After the demise of the Soviet Union, the spirit of the Civil War is in the air. Dozens of local conflicts have brought countries to the brink of war: in Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, Ukraine. All these regional clashes require contemporary politicians of all states to learn from past mistakes in the bloody Civil War of 1917-1922. and prevent their repetition in the future.

Learning facts about the Russian Civil War, it is worth noting the moment that it is possible to judge it only unilaterally: the coverage of events in literature occurs either from the position of the white movement or the red one.

The reason for this lay in the desire of the Bolshevik government to create a long time interval between the October Revolution and the Civil War, so that it would be impossible to determine their interdependence, and to lay responsibility for the war on intervention from outside.

Causes of the bloody events of the Civil War

Russian Civil War was an armed struggle that flared up between different groups of the population, which initially had a regional, and then acquired a nationwide character. The reasons that provoked the Civil War were the following:

Members of the Civil War

As noted above, G civil war is an armed clash of different political forces, social and ethnic groups, specific individuals fighting for their ideas.

Stages of the Russian Civil War 1917-1922 (briefly)

Most of today's Russian historians believe that the initial stage of the local conflict is the clashes in Petrograd that took place during the October armed uprising, and the final stage is the defeat of the last significant armed groups of the White Guards and interventionists during the victorious battle for Vladivostok in October 1922.

According to some researchers, the beginning of the Civil War is associated with the battles in Petrograd, when the February Revolution took place. A preparatory period from February to November 1917, when the first dismemberment of society into different groups took place, they are singled out separately.

In the years 1920-1980, there were discussions that did not cause much controversy about milestones of the Civil War isolated by Lenin, which included the “Triumphal March of Soviet Power”, which took place from October 25, 1917 to March 1918. Another part of the authors is associated with Civil war is only time when the most intense military battles took place - from May 1918 to November 1920.

In the Civil War, three chronological stages can be distinguished, which have significant differences in the intensity of military battles, the composition of the participants and the conditions of the foreign policy situation.

It is useful to know: who are they, their role in the history of the USSR.

First stage (October 1917 - November 1918)

During this period, the creation and the formation of full-fledged armies of opponents of the conflict, as well as the formation of the main fronts of confrontation between the conflicting parties. When the Bolsheviks came to power, the White movement began to take shape, whose mission was to destroy the new regime and, in Denikin's words, to restore health to "the country's weak, poisoned organism."

Civil war at this stage gained momentum against the backdrop of the ongoing world war, which led to the adoption active participation military formations of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente in the struggle inside Russia of political and armed groups. The initial hostilities can be described as local clashes that did not lead to real success for either side, eventually developing into a large-scale war. According to the former head of the foreign policy department of the Provisional Government, Milyukov, this stage was a general struggle of forces opposing both the Bolsheviks and the revolutionaries.

Second stage (November 1918 - April 1920)

Characterized by major battles between the Red and White armies and a turning point in the Civil War. This chronological stage stands out due to the sudden decrease in the intensity of hostilities carried out by the interventionists. This was due to the end of the World War and the withdrawal of almost the entire contingent of foreign military groups from Russian territory. Military operations, the scale of which covered the entire territory of the country, first brought victories to the whites, and then to the reds. The latter defeated the enemy's military formations and took control of a large territory of Russia.

Third stage (March 1920 - October 1922)

During this period, significant clashes took place on the outskirts of the country and ceased to be a direct threat to the Bolshevik government.

In April 1920, Poland launched a military campaign against Russia. In May, the Poles were Kiev was captured, which was only a temporary success. The Western and Southwestern fronts of the Red Army organized a counteroffensive, but due to poor preparation, they began to suffer losses. The warring parties were no longer able to conduct military operations, therefore, in March 1921, peace was concluded with the Poles, according to which they received part of Ukraine and Belarus.

At the same time as the Soviet-Polish battles, there was a struggle with the whites in the south and in the Crimea. The fighting continued until November 1920, when the Reds completely took over the Crimean peninsula. With the taking Crimea in the European part of Russia the last white front has been eliminated. The military question ceased to occupy a dominant place in the affairs of Moscow, but the battle on the outskirts of the country lasted for some more time.

In the spring of 1920, the Red Army reached the Trans-Baikal District. Then the Far East was under the control of Japan. Therefore, in order to avoid clashes with it, the Soviet leadership assisted in the creation in April 1920 of a legally independent state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER). After a short period of time, the FER army began hostilities against the whites, who were supported by the Japanese. In October 1922, Vladivostok was occupied by the Reds., completely cleared of the White Guards and the interventionists of the Far East, which is displayed on the map.

The reasons for the success of the Reds in the war

Among the main reasons that brought the Bolsheviks victory are the following:

Results and consequences of the Civil War

It is worth noting, that a victorious outcome for the Soviet government did not bring peace to Russia. Among the results, it is worth highlighting the following:

It is important that the Civil War of 1917-1922. and remains one of the most important events in Russian history. The events of those times left an unforgettable imprint in the memory of people. The consequences of that war can be traced in various spheres of life and modern society ranging from political to cultural.

works, covering the events of the Civil War, have found their reflection not only in historical literature, scientific articles and documentary publications, but also in feature cinema, theatrical and musical creativity. It is worth mentioning that there are more than 20 thousand books and scientific works on the subject of the Civil War.

So, summing up all of the above, it is worth noting that contemporaries have ambiguous and often distorted visions regarding this tragic page in Russian history. There are supporters of both the White movement and the Bolshevik movement, but often the history of that time is presented in such a way that people are imbued with sympathy even for bandit groups that bring only destruction.

The goals of the White movement were: the liberation of Russia from the Bolshevik dictatorship, the unity and territorial integrity of Russia, the convening of a new Constituent Assembly to determine the state structure of the country.

Contrary to popular belief, the monarchists were only a small part of the White movement. The White movement was made up of forces heterogeneous in their political composition, but united in the idea of ​​rejection of Bolshevism. Such was, for example, the Samara government, "Komuch", in which representatives of the left parties played a large role.

A big problem for Denikin and Kolchak was the separatism of the Cossacks, especially the Kuban. Although the Cossacks were the most organized and worst enemies of the Bolsheviks, they sought, first of all, to liberate their Cossack territories from the Bolsheviks, hardly obeyed the central government and were reluctant to fight outside their lands.

Hostilities

Wrestling in the South of Russia

The core of the White movement in southern Russia was the Volunteer Army, created under the leadership of Generals Alekseev and Kornilov in Novocherkassk. The region of the initial actions of the Volunteer Army was the Donskoy Region and the Kuban. After the death of General Kornilov during the siege of Yekaterinodar, the command of the white forces passed to General Denikin. In June 1918, the 8,000-strong Volunteer Army began its second campaign against the Kuban, which had completely rebelled against the Bolsheviks. Having defeated the Kuban grouping of the Reds as part of three armies, the volunteers and Cossacks take Ekaterinodar on August 17, and by the end of August they completely clear the territory of the Kuban army from the Bolsheviks (see also Deployment of the war in the South).

In the winter of 1918-1919, Denikin's troops established control over the North Caucasus, defeating and destroying the 90,000-strong 11th Red Army operating there. Having repulsed the offensive of the Southern Front of the Reds (100 thousand bayonets and sabers) in the Donbass and Manych in March-May, on May 17, 1919, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (70 thousand bayonets and sabers) launched a counteroffensive. They broke through the front and, having inflicted a heavy defeat on the units of the Red Army, by the end of June captured the Donbass, Crimea, June 24 - Kharkov, June 27 - Yekaterinoslav, June 30 - Tsaritsyn. On July 3, Denikin set his troops the task of capturing Moscow.

During the attack on Moscow (for details, see Denikin's campaign against Moscow) in the summer and autumn of 1919, the 1st Corps of the Volunteer Army under the command of General. Kutepov took Kursk (September 20), Orel (October 13) and began moving to Tula. October 6, parts of the gene. Skins occupied Voronezh. However, White did not have enough strength to develop success. Since the main provinces and industrial cities of central Russia were in the hands of the Reds, the latter had an advantage both in the number of troops and in weapons. In addition, Makhno, having broken through the front of the Whites in the Uman region, with his raid in Ukraine in October 1919, destroyed the rear of the All-Union Socialist League and diverted significant forces of the Volunteer Army from the front. As a result, the attack on Moscow failed and, under the onslaught of the superior forces of the Red Army, Denikin's troops began to retreat to the south.

On January 10, 1920, the Reds occupied Rostov-on-Don, a major center that opened the way to the Kuban, and on March 17, 1920, Yekaterinodar. The Whites fought back to Novorossiysk, and from there they crossed by sea to the Crimea. Denikin resigned and left Russia (for more details, see Battle of the Kuban).

Thus, by the beginning of 1920, Crimea turned out to be the last bastion of the White movement in southern Russia (for more details, see Crimea - the last bastion of the White movement). The command of the army was taken by Gen. Wrangell. The number of Wrangel's army in the middle of 1920 was about 25 thousand people. In the summer of 1920, the Russian army of Wrangel launched a successful offensive in Northern Tavria. In June, Melitopol was occupied, significant Red forces were defeated, in particular, the cavalry corps of Zhloba was destroyed. In August, an amphibious landing on the Kuban was undertaken, under the command of Gen. S. G. Ulagaya, however, this operation ended in failure.

On the northern front of the Russian army throughout the summer of 1920, stubborn battles were going on in Northern Tavria. Despite some successes of the Whites (Alexandrovsk was occupied), the Reds, in the course of stubborn battles, occupied a strategic foothold on the left bank of the Dnieper near Kakhovka, creating a threat to Perekop.

The position of the Crimea was facilitated by the fact that in the spring and summer of 1920 large Red forces were diverted to the west, in the war with Poland. However, at the end of August 1920, the Red Army near Warsaw was defeated, and on October 12, 1920, the Poles signed an armistice with the Bolsheviks, and Lenin's government threw all its forces into the fight against the White Army. In addition to the main forces of the Red Army, the Bolsheviks managed to win over Makhno's army, which also took part in the storming of the Crimea. The location of the troops at the beginning of the Perekop operation (on November 5, 1920)

To storm the Crimea, the Reds pulled together huge forces (up to 200 thousand people against 35 thousand for the Whites). The attack on Perekop began on 7 November. The battles were distinguished by extraordinary tenacity on both sides and were accompanied by unprecedented losses. Despite the gigantic superiority in manpower and weapons, the Red troops could not break the defense of the Crimean defenders for several days, and only after, having forded the shallow Chongar Strait, the units of the Red Army and Makhno’s allied detachments entered the rear of the main positions of the Whites (see. diagram), and on November 11, the Makhnovists under Karpova Balka defeated the cavalry corps of Borbovich, the defense of the whites was broken through. The Red Army broke into the Crimea. Wrangel's army and many civilian refugees on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet were evacuated to Constantinople. The total number of those who left the Crimea was about 150 thousand people.

Workers' and Peasants' Red Army

The Red Army, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (Red Army) - the official name of the Ground Forces and the Air Force, which, together with the Navy, Border Troops, Internal Guard Troops and the State Escort Guard, made up the Armed Forces of the USSR from January 15, 1918 to February 1946. February 23, 1918 is considered the birthday of the Red Army - the day when the German offensive on Petrograd was stopped and the armistice was signed (see Defender of the Fatherland Day). The first leader of the Red Army was Leon Trotsky.

Since February 1946 - the Soviet Army, the term "Soviet Army" meant all types of the Armed Forces of the USSR, except for the Navy.

The size of the Red Army has fluctuated over time, from the largest army in history in the 1940s, until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The size of the People's Liberation Army of China at some periods exceeded the size of the Red Army.

Intervention

Intervention is the military intervention of foreign states in the civil war in Russia.

The beginning of the intervention

Immediately after the October Revolution, during which the Bolsheviks came to power, the "Decree on Peace" was announced - Soviet Russia withdrew from the First World War. The territory of Russia broke up into several territorial-national formations. Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, the Don and Transcaucasia were occupied by German troops.

Under these conditions, the Entente countries, which continued the war with Germany, began to land their troops in the North and East of Russia. On December 3, 1917, a special conference was held with the participation of the United States, England, France and their allied countries, at which a decision was made on military intervention. On March 1, 1918, the Murmansk Soviet sent a request to the Council of People's Commissars, asking in what form it was possible to accept military assistance from the allies, proposed by the British Rear Admiral Kemp. Kemp suggested landing British troops in Murmansk to protect the city and the railway from possible attacks by the Germans and White Finns from Finland. In response, Trotsky, who served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, sent a telegram.

On March 6, 1918, a detachment of 150 British marines with two guns landed from the English battleship Glory in Murmansk. This was the beginning of the intervention. The next day, the British cruiser Cochran appeared on the Murmansk roadstead, on March 18 - the French cruiser Admiral Ob, and on May 27 - the American cruiser Olympia.

Continued intervention

On June 30, the Murmansk Soviet, with the support of the interventionists, decided to break off relations with Moscow. On March 15-16, 1918, a military conference of the Entente was held in London, at which the question of intervention was discussed. In the conditions of the beginning of the German offensive on the western front, it was decided not to send large forces to Russia. In June, another 1,500 British and 100 American soldiers landed in Murmansk.

August 1, 1918 British troops landed in Vladivostok. On August 2, 1918, with the help of a squadron of 17 warships, a 9,000-strong Entente detachment landed in Arkhangelsk. Already on August 2, the interventionists, with the help of white forces, captured Arkhangelsk. In fact, the invaders were the masters. They established a colonial regime; declared martial law, introduced courts-martial, during the occupation they took out 2,686 thousand pounds of various cargoes totaling over 950 million rubles in gold. The entire military, commercial and fishing fleet of the North became the prey of the interventionists. American troops performed the functions of punishers. Over 50 thousand Soviet citizens (more than 10% of the total controlled population) were thrown into the prisons of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Pechenga, Iokanga. Only in the Arkhangelsk provincial prison, 8 thousand people were shot, 1020 died of hunger, cold and epidemics. Due to the lack of prison space, the battleship Chesma, plundered by the British, was turned into a floating prison. All interventionist forces in the North were under British command. The commander was first General Poole, and then General Ironside.

On August 3, the US War Department orders General Graves to intervene in Russia and send the 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments to Vladivostok, as well as volunteers from the 13th and 62nd Graves Regiments in California. In total, the United States landed about 7,950 soldiers in the East and about 5,000 in northern Russia. According to incomplete data, the United States spent more than $25 million just on the maintenance of its troops - without a fleet and help to the whites. At the same time, the US Consul in Vladivostok, Caldwell, is informed: "The government has officially committed itself to helping Kolchak with equipment and food ...". The United States transfers to Kolchak loans issued and unused by the Provisional Government in the amount of $ 262 million, as well as weapons in the amount of $ 110 million. In the first half of 1919, Kolchak received more than 250 thousand rifles, thousands of guns and machine guns from the USA. The Red Cross supplies 300 thousand sets of linen and other property. On May 20, 1919, 640 wagons and 11 steam locomotives were sent to Kolchak from Vladivostok, on June 10 - 240,000 pairs of boots, on June 26 - 12 steam locomotives with spare parts, on July 3 - two hundred guns with shells, on July 18 - 18 steam locomotives, etc. This just a few facts. However, when in the fall of 1919 rifles purchased by the Kolchak government in the USA began to arrive in Vladivostok on American ships, Graves refused to send them further by rail. He justified his actions by saying that the weapon could fall into the hands of units of Ataman Kalmykov, who, according to Graves, with the moral support of the Japanese, was preparing to attack American units. Under pressure from other allies, he nevertheless sent weapons to Irkutsk.

After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, German troops were withdrawn from the territory of Russia and at some points (Sevastopol, Odessa) were replaced by the troops of the Entente.

In total, among the participants in the intervention in the RSFSR and Transcaucasia, there are 14 states. Among the interventionists were France, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Poland, Romania, and others. The interventionists either sought to seize part of Russian territory (Romania, Japan, Turkey), or to obtain significant economic privileges from the Whites supported by them (England, the United States, France, etc.). ). So, for example, on February 19, 1920, Prince Kurakin and General Miller, in exchange for military assistance, gave the British the right to exploit all the natural resources of the Kola Peninsula for 99 years. The goals of different interventionists were often opposite to each other. For example, the United States opposed Japan's attempts to annex the Russian Far East.

On August 18, 1919, 7 British torpedo boats attacked the ships of the Red Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt. They torpedoed the battleship "Andrew the First-Called" and the old cruiser "Memory of Azov".

The interventionists practically did not engage in battles with the Red Army, limiting themselves to supporting white formations. But the supply of weapons and equipment to whites was also often fictitious. AI Kuprin wrote in his memoirs about the supply of Yudenich's army by the British.

In January 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, the Allies decided to abandon their plans for intervention. A major role in this was played by the fact that the Soviet representative Litvinov, at a meeting with the American diplomat Bucket, held in January 1919 in Stockholm, announced the readiness of the Soviet government to pay pre-revolutionary debts, provide the Entente countries with concessions in Soviet Russia, and recognize the independence of Finland, Poland and the countries Transcaucasia in the event of termination of the intervention. Lenin and Chicherin conveyed the same proposal to the American representative Bullitt when he arrived in Moscow. The Soviet government clearly had more to offer the Entente than its opponents. In the summer of 1919, 12 thousand British, American and French troops stationed in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk were evacuated from there.

By 1920, the interventionists left the territory of the RSFSR. Only in the Far East did they hold out until 1922. The last regions of the USSR liberated from the interventionists were Wrangel Island (1924) and Northern Sakhalin (1925).

List of powers that took part in the intervention

The most numerous and well-motivated were the troops of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain and Japan, and Poland. The personnel of the other powers poorly understood the need for their presence in Russia. In addition, French troops by 1919 are facing the danger of revolutionary ferment under the influence of events in Russia.

Significant contradictions were observed between the various interventionists; after the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the war, their units were withdrawn, in addition, there were noticeable frictions in the Far East between the Japanese and British-American interventionists.

Central Powers

German Empire

• Part of European Russia

  the Baltics

  Austro-Hungarian Empire

  From 1964 to 1980 Kosygin was chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers.

  Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Gromyko was Minister of Foreign Affairs.

  After the death of Brezhnev, Andropov took over the leadership of the country. Gorbachev was the first president of the USSR. Sakharov - Soviet scientist, nuclear physicist, creator of the hydrogen bomb. Active fighter for human and civil rights, pacifist, laureate Nobel Prize, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

  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.

  The leaders of European states who contributed to the improvement of relations with the USSR in the 80s: Thatcher.

  Terminological dictionary

  Anarchism- a political theory, the purpose of which is the establishment of anarchy (Greek αναρχία - anarchy), in other words, the creation of a society in which individuals freely cooperate as equals. As such, anarchism opposes any form of hierarchical control and domination.

  Entente(French entente - consent) - the military-political bloc of England, France and Russia, otherwise called the "Triple Consent"; formed mainly in 1904-1907 and completed the delimitation of the great powers on the eve of the First World War. The term originated in 1904 originally to refer to the Anglo-French alliance, with the expression l'entente cordiale ("cordial agreement") in memory of the short Anglo-French alliance in the 1840s, which bore the same name.

  Bolshevik- a member of the left (revolutionary) wing of the RSDLP after the party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Subsequently, the Bolsheviks separated into a separate party of the RSDLP (b). The word "Bolshevik" reflects the fact that Lenin's supporters were in the majority in the elections of the leading bodies at the second party congress in 1903.

  Budyonovka- a Red Army cloth helmet of a special pattern, a uniform headdress for servicemen of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

  White army, or White movement(the names “White Guard”, “White Cause” are also used) - the collective name of political movements, organizations and military formations that opposed the Bolsheviks during the Civil War in Russia.

  Blockade- actions aimed at isolating an object by cutting off its external links. Military blockade Economic blockade Siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War.

  Great Patriotic War (WWII)- Soviet Union 1941-1945 - the war of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and its European allies (Hungary, Italy, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia); the most important and decisive part of the Second World War.

  All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), the highest legislative, administrative and controlling body of state power of the RSFSR in 1917-1937. He was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and acted in the periods between congresses. Before the formation of the USSR, it also included members from the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR, who were elected at the republican congresses of Soviets.

  State Defense Committee- an emergency management body created during the Great Patriotic War in the USSR.

  GOELRO(abbreviated from the State Commission for the Electrification of Russia) - a body created to develop a project for the electrification of Russia after the revolution of 1917. The abbreviation is often also deciphered as the State Plan for the Electrification of Russia, that is, the product of the GOELRO commission, which became the first long-term plan for the development of the economy, adopted and implemented in Russia after the revolution.

  Decree(lat. decretum resolution from decernere - to decide) - a legal act, a decision of an authority or official.

  Intervention- military intervention of foreign states in the civil war in Russia.

  Committee of the Poor (Combed)- an organ of Soviet power in rural areas during the years of "War Communism". Were created by decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 1) the distribution of bread, basic necessities and agricultural implements; 2) assisting local food authorities in seizing grain surpluses from the hands of the kulaks and the rich, and the interest of the Kombeds was obvious, because the more they took away, the more they themselves had from it.

  communist party Soviet Union(CPSU)- the ruling political party in the Soviet Union. Founded in 1898 as the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). The Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP - RSDLP (b) played a decisive role in the October Revolution of 1917, which led to the formation of a socialist system in Russia. Since the mid-1920s, after the introduction of the one-party system, the Communist Party has been the only party in the country. Despite the fact that the party did not formally form a party government, its actual ruling status as the leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the one-party system of the USSR were legally enshrined in the Constitution of the USSR. The party was dissolved and banned in 1991, however, on July 9, 1992, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU was held, and on October 10, 1992, the XX All-Union Conference of the CPSU, and then the Organizing Committee was created to hold the XXIX Congress of the CPSU. The 29th Congress of the CPSU (March 26-27, 1993, Moscow) transformed the CPSU into the SKP-CPSU (Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union). At present, the SKP-CPSU rather plays the role of a coordinating and information center, and this is due both to the positions of a number of leaders of individual communist parties, and to the objective conditions of the growing disintegration and disunity of the former Soviet republics.

  Comintern- Communist International, 3rd International - in 1919-1943. An international organization that united the communist parties of various countries. Founded by 28 organizations on the initiative of the RCP(b) and personally Vladimir Ilyich Lenin for the development and dissemination of the ideas of revolutionary international socialism, as opposed to the reformist socialism of the Second International, the final break with which was caused by the difference in positions regarding the First World War and the October Revolution in Russia. After Stalin came to power in the USSR, the organization served as a conductor of the interests of the USSR, as Stalin understood them.

  Manifesto(from late Latin manifestum - appeal) 1) A special act of the head of state or the highest body of state power, addressed to the population. Accepted in connection with any important political event, solemn date, etc. 2) Appeal, declaration of a political party, public organization, containing a program and principles of activity. 3) A written statement of the literary or artistic principles of any direction or group in literature and art.

  People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD)- central government body Soviet state(RSFSR, USSR) to combat crime and maintain public order in 1917-1946, later renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

  Nationalization- transfer of land, industrial enterprises, banks, transport and other property belonging to private individuals or joint-stock companies into the ownership of the state. It can be carried out through gratuitous expropriation, full or partial redemption.

  Insurgent Army of Ukraine- armed formations of anarchist peasants in Ukraine in 1918 - 1921 during the Civil War in Russia. Better known as "Makhnovists"

  Red Army, Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army(Red Army) - the official name of the Ground Forces and Air Force, which, together with the Navy, Border Troops, Internal Security Forces and the State Escort Guard, made up the Armed Forces of the USSR from January 15, 1918 to February 1946. February 23, 1918 is considered the birthday of the Red Army - the day when the German offensive on Petrograd was stopped and the armistice was signed (see Defender of the Fatherland Day). The first leader of the Red Army was Leon Trotsky.

  Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (SNK, Council of People's Commissars)- from July 6, 1923 to March 15, 1946, the highest executive and administrative (in the first period of its existence also legislative) body of the USSR, its government (in each union and autonomous republic there was also a Council of People's Commissars, for example, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR).

  Revolutionary military council(Revolutionary Military Council, RVS, R.V.S.) - the highest collegial body of military power and political leadership of the armies, fronts, fleets of the Armed Forces of the RSFSR in 1918-1921.

  Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate (Rabkrin, RKI)- the system of authorities dealing with issues of state control. The system was headed by the People's Commissariat

  Trade unions (trade unions)- a voluntary public association of citizens connected by common interests by the nature of their activities in production, in the service sector and culture. The association is created with the aim of representing and protecting the social and labor rights and interests of the participants.

  Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(until the spring of 1917: Central Committee of the RSDLP; 1917-1918 Central Committee of the RSDLP (b); 1918-1925 Central Committee of the RCP (b); 1925-1952 Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks) - the highest party body in the intervals between party congresses. The record number of members of the Central Committee of the CPSU (412 members) was elected at the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU (1990).

The polarization of society, the bloody confrontation between the Reds and the Whites in their desire to seize power, as well as the radical redistribution of property, were the essence and meaning of the Civil War in Russia. The drama of this war was expressed in the unnatural confrontation of people.

Announcement: in a revolution, they first ask, ask, convince, and then they kill for disagreeing. Civil War- the war of citizens of one country with each other because of the difference in views on the future.

Russia's exit from World War I.

Dispersal of the Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks in January 1918 as the destruction of democracy in Russia.

The Bolsheviks began to take over all private enterprises, inflicting huge losses on the bourgeoisie.

Foreign capitalists and bankers suffered huge losses. The Bolsheviks refused to pay their debts.

The cruel agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks. Violation of the Land Decree.

All parties refused to cooperate with the Bolsheviks.

1918 – 1922 - civil war in Russia.

Intervention- invasion of foreign armies into Russia. Foreigners returned their armies home when their soldiers began to support the ideas of the Bolsheviks.

Red Army- supporters of the Bolsheviks (Frunze, Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Kamenev).

white army- opponents of the Bolsheviks (Kolchak, Kornilov, Denikin, Wrangel).

The course of the war:

Until 1920, a war was waged with Kolchak's army in the Urals and Siberia. There was cruelty on all sides, but the Reds promised a new, free, happy life, and the whites promised the return of everything old. Soon the people stopped supporting Kolchak. He was betrayed and taken prisoner. He was shot. When there is a lot of blood, the truth cannot be seen. Until 1922, the whole of Siberia to Vladivostok was liberated from whites.

In 1919-1920, a war was waged on the Southern Front against Denikin's army. After stubborn fighting, the whites were defeated. Wrangel's army remained in the Crimea, but it soon lost. The Reds won with the support of the people.

Poland invaded in 1920. The Poles captured Kiev. The Red Army was victorious and reached the borders of Poland. The Bolsheviks wanted to establish Soviet power there, but were defeated. The Polish people did not want to help foreigners (Bolsheviks).

REASONS for the victory of the Red Army:

Among the white armies there was no unity in views and actions.

Weak, incomprehensible to the people, propaganda of the ideas of a future life by the whites.

The cruelty of the whites to the people forced them to go over to the side of the reds.

With the victory of the whites, Russia was supposed to be divided into parts and each would be commanded different countries. This could not be allowed.

The Reds owned the railroad network and industrial centers. They could quickly move the armed forces to the right sectors of the front.

The war became a national tragedy. More than 11 million people died. Devastation, poverty, hunger after World War I intensified even more in the civil war. Brother killed brother, father's son, cruelty grew. A civil war is the most terrible and unfair thing that can happen in a country.

The retribution of the people for mistakes is very heavy. We cannot repeat the mistakes of revolutions.

Good new day, dear site users!

The Civil War is certainly one of the most difficult events of the Soviet period. No wonder the days of this war in his diary entries, Ivan Bunin calls "cursed". Internal conflicts, the decline of the economy, the arbitrariness of the ruling party - all this greatly weakened the country and provoked strong foreign powers to take advantage of this situation in their interests.

Now let's take a closer look at this time.

Beginning of the Civil War

There is no consensus among historians on this issue. Some believe that the conflict began immediately after the revolution, that is, in October 1917. Others argue that the origin of the war should be attributed to the spring of 1918, when the intervention began and a strong opposition to the Soviet regime formed. There is also no consensus on who is the initiator of this fratricidal war: the leaders of the Bolshevik party or the former upper classes of society who lost their influence and property as a result of the revolution.

Causes of the Civil War

• The nationalization of land and industry aroused the discontent of those from whom this property began to be taken away, and turned the landowners and the bourgeoisie against Soviet power.
• The methods of the government to transform society did not correspond to the goals set when the Bolsheviks came to power, which alienated the Cossacks, kulaks, middle peasants and the democratic bourgeoisie
• The promised "dictatorship of the proletariat" actually turned out to be the dictatorship of only one state body - the Central Committee. The Decrees "On the Arrest of the Leaders of the Civil War" (November 1917) and on the "Red Terror" issued by him legally gave the Bolsheviks a free hand for the physical extermination of the opposition. This was the reason for the entry of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists into the Civil War.
• Also, the Civil War was accompanied by active foreign intervention. Neighboring states financially and politically helped to crack down on the Bolsheviks in order to return the confiscated property of foreigners and prevent the revolution from spreading widely. But at the same time, they, seeing that the country was "bursting at the seams", wanted to grab a "tidbit" for themselves.

1st stage of the Civil War

In 1918, anti-Soviet pockets were formed.

In the spring of 1918 foreign intervention began.

In May 1918, an uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps took place. The military overthrew Soviet power in the Volga region and Siberia. Then, in Samara, Ufa and Omsk, the power of the Cadets, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks was briefly established, whose goal was to return to the Constituent Assembly.

In the summer of 1918, a large-scale movement against the Bolsheviks, led by the Social Revolutionaries, unfolded in Central Russia. But it ended up only in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Soviet government in Moscow and activate the protection of the power of the Bolsheviks by strengthening the power of the Red Army.

The Red Army began its offensive in September 1918. In three months, she restored the power of the Soviets in the Volga and Ural regions.

Culmination of the Civil War

The end of 1918 - the beginning of 1919 - the period in which the White movement reached its peak.

Admiral A.V. Kolchak, seeking to unite with the army of General Miller for the subsequent joint offensive against Moscow, began military operations in the Urals. But the Red Army stopped their advance.

In 1919, the White Guards planned a joint strike from different directions: south (Denikin), east (Kolchak) and west (Yudenich). But he was not destined to come true.

In March 1919, Kolchak was stopped and moved to Siberia, where, in turn, the partisans and peasants supported the Bolsheviks to restore their power.

Both attempts at Yudenich's Petrograd Offensive ended in failure.

In July 1919, Denikin, having captured Ukraine, moved to Moscow, occupying Kursk, Orel and Voronezh along the way. But soon the Southern Front of the Red Army was created against such a strong enemy, which, with the support of N.I. Makhno defeated Denikin's army.

In 1919, the interventionists liberated the territories of Russia they had occupied.

End of the Civil War

In 1920, the Bolsheviks faced two main tasks: the defeat of Wrangel in the south and the resolution of the issue of establishing borders with Poland.

The Bolsheviks recognized the independence of Poland, but the Polish government made too great territorial demands. The dispute could not be resolved through diplomacy, and Poland seized Belarus and Ukraine in May. For resistance, the Red Army was sent there under the command of Tukhachevsky. The confrontation was defeated, and the Soviet-Polish war ended with the Peace of Riga in March 1921, signed on more favorable terms for the enemy: Western Belarus and Western Ukraine were ceded to Poland.

To destroy the army of Wrangel, the Southern Front was created under the leadership of M.V. Frunze. At the end of October 1920, Wrangel was defeated in Northern Tavria and was driven back to the Crimea. After the Red Army captured Perekop and captured the Crimea. In November 1920, the Civil War actually ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks.

Reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks

• The anti-Soviet forces sought to return to the previous order, to cancel the Decree on Land, which turned against them most of the population - the peasants.
• There was no unity among the opponents of Soviet power. All of them acted in isolation, which made them more vulnerable to the well-organized Red Army.
• The Bolsheviks united all the forces of the country to create a single military camp and a powerful Red Army
• The Bolsheviks had a single program understandable to the common people under the slogan of restoring justice and social equality.
• The Bolsheviks had the support of the largest segment of the population - the peasantry.

Well, now we offer you to consolidate the material covered with the help of a video lesson. To view it, just like on one of your social networks:

CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIA

Reasons and main stages civil war. After the abolition of the monarchy, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries feared civil war most of all, which is why they agreed to an agreement with the Cadets. As for the Bolsheviks, they regarded it as a "natural" continuation of the revolution. Therefore, many contemporaries of those events considered the armed seizure of power by the Bolsheviks to be the beginning of the civil war in Russia. Its chronological framework covers the period from October 1917 to October 1922, that is, from the uprising in Petrograd to the end of the armed struggle in the Far East. Until the spring of 1918, hostilities were mostly local in nature. The main anti-Bolshevik forces were either engaged in political struggle (moderate socialists) or were in the stage of organizational formation (white movement).

From the spring-summer of 1918, a fierce political struggle began to develop into the form of an open military confrontation between the Bolsheviks and their opponents: moderate socialists, some foreign formations, the White Army, and the Cossacks. The second - "frontal stage" stage of the civil war begins, which, in turn, can be divided into several periods.

Summer-autumn 1918 - the period of escalation of the war. It was caused by the introduction of a food dictatorship. This led to the discontent of the middle peasants and wealthy peasants and the creation of a mass base for the anti-Bolshevik movement, which, in turn, contributed to the strengthening of the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik "democratic counter-revolution" and the White armies.

December 1918 - June 1919 - the period of confrontation between the regular red and white armies. In the armed struggle against the Soviet regime, the white movement achieved the greatest success. One part of the revolutionary democracy agreed to cooperate with the Soviet government, the other fought on two fronts: with the White regime and the Bolshevik dictatorship.

The second half of 1919 - autumn 1920 - the period of the military defeat of the Whites. The Bolsheviks somewhat softened their position in relation to the middle peasantry, declaring "the need for a more attentive attitude towards their needs." The peasantry bowed to the side of the Soviet government.

The end of 1920 - 1922 - the period of the "small civil war". Deployment of mass peasant uprisings against the policy of "war communism". Growing dissatisfaction of the workers and the performance of the Kronstadt sailors. The influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks increased again. All this forced the Bolsheviks to retreat, to introduce a new economic policy, which contributed to the gradual fading of the civil war.

The first outbreaks of the civil war. Formation of the white movement.

At the head of the anti-Bolshevik movement on the Don stood Ataman A. M. Kaledin. He declared the insubordination of the Don Cossacks to Soviet power. Everyone dissatisfied with the new regime began to flock to the Don. At the end of November 1917, General M.V. Alekseev began to form the Volunteer Army from the officers who had made their way to the Don. L. G. Kornilov, who had escaped from captivity, became its commander. The volunteer army marked the beginning of the white movement, so named in contrast to the red - revolutionary. White color symbolized law and order. The participants in the white movement considered themselves to be the spokesmen for the idea of ​​restoring the former power and might of the Russian state, the "Russian state principle" and a merciless struggle against those forces that, in their opinion, plunged Russia into chaos and anarchy - with the Bolsheviks, as well as with representatives of other socialist parties.

The Soviet government managed to form an army of 10,000, which in mid-January 1918 entered the territory of the Don. Most of the Cossacks adopted a policy of benevolent neutrality towards the new government. The decree on land gave little to the Cossacks, they had land, but they were impressed by the decree on peace. Part of the population provided armed support to the Reds. Considering his cause lost, Ataman Kaledin shot himself. The volunteer army, burdened with carts with children, women, politicians, went to the steppes, hoping to continue their work in the Kuban. On April 17, 1918, its commander Kornilov was killed, this post was taken by General A. I. Denikin.

Simultaneously with the anti-Soviet speeches on the Don, the movement of the Cossacks in the South Urals began. A. I. Dutov, the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, stood at its head. In Transbaikalia, the ataman G.S. Semenov fought against the new government.

The first uprisings against the Bolsheviks were spontaneous and scattered, did not enjoy the mass support of the population and took place against the backdrop of a relatively quick and peaceful establishment of the power of the Soviets almost everywhere ("the triumphal march of Soviet power", as Lenin said). However, already at the very beginning of the confrontation, two main centers of resistance to the power of the Bolsheviks developed: to the east of the Volga, in Siberia, where wealthy peasant owners predominated, often united in cooperatives and under the influence of the Social Revolutionaries, and also in the south - in the territories inhabited by the Cossacks, known for his love of freedom and commitment to a special way of economic and social life. The main fronts of the civil war were the Eastern and Southern.

Creation of the Red Army. Lenin was an adherent of the Marxist position that after the victory of the socialist revolution, the regular army, as one of the main attributes bourgeois society, must be replaced by a people's militia, which will be convened only in case of military danger. However, the scope of anti-Bolshevik speeches required a different approach. On January 15, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars proclaimed the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). On January 29, the Red Fleet was formed.

The volunteer recruitment principle, which was initially applied, led to organizational disunity, decentralization in command and control, which perniciously reflected in the combat capability and discipline of the Red Army. She suffered a number of serious defeats. That is why, in order to achieve the highest strategic goal - to preserve the power of the Bolsheviks - Lenin considered it possible to abandon his views in the field of military development and return to the traditional, "bourgeois", i.e. to universal conscription and unity. In July 1918, a decree was published on the general military service of the male population aged 18 to 40 years. During the summer - autumn of 1918, 300 thousand people were mobilized into the ranks of the Red Army. In 1920, the number of Red Army soldiers approached 5 million.

Much attention was paid to the formation of command personnel. In 1917-1919. in addition to short-term courses and schools, higher military educational institutions were opened to train the middle command level from the most distinguished Red Army soldiers. In March 1918, a notice was published in the press about the recruitment of military specialists from the tsarist army. By January 1, 1919, approximately 165,000 former tsarist officers had joined the ranks of the Red Army. The involvement of military experts was accompanied by strict "class" control over their activities. To this end, in April 1918, the party sent military commissars to the ships and troops, who supervised the command cadres and carried out the political education of sailors and Red Army men.

In September 1918, a unified command and control structure for fronts and armies was created. Each front (army) was headed by a Revolutionary Military Council (Revolutionary Military Council, or RVS), which consisted of a front (army) commander and two commissars. All military institutions were headed by the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by L. D. Trotsky, who also took the post of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Measures were taken to tighten discipline. Representatives of the Revolutionary Military Council, endowed with emergency powers (up to the execution of traitors and cowards without trial or investigation), went to the most tense sectors of the front. In November 1918, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense was formed, headed by Lenin. He concentrated in his hands the fullness of state power.

Intervention. From the very beginning, the civil war in Russia was complicated by the intervention of foreign states in it. In December 1917, Romania, taking advantage of the weakness of the young Soviet government, occupied Bessarabia. The government of the Central Council proclaimed the independence of Ukraine and, having concluded a separate agreement with the Austro-German bloc in Brest-Litovsk, returned to Kiev in March together with the Austro-German troops, which occupied almost all of Ukraine. Taking advantage of the fact that there were no clearly fixed borders between Ukraine and Russia, German troops invaded the Orel, Kursk, Voronezh provinces, captured Simferopol, Rostov and crossed the Don. In April 1918, Turkish troops crossed the state border and moved into the depths of Transcaucasia. In May, a German corps also landed in Georgia.

From the end of 1917, British, American and Japanese warships began to arrive at Russian ports in the North and the Far East, ostensibly to protect them from possible German aggression. At first, the Soviet government took this calmly and even agreed to accept aid from the Entente countries in the form of food and weapons. But after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, the presence of the Entente began to be seen as a threat to Soviet power. However, it was already too late. On March 6, 1918, an English landing force landed in the port of Murmansk. At a meeting of the heads of government of the Entente countries, it was decided not to recognize the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia. In April 1918, Japanese paratroopers landed in Vladivostok. Then they were joined by British, American, French troops. And although the governments of these countries did not declare war on Soviet Russia, moreover, they covered themselves with the idea of ​​fulfilling "allied duty", foreign soldiers behaved like conquerors. Lenin regarded these actions as an intervention and called for a rebuff to the aggressors.

Since the autumn of 1918, after the defeat of Germany, the military presence of the Entente countries has become more widespread. In January 1919, landings were made in Odessa, the Crimea, Baku, and the number of troops in the ports of the North and the Far East was increased. However, this caused a negative reaction from the personnel of the expeditionary forces, for whom the end of the war was delayed for an indefinite period. Therefore, the Black Sea and Caspian landing forces were evacuated in the spring of 1919; the British left Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in the autumn of 1919. In 1920, British and American units were forced to leave the Far East. Only the Japanese remained there until October 1922. A large-scale intervention did not take place, primarily because the governments of the leading countries of Europe and the USA were frightened by the growing movement of their peoples in support of the Russian revolution. Revolutions broke out in Germany and Austria-Hungary, under the pressure of which these major monarchies collapsed.

"Democratic counter-revolution". Eastern front. The beginning of the "front" stage of the civil war was characterized by an armed confrontation between the Bolsheviks and moderate socialists, primarily the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which, after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, felt itself forcibly removed from its legitimate power. The decision to start an armed struggle against the Bolsheviks was strengthened after the latter dispersed in April-May 1918 many newly elected local Soviets, which were dominated by representatives of the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary bloc.

The turning point of the new phase of the civil war was the appearance of the corps, consisting of prisoners of war of the Czechs and Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian army, who expressed a desire to participate in hostilities on the side of the Entente. The leadership of the corps proclaimed itself part of the Czechoslovak army, which was under the command of the commander-in-chief of the French troops. An agreement was concluded between Russia and France on the transfer of the Czechoslovaks to the western front. They were supposed to follow the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, there they boarded ships and sailed to Europe. By the end of May 1918, trains with parts of the corps (more than 45 thousand people) were stretched by rail from the Rtishchevo station (in the Penza region) to Vladivostok over a distance of 7 thousand km. There was a rumor that the local Soviets were ordered to disarm the corps and extradite the Czechoslovaks as prisoners of war to Austria-Hungary and Germany. At a meeting of regimental commanders, a decision was made - not to hand over weapons and fight their way to Vladivostok. On May 25, the commander of the Czechoslovak units, R. Gaida, ordered his subordinates to seize the stations where they were at the moment. In a relatively short time, with the help of the Czechoslovak corps, Soviet power was overthrown in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East.

The main springboard for the Socialist-Revolutionary struggle for national power was the territories liberated by the Czechoslovaks from the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918, regional governments were created, consisting mainly of members of the AKP: in Samara - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), in Yekaterinburg - the Ural Regional Government, in Tomsk - the Provisional Siberian Government. The Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik authorities acted under the flag of two main slogans: "Power not to the Soviets, but to the Constituent Assembly!" and "Liquidation of the Brest Peace!" Part of the population supported these slogans. The new governments managed to form their own armed detachments. With the support of the Czechoslovaks, Komuch's People's Army took Kazan on August 6, hoping then to move on Moscow.

The Soviet government created the Eastern Front, which included five armies formed in the shortest possible time. L. D. Trotsky's armored train went to the front with a select combat team and a revolutionary military tribunal, which had unlimited powers. In Murom, Arzamas, Sviyazhsk, the first concentration camps. Between the front and the rear, special barrage detachments were formed to deal with deserters. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Soviet Republic a military camp. In early September, the Red Army managed to stop the enemy, and then go on the offensive. In September - early October, she liberated Kazan, Simbirsk, Syzran and Samara. Czechoslovak troops retreated to the Urals.

In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of the anti-Bolshevik forces was held in Ufa, which formed a single "all-Russian" government - the Ufa directory, in which leading role the SRs played. The offensive of the Red Army forced the directory to move to Omsk in October. Admiral A. V. Kolchak was invited to the post of Minister of War. The Socialist-Revolutionary leaders of the directory hoped that the popularity he enjoyed in the Russian army would make it possible to unite the disparate military formations that acted against the Soviet regime in the expanses of the Urals and Siberia. However, on the night of November 17-18, 1918, a group of conspirators from the officers of the Cossack units stationed in Omsk arrested the socialists - members of the directory, and all power passed to Admiral Kolchak, who accepted the title of "Supreme Ruler of Russia" and the baton of the fight against the Bolsheviks on the Eastern Front.

"Red Terror". Liquidation of the House of Romanov. Along with economic and military measures, the Bolsheviks began to pursue a policy of intimidation of the population on a state scale, which was called the "Red Terror". In the cities, it assumed wide proportions from September 1918 - after the assassination of the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, M. S. Uritsky, and the attempt in Moscow on the life of Lenin.

The terror was widespread. Only in response to the assassination attempt on Lenin, the Petrograd Chekists shot, according to official reports, 500 hostages.

One of the sinister pages of the "red terror" was the destruction of the royal family. October found the former Russian emperor and his relatives in Tobolsk, where in August 1917 they were sent into exile. In April 1918, the royal family was secretly transferred to Yekaterinburg and placed in a house that had previously belonged to the engineer Ipatiev. On July 16, 1918, apparently in agreement with the Council of People's Commissars, the Ural Regional Council decided to execute the tsar and his family. On the night of July 17, Nikolai, his wife, five children and servants were shot - a total of 11 people. Even earlier, on July 13, the tsar's brother Mikhail was killed in Perm. On July 18, 18 more members of the imperial family were executed in Alapaevsk.

Southern front. In the spring of 1918, the Don was filled with rumors about the upcoming equalizing redistribution of land. The Cossacks murmured. Then the order arrived in time for the surrender of weapons and the requisition of bread. The Cossacks revolted. It coincided with the arrival of the Germans on the Don. The Cossack leaders, forgetting about past patriotism, entered into negotiations with a recent enemy. On April 21, the Provisional Don Government was created, which began the formation of the Don Army. On May 16, the Cossack "Round of Don Salvation" elected General P. N. Krasnov as ataman of the Don Cossacks, endowing him with almost dictatorial powers. Relying on the support of the German generals, Krasnov declared the state independence of the Region of the Great Don Army. Parts of Krasnov, together with the German troops, launched military operations against the Red Army.

From the troops located in the region of Voronezh, Tsaritsyn and the North Caucasus, the Soviet government created in September 1918 the Southern Front, consisting of five armies. In November 1918, Krasnov's army inflicted a serious defeat on the Red Army and began to move north. At the cost of incredible efforts in December 1918, the Reds managed to stop the advance of the Cossack troops.

At the same time, the Volunteer Army of A.I. Denikin began its second campaign against the Kuban. The "volunteers" adhered to the Entente orientation and tried not to interact with Krasnov's pro-German detachments. Meanwhile, the foreign policy situation has changed dramatically. At the beginning of November 1918, the World War ended with the defeat of Germany and its allies. Under pressure and with the active help of the Entente countries, at the end of 1918, all the anti-Bolshevik armed forces of the South of Russia were united under the command of Denikin.

Military operations on the Eastern Front in 1919. On November 28, 1918, Admiral Kolchak, at a meeting with representatives of the press, stated that his immediate goal was to create a strong and combat-ready army for a merciless fight against the Bolsheviks, which should be facilitated by the sole form of power. After the liquidation of the Bolsheviks, the National Assembly should be convened "for the establishment of law and order in the country." All economic and social reforms must also be postponed until the end of the fight against the Bolsheviks. Kolchak announced mobilization and put 400 thousand people under arms.

In the spring of 1919, having achieved a numerical superiority in manpower, Kolchak went on the offensive. In March-April, his armies captured Sarapul, Izhevsk, Ufa, Sterlitamak. The advanced units were located several tens of kilometers from Kazan, Samara and Simbirsk. This success allowed the Whites to outline a new perspective - the possibility of Kolchak's campaign against Moscow while simultaneously leaving the left flank of his army to join Denikin.

The counteroffensive of the Red Army began on April 28, 1919. The troops under the command of M.V. Frunze in the battles near Samara defeated the elite Kolchak units and took Ufa in June. On July 14 Yekaterinburg was liberated. In November, the capital of Kolchak, Omsk, fell. The remnants of his army rolled further east. Under the blows of the Reds, the Kolchak government was forced to move to Irkutsk. On December 24, 1919, an anti-Kolchak uprising was raised in Irkutsk. Allied troops and the remaining Czechoslovak detachments declared their neutrality. In early January 1920, the Czechs handed over Kolchak to the leaders of the uprising, in February 1920 he was shot.

The Red Army suspended its offensive in Transbaikalia. On April 6, 1920, in the city of Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude), the creation of the Far Eastern Republic was proclaimed - a "buffer" bourgeois-democratic state, formally independent of the RSFSR, but actually led by the Far Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b).

Campaign to Petrograd. At a time when the Red Army was winning victories over the Kolchak troops, a serious threat hung over Petrograd. After the victory of the Bolsheviks, many senior officials, industrialists and financiers emigrated to Finland. About 2.5 thousand officers of the tsarist army found shelter here. The emigrants created a Russian political committee in Finland, headed by General N. N. Yudenich. With the consent of the Finnish authorities, he began to form a White Guard army in Finland.

In the first half of May 1919, Yudenich launched an offensive against Petrograd. Having broken through the front of the Red Army between Narva and Lake Peipsi, his troops created a real threat to the city. On May 22, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) issued an appeal to the inhabitants of the country, which said: "Soviet Russia cannot give Petrograd even for the most a short time... The importance of this city, which was the first to raise the banner of insurrection against the bourgeoisie, is too great."

On June 13, the situation in Petrograd became even more complicated: anti-Bolshevik demonstrations by the Red Army broke out in the forts of Krasnaya Gorka, Gray Horse, and Obruchev. Not only the regular units of the Red Army, but also the naval artillery of the Baltic Fleet were used against the rebels. After the suppression of these speeches, the troops of the Petrograd Front went on the offensive and threw Yudenich's units back into Estonian territory. In October 1919, Yudenich's second offensive against Petrograd also ended in failure. In February 1920, the Red Army liberated Arkhangelsk, and in March, Murmansk.

Events on the Southern Front. Having received significant assistance from the Entente countries, Denikin's army in May-June 1919 went on the offensive along the entire front. By June 1919, she captured the Donbass, a significant part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn. An attack on Moscow began, during which the Whites entered Kursk and Orel, and occupied Voronezh.

On Soviet territory, another wave of mobilization of forces and means began under the motto: "Everyone to fight Denikin!" In October 1919, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive. S. M. Budyonny's First Cavalry Army played a major role in changing the situation at the front. The rapid advance of the Reds in the autumn of 1919 led to the division of the Volunteer Army into two parts - the Crimean (it was headed by General P. N. Wrangel) and the North Caucasian. In February-March 1920, its main forces were defeated, the Volunteer Army ceased to exist.

In order to involve the entire Russian population in the fight against the Bolsheviks, Wrangel decided to turn the Crimea - the last springboard of the White movement - into a kind of "experimental field", recreating the democratic order interrupted by October there. On May 25, 1920, the "Law on Land" was published, the author of which was Stolypin's closest associate A.V. Krivoshey, who headed the "government of the South of Russia" in 1920.

For the former owners, part of their possessions is retained, but the size of this part is not fixed in advance, but is the subject of judgment of the volost and uyezd institutions, which are most familiar with local economic conditions ... Payment for alienated land must be paid by the new owners in grain, which is annually poured into the state reserve ... The state's proceeds from the new owners' grain contributions should serve as the main source of remuneration for the expropriated land of its former owners, with whom the Government considers it obligatory to pay.

The "Law on Volost Zemstvos and Rural Communities" was also issued, which could become bodies of peasant self-government instead of rural Soviets. In an effort to win over the Cossacks, Wrangel approved a new regulation on the order of regional autonomy for the Cossack lands. The workers were promised factory legislation that really protected their rights. However, time has been lost. In addition, Lenin was well aware of the threat to the Bolshevik government posed by the plan conceived by Wrangel. Decisive measures were taken to eliminate as quickly as possible the last "hotbed of counter-revolution" in Russia.

War with Poland. Defeat of Wrangel. Nevertheless, the main event of 1920 was the war between Soviet Russia and Poland. In April 1920, the head of independent Poland, J. Pilsudski, ordered an attack on Kiev. It was officially announced that we are talking only about rendering assistance to the Ukrainian people in the elimination of Soviet power and the restoration of the independence of Ukraine. On the night of May 7, Kiev was taken. However, the intervention of the Poles was perceived by the population of Ukraine as an occupation. These sentiments were taken advantage of by the Bolsheviks, who were able to rally various sections of society in the face of external danger.

Almost all the forces of the Red Army were thrown against Poland, united in the Western and Southwestern fronts. Their commanders were former officers of the tsarist army M.N. Tukhachevsky and A.I. Egorov. On June 12, Kiev was liberated. Soon the Red Army reached the border with Poland, which aroused hopes among some of the Bolshevik leaders for the speedy implementation of the idea of ​​a world revolution in Western Europe. In an order on the Western Front, Tukhachevsky wrote: "On our bayonets we will bring happiness and peace to working humanity. To the West!" However, the Red Army, which entered Polish territory, was rebuffed. The idea of ​​a world revolution was not supported by the Polish workers, who defended the state sovereignty of their country with weapons in their hands. On October 12, 1920, a peace treaty was signed in Riga with Poland, according to which the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus passed to it.

Having made peace with Poland, the Soviet command concentrated all the power of the Red Army to fight Wrangel's army. The troops of the newly created Southern Front under the command of Frunze in November 1920 stormed the positions on Perekop and Chongar, forced the Sivash. 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.

Peasant uprisings in Central Russia. The clashes between the regular units of the Red Army and the White Guards were a facade of the civil war, demonstrating its two extreme poles, not the most numerous, but the most organized. Meanwhile, the victory of one side or another depended on the sympathy and support of the people, and above all the peasantry.

The decree on land gave the villagers what they had been striving for so long - landowners' land. On this, the peasants considered their revolutionary mission ended. They were grateful to the Soviet authorities for the land, but they were in no hurry to fight for this power with weapons in their hands, hoping to wait out the anxious time in their village, near their own allotment. The emergency food policy was met with hostility by the peasants. Clashes with food detachments began in the village. In July-August 1918 alone, more than 150 such clashes were recorded in Central Russia.

When the Revolutionary Military Council announced mobilization into the Red Army, the peasants responded by mass evasion of it. Up to 75% of recruits did not appear at the recruiting stations (in some districts of the Kursk province, the number of evaders reached 100%). On the eve of the first anniversary of the October Revolution, peasant uprisings broke out almost simultaneously in 80 districts of Central Russia. The mobilized peasants, seizing weapons from the recruiting stations, raised their fellow villagers to defeat the commanders, the Soviets, and party cells. The main political demand of the peasantry was the slogan "Soviets without communists!". The Bolsheviks declared the peasant uprisings to be "kulak", although both the middle peasants and even the poor took part in them. True, the very concept of "fist" was very vague and had more political than economic meaning (if you are dissatisfied with the Soviet regime, it means "fist").

Units of the Red Army and detachments of the Cheka were sent to suppress the uprisings. Leaders, instigators of protests, hostages were shot on the spot. The punitive organs carried out mass arrests of former officers, teachers, officials.

"Retelling". Wide sections of the Cossacks hesitated for a long time in choosing between red and white. However, some Bolshevik leaders unconditionally considered the entire Cossacks as a counter-revolutionary force, eternally hostile to the rest of the people. Repressive measures were carried out against the Cossacks, which were called "decossackization".

In response, an uprising broke out in Veshenskaya and other villages of Verkh-nedonya. The Cossacks announced the mobilization of men from 19 to 45 years old. The created regiments and divisions numbered about 30 thousand people. Handicraft production of pikes, sabers, and ammunition developed in forges and workshops. The approach to the villages was surrounded by trenches and trenches.

The Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front ordered the troops to crush the uprising "by applying the most severe measures" up to the burning of the rebelled farms, the merciless execution of "all without exception" participants in the speech, the execution of every fifth adult male, and the mass taking of hostages. By order of Trotsky, an expeditionary corps was created to fight the rebellious Cossacks.

The Veshensk uprising, having chained significant forces of the Red Army to itself, suspended the offensive of units of the Southern Front that had successfully begun in January 1919. Denikin immediately took advantage of this. His troops launched a counteroffensive along a wide front in the direction of the Donbass, Ukraine, Crimea, the Upper Don and Tsaritsyn. On June 5, the Veshenskaya rebels and parts of the White Guard breakthrough united.

These events forced the Bolsheviks to reconsider their policy towards the Cossacks. On the basis of the expeditionary corps, a corps was formed from the Cossacks who were in the service of the Red Army. F. K. Mironov, who was very popular among the Cossacks, was appointed its commander. In August 1919, the Council of People's Commissars declared that "it is not going to forcibly tell anyone, it does not go against the Cossack way of life, leaving the working Cossacks their villages and farms, their lands, the right to wear whatever uniform they want (for example, stripes)". The Bolsheviks assured that they would not take revenge on the Cossacks for the past. In October, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Mironov turned to the Don Cossacks. The appeal of the most popular figure among the Cossacks played a huge role, the Cossacks in their bulk went over to the side of the Soviet authorities.

Peasants against whites. The mass discontent of the peasants was also observed in the rear of the white armies. However, it had a slightly different focus than in the rear of the Reds. If the peasants of the central regions of Russia opposed the introduction of emergency measures, but not against the Soviet regime as such, then the peasant movement in the rear of the White armies arose as a reaction to attempts to restore the old land order and, therefore, inevitably took on a pro-Bolshevik orientation. After all, it was the Bolsheviks who gave the peasants land. At the same time, the workers also became allies of the peasants in these areas, which made it possible to create a broad anti-White Guard front, which was strengthened by the entry into it of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, who did not find a common language with the White Guard rulers.

One of the most important reasons for the temporary victory of the anti-Bolshevik forces in Siberia in the summer of 1918 was the vacillation of the Siberian peasantry. The fact is that in Siberia there was no landownership, so the decree on land changed little in the position of local farmers, nevertheless, they managed to get hold of at the expense of cabinet, state and monastery lands.

But with the establishment of the power of Kolchak, who canceled all the decrees of the Soviet government, the position of the peasantry worsened. In response to mass mobilization into the army of the "supreme ruler of Russia," peasant uprisings broke out in a number of districts of the Altai, Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Yenisei provinces. In an effort to turn the tide, Kolchak embarked on the path of exceptional laws, introducing the death penalty, martial law, organizing punitive expeditions. All these measures caused mass discontent among the population. Peasant uprisings engulfed all of Siberia. The partisan movement expanded.

Events developed in the same way in the South of Russia. In March 1919, the Denikin government published a draft land reform. However, the final solution of the land question was postponed until the complete victory over Bolshevism and was assigned to the future legislative assembly. In the meantime, the government of the South of Russia demanded that a third of the entire crop be provided to the owners of the occupied lands. Some representatives of Denikin's administration went even further, starting to settle the expelled landowners in the old ashes. This caused massive discontent among the peasants.

"Greens". Makhnovist movement. The peasant movement developed somewhat differently in the areas bordering the Red and White fronts, where power was constantly changing, but each of them demanded obedience to its own rules and laws, sought to replenish its ranks by mobilizing the local population. Deserting from both the White and the Red Army, the peasants, fleeing from the new mobilization, took refuge in the forests and created partisan detachments. They chose as their symbol green color- the color of will and freedom, at the same time opposing itself to both red and white movements. "Oh, apple, ripe colors, we beat red on the left, white on the right," they sang in the peasant detachments. The performances of the "greens" covered the entire south of Russia: the Black Sea region, the North Caucasus, and the Crimea.

The peasant movement reached its greatest extent in the south of Ukraine. This was largely due to the personality of the leader of the rebel army N. I. Makhno. Even during the first revolution, he joined the anarchists, participated in terrorist acts, served indefinite hard labor. In March 1917, Makhno returned to his homeland - to the village of Gulyai-Pole, Yekaterinoslav province, where he was elected chairman of the local Council. On September 25, he signed a decree on the liquidation of landownership in Gulyai-Pole, ahead of Lenin in this matter by exactly a month. When Ukraine was occupied by Austro-German troops, Makhno assembled a detachment that raided German posts and burned the estates of the landowners. Fighters began to flock to the "dad" from all sides. Fighting both the Germans and the Ukrainian nationalists - Petliurists, Makhno did not let the Reds with their food detachments into the territory liberated by his detachments. In December 1918, Makhno's army captured the largest city in the South - Ekaterino-Slav. By February 1919, the Makhnovist army had grown to 30,000 regular fighters and 20,000 unarmed reserves. Under his control were the most grain-growing districts of Ukraine, a number of the most important railway junctions.

Makhno agreed to join the Red Army with his detachments for a joint fight against Denikin. For the victories won over Denikin, he, according to some reports, was among the first to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner. And General Denikin promised half a million rubles for Makhno's head. However, while providing military support to the Red Army, Makhno took an independent political position, establishing his own rules, ignoring the instructions of the central authorities. In addition, in the army of the "father" partisan orders reigned, the election of commanders. The Makhnovists did not disdain robberies and wholesale executions of white officers. Therefore, Makhno came into conflict with the leadership of the Red Army. Nevertheless, the rebel army took part in the defeat of Wrangel, was thrown into the most difficult areas, suffered huge losses, after which it was disarmed. Makhno, with a small detachment, continued the struggle against the Soviet regime. After several clashes with Red Army units, he and a handful devoted people went abroad.

"Small Civil War". Despite the end of the war by the Reds and Whites, the policy of the Bolsheviks towards the peasantry did not change. Moreover, in many grain-producing provinces of Russia, the surplus appraisal has become even more stringent. In the spring and summer of 1921, a terrible famine broke out in the Volga region. It was provoked not so much by a severe drought, but by the fact that after the confiscation of surplus products in the autumn, the peasants had neither grain for sowing, nor the desire to sow and cultivate the land. More than 5 million people died from starvation.

A particularly tense situation developed in the Tambov province, where the summer of 1920 turned out to be dry. And when the Tambov peasants received a surplus plan that did not take this circumstance into account, they rebelled. The uprising was led by the former police chief of the Kirsanov district of the Tambov province, the Social Revolutionary A. S. Antonov.

Simultaneously with Tambov, uprisings broke out in the Volga region, on the Don, Kuban, in Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Urals, in Belarus, Karelia, and Central Asia. The period of peasant uprisings 1920-1921. was called by contemporaries a "small civil war". The peasants created their own armies, which stormed and captured cities, put forward political demands, and formed government bodies. The Union of the Working Peasantry of the Tambov Province defined its main task as follows: "the overthrow of the power of the Communist Bolsheviks, who brought the country to poverty, death and disgrace." The peasant detachments of the Volga region put forward the slogan of replacing Soviet power with a Constituent Assembly. In Western Siberia, the peasants demanded the establishment of a peasant dictatorship, the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, the denationalization of industry, and equal land tenure.

The whole power of the regular Red Army was thrown to suppress the peasant uprisings. Combat operations were commanded by commanders who became famous on the fields of the civil war - Tukhachevsky, Frunze, Budyonny and others. Methods of mass intimidation of the population were used on a large scale - taking hostages, shooting relatives of "bandits", deporting entire villages "sympathetic to the bandits" to the North.

Kronstadt uprising. The consequences of the civil war also affected the city. Due to the lack of raw materials and fuel, many enterprises were closed. The workers were on the street. Many of them went to the countryside in search of food. In 1921 Moscow lost half of its workers, Petrograd two thirds. Labor productivity in industry fell sharply. In some branches it reached only 20% of the pre-war level. In 1922, there were 538 strikes, and the number of strikers exceeded 200,000.

On February 11, 1921, 93 industrial enterprises, including such large plants as Putilovsky, Sestroretsky, and Triangle, were announced in Petrograd due to the lack of raw materials and fuel. Outraged workers took to the streets, strikes began. By order of the authorities, the demonstrations were dispersed by parts of the Petrograd cadets.

The unrest reached Kronstadt. On February 28, 1921, a meeting was convened on the battleship Petropavlovsk. Its chairman, senior clerk S. Petrichenko, announced the resolution: immediate re-election of Soviets by secret ballot, since "real Soviets do not express the will of the workers and peasants"; freedom of speech and press; the release of "political prisoners - members of the socialist parties"; liquidation of food requisitioning and food orders; freedom of trade, freedom for the peasants to work the land and have livestock; power to the Soviets, not to the parties. The main idea of ​​the rebels was the elimination of the Bolsheviks' monopoly on power. On March 1, this resolution was adopted at a joint meeting of the garrison and the inhabitants of the city. A delegation of Kronstadters sent to Petrograd, where there were mass strikes of workers, was arrested. In response, a Provisional Revolutionary Committee was set up in Kronstadt. On March 2, the Soviet government declared the Kronstadt uprising a mutiny and introduced a state of siege in Petrograd.

Any negotiations with the "rebels" were rejected by the Bolsheviks, and Trotsky, who arrived in Petrograd on March 5, spoke to the sailors in the language of an ultimatum. Kronstadt did not respond to the ultimatum. Then troops began to gather on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army S. S. Kamenev and M. N. Tukhachevsky arrived to lead the operation to storm the fortress. Military experts could not help but understand how great the victims would be. But still the order to go on the assault was given. The Red Army soldiers advanced on loose March ice, in open space, under continuous fire. The first assault was unsuccessful. Delegates from the 10th Congress of the RCP(b) took part in the second assault. On March 18, Kronstadt ceased resistance. Part of the sailors, 6-8 thousand, went to Finland, more than 2.5 thousand were taken prisoner. Severe punishment awaited them.

Causes of the defeat of the white movement. The armed confrontation between the Whites and the Reds ended in victory for the Reds. The leaders of the white movement failed to offer the people an attractive program. In the territories they controlled, the laws of the Russian Empire were restored, property was returned to its former owners. And although none of the white governments openly put forward the idea of ​​restoring the monarchical order, the people perceived them as fighters for the old power, for the return of the tsar and the landowners. The national policy of the white generals, their fanatical adherence to the slogan "united and indivisible Russia" was not popular either.

The White movement could not become the core consolidating all the anti-Bolshevik forces. Moreover, by refusing to cooperate with the socialist parties, the generals themselves split the anti-Bolshevik front, turning the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists and their supporters into their opponents. And in the white camp itself there was no unity and interaction either in the political or in the military field. The movement did not have such a leader, whose authority would be recognized by all, who would understand that a civil war is not a battle of armies, but a battle of political programs.

And finally, according to the bitter admission of the white generals themselves, one of the reasons for the defeat was the moral decay of the army, the use of measures against the population that did not fit into the code of honor: robberies, pogroms, punitive expeditions, violence. The White movement was started by "almost saints" and finished by "almost bandits" - such a verdict was passed by one of the ideologists of the movement, the leader of Russian nationalists V. V. Shulgin.

The emergence of nation-states on the outskirts of Russia. The national outskirts of Russia were drawn into the civil war. On October 29, the power of the Provisional Government was overthrown in Kiev. However, the Central Rada refused to recognize the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars as the legitimate government of Russia. At the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets convened in Kiev, the supporters of the Rada had the majority. The Bolsheviks left the congress. On November 7, 1917, the Central Rada proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

The Bolsheviks who left the Kiev Congress in December 1917 in Kharkov, populated mainly by Russians, convened the 1st All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, which proclaimed Ukraine a Soviet republic. The congress decided to establish federal relations with Soviet Russia, elected the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets and formed the Ukrainian Soviet government. At the request of this government, troops from Soviet Russia arrived in Ukraine to fight the Central Rada. In January 1918, armed protests by workers broke out in a number of Ukrainian cities, during which Soviet power was established. On January 26 (February 8), 1918, Kiev was taken by the Red Army. On January 27, the Central Rada turned to Germany for help. Soviet power in Ukraine was liquidated at the cost of the Austro-German occupation. In April 1918 the Central Rada was dispersed. General P. P. Skoropadsky became the hetman, proclaiming the creation of the "Ukrainian State".

Relatively quickly, Soviet power won in Belarus, Estonia and the unoccupied part of Latvia. However, the revolutionary transformations that had begun were interrupted by the German offensive. In February 1918, Minsk was captured by German troops. With the permission of the German command, a bourgeois-nationalist government was created here, which announced the creation of the Belarusian People's Republic and the separation of Belarus from Russia.

In the frontline territory of Latvia, controlled by Russian troops, the positions of the Bolsheviks were strong. They managed to fulfill the task set by the party - to prevent the transfer of troops loyal to the Provisional Government from the front to Petrograd. The revolutionary units became an active force in the establishment of Soviet power in the unoccupied territory of Latvia. By decision of the party, a company of Latvian riflemen was sent to Petrograd to protect the Smolny and the Bolshevik leadership. In February 1918, the entire territory of Latvia was captured by German troops; the old order began to be restored. Even after the defeat of Germany, with the consent of the Entente, its troops remained in Latvia. On November 18, 1918, the Provisional Bourgeois Government was established here, declaring Latvia an independent republic.

On February 18, 1918 German troops invaded Estonia. In November 1918, the Provisional Bourgeois Government began to operate here, signing on November 19 an agreement with Germany on the transfer of all power to it. In December 1917, the "Lithuanian Council" - the bourgeois Lithuanian government - issued a declaration "on the eternal allied ties of the Lithuanian state with Germany." In February 1918, with the consent of the German occupation authorities, the "Lithuanian Council" adopted an act of independence for Lithuania.

Events in Transcaucasia developed somewhat differently. In November 1917, the Menshevik Transcaucasian Commissariat and national military units were created here. The activities of the Soviets and the Bolshevik Party were banned. In February 1918, a new body of power arose - the Seim, which declared Transcaucasia "an independent federal democratic republic." However, in May 1918 this association collapsed, after which three bourgeois republics arose - Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian, headed by governments of moderate socialists.

Construction of the Soviet Federation. Part of the national outskirts, which declared their sovereignty, became part of the Russian Federation. In Turkestan, on November 1, 1917, power passed into the hands of the Regional Council and the executive committee of the Tashkent Council, which consisted of Russians. At the end of November, at the Extraordinary All-Muslim Congress in Kokand, the question of the autonomy of Turkestan and the creation of a national government was raised, but in February 1918, the Kokand autonomy was liquidated by detachments of local Red Guards. The Regional Congress of Soviets, which met at the end of April, adopted the "Regulations on the Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic" as part of the RSFSR. Part of the Muslim population perceived these events as an attack on Islamic traditions. The organization of partisan detachments began, challenging the Soviets for power in Turkestan. The members of these detachments were called Basmachi.

In March 1918, a decree was published declaring part of the territory of the Southern Urals and the Middle Volga the Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Republic within the RSFSR. In May 1918, the Congress of Soviets of the Kuban and the Black Sea Region proclaimed the Kuban-Black Sea Republic an integral part of the RSFSR. At the same time, the Don Autonomous Republic, the Soviet Republic of Taurida in the Crimea were formed.

Having proclaimed Russia a Soviet federal republic, the Bolsheviks at first did not define clear principles for its structure. Often it was conceived as a federation of Soviets, i.e. territories where Soviet power existed. For example, the Moscow region, which is part of the RSFSR, was a federation of 14 provincial Soviets, each of which had its own government.

As the power of the Bolsheviks consolidated, their views on the construction of a federal state became more definite. State independence began to be recognized only for the peoples who organized their national councils, and not for each regional council, as was the case in 1918. The Bashkir, Tatar, Kirghiz (Kazakh), Mountain, Dagestan national autonomous republics were created as part of the Russian Federation, and also the Chuvash, Kalmyk, Mari, Udmurt Autonomous Regions, the Karelian Labor Commune and the Commune of the Volga Germans.

The establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. On November 13, 1918, the Soviet government annulled the Brest Treaty. The issue of expanding the Soviet system through the liberation of the territories occupied by the German-Austrian troops was on the agenda. This task was completed rather quickly, which was facilitated by three circumstances: 1) the presence of a significant number of the Russian population, which sought to restore a single state; 2) armed intervention of the Red Army; 3) the existence in these territories of communist organizations that were part of a single party. "Sovietization", as a rule, took place according to a single scenario: the preparation of an armed uprising by the communists and the call, allegedly on behalf of the people, to the Red Army to provide assistance to establish Soviet power.

In November 1918, the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was recreated, and the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine was formed. However, on December 14, 1918, the bourgeois-nationalist Directory, headed by V.K. Vinnichenko and S.V. Petlyura, seized power in Kiev. In February 1919, Soviet troops occupied Kiev, and later the territory of Ukraine became the arena of confrontation between the Red Army and Denikin's army. In 1920, Polish troops invaded Ukraine. However, neither the Germans, nor the Poles, nor the White Army of Denikin enjoyed the support of the population.

But the national governments - the Central Rada and the directory - did not have mass support either. This happened because national issues were paramount for them, while the peasantry was waiting for the agrarian reform. That is why the Ukrainian peasants ardently supported the Makhnovist anarchists. The nationalists could not count on the support of the urban population either, since in large cities a large percentage, primarily of the proletariat, were Russians. Over time, the Reds were able to finally gain a foothold in Kiev. In 1920, Soviet power was established in the left-bank Moldavia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR. But the main part of Moldova - Bessarabia - remained under the rule of Romania, which occupied it in December 1917.

The Red Army was victorious in the Baltics. In November 1918, the Austro-German troops were expelled from there. Soviet republics emerged in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In November, the Red Army entered the territory of Belarus. On December 31, the communists formed the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government, and on January 1, 1919, this government proclaimed the creation of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee recognized the independence of the new Soviet republics and expressed its readiness to render them all possible assistance. Nevertheless, Soviet power in the Baltic countries did not last long, and in 1919-1920. with the help of European states, the power of national governments was restored there.

Establishment of Soviet power in Transcaucasia. By mid-April 1920, Soviet power was restored throughout the North Caucasus. In the republics of Transcaucasia - Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia - power remained in the hands of national governments. In April 1920, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) formed a special Caucasian Bureau (Kavbyuro) at the headquarters of the 11th Army operating in the North Caucasus. On April 27, Azerbaijani communists presented the government with an ultimatum to transfer power to the Soviets. On April 28, units of the Red Army were introduced into Baku, with which prominent figures of the Bolshevik Party G.K. Ordzhonikidze, S.M. Kirov, A.I. Mikoyan arrived. The Provisional Revolutionary Committee proclaimed Azerbaijan a Soviet Socialist Republic.

On November 27, Ordzhonikidze, chairman of the Kavburo, issued an ultimatum to the Armenian government: to transfer power to the Revolutionary Committee of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, formed in Azerbaijan. Without waiting for the expiration of the ultimatum, the 11th Army entered the territory of Armenia. Armenia was proclaimed a sovereign socialist state.

The Georgian Menshevik government enjoyed authority among the population and had a fairly strong army. In May 1920, during the war with Poland, the Council of People's Commissars signed an agreement with Georgia, which recognized the independence and sovereignty of the Georgian state. In return, the Georgian government undertook to allow the activities of the Communist Party and withdraw foreign military units from Georgia. S. M. Kirov was appointed Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR in Georgia. In February 1921, a Military Revolutionary Committee was created in a small Georgian village, asking the Red Army for help in the fight against the government. On February 25, the regiments of the 11th Army entered Tiflis, Georgia was proclaimed a Soviet socialist republic.

The fight against Basmachi. During the civil war, the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was cut off from Central Russia. The Red Army of Turkestan was created here. In September 1919, the troops of the Turkestan Front under the command of M.V. Frunze broke through the encirclement and restored the connection of the Turkestan Republic with the center of Russia.

On February 1, 1920, under the leadership of the Communists, an uprising was raised against the Khan of Khiva. The rebels were supported by the Red Army. The Congress of Soviets of People's Representatives (Kurultai) held soon in Khiva proclaimed the creation of the Khorezm People's Republic. In August 1920, the pro-communist forces raised an uprising in Chardzhou and turned to the Red Army for help. The Red troops under the command of M.V. Frunze took Bukhara in stubborn battles, the emir fled. The All-Bukhara People's Kurultai, which met in early October 1920, proclaimed the formation of the Bukhara People's Republic.

In 1921, the Basmachi movement entered into new phase. It was headed by the former Minister of War of the Turkish government, Enver Pasha, who hatched plans to create a state allied with Turkey in Turkestan. He managed to unite the scattered Basmachi detachments and create a single army, establish close ties with the Afghans, who supplied the Basmachi with weapons and gave them shelter. In the spring of 1922, the army of Enver Pasha captured a significant part of the territory of the Bukhara People's Republic. The Soviet government sent a regular army from Central Russia to Central Asia, reinforced by aviation. In August 1922, Enver Pasha was killed in battle. The Turkestan Bureau of the Central Committee compromised with the adherents of Islam. Mosques were given back their land holdings, Sharia courts and religious schools were restored. This policy has paid off. Basmachism lost the mass support of the population.

What you need to know about this topic:

Socio-economic and political development of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Nicholas II.

Domestic politics tsarism. Nicholas II. Strengthening repression. "Police socialism".

Russo-Japanese War. Reasons, course, results.

Revolution of 1905 - 1907 Character, driving forces and features of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907. stages of the revolution. The reasons for the defeat and the significance of the revolution.

Elections to the State Duma. I State Duma. The agrarian question in the Duma. Dispersal of the Duma. II State Duma. coup d'état June 3, 1907

Third June political system. Electoral law June 3, 1907 III State Duma. The alignment of political forces in the Duma. Duma activity. government terror. The decline of the labor movement in 1907-1910

Stolypin agrarian reform.

IV State Duma. Party composition and Duma factions. Duma activity.

The political crisis in Russia on the eve of the war. The labor movement in the summer of 1914 Crisis of the top.

The international position of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Beginning of the First World War. Origin and nature of war. Russia's entry into the war. Attitude towards the war of parties and classes.

The course of hostilities. Strategic forces and plans of the parties. Results of the war. The role of the Eastern Front in the First World War.

The Russian economy during the First World War.

Workers' and peasants' movement in 1915-1916. Revolutionary movement in the army and navy. Growing anti-war sentiment. Formation of the bourgeois opposition.

Russian culture XIX- beginning of XX century.

Aggravation of socio-political contradictions in the country in January-February 1917. The beginning, prerequisites and nature of the revolution. Uprising in Petrograd. Formation of the Petrograd Soviet. Provisional Committee State Duma. Order N I. Formation of the Provisional Government. Abdication of Nicholas II. Causes of dual power and its essence. February coup in Moscow, at the front, in the provinces.

From February to October. The policy of the Provisional Government regarding war and peace, on agrarian, national, labor issues. Relations between the Provisional Government and the Soviets. The arrival of V.I. Lenin in Petrograd.

Political parties(Kadets, Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks): political programs, influence among the masses.

Crises of the Provisional Government. An attempted military coup in the country. Growth of revolutionary sentiment among the masses. Bolshevization of the capital Soviets.

Preparation and conduct of an armed uprising in Petrograd.

II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Decisions about power, peace, land. Formation of public authorities and management. Composition of the first Soviet government.

The victory of the armed uprising in Moscow. Government agreement with the Left SRs. Elections to the Constituent Assembly, its convocation and dissolution.

The first socio-economic transformations in the field of industry, agriculture, finance, labor and women's issues. Church and State.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, its terms and significance.

Economic tasks of the Soviet government in the spring of 1918. Aggravation of the food issue. The introduction of food dictatorship. Working squads. Comedy.

The revolt of the left SRs and the collapse of the two-party system in Russia.

First Soviet Constitution.

Causes of intervention and civil war. The course of hostilities. Human and material losses of the period of the civil war and military intervention.

The internal policy of the Soviet leadership during the war. "War Communism". GOELRO plan.

The policy of the new government in relation to culture.

Foreign policy. Treaties with border countries. Participation of Russia in the Genoa, Hague, Moscow and Lausanne conferences. Diplomatic recognition of the USSR by the main capitalist countries.

Domestic policy. Socio-economic and political crisis of the early 20s. Famine of 1921-1922 Transition to new economic policy. The essence of the NEP. NEP in the field of agriculture, trade, industry. financial reform. Economic recovery. Crises during the NEP and its curtailment.

Projects for the creation of the USSR. I Congress of Soviets of the USSR. The first government and the Constitution of the USSR.

Illness and death of V.I. Lenin. Intraparty struggle. The beginning of the formation of Stalin's regime of power.

Industrialization and collectivization. Development and implementation of the first five-year plans. Socialist competition - purpose, forms, leaders.

Formation and strengthening of the state system of economic management.

The course towards complete collectivization. Dispossession.

Results of industrialization and collectivization.

Political, national-state development in the 30s. Intraparty struggle. political repression. Formation of the nomenklatura as a layer of managers. Stalinist regime and the constitution of the USSR in 1936

Soviet culture in the 20-30s.

Foreign policy of the second half of the 20s - mid-30s.

Domestic policy. The growth of military production. Extraordinary measures in the field of labor legislation. Measures to solve the grain problem. Military establishment. Growth of the Red Army. military reform. Repressions against the command personnel of the Red Army and the Red Army.

Foreign policy. Non-aggression pact and treaty of friendship and borders between the USSR and Germany. The entry of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus into the USSR. Soviet-Finnish war. The inclusion of the Baltic republics and other territories in the USSR.

Periodization of the Great Patriotic War. The initial stage of the war. Turning the country into a military camp. Military defeats 1941-1942 and their reasons. Major military events Capitulation of Nazi Germany. Participation of the USSR in the war with Japan.

Soviet rear during the war.

Deportation of peoples.

Partisan struggle.

Human and material losses during the war.

Creation of the anti-Hitler coalition. Declaration of the United Nations. The problem of the second front. Conferences of the "Big Three". Problems of post-war peace settlement and all-round cooperation. USSR and UN.

Beginning of the Cold War. The contribution of the USSR to the creation of the "socialist camp". CMEA formation.

Domestic policy of the USSR in the mid-1940s - early 1950s. Restoration of the national economy.

Socio-political life. Politics in the field of science and culture. Continued repression. "Leningrad business". Campaign against cosmopolitanism. "Doctors' Case".

Socio-economic development of Soviet society in the mid-50s - the first half of the 60s.

Socio-political development: XX Congress of the CPSU and the condemnation of Stalin's personality cult. Rehabilitation of victims of repressions and deportations. Intra-party struggle in the second half of the 1950s.

Foreign policy: the creation of the ATS. Input Soviet troops to Hungary. Exacerbation of Soviet-Chinese relations. The split of the "socialist camp". Soviet-American Relations and the Caribbean Crisis. USSR and third world countries. Reducing the strength of the armed forces of the USSR. Moscow Treaty on the Limitation of Nuclear Tests.

USSR in the mid-60s - the first half of the 80s.

Socio-economic development: economic reform 1965

Growing difficulties of economic development. Decline in the rate of socio-economic growth.

USSR Constitution 1977

Socio-political life of the USSR in the 1970s - early 1980s.

Foreign Policy: Nonproliferation Treaty nuclear weapons. Consolidation of post-war borders in Europe. Moscow treaty with Germany. Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Soviet-American treaties of the 70s. Soviet-Chinese relations. The entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. Exacerbation of international tension and the USSR. Strengthening of the Soviet-American confrontation in the early 80s.

USSR in 1985-1991

Domestic policy: an attempt to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country. An attempt at reform political system Soviet society. congresses people's deputies. Election of the President of the USSR. Multi-party system. Exacerbation of the political crisis.

Exacerbation of the national question. Attempts to reform the national-state structure of the USSR. Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. "Novogarevsky process". The collapse of the USSR.

Foreign policy: Soviet-American relations and the problem of disarmament. Treaties with leading capitalist countries. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Changing relations with the countries of the socialist community. Disintegration of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.

the Russian Federation in 1992-2000

Domestic policy: "Shock therapy" in the economy: price liberalization, stages of privatization of commercial and industrial enterprises. Fall in production. Increased social tension. Growth and slowdown in financial inflation. The aggravation of the struggle between the executive and legislative branches. The dissolution of the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of People's Deputies. October events of 1993. Abolition of local bodies of Soviet power. Elections to the Federal Assembly. The Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 Formation of the presidential republic. Aggravation and overcoming of national conflicts in the North Caucasus.

Parliamentary elections 1995 Presidential elections 1996 Power and opposition. An attempt to return to the course of liberal reforms (spring 1997) and its failure. The financial crisis of August 1998: causes, economic and political consequences. "Second Chechen War". 1999 parliamentary elections and early presidential elections 2000. Foreign Policy: Russia in the CIS. The participation of Russian troops in the "hot spots" of the near abroad: Moldova, Georgia, Tajikistan. Russia's relations with foreign countries. The withdrawal of Russian troops from Europe and neighboring countries. Russian-American agreements. Russia and NATO. Russia and the Council of Europe. Yugoslav crises (1999-2000) and Russia's position.

• Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. History of the state and peoples of Russia. XX century.