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, on the territory of Russia, various social classes and groups by armed methods resolved the contradictions that arose between them.
The main reasons for the outbreak of the Civil War include:
- inconsistency between the goals of transforming society and the methods of achieving them;
- refusal to create a coalition government;
- overclocking Constituent Assembly;
- nationalization of land and industry;
- liquidation 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. Against the backdrop 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, who defeated the Soviets in the North Caucasus. The troops of P.N. Krasnova approached Tsaritsyn, in the Urals, the Cossacks of General A.A. Dutov was captured by 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, resources and attracting military specialists of the tsarist army.
By the fall of 1918, the Red Army liberated Samara, Simbirsk, Kazan and Tsaritsyn.
The revolution in Germany had a significant impact on the course of the Civil War. Admitting its defeat in, Germany agreed to annul and withdrew its troops from the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states.
- support for the borderlands and Russian peasants, deceived by the Bolshevik slogan "Land for the peasants";
- creation of an efficient army;
- lack of general command of the "whites";
- support from workers' movements and communist parties in other countries.
Civil War (1917-1922) - an armed confrontation that engulfed various political, ethnic, social groups and state formations, which began as a result of the October Revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Bolshevik Party. The main events took place in the European part of the former Russian Empire, as well as in the Urals and Siberia.
Causes of the war. The Civil War was the result of a protracted revolutionary crisis, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907. The first world War became a catalyst for the growth of tension in society and led to the fall of tsarist power as a result of the February Revolution. However, this only deepened the socio-economic crisis, national, political and ideological contradictions in Russian society, which was especially dangerous against the background of an extremely low political culture and the absence of democratic traditions in society.
After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, who began to pursue a tough, repressive policy towards their opponents, these contradictions resulted in a fierce struggle throughout the country between supporters of Soviet power and anti-Bolshevik forces, seeking to regain lost wealth and political influence.
Foreign intervention
The civil war was accompanied by foreign military intervention (December 1917-October 1922) by both the armed forces of the states of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente. Intervention- interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of another state, infringing on its sovereignty. May be military, political, or economic.
The intervention was caused by the need to fight Germany in the framework of the First World War, and after its defeat, the protection by England and France of their economic and political interests, which were threatened after the October Revolution, came to the fore, the desire to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas outside Russia. In this regard, the intervention of the Entente was aimed at helping the White movement in its struggle against the Bolsheviks.
The main stages of the war
October 1917-November 1918- the initial period of the Civil War. It was characterized by the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship, active intervention in the course of the Civil War by foreign interventionists (France, Great Britain), the emergence of national movements on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire.
Almost immediately with the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship in Petrograd, the Volunteer Army began to form in the southern regions of Russia. Generals M. Alekseev, A. Kaledin, L. Kornilov took an active part in its creation. From April 1918 A. Denikin became the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army. At the same time, the Provisional Don government, headed by General P. Krasnov, emerged on the Don. Having received support from Germany, P. Krasnov's Cossacks managed to capture most of the Donbass in the summer and autumn of 1918 and reach Tsaritsyn. After the defeat of Germany in the world war, P. Krasnov's detachments merged with the Volunteer Army.
The formation of the anti-Bolshevik opposition in the Volga region was greatly influenced by the events associated with the uprising in May 1918 of the Czechoslovak corps, numbering over 40 thousand people. Together with representatives of the white movement, they managed to dislodge the Bolsheviks from many provinces of Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region and the Far East. In the conditions of the white offensive, the Bolsheviks decided to shoot on the night of July 16-17, 1918. royal family, who was under arrest in Yekaterinburg.
The Bolsheviks tried to seize the initiative. The Eastern Front was created, headed by S. Kamenev. During the battles for Ufa, the red division commander V. Chapaev became famous. The counter-offensive of the Red Army forced their opponents to consolidate, and on November 18, 1918, Admiral A. Kolchak was declared the Supreme Ruler of Russia in Omsk. His army, supported by the Entente countries, became the main driving force in the struggle against Soviet Russia.
November 1918-March 1920- the main battles between the Bolshevik Red Army and supporters of the White movement, which ended in a radical turn in favor of Soviet power, a reduction in the scale of intervention.
Having united under his banners significant anti-Bolshevik forces in the spring and summer of 1919, A. Denikin succeeded in a large-scale offensive against the positions of the Reds, as a result of which Kursk, Oryol, Voronezh came under the control of the Volunteer Army. However, the offensive on Moscow ended unsuccessfully, which forced A. Denikin to turn to Ukraine. Twice during 1919, the troops of the White General N. Yudenich made unsuccessful attempts to attack Petrograd.
The army of A. Kolchak initially managed to reach the banks of the Volga, but the repressive policy of the whites, built on exceptional laws, turned most of the population against them. This helped the Bolsheviks, who by the end of 1919 were able to push back the armed forces of A. Kolchak to Siberia, to Baikal.
In early 1920, the Red Army succeeded in taking Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Entente troops had to hastily leave Russia.
March 1920 - autumn 1922 - the end of the Soviet-Polish war, the elimination of the last centers of resistance to Soviet power on the outskirts of the country. In particular, in November 1920, the Southern Front under the command of M. Frunze defeated the army of General P. Wrangel in the Crimea, and in November 1922 the Far Eastern Republic was liquidated, the remnants of the White armies went to China. This marked the end of the Civil War.
The key event in the final stage of the Civil War was the Soviet-Polish confrontation. The Entente countries wanted to create a kind of buffer zone from Poland that would protect Europe from the influence of Bolshevism. Due to these circumstances, the Polish dictator J. Pilsudski found in the West the encouragement of his territorial claims in Eastern Europe... On April 25, 1920, having concluded an agreement with S. Petliura, a representative of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), the Polish dictator ordered the start of an offensive on the territory of Ukraine, which was under the control of the Bolsheviks. Although the Poles managed to briefly capture Kiev, the counteroffensive of the Western (M. Tukhachevsky) and Southwestern (A. Yegorov) fronts of the Red Army, supported by detachments of the Makhnovists, forced them to retreat to Polish territory. It was stopped only in August 1920 on the outskirts of Warsaw. In March 1921, the Peace of Riga was concluded between Soviet Russia and Poland, which left the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus for the Poles, but Warsaw recognized Soviet power in the rest of Ukraine.
Results of the Civil War. As a result of the Civil War, most of the territory of the former Russian Empire came under the control of the Bolsheviks, who managed to consistently defeat the armies of Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich, Wrangel, and the armed forces of the Entente countries. The new government initiated the creation of Soviet republics on the territory of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia. Poland, Finland and the Baltic states gained independence. Almost 2 million people who did not accept Soviet power were forced to emigrate.
The civil war caused enormous damage to the national economy. Industrial production in 1920 it fell to 14% of the 1913 level, and agricultural production almost halved. The demographic losses turned out to be colossal. According to various estimates, they amounted to 12 to 15 million people.
Political programs of the parties involved
The main warring parties in the Civil War in Russia were the Bolsheviks - the "red" and the supporters of the White movement - the "white". During the war years, both sides sought to exercise their power by dictatorial methods.
The Bolsheviks viewed armed reprisals against their opponents as the only acceptable option, not only to maintain their power in a predominantly peasant country. The suppression of any dissent on the way to the establishment of a political dictatorship could allow them to turn the country into the base of the world socialist revolution, a kind of model of a classless communist society, which was planned to be exported to Europe. From their point of view, this goal justified the complex of punitive measures applied to the opponents of the Soviet regime, as well as to the "wavering" elements in the person of the middle strata of the city and countryside, primarily the peasants. Certain categories of the population were deprived of political and civil rights - former privileged classes, officers of the tsarist army, clergy, broad circles of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia.
Only after seizing power in October 1917, the Bolsheviks banned the activities of all bourgeois parties, arresting their leaders. The pre-revolutionary political institutions - the Senate, Synod, State Duma, were liquidated, control over the press, trade unions, and other public organizations was established. In July 1918, the revolt of the Left SRs, who had previously entered into a coalition with the Bolsheviks, was harshly suppressed. In the spring of 1921, a massacre of the Mensheviks took place, which led to the de facto establishment of a one-party regime.
On September 5, 1918, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the Red Terror" came into force, which was carried out by the Cheka. The reason for his appearance was the assassination attempt on V. Lenin on August 30, 1918 and the murder of the head of the Petrograd Cheka M. Uritsky. The forms of the Red Terror were different: executions on the basis of class, the hostage system, the creation of a network of concentration camps to contain hostile class elements.
In addition to V. Lenin, one of the main ideologists of the Bolshevik movement was L. Trotsky (1879-1940) - revolutionary leader of the XX century. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917. He stood at the origins of the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), which he headed during the Civil War.
The basis of the White movement was the officers, the Cossacks, the intelligentsia, the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the clergy. The ideologists of the White movement A. Guchkov, V. Shulgin, N. Lvov, P. Struve saw in the Civil War an opportunity to preserve the Russian Empire, return power to their own hands and restore lost rights and privileges. In the territories conquered from the Bolsheviks, the whites tried to recreate the army and the apparatus of civil administration. The basis of their political program was the demand for the restoration of private property and freedom of entrepreneurial activity. After the overthrow of the power of the Bolsheviks, the Constituent Assembly was supposed to legitimize all changes in society, the competence of which would be to resolve the issue of the future political structure of the Russian state.
During the Civil War, the White movement largely discredited itself by striving for the restoration of the monarchy on an autocratic basis, terror against peasants and workers, carrying out Jewish pogroms, significant dependence on the interests of foreign interventionists, and a sharply negative attitude towards the problems of the national outskirts of the former empire. The lack of unity in the leadership of the whites also played a significant role.
Among the leaders of the White movement, the figures of A. Kolchak and A. Denikin stood out. A. Kolchak (1874-1920) - military and political leader, admiral of the fleet. During the Civil War, he was an iconic figure of the White movement. He held the posts of the Supreme Ruler of Russia (1918-1920) and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. After the betrayal of the Czechoslovakians, he was handed over to the Bolsheviks and in January 1920 he was shot.
A. Denikin (1872-1947) - military leader, political and public figure. During the Civil War, he was one of the main leaders of the White movement. He commanded the Volunteer Army (1918-1919), and then the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (1919-1920). Later he emigrated to France.
Various peasant movements greatly influenced the course of the Civil War. Many of them were close to the ideas of anarchism - the insurgent army of N. Makhno (1888-1934) - the leader of the revolutionary-minded masses of the peasantry in the southern regions of Ukraine during the Civil War. Their political platform was based on the demand for an end to the terror against the peasantry and the real, gratuitous allotment of land to it. The fluctuations of the peasantry between the Reds and Whites have repeatedly changed the balance of power in the course of the war and, ultimately, predetermined its outcome.
The Civil War was also attended by representatives of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire, who fought for their independence from Russia (Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States, Transcaucasia). This struggle met with resistance both from the White movement, which wanted the restoration of "a united and indivisible Russia," and from the Bolsheviks, who saw in it an undermining of the international unity of the working people.
War communism policy
The elimination of private property in any form was the programmatic provision of the Bolshevik Party and constituted the main task of its practical activity. This was first reflected in the Land Decree. But the Bolshevik policy during the Civil War was most fully embodied in war communism. War communism - a temporary system of emergency measures implemented by the Soviet government during the Civil War. All measures were aimed at concentrating the maximum of the country's resources in the hands of the Bolshevik government.
Among its components: the nationalization of industry (Decree of June 24, 1918); the introduction of universal labor service; introduction of payment in kind, equalization in wages; provision of free public services; the creation of food detachments and surplus appropriation for basic agricultural products (from May 1918); the prohibition of private trade, the rationing system for the distribution of goods according to the class principle; prohibition of land lease and the use of hired labor.
In pursuing the policy of war communism in the countryside, the Bolsheviks relied on the so-called committees of the poor (kombeds), created by the Decree of June 11, 1918. Their competence included the distribution of bread and basic necessities, agricultural implements, and assistance to local food authorities in the removal of "surpluses" from wealthy peasants.
War communism had major implications for the organization of labor. It soon became apparent that coercion would be applied not only to representatives of the "exploiting classes". Practice has shown that not only in politics, but also in the economic sphere, the new government relied on methods of violence and coercion. The policy of War Communism soon aroused massive outrage and rejection of the new methods of leadership from the majority of the population. The state, in fact, terminated market relations by its actions. If in the conditions of the Civil War such a policy could somehow justify itself, then in the conditions of the transition to peacetime it was doomed to failure.
Assignment 2
Use the tutorial materials to select the correct answers.
1. The exclusion of representatives of the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was the Bolsheviks' reaction to:
a) the creation of the Committee of the Constituent Assembly in Samara after its capture by Czechoslovak troops;
b) the assassination of the German ambassador W. Mirbach;
c) an attempt on V.I. Lenin.
2. The democratic governments formed after the overthrow of the Bolshevik regime did not recognize the Decree on Land, because:
a) he was declared illegal, in their opinion, by the authorities;
b) these governments were adherents of private ownership of land;
c) the decree did not meet the aspirations of the majority of the peasants.
Assignment 3
Analyze the materials in the paragraph and the document below. Write down the answers to the questions.
From the address of Admiral A.V. Kolchak to the population
On November 18, 1918, the All-Russian Provisional Government collapsed. The Council of Ministers took full power and handed it over to me, the admiral of the Russian fleet, Alexander Kolchak. Having accepted the cross of this power in the extremely difficult conditions of the civil war and the complete disruption of state life, I declare: I will not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. My main goal is to create a combat-ready army, victory over the Bolsheviks and the establishment of law and order, so that the people can freely choose the way of government they wish and implement the great ideas of freedom that are now proclaimed throughout the world.
1. What are the political views of Admiral Kolchak? Can he be considered a supporter of the restoration of the tsarist order? 2. What was the main political goal he set for himself?
1. Victory over the Bolsheviks, and the establishment of law and order.
3. Creation of an efficient army.
Assignment 4
Analyze the materials in the paragraph. Find the errors in the text below and write the statements corresponding to the historical reality.
1. On July 16, 1918, despite the strong protest of V.I. Lenin, the revolutionary tribunal sentenced Nicholas II to death.
In agreement with the Council of People's Commissars, the Ural Regional Council made a decision on the execution of Nicholas II.
2. The verdict was carried out in the city of Tobolsk, where from August 1917 Nicholas II and his family were in exile.
In the end of April royal family was transferred to Yekaterinburg, where on the night of July 17 she was shot.
3. Together with Nicholas, his wife, children and the Tsar's brother Mikhail were shot.
4. The news of the execution of the former emperor and his family caused a wave of peasant uprisings in Russia.
There were no uprisings
Assignment 5
Read the documents and provide written answers to questions.
From the memoirs of the Secretary of War of Great Britain W. Churchill
Were the allies at war with Soviet Russia? Of course not, but they killed Soviet people as soon as they caught their eye; on Russian soil they remained as conquerors; they supplied weapons to the enemies of the Soviet government; they blocked its ports; they sunk his warships. They were passionate about the fall of the Soviet government and made plans for this fall. But declaring war on him is a shame! Intervention is a shame! They kept on repeating that they were completely indifferent to how the Russians dealt with their internal affairs. They wished to remain impartial and struck blow after blow ...
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.
From the memoirs of British Prime Minister D. Lloyd George
It is quite obvious that, although the Bolshevik government broke with the Entente and concluded a separate peace with Germany, we could not, under these circumstances, leave Russia under German rule. We could not reconcile with the tremendous growth of German imperialism, which was fed by the production stipulated in the contracts, especially the German domination over Ukraine with its reserves of grain and cattle, the coal of the Donetsk basin and, later (across the Black Sea and the Caucasus), vast reserves of Caspian oil. ..
In addition, there were significant stocks of war materials in military warehouses and docks in the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk ports, in Vladivostok. We sent them these materials to fight the Central Powers. Now that Russia has signed a peace treaty with the Germans, these war materials could fall into the hands of our enemies and be used against us.
1. What features of foreign intervention are discussed in the documents? 2. By what circumstances did the leaders of the Entente countries justify the presence of their troops in Russia? 3. Explain how you understand the words of W. Churchill that the Russian White Guards fought for the cause of the Entente.
1. Intervention is not for the purpose of confronting Soviet power, but for the purpose of defending against Germany.
2. The destruction of the Soviet regime, dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty, according to which Germany gained access to some mineral resources.
3. For the fall of the Soviet regime.
Assignment 6
Assignment 7
Analyze the materials in the paragraph. Fill in the gaps in the text.
Tukhachevsky led his troops to Warsaw under the slogan "Forward to Berlin, Forward to Warsaw!" And very many in the party believed that as soon as our Red Guards appeared in Poland and Germany, the proletarians of these countries would rise and make a revolution by joining us.
It turned out differently. The appearance of the Red Army in Poland rallied Poles of all classes, and they fought back. As a result, we had to give Poland the regions of Belarus and Ukraine. The war with Poland clearly demonstrated that not all peoples share the ideas of the revolution, that the people's desire to be independent can unite them.
Assignment 8
Using the materials in the textbook, choose the correct answers.
1. On May 30, 1920, Pravda published an appeal “To all former officers,” in which some prominent tsarist officers urged their former colleagues to voluntarily join the Red Army. Which event triggered this proclamation:
a) the capture of Crimea by Wrangel;
b) the capture of Kiev by the Poles;
c) the occupation of the Far East by the Japanese?
2. Whose signature was under the appeal "To all former officers":
a) A.A. Brusilov; b) A.I. Denikin; c) P.N. Krasnova?
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 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 was possible to accept military assistance from the allies, proposed by British Rear Admiral Kemp. Kemp offered to land British troops in Murmansk to defend the city and railroad from possible attacks by Germans and White Finns from Finland. In response, Trotsky, who held the post of 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 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. 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 courts-martial, 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 forces of the interventionists 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 only on the maintenance of its troops - without the fleet and assistance to the whites.
After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, the Allies' interest in internal Russian strife quickly faded away. In January 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, the Allies decided to abandon plans for intervention (and concentrate 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, provide the Entente countries with 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 the 6th Ukrainian Soviet division of Grigoriev, 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 invaders 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
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), 47th Squadron (Tsaritsyn, Crimea, March 1919 - March 1920).
Black Sea - 6 battleships, 1 hydro-cruiser 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 Jiangzhang (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 under 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 (cruiser "Admiral Ob"), the participation of French artillerymen as part of 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 Native Rifle Regiment, 10th Algerian Rifle Regiment, 9th Battalion of the 8th Algerian Rifle Regiment, 1st marching Indochinese battalion; Sevastopol - 129th battalion of Senegalese riflemen.
Romania - occupation of Bessarabia early 1918
Poland - a contingent in the SPSR (1918-1919), the Soviet-Polish war of 1920 (the Wielkopolska army, the 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 - active participation did not take 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 the Transcaucasus 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 P. N. Krasnov made 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 people. , which accounted for more than 20% of all the forces of Germany, the Turkish - about 30 thousand people. The abandonment of significant occupation forces in the east after the conclusion of the Brest Peace 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, the German troops were to remain on the territory of 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, as well as 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 needed to continue the operation.
Hindenburg wrote in his memoirs:
Even now, of course, we could not withdraw all our combat-ready forces from the East ... The very 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 considering foreign intervention often boils down 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 defined 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, Minister 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 prisoners of war 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
List of references:
RUSSIA AND THE USSR IN THE WARS OF THE XX CENTURY
Kozlov I. A., Shlomin V. S. 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 Peter. 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 Gorskiy, 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 Book Publishing of Russia)
E. Gorodetsky. Eastern Front in 1918. "Questions of history", 1947, No. 9.
Moser. A 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.
