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The White Army in the Civil War. Commanders of the White Army. Army of Whites

The Civil War was a terrible test for Russia. This page of history, which for decades heroized, in fact was shameful. Fratricide, numerous betrayals, robberies and violence coexisted in it with exploits and self-sacrifice. The White Army consisted of people of different backgrounds - people from all classes, representatives of various nationalities, who inhabited a huge country and had a different education. The troops of the Reds were not a homogeneous mass either. Both opposing sides experienced similar difficulties in many respects. In the end, four years later, the Reds won. Why?

When the Civil War began

When it comes to the beginning of the Civil War, historians call different dates. For example, Krasnov put forward subordinate units for the purpose of taking control of Petrograd on October 25, 1917. Or another fact: General Alekseev arrived in the Don for the organization of the Volunteer Army - it happened on November 2. And here is the Milyukov Declaration, published in the newspaper "Don speech" on December 27. What is not a reason to consider it an official declaration of the war of the Soviet power? In a sense, these three versions, like many others, are true. In the last two months of 1917 the Volunteer White Army was formed (and this could not happen at the same time). In the Civil War, it became the only serious force capable of resisting the Bolsheviks.

Personnel and social section of the White Army

The backbone of the white movement was Russian officers. Beginning in 1862, his social and class structure underwent changes, but these processes reached a special rapidity during the First World War. If in the middle of the XIX century, belonging to the highest military leadership was the lot of the aristocracy, then at the beginning of the next century it became increasingly common for ordinary people. The famous commanders of the White Army can serve as an example. Alekseev is the son of a soldier, Kornilov's father was a coronet of a Cossack army, and Denikin was a serf. Contrary to the propaganda stereotypes that were taking root in the mass consciousness, there could be no question of a "white bone". Officers of the White Army, by their origin, could represent the social section of the entire Russian Empire. Infantry schools for the period from 1916 to 1917 released 60% of the descendants of peasant families. In the army of General Golovin of a thousand ensigns (junior lieutenants, according to the Soviet system of military ranks), there were 700. Among them, 260 officers were from the petty-bourgeois, working and merchant's milieu. Nobles, too, were four dozen.

The White Army was founded and formed by the notorious "cook children". Only five percent of the organizers of the movement were wealthy and well-known, the income of the rest before the revolution consisted only of officer's salary.

Modest debut

The officers interfered in the course of political events immediately after the February Revolution. It was an organized military force, the main advantage of which was discipline and the availability of combat skills. As a rule, they did not have political convictions in the sense of belonging to a particular party, but they had a desire to restore order in the country and avoid the collapse of the state. As for the number, the whole army of whites, as of January 1918 (the campaign of General Kaledin to Petrograd), consisted of seven hundred Cossacks. The demoralization of the troops led to an almost complete reluctance to fight. Not only the rank-and-file soldiers, but also the officers, were extremely reluctant (about 1% of the total) to obey orders for mobilization.

By the beginning of full-scale combat operations, the Volunteer White Army numbered up to seven thousand soldiers and Cossacks, commanded by a thousand officers. She had no supplies of food and weapons, as well as support from the population. It seemed that an imminent collapse was inevitable.

Siberia

After the seizure of power by the Reds in Tomsk, Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, underground anti-Bolshevik centers created by officers began to operate. The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps was a signal for their open protest against Soviet power in May-June 1918. The West Siberian Army (commander - General AN Grishin-Almazov) was created, in which volunteers began to register. Soon its number exceeded 23 thousand. By August the White Army, united with the troops of the captain GM Semenov, had formed into two corps (the 4th East Siberian and the 5th Priamursky) and controlled a vast territory from the Urals to Baikal. It had about 60 thousand bayonets, 114 thousand unarmed volunteers under the command of almost 11 thousand officers.

North

The White Army in the Civil War, in addition to Siberia and the Far East, fought on three main fronts: the Southern, North-Western and North. Each of them had its own specifics both in terms of the operational situation and the contingent. The northern theater of military operations concentrated the most professionally trained officers who had passed the German war. In addition, they were distinguished by their excellent education, upbringing and boldness. Many commanders of the White Army arrived from Ukraine and were obliged by their salvation from the Bolshevik terror to the German troops, what was explained by their Germanophilism, others experienced traditional sympathies for the Entente. This situation sometimes caused conflicts. Northern White Army was relatively small.

North-Western White Army

Formed with the support of the German armed forces as opposed to the Bolshevik Red Army. After the departure of the Germans, its membership numbered up to 7,000 bayonets. It was the least prepared White Guard front, which, incidentally, was accompanied by a temporary success. The sailors of the Peipsi fleet, together with the cavalry detachment of Balakhovich and Permykin, disillusioned with the communist idea, decided to join the White Guards. Peasants volunteered to join the growing army, and then high school students, schoolgirls, were forcibly mobilized. The North-Western army fought with varying success and became one of the examples of the curiosity of the entire war. Counting 17 thousand soldiers, it was ruled by 34 generals and many colonels, among whom were those who were not even twenty.

South of Russia

The events on this front became decisive in the fate of the country. The population of over 35 million, a territory equal in size to a pair of large European countries, equipped with a developed transport infrastructure (seaports, railways) was controlled by Denikin's white forces. South of Russia could exist separately from the rest of the territory of the former Russian Empire: it had everything for autonomous development, including agriculture and industry. The generals of the White Army, who received a fine military education and a multifaceted experience of military operations with Austria-Hungary and Germany, had every chance to defeat the often less-educated commanders of the enemy. However, the problems were still the same. People did not want to fight, there was not a single ideological platform to create. Monarchists, democrats, liberals were united only by the desire to resist Bolshevism.

Deserters

Both the Red Army and the White Army suffered from one disease: the representatives of the peasantry did not want to go voluntarily. Forced mobilization led to a decrease in overall combat capability. Russian officers, regardless of social origin, traditionally constituted a special caste, far from the soldier masses, which caused internal contradictions. The scale of the punitive measures applied to the deserters was monstrous on both sides of the front, but the Bolsheviks executed the shootings more often and decisively, including cruelty towards the families of those who had escaped. In addition, they were bolder in promises. As the number of compulsorily recruited soldiers increased, "diluted" combat-ready officers' regiments, control of the fulfillment of combat missions became more difficult. There were practically no reserves, supply deteriorated. There were other problems that led to the defeat of the army in the South, which was the last stronghold of the Whites.

Myths and Reality

The image of a whiteguard officer, dressed in an impeccable tunic, by all means a nobleman with a sonorous name, spending leisure in drinking and singing romances, is far from the truth. We had to fight in the conditions of a constant deficit of weapons, ammunition, food, uniforms and everything else, without which it is difficult to maintain an army in a combat-ready state, if at all possible. The Entente supported, but there was not enough help, plus there was a moral crisis, expressed in a sense of struggle with its own people.

After the defeat in the Civil War, Wrangel and Denikin were rescued abroad. Bolsheviks in 1920 was shot by Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. Army (White) lost every new territory with every bloody year. All this led to the forced evacuation from Sebastopol in 1922 of the surviving parts of the once powerful army. A little later, the last centers of resistance in the Far East were suppressed.

Many songs of the White Army after a certain alteration of the texts became Red Guards. The words "for the Holy Russia" were replaced by the phrase "for the power of the Soviets"; similar fate awaited other remarkable musical works that received new names ("In the valleys and over the hills", "Kakhovka", etc.) Today, after decades of oblivion, they are available Listeners interested in the history of the White Movement.

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