-0.Retrieved6 October2017.
• Carr, E. H. (1985).The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923.W. W. Norton.ISBN978-0-393-30195-3.
• Chamberlin, William (1935).The Russian Revolution, 1917–1921.Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan.
  • The Russian Revolution, Volume II: 1918–1921: From the Civil War to the Consolidation of Power.Vol. 2. Princeton University Press. 1987 [1935].ISBN978-1-400-85870-5.Retrieved27 December2017– viaProject MUSE.
• Coates, W. P.;Coates, Zelda K.(1951).Soviets in Central Asia.New York: Philosophical Library.OCLC1533874.
• Daniels, Robert V. (1993).A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev.Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.ISBN978-0-874-51616-6.
• ——— (December 1951). "The Kronstadt Revolt of 1921: A Study in the Dynamics of Revolution".American Slavic and East European Review.10(4): 241–254.ISSN1049-7544.JSTOR2492031.
• Eidintas, Alfonsas; Žalys, Vytautas; Senn, Alfred Erich (1999).Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918–1940(Paperback ed.). New York: St. Martin's.ISBN0-312-22458-3.
• Erickson, John. (1984).The Soviet High Command: A Military-Political History, 1918–1941: A Military Political History, 1918–1941.Westview.ISBN978-0-367-29600-1.
• Figes, Orlando (1997).A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution.New York: Viking.ISBN978-0-670-85916-0.
• Gellately, Robert(2007).Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe.New York: Knopf.ISBN978-1-400-04005-6.
• Goldstein, Erik (2013).The First World War Peace Settlements, 1919–1925.London: Routledge.ISBN978-1-317-883-678.
• Graziosi, Andrea (2007).L'URSS di Lenin e Stalin. Storia dell'Unione Sovietica 1914–1945[The USSR of Lenin and Stalin. History of the Soviet Union 1914–1945] (in Italian). Bologna: il Mulino.ISBN978-8-815-13786-9.
• Grebenkin, I. N. (2017). "The Disintegration of the Russian Army in 1917: Factors and Actors in the Process".Russian Studies in History.56(3): 172–187.doi:10.1080/10611983.2017.1392213.S2CID158643095.
• Hall, Richard C. (2015).Consumed by War: European Conflict in the 20th Century.Le xing ton: University Press of Kentucky.ISBN978-0-813-15995-9.
• Haupt, Georges & Marie, Jean-Jacques (1974).Makers of the Russian revolution.London: George Allen & Unwin.ISBN978-0-801-40809-0.
• Holquist, Peter (2002).Making War, Forging Revolution: Russia's Continuum of Crisis, 1914–1921.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-00907-X.
• Kenez, Peter(1977).Civil War in South Russia, 1919–1920: The Defeat of the Whites.Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN978-0-520-03346-7.
  • Red Attack, White Resistance; Civil War in South Russia 1918.Washington, DC: New Academia. 2004a.ISBN978-0-974-49344-2.
  • Red Advance, White Defeat: Civil War in South Russia 1919–1920.Washington, DC: New Academia. 2004b.ISBN978-0-974-49345-9.
• Kinvig, Clifford (2006).Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia, 1918–1920.London: Hambledon Continuum.ISBN978-1-847-25021-6.
• Krivosheev, G. F. (1997).Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century.London: Greenhill.ISBN978-1-853-67280-4.
• Lee, Stephen J. (2003).Lenin and Revolutionary Russia.London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-28718-0.
• Leggett, George (1981).The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-198-22552-2.
• Lowe, Norman (2002).Mastering Twentieth Century Russian History.Palgrave.ISBN978-0-333-96307-4.
• Mawdsley, Evan(2007).The Russian Civil War.New York: Pegasus.ISBN978-1-681-77009-3.
• Overy, Richard (2004).The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia.New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN978-0-393-02030-4.
• Rakowska-Harmstone, Teresa(1970).Russia and Nationalism in Central Asia: The Case of Tadzhikistan.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN978-0-801-81021-3.
• Read, Christopher (1996).From Tsar to Soviets.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-195-21241-9.
• ——— (2005).Lenin: A Revolutionary Life.Routledge Historical Biographies. London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-20649-5.
• Rosenthal, Reigo (2006).Loodearmee[Northwestern Army] (in Estonian). Tallinn: Argo.ISBN9-949-41545-4.
• Ryan, James (2012).Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence.London: Routledge.ISBN978-1-138-81568-1.Retrieved15 May2017.
• Service, Robert(2000).Lenin: A Biography.London: Macmillan.ISBN978-0-333-72625-9.
• Smele, Jonathan D. (2015).Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916–1926.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-1-442-25281-3.
• ——— (2016) [2015].The 'Russian' Civil Wars, 1916–1926: Ten Years That Shook the World.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-190-61321-1.
• Stewart, George (2009).The White Armies of Russia A Chronicle of Counter-Revolution and Allied Intervention.Naval & Military Press.ISBN978-1-847-34976-7.
• Smith, David A.; Tucker, Spencer C. (2014)."Operation Faustschlag".World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection.Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 554–555.ISBN978-1-851-09965-8.Retrieved27 December2017.
• Thompson, John M. (1996).A Vision Unfulfilled. Russia and the Soviet Union in the Twentieth Century.Le xing ton, MA: D. C. Heath.ISBN978-0-669-28291-7.
• Volkogonov, Dmitri (1996).Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary.Translated by Shukman, Harold. London: HarperCollins.ISBN978-0-002-55272-1.
• Werth, Nicolas; Bartosek, Karel; Panne, Jean-Louis; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Courtois, Stephane (1999).Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression.Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-07608-7.
• Wheeler, Geoffrey (1964).The Modern History of Soviet Central Asia.New York: Frederick A. Praeger.OCLC865924756.

Further reading

• Acton, Edward, V. et al. eds.Critical companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921(Indiana UP, 1997).
• Brovkin, Vladimir N. (1994).Behind the Front Lines of the Civil War: Political Parties and Social Movements in Russia, 1918–1922.Princeton UP.excerptArchived28 July 2020 at theWayback Machine
• Dupuy, T. N.The Encyclopedia of Military History(many editions) Harper & Row Publishers.
• Ford, Chris. "Reconsidering the Ukrainian Revolution 1917–1921: The Dialectics of National Liberation and Social Emancipation."Debatte15.3 (2007): 279–306.
• Peter Kenez.Civil War in South Russia, 1918: The First Year of the Volunteer Army(U of California Press, 1971).
• Lincoln, W. Bruce.Red victory: A history of the Russian Civil War(1989).
• Luckett, Richard.The White Generals: An Account of the White Movement and the Russian Civil War(Routledge, 2017).
• Marples, David R.Lenin's Revolution: Russia, 1917–1921(Routledge, 2014).
• Moffat, Ian, ed.The Allied Intervention in Russia, 1918–1920: The Diplomacy of Chaos(2015)
• Polyakov, Yuri.The Civil War in Russia: Its Causes and Significance(Novosti, 1981).
• Serge, Victor.Year One of the Russian Revolution(Haymarket, 2015).
• Smele, Jonathan D. "Still Searching for the 'Third Way': Geoffrey Swain's Interventions in the Russian Civil Wars".Europe-Asia Studies68.10 (2016): 1793–1812.doi:10.1080/09668136.2016.1257094.
• Smele, Jonathan D. "'If Grandma had Whiskers...': Could the Anti-Bolsheviks have won the Russian Revolutions and Civil Wars? Or, the Constraints and Conceits of Counterfactual History."Revolutionary Russia(2020): 1–32.doi:10.1080/09546545.2019.1675961.
• Stewart, George.The White Armies of Russia: A Chronicle of Counter-Revolution and Allied Intervention(2008)excerptArchived27 June 2015 at theWayback Machine
• Stone, David R. "The Russian Civil War, 1917–1921," inThe Military History of the Soviet Union.
• Swain, Geoffrey (2015).The Origins of the Russian Civil WarexcerptArchived28 July 2020 at theWayback Machine

Primary sources

• Butt, V. P., et al., eds.The Russian Civil War: Documents from the Soviet Archives(Springer, 2016).
• McCauley, Martin, ed.The Russian Revolution and the Soviet State 1917–1921: Documents(Springer, 1980).
• Murphy, A. Brian, ed.The Russian Civil War: Primary Sources(Springer, 2000)online reviewArchived27 June 2020 at theWayback Machine

External links

• Newsreels about Russian Civil War // Net-Film Newsreels and Documentary Films Archive
• Sumpf, Alexandre:Russian Civil War,in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Mawdsley, Evan:International Responses to the Russian Civil War (Russian Empire),in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Read, Christopher:Revolutions (Russian Empire),in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Peeling, Siobhan:War Communism,in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Beyrau, Dietrich:Post-war Societies (Russian Empire),in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Brudek, Pawe³:Revolutions (East Central Europe),in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Melancon, Michael S.:Social Conflict and Control, Protest and Repression (Russian Empire),in:1914–1918 online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Russian Revolution and Civil War archive at libcom.org/libraryArchived7 September 2014 at theWayback Machine
• "BBC History of the Russian Revolution"(3 February 2007)
• "Russian Civil War"(Spartacus History, downloaded 3 January 2006)
• "Russian Civil War 1918–1920"(On War website, downloaded 4 January 2006)
• "Civil War of 1917–1922 at Encyclopedia of Russian History(3 February 2007)