Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War (Russian Гражданская война в России/Graschdanskaja woina v Rossii) was fought between the communist Bolsheviks (the "Reds" or Red Army founded by Leon Trotsky) on the one hand and a heterogeneous group of conservatives, democrats, moderate socialists, nationalists and the White Army on the other. Both groups also fought the anarchists of Makhnovchina and the Green Army. The exact date of its beginning is disputed among historians; it is placed either on the October Revolution in November 1917 or on the spring of 1918.

The war was fought bitterly and brutally, especially against the civilian population; about 8 to 10 million people lost their lives. The intervention of the Entente and the Central Powers in the conflict contributed significantly to its length and intensity. Soviet Russia did achieve dominion over much of the area of the former Russian Empire as a result of it. However, in addition to Poland, which had already been independent since 1918 and which also included western areas of today's Ukraine and Belarus, the Baltic states, Finland and the Tuvan People's Republic also gained independence.

The conflict ended in Europe with the Red Army's victory over the last White troops in Crimea in November 1920, in the Caucasus with the capture of Batumi in 1921, and in East Asia with the capture of Vladivostok in 1922. At the end of that year, the Soviet Union was formed.

Time limit

The chronological delimitation of the Civil War is disputed in both Western and Russian historiography. One school of thought sees the beginning of the Civil War in the October Revolution in November 1917, while another places it in May 1918, when the Czechoslovak Legions rose up against the Red Army. The second position highlights the impact of foreign influences on the Civil War and neglects the previous uprisings against the newly formed Soviet power. The article follows the first opinion in its presentation in order to provide a complete overview.

The war was chaotic because both sides acted mostly without elaborate strategy and conducted their campaigns as reactions to short-term developments. The course of the fighting was complicated by foreign interventions and the Polish-Soviet War.

The end of the war is also given differently: either November 1920 (decisive victory of the Red Army in the Crimea) or 1922/1923, depending on which subsequent fighting in Siberia is added. The last battles took place in June 1923 in the Far East: on 6 June near Okhotsk and on 16 June near Ajan.

Revolutionary year 1917

In the winter of 1916/17, the supply of fuel and food to the population of Russian cities became increasingly poor, and famine began to loom. Starting from the capital Petrograd, there were strikes and demonstrations all over the country. Tsar Nicholas II's attempt to crush the movement by force failed because garrison soldiers largely supported the insurgents and also acted against the Tsarist police. The tsarist government resigned in unison, and the tsar was forced to abdicate. A dual government of the bourgeois provisional government under Alexander Kerensky on the one hand and the grassroots democratic workers' soviets on the other came to power. With the Kerensky offensive named after him, the last major offensive operation of the Russian army in the First World War failed in July 1917.

As early as July 1917 (the July Uprising), the Bolsheviks tried without success to put into practice the socialist revolution propagated in Lenin's April Theses. However, they were able to gain more and more influence in the councils through their demands for the end of the war against Germany and the expropriation of the large landowners, and demanded that all power in the state be transferred to them. The attempted coup by General Kornilov in August 1917 played even more into their hands through the fear of a new autocracy. With the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks on November 7 (October 25 by Julian calendar) overthrew the government under Kerensky that had emerged from the February Revolution. Just three days later on November 10 (October 28 by the Julian calendar), both student officers in Petrograd and an improvised Cossack unit under Ataman Krasnov from outside attempted to put down the revolution. These attempts failed because of the mobilization of the city's armed workers and sailors, who repulsed both attacks.

After the Communists had secured their power in the capital, a thoroughly positive picture emerged for the party's leaders. The Bolshevik Party had important structural advantages over the other political organizations as a cadre party. The industrial cities of central and southern Russia and the Baltic had well-organized party apparatuses that were to form the backbone of the Bolsheviks' expansion of power. Armed units of workers, sailors and returning front-line soldiers served as the maneuvering mass. Thus, by the beginning of 1918, the party leadership was able to bring the Russian heartland under its control. After this consolidation came the final blow of the Bolsheviks against parliamentarism. On the night of January 5-6, 1918, the Russian Constituent Assembly in Petrograd, dominated by Social Revolutionaries, was dissolved by Red Guards.