Russian Civil War

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Russian Civil War (1918–21) The war that followed the October Revolution, which had established the world's first Communist government under Lenin. It was fought on several fronts, with considerable foreign intervention against the Communists.

1. In Siberia, an All Russian Government was formed at Omsk. Led by Kolchak, its White Armies, which were aided by a Czech legion made up of released prisoners of war, gained control over sectors of the Trans-Siberian railway and advanced westwards beyond the Urals.2. In the south-east, they were complemented by troops of Cossacks.3. In the south-west, White troops under Denikin advanced north from the Ukraine and the Caucasus, with the help of British troops from Iraq which secured the Baku oilfields.4. From the north, a multi-national force under General Miller, made up of British, French, US, and Canadian troops, landed at Murmansk and occupied Archangel 1918–20. 5. The attack was complemented in the west by attacks from nationalities hitherto under Russian control, i.e. Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Poles. Ultimately, Trotsky's Red Army was unable to overcome this fifth element, so that the Communist government accepted the independence of these states, in the case of Finland and Poland with much-extended territories.

The Red Army was helped considerably when most of the Allied troops were withdrawn in 1919 following a refusal of the White Armies to agree to a negotiated peace. Finally, the Whites were weakened by poorer discipline and disunity amongst themselves. The resentment of peasants under their control at their refusal to carry out land reforms stood in sharp contrast to the peasant support of the Red Army, effectively galvanized through Cheka terror. By 1921, virtually the entire country was under Communist control. The country lay economically and socially in ruins. At the same time, Lenin, who had always believed in the possibility and even the desirability of a civil war, was able to use this to his advantage to tighten his grip on the country.

Russian Civil War (1918–21) A conflict fought in Russia between the anti-communist White Army supported by some Western powers, and the RED ARMY of the Soviets in the aftermath of the RUSSIAN REVOLUTION of 1917. It is sometimes referred to as the War of Allied Intervention. Counter-revolutionary forces began organized resistance to the BOLSHEVIKS in December 1917, and clashed with an army hastily brought together by TROTSKY. In northern Russia a force made up of French, British, German, and US units landed at Murmansk and occupied Archangel (1918–20). Nationalist revolts in the Baltic States led to the secession of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Finland, while a Polish army, with French support, successfully advanced the Polish frontier to the Russian Ukraine, gaining an area not reoccupied by the Soviet Union until World War II. In Siberia, where US and Japanese forces landed, Admiral Kolchak acted as Minister of War in the anti-communist ‘All Russian Government’ and, with the aid of a Czech legion made up of released prisoners-of-war, gained control over sectors of the Trans-Siberian Railway. He, however, was betrayed by the Czechs and murdered, the leadership passing to General DENIKIN, who sought to establish (1918–20) a ‘United Russia’ purged of the BOLSHEVIKS. In the Ukraine Denikin mounted a major offensive in 1919, only to be driven back to the Caucasus, where he held out until March 1920. In the Crimea the war continued under General Wrangel until November 1920. A famine in that year caused further risings by the peasants against the communists, while a mutiny of sailors at Kronstadt was suppressed by the Red Army. To win the war, LENIN imposed his ruthless policy of ‘war communism’. Lack of cooperation between counter-revolutionary forces contributed to their final collapse and to the establishment of the SOVIET UNION.