Personalities of the Civil War
Introduction
In the period from 1917 to 1922. On the territory of the former Russian Empire, one of the bloodiest events in its history took place - the civil war. Caused by a variety of reasons, it left a deep imprint in the memory of Russians, caused a huge shift in their psychology, set in motion huge masses of people and became a pivotal event that determined the path of Russia's development for many decades. Therefore, the topic of my test work is so relevant today.
Many outstanding commanders of that time took part in the civil war, and it was they who influenced the outcome of those military events. The main goal of my work is to show that the commanders I presented played an important role in military operations and the outcome of the civil war in Russia.
Objectives: 1. Show that during the Civil War the population was divided into 3 opposing forces. 2. Select material about the most famous representatives of each of the three camps 3. Show that the civil war was a tragedy for the Russian people
During the civil war, the population was divided into 3 opposing forces. For my work, I selected the most famous representatives of each of the three camps. White - Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich, Denikin Anton Ivanovich and Kornilov Lavr Georgievich, red - Frunze Mikhail Vasilyevich, Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolaevich, Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich, as well as the representative of the “green” movement - Nestor Ivanovich Makhno. Their biographies make up the main part of my test; the work also contains an introduction, conclusion and list of references.
Most of the literature used refers to bibliographic reference books, since they most accurately reveal the personality of a particular commander. There are also publications from the military history library.
1. Representatives of the white movement
Slogans: “We will die for our Motherland”
"Fatherland or Death"
“Better death than the destruction of Russia”
Composition: representatives of the Cossack officers, bourgeoisie, nobility, bureaucrats, intelligentsia, wealthy peasantry.
General goals: - destruction of Bolshevism
convening of the Constituent Assembly
restoration of a powerful united Russia
Features: - lack of a single generally recognized leader
there is no unity in the future structure of the country
heterogeneity of composition in terms of views, party affiliation and origin.
Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich (1874, Alexandrovskoye village, St. Petersburg, died - 1920, Irkutsk). Born into the family of a naval artillery officer. A good home education, a classical gymnasium and the Naval Cadet Corps, which Kolchak was among the first to graduate in 1894, gave him an excellent knowledge of three European languages, the history of the fleet and instilled an interest in the exact sciences. Since 1895, Kolchak has served in the navy. In 1896-1899, he served on a cruiser, sailing in the Pacific Ocean: “The main task was purely combat on the ship, but, in addition, I specifically worked on oceanography and hydrology. From that time on I began to engage in scientific work.” Promoted to lieutenant, Kolchak participated in the polar expedition of E.V. in 1900-1902. Toll and for “an outstanding geographical feat involving difficulty and danger” was nominated by the Russian Geographical Society for the large Constantine gold medal and was elected Fig. 1 Kolchak A.V. full member of the Society. One of the islands of the Kara Sea was named after Kolchak. During the Russo-Japanese War he commanded a destroyer; successfully engaged in laying a minefield; commanded a coastal artillery battery until the fall of Port Arthur. Wounded and suffering from rheumatism, Kolchak was released from Japanese captivity in 1905 and returned to St. Petersburg, where he was awarded orders and a golden saber “For Bravery.” In 1906, Kolchak was appointed head of the Naval General Staff Directorate. Anticipating the inevitability of war with Germany, he tried to obtain funds for the implementation of the shipbuilding program, for which he participated in the work of the Third State Duma as an expert on naval issues, but failed and returned to scientific work. Kolchak took part in the design of special icebreaking vessels. In 1909, Kolchak’s largest work, Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas, was published. In 1909-1910, Kolchak took part in an expedition to the Bering Strait, and in 1910 he was recalled to St. Petersburg to continue work on the shipbuilding program. Kolchak argued for the need to reorganize the Naval General Staff and demanded the elimination of parallel institutions not subordinate to each other, which strengthened the autocracy of the commander. In 1912, Alexander Vasilyevich transferred to the Baltic Fleet. With the outbreak of the First World War, Kolchak practically directed the military operations of the fleet in the Baltic, successfully blocking the actions of the German fleet: he carried out the amphibious landing tactics he developed and attacked convoys of German merchant ships. In 1916, he was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet and promoted to vice admiral. Having learned about the February Revolution, he regarded it as an opportunity to bring the war to a victorious end, considering this “the most important and most important matter, standing above everything - both the form of government and political considerations.” Faced with a “new discipline” based on class consciousness, Kolchak defined it as “the disintegration and destruction of the Russian armed force.” In July 1917, having transferred his powers to Rear Admiral V.K. Lukin, Kolchak came to Petrograd to see A.F. Kerensky and was sent as head of the naval military mission to the United States. Having learned about the October Revolution in San Francisco, I did not consider it worthy of attention. In November 1917, in Japan, Kolchak learned of the Soviet government’s intention to sign peace with Germany and decided not to return to his homeland: “As an admiral of the Russian fleet, I considered that our allied obligations towards Germany remained in full force.” Kolchak was accepted into British service and in 1918 began forming armed forces to fight the “German-Bolsheviks.” In November 1918 he arrived in Omsk, where he was appointed Minister of War and Naval Affairs of the government of the Socialist Revolutionary Directory. In December 1918, Kolchak carried out a coup, declaring himself the “Supreme Ruler of Russia”, and set himself the goal of “victory over Bolshevism and the establishment of law and order.” Possessing half of Russia's gold reserves, having received military support from England, France, Japan, and the USA, he led a successful struggle in Siberia, the Urals and the Far East. By the spring of 1919, there were up to 400 thousand people in Kolchak’s army. His power was recognized by A.I. Denikin, N.N. Yudenich, E.K. Miller. Restoring private ownership of enterprises and land, Kolchak gave the commanders of military districts the right to close press organs and impose death sentences, which caused resistance in Kolchak’s rear. Finnish General K. Mannerheim suggested that Kolchak move 100 thousand to Petrograd. army in exchange for Finnish independence, but Kolchak, who advocated for a “united and indivisible” Russia, refused. By the summer of 1919, the main group of Kolchak’s troops was defeated. Kolchak’s course towards the restoration of pre-revolutionary orders led to a massive partisan movement. Having been defeated, Kolchak transferred power to A.I. Denikin and Ataman G.M. Semenov, January 15. 1920 Kolchak was arrested by the Czechoslovaks, who handed him over to the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik “Political Center”. After the transfer of power to the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee at the secret proposal of V.I. Lenin, the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee decided to shoot Kolchak. Kolchak's body was lowered into the hole. With the outbreak of the First World War, he commanded a brigade and division. Denikin's valor demonstrated in battles and the highest awards (two St. George's crosses, the St. George's weapon decorated with diamonds) elevated him to the top of the military hierarchy. The February Revolution of 1917 stunned Denikin: “We were not at all prepared for such an unexpectedly rapid outcome, nor for the forms that it took.” Denikin was appointed assistant chief of staff to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and commanded the Western and then the Southwestern Front. In an effort to contain the collapse of the empire, he demanded the introduction of the death penalty not only at the front, but also in the rear. I saw a strong personality in L.G. Kornilov and supported his rebellion, for which he was arrested. Released N.N. Dukhonin, Denikin, like other generals, fled to the Don, where, along with M.V. Alekseev, L.G. Kornilov, A.M. Kaledin was involved in the formation of the Volunteer Army. Participated in the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign. After the death of Kornilov in 1918, he took over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Having an army of 85 thousand, material assistance from England, France, and the USA, Denikin hatched plans to capture Moscow. Taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Red Army fought against A.V. Kolchak, Denikin in the spring of 1919 launched the Volunteer Army on the offensive. In the summer of 1919, Denikin occupied Donbass and reached a strategically important line: Tsaritsyn, Kharkov, Poltava. In October, he took Orel and threatened Tula, but Denikin could not overcome the remaining 200 miles to Moscow. The mass mobilization of the population into Denikin's army, robberies, violence, the establishment of military discipline in militarized enterprises, and most importantly, the restoration of landowners' property rights to land doomed Denikin to failure. Denikin was personally honest, but his declarative and vague statements could not captivate the people. Denikin’s situation was aggravated by internal contradictions between him and the Cossack elite, who strived for separatism and did not want the restoration of a “united and indivisible Russia.” The power struggle between Kolchak and Denikin prevented coordinated military action. Denikin's army, suffering heavy losses, was forced to retreat. In 1920, Denikin evacuated the remnants of his army to the Crimea and on April 4. 1920 left Russia on an English destroyer. Lived in England. Having abandoned the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks, Denikin wrote a 5-volume memoir-research “Essays on the Russian Troubles,” an important source on the history of the civil war. Financial difficulties forced Denikin to wander around Europe. In 1931 he completed work on a major military-historical study, The Old Army. After Hitler came to power, Denikin stated that it was necessary to support the Red Army, which, after the defeat of the fascists, could be used to “overthrow communist power.” He denounced emigrant organizations that collaborated with Nazi Germany. In 1945, under the influence of rumors about the possibility of forced deportation to the USSR, the United States emigrated. Denikin worked on the book. “The Path of the Russian Officer” and “The Second World War. Russia and Abroad,” which he did not manage to complete. Died of a heart attack. Kornilov Lavr Georgievich(1870-1918) - General of the Infantry. The son of a retired Cossack officer. He graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps, the Mikhailovsky Artillery School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1898). From the school he joined the Turkestan artillery brigade. After graduating from the academy, he served from 1889 to 1904 in the Turkestan Military District as an assistant to the senior adjutant of the district headquarters, and then as a staff officer for assignments at headquarters. While serving in the Turkestan district, he made a number of long-term research and reconnaissance expeditions in East Turkestan (Sinkiang), Afghanistan and Persia, during which he became proficient in local languages. Lieutenant Colonel Kornilov edited the secret publication of the district headquarters - “Information concerning countries adjacent to the Turkestan Military District” and published a number of works, including “Kashgaria, or Eastern Turkestan.” At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War he was on a business trip to Balochistan, India. He obtained permission to transfer to the active army and from September 1904 to May 1, 1906, he served as a staff officer at the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Brigade, where he was actually the brigade's chief of staff. In February 1905, during the retreat from Mukden, he covered the army's retreat, being with the brigade in the rearguard. Surrounded by the Japanese in the village of Vazye, he broke through the encirclement with a bayonet attack and led the brigade with the units attached to it to join the army. He was awarded many orders, including the Order of St. George, 4th degree, the Arms of St. George and was promoted to the “rank of colonel for military distinction.” From May 1906 to April 1907 he served in the department of the 1st Chief Quartermaster of the Main Directorate of the General Staff. On April 1, 1907, he was appointed as an agent (military attache) in China, where he remained until February 24, 1911, after which he was appointed commander of the 8th Estonian Infantry Regiment. After a short stay as head of a detachment in the Zaamur border district in December In 1912 he was promoted to major general and appointed brigade commander of the 9th Siberian Rifle Division. He went to the front of the First World War as the commander of the brigade of the 48th Infantry Division and in August 1914, after the first battles, he was appointed head of this division, 48-. The division under his command fought in all the battles in Galicia and the Carpathians as part of the 8th Army of General Brusilov. Already for the battles in August 1914, he was promoted to lieutenant general at the end of April 1915, during the general retreat of the Russians. army after the breakthrough at Gorlitsa, the 48th division did not have time to retreat from the Duklinsky pass in the Carpathians, was surrounded and the wounded General Kornilov was captured. In July 1916, he changed into the uniform of an Austrian soldier and escaped from captivity to Romania. After his return, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree, for fighting in the Carpathians and appointed commander of the 25th Army Corps. Under the Provisional Government in March 1917, he was appointed commander of the troops of the Petrograd Military District, where he restored relative order. At his own request, he was returned to the front and on April 29, 1917, he was appointed commander of the 8th Army. Achieved temporary success during the July offensive of the Russian armies of the Southwestern Front. Back on May 19, 1917, by order of the 8th Army, General Kornilov authorized the formation of the “1st Shock Detachment of the 8th Army” - the future Kornilov Shock Regiment under the command of Captain Nezhentsev (the first volunteer unit in the Russian Army). Captain Nezhentsev brilliantly carried out the baptism of fire of his detachment on June 26, 1917, breaking through the Austrian positions near the village of Yamshitsy, thanks to which Kalushch was taken. After the Tarnopol breakthrough of the Germans and the general retreat of the Russian armies, General Kornilov, who held the front, was promoted to infantry general and on July 7, 1917 appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Southwestern Front, and on July 18, 1917 Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. In an effort to restore discipline in the army and law and order in the country in order to bring the war to a victorious end, General Kornilov, by agreement with representatives of the head of government A.F. Kerensky at Headquarters and with the knowledge of A.F. Kerensky, sent the 3rd Cavalry Corps to Petrograd on August 25, 1917, in order to place reliable troops at the disposal of the Provisional Government in the event of an armed uprising of the Bolsheviks. During the advance of these troops to Petrograd, A.F. Kerensky changed his initial position under pressure from the Petrograd Soviet and on August 27 declared General Kornilov a rebel, removed him from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief and declared himself Commander-in-Chief. Not wanting to start a civil war, General Kornilov refused to use the troops loyal to him, including the Kornilovsky and Tekinsky regiments, and was arrested on September 2, 1918. Together with many of his supporters, he was sent to the Bykhov prison, where the internal security was carried out by the Tekinsky regiment loyal to him . On November 19, 1917, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Dukhonin, sent Colonel Kusonsky to Bykhov with an order for the release of General Kornilov and his supporters and a message about the approach of Bolshevik detachments to Mogilev. At the same time, General Kornilov, accompanied by the Tekin convoy, went to the Don and arrived in Novocherkassk on December 6, 1917, where, together with General M.V. Alekseev began forming the Volunteer Army. On December 25, 1917, General Kornilov became its first commander. Convinced of the collapse on the Don, after General Kaledin shot himself, on February 14 (28), 1918, he set out on the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign to create a base in the Kuban for further struggle against the Bolsheviks. Despite the enormous superiority of the Bolshevik troops, he victoriously led his small army to join the Kuban Volunteer Army and, taking overall command, approached the Kuban capital. Killed by a shell during the assault on Ekaterinodar on March 31 (April 13), 1918. . Representatives of the red movement
Slogans: “Long live the world revolution” "Death to global capital" "Peace to the huts, war to the palaces" "The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger" Composition: proletariat, poor peasantry, soldiers, part of the intelligentsia and officers Goals: - world revolution creation of a republic of councils and dictatorship of the proletariat Features: 1. Single leader - Lenin The presence of a clearer program focused on the interests of Bolshevism More homogeneous composition Frunze Mikhail Vasilievich The father of the future Red Marshal Vasily Mikhailovich Frunze was a Moldavian by nationality and came from the peasants of the Tiraspol district of the Kherson province. After graduating from paramedic school in Moscow, he was drafted into the army and sent to serve in Turkestan. At the end of his service, he remained in Pishpek (later the city of Frunze, now the capital of Kyrgyzstan Bishkek), where he got a job as a paramedic and married the daughter of peasant migrants from the Voronezh province. On January 21, 1885, a son, Mikhail, was born into his family. The boy turned out to be extremely capable. In 1895, due to the death of the breadwinner, the family found itself in a difficult financial situation, but little Mikhail was able to receive a state scholarship to the gymnasium in the city of Verny (now Alma-Ata), from which he graduated with a gold medal. In 1904, young Frunze went to the capital, where he entered the economics department of the Polytechnic Institute and soon became a member of the Social Democratic Party. Frunze (underground nickname - Comrade Arseny) won his first victories as a professional revolutionary in 1905 in Shuya and Ivanovo-Voznesensk as one of the leaders of the local Council of Workers' Representatives. In December of the same year, a detachment of militants put together by Frunze went to Moscow, where they took part in the battles of workers’ squads with government troops on Krasnaya Presnya. After the suppression of the Moscow uprising, this detachment managed to safely get out of the Mother See and return back to Ivanovo-Voznesensk. In 1907, in Shuya, Comrade Arseny was arrested and sentenced to death on charges of attempting to assassinate police officer Perlov. Through the efforts of lawyers, the death sentence was replaced by six years of hard labor. After the end of his term of hard labor, Frunze was sent to settle in the village of Manzurka, Verkholensky district, Irkutsk province. In 1915, the indomitable Bolshevik was again arrested for anti-government agitation, but managed to escape on the way to prison. Frunze showed up in Chita, where, using false documents, he managed to get a job as an agent at the statistical department of the resettlement department. However, his personality attracted the attention of local gendarmes. Arseny had to take off again and move to European Russia. After the February Revolution, he became one of the leaders of the Minsk Council of Workers' Deputies, then again headed to Shuya and Ivanovo-Voznesensk, which he knew well. During the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Moscow, at the head of a detachment of Ivanovo workers, Frunze again fought on the streets of the Mother See. His finest hour came in the spring of 1919, at the moment when Kolchak’s troops launched a general offensive along the entire Eastern Front. In the southern sector, General Khanzhin’s army won a series of victories, but at the same time got so carried away that it exposed its right flank to the attack of the Red group. Frunze was not slow to take advantage of this... During three successive operations - Buguruslan, Belebey and Ufa - Mikhail Vasilyevich inflicted a major defeat on the enemy. Frunze was transferred to the post of commander of the newly formed Turkestan Front. By the end of the year, he managed to suppress the resistance of the Ural Cossacks and come to grips with the problems of Central Asia. He managed to lure two influential Basmachi leaders Madamin-bek and Akhunjan to the side of the Soviet government, whose detachments turned into the Uzbek, Margilan and Turkic cavalry regiments (so that none of the Kurbashi would be offended, both regiments received the serial number 1st) . In August-September 1920, under the pretext of helping the rebellious masses, Frunze carried out a successful campaign that ended with the liquidation of the Bukhara Emirate. September Frunze took command of the Southern Front, operating against Wrangel. Here the “black baron” made another attempt to escape from Crimea to the vastness of Ukraine. Having brought up reserves, the “red marshal” bled the enemy troops dry with stubborn defensive battles and then launched a counter-offensive. The enemy rolled back to Crimea. Not allowing the enemy to gain a foothold, on the night of November 8, Frunze launched a combined strike - head-on along the Turkish Wall and through Sivash to the Lithuanian Peninsula. The impregnable fortress of Crimea fell... After the Battle of Crimea, the “Red Marshal” led operations against his former ally Makhno. In the person of the legendary father, he found a worthy opponent, who managed to oppose the tactics of flying partisan detachments to the actions of the regular army. One of the skirmishes with the Makhnovists even almost ended in the death or capture of Frunze himself. In the end, Mikhail Vasilyevich began to beat the old man with his own weapon, creating a special flying corps that was constantly hanging on Makhno’s tail. At the same time, the number of troops in the combat zone was increased and coordination was established between individual garrisons and special purpose units (CHON). In the end, besieged like a wolf, the old man chose to stop fighting and go to Romania. This campaign turned out to be the last in Frunze’s military biography. Even before the final liquidation of the Makhnovshchina, he headed the Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission to Turkey. Upon his return, Mikhail Vasilyevich noticeably increased his own status, both in the party and military hierarchy, becoming a candidate member of the Politburo and chief of staff of the Red Army. In January 1925, Frunze reached the pinnacle of his career, replacing L.D. Trotsky in the posts of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. Keeping his distance from party squabbles, Frunze actively carried out the reorganization of the Red Army, placing in key posts people with whom he had worked together during the Civil War. October 1925 Frunze died. According to official reports, Mikhail Vasilyevich died after an unsuccessful operation for an ulcer. It was rumored that the operation was by no means necessary and that Fruze lay down on the operating table almost on the direct orders of the Politburo, after which he was actually stabbed to death by the doctors. Although this version may well correspond to reality, it is hardly possible to talk about it as something obvious. The mystery of Frunze's death will forever remain a mystery. Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolaevich (1893, Aleksandrovskoye estate, Smolensk province - 1937) - Soviet military leader. Born into the family of an impoverished nobleman. He studied at the gymnasium, after moving to Moscow he graduated from the last class of the Moscow Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School, from which he was released as a second lieutenant in 1914 and sent to the front. In 6 months During the First World War, Tukhachevsky was awarded 6 orders, demonstrating extraordinary leadership skills. In Feb. 1915, together with the remnants of the 7th company of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, Tukhachevsky was captured by the Germans. During two and a half years of imprisonment, Tukhachevsky tried to escape five times, walking up to 1,500 km, but only in October. 1917 managed to cross the Swiss border. After returning to Russia, Tukhachevsky was elected company commander and promoted to captain, demobilized with the same rank. In 1918 he was enrolled in the Military Department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and joined the RCP (b). He said about himself: “My real life began with the October Revolution and joining the Red Army.” In May 1918 he was appointed commissar of the Moscow Defense District of the Western Curtain. He took part in the formation and training of regular units of the Red Army, giving preference to command cadres from the “proletariat” rather than military specialists of the pre-revolutionary period, whom Tukhachevsky, contrary to the facts, characterized as persons who “received a limited military education, were completely downtrodden and deprived of any initiative.” During the Civil War, he commanded the 1st and 5th armies on the Eastern Front; was awarded the Golden Arms “for personal courage, broad initiative, energy, stewardship and knowledge of the matter.” Successfully carried out a number of operations in the Urals and Siberia against the troops of A.V. Kolchak, commanded the troops of the Caucasian Front in the fight against A.I. Denikin. In May 1920 he was assigned to the General Staff; commanded the Western Front, led the attack on Warsaw and suffered defeat, the reasons for which he explained in a course of lectures published in a separate book (see the book: Pilsudski vs. Tukhachevsky. Two views on the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. M., 1991). In 1921 he suppressed the sailors' mutiny in Kronstadt, the peasant uprising of A.S. Antonov and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Since Aug. 1921 headed the Military Academy of the Red Army, commanded the Western troops. and Leningr. military districts. In 1924-1925 he took an active part in the technical reconstruction of the Armed Forces; worked on issues of developing operational art, military development, compiling military encyclopedias, etc. In 1931 he was appointed deputy. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, chief of armaments of the Red Army. In 1934 he became deputy, and in 1936 first deputy. People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. Unlike K.E. Voroshilov and S.M. Budyonny, Tukhachevsky argued for the need to create strong aviation and armored forces, rearmament of infantry and artillery, and development of new means of communication. In 1935, he was the first in the history of the Red Army to conduct a tactical exercise using airborne assault, laying the foundation for the airborne troops. Tukhachevsky supported S.P.’s proposal. Korolev about the creation of the Jet Institute to conduct research in the field of rocketry. Tukhachevsky's creative thought enriched all branches of the Soviet Union. military science. G.K. Zhukov assessed him as follows: “A giant of military thought, a star of the first magnitude in the galaxy of military men of our Motherland.” In 1933 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, in 1935 Tukhachevsky was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1937, Tukhachevsky was accused of creating a Trotskyist military organization, condemned as an “enemy of the people” and executed. Rehabilitated in 1957. Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev (1887-1919) -one of the most mythologized figures by Soviet propaganda. Entire generations have been raised by his example for decades. In the public consciousness, he is the hero of a film that glorified his life and death, as well as hundreds of anecdotes in which his orderly Petka Isaev and the no less mythologized Anka the machine gunner act. According to the official version, Chapaev is the son of a poor peasant from Chuvashia. According to his closest associate, Commissar Furmanov, there is no exact information about his origin, and Chapaev himself called himself either the illegitimate son of the Kazan governor or the son of traveling artists. In his youth he was a wanderer and worked at a factory. During World War I he fought bravely (he had the Cross of St. George) and received the rank of lieutenant ensign. There, at the front, Chapaev in 1917 joined the organization of anarchist-communists. In December 1917, he became the commander of the 138th reserve infantry regiment, and in January 1918, he became the commissar of internal affairs of the Nikolaev district of the Saratov province. He actively helped establish Bolshevik power in these places and formed a Red Guard detachment. From that time on, his war “for people’s power” with his own people began: at the beginning of 1918, Chapaev suppressed peasant unrest in the Nikolaev district, generated by surplus appropriation. Since May 1918, Chapaev was the commander of the Pugachev brigade. In September-November 1918, Chapaev was the head of the 2nd Nikolaev Division of the 4th Red Army. In December 1918, he was sent to study at the Academy of the General Staff. But Vasily Ivanovich did not want to study, insulted the teachers, and already in January 1919 he returned to the front. He didn’t embarrass himself in any way there either. Furmanov writes how, when building a bridge across the Urals, Chapaev beat an engineer for what he considered to be slow work. “...In 1918, he beat one high-ranking official with a whip, and answered another with obscenities via telegraph... An original figure!” - the commissioner admires. At first, Chapaev’s opponents were parts of the Komuch People’s Army - the Committee of the Constituent Assembly (it was dispersed by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd and recreated on the Volga) and Czechoslovaks who did not want to rot in Soviet concentration camps, where Trotsky wanted to send them. Later, in April-June 1919, Chapaev acted with his division against the Western Army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak; captured Ufa, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. But his main and fatal enemy were the Ural Cossacks. They overwhelmingly did not recognize the power of the communists, but Chapaev faithfully served this power. De-Cossackization in the Urals was merciless and after the capture of Uralsk by the Red (including Chapaev’s) troops in January 1919, it turned into real genocide. The instructions from Moscow, sent to the councils of the Urals, read: “§ 1. All those remaining in the ranks of the Cossack army after March 1 (1919) are declared outlaws and subject to merciless extermination. § 2. All defectors who defected to the Red Army after March 1 are subject to unconditional arrest. § 3. All families remaining in the ranks of the Cossack army after March 1 are declared arrested and hostages. § 4. In the event of the unauthorized departure of one of the families declared hostages, all families registered with this Council are subject to execution...” Zealous implementation of this instruction became the main task of Vasily Ivanovich. According to the Ural Cossack colonel Faddeev, in some areas Chapaev’s troops exterminated up to 98% of the Cossacks. “Chapay”’s special hatred of the Cossacks is evidenced by the commissar of his division, Furmanov, who is difficult to suspect of slander. According to him, Chapaev “rushed across the steppe like a plague man, and ordered not to take any prisoners. “All of them,” he says, “put an end to the scoundrels.” Furmanov also paints a picture of the mass robbery of the village of Slamikhinskaya: Chapaev’s men even took women’s underwear and children’s toys from civilians who did not have time to escape. Chapaev did not stop these robberies, but only sent them to the “general the cauldron”: “Don’t drag it, but collect it in a heap, and give it to your commander, what you took from the bourgeois.” The writer-commissar also captured Chapaev’s attitude towards educated people: “You are all bastards!” example of whose “exploits” some still want to raise a new generation of defenders of the Fatherland. Naturally, the Cossacks offered unusually fierce resistance to the Chapaevites: retreating, they burned their villages, poisoned the water, and entire families fled to the steppe. In the end, they took revenge on Chapaev for the death of his relatives and the devastation of his native land, defeating his headquarters during the Lbischensky raid of the Ural Army. Chapaev was mortally wounded. Cities bear the name of Chapaev (the former village of Lbischenskaya and the former Ivashchenkovsky plant in the Samara region), villages in Turkmenistan and the Kharkov region of Ukraine, and many streets, avenues, and squares throughout Russia. In Moscow, in the Sokol municipality, there is Chapaevsky Lane. The three hundred kilometer left tributary of the Volga was named the Chapaevka River. . Green representatives
Social revolutionary movement in Ukraine. Party affiliation - Social Revolutionaries. Goals and slogans: “Soviets without communists” "Democracy" “Against food appropriation!” Features: - There is no clear attachment to either white or red lack of a clear action program terror, riots, robberies Major performances: “Antonovschina” - 1920 Tambov province “Kronstadt mutiny” - sailors in Kronstadt in 1921 Requirements: - re-election of councils liquidation of surplus appropriation system freedom of speech and press "Makhnovshchina" Makhno Nestor Ivanovich (1888, village of Gulyaypole, Ekaterinoslav province - 1934, Paris) - participant in the civil war. Genus. in a peasant family. The early death of his father and poverty forced Makhno to leave primary school. He worked as a laborer for wealthy farmers, and in 1903 he became a laborer at an iron foundry. In 1906 he joined the anarchist-communist organization “Union of Poor Grain Growers,” participating in terrorist attacks and “expropriations” of the rich. He was arrested twice but was released. For the murder of a military official in 1908, Makhno was sentenced to death in 1910, but since at the time of the crime he was six months shy of coming of age (21 years old), P.A. Stolypin signed a pardon. Makhno served indefinite hard labor in the Butyrka prison in Moscow. Here Makhno sat with the anarchist P.A. Arshinov, who first introduced him to the theory of anarchism. Due to constant clashes with the prison administration, Makhno often sat in a punishment cell, where he suffered from consumption; In the prison hospital, one of his lungs was removed. Makhno used his time in prison for self-education. He was liberated by the February Revolution of 1917. Returning to Gulyai-Polye, he formed the “Black Guard” detachment, with which he carried out expropriations, and proclaimed “landowners, monasteries and state lands as public property.” During the rebellion of L.G. Kornilov Makhno was elected head of the Committee for the Salvation of the Revolution. and opposed the Provisional Government and the Constituent Assembly, solving the agrarian question through land seizures. October roar accepted favorably, like most of the peasants he protected. Makhno fought against the Central Rada of Ukraine and the German occupiers. In the spring of 1918 I was in Moscow and met with P.A. Kropotkin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, V.I. Lenin. Lenin made a great impression on Makhno, but Makhno also blamed him for the defeat of the anarchist organizations in Moscow. Having left for Gulyai Pole, Makhno led a detachment with which he successfully fought with the hetmanate, carrying out more than 120 raids. He became famous for his personal courage (he was wounded 14 times during the Civil War) and luck. In the army formed by Makhno, which by November 1918 numbered about 80 thousand people, representatives of almost all nationalities inhabiting southern Ukraine fought. After the defeat of the hetmanate and the Germans, Makhno fought with S.V. Petlyura, uniting in the 1st Trans-Dnieper division with detachments of P.E. Dybenko. When the Bolsheviks began to introduce surplus appropriation in the territories liberated from the Whites, and to use the confiscated lands to organize collective farms, Makhno said in February 1919: “If the Bolshevik comrades are coming from Great Russia to Ukraine to help us in the difficult fight against the counter-revolution, we must tell them: “Welcome.” , Dear friends! “If they come here with the goal of monopolizing Ukraine, we will tell them: “Hands off.” In April At the III Gulyai-Polye Congress, Makhno declared that Sov. the government changed the revolution, and the Communist Party usurped power and “protected itself with emergency measures.” In June, Makhno was declared Sov. power outside the law. In the fall, he again concluded an alliance with the Bolsheviks and, during the offensive of A.I. Denikin carried out a raid on the rear of the White Army, approaching Denikin’s headquarters in Taganrog. Was again declared an outlaw after refusing to obey I.V.'s orders. Stalin to oppose Poland. Believing that it was his task to protect the countryside from the city, to eliminate the exploitation of the peasants by anyone and to establish “true people’s power,” Makhno fought against all authorities and regimes that arose during the war. He took part in the fight against P.N. Wrangel, but hoped that the Red Army would fight with him for the “free Soviets.” The struggle against the “Bolshevik dictatorship” ended in the summer of 1921, when Makhno fled with the remnants of his people to Romania, and from there to Poland. Sov. the government demanded the extradition of Makhno. After Makhno's trial in Poland, he was acquitted and in 1924 he left Germany, then to France. Being seriously ill, he lived mainly on donations from anarchists. He left three-volume memoirs. Conclusion
The civil war was generated by a complex set of social contradictions, economic, political, psychological and other reasons and became the greatest disaster for Russia and the Russian people. The deep, systemic crisis of the Russian Empire ended with its collapse and the victory of the Bolsheviks, who, with the support of the masses, defeated their opponents in the civil war and were given the opportunity to put into practice their ideas about socialism and communism. The main struggle during the “great” civil war took place between the “reds” and the “whites”. But a third force was also very significant, acting under the slogan: “Beat the Reds until they turn white, beat the Whites until they turn red.” It went down in the history of the civil war under the name “greens” Each of these three camps had its own outstanding personalities, who, through their policies, determined the outcome of this war, who clearly knew their goal and went towards it, despite all the obstacles, who instilled confidence in the hearts of people and led them along. Among the whites, the “Supreme Ruler of Russia” Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich, who led a successful fight against the Bolsheviks in Siberia, the Urals and the Far East, stands out; Denikin Anton Ivanovich, who participated in the creation of the Volunteer Army, fought on the Don with the Bolsheviks and almost occupied Moscow; Kornilov Lavr Georgievich - the first commander of the Volunteer Army, participant in the “Ice” campaign. Despite the superiority of the Red army and their popularity among the people, the White representatives fought to the end and led like-minded people. In the Red Army, many senior military posts were filled with experienced, major tsarist military specialists and military leaders from the worker-peasant environment. Some of them turned out to be talented commanders: M.V. Frunze, M.N. Tukhachevsky, who won victories over Kolchak, Wrangel, and commanded the “red cavalry” S.M. Budyonny; IN AND. Chapaev, who acted with his division against the Western Army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak and captured Ufa. All were led by L.D. Trotsky is the People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet government. All of them made considerable efforts for the victory of Bolshevism and achieved their goal. “The main thing that the Bolsheviks managed to do was to ignite hope... even under existing conditions in Russia one can still feel the influence of the life-giving spirit of communism, the spirit of creative hope, the search for means to destroy injustice, tyranny, greed of everything that hinders the growth of the human spirit...” (B . Russell). The commanders I have presented are outstanding representatives of their camps, they have incredible charisma and the will to win, they force people to follow them. Their activities influenced not only the outcome of military operations, but also the entire society as a whole, determined the subsequent political structure of the country, which speaks of the enormous role of the individual in history. Bibliography war white Denikin red 1.Shikman A.P. Figures of Russian history. Biographical reference book. Moscow, 1997 .Valery Klaving, Russian Civil War: White Armies. Military-historical library. M., 2003. .Nikolay Rutych Biographical reference book of the highest ranks of the Volunteer Army and the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Materials on the history of the White movement M., 2002 .Mityurin D.V. Civil War: Whites and Reds. - SPb.: LLC "Publishing house "Polygon", 2004. - 282, p.: 16 p. ill. .The black book of names that have no place on the map of Russia. Comp. S.V. Volkov. M., “Posev”, 2004.
“Heroes of the Civil War” - Voloshin. The Civil War and its heroes. Denikin, N. N. Yudenich. Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich. Officers of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. Nicholas II on the Southwestern Front. Civil War 1918-1920 The crisis of the Russian Empire. Distorted ideas. Keller Fedor Arturovich. Support for Soviet power. Rodzianko.
“White Movement” - Restoration of a powerful, united and indivisible Russia. Kornilov Lavr Georgievich. Leaders of the white movement: WHITE MOVEMENT anti-Bolshevik movement during the Civil War in Russia. For the desecrated faith and insulted shrines. Yudenich. The ideological and organizational foundations of future white armies were laid.
“Civil War in Russia 1917” - Peasantry. The emergence of anti-Soviet governments. Anti-Soviet protests. Centers of resistance to Soviet power in 1919 Military-political measures of the Soviet Union. government. Stages of war. Support. Civil War in Russia (1917-1922). Results of the Civil War. Intervention. Forces opposing the Bolshevik power in 1919.
“The years of the Civil War in Russia” - Civil War. Summer-autumn 1918. The generals of the Russian army sincerely accepted the ideas of social revolution. White movement. Why did the Reds win? Spring - autumn 1920. Quantitative and qualitative superiority. Committee of the Constituent Assembly. Civil War. Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich.
“Russia during the Civil War” - Systematize the material. Perform a task. Wrangel. Voroshilov. Civil war in Russia. Terror. Intervention. Red Army. Kornilov. White Guard. Zeal. The main stages of the war. Left hand. Red commanders.
"Reds in the Civil War" - War with Poland. The first marshals of the Soviet Union. Find out the reasons for the Reds' victory in the civil war? Awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner and an honorary revolutionary weapon. In 1920 he took part in the assault on Perekop. They managed to mobilize economic and human resources for the needs of the front. Write an essay
The White movement in Russia is an organized military-political movement that was formed during the Civil War in 1917-1922. The White movement united political regimes that were distinguished by common socio-political and economic programs, as well as recognition of the principle of individual power (military dictatorship) on a national and regional scale, and a desire to coordinate military and political efforts in the fight against Soviet power.
Terminology
For a long time, the White movement was synonymous with the historiography of the 1920s. the phrase "general's counter-revolution". In this we can note its difference from the concept of “democratic counter-revolution”. Those belonging to this category, for example, the Government of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), the Ufa Directory (Provisional All-Russian Government) proclaimed the priority of collegial rather than individual management. And one of the main slogans of the “democratic counter-revolution” became: leadership and continuity from the All-Russian Constituent Assembly of 1918. As for the “national counter-revolution” (Central Rada in Ukraine, governments in the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, the Caucasus, Crimea), then they, unlike the White movement, put the proclamation of state sovereignty in the first place in their political programs. Thus, the White movement can rightfully be considered as one of the parts (but the most organized and stable) of the anti-Bolshevik movement on the territory of the former Russian Empire.
The term White Movement during the Civil War was used mainly by the Bolsheviks. Representatives of the White movement defined themselves as bearers of legitimate “national power”, using the terms “Russian” (Russian Army), “Russian”, “All-Russian” (Supreme Ruler of the Russian State).
Socially, the White movement proclaimed the unification of representatives of all classes of Russian society at the beginning of the twentieth century and political parties from monarchists to social democrats. Political and legal continuity from pre-February and pre-October 1917 Russia was also noted. At the same time, the restoration of previous legal relations did not exclude their significant reform.
Periodization of the White movement
Chronologically, 3 stages can be distinguished in the origin and evolution of the White movement:
First stage: October 1917 - November 1918 - formation of the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement
Second stage: November 1918 - March 1920 - Supreme Ruler of the Russian State A.V. Kolchak is recognized by other White governments as the military-political leader of the White movement.
Third stage: March 1920 - November 1922 - activity of regional centers on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire
Formation of the White Movement
The White movement arose in conditions of opposition to the policies of the Provisional Government and the Soviets (the Soviet “vertical”) in the summer of 1917. In preparation for the speech of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General L.G. Kornilov, both military (“Union of Army and Navy Officers”, “Union of Military Duty”, “Union of Cossack Troops”) and political (“Republican Center”, “Bureau of Legislative Chambers”, “Society for the Economic Revival of Russia”) structures took part.
The fall of the Provisional Government and the dissolution of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly marked the beginning of the first stage in the history of the White movement (November 1917-November 1918). This stage was distinguished by the formation of its structures and gradual separation from the general counter-revolutionary or anti-Bolshevik movement. The military center of the White movement became the so-called. “Alekseevskaya organization”, formed on the initiative of Infantry General M.V. Alekseev in Rostov-on-Don. From the point of view of General Alekseev, it was necessary to achieve joint actions with the Cossacks of the South of Russia. For this purpose, the South-Eastern Union was created, which included the military (“Alekseevskaya organization”, renamed after the arrival of General Kornilov in the Volunteer Army on the Don) and civil authorities (elected representatives of the Don, Kuban, Terek and Astrakhan Cossack troops, as well as the “Union mountaineers of the Caucasus").
Formally, the first white government could be considered the Don Civil Council. It included generals Alekseev and Kornilov, the Don ataman, cavalry general A.M. Kaledin, and among political figures: P.N. Milyukova, B.V. Savinkova, P.B. Struve. In their very first official statements (the so-called “Kornilov Constitution”, “Declaration on the Formation of the South-Eastern Union”, etc.) they proclaimed: an irreconcilable armed struggle against Soviet power and the convening of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly (on new elective grounds). The resolution of major economic and political issues was postponed until its convening.
Unsuccessful battles in January-February 1918 on the Don led to the retreat of the Volunteer Army to Kuban. A continuation of armed resistance was expected here. During the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign, General Kornilov died during the unsuccessful assault on Ekaterinodar. He was replaced as commander of the Volunteer Army by Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin. General Alekseev became the Supreme Leader of the Volunteer Army.
During the spring-summer of 1918, centers of counter-revolution were formed, many of which later became elements of the all-Russian White movement. In April-May, uprisings began on the Don. Soviet power was overthrown here, elections of local authorities were held and cavalry general P.N. became the military ataman. Krasnov. Coalition inter-party associations were created in Moscow, Petrograd and Kyiv, providing political support for the White movement. The largest of them were the liberal “All-Russian National Center” (VNTs), in which the majority were cadets, the socialist “Union of the Revival of Russia” (SVR), as well as the “Council of the State Unification of Russia” (SGOR), from representatives of the Bureau of Legislative Chambers of the Russian Empire , Union of Trade and Industrialists, Holy Synod. The All-Russian Scientific Center enjoyed the greatest influence, and its leaders N.I. Astrov and M.M. Fedorov headed the Special Meeting under the Commander of the Volunteer Army (later the Special Meeting under the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR)).
The issue of “intervention” should be considered separately. The assistance of foreign states and the Entente countries was of great importance for the formation of the White movement at this stage. For them, after the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, the war with the Bolsheviks was seen in the prospect of continuing the war with the countries of the Quadruple Alliance. Allied landings became centers of the White movement in the North. In Arkhangelsk in April, the Provisional Government of the Northern Region was formed (N.V. Tchaikovsky, P.Yu. Zubov, Lieutenant General E.K. Miller). The landing of allied troops in Vladivostok in June and the appearance of the Czechoslovak Corps in May-June became the beginning of the counter-revolution in the East of Russia. In the Southern Urals, back in November 1917, the Orenburg Cossacks, led by ataman Major General A.I., opposed Soviet power. Dutov. Several anti-Bolshevik government structures emerged in the East of Russia: the Ural Regional Government, the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia (later the Provisional Siberian (regional) Government), the Provisional Ruler in the Far East, Lieutenant General D.L. Croatian, as well as the Orenburg and Ural Cossack troops. In the second half of 1918, anti-Bolshevik uprisings broke out on the Terek, in Turkestan, where the Socialist Revolutionary Transcaspian regional government was formed.
In September 1918, at the State Conference held in Ufa, a Provisional All-Russian Government and a socialist Directory were elected (N.D. Avksentyev, N.I. Astrov, Lieutenant General V.G. Boldyrev, P.V. Vologodsky, N. .V. Tchaikovsky). The Ufa Directory developed a draft Constitution that proclaimed continuity from the Provisional Government of 1917 and the disbanded Constituent Assembly.
Supreme Ruler of the Russian State Admiral A.V. Kolchak
On November 18, 1918, a coup took place in Omsk, during which the Directory was overthrown. The Council of Ministers of the Provisional All-Russian Government transferred power to Admiral A.V. Kolchak, proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of the Russian State and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army and Navy.
Kolchak’s coming to power meant the final establishment of a regime of one-man rule on an all-Russian scale, relying on the structures of executive power (the Council of Ministers headed by P.V. Vologodsky), with public representation (the State Economic Conference in Siberia, Cossack troops). The second period in the history of the White movement began (from November 1918 to March 1920). The power of the Supreme Ruler of the Russian State was recognized by General Denikin, Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front, Infantry General N.N. Yudenich and the government of the Northern region.
The structure of the white armies was established. The most numerous were the forces of the Eastern Front (Siberian (Lieutenant General R. Gaida), Western (Artillery General M.V. Khanzhin), Southern (Major General P.A. Belov) and Orenburg (Lieutenant General A.I. Dutov) army). At the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919, the AFSR was formed under the command of General Denikin, troops of the Northern Region (Lieutenant General E.K. Miller) and the Northwestern Front (General Yudenich). Operationally, they were all subordinate to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Kolchak.
Coordination of political forces also continued. In November 1918, the Political Meeting of the three leading political associations of Russia (SGOR, VNTs and SVR) was held in Iasi. After the proclamation of Admiral Kolchak as Supreme Ruler, attempts were made to internationally recognize Russia at the Versailles Peace Conference, where the Russian Political Conference was created (chairman G.E. Lvov, N.V. Tchaikovsky, P.B. Struve, B.V. Savinkov, V. A. Maklakov, P.N. Milyukov).
In the spring and autumn of 1919, coordinated campaigns of the white fronts took place. In March-June, the Eastern Front advanced in diverging directions towards the Volga and Kama, to connect with the Northern Army. In July-October, two attacks on Petrograd by the North-Western Front were carried out (in May-July and in September-October), as well as a campaign against Moscow by the Armed Forces of Southern Russia (in July-November). But they all ended unsuccessfully.
By the fall of 1919, the Entente countries abandoned military support for the White movement (in the summer, a gradual withdrawal of foreign troops from all fronts began; until the fall of 1922, only Japanese units remained in the Far East). However, the supply of weapons, the issuance of loans and contacts with white governments continued without their official recognition (with the exception of Yugoslavia).
The program of the White movement, which was finally formed during 1919, provided for an “irreconcilable armed struggle against Soviet power”, after the liquidation of which, it was planned to convene an All-Russian National Constituent Assembly. The assembly was supposed to be elected in majoritarian districts on the basis of universal, equal, direct (in large cities) and two-stage (in rural areas) suffrage by secret ballot. The elections and activities of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917 were recognized as illegitimate, since they occurred after the “Bolshevik revolution”. The new Assembly had to resolve the issue of the form of government in the country (monarchy or republic), elect the head of state, and also approve projects of socio-political and economic reforms. Before the “victory over Bolshevism” and the convening of the National Constituent Assembly, the highest military and political power belonged to the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Reforms could only be developed, but not implemented (the principle of “non-decision”). In order to strengthen regional power, before the convening of the All-Russian Assembly, it was allowed to convene local (regional) assemblies, designed to be legislative bodies under individual rulers.
The national structure proclaimed the principle of “Unified, Indivisible Russia,” which meant the recognition of the actual independence of only those parts of the former Russian Empire (Poland, Finland, the Baltic republics) that were recognized by the leading world powers. The remaining state new formations on the territory of Russia (Ukraine, the Mountain Republic, the Caucasus republics) were considered illegitimate. For them, only “regional autonomy” was allowed. The Cossack troops retained the right to have their own authorities and armed formations, but within the framework of all-Russian structures.
In 1919, the development of all-Russian bills on agrarian and labor policy took place. Bills on agrarian policy boiled down to the recognition of peasant ownership of land, as well as “the partial alienation of landowners’ land in favor of peasants for ransom” (Declaration on the land issue of the governments of Kolchak and Denikin (March 1919)). Trade unions, the right of workers to an 8-hour working day, to social insurance, and to strikes were preserved (Declarations on the Labor Question (February, May 1919)). The property rights of former owners to city real estate, industrial enterprises and banks were fully restored.
It was supposed to expand the rights of local self-government and public organizations, while political parties did not participate in elections, they were replaced by inter-party and non-party associations (municipal elections in the south of Russia in 1919, elections of the State Zemstvo Council in Siberia in the fall of 1919).
There was also “white terror”, which, however, did not have the character of a system. Criminal liability was introduced (up to and including the death penalty) for members of the Bolshevik Party, commissars, employees of the Cheka, as well as workers of the Soviet government and military personnel of the Red Army. Opponents of the Supreme Ruler, “independents,” were also persecuted.
The White movement approved all-Russian symbols (restoration of the tricolor national flag, the coat of arms of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, the anthem “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion”).
In foreign policy, “loyalty to allied obligations”, “all treaties concluded by the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government”, “full representation of Russia in all international organizations” (statements of the Supreme Ruler of Russia and the Russian Political Conference in Paris in the spring of 1919) were proclaimed.
The regimes of the White movement, in the face of defeats at the fronts, evolved towards “democratization”. So, in December 1919 - March 1920. the rejection of dictatorship and an alliance with the “public” were proclaimed. This was manifested in the reform of political power in the south of Russia (dissolution of the Special Conference and the formation of the South Russian government, responsible to the Supreme Circle of the Don, Kuban and Terek, recognition of the de facto independence of Georgia). In Siberia, Kolchak proclaimed the convening of the State Zemstvo Council, endowed with legislative powers. However, it was not possible to prevent the defeat. By March 1920, the Northwestern and Northern fronts were liquidated, and the Eastern and Southern fronts lost most of their controlled territory.
Activities of regional centers
The last period in the history of the Russian White movement (March 1920 - November 1922) was distinguished by the activities of regional centers on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire:
- in Crimea (Ruler of the South of Russia - General Wrangel),
- in Transbaikalia (Ruler of the Eastern Outskirts - General Semenov),
- in the Far East (Ruler of the Amur Zemsky Territory - General Diterichs).
These political regimes sought to move away from the no-decision policy. An example was the activity of the Government of the South of Russia, headed by General Wrangel and former agricultural manager A.V. Krivoshein in Crimea, in the summer-autumn of 1920. Reforms began to be implemented, providing for the transfer of “seized” landowners’ land into ownership to the peasants and the creation of a peasant zemstvo. Autonomy of the Cossack regions, Ukraine and the North Caucasus was allowed.
The government of the Eastern outskirts of Russia, headed by Lieutenant General G.M. Semenov pursued a course of cooperation with the public by holding elections to the Regional People's Conference.
In Primorye in 1922, elections were held for the Amur Zemsky Council and the Ruler of the Amur Region, Lieutenant General M.K. Diterichs. Here, for the first time in the White movement, the principle of restoring the monarchy was proclaimed through the transfer of power of the Supreme Ruler of Russia to a representative of the Romanov dynasty. Attempts were made to coordinate actions with the rebel movements in Soviet Russia (“Antonovshchina”, “Makhnovshchina”, Kronstadt uprising). But these political regimes could no longer count on all-Russian status, due to the extremely limited territory controlled by the remnants of the white armies.
Organized military-political confrontation with Soviet power ceased in November 1922 - March 1923, after the occupation of Vladivostok by the Red Army and the defeat of the Yakut campaign of Lieutenant General A.N. Pepelyaev.
Since 1921, the political centers of the White movement moved to Abroad, where their final formation and political demarcation took place (“Russian National Committee”, “Meeting of Ambassadors”, “Russian Council”, “Parliamentary Committee”, “Russian All-Military Union”). In Russia, the White movement is over.
Main participants of the White movement
Alekseev M.V. (1857-1918)
Wrangel P.N. (1878-1928)
Gayda R. (1892-1948)
Denikin A.I. (1872-1947)
Drozdovsky M.G. (1881-1919)
Kappel V.O. (1883-1920)
Keller F.A. (1857-1918)
Kolchak A.V. (1874-1920)
Kornilov L.G. (1870-1918)
Kutepov A.P. (1882-1930)
Lukomsky A.S. (1868-1939)
May-Maevsky V.Z. (1867-1920)
Miller E.-L. K. (1867-1937)
Nezhentsev M.O. (1886-1918)
Romanovsky I.P. (1877-1920)
Slashchev Y.A. (1885-1929)
Ungern von Sternberg R.F. (1885-1921)
Yudenich N.N. (1862-1933)
Internal contradictions of the White movement
The white movement, which united in its ranks representatives of various political movements and social structures, could not avoid internal contradictions.
The conflict between military and civilian authorities was significant. The relationship between military and civil power was often regulated by the “Regulations on Field Command of Troops,” where civil power was exercised by the governor-general, dependent on the military command. In conditions of mobility of the fronts, the fight against the insurgent movement in the rear, the military sought to exercise the functions of civilian leadership, ignoring the structures of local self-government, resolving political and economic problems by order (the actions of General Slashchov in the Crimea in February-March 1920, General Rodzianko in Northwestern Front in the spring of 1919, martial law on the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1919, etc.). Lack of political experience and ignorance of the specifics of civil administration often led to serious mistakes and a decline in the authority of white rulers (the power crisis of Admiral Kolchak in November-December 1919, General Denikin in January-March 1920).
The contradictions between the military and civilian authorities reflected the contradictions between representatives of various political trends that were part of the White movement. The right (SGOR, monarchists) supported the principle of unlimited dictatorship, while the left (the Union of the Revival of Russia, Siberian regionalists) advocated “broad public representation” under military rulers. Of no small importance were disagreements between the right and the left on land policy (on the conditions for the alienation of landowners' land), on the labor issue (on the possibility of trade union participation in the management of enterprises), on local self-government (on the nature of the representation of socio-political organizations).
The implementation of the principle of “One, Indivisible Russia” caused conflicts not only between the White movement and new state formations on the territory of the former Russian Empire (Ukraine, the Caucasus republics), but also within the White movement itself. Serious friction arose between Cossack politicians who sought maximum autonomy (up to state sovereignty) and white governments (the conflict between Ataman Semenov and Admiral Kolchak, the conflict between General Denikin and the Kuban Rada).
Controversies also arose regarding foreign policy “orientation.” Thus, in 1918, many political figures of the White movement (P.N. Milyukov and the Kiev group of cadets, the Moscow Right Center) spoke about the need for cooperation with Germany to “eliminate Soviet power.” In 1919, a “pro-German orientation” distinguished the Civil Administration Council of the Western Volunteer Army regiment. Bermondt-Avalov. The majority in the White movement advocated cooperation with the Entente countries as Russia's allies in the First World War.
Conflicts that arose between individual representatives of political structures (leaders of the SGOR and the National Center - A.V. Krivoshein and N.I. Astrov), within the military command (between Admiral Kolchak and General Gaida, General Denikin and General Wrangel, General Rodzianko and General Yudenich, etc.).
The above contradictions and conflicts, although they were not irreconcilable and did not lead to a split in the White movement, nevertheless violated its unity and played a significant role (along with military failures) in its defeat in the Civil War.
Significant problems for the white authorities arose due to the weakness of governance in the controlled territories. So, for example, in Ukraine, before the occupation of the Armed Forces of the South by troops, it was replaced during 1917-1919. four political regimes (the power of the Provisional Government, the Central Rada, Hetman P. Skoropadsky, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic), each of which sought to establish its own administrative apparatus. This made it difficult to quickly mobilize into the White Army, fight the insurgent movement, implement the laws adopted, and explain to the population the political course of the White movement.
The White movement in Russia is an organized military-political movement that was formed during the Civil War in 1917-1922. Goals of the white movement in the civil war.
The White movement united political regimes that were distinguished by common socio-political and economic programs, as well as recognition of the principle of individual power (military dictatorship) on a national and regional scale.
The White movement arose in the context of opposition to the policies of the Provisional Government and the Soviets (the Soviet “vertical”) in the summer of 1917.
In preparation for the speech of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General L.G. Kornilov, both military (“Union of Army and Navy Officers”, “Union of Military Duty”, “Union of Cossack Troops”) and political (“Republican Center”, “Bureau of Legislative Chambers”, “Society for the Economic Revival of Russia”) structures took part.
Even in the Soviet Union, a myth arose that the White movement was monarchical: “The White army, the black baron are again preparing the royal throne for us.” In post-Soviet times, this myth was significantly supplemented by the fact that whites began to be considered bearers of Russian state patriotism.
They say that the whites saved Russia, and the “bloody reds” destroyed it. Although in reality the whites were ordinary mercenaries of Russian pro-Western capital and global capital. The Russian pro-Western, liberal-bourgeois elite of society (Februaryists), having overthrown the tsar and destroyed the autocracy, dreamed of making “sweet Europe” out of Russia, turning it into a peripheral part of European civilization.
However, it didn’t work out. The Westerners did not know Russia and the Russian people at all. The Russian Troubles began, aggravated by the destructive, stupid actions of the pro-Western Provisional Government.
The February Westernizers were quickly left with nothing and lost power, which was taken by the Bolsheviks in the center, and by nationalists and Cossacks on the outskirts. But they did not want to resign themselves and live quietly in Paris or Venice. In addition, there was an external order: the masters of the West wanted to destroy Russian civilization and the Russian superethnos, their main conceptual and geopolitical enemy, once and for all.
Therefore, the hasty creation of nationalist and white governments and armies began, which transferred the already ongoing Civil War (the peasant war began immediately after February, as well as the criminal revolution) to a new, more serious level. As a result, the whites acted as mercenaries of the masters of the West.
The mythical picture about the lieutenants and cornets who stood up to defend the Motherland, “for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland” and, in a moment free from fighting, sang “God Save the Tsar!” with tears in their eyes, is completely false.
It is not for nothing that one of the most prominent and talented white generals, Lieutenant General Ya. A. Slashchov-Krymsky, leaving the White Army and going over to the Red side, wrote an article: “Slogans of Russian patriotism in the service of France.”
This is the whole essence of the White movement - service to the masters of the West under the guise of the slogan of saving “one and indivisible Russia.” Hence the complete moral decay of the white elite, which understood or at the subconscious level felt its treacherous role towards the people.
The White movement, having accepted material and military assistance from the West and Japan in the form of direct intervention (invasion) of Western and Eastern occupiers, quickly lost even the external forms of the patriotic movement.
Thus, the anti-Soviet counter-revolution appeared as a pro-Western force leading to the loss of the integrity and independence of Russia, the complete destruction of Russian civilization and superethnos. Even the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev, when starting to create “Russian studies,” set a minimum condition for this idea: “to survive and continue the independent growth” of Russia. This is precisely the minimal, unchangeable and fundamental task of Russian statehood.
It is clear that the Russian people instantly saw through the vile essence of the White movement. This predetermined the loss of broad popular support and the defeat of the White Army. Even the majority of the officers of the former imperial army, who received a largely pro-Western liberal upbringing and education, but remained Russian at heart, realized this and supported the Reds, since they really advocated the restoration of Russian statehood and a great Russia.
Half of the generals and officers of the General Staff, the flower of the imperial army, began to serve in the Red Army. Tsarist generals and officers went to serve in the Red Army almost exclusively not for ideological, but for patriotic reasons.
The Bolsheviks had a project and program for the development of Russia as an independent power, and not a periphery of European (Western) civilization. General M.D. Bonch-Bruevich later wrote: “More by instinct than by reason, I was drawn to the Bolsheviks, seeing in them the only force capable of saving Russia from collapse and complete destruction.”
General A.A. perfectly showed the essence of the views of Russian generals and officers who joined the Red Army. Brusilov. The appeal “To all former officers, wherever they are,” which was addressed by a large group of former generals of the Russian army led by Brusilov on May 30, 1920, when a threatening situation arose on the Polish Front, said:
“At this critical historical moment in our people’s life, we, your old comrades in arms, appeal to your feelings of love and devotion to your homeland and appeal to you with an urgent request to forget all insults, no matter who and wherever inflicted them, and voluntarily go with full selflessness and willingness to join the Red Army and serve there not out of fear, but out of conscience, so that with our honest service, not sparing our lives, we can defend our dear Russia at all costs and prevent it from being plundered, because in the latter case it could be lost irretrievably , and then our descendants will rightly curse us and correctly blame us for the fact that, due to selfish feelings of class struggle, we did not use our military knowledge and experience, forgot our native Russian people and ruined our mother Russia.”
Even the anti-Soviet historian M. Nazarov in his book “The Mission of Russian Emigration” noted: “The orientation of the White movement towards the Entente made many fear that if the Whites win, the foreign forces behind them will subordinate Russia to their interests.” The Red Army was increasingly perceived as a force restoring statehood and sovereignty of Russia.
It is obvious that the anti-Russian and anti-state essence of the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal (in the future white) project had matured and appeared even before the start of the Troubles. The alliance with the West during the Civil War only finally revealed this essence. It was the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal forces (Februaryists) who crushed the Russian autocracy in February, which led to the collapse of the project and the Romanov empire.
Westerners dreamed of leading Russia along the Western path of development; for them, England and France were the ideal of a state, socio-economic structure. The elite of Russia - the rotten aristocracy along with the great princes, the nobility, the generals with part of the high officers, industrialists and bankers, the bourgeoisie and capitalists, the leaders of most political parties and movements, the liberal intelligentsia - dreamed of being part of the “enlightened West”.
Westerners were for the “market” and “democracy”, the full power of the “masters of money”, the owners. But their interests did not correspond to the national interests of Russia, the code-matrix of Russian civilization and people. This fundamental fault caused the Russian Troubles. In Russia, unrest begins when people's (national) interests are violated in the most vile way, which is what happened in 1917.
The essence of the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal (white) project, its anti-Russianism and anti-stateness are perfectly reflected in “Vekhi” and “From the Depths”, and by the writer V.V. Rozanov, and eyewitnesses of the “cursed days” - I. Bunin and M. Prishvin .
So, in Bunin’s “Cursed Days” on every page we see one passion - the expectation of the arrival of the Germans with their Ordnung and gallows. And if not the Germans, then at least any foreigners - as long as they quickly occupied Russia, drove the “cattle” who had raised their heads back into the mines and into corvée. “The newspapers talk about the beginning of the German offensive.
Everyone says: “Oh, if only!”... Yesterday we were at B. Quite a lot of people gathered - and all with one voice: the Germans, thank God, are advancing, took Smolensk and Bologoe... Rumors about some Polish legions, which also supposedly they are coming to save us... It’s as if the Germans are not going, as they usually do in war, fighting, conquering, but “simply going by rail” - to occupy St. Petersburg...
After yesterday evening's news that St. Petersburg had already been taken by the Germans, the newspapers were very disappointed... It was as if a German corps had entered St. Petersburg. Tomorrow there will be a decree on the denationalization of banks... I saw V.V. Heatedly reviled the allies: they are entering into negotiations with the Bolsheviks instead of going to occupy Russia..."
And further: “Rumors and rumors. St. Petersburg was taken by the Finns... Hindenburg is marching either on Odessa or on Moscow... We are still waiting for help from someone, from a miracle, from nature! Now we go every day to Nikolaevsky Boulevard to see if, God forbid, the French battleship, which for some reason looms in the roadstead and which still seems to be easier, has gone away.”
This is shown very strongly in M. A. Bulgakov’s play “Days of the Turbins,” written based on the novel “The White Guard.” The Turbin brothers and their friends are presented to us as bearers of Russian officer honor, as the type of people from whom we should take an example. But if we look at it in fairness, we see how the “white guard” - officers and cadets, shoot from rifles and machine guns at some “gray people” and serve the Germans and their puppet hetman.
What are they protecting? Here’s what: “And blows from lieutenant stacks in the faces, and shrapnel rapid fire on rebellious villages, backs slashed by the ramrods of Hetman Serdyuks, and receipts on pieces of paper in the handwriting of majors and lieutenants of the German army: “Give the Russian pig 25 marks for the pig bought from her.” . Good-natured, contemptuous laughter at those who came with such a receipt to the German headquarters in the City.”
And the “gray” people who were shot at by white officers, defending the hetman and the Germans and at the same time dreaming of an invasion of Russia by the French and Senegalese, are Russian soldiers and peasants, brought by the former “elite” - the masters - to the Civil War. And these officers are examples of honor and patriotism? Obviously not. Generals Brusilov and Bonch-Bruevich, Colonel Shaposhnikov, non-commissioned officers Rokossovsky and Chapaev are examples to follow and educate the younger generation in the spirit of love for the Motherland.
Thus, the Whites were ready to rely either on the Germans, like Ataman Krasnov, or on the French, British and Americans, like Denikin and Kolchak. And at this time, the Reds were feverishly recreating the Russian (Soviet) statehood and army in order to repel the interventionists and their local slaves.
The “Supreme Ruler” of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, whom representatives of the modern liberal public of Russia so loved (apparently, they saw “one of their own”), was a real “condottiere”, a mercenary of the West, installed by the masters of Great Britain and the USA.
He wrote about the Russian people literally as an extreme Russophobe during perestroika: “a maddened, wild (and devoid of semblance) people, unable to escape the psychology of slaves.” Under Kolchak’s rule in Siberia, such cruelties were committed against these people that peasant uprisings in the rear of the White Army became almost the main factor in the defeat of the Whites. In addition, Kolchak was a prominent February revolutionary, and with his fate the royal throne was destroyed.
In today's Russia they tried to make A.I. Denikin a national hero. They note that he did not help Hitler and wanted the victory of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War. But this is in his declining years. And during the Troubles, Denikin de facto served the masters of the West.
As the remarkable Russian writer and researcher V.V. Kozhinov noted during the Revolution and Civil War in Russia: “Anton Ivanovich Denikin was unconditionally subordinate to the West.” Biographer of A.I. Denikin D. Lekhovich defined the views of the leader of the White movement as the hope that “the Cadet Party will be able to lead Russia to a constitutional monarchy of the British type,” so that “the idea of loyalty to the allies [the Entente] acquired the character of a symbol of faith.”
It is impossible to separate the White movement and foreign intervention, as anti-Soviet researchers and supporters of the Whites often do. They are inextricably linked.
Without the intervention of Western powers and Japan, the Russian Civil War would not have taken on such proportions. The Bolsheviks would have crushed the pockets of resistance of the whites, nationalist separatists, Basmachi and gangs much faster and without such large casualties. Without Western supplies of weapons and materials, the white and national armies would not have been able to expand their activities.
- Tags: ,
Every Russian knows that in the Civil War of 1917-1922 there were two movements – “red” and “white” – that opposed each other. But among historians there is still no consensus on where it began. Some believe that the reason was Krasnov's March on the Russian capital (October 25); others believe that the war began when, in the near future, the commander of the Volunteer Army Alekseev arrived on the Don (November 2); There is also an opinion that the war began with Miliukov proclaiming the “Declaration of the Volunteer Army”, delivering a speech at the ceremony called the Don (December 27). Another popular opinion, which is far from unfounded, is the opinion that the Civil War began immediately after the February Revolution, when the entire society was split into supporters and opponents of the Romanov monarchy.
"White" movement in Russia
Everyone knows that “whites” are adherents of the monarchy and the old order. Its beginnings were visible back in February 1917, when the monarchy was overthrown in Russia and a total restructuring of society began. The development of the “white” movement took place during the period when the Bolsheviks came to power and the formation of Soviet power. They represented a circle of people dissatisfied with the Soviet government, who disagreed with its policies and principles of its conduct.The “Whites” were fans of the old monarchical system, refused to accept the new socialist order, and adhered to the principles of traditional society. It is important to note that the “whites” were often radicals; they did not believe that it was possible to agree on anything with the “reds”; on the contrary, they had the opinion that no negotiations or concessions were acceptable.
The “Whites” chose the Romanov tricolor as their banner. The white movement was commanded by Admiral Denikin and Kolchak, one in the South, the other in the harsh regions of Siberia.
The historical event that became the impetus for the activation of the “whites” and the transition to their side of most of the former army of the Romanov Empire was the rebellion of General Kornilov, which, although suppressed, helped the “whites” strengthen their ranks, especially in the southern regions, where, under the leadership of the general Alekseev began to gather enormous resources and a powerful, disciplined army. Every day the army was replenished with new arrivals, it grew rapidly, developed, hardened, and trained.
Separately, it is necessary to say about the commanders of the White Guards (that was the name of the army created by the “white” movement). They were unusually talented commanders, prudent politicians, strategists, tacticians, subtle psychologists, and skillful speakers. The most famous were Lavr Kornilov, Anton Denikin, Alexander Kolchak, Pyotr Krasnov, Pyotr Wrangel, Nikolai Yudenich, Mikhail Alekseev. We can talk about each of them for a long time; their talent and services to the “white” movement can hardly be overestimated.
The White Guards won the war for a long time, and even let down their troops in Moscow. But the Bolshevik army grew stronger, and they were supported by a significant part of the Russian population, especially the poorest and most numerous strata - workers and peasants. In the end, the forces of the White Guards were smashed to smithereens. For some time they continued to operate abroad, but without success, the “white” movement ceased.
"Red" movement
Like the “Whites,” the “Reds” had many talented commanders and politicians in their ranks. Among them, it is important to note the most famous, namely: Leon Trotsky, Brusilov, Novitsky, Frunze. These military leaders showed themselves excellently in battles against the White Guards. Trotsky was the main founder of the Red Army, which acted as the decisive force in the confrontation between the “whites” and the “reds” in the Civil War. The ideological leader of the “red” movement was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, known to every person. Lenin and his government were actively supported by the most massive sections of the population of the Russian State, namely the proletariat, the poor, land-poor and landless peasants, and the working intelligentsia. It was these classes that most quickly believed the tempting promises of the Bolsheviks, supported them and brought the “Reds” to power.The main party in the country became the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party of the Bolsheviks, which was later turned into a communist party. In essence, it was an association of intelligentsia, adherents of the socialist revolution, whose social base was the working classes.
It was not easy for the Bolsheviks to win the Civil War - they had not yet completely strengthened their power throughout the country, the forces of their fans were dispersed throughout the vast country, plus the national outskirts began a national liberation struggle. A lot of effort went into the war with the Ukrainian People's Republic, so the Red Army soldiers had to fight on several fronts during the Civil War.
Attacks by the White Guards could come from any direction on the horizon, because the White Guards surrounded the Red Army from all sides with four separate military formations. And despite all the difficulties, it was the “Reds” who won the war, mainly thanks to the broad social base of the Communist Party.
All representatives of the national outskirts united against the White Guards, and therefore they became forced allies of the Red Army in the Civil War. To attract residents of the national outskirts to their side, the Bolsheviks used loud slogans, such as the idea of a “united and indivisible Russia.”
The Bolshevik victory in the war was brought about by the support of the masses. The Soviet government played on the sense of duty and patriotism of Russian citizens. The White Guards themselves also added fuel to the fire, since their invasions were most often accompanied by mass robbery, looting, and violence in other forms, which could not in any way encourage people to support the “white” movement.
Results of the Civil War
As has already been said several times, victory in this fratricidal war went to the “reds”. The fratricidal civil war became a real tragedy for the Russian people. The material damage caused to the country by the war was estimated to be about 50 billion rubles - unimaginable money at that time, many times greater than the amount of Russia's external debt. Because of this, the level of industry decreased by 14%, and agriculture by 50%. According to various sources, human losses ranged from 12 to 15 million. Most of these people died from hunger, repression, and disease. During the hostilities, more than 800 thousand soldiers on both sides gave their lives. Also, during the Civil War, the balance of migration fell sharply - about 2 million Russians left the country and went abroad.