Who are the "red" and "white"? Civil War (1917-1922): The Red Army and the White

Where did the terms "red" and "white" come from? Civil war also knew the "green", "Cadets", "Socialist Revolutionaries" and other formations. What is their fundamental difference?

In this article, we will answer not only these questions, but also get acquainted with the history of the formation of Soviet power in the country. Let's talk about the confrontation of the White Guard and the Red Army.

Origin of the terms "red" and "white"

Today, the history of the Fatherland less and less cares young people. According to polls, many do not even know who Lenin is, let alone talk about the Patriotic War of 1812 ...

However, such words and phrases as "red" and "white", "Civil War" and "October Revolution", are still on hearing. Most, however, do not know the details, but they have heard the terms.

Let's take a closer look at this issue. It begins with the origin of two opposing camps - "white" and "red" in the Civil War. In principle, it was just an ideological move by Soviet propagandists and nothing more. Now you will understand this mystery yourself.

If you turn to the textbooks and directories of the Soviet Union, it explains that the "white" - it's whiteguards, supporters of the king and the enemies of the "Reds", the Bolsheviks.

It seems that it was so. But in fact, this is another enemy, with which the Soviets fought.

The country has lived for seventy years in confronting fictitious opponents. They were "white", kulaks, the west decaying, the capitalists. Very often such a vague definition of the enemy served as the foundation for slander and terror.

Next, we will discuss the causes of the Civil War. "White", according to the Bolshevik ideology, were monarchists. But that's the problem, there were practically no monarchists in the war. They had no one to fight for, and the honor did not suffer from it. Nicholas II abdicated, and his brother did not accept the crown. Thus, all the tsarist officers were free from the oath.

Where did this "color" difference come from? If the Bolsheviks really had a red flag, then their opponents never had a white flag. The answer lies in the history of a hundred and fifty years ago.

The Great French Revolution gave the world two warring camps. Royal troops wore a white banner, a sign of the dynasty of French rulers. Their opponents after the seizure of power hung a red canvas in the window of the town hall as a sign of the introduction of wartime. On such days, any gatherings of people were dispersed by soldiers.

The Bolsheviks were opposed not by monarchists, but by supporters of the Constituent Assembly (Constitutional Democrats, Cadets), anarchists (Makhnovists), "green men" (fought against "Reds", "Whites", interventionists) and those who wanted to separate their territory into a free state .

Thus, the term "whites" was cleverly used by ideologists to determine the common enemy. His winning position was that any Red Army soldier could in a nutshell explain what he was fighting for, unlike all the other rebels. This attracted ordinary people to the side of the Bolsheviks and enabled the latter to win the Civil War.

Background of war

When the Civil War is being studied in the lessons, the table is simply necessary for a good mastering of the material. Below are the stages of this military conflict, which will help you better navigate not only in the article, but also in this period of the history of the Fatherland.

Stages of military conflict

Stages	Dates	Developments
1	February-March 1917	Overthrow of the autocracy, the split of society.
2	March-October 1917	Aggravation of confrontation in society.
3	October 1917-March 1918	Liquidation of the Provisional Government. Establishment of Soviet power. The spread of armed conflict.
4	March-June 1918	The growth of violence and terror. Formation of the Red Army and White.
5	Summer of 1918-the end of 1920.	War with the participation of regular troops, including foreign ones. Militarization of the economy.
6th	1921-1922	Attenuation, localization and termination of the Civil War.

Now that we have decided who the "red" and "white" are, the Civil War, more precisely its stages, will be more understandable. You can proceed to a deeper study of them. It's worth starting with the premises.

So, the main reason for such a heat of passion, which subsequently resulted in a five-year Civil War, was the accumulated contradictions and problems.

First, the participation of the Russian Empire in the First World War destroyed the economy and depleted resources in the country. The bulk of the male population was in the army, the decline in agriculture and urban industry. Soldiers are tired of fighting for other people's ideals when the houses were hungry families.

The second reason was the agrarian and industrial issues. There were too many peasants and workers who lived below the poverty line and poverty. The Bolsheviks took full advantage of this.

In order to turn participation in the world war into an interclass struggle, certain steps were taken.

In the beginning, the first wave of nationalization of enterprises, banks, and lands took place. Further, the Treaty of Brest was signed, which plunged Russia into the abyss of complete ruin. Against the backdrop of the general devastation, the Red Army men organized terror in order to stay in power.

To justify their behavior, they built the ideology of the struggle against the White Guards and the interventionists.

Prehistory

Let's take a closer look at why the Civil War began. The table we cited earlier illustrates the stages of the conflict. But we will begin with those events that occurred before the Great October Revolution.

Weakened by participation in the First World War, the Russian Empire is in decline. Nicholas II abdicated from the throne. More importantly, he does not have a successor. In the light of such events, two new forces are being formed simultaneously: the Provisional Government and the Council of Workers' Deputies.

The former begin to deal with the social and political spheres of the crisis, but the Bolsheviks have concentrated on increasing their influence in the army. This path led them subsequently to the possibility of becoming the only ruling power in the country.
It was the confusion in the government that led to the formation of "reds" and "whites". Civil war was only the apotheosis of their differences. Which is to be expected.

October Revolution

In fact, the tragedy of the Civil War begins with the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks gained strength and came to power more confidently. In mid-October 1917, a very tense situation began to take shape in Petrograd.

October 25, Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government, leaves Petrograd for Pskov for help. He personally assesses the events in the city as an uprising.

In Pskov he asks General Dukhonin to help him with troops. Kerensky seems to get support from the Cossacks, but suddenly the Cadets come out of the regular army. Now the constitutional democrats refuse to support the head of the government.

Not finding proper support in Pskov, Alexander Fedorovich goes to the city of Ostrov, where he meets with General Krasnov. At the same time, the Winter Palace storms in Petrograd. In Soviet history, this event is presented as a key event. But in fact, it happened without resistance from the deputies.

After an empty shot from the cruiser Aurora, the sailors, soldiers and workers approached the palace and arrested all the members of the Provisional Government present there. In addition, the Second Congress of Soviets was held, where a number of basic declarations were adopted and the execution at the front was abolished.

In view of the coup, Krasnov decides to help Alexander Kerensky. October 26 in the direction of Petrograd comes out a cavalry force of seven hundred men. It was assumed that the Junkers would support them in the city in an uprising. But it was suppressed by the Bolsheviks.

In the current situation it became clear that the Provisional Government no longer had power. Kerensky fled, General Krasnov bargained for the Bolsheviks to freely return to the Island with the detachment.

In the meantime, the SRs are beginning a radical struggle against the Bolsheviks, who, in their opinion, have acquired great power. The response to the murders of some "red" leaders was terror from the side of the Bolsheviks, and the Civil War (1917-1922) began. We now consider further events.

Establishment of "red" power

As we said above, the tragedy of the Civil War began long before the October Revolution. A simple people, soldiers, workers and peasants were unhappy with the current situation. While in the central regions many paramilitary detachments were under close control of the stavka, in the eastern detachments there were quite different moods.

It was the presence of a large number of reserve troops and their unwillingness to enter a war with Germany that helped the Bolsheviks quickly and bloodlessly get support from almost two-thirds of the army. Only 15 large cities opposed the "red" power, 84 on their own initiative passed to them in their hands.

An unexpected surprise for the Bolsheviks in the form of tremendous support from distraught and tired soldiers was declared "red" as a "triumphal procession of the Soviets."

Civil war (1917-1922) only worsened after the signing of the ruinous for Russia Brest peace. Under the terms of the treaty, the former empire lost more than a million square kilometers of territory. These included: the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Romania, the Don territories. In addition, they had to pay Germany six billion marks of indemnity.

This decision provoked a protest both inside the country and on the part of the Entente. Simultaneously with the intensification of various local conflicts, the military intervention of Western states into the territory of Russia begins.

Entrance of Entente troops was supported by the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps in Siberia and the rebellion of the Kuban Cossacks under the leadership of General Krasnov. The defeated detachments of the White Guards and some of the interventionists left for Central Asia and for many years continued their struggle against Soviet power.

The Second Period of the Civil War

It was at this stage that the most active were the White Guard Heroes of the Civil War. History has preserved such names as Kolchak, Yudenich, Denikin, Yuzefovich, Miller and others.

Each of these commanders had his own vision of the future for the state. Some tried to interact with the Entente troops in order to overthrow the Bolshevik power and still convene the Constituent Assembly. Others wanted to become local princes. This includes such as Makhno, Grigoriev and others.

The complexity of this period lies in the fact that as soon as the First World War was completed, the German troops were to leave the territory of Russia only after the arrival of the Entente. But according to a secret agreement they left earlier, having handed over the city to the Bolsheviks.

As history shows us, the Civil War just after such a turn of events enters a phase of special cruelty and bloodshed. The failure of the commanders, who were oriented toward Western governments, was aggravated by the fact that they had a catastrophically shortage of qualified officers. Thus, Miller's, Yudenich's and some other formations disintegrated only because, with a shortage of middle-level commanders, the main influx of forces came from captured Red Army men.

Reports in the newspapers of this period are characterized by headings of this type: "Two thousand servicemen with three guns went over to the side of the Red Army."

The final stage

The beginning of the last period of the war of 1917-1922 historians tend to associate with the Polish war. With the help of his western neighbors, Pilsudski wanted to create a confederation with territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea. But his aspirations were not destined to come true. The Civil War armies, led by Yegorov and Tukhachevsky, advanced farther into the depths of Western Ukraine and reached the Polish border.

The victory over this enemy was to be taken up by the workers in Europe. But all the plans of the Red Army chiefs failed after the devastating defeat in the battle, which was preserved under the name "Miracle on the Vistula."

After the conclusion of the peace treaty between the Soviets and Poland, disagreements begin in the Entente camp. As a result, funding for the "white" movement has declined, and the Civil War in Russia is beginning to decline.

In the early 1920s, such changes in the foreign policy of Western states led to the fact that the Soviet Union recognized most of the countries.

Heroes of the Civil War of the final period fought against Wrangel in Ukraine, the interventionists in the Caucasus and Central Asia, in Siberia. Among the most distinguished commanders should be noted Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Frunze and some others.

Thus, as a result of five years of bloody battles on the territory of the Russian Empire, a new state was formed. Subsequently, it became the second superpower, whose only rival was the United States.

The reasons for the victory

Let's see why the "white" in the Civil War were defeated. We will compare the assessments of the opposing camps and try to reach a general conclusion.

Soviet historians saw the main reason for their victory in the fact that there was massive support from the oppressed strata of society. Particular emphasis was placed on those who suffered as a result of the 1905 revolution. Because they unconditionally turned to the side of the Bolsheviks.

"White", on the contrary, complained about the lack of human and material resources. On captured territories with a million population, they could not even conduct a minimum mobilization to replenish the ranks.

Particularly interesting statistics, which gave the Civil War. "Reds", "white" (the table is shown below) especially suffered from desertion. The intolerable conditions of life, as well as the lack of clear goals made themselves felt. The data concern only the Bolshevik forces, since the White Guard records have not kept distinct figures.

Deserters in the Red Army in 1919.

Month	Number of persons
February	More than 26 thousand.
March	More than 54 thousand.
May	More than 78 thousand.
June	More than 146 thousand.
July	More than 270 thousand.
August	More than 299 thousand.

The main point, which is noted by modern historians, was the political sphere of the conflict.

The White Guards, firstly, did not have centralized command and minimal cooperation between the units. They fought locally, each for their own interests. The second feature was the absence of political workers and a clear program. These moments were often assigned to officers who only knew how to fight, but did not conduct diplomatic negotiations.

The Red Army men created a powerful ideological network. A clear system of concepts was developed, which were hammered into the heads of workers and soldiers. Slogans allowed to understand even the most hammered peasant, for which he is going to fight.

It was such a policy that allowed the Bolsheviks to get the maximum support of the population.

Effects

The victory of the "reds" in the Civil War was given to the state very dearly. The economy was completely destroyed. The country lost territories with a population of more than 135 million people.

Agriculture and productivity, food production decreased by 40-50 percent. Food surplus and "red-white" terror in different regions led to the death of a huge number of people from hunger, torture and execution.

Industry, according to experts, has sunk to the level of the Russian Empire of the reign of Peter the Great. As the researchers say, production figures fell to 20 percent of the volume in 1913, and in some areas to 4 percent.

As a result, a massive outflow of workers from towns to villages began. Since there was at least some hope of not starving.

"White" in the Civil War reflected the desire of the nobility and higher officials to restore the old conditions of life. But their isolation from the real moods that reigned in the common people led to a total defeat of the old order.

Reflection in culture

Civil War leaders were immortalized in thousands of different works - from cinematography to paintings, from stories to sculptures and songs.

For example, such productions as "Days of Turbines", "Running", "Optimistic tragedy" plunged people into the tense atmosphere of wartime.

Films Chapaev, Red Devils, We from Kronstadt showed the efforts that the Reds made in the Civil War to win their ideals.

The literary work of Babel, Bulgakov, Gaidar, Pasternak, Ostrovsky illustrates the life of representatives of different strata of society in those hard days.

It is possible to give examples practically indefinitely, because the social catastrophe into which the Civil War resulted has found a powerful response in the hearts of hundreds of artists.

Thus, today we have learned not only the origin of the concepts "white" and "red", but also met briefly with the course of events of the Civil War.

Remember that any crisis keeps a grain of future changes for the better.