Whites and Reds in the Civil War. The war of red and white: the origins of the confrontation

After almost a century, the events that unfolded shortly after the Bolsheviks seized power and resulted in a four-year fratricidal massacre receive a new assessment. The war of the Red and White armies, which was presented for many years Soviet ideology in the form of a heroic page in our history, today is considered a national tragedy, the duty of every true patriot to prevent its repetition.

Beginning of the Way of the Cross

Historians differ on the specific date of the beginning of the Civil War, but it is traditional to call the last decade of 1917. This point of view is based mainly on three events that took place during this period.

Among them, it is necessary to note the performance of the forces of General P.N. Red with the aim of suppressing the Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd on October 25, then on November 2 - the beginning of the formation on the Don by General M.V. Alekseev of the Volunteer Army, and, finally, the subsequent publication on December 27 in the Donskaya Speech newspaper of the declaration of P.N. Miliukov, which essentially became a declaration of war.

Speaking about the social class structure of the officers who became the leaders White movement, one should immediately point out the fallacy of the ingrained idea that it was formed exclusively from representatives of the highest aristocracy.

This picture became a thing of the past after the military reform of Alexander II, carried out in the 60-70s of the 19th century and opened the way to command posts in the army for representatives of all classes. For example, one of the main figures of the White movement, General A.I. Denikin was the son of a serf peasant, and L.G. Kornilov grew up in the family of a cornet Cossack army.

Social composition of Russian officers

The stereotype developed over the years of Soviet power, according to which the white army was led exclusively by people who called themselves “white bones,” is fundamentally incorrect. In fact, they came from all walks of life.

In this regard, it would be appropriate to cite the following data: 65% of the infantry school graduates of the last two pre-revolutionary years consisted of former peasants, and therefore, out of every 1000 warrant officers in the tsarist army, about 700 were, as they say, “from the plow.” In addition, it is known that for the same number of officers, 250 people came from the bourgeois, merchant, and working class environment, and only 50 came from the nobility. What kind of “white bone” could we be talking about in this case?

White Army at the beginning of the war

The beginning of the White movement in Russia looked rather modest. According to available data, in January 1918, only 700 Cossacks, led by General A.M., joined him. Kaledin. This was explained by the complete demoralization of the tsarist army by the end of the First World War and the general reluctance to fight.

The vast majority of military personnel, including officers, pointedly ignored the order to mobilize. Only with great difficulty, by the start of full-scale hostilities, the White Volunteer Army was able to fill its ranks to 8 thousand people, of which approximately 1 thousand were officers.

The symbols of the White Army were quite traditional. In contrast to the red banners of the Bolsheviks, the defenders of the old world order chose a white-blue-red banner, which was the official state flag of Russia, approved at one time by Alexander III. In addition, the well-known double-headed eagle was a symbol of their struggle.

Siberian Insurgent Army

It is known that the response to the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in Siberia was the creation of underground combat centers in many of its major cities, headed by former officers of the tsarist army. The signal for their open action was the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, formed in September 1917 from among captured Slovaks and Czechs, who then expressed a desire to take part in the fight against Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Their rebellion, which broke out against the backdrop of general discontent with the Soviet regime, served as the detonator of a social explosion that engulfed the Urals, the Volga region, the Far East and Siberia. Based on disparate battle groups in short term The West Siberian Army was formed, headed by an experienced military leader, General A.N. Grishin-Almazov. Its ranks were rapidly replenished with volunteers and soon reached 23 thousand people.

Very soon the white army, uniting with units of Captain G.M. Semenov, was able to control the territory stretching from Baikal to the Urals. It was a huge force, consisting of 71 thousand military personnel, supported by 115 thousand local volunteers.

The army that fought on the Northern Front

During the Civil War, combat operations took place throughout almost the entire territory of the country, and, in addition to the Siberian Front, the future of Russia was also decided on the South, North-West and North. It was there, as historians testify, that the concentration of the most professionally trained military personnel who went through the First World War took place.

It is known that many officers and generals of the White Army who fought on the Northern Front came there from Ukraine, where they escaped the terror unleashed by the Bolsheviks only thanks to the help of German troops. This largely explained their subsequent sympathy for the Entente and partly even Germanophilism, which often served as the cause of conflicts with other military personnel. In general, it should be noted that the white army that fought in the north was relatively small in number.

White forces on the Northwestern Front

The White Army, which opposed the Bolsheviks in the northwestern regions of the country, was mainly formed thanks to the support of the Germans and after their departure numbered about 7 thousand bayonets. Despite the fact that, according to experts, among other fronts this one had a low level of training, the White Guard units were lucky for a long time on it. This largely contributed to a large number of volunteers joining the army.

Among them, two contingents of individuals were distinguished by their increased combat effectiveness: the sailors of the flotilla, created in 1915 at Lake Peipsi, as well as former Red Army soldiers who went over to the white side - cavalrymen of the Permykin and Balakhovich detachments. The growing army was significantly replenished by local peasants, as well as high school students who were subject to mobilization.

Military contingent in southern Russia

And finally, the main front of the Civil War, on which the fate of the entire country was decided, was the Southern Front. The military operations that unfolded there covered an area equal in area to two medium-sized European states and with a population of more than 34 million people. It is important to note that, thanks to developed industry and diversified agriculture, this part of Russia could exist independently of the rest of the country.

The White Army generals who fought on this front under the command of A.I. Denikin, were all, without exception, highly educated military specialists who already had the experience of the First World War behind them. They also had at their disposal a developed transport infrastructure, which included railways and seaports.

All this was a prerequisite for future victories, but the general reluctance to fight, as well as the lack of a unified ideological base, ultimately led to defeat. The entire politically diverse contingent of troops, consisting of liberals, monarchists, democrats, etc., were united only by hatred of the Bolsheviks, which, unfortunately, did not become a strong enough connecting link.

An army that is far from ideal

It is safe to say that the White Army in the Civil War failed to fully realize its potential, and among many reasons, one of the main ones was the reluctance to let peasants, who made up the majority of the Russian population, into its ranks. Those of them who were unable to avoid mobilization soon became deserters, significantly weakening the combat effectiveness of their units.

It is also important to take into account that the white army was an extremely heterogeneous composition of people, both socially and spiritually. Along with the true heroes, ready to sacrifice themselves in the fight against the impending chaos, it was joined by many scum who took advantage of the fratricidal war to commit violence, robbery and looting. It also deprived the army of general support.

It must be admitted that the White Army of Russia was not always the “holy army” so resoundingly sung by Marina Tsvetaeva. By the way, her husband, Sergei Efron, an active participant in the volunteer movement, wrote about this in his memoirs.

The hardships suffered by white officers

Over the course of almost a century that has passed since those dramatic times, mass art in the minds of most Russians has developed a certain stereotype of the image of a White Guard officer. He is usually presented as a nobleman, dressed in a uniform with gold shoulder straps, whose favorite pastime is drinking and singing sentimental romances.

In reality, everything was different. As the memoirs of participants in those events testify, the White Army faced extraordinary difficulties in the Civil War, and officers had to fulfill their duty with a constant shortage of not only weapons and ammunition, but even the most necessary things for life - food and uniforms.

The assistance provided by the Entente was not always timely and sufficient in scope. In addition, the general morale of the officers was depressingly influenced by the awareness of the need to wage war against their own people.

Bloody lesson

In the years following perestroika, most events were rethought Russian history relating to the revolution and the Civil War. The attitude towards many participants in that great tragedy, previously considered enemies of their own Fatherland, has radically changed. Nowadays, not only the commanders of the White Army, such as A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, P.N. Wrangel and others like them, but also all those who went into battle under the Russian tricolor, took their rightful place in people's memory. Today it is important that that fratricidal nightmare becomes a worthy lesson, and the current generation has made every effort to ensure that it never happens again, no matter what political passions are in full swing in the country.

It is very difficult to reconcile the “whites” and “reds” in our history. Each position has its own truth. After all, only 100 years ago they fought for it. The fight was fierce, brother went against brother, father against son. For some, the heroes will be the Budennovites of the First Cavalry, for others - the Kappel volunteers. The only people who are wrong are those who, hiding behind their position on the Civil War, try to erase from the past whole piece Russian history. Anyone who draws too far-reaching conclusions about the “anti-people character” of the Bolshevik government denies the entire Soviet era, all its accomplishments, and ultimately slides into outright Russophobia.

***
Civil war in Russia - armed confrontation in 1917-1922. between different political, ethnic, social groups and state entities on the territory of the former Russian Empire, following the Bolsheviks' rise to power as a result October revolution 1917. The Civil War was the result of the revolutionary crisis that struck Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907, aggravated during the world war, economic devastation, deep social, national, political and ideological split Russian society. The apogee of this split was a fierce war throughout the country between the Soviet and anti-Bolshevik armed forces. The civil war ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks.

The main struggle for power during the Civil War was between armed groups the Bolsheviks and their supporters (Red Guard and Red Army) on the one hand and the armed formations of the White movement (White Army) on the other, which was reflected in the persistent naming of the main parties to the conflict “Red” and “White”.

For the Bolsheviks, who relied primarily on the organized industrial proletariat, suppressing the resistance of their opponents was the only way to maintain power in a peasant country. For many participants in the White movement - officers, Cossacks, intelligentsia, landowners, bourgeoisie, bureaucracy and clergy - armed resistance to the Bolsheviks was aimed at returning lost power and restoring their socio-economic rights and privileges. All these groups were the top of the counter-revolution, its organizers and inspirers. Officers and the village bourgeoisie created the first cadres of white troops.

The decisive factor during the Civil War was the position of the peasantry, who made up more than 80% of the population, which ranged from passive wait-and-see to active armed struggle. The fluctuations of the peasantry, which reacted in this way to the policies of the Bolshevik government and the dictatorships of the white generals, radically changed the balance of forces and, ultimately, predetermined the outcome of the war. First of all, we are, of course, talking about the middle peasantry. In some areas (Volga region, Siberia), these fluctuations raised the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to power, and sometimes contributed to the advancement of the White Guards deeper into Soviet territory. However, as the Civil War progressed, the middle peasantry leaned towards Soviet power. The middle peasants saw from experience that the transfer of power to the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks inevitably leads to an undisguised dictatorship of the generals, which, in turn, inevitably leads to the return of the landowners and the restoration of pre-revolutionary relations. The strength of the middle peasants' hesitation towards Soviet power was especially evident in the combat effectiveness of the White and Red armies. White armies were essentially combat-ready only as long as they were more or less homogeneous in class terms. When, as the front expanded and moved forward, the White Guards resorted to mobilizing the peasantry, they inevitably lost their combat effectiveness and collapsed. And vice versa, the Red Army was constantly strengthening, and the mobilized middle peasant masses of the village staunchly defended Soviet power from counter-revolution.

The base of the counter-revolution in the countryside was the kulaks, especially after the organization of the poor committees and the beginning of a decisive struggle for bread. The kulaks were interested in the liquidation of large landowner farms only as competitors in the exploitation of the poor and middle peasantry, whose departure opened up broad prospects for the kulaks. Fight of fists with proletarian revolution took place both in the form of participation in the White Guard armies, and in the form of organizing their own detachments, and in the form of a broad insurgent movement in the rear of the revolution under various national, class, religious, even anarchist, slogans. Characteristic feature The civil war was the willingness of all its participants to widely use violence to achieve their political goals (see “Red Terror” and “White Terror”)

An integral part of the Civil War was the armed struggle of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of broad sections of the population against the troops of the main warring parties - the “Reds” and the “Whites”. Attempts to declare independence provoked resistance both from the “whites,” who fought for a “united and indivisible Russia,” and from the “reds,” who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the gains of the revolution.

The civil war unfolded under conditions of foreign military intervention and was accompanied by military operations on the territory of the former Russian Empire by both troops of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance and troops of the Entente countries. The motives for the active intervention of the leading Western powers were the implementation of their own economic and political interests in Russia and assisting the whites in order to eliminate the Bolshevik government. Although the capabilities of the interventionists were limited by the socio-economic crisis and political struggle in the Western countries themselves, the intervention and material assistance to the white armies significantly influenced the course of the war.

The civil war was fought not only on the territory of the former Russian Empire, but also on the territory of neighboring states - Iran (Anzel operation), Mongolia and China.

Arrest of the emperor and his family. Nicholas II with his wife in Alexander Park. Tsarskoye Selo. May 1917

Arrest of the emperor and his family. Daughters of Nicholas II and his son Alexei. May 1917

Lunch of the Red Army soldiers by the fire. 1919

Armored train of the Red Army. 1918

Bulla Viktor Karlovich

Civil War Refugees
1919

Distribution of bread for 38 wounded Red Army soldiers. 1918

Red squad. 1919

Ukrainian front.

Exhibition of Civil War trophies near the Kremlin, timed to coincide with the Second Congress of the Communist International

Civil War. Eastern front. Armored train of the 6th regiment of the Czechoslovak Corps. Attack on Maryanovka. June 1918

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich

Red commanders of a regiment of rural poor. 1918

Soldiers of Budyonny's First Cavalry Army at a rally
January 1920

Otsup Petr Adolfovich

Funeral of the victims of the February Revolution
March 1917

July events in Petrograd. Soldiers of the Samokatny Regiment, who arrived from the front to suppress the rebellion. July 1917

Work at the site of a train crash after an anarchist attack. January 1920

Red commander in the new office. January 1920

Commander-in-Chief of the troops Lavr Kornilov. 1917

Chairman of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky. 1917

Commander of the 25th Rifle Division of the Red Army Vasily Chapaev (right) and commander Sergei Zakharov. 1918

Sound recording of Vladimir Lenin's speech in the Kremlin. 1919

Vladimir Lenin in Smolny at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars. January 1918

February revolution. Checking documents on Nevsky Prospekt
February 1917

Fraternization of soldiers of General Lavr Kornilov with the troops of the Provisional Government. 1 - 30 August 1917

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich

Military intervention in Soviet Russia. Command staff of White Army units with representatives of foreign troops

The station in Yekaterinburg after the capture of the city by units of the Siberian Army and the Czechoslovak Corps. 1918

Demolition of the monument Alexander III at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Political workers at the headquarters car. Western Front. Voronezh direction

Military portrait

Date of filming: 1917 - 1919

In the hospital laundry. 1919

Ukrainian front.

Sisters of Mercy partisan detachment Kashirina. Evdokia Aleksandrovna Davydova and Taisiya Petrovna Kuznetsova. 1919

In the summer of 1918, the detachments of the Red Cossacks Nikolai and Ivan Kashirin became part of the combined South Ural partisan detachment of Vasily Blucher, who carried out a raid in the mountains of the Southern Urals. Having united near Kungur in September 1918 with units of the Red Army, the partisans fought as part of the troops of the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front. After the reorganization in January 1920, these troops became known as the Army of Labor, whose goal was to restore the national economy of the Chelyabinsk province.

Red commander Anton Boliznyuk, wounded thirteen times

Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Grigory Kotovsky
1919

At the entrance to the building of the Smolny Institute - the headquarters of the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution. 1917

Medical examination of workers mobilized into the Red Army. 1918

On the boat "Voronezh"

Red Army soldiers in a city liberated from the whites. 1919

Overcoats of the 1918 model, which came into use during the Civil War, initially in Budyonny’s army, have been preserved from minor changes before military reform 1939. The cart is equipped with a Maxim machine gun.

July events in Petrograd. Funeral of the Cossacks who died during the suppression of the rebellion. 1917

Pavel Dybenko and Nestor Makhno. November - December 1918

Workers of the supply department of the Red Army

Koba / Joseph Stalin. 1918

On May 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR appointed Joseph Stalin in charge of the south of Russia and sent him as an extraordinary commissioner of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the procurement of grain from North Caucasus to industrial centers.

The Defense of Tsaritsyn was a military campaign by “red” troops against “white” troops for control of the city of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War.

People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the RSFSR Leon Trotsky greets soldiers near Petrograd
1919

Commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General Anton Denikin, and Ataman of the Great Don Army, African Bogaevsky, at a solemn prayer service on the occasion of the liberation of the Don from the Red Army troops
June - August 1919

General Radola Gaida and Admiral Alexander Kolchak (from left to right) with officers of the White Army
1919

Alexander Ilyich Dutov - ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army

In 1918, Alexander Dutov (1864–1921) declared the new government criminal and illegal, organized armed Cossack squads, which became the base of the Orenburg (southwestern) army. Most of the White Cossacks were in this army. Dutov's name first became known in August 1917, when he was an active participant in the Kornilov rebellion. After this, Dutov was sent by the Provisional Government to the Orenburg province, where in the fall he strengthened himself in Troitsk and Verkhneuralsk. His power lasted until April 1918.

Street children
1920s

Soshalsky Georgy Nikolaevich

Street children transport the city archive. 1920s

The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks marked the transition of the civil confrontation into a new, armed phase - the civil war. With the help of weapons, new power was established in the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban, and Southern Urals. Ataman A.M. stood at the head of the anti-Bolshevik movement on the Don. Kaledin. He declared the Don Army's disobedience to the Soviet government. Everyone dissatisfied with the new regime began to flock to the Don. At the end of November 1917 General M.V. Alekseev began the formation of the Volunteer Army to fight Soviet power.

This army marked the beginning of the white movement, so named in contrast to the red revolutionary one. White color seemed to symbolize law and order. Simultaneously with the anti-Soviet protests on the Don, a Cossack movement began in the Southern Urals. It was headed by Ataman A.I. Dutov. In Transbaikalia, the fight against new government led by Ataman G.S. Semenov. However, protests against Soviet power, although they were fierce in nature, were spontaneous and scattered, did not enjoy mass support from the population and took place against the backdrop of the relatively rapid and peaceful establishment of Soviet power almost everywhere. Therefore, the rebel atamans were defeated fairly quickly. A civil war is a clash of various political forces, social and ethnic groups, individuals defending their demands under banners of various colors and shades. Reasons for the defeat of the white movement. The leaders of the white movement failed to offer the people a sufficiently constructive and attractive program. In the territories they controlled, the laws of the Russian Empire were restored, property was returned to its previous owners. In addition, one of the reasons for the defeat was the moral decay of the army, the application of measures to the population that did not fit into the white code of honor: robberies, pogroms, punitive expeditions, violence. One of the main provisions of the Bolshevik doctrine was the assertion of the inextricable link between revolution and civil war. January 15, 1918 the decree of the Council of People's Commissars proclaimed the creation Workers' and Peasants' Army. On January 29, a decree on the organization of the Red Fleet was adopted. In July 1918 The Decree on universal military conscription of the male population aged 18 to 40 was published. In September 1918 a unified structure for command and control of troops of the fronts and armies was created. In the first half of May 1919, when the Red Army won decisive victories. The real danger for the Bolsheviks was Volunteer Army Denikin, which captured by June 1919. Donbass, a significant part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn. In July, Denikin's attack on Moscow began. In September, the “Whites” entered Kursk and Orel and occupied Voronezh. A critical moment had arrived for the Bolshevik government. Another wave of mobilization of forces and resources began under the motto: “Everything to fight Denikin!” The First Cavalry Army of S.I. played a major role in changing the situation at the front. Budyonny. Significant assistance to the Red Army was provided by rebel peasant detachments led by N.I. Makhno, who deployed a “second front” in the rear of Denikin’s army. The rapid advance of the “Reds” in the fall of 1919. led to the division of the Volunteer Army into two parts - Crimean and North Caucasian. In February-March 1920 its main forces were defeated and the Volunteer Army itself ceased to exist. A significant group of “whites” led by General Wrangel took refuge in the Crimea. In November 1920 troops of the Southern Front under the command of M.V. The Frunze crossed the Sivash and, breaking through the defensive forces of Wrangel on the Perekop Isthmus, broke into the Crimea. The last fight between the “reds” and the “whites” was especially fierce and cruel. The remnants of the once formidable Volunteer Army rushed to the ships of the Black Sea squadron concentrated in the Crimean ports. Almost 100 thousand people were forced to leave their homeland. The civil war ended in victory for the Reds.

32. The policy of “war communism” and its consequences.

Social and economic policy of Soviet power in the period 1918-1920. has undergone significant changes due to the need to concentrate all material and human resources to defeat enemies. December 2, 1918 A decree was promulgated on the dissolution of the committees. The dissolution of the committees of the village poor was the first step towards a policy of pacification of the middle peasantry. January 11, 1919 The decree “On the allocation of grain and fodder” was issued. According to this decree, the state communicated in advance the exact figure of its grain needs. Then this amount was distributed (distributed) among provinces, districts, volosts and peasant households. Fulfillment of the grain procurement plan was mandatory. Moreover, surplus appropriation was based not on the capabilities of peasant farms, but on very conditional “state needs,” which in reality meant the confiscation of all surplus grain, and often necessary supplies. In 1920 surplus appropriation extended to potatoes, vegetables and other agricultural products. In area industrial production a course was set for the accelerated nationalization of all industries. Having proclaimed the slogan “He who does not work, neither does he eat,” the Soviet government introduced universal labor conscription and labor mobilization of the population to carry out work of national importance: logging, road construction, etc. To ensure the existence of the worker, the state tried to compensate wages “in kind”, issuing food rations, food coupons in the canteen, and basic necessities instead of money. Then fees for housing, transport, utilities and other services were abolished. The logical continuation of the economic policy of the Bolsheviks was the actual abolition of commodity-money relations. First, the free sale of food was prohibited, then other consumer goods, which were distributed by the state as naturalized wages. Such a policy required the creation of special, super-centralized economic bodies in charge of accounting and distribution of all available products. The entire set of these emergency measures was called the policy of “war communism.” “Military” - because this policy was subordinated to the only goal - to concentrate all forces for military victory over their political opponents, "communism" - because the measures taken by the Bolsheviks surprisingly coincided with the Marxist forecast of some socio-economic features of the future communist society.

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The leaders of the Red Army during the Civil War were Vatsetis, Kamenev / Tukhachevsky, Frunze, Blucher, Egorov, Budyonny. The leader of the RVS during the Civil War was Trotsky. Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense during the Civil War - Lenin. Leaders of Western states who advocated active intervention in the civil war in Russia - Lloyd George (UK), Clemenceau (France), Wilson (USA), Pilsudski (Poland). Leaders of the white movement during the period wars - Kolchak, Denikin, Miller, Yudenich, Wrangel, Alekseev, Kornilov, Shkuro. In the 20s - 30s. Kalinin served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. After Lenin, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars was A. M. Rykov. Bukharin - Soviet party statesman, academician. In 1917-1918 - leader of the "left communists". Ideological views: against the curtailment of the NEP, the sharp acceleration of collectivization, he considered it necessary to support individual farming, regulate the market through flexible purchasing prices, and actively develop light industry. Soviet leaders who surrounded Stalin in the 20s: Molotov, Beria, Kuibyshev, Kaganovich. Leaders of the opposition of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in the 20s: Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Rykov. During the Second World War, Stalin held the following positions: General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the State Defense Committee of the USSR, People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Outstanding Soviet commanders WWII period: Zhukov, Konev, Vasilevsky, Rokosovsky, Chuikov. During the Second World War, Shvernik headed the Evacuation Council. Leaders of the partisan movement during the Second World War: Kovpak, Ponomorenko, Fedorov. Three times heroes of the USSR who received this award for feats of arms during WWII: Pokryshkin, Kozhedub. On behalf of the Soviet High Command, Zhukov signed the act of surrender of Germany. From 1953 to 1955 Malenkov was Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, and since 1955 Minister of Power Plants. Khrushchev's name is associated with criticism of Stalin's personality cult. After Khrushchev, Brezhnev was at the head of the country. From 1964 to 1980 Kosygin was the chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Gromyko was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. After Brezhnev's death, Andropov took over the leadership of the country. The first president of the USSR was Gorbachev.

Sakharov - Soviet scientist, nuclear physicist, creator hydrogen bomb. Active fighter for human and civil rights, pacifist, laureate Nobel Prize, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Founders and leaders of the democratic movement in the USSR in the late 80s: A. Sobchak, N. Travkin, G. Starovoitova, G. Popov, A. Kazannik.

Leaders of the most influential factions in the modern State Duma: V.V. Zhirinovsky, G.A. Yavlinsky; G.A. Zyuganov; V.I. Anpilov.

US leaders who participated in Soviet-American negotiations in the 80s: Reagan, Bush.

Leaders of European states who contributed to improving relations with the USSR in the 80s: Thatcher.

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Documentation

Report: V. I. Chapaev, hero of the Civil War

CHAPAEV Vasily Ivanovich(1887-1919), hero of the Civil War. From 1918 he commanded a detachment, a brigade and the 25th Infantry Division, which played a significant role in the defeat of the troops of A.V. Kolchak in the summer of 1919. He died in battle. The image of Chapaev is captured in the story “Chapaev” by D. A. Furmanov and the film of the same name.

H Apaev Vasily Ivanovich, hero of the Civil War 1918-20. Member of the CPSU since September 1917. Born into the family of a poor peasant. From 1914 - in the army, participated in the 1st World War 1914-18. He was awarded for courage 3 crosses of St. George, a medal, and received the rank of lieutenant. In 1917 he was in a hospital in Saratov, then moved to Nikolaevsk (now Pugachev Saratov region), where in December 1917 he was elected commander of the 138th reserve infantry regiment, and in January 1918 appointed commissar of internal affairs of the Nikolaev district. At the beginning of 1918, he formed a Red Guard detachment and suppressed the kulak-SR revolts in the Nikolaev district. From May 1918 he commanded a brigade in battles against the Ural White Cossacks and White Czechs, and from September 1918 he was the head of the 2nd Nikolaev Division. In November 1918, he was sent to study at the General Staff Academy, where he remained until January 1919, and then, at his personal request, he was sent to the front and appointed to the 4th Army as commander of the Special Alexander-Gai Brigade. From April 1919 he commanded the 25th Infantry Division, which distinguished itself in the Buguruslan, Belebeevsk and Ufa operations during the counter-offensive of the Eastern Front against Kolchak’s troops. On July 11, the 25th division under the command of Ch.

liberated Uralsk. On the night of September 5, 1919, the White Guards suddenly attacked the headquarters of the 25th division in Lbischensk. Ch. and his comrades fought courageously against the superior forces of the enemy. Having shot all the cartridges, the wounded Ch. tried to swim across the river. Ural, but was hit by a bullet and died. Awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The legendary image of Ch. is reflected in the story “Chapaev” by D. A. Furmanov, who was the military commissar of the 25th division, in the film “Chapaev” and other works of literature and art.

It’s all nonsense!” - this is how former comrades of the division commander succinctly and specifically reviewed Dmitry Furmanov’s book “Chapaev” and the film of the same name by the Vasilyev brothers. And they delegated to Moscow to demand historical justice for the insulted relatives of the military leader - the widow and children. Having found the address of the commissar-writer, they came straight to his home, on the Arbat, and... forgot all the grievances. Received by the generous, hospitable and powerful Furmanov, who fed and watered the family and secured a 20-ruble pension for each (very decent money at that time), they did not tell the world about the real Chapaev. Furmanov probably explained to the visitors that not a single newspaper, even a lousy one, would publish their revelations. Indeed, in those days, society was given examples of heroism and high morality, trying to hide the homespun truth behind artistic fiction. “For nonsense,” the real Vasily Ivanovich would say. No, a real one would have used a stronger word.

So, it’s decided - we’ll tell the truth about Chapaev, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Based on documents from the Central State Archive of the Red Army and on the testimony of the division commander’s daughter, Klavdia Vasilievna, who survived until the times of glasnost. But first, let’s take a look at the Chapaev Museum, which is open in Cheboksary (the hero’s homeland).

Cock cowherd

There, in the Chuvash village of Budaika - Tmutarakan with 22 courtyards - on January 28, 1887, Vasilek was born. He lived here only the first years of his childhood, but the memory of them is carefully preserved by the entire Chuvash people. The Chapaevsky Museum, for example, was opened.

Vasin's father Ivan Stepanovich was the poorest peasant in the village: neither cows nor horses - only sheep and chickens. There was one pair of shoes for five children. So soon the Chapaevs, having sold everything they could, went to look for a better life in the large commercial and industrial village of Balakovka (Saratov region).

I don’t know whether we should believe the memoirs of Vasya’s teacher with the rock and roll surname Grebenshchikov (they sound very Soviet-like), but history, alas, has not preserved other characteristics of young Chapai: “Vasyatka greedily sought knowledge. There were no special textbooks back then. Sometimes, you’d give me an assignment to read something at home from newspapers or magazines, Vasyatka would be the first to raise his hand and tell in detail where and what he managed to read...”

Other museum relics are kept in the same spirit, so let’s not delve into the hero’s childhood and youth, let’s instead plunge into the passions of the fiery days.

Vasya’s dad is strong in swearing...

And let’s immediately pay tribute to Vasya’s parent, who raised a real man in his son all his life with a whip and a belt. Yes, so intensely that I didn’t notice how quickly the guy matured. Chapaev’s daughter Claudia recalls: “Once dad, already a division commander, returned from battle and left the carts in the yard. My grandfather Ivan Stepanovich Chapaev with other old men went to unharness the horses (he worked as a groom in the division, perhaps?). He came back and let’s whip his father. They barely calmed down. Due to the fact that felt pads were not placed under the saddles, the iron rods skinned the horses. Chapaev knelt in front of his father and buried his forehead in his felt boots:
“Daddy, I’m sorry, I missed it…”
The answer, you see, is worthy of a man.

Even fists in a fist

Ask, who entrusted Chapaev, who really did not graduate from either gymnasiums or academies, with the command of an entire division? Who trusted Makhno? Yes, history is unfair to its sons. Raises one to the skies, and drops the other to nowhere. Both Chapaev and Makhno (this one in the Urals, the other in Ukraine) beat the White Guards, dispossessed kulaks, each created his own freemen, both were brave commanders, outstanding strategists, they were even considered anarchists at one time. And popular rumor calls one a hero and the other a bandit.

Just like Nestor, Vasily formed an armed formation from fellow villagers and relatives, to which boys from neighboring villages later joined. But not in order to rob and kill, but in order to protect themselves and their wives from white, green, German marauders.

There is no doubt that in some ways this guard resembled a gang. Just try to keep the always drunk, armed daredevils in your fist, and what’s more, your guys. But Chapai, not caring about family feelings, held on as best he could. Firmly. (By the way, he himself never took alcohol into his mouth and did not even smoke.) We read his orders stored in the “Red Army archive”: “For playing toss for money... demote to the ranks. For playing cards you will be fined... one hundred rubles. For going fornication in a neighboring village... 40 lashes. For looting and extorting money... shoot!”

And here is a later report to Moscow: “29 Red Army soldiers were shot for refusing to go on the offensive. After this, Comrade gave a hot speech. Chapaev... after which the entire male population of Nizhny. Pokrovka, up to and including 50 years old, joined our ranks and rushed to the attack. Over 1000 White Cossacks were killed. After the battle, a communist cell was organized among captured German soldiers, Czechoslovaks and Hungarians. The refuseniks were shot.”

This is how the Chapaev Guard grew, and, as you can see, at all times the people were unable to fight.

Chapaev was known as tough but fair. He coined a “comradely mutual aid fund” into which the Red Army soldiers “shared” their salaries, and the funds were spent on medicines and payments to the families of the dead. He created his own state: with yards-factories for auto repair and household appliances, mills, bakeries, furniture factories and even schools.

With the hands of the ataman, the sabers and the lives of his people, who faithfully served the division commander, the communists defeated the enemy in the Urals. The time has come to drive the people into holes and change the Chapaev government to the Soviet one.

CHAPAEV VASILY IVANOVICH

Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich (1887, village of Budaika, Kazan province - 1919, river Ural, near Lbischensk) - participant in the civil war.
Genus. in the family of a peasant carpenter. Together with his father and brothers, he worked as a carpenter and was able to learn to read and write.
In 1914 he was called up for military service. After graduating from the training team, Chapaev rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer. For his courage in the battles of the First World War, he was awarded three St. George Crosses and the St. George Medal. In the summer of 1917 he was elected a member of the regimental committee, in December. - regiment commander.
A member of the RSDLP(b) since 1917, Chapaev was appointed military commissar of Nikolaevsk. In 1918 he suppressed a number of peasant uprisings and fought against the Cossacks and the Czechoslovak Corps. In November 1918 he began to study at the Academy of the General Staff, but already in January. 1919 was sent to the East. front against A.V. Kolchak. Chapaev commanded the 25th Infantry Division and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his successful leadership of military operations. During a sudden attack by the White Guards on the headquarters of the 25th division in Lbischensk, the wounded Chapaev died trying to swim across the river. Ural.
Thanks to the book. YES. Furmanov "Chapaev" and based on this book. film in which Chapaev was brilliantly played by actor B.A. Babochkin, Chapaev’s rather modest role in the civil war became widely known.

Book materials used: Shikman A.P. Figures national history. Biographical reference book. Moscow, 1997 Literature: Biryulin V.V. People's commander: On the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Chapaeva. Saratov, 1986.

GET BACK TO THE ORIGINS

A DECISION WAS MADE TO GIVE THE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHUSOVOY RIVER CITY AND REGIONAL STATUS

He was afraid of this event, and waited... And he believed, and he did not believe.
I was afraid because I was used to not really trusting the authorities and even sponsors. Everyone, he says, considers himself a patriot of his region, city, but when it comes down to it, 17 thousand rubles for just installing a telephone in the Astafiev House (of blessed memory) - take it out and put it away. Where can I get them?

There is another danger: they will allocate some money and then start giving orders: this is possible, this is not possible. Although he, the rock, is accustomed to the fact that opportunistic guiding “sleeves” poke and poke at his “cliffs”, and then flow past.
The chapel, which now houses the Ermak Museum, that is, Vasily Alenin, a resident of Nizhnechusovsky Gorodki, he, for example, brought across the Arkhipovka River, to his Postnikov-grad, back under the communists.
There were smart people in charge who demanded that the crosses crowning it be cut down - they say, you, Leonard Dmitrievich, made a mistake. Boris Vsevolodovich Konoplev (first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU, if anyone doesn’t know) unexpectedly helped save them. Having visited the Olympic reserve school, where Postnikov was the director, he regally said: “Don’t stop there, continue further, otherwise we will be misunderstood.”
And the Ermak Museum itself saved - you won’t believe it... - Chapaev. “Why create a memory about some robber,” Postnikov was taught. “Choose another worthy candidate.” “Have you seen the film Chapaev? So there before last fight Vasily Ivanovich’s fighters are singing a song about Ermak,” he turned away.
The Postnikov Museum (everyone notes) is good because it does not have the sterile conservation of a museum. In a rural trading store you can touch pot-bellied two-bucket samovars and cast iron sleds upholstered in velvet and hold them in your hands. In the museum of wooden toys - pull the strings of funny hares and bears. That is, the spirit of the original, native (as one of the guests quoted, “you can’t squeeze the village out of a person”) lives freely here among antiques.
And Postnikov values ​​this freedom. And yet, his museum has long gone beyond the scope of amateur activity and required a serious foundation, including financial: in order to preserve what he collected, in order to develop further. The city allocates some money for the maintenance of what has already been created. But the status of city and regional promises funding from two budgets. This means that his work will live on. Only for this reason, it seems, he agreed to a public celebration of the 20th anniversary of the museum, which, with the support of sponsors of the Chusovsky Metallurgical Plant, was organized by his friends and friends of his hospitable miracle city.
It was clear that being on stage was sheer torment for him: he wanted to go to his beloved world - to the wise cat Klava, the museum church of St. George under construction, to his beloved Don Quixote and the biography of Chapaev, which he is now passionate about. But thanks to everyone anyway: fellow countrymen who are somehow transformed in a special way motherland.
Moscow critic Valentin Kurbatov handed out gifts from a bag. Poet Yuri Belikov - administered. The mayor of Chusovoy, Viktor Buryanov, admitted that he has to “reach out” to his noble fellow countrymen.
And Vice-Governor Tatyana Margolina chatted so sweetly with the dissident from Ukraine Dmitry Stus that he was later surprised for a long time that, it turns out, he was communicating with a representative of the authorities, in relations with whom he always tried to stay away.
These are the miracles that happen on Chusva land.

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Education

Economic policy of whites and reds during the Civil War

During the Civil War, the Whites and Reds sought by any means to achieve power and the complete destruction of the enemy. There was confrontation not only on the fronts, but also in many other aspects, including in the economic sector. Before the economic policies of the whites and the reds during the Civil War are analyzed, it is necessary to study the main differences between the two ideologies, the confrontation of which led to the fratricidal war.

Main aspects of the Red economy

The Reds did not recognize private property and defended the belief that all people should be equal both legally and socially.

For the Reds, the tsar was not an authority; they despised wealth and the intelligentsia, and the working class, in their opinion, should have become the leading structure of the state. The Reds considered religion to be the opium of the people. Churches were destroyed, believers were mercilessly exterminated, atheists were held in high esteem.

White beliefs

For whites, the sovereign father was, of course, an authority, imperial power was the basis of law and order in the state. They not only recognized private property, but also considered it the main milestone of the country's well-being. The intelligentsia, science and education were held in high esteem.

Whites could not imagine Russia without faith. Orthodoxy is the foundation. It was on it that the culture, identity and prosperity of the nation were based.

Video on the topic

Visual comparison of ideologies

The polar policy of the Reds and the Whites could not but lead to confrontation. The table clearly demonstrates the main differences:

The social, cultural and economic policies of the whites and reds had their supporters and ardent enemies. The country was divided. Half supported the Reds, the other half supported the Whites.

White politics during the Civil War

Denikin dreamed of the day when Russia would again become great and indivisible. The general believed that the Bolsheviks must be fought to the end and ultimately completely destroyed. Under him, a “Declaration” was adopted, which preserved the right to land for the owners, and also provided for ensuring the interests of the working people. Denikin canceled the decree of the Provisional Government on the grain monopoly, and also developed a plan for the “Land Law”, according to which the peasant could buy the land from the landowner.

The priority direction in Kolchak’s economic policy was the provision of land to land-poor peasants and those peasants who have no land at all. Kolchak believed that the seizure of property by the Reds was arbitrariness and looting. All loot must be returned to the owners - manufacturers, landowners.

Wrangel created political reform, according to which large-scale landownership was limited, land plots for middle peasants were increased, and the provision of industrial goods to peasants was also provided.

And Denikin, and Wrangel, and Kolchak canceled the Bolshevik “Decree on Land”, but, as history shows, they could not come up with a worthy alternative. The unviability of the economic reforms of the white regimes lay in the fragility of these governments. If not for the economic and military assistance The Entente and white regimes would have fallen much earlier.

Red policy during the Civil War

During the Civil War, the Reds adopted the “Decree on Land,” which abolished the right of private ownership of land, which, to put it mildly, did not please the landowners, but was good news for the common people. Naturally, for landless peasants and workers, neither Denikin’s reform nor the innovations of Wrangel and Kolchak were as desirable and promising as the Bolshevik decree.

The Bolsheviks actively pursued the policy of “war communism,” according to which the Soviet government set a course for complete nationalization of the economy. Nationalization is the transfer of the economy from private to public hands. A monopoly on foreign trade was also introduced. The fleet was nationalized. Partnerships and large entrepreneurs lost property overnight. The Bolsheviks sought to centralize the management of the Russian national economy as much as possible.

Many innovations were not liked by the common people. One of these unpleasant innovations was the forced introduction of labor conscription, according to which unauthorized transfer to a new job, as well as absenteeism, was prohibited. “Subbotniks” and “Sundays” were introduced - a system of unpaid labor, mandatory for everyone.

Bolshevik food dictatorship

The Bolsheviks brought to life a monopoly on bread, which the Provisional Government had once proposed. Control was introduced by the Soviet government over the village bourgeoisie, which hid grain reserves. Many historians emphasize that this was a forced temporary measure, since after the revolution the country was in ruins, and such redistribution could help survive during the famine years. However, serious excesses on the ground caused the massive expropriation of all food supplies in the countryside, which led to severe famine and extremely high mortality.

Thus, the economic policies of the Whites and the Reds had serious contradictions. A comparison of the main aspects is shown in the table:

As can be seen from the table, the economic policies of the whites and reds were exactly the opposite.

Disadvantages of both directions

The policies of the whites and reds in the Civil War were radically different. However, none of them were 100% effective. Each strategic direction had its drawbacks.

“War communism” was criticized even by the communists themselves. After adopting this policy, the Bolsheviks expected unprecedented economic growth, but in reality everything turned out differently. All decisions were economically illiterate, as a result, labor productivity decreased, people went hungry, and many peasants saw no incentive to overwork. The output of industrial products decreased, there was a decline in agriculture. Hyperinflation was created in the financial sector, which did not exist even under the Tsar and the Provisional Government. People were devastated by hunger.

The big disadvantage of the white regimes was their inability to implement a coherent land policy. Neither Wrangel, nor Denikin, nor Kolchak ever developed a law that would be supported by the masses in the form of workers and peasants. In addition, the fragility of white power did not allow them to fully realize their plans for developing the state's economy.

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny - Soviet military leader, commander of the First Cavalry Army of the Red Army during the Civil War, one of the first Marshals Soviet Union.

He created a revolutionary cavalry detachment that acted against the White Guards on the Don. Together with the divisions of the 8th Army, they defeated the Cossack corps of generals Mamontov and Shkuro. Troops under the command of Budyonny (14th Cavalry Division of O.I. Gorodovikov) took part in the disarmament of F.K. Mironov’s Don Corps, which went to the front against A.I. Denikin, allegedly for attempting to raise a counter-revolutionary rebellion.

Post-war activities:

Budyonny is a member of the RVS, and then deputy commander of the North Caucasus Military District.

Budyonny became the “godfather” of the Chechen Autonomous Region

Budyonny is appointed assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Red Army for cavalry and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Inspector of the Red Army cavalry.

Graduates from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze.

Budyonny commanded the troops of the Moscow Military District.

Member of the Main Military Council of NGOs of the USSR, Deputy People's Commissar.

First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense

Blucher V.K. (1890-1938)

Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher - Soviet military, state and party leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union. Knight of the Order of the Red Banner No. 1 and the Order of the Red Star No. 1.

He commanded the 30th Infantry Division in Siberia and fought against the troops of A.V. Kolchak.

He was the head of the 51st Infantry Division. Blucher was appointed sole commander of the 51st Infantry Division, transferred to the reserve of the Main Command of the Red Army. In May, he was appointed head of the West Siberian sector of military and industrial maintenance. Appointed Chairman of the Military Council, Commander-in-Chief of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic and Minister of War of the Far Eastern Republic.

Post-war activities:

He was appointed commander of the 1st Rifle Corps, then commandant and military commissar of the Petrograd fortified area.

In 1924 he was seconded to the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR

In 1924 he was sent to China

Participated in the planning of the Northern Expedition.

Served as assistant commander of the Ukrainian Military District.

In 1929 he was appointed commander of the Special Far Eastern Army.

During the fighting at the lake, Khasan led the Far Eastern Front.

• Died from beatings during investigation in Lefortovo prison.

Tukhachevsky M.N. (1893-1937)

Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky - Soviet military leader, military leader of the Red Army during the Civil War.

He voluntarily joined the Red Army and worked in the Military Department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Joined the RCP(b), appointed military commissar of the Moscow defense region. Appointed commander of the newly created 1st Army of the Eastern Front. Commanded the 1st Soviet Army. Appointed assistant commander of the Southern Front (SF). Commander of the 8th Army of the Southern Fleet, which included Inzenskaya rifle division. Takes command of the 5th Army. Appointed commander of the Caucasian Front.

Kamenev S.S. (1881-1936)

Sergei Sergeevich Kamenev - Soviet military leader, army commander of the 1st rank.

From April 1918 in the Red Army. Appointed military leader of the Nevelsky district of the Western section of the veil detachments. From June 1918 - commander of the 1st Vitebsk infantry division. Appointed military commander of the Western section of the curtain and at the same time military commander of the Smolensk region. Commander of the Eastern Front. He led the offensive of the Red Army in the Volga and Urals. Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Republic.

Post-war activities:

Inspector of the Red Army.

Chief of Staff of the Red Army.

Chief Inspector.

Head of the Main Directorate of the Red Army, chief head of the cycle of tactics at the Military Academy. Frunze.

At the same time a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Was accepted into the CPSU(b).

Was appointed head of the Red Army Air Defense Directorate

• Kamenev was awarded the rank of army commander of the 1st rank.

Vatsetis I.I. (1873-1938)

Joakim Joakimovich Vatsetis - Russian, Soviet military leader. Commander of the 2nd rank.

After the October Revolution, they went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. He was the head of the operational department of the Revolutionary Field Headquarters at Headquarters. He led the suppression of the rebellion of the Polish corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky. Commander of the Latvian Rifle Division, one of the leaders of the suppression of the Left Socialist Revolutionary uprising in Moscow in July 1918. Commander of the Eastern Front, Commander-in-Chief of all Armed Forces of the RSFSR. At the same time commander of the Army of Soviet Latvia. Since 1921, he has been teaching at the Military Academy of the Red Army, commander of the 2nd rank.

Post-war activities:

July 28, 1938, on charges of espionage and participation in counter-revolutionary terrorist organization Military Collegium Supreme Court The USSR was sentenced to death.

Rehabilitated March 28, 1957

Chapaev V.I. (1887-1919)

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev - commander of the Red Army, participant in the First World War and the Civil War.

Elected to the regimental committee, to the council of soldiers' deputies. He joined the Bolshevik Party. Appointed commander of the 138th regiment. He was a participant in the Kazan Congress of Soldiers' Soviets. He became commissar of the Red Guard and head of the Nikolaevsk garrison.

Chapaev suppressed a number of peasant uprisings. He fought against the Cossacks and the Czechoslovak Corps. Chapaev commanded the 25th Infantry Division. His division liberated Ufa from Kolchak’s troops. Chapaev took part in the battles to relieve the siege of Uralsk.

Formation of the White Army:

Began to form on November 2, 1917 in Novocherkassk General Staff General M.V. Alekseev under the name “Alekseevskaya organization. From the beginning of December 1917, General L. G. Kornilov, who arrived in the Don General Staff, joined the creation of the army. At first, the Volunteer Army was staffed exclusively by volunteers. Up to 50% of those who signed up for the army were chief officers and up to 15% were staff officers; there were also cadets, cadets, students, and high school students (more than 10%). There were about 4% Cossacks, 1% soldiers. From the end of 1918 and in 1919-1920, due to mobilizations in territories controlled by whites, the officer cadre lost its numerical dominance; During this period, peasants and captured Red Army soldiers made up the bulk of the military contingent of the Volunteer Army.

December 25, 1917 received the official name "Volunteer Army". The army received this name at the insistence of Kornilov, who was in a state of conflict with Alekseev and dissatisfied with the forced compromise with the head of the former “Alekseev organization”: the division of spheres of influence, as a result of which, when Kornilov assumed full military power, Alekseev still retained political leadership and finance. By the end of December 1917, 3 thousand people had signed up as volunteers. By mid-January 1918 there were already 5 thousand of them, by the beginning of February - about 6 thousand. At the same time, the combat element of the Dobrarmiya did not exceed 4½ thousand people.

General M.V. Alekseev became the supreme leader of the army, and General Lavr Kornilov became the commander-in-chief of the General Staff.

White Guard uniform

The uniform of the White Guards, as is known, was created on the basis military uniform former tsarist army. Caps or hats were used as headdress. In the cold season, a bashlyk (cloth) was worn over the cap. An integral attribute of the White Guard uniform remained the tunic - a loose shirt with a stand-up collar, made of cotton fabric or thin cloth. You could see shoulder straps on her. Another important element of the White Guard uniform is the overcoat.

Heroes of the White Army:

Wrangel P.N.

Denikin A.I.

Dutov A.I.

Kappel V.O.

Kolchak A.V.

Kornilov L.G.

Krasnov P.N.

Semenov G.M.

• Yudenich N.N.

Wrangel P.N. (1878-1928)

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel is a Russian military leader, a participant in the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars, one of the main leaders of the White movement during the Civil War. Entered the Volunteer Army. During the 2nd Kuban campaign he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Corps. Commanded the Caucasian Volunteer Army. He was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army operating in the Moscow direction. Ruler of the South of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. Since November 1920 - in exile.

Post-war activities:

In 1924, Wrangel created the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which united most of the participants in the White movement in exile.

In September 1927, Wrangel moved with his family to Brussels. He worked as an engineer in one of the Brussels companies.

On April 25, 1928, he died suddenly in Brussels after suddenly contracting tuberculosis. According to his family, he was poisoned by his servant's brother, who was a Bolshevik agent.

Denikin A.I. (1872-1947)






Anton Ivanovich Denikin - Russian military leader, political and public figure, writer, memoirist, publicist and military documentarian.

Took part in the organization and formation of the Volunteer Army. Appointed head of the 1st Volunteer Division. During the 1st Kuban Campaign he served as Deputy Commander of the Volunteer Army of General Kornilov. Became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR).


Post-war activities:

• 1920 - moved to Belgium

  The 5th volume, “Essays on the Russian Troubles,” was completed by him in 1926 in Brussels.

  In 1926, Denikin moved to France and began literary work.

  In 1936 he began publishing the newspaper “Volunteer”.

  On December 9, 1945, in America, Denikin spoke at numerous meetings and addressed a letter to General Eisenhower calling on him to stop the forced rendition of Russian prisoners of war.

Kappel V.O. (1883-1920)












Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel - Russian military leader, participant in the First World War and Civil wars. One of the leaders White movement in the East of Russia. General Staff Lieutenant General. Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Eastern Front of the Russian Army. He led a small detachment of volunteers, which was later deployed into the Separate Rifle Brigade. Later he commanded the Simbirsk groupVolga FrontPeople's Army. He headed the 1st Volga Corps of Kolchak's army. He was appointed commander of the 3rd Army, composed mainly of captured Red Army soldiers who had not received sufficient training. January 26, 1920 near the city of Nizhneudinsk , died of bilateralpneumonia.





Kolchak A.V. (1874-1920)

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak - Russian oceanographer, one of the largest polar explorers, military and political figure, naval commander, admiral, leader of the White movement.

Established a military regime dictatorship in Siberia, the Urals and the Far East, liquidated by the Red Army and partisans. Member of the board of the CER. He was appointed Minister of War and Naval Affairs of the Government of the Directory. was elected Supreme Ruler of Russia and promoted to full admiral. Kolchak was shot along with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers V.N. Pepelyaev at 5 o’clock in the morning on the bank of the Ushakovka River.

Kornilov L.G. (1870-1918)

Lavr Georgievich Kornilov - Russian military leader, general. Military intelligence officer, diplomat and traveler-explorer. ParticipantCivil War, one of the organizers and Commander-in-ChiefVolunteer Army, leader of the White movement in the South of Russia, pioneer.

Commander of the created Volunteer Army. Killed on 04/13/1918 during the storming of Ekaterinodar (Krasnodar) in the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign.

Krasnov P.N. (1869-1947)

Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov - general of the Russian Imperial Army, ataman All-Great Don Army, military and political figure, famous writer and publicist.

Krasnov's Don Army occupied the territoryRegions of the Don Army, knocking out parts from there Red Army , and he himself was elected ataman Don Cossacks. The Don Army in 1918 was on the verge of destruction, and Krasnov decided to unite with the Volunteer Army under the command of A.I. Denikin. Soon Krasnov himself was forced to resign and went toNorthwestern Army Yudenich , based in Estonia.

Post-war activities:

Emigrated in 1920. Lived in Germany, near Munich

Since November 1923 - in France.

Was one of the founders of "Brotherhood of Russian Truth»

Since 1936 lived in Germany.

Since September 1943 chief Main Directorate of Cossack TroopsImperial Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories Germany.

In May 1945 surrendered to the British.

He was transferred to Moscow, where he was kept in Butyrka prison.

By verdict Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSRP. N. Krasnov was hanged in Moscow, inLefortovo prison January 16, 1947.

Grigory Mikhailovich Semenov - Cossack ataman, leader of the White movement in Transbaikalia and the Far East,lieutenant general White Army . Continued to form into Transbaikalia equestrian Buryat-Mongolian Cossack detachment. Three new regiments were formed in Semenov’s troops: 1st Ononsky, 2nd Akshinsko-Mangutsky and 3rd Purinsky. Was created military school for cadets . Semyonov was appointed commander of the 5th Amur Army Corps. Appointed commander of the 6th East Siberian Army Corps, assistant to the chief commander of the Amur region and assistant commander troops of the Amur Military District, commander of the troops of the Irkutsk, Transbaikal and Amur Military Districts.

In 1946 he was sentenced to death.

Yudenich N.N. (1862-1933)












Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich- Russian military leader, infantry general.

In June 1919, Kolchak appointed him commander-in-chief of the north-west. army formed by Russian White Guards in Estonia, and became part of the Russian White Guard Northwestern government formed in Estonia. Undertook from the north-west. army's second campaign against Petrograd. The offensive was defeated near Petrograd. After the defeat of the north-west. army, was arrested by General Bulak-Balakhovich, but after the intervention of the allied governments he was released and went abroad. Died frompulmonary tuberculosis.




Results of the Civil War




In a fierce armed struggle, the Bolsheviks managed to retain power in their hands. All state formations that arose after the collapse of the Russian Empire were liquidated, with the exception of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland.




Civil war and intervention

Civil war is an organized armed struggle for state power between social groups of the same country. It cannot be fair on either side; it weakens the country’s international position and its material and intellectual resources.

Causes of the Civil War in Russia

1. Economic crisis.
2. Tension of social relations.
3. Exacerbation of all existing contradictions in society.
4. Proclamation of the dictatorship of the proletariat by the Bolsheviks.
5. Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.
6. Intolerance of representatives of most parties towards opponents.
7. The signing of the Brest Peace Treaty, which offended the patriotic feelings of the population, especially the officers and intelligentsia.
8. Economic policy of the Bolsheviks (nationalization, liquidation of landownership, surplus appropriation).
9. Bolshevik abuse of power.
10. Intervention of the Entente and the Austro-German bloc in the internal affairs of Soviet Russia.

Social forces after the victory of the October Revolution

1. Those who supported Soviet power: the industrial and rural proletariat, the poor, the lower ranks of officers, part of the intelligentsia - the “reds”.
2. Those opposed to Soviet power: the big bourgeoisie, landowners, a significant part of the officers, former police and the gendarmerie, part of the intelligentsia - “whites”.
3. Those who wavered, periodically joining either the “reds” or the “whites”: the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, part of the proletariat, part of the officers, a significant part of the intelligentsia.

The decisive force in the Civil War was the peasantry, the largest segment of the population.

Having concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the government Russian Republic was able to concentrate forces to defeat internal opponents. In April 1918, compulsory military training was introduced for workers, and tsarist officers and generals began to be recruited for military service. In September 1918, by decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the country was turned into a military camp, domestic policy was subordinated to one task - victory in the Civil War. The highest body of military power was created - the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RMC) under the chairmanship of L. D. Trotsky. In November 1918, under the chairmanship of V.I. Lenin, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense was formed, which was granted unlimited rights in mobilizing the country's forces and resources in the interests of the war.

In May 1918, the Czechoslovak corps and White Guard formations captured the Trans-Siberian Railway. Soviet power in the occupied areas was overthrown. With the establishment of control over Siberia, the Supreme Council of the Entente in July 1918 decided to begin intervention in Russia.

In the summer of 1918, anti-Bolshevik uprisings swept across the Southern Urals, Northern Caucasus, Turkestan and other regions. Siberia, the Urals, part of the Volga region and the North Caucasus, the European North passed into the hands of the interventionists and White Guards.

In August 1918, in Petrograd, the Chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, M. S. Uritsky, was killed by the Left Social Revolutionaries, and V. I. Lenin was wounded in Moscow. These acts were used by the Council of People's Commissars to carry out mass terror. The reasons for the “white” and “red” terror were: the desire of both sides for dictatorship, the lack of democratic traditions, and the devaluation of human life.

In the spring of 1918, a Volunteer Army was formed in the Kuban under the command of General L. G. Kornilov. After his death (April 1918), A.I. Denikin became commander. In the second half of 1918, the Volunteer Army occupied the entire North Caucasus.

In May 1918, a Cossack uprising against Soviet power broke out on the Don. P. N. Krasnov was elected ataman, who occupied the Don region and entered the Voronezh and Saratov provinces.

In February 1918, the German army invaded Ukraine. In February 1919, Entente troops landed in the southern ports of Ukraine. In 1918 - early 1919, Soviet power was eliminated on 75% of the country's territory. However, the anti-Soviet forces were politically fragmented; they did not have a unified struggle program and a unified combat plan.

In mid-1919, the white movement united with the Entente, which relied on A.I. Denikin. The Volunteer and Don Armies merged into the Armed Forces of Southern Russia. In May 1919, A.I. Denikin’s troops occupied the Don region, Donbass, and part of Ukraine.

In September, the Volunteer Army captured Kursk, and the Don Army captured Voronezh. V.I. Lenin wrote an appeal “Everyone to fight Denikin!”, Additional mobilization into the Red Army was carried out. Having received reinforcements, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive in October - November 1919. Kursk and Donbass were liberated; in January 1920, Tsaritsyn, Novocherkassk, and Rostov-on-Don were liberated. Winter 1919-1920 The Red Army liberated Right Bank Ukraine and occupied Odessa.

The Caucasian Front of the Red Army in January - April 1920 advanced to the borders of the Azerbaijan and Georgian republics. In April 1920, Denikin transferred command of the remnants of his troops to General P. N. Wrangel, who began to strengthen himself in the Crimea and form the “Russian Army”.

The counter-revolution in Siberia was led by Admiral A.V. Kolchak. In November 1918, he carried out a military coup in Omsk and established his dictatorship. The troops of A.I. Kolchak began military operations in the area of ​​Perm, Vyatka, Kotlas. In March 1919, Kolchak’s troops took Ufa, and in April - Izhevsk. However, due to the extremely tough policy, discontent in Kolchak's rear increased. In March 1919, to fight A.V. Kolchak in the Red Army, the Northern (commander V.I. Shorin) and Southern (commander M.V. Frunze) groups of forces were created. In May - June 1919, they captured Ufa and pushed Kolchak’s troops back to the foothills of the Urals. During the capture of Ufa, the 25th Infantry Division, led by division commander V.I. Chapaev, especially distinguished itself.

In October 1919, troops captured Petropavlovsk and Ishim and in January 1920 completed the defeat of Kolchak’s army. With access to Lake Baikal, Soviet troops suspended further advance to the east in order to avoid war with Japan, which occupied part of the territory of Siberia.

At the height of the struggle of the Soviet Republic against A.V. Kolchak, the troops of General N.N. Yudenich began attacking Petrograd. In May 1919 they took Gdov, Yamburg and Pskov, but the Red Army managed to push N.N. Yudenich back from Petrograd. In October 1919, he made another attempt to capture Petrograd, but this time his troops were defeated.

By the spring of 1920, the main forces of the Entente were evacuated from Russian territory - from Transcaucasia, from the Far East, from the North. The Red Army won decisive victories over large formations of the White Guards.

In April 1920, the offensive of Polish troops against Russia and Ukraine began. The Poles managed to capture Kyiv and push Soviet troops to the left bank of the Dnieper. IN urgently The Polish Front was created. In May 1920, Soviet troops of the Southwestern Front under the command of A.I. Egorov went on the offensive. This was a serious strategic miscalculation of the Soviet command. The troops, having covered 500 km, became separated from their reserves and rear areas. On the approaches to Warsaw they were stopped and, under the threat of encirclement, were forced to retreat from the territory of not only Poland, but also Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. The result of the war was a peace treaty signed in Riga in March 1921. According to it, a territory with a population of 15 million people was transferred to Poland. The western border of Soviet Russia now ran 30 km from Minsk. The Soviet-Polish War undermined Poles' trust in the communists and contributed to the deterioration of Soviet-Polish relations.

By the beginning of June 1920, P. N. Wrangel gained a foothold in the Northern Black Sea region. The Southern Front was formed against the Wrangelites under the command of M.V. Frunze. Major battle between the troops of P. N. Wrangel and units of the Red Army occurred on the Kakhovsky bridgehead.

The troops of P. N. Wrangel retreated to the Crimea and occupied fortifications on the Perekop Isthmus and at the crossings across the Sivash Strait. The main line of defense ran along the Turkish Wall, 8 m high and 15 m wide at the base. Two attempts to take the Turkish Wall turned out to be Soviet troops unsuccessful. Then a crossing through Sivash was undertaken, which was carried out on the night of November 8 at 12 degrees below zero. The soldiers marched for 4 hours ice water. On the night of November 9, the assault on Perekop began, which was taken in the evening. On November 11, P. N. Wrangel’s troops began to evacuate from Crimea. Several thousand White Guards who surrendered were treacherously shot under the leadership of B. Kun and R. Zemlyachka.

In 1920, Soviet Russia signed peace treaties with Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. In 1920, the Bolsheviks achieved the formation of the Khorezm and Bukhara People's Soviet Republics. Relying on communist organizations in Transcaucasia, the Red Army entered Baku in April 1920, Yerevan in November and Tiflis (Tbilisi) in February 1921. The Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were created here.

By the beginning of 1921, the Red Army had established control over a significant part of the territory of the former Russian Empire, with the exception of Finland, Poland, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia. The main fronts of the Civil War were liquidated. Until the end of 1922, military operations continued in the Far East and until the mid-20s. in Central Asia.

Results of the Civil War

1. Death of about 12-13 million people.
2. Loss of Moldova, Bessarabia, Western Ukraine and Belarus.
3. Economic collapse.
4. The split of society into “us” and “strangers”.
5. Devaluation of human life.
6. The death of the best part of the nation.
7. The decline in the international authority of the state.

"War Communism"

In 1918-1919 The socio-economic policy of the Soviet government was determined, called “war communism”. The main goal of introducing “war communism” was to subjugate all the country’s resources and use them to win the Civil War.

Basic elements of the policy of “war communism”

1. Food dictatorship.
2. Surplus appropriation.
3. Prohibition of free trade.
4. Nationalization of all industry and its management through central offices.
5. Universal labor conscription.
6. Militarization of labor, formation of labor armies (since 1920).
7. Card system for distribution of products and goods.

Food dictatorship is a system of emergency measures of the Soviet state against peasants. It was introduced in March 1918 and included centralized procurement and distribution of food, the establishment of a state monopoly on the trade in bread, and the forced seizure of bread.

The surplus appropriation system was a system of procurement of agricultural products in the Soviet state in 1919-1921, which provided for the mandatory delivery by peasants of all surplus (above the established norms for personal and economic needs) of bread and other products at fixed prices. Often, not only surpluses were taken, but also necessary supplies.