Men-at-Arms The Russian Civil War (1) The Red Army | a WSOsPREY PUB LISHING. len-at-Arms - 293 he Russian Civil War (1) The Red Army Mikhail Khvostov - Illustrated by Andrei KarachtchoukTHE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR (1) THE RED ARMY cnn INTRODUCTION war is a tragedy for the nation involved for Russia was aggravated by its relative css, ils enormous territory, the mass illiter= S population, and by the pompous promises of arid to come, which never came true, ‘The bout 13 million lives within five years: speaks Givil War in Russia lasted from 1917 until ugh major military operations were over by Residual fighting continued in Central Asia, Reds were opposed by local independence and in Russia and Ukraine, where Cheka visciously put down a number of peas- ‘The division of Russian society was already in evie dence by 1905, when the country faced a popular revo~ lution that had been brought to a head by the loss of The next revolution, in. February the war with Japan 1917, led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas I, but produced a divided government which was incapable of solving the many problems at hand, and which failed to improve the living standard of the poor. Under Lenin, The Udarnaya (shock) group of Moscow's Rogoshsko= Simonowsky District Red Guard. The group was created in February 1918 to combat banditry in the city. The mem- hers are typical Red Guardsmen of the period, and wear metal militia shields ow their headgear, and armbands, The ‘man standing in the centre has a plaque on his armband in the shape af St. George, the patron af Moscow. The Ist Moscow Soviet Rogochsko-Simonovsky Infantry Regiment, the first regular Red Army regiment in Moscow, mas later formed on the basis of this Red Guard detachment,