The Civil War began in October 1917 and ended with the defeat of the White Army in the Far East in the fall of 1922. During this time, various social classes and groups on the territory of Russia resolved the contradictions that arose between them by armed methods.
The main reasons for the outbreak of the civil war include the discrepancy between the goals of transforming society and the methods of achieving them, the refusal to create a coalition government, the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the nationalization of land and industry, the elimination of commodity-money relations, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the creation of a one-party system, the danger of the revolution spreading to other countries, economic losses of Western powers during regime change in Russia.
In the spring of 1918, British, American and French troops landed in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The Japanese invaded the Far East, the British and Americans landed in Vladivostok - the intervention began.
On May 25, an uprising of the 45-thousandth Czechoslovak corps took place, which was transferred to Vladivostok for further dispatch to France. A well-armed and well-equipped corps stretched from the Volga to the Urals. In the conditions of the decayed Russian army, he became the only real force at that time. The corps, supported by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and White Guards, put forward demands for the overthrow of the Bolsheviks and the convocation of a Constituent Assembly.
In the South, the Volunteer Army of General A.I.Denikin was formed, which defeated the Soviets in the North Caucasus. The troops of P.N. Krasnov approached Tsaritsyn, in the Urals the Cossacks of General A.A. Dutov captured Orenburg. In November-December 1918, British troops landed in Batumi and Novorossiysk, and the French occupied Odessa. In these critical conditions, the Bolsheviks managed to create a combat-ready army by mobilizing people and resources and attracting military specialists of the tsarist army.
By the fall of 1918, the Red Army liberated the cities of Samara, Simbirsk, Kazan and Tsaritsyn.
The revolution in Germany had a significant impact on the course of the civil war. Having admitted defeat in the First World War, Germany agreed to annul the Brest Peace Treaty and withdrew its troops from the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states.
The Entente began to withdraw its troops, providing only material assistance to the White Guards.
By April 1919, the Red Army managed to stop the troops of General A.V. Kolchak. Driven deep into Siberia, they were defeated by the beginning of 1920.
In the summer of 1919, General Denikin, having seized the Ukraine, moved to Moscow and approached Tula. The troops of the first cavalry army under the command of M.V. Frunze and Latvian riflemen were concentrated on the southern front. In the spring of 1920, near Novorossiysk, the "Reds" defeated the White Guards.
In the north of the country, the troops of General N.N. Yudenich fought against the Soviets. In the spring and autumn of 1919, they made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Petrograd.
In April 1920, the conflict between Soviet Russia and Poland began. In May 1920, the Poles captured Kiev. The troops of the Western and Southwestern Fronts launched an offensive, but they failed to achieve the final victory.
Aware of the impossibility of continuing the war, in March 1921 the parties signed a peace treaty.
The war ended with the defeat of General P.N. Wrangel, who led the remnants of Denikin's troops in the Crimea. In 1920, the Far Eastern Republic was formed, and by 1922 it was finally liberated from the Japanese.
The reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks: support for the national outskirts and Russian peasants, deceived by the Bolshevik slogan "Land to the peasants", the creation of a combat-ready army, the lack of a general command of the whites, support for Soviet Russia from the workers' movements and the communist parties of other countries.
Armed intervention of foreign states in the events of the revolution and civil war on the territory of the former Russian Empire.
Prerequisites for the intervention
The Entente states did not recognize Soviet power and considered the Bolsheviks to be a pro-German force. The British War Cabinet discussed the possibility of military intervention in Russia on December 7, 1917. On December 7-10 (20-23), 1917, an Anglo-French agreement was reached on the division of spheres of influence when interfering in Russian affairs. France was to enter into interaction with anti-Bolshevik forces in Ukraine, Crimea and Bessarabia, Great Britain - in the Caucasus. Despite the fact that formally the Allies refused to interfere in Russian internal affairs, they considered themselves "obliged to maintain contacts with Ukraine, the Cossacks, Finland, Siberia and the Caucasus, because these semi-autonomous regions represent a significant part of Russia's power."
Central Block Intervention
Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire took advantage of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918 to occupy Ukraine, the Baltic States, Finland, part of the Transcaucasus and Belarus. Contrary to the conditions of peace, their troops continued to move also within the RSFSR. The strategic task of Germany was to establish control over the eastern coast of the Black Sea. On April 18, 1918, the Germans entered the Crimea, took Taganrog on May 1, and occupied Rostov on May 8. At Bataysk, German troops clashed with the forces of the Kuban-Black Sea Republic, which was part of the RSFSR. After several days of fighting on May 30, 1918, Bataysk was taken by the German-Cossack troops. A demarcation line was established behind Bataisk, but on June 10, the Red Army landed troops in Taganrog. On June 12, the Germans defeated it and, as a retaliatory measure, landed on the Taman Peninsula on June 14, however, under pressure from the Reds, they were forced to withdraw.
On May 25, 1918, the Germans landed in Poti and, with the consent of the authorities of the Georgian Democratic Republic, occupied Georgia. The Ottoman Empire launched an offensive on Baku, which was controlled by the Baku Commune and then the Central Caspian. A British detachment took part in the defense of Baku. On September 15, 1918, Baku was taken by the Turks. On November 8, 1918, they also took Port-Petrovsky (Makhachkala). Germany provided support to the anti-Bolshevik movements in Russia, primarily the Don army of P. Krasnov.
Entente intervention
The intervention of the Entente gradually developed. Romania was the first to oppose Soviet Russia. On December 24, 1917 (January 6, 1918), a shootout took place between a Romanian detachment moving from Kiev and Russian soldiers at the station. Kishinev. The Romanians were disarmed. On December 26, 1917 (January 8, 1918), the Romanian troops crossed the Prut, but they were repulsed. On January 8 (21), 1918, Romanian troops launched an offensive in Bessarabia. The Romanian command claimed that it had come at the invitation of the Moldovan representative body of power, Sfatul Tarii, which officially denied it. On January 13 (26), 1918, Romanian troops occupied Chisinau, and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR broke off relations with Romania. The Romanian command formally restored the power of Sfatul tarii and launched repression against the left forces. Supporters of Soviet power and the preservation of Moldova as part of Russia retreated to Bender. Here the Revolutionary Committee for the Salvation of the Moldavian Republic was created. In the Danube Delta, fighting broke out between Romanian and Russian ships around Vilkovo. Taking Bender on February 7, 1918, Romanian troops carried out executions of the captured city defenders. In February, there were battles between Soviet and Romanian troops on the Dniester. On March 5-9, 1918, a Soviet-Romanian agreement was signed, according to which Romania pledged to withdraw its troops from Bessarabia within two months. However, in the context of the Austro-German offensive in Ukraine, which was left by Soviet troops, Romania did not fulfill the agreement. Moreover, the Romanians captured Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. On April 9, 1918, Romania annexed Bessarabia (Moldavia).
On March 5, 1918, a small British detachment, with the consent of Leon Trotsky and the Murmansk Soviet, landed in Murmansk to protect the property of the Entente from a possible attack by pro-German forces. On May 24, 1918, the USS Olympia arrived in Murmansk. On March 5, 1918, in response to the murder of Japanese subjects in Vladivostok, a Japanese landing of 500 soldiers and a British landing of 50 were landed. However, the city was not captured by them; Soviet power remained in it.
A large-scale civil war in Russia unfolded in May 1918, in particular thanks to the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps. Since the corps was formally subordinate to the French command, this action can be regarded as an act of intervention, although initially the Czechoslovak soldiers acted on their own initiative. In July 1918, the Supreme Union Council left the corps in Russia, deploying its movement from the east, aimed at evacuation to France, to the west, in the direction of Moscow.
On June 1-3, 1918, the Supreme Military Council of the Entente decided to occupy Murmansk and Arkhangelsk by the allied forces.
In August, Japanese and American contingents of 7,000 soldiers were brought into Vladivostok. Japanese troops, the number of which increased to more than 25 thousand, occupied the Trans-Siberian to Verkhneudinsk and Northern Sakhalin.
On July 17, representatives of the Murmansk Soviet, contrary to the position of the central Soviet government, signed an agreement with the allies to invite their troops to Murmansk. The allies have increased their grouping here to 12-15 thousand soldiers.
On August 2, 1918, the Entente troops landed in Arkhangelsk. With their support, an anti-Bolshevik government in the north of Russia was created, headed by N. Tchaikovsky. On August 23, 1918, a concentration camp was established on Lake Mudyug by the invaders.
On July 29, 1918, speaking at an enlarged meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Lenin declared: “Our civil war ... has merged with the external war into one indissoluble whole ... We are now at war with Anglo-French imperialism and with everything that is bourgeois, capitalist in Russia, making an effort to disrupt the whole cause of the socialist revolution and drag us into the war. " The intervention became a factor in the deepening of the civil war in Russia, without contributing to the success of the Entente in the struggle against Germany and her allies, which was the official motive for the intervention. In reality, the intervention was aimed at eliminating Soviet power.
After the defeat of the Central Bloc in World War II, Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had to evacuate their troops, giving way to the Entente.
After the departure of the Austro-German troops in the Black Sea ports in December 1918, the troops of France and Greece landed. Italy and Serbia sent small contingents. In Transcaucasia, the Turks were replaced by the British, who also entered Turkestan. On November 14, 1918, a battle took place between the Red and British troops for the Dushak station. The battlefield remained with the Reds.
The intervention continued in the Far East, where Japan and the United States played a key role, but other Entente states, including China, also participated. In 1918-1920, Soviet Russia was at war with the new states that had formed on the territory of the former Russian Empire - with Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. These events are associated with the intervention and at the same time are an integral part of the civil war in the territory of the former Russian Empire. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania defended themselves from the Red troops, which included Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians. With the approval of the Entente, German troops fought in Latvia. Thus, the intervention was attended by nine Entente powers (Great Britain and its dominions, France, USA, Japan, Greece, Italy, Serbia, China, Romania), German troops and soldiers of five new states (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) ...
In Ukraine, there were about 80 thousand invaders, in the Far East - more than 100 thousand. In the north - about 40 thousand. However, these forces did not actively attack Moscow and Petrograd.
Each of the participants in the intervention pursued their own goals. The leading Entente powers hoped that a dependent liberal government would emerge in Russia, neighboring states from Romania to Japan hoped to receive part of the territory of the disintegrating Russian Empire, the new states pushed the border as far east as possible, entering into conflict with other contenders for these lands and with the white movement assisted by the Entente.
In the Entente states themselves, the intervention was unpopular, the soldiers and the population were tired of the war. In March 1919, under the blows of the Red Army division under the command of N. Grigoriev, the French, Greeks and White Guards left Kherson and Nikopol, and were defeated at Berezovka. On April 8, 1919, the Reds entered Odessa, abandoned by the invaders.
Japanese troops actively participated in the battles in the Far East. On April 5, 1920, in the midst of negotiations on the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the Far East, the Japanese attacked Soviet troops and, with the help of Cossack formations, carried out terror. More than 7 thousand people died, including S. Lazo, the leader of the coastal partisans. On April 6, 1920, to prevent a clash between Japan and the RSFSR, a "buffer" Far Eastern republic was created.
In April 1919, France and its allies withdrew from the northern Black Sea coast. In March 1919, it was decided to begin the evacuation of British troops from Turkestan. In August, the British and their allies left Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and by October 12, 1919, the North. After the withdrawal of interventionist troops from the European part of Russia, the support of the White movement by the Entente states continued. In October 1918 - October 1919, about 100 thousand tons of weapons, equipment and uniforms were supplied to whites by Great Britain alone. Denikin in the second half of 1919 received more than 250 thousand rifles, 200 guns, 30 tanks, etc. The USA left the Far East only in 1920. Japan tried to maintain control of the Russian Far East for longer, but this was contrary to US policy. By July 15, 1920, an agreement was reached on the evacuation of Japanese troops from the Russian Far East, but its implementation was delayed by the Japanese side. In 1922, under pressure from the United States, Japan was nevertheless forced to evacuate its troops from the Russian Far East. However, Japan returned Northern Sakhalin to Russia only in 1925.
FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTION IN RUSSIA 1918-22, armed intervention of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia during the Civil War of 1917-22. The goal is to force Russia to continue participating in World War I on the side of the Entente, to protect its interests on Russian territory, to provide political, financial and military assistance to the White movement and the governments of the nation states formed after the October Revolution of 1917, to prevent the ideas of the world revolution from penetrating to the countries of Europe and Asia. In addition to the troops of the Entente countries (Great Britain, Greece, Italy, China, Romania, USA, France and Japan), the troops of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey), as well as Denmark, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, took part in the intervention. , Serbia, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Estonia. Issues related to the intervention were discussed and decided at conferences and meetings of presidents, heads of government, foreign ministers, military ministers of the Entente countries, as well as at its Supreme Council (Council of Ten, from March 1919 - Council of Four, from July - Council of Five, or the Council of Heads of Delegation). Military issues were decided by the Supreme Military Council of the Entente (created in November 1917) and its executive body - the Inter-Union (Executive) Committee formed on 2.2.1918 (4 permanent military representatives; chairman - the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies in Europe, Marshal F. Foch). Operations were planned by the General Staff of the Main Command of the Allied Armies. Directly the intervention troops were commanded: in the north of the European part of Russia - the British General W.E. Ironside, since September 1919, General F. Poole; in Siberia - the French general M. Janin; in the Far East - Japanese General Otani; in Transcaucasia - British General L. Densterville; in Turkestan - British General W. Malleson; in the South of Russia - the French General A. Verthelot.
The Entente powers after the October Revolution of 1917 refused to recognize the Provisional Workers 'and Peasants' Government of Russia. The Peace Decree was assessed on 10 (23) .11.1917 as a violation of the terms of the treaty between Russia and the Entente powers of 23.8 (5.9) .1914. In November 1917 in the city of Iasi, military representatives of the Entente countries and the command of the Russian Romanian and Southwestern Fronts, who did not recognize the power of the Bolsheviks, determined a plan of military action against the Soviet Republic in southern Russia with the involvement of Romanian troops in Bessarabia, the Separate Czechoslovak Corps and troops of the Central Rada in Ukraine. On November 14 (27), the heads of government of Great Britain and France D. Lloyd George and J. Clemenceau decided to support the Transcaucasian Commissariat. On December 9 (22), after the signing of an armistice between Soviet Russia and Germany, representatives of the Entente countries at a conference in Paris agreed to establish ties with the governments of the Caucasus, Siberia, Ukraine and the Cossack regions. Great Britain and France signed the "Terms of the Convention agreed in Paris on December 23, 1917", providing for the division of zones of influence and the provision of military assistance to the Volunteer Army being formed in Novocherkassk. At the end of December, Romanian troops entered the territory of Bessarabia, and at the beginning of January 1918, Japanese warships entered the port of Vladivostok. US policy towards Russia was defined in TV Wilson's message to the US Congress on January 8 ("Wilson's 14 Points"). This plan provided for: the evacuation of German troops from the territory of Russia, giving it the opportunity to make an independent decision regarding its political development, the creation of an independent Polish state, etc. Because of the breakdown by the Soviet delegation headed by L.D.Trotsky, the peace talks with Germany on February 18 , and then the Austro-Hungarian troops, breaking the truce, launched an offensive in the strip from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In a short time they occupied the Baltic states, Ukraine, Crimea, most of Belarus, part of the western and southern regions of Russia. To stop the German-Austro-Hungarian intervention, the Council of People's Commissars was forced on March 3 to sign the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918 on extremely difficult conditions. In order to prevent the strengthening of Japan's positions in the Far East, the US government decided to strengthen its military presence in this region, and on March 1, an American cruiser entered the port of Vladivostok. On March 2, the Murmansk Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, with the consent of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, entered into an agreement with the British-French command, according to which the command of the troops in Murmansk was transferred to the joint Military Council, formed from representatives of the city authorities and allies. British Marines landed in Murmansk in March. Swedish units occupied the Aland Islands, which, according to the Brest Peace, the troops of the RSFSR were to leave. On March 7, the British government announced its support of the ataman of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army G.M.Semenov.
On March 15, the leaders of France, Great Britain and Italy recognized the need for military intervention in Russia. In Siberia, it was proposed to assign this task to Japan, but subject to its active support from the United States, on April 5, a landing from a Japanese squadron was landed in Vladivostok, and then, at the request of the British Consul, a British Marine Corps unit arrived in the city. In the Northwest, Finnish troops invaded Karelia. In late April - early May, the military missions of the Entente powers in Russia developed the "Plan for a joint intervention in the North and Siberia," approved in June - July by the Supreme Military Council of the Entente. At the end of May, the Czechoslovak Corps began an offensive in 1918, which soon covered the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. In early June, at a meeting of the military representatives of the Entente in Paris, it was decided to occupy Murmansk and Arkhangelsk by the forces of the allied forces. In the North, the formation of the Slavic-British Legion (commander - Colonel K. Henderson) began. On July 2, the Entente Supreme Council decided to expand the Allied operations in the North. On July 6, the USA made a decision, subject to Japan's consent, to concentrate in Vladivostok up to 7,000 American and 7,000 Japanese servicemen to guard the communications of the Separate Czechoslovak Corps and joint actions with it, if necessary. At the same time, representatives of the United States, Great Britain and France concluded an agreement with the Murmansk Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies on defense against a possible invasion of the Quadruple Alliance troops.
On August 2, a British-French-American detachment (about 1,000 people), after an anti-Bolshevik coup, occupied Arkhangelsk. On August 4, by agreement with the government of the Central Caspian Dictatorship, a British detachment (up to 1,000 people) entered the city to protect Baku from Turkish and German troops (see Foreign military intervention in Transcaucasia 1918-21). Anglo-Indian units (up to 1 thousand people) arrived in the Transcaspian region with the aim of supporting the Transcaspian provisional government from Persia. In September, the British, under the threat of seizing Baku by Turkish troops, left the city, but in November they again occupied it. In the same month, the allied fleet entered the Black Sea (over 30 warships; commander - French Vice Admiral Amet). Within 2 months, the interventionists occupied Novorossiysk, Sevastopol, Odessa and other ports. After the defeat of Germany and her allies in World War I and the beginning of the November Revolution of 1918, the Soviet government annulled the Brest-Litovsk Peace (German-Austro-Hungarian troops were withdrawn from the occupied territories by mid-February 1919). In December, British units appeared in Batum and Tiflis, and the British squadron of Rear Admiral A. Sinclair appeared in Revel port. Administratively, A. V. Kolchak signed an agreement with representatives of the allies on January 16, 1919, under which he undertook to coordinate his actions with General M. Zhanin. By February 1919, only 202.4 thousand people took part in the intervention, of which: 44.6 thousand British troops, 13.6 thousand - French, 13.7 thousand - American, 80 thousand - Japanese (later the number of Japanese troops in Siberia increased up to 150 thousand), 42 thousand - Czechoslovak, 3 thousand - Italian and the same number of Greek, 2.5 thousand - Serbian. In addition, there were Polish, Romanian, Chinese and other foreign units and subdivisions on the territory of the former Russian Empire. In the Baltic, Black and White Seas, there were 117 ships of the interventionists. The interventionist troops mainly carried out guard duty, participated in battles against the rebels, provided material and moral assistance to the White movement, performed punitive functions (for example, during the year of occupation, 38 thousand people passed through the Arkhangelsk prison, of which 8 thousand were shot, over 1 thousand - died of hunger, disease and beatings; in the Amur region, 7 thousand people died at the hands of the interventionists). Large-scale military operations against the Red Army were conducted only by units of the Separate Czechoslovak Corps in the Volga region and the Urals (in 1918). The Entente also established an economic blockade of the RSFSR, seizing the most important economic regions, exerting political pressure on neutral states interested in trade with the RSFSR, and introducing a naval blockade.
The commander of the allied forces, French General D'Anselm (center) in Odessa. 1918.
Unrest among the soldiers and sailors, the movement under the slogan "Hands off Russia" forced the British government in early January 1919 to refuse to send its troops to Russia.
On January 21, Canada decided to withdraw its troops from Russia. In April, the interventionists were evacuated from the South of Russia, in June, American troops were withdrawn from the North, in August - British troops from Transcaucasia (with the exception of the garrison in Batum, which remained there until July 1920), in early February 1920 - the troops of the interventionists from the North, in January - April - from the Far East (except for the Japanese troops stationed in Primorye until October 1922 and on Northern Sakhalin until 1925). 1/16/1920 The Supreme Council of the Entente decided to end the economic blockade of the RSFSR. The total amount of damage from military intervention, according to the Soviet government, amounted to 39 billion gold rubles. Administratively, A. V. Kolchak transferred about 184.2 tons of gold from the gold reserves of Russia to the USA, Great Britain, France and Japan to pay off the debt to his allies for the supply of military equipment and weapons. The intervention did not achieve its goal due to the inconsistency of the actions of the allied forces, their small number, the reluctance of the majority of soldiers and officers to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, and also due to the successful actions of the Red Army.
Lit .: Ward D. Allied intervention in Siberia. M .; P., 1923; Intervention in the North in documents. M., 1933; From the history of the civil war in the USSR: Sat. documents and materials. M., 1960-1961. T. 1-3; Foreign military intervention and civil war in Central Asia and Kazakhstan: Documents and materials. A.-A., 1963-1964. T. 1-2; Directives of the command of the fronts of the Red Army (1917-1922). Sat. documents. M., 1978. T. 4; Civil war in the USSR. M., 1980-1986. T. 1-2; Quartered in hell: The story of the American North Russia expeditionary force, 1918-1919 / Ed. D. Gordon. Missoula, 1982; Dobson Ch., Miller J. The day they almost bombed Moscow: the allied war in Russia, 1918-1920. N. Y. 1986; Anti-Soviet intervention and its collapse, 1917-1922. M., 1987; Foreign military intervention in the Baltics, 1917-1920 M., 1988; Rhodes B.D. The Anglo-American winter war with Russia, 1918-1919. N. Y .; L., 1988; Domestic military history. M., 2003. T. 2, 3; Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles. M., 2006. T. 1-3.
Introduction
Foreign military intervention in Russia (1918-1921) - military intervention of the Entente and Quadruple Alliance countries in the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). In total, 14 states took part in the intervention.
1. Background
Immediately after the October Revolution, during which the Bolsheviks came to power, the "Decree on Peace" was announced - Soviet Russia on December 2, 1917 concluded an armistice and withdrew from the First World War.
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 to delimit zones of interest in the territories of the former Russian Empire and establish contacts with national democratic governments. The Caucasus and the Cossack regions were designated as the zone of influence of England, Ukraine and the Crimea were assigned to France. On January 1, 1918, Japan brought its warships into the Vladivostok port under the pretext of protecting its subjects. On January 8, 1918, US President Wilson, in his message to Congress, declared the need to withdraw German troops from Russian territories, recognize the independence of the Baltic states and Ukraine with the possibility of their further unification with Great Russia on a federal basis.
On March 1, 1918, the Murmansk Council sent a request to the Council of People's Commissars, asking in what form it would be possible to accept military assistance from the allies, proposed by British Rear Admiral Kemp. Kemp proposed to land 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:
You are obliged to immediately accept any assistance from allied missions.
On March 6, 1918, in Murmansk, a detachment of 150 British marines with two guns landed from the English battleship Glory. The next day, the English cruiser Cochren appeared on the Murmansk roadstead, on March 18, the French cruiser Admiral Ob, and on May 27, the American cruiser Olympia.
2. The intervention of the Entente
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 context of the outbreak 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. On June 30, the Murmansk Soviet, with the support of the interventionists, decided to break off relations with Moscow.
On August 1, 1918, British troops landed in Vladivostok. On August 2, 1918, with the help of a squadron of 17 warships, the 9,000th Entente detachment landed in Arkhangelsk. Already on August 2, the interventionists with the help of the white forces captured Arkhangelsk. In fact, the invaders were the masters. They established a colonial regime; declared martial law, introduced military courts, during the occupation they exported 2,686 thousand poods of various cargoes totaling over 950 million rubles in gold. The entire military, merchant and fishing fleet of the North became the prey of the invaders. American troops acted as punishers. Over 50 thousand Soviet citizens (more than 10% of the total controlled population) were thrown into prisons in Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Pechenga, Yokanga. In the Arkhangelsk provincial prison alone, 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 the interventionist forces in the North were under British command. The commander from May to November 1918 was Major General F. Pull (Poole, Eng. Pull), and from 11/17/1918 to 11/14/1919 Brigadier General Ironside.
On August 3, the US War Department orders General Graves to intervene in Russia and send the 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments, as well as volunteers from the 13th and 62nd Graves Regiments in California, to Vladivostok. In total, the United States landed about 7,950 soldiers in the East and about 5,000 in the north of Russia. According to incomplete data, the United States spent more than $ 25 million on the maintenance of its troops alone - without the fleet and aid to the whites.
After Germany's defeat in World War I, the Allies' interest in internal Russian strife quickly faded away. In January 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, the Allies decided to abandon their plans for intervention (and concentrate their efforts on supplying weapons to the white armies). An important role in this was played by the fact that the Soviet representative Litvinov, at a meeting with the American diplomat Baket, held in January 1919 in Stockholm, announced the readiness of the Soviet government to pay off pre-revolutionary debts, grant the Entente countries concessions in Soviet Russia, and grant independence to Finland, Poland and the countries Transcaucasia in case of termination of the intervention. Lenin and Chicherin conveyed the same proposal to the American representative, Bullitt, when he arrived in Moscow.
In March 1919, faced with Grigoriev's 6th Ukrainian Soviet Division, French troops left Kherson and Nikolaev. In April 1919, the French command was forced to leave Odessa and Sevastopol due to discontent among the sailors (who, after the victory over Germany, expected a quick demobilization). In the summer of 1919, 12,000 British, American and French troops stationed in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk were evacuated from there. By 1920, most of the interventionists left the territory of the RSFSR. In the Far East, they held out until 1922. The last regions of the USSR liberated from the invaders were Wrangel Island (1924) and Northern Sakhalin (1925).
The invaders practically did not engage in battles with the Red Army. The most violent clashes took place in the Baltic Sea, where a British squadron tried to destroy the Red Baltic Fleet. At the end of 1918, the British captured two of the newest Novik-class destroyers - Avtroil and Spartak. British torpedo boats twice attacked the main base of the Baltic Fleet - Kronstadt. As a result of the first attack, the cruiser Oleg was sunk. During the second attack on August 18, 1919, 7 British torpedo boats torpedoed the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny and the submarine floating base Pamyat Azov, losing three boats in the attack. On August 31, 1919, the Panther submarine sank the newest British destroyer Vittoria. On October 21, 1919, three Novik-class destroyers - Gabriel, Svoboda, Konstantin - were killed on British mines. The mines also blew up the British submarine L-55, the cruisers Kassandra and Verulam, and several smaller boats.
2.1. List of Entente powers that took part in the intervention
from March 1918 Arkhangelsk
from October 1918 Murmansk
from the end of 1918 the Baltic Sea - the 6th British light cruising squadron of Edwin Alexander-Sinclair (eng. en: Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair), replaced in January 1919 by Rear Admiral Cowan's 1st Light Cruiser Squadron
from July to November 1919 - Revel, Narva (Volunteer training tank detachment)
Sevastopol (from December 1919), Novorossiysk (March 12-26, 1920) - British military mission under the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (ARSUR), South Russian Tank Detachment (from April 12, 1919 in Batum, then Yekaterinograd, Tsaritsyn, Novorossiysk, Crimea; withdrawn on June 28, 1920), 47 squadron (Tsaritsyn, Crimea, March 1919 - March 1920).
Black Sea - 6 battleships, 1 hydrocruiser and 13 destroyers (1920)
Caspian Sea - 11 warships and 12 coastal fighter boats (1920)
Transcaucasia (from August 1918 Baku, from December 1918 Batumi, then Krasnovodsk, Petrovsk, Shusha, Julfa, Erivan, Kars and Gagra). Released in July 1920.
Vladivostok - from April 1918 (25th battalion of the Own Duke of Cambridge Middlesex Regiment in 829 people, and other units)
Canada - from October 1918 Arkhangelsk, Murmansk 500 artillerymen (withdrawn on June 11, 1919), Siberia 3500-4000 soldiers (withdrawn April 1919).
India - battalions of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Forces, Transcaucasia 1919-1920.
Siberia - Siberian Colonial Infantry Battalion and Siberian Colonial Artillery Battery
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Black Sea November 1918 - March 1920 2 battleships, 1 battle cruiser, 8 destroyers, 1 hospital ship and 1 transport
Far East - II rank armored cruiser "Haizhong" (海 容) under the command of Commodore Lin Jianzhang (林 建 章), part of the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division under the command of Song Huangzhang (宋焕章), guard units and border guards
Arkhangelsk and Murmansk 1918-1919 - Chinese battalion
Great Britain - SPSR (Support Forces of Northern Russia) of up to 28 thousand people (evacuated June-October 1919), a military mission, the South Russian Tank Detachment and the 47th Squadron at the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, also - the intervention in the Caucasus (Georgia) ...
British colonies and dominions:
USA - since August 1918 participated in the SPSR, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk (withdrawn June-October 1919). By agreement between the interventionists, they guarded the Transsib in the sections from Mysovsk to Verkhneudinsk and from Iman to Vladivostok (withdrawn January-March 1920). The total number of American troops in the North of Russia is up to 6 thousand people, in Siberia up to 9 thousand people;
France - since March 1918 the north of Russia (the cruiser "Admiral Ob"), the participation of French artillerymen in the command of the armored train of the Murmansk-Petrograd railway.
Colonial French troops (Odessa, November 1918 - April 1919) - 4th African Horse Jaeger Regiment, 21st Regiment of Native Riflemen, 10th Regiment of Algerian Riflemen, 9th Battalion of the 8th Regiment of Algerian Riflemen, 1st marching Indochinese battalion; Sevastopol - 129th battalion of Senegalese riflemen.
Romania - occupation of Bessarabia early 1918
Poland - a contingent in the SPSR (1918-1919), Soviet-Polish war 1920 (Wielkopolska army, remnants of the illegal "Polish military organization")
Japan - Vladivostok, the Transsib section from Verkhneudinsk to Khabarovsk and Iman, Sakhalin since April 1918. Withdrawn in 1921. Two divisions of about 28,000 bayonets.
China - did not take an active part in the intervention
Also in the SPSR were: the Serbian battalion, the Finnish Karelian Legion (Karelian Regiment) and the Finnish Murmansk Legion (corresponding to the brigade).
3. Intervention of the Central Powers
In February-May 1918, Poland, the Baltic States, Ukraine and Transcaucasia were occupied by the troops of the Quadruple Alliance. On March 1, Kiev was occupied by the Germans, Taganrog on May 1, Rostov on May 8. Ataman of the Great Don Army Krasnov P.N. concluded an alliance with the Germans. A project was discussed to unite the Ukrainian State, the Great Don Army and the Kuban People's Republic on a federal basis.
The German occupation forces on the eastern front numbered about 1.045 million. , which accounted for more than 20% of all the forces of Germany, the Turkish - about 30 thousand people. The abandonment of significant occupying forces in the east after the conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty is considered a strategic mistake of the German command, which became one of the reasons for Germany's defeat in the First World War.
After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, in accordance with the secret protocol to the Compiegne Armistice of November 11, 1918, German troops were to remain in Russia until the arrival of the Entente troops, however, by agreement with the German command, the territories from which the German troops were withdrawn, began to be occupied by the Red Army and only in some points (Sevastopol, Odessa) German troops were replaced by the Entente troops.
3.1. List of Central Powers who took part in the intervention
German Empire - Ukraine, part of European Russia 1918 - early 1919. Baltic states - until the end of 1919.
Austro-Hungarian Empire - ibid;
Ottoman Empire - Transcaucasia from February 1918;
Finland - the territory of Russian Karelia 1918 - 1920.
4. The role of foreign intervention in the civil war
There are various assessments of the role of foreign intervention in the Russian civil war. Their main common feature is the recognition of the fact that the interventionists pursued their own interests, and not the interests of Russia. Both the Entente and the Central Powers sought to remove from the jurisdiction of the central Russian power the national borderlands under the rule of puppet governments (which contradicted the interests of both the Reds and the Whites), while their interests often clashed. So, for example, until the end of the First World War, France and Germany simultaneously claimed Ukraine and Crimea, respectively, Britain and the Ottoman Empire - the Caucasus (the United States opposed Japan's attempts to annex the Russian Far East).
Both belligerent blocs continued to view Russia as one of the theaters of military operations in the ongoing World War (in which Russia was a member of the Entente, and since March 1918 was at peace with Germany), which was the reason for both the preservation of a significant military presence in Russia of German troops, and and the creation of a military presence for the Entente troops.
Colonel Stolzenberg, representative of the high command at the headquarters of the Kiev group of German forces, wrote:
The available troops are insufficient both in terms of their personnel and in armament. Additional parts are required to proceed with the operation.
Hindenburg wrote in his memoirs:
Even now, of course, we could not withdraw all our combat-ready forces from the East ... The mere desire to establish a barrier between the Bolshevik authorities and the lands liberated by us demanded the abandonment of strong German military units in the East.
The very beginning of the civil war is often explained by the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps - former soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army who went over to the side of Russia and were evacuated to France through Vladivostok. In addition, the presence of the interventionists in the rear of the White armies and their control over the internal political situation there (when considered, foreign intervention is often reduced to the intervention of the Entente) is considered the reason why the civil war continued for quite a long time.
The commander of the First Division of the Czechoslovak Corps Stanislav Chechek gave an order, in which he especially emphasized the following:
Our detachment is identified as the predecessor of the allied forces, and the instructions received from the headquarters have the sole purpose of building an anti-German front in Russia in alliance with the whole Russian people and our allies.
A citizen of the British crown, Secretary of War Winston Churchill was more categorical:
It would be a mistake to think that throughout this whole year we fought on the fronts for the cause of the Russians hostile to the Bolsheviks. On the contrary, the Russian White Guards fought for our cause. This truth will become unpleasantly sensitive from the moment the white armies are destroyed and the Bolsheviks establish their rule throughout the vast Russian empire.
5. Intervention in eyewitness accounts
6. Photo gallery
Soviet propaganda poster
Japanese propaganda poster depicting the capture of Blagoveshchensk by Japanese troops
Japanese propaganda poster depicting the capture of Khabarovsk by Japanese troops
American troops in Vladivostok
Red Army POWs guarded by US troops in Arkhangelsk, 1918
Traders at the train with invaders
Russian-language poster of the British invaders.
British squadron on the Murmansk roadstead, 1918
The atrocities of the Japanese troops in Primorye
Bibliography:
RUSSIA AND THE USSR IN THE WARS OF THE XX CENTURY
Kozlov I.A., Shlomin V.S. The Red Banner Northern Fleet. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1983.
Loans to Foreign Goverments, 67 congress, 2 sess. Senate USA. Doc. 86, Wash., 1921, p.92)
[N] either in the closing year of World War I nor following the Armistance, were attempts made to rid Russia of the Bolsheviks. Until November 1918 the great powers were too busy fighting each other to worry about developments in remote Russia. Here and there, voices were raised that Bolshevism represented a mortal threat to Western civilization: these were especially loud in the German army ... But even the Germans in the end subordinated concern with the possible long-term threat to considerations of immediate interest. Lenin was absolutely convinced that after making peace the belligerants would join forces and launch an international crusade against his regime. His fears proved groundless. Only the British intervened actively on the side of the anti-Bolshevik forces, and they did so in a half-hearted manner, largely at the initiative of one man, Winston Churchill. ( Richard Pipes.The Russian Revolution)
Ultra-small submarines 1914-2004
Krasnov Petr. The Great Don Host
Kuhl and G. Delbrück. The collapse of the German offensive operations in 1918, M., 1935, p. 24
Strokov A.A. History of military art. vol. 5. "Omega-polygon", St. Petersburg, 1994
History of Russia from Antiquity to the Present Day: A Guide for Applicants to Universities / MM Gorinov, AA Gorsky, VO Daines, etc .; Ed. M.N. Zueva. - M .: Higher school - 1994 (recommended for publication by the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Higher Education; under the auspices of the Federal Target Program of Russian Book Publishing)
E. Gorodetsky. Eastern Front in 1918 "Questions of history", 1947, No. 9.
Moser. Brief Strategic Review of World War 1914-1918
Churchill V. World crisis M .; L .: State military publishing house, 1932. - 328 p.
Vertinsky A.N. On a long road ... M., 1991, pp. 115-116.
The Civil War began in October 1917 and ended with the defeat of the White Army in the Far East in the fall of 1922. During this time, various social classes and groups on the territory of Russia resolved the contradictions that arose between them by armed methods.
The main reasons for the outbreak of the civil war include the discrepancy between the goals of transforming society and the methods of achieving them, the refusal to create a coalition government, the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the nationalization of land and industry, the elimination of commodity-money relations, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the creation of a one-party system, the danger of the revolution spreading to other countries, economic losses of Western powers during regime change in Russia.
In the spring of 1918, British, American and French troops landed in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The Japanese invaded the Far East, the British and Americans landed in Vladivostok - the intervention began.
On May 25, an uprising of the 45-thousandth Czechoslovak corps took place, which was transferred to Vladivostok for further dispatch to France. A well-armed and well-equipped corps stretched from the Volga to the Urals. In the conditions of the decayed Russian army, he became the only real force at that time. The corps, supported by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and White Guards, put forward demands for the overthrow of the Bolsheviks and the convocation of a Constituent Assembly.
In the South, the Volunteer Army of General A.I.Denikin was formed, which defeated the Soviets in the North Caucasus. The troops of P.N. Krasnov approached Tsaritsyn, in the Urals the Cossacks of General A.A. Dutov captured Orenburg. In November-December 1918, British troops landed in Batumi and Novorossiysk, and the French occupied Odessa. In these critical conditions, the Bolsheviks managed to create a combat-ready army by mobilizing people and resources and attracting military specialists of the tsarist army.
By the fall of 1918, the Red Army liberated the cities of Samara, Simbirsk, Kazan and Tsaritsyn.
The revolution in Germany had a significant impact on the course of the civil war. Having admitted defeat in the First World War, Germany agreed to annul the Brest Peace Treaty and withdrew its troops from the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states.
The Entente began to withdraw its troops, providing only material assistance to the White Guards.
By April 1919, the Red Army managed to stop the troops of General A.V. Kolchak. Driven deep into Siberia, they were defeated by the beginning of 1920.
In the summer of 1919, General Denikin, having seized the Ukraine, moved to Moscow and approached Tula. The troops of the first cavalry army under the command of M.V. Frunze and Latvian riflemen were concentrated on the southern front. In the spring of 1920, near Novorossiysk, the "Reds" defeated the White Guards.
In the north of the country, the troops of General N.N. Yudenich fought against the Soviets. In the spring and autumn of 1919, they made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Petrograd.
In April 1920, the conflict between Soviet Russia and Poland began. In May 1920, the Poles captured Kiev. The troops of the Western and Southwestern Fronts launched an offensive, but they failed to achieve the final victory.
Aware of the impossibility of continuing the war, in March 1921 the parties signed a peace treaty.
The war ended with the defeat of General P.N. Wrangel, who led the remnants of Denikin's troops in the Crimea. In 1920, the Far Eastern Republic was formed, and by 1922 it was finally liberated from the Japanese.
The reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks: support for the national outskirts and Russian peasants, deceived by the Bolshevik slogan "Land to the peasants", the creation of a combat-ready army, the lack of a general command of the whites, support for Soviet Russia from the workers' movements and the communist parties of other countries.
