Russian Civil War

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Russian Civil War

Part of the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of
World War I

Clockwise from top left:

Soldiers of the Don Army


 Soldiers of the Siberian Army
 Suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion
 American troops in Vladivostok during the
intervention
 Victims of the Red Terror in Crimea
 Hanging of workers in Yekaterinoslav by the
Austrians
 A review of Red Army troops in Moscow.

7 November 1917 – 16 June 1923[k][1]: 3, 230 [2]

Date
(5 years, 7 months and 9 days)
Peace treaties
 Former Russian
Empire, West
Location Ukraine,
Mongolia, Tuva,
Persia
Result  Bolshevik
victory:

 Collapse
of the
Russian
Republic
and
Russian
State
 Execution
of the
Russian
Imperial
family
 Defeat of
the White
movement
and its
exodus
 Creation
of the
Soviet
Union in
most of
the former
Empire
 Creation
of
Bolshevist
Mongolia
n and
Tuvan
states
 Expulsion
of many
prominent
Russian
intellectua
ls and
activists
 Beginning
of anti-
Bolshevik
resistance

 Partial
victory by
independ
ence
movemen
ts:[3]: 7 

 Finland,
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
and
Poland
gain
independe
nce
 Ukraine,
Belarus,
Georgia,
Armenia,
Azerbaija
n,
Moldavia
and many
other
nations of
the former
Russian
Empire
are either
annexed
by the
Bolshevik
s or by
other
nations
 Bolshevist
puppet
states in
Finland,
Estonia,
 Latvia,
Lithuania
and
Poland
defeated

Territorial
changes
Cessions to Bolshevist states
Cessions to national separatists
Cessions to other nations
Belligerents
 Bolsheviks:
 Russian
SFSR
(1917–22)
 Ukrainian
SSR
( 1917–18;
1918; 1919–22)
 Belarusian
SSR
( 1919; 1920–
22)
 Transcaucas
ian SFSR (1922)
 Soviet
Union
(after 1922)

Soviet quasi-states:  Russian

Republic[b]
(1917–18)

 Supported by:
 Chinese
communists
(1917–23)
 White Guards:
 Red Latvian  Russian State
(1918–20)
Riflemen
(1917–20)
 South Russia
(1918–19; Mar–Apr,
  Lithuania [a]
Apr–Nov 1920)
(1919–20)
 Eastern Okraina
 MPP (1920)
(1920–23)
 Priamurye Govt.
 (after 1921)

 Nationalists:
Local forces:  Poland
(1918–21)
 Finland
(1917–20)
 Supported by:
 Alash Orda  Ukraine
(1917–18; 1918–20)
(1917–18)
  Estonia
 Mongolia (1918–20)
(1921)   Latvia
 Persia (1918–20)
(1919–20)   Lithuania
(1918–20)

Also:

 Supported by:
 Sweden[c]
(1918)
 Hungary[d]
(1919–20)
 Afghanistan[e]
(until 1922)

 Anti-Bolshevik Left:  Entente Powers:

 Left SRs[f]   Japan[i]
(1917–21) (1918–22)
 Green Army [g]
  United Kingdom
(1918–21) (1918–20)
 Makhnovia[h]   United States
(1918–21) (1918–20)
 Kronstadt   France
(1921) (1918–20)

 Central Powers:
  Germany
(1917–18; 1919)
  Austria-Hungary
(1917–18)
Also:   Ottoman Empire
(1917–18; 1920–21)
 Freikorps
(1918–19)
Collaborators:
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir
Lenin A. Kerensky 
Leon Trotsky Alexander
Kolchak  Józef Piłsudski
Jukums
Lavr Kornilov † C.G.E.
Vācietis
Mannerheim
Yakov
Anton Denikin Symon Petliura
Sverdlov
Pyotr Wrangel Konstantin Päts
S. Kamenev
Nikolai Jānis Čakste
N.
Yudenich Antanas
Podvoisky
Grigory Smetona
Joseph Stalin
Semyonov S. Tikhonov
Y.
Yevgeny Miller Noe Zhordania
Medvedev
Pyotr A. Khatisian
Vilhelm
Krasnov Nasib Yusifbeyli
Knorin
A. R. von
Krasnoshchyokov Ungern †
Vladimir Volsky H. von
Otani Kikuzo
Maria Eichhorn †
Edmund
Spiridonova Nuri Pasha
Ironside
Nikifor Jan Sierada
William S.
Grigoriev † Pavlo
Graves
Nestor Makhno Skoropadskyi
Radola Gajda
Stepan P. Bermondt-
Maurice Janin
Petrichenko …and others Avalov
…and others …and others
Strength
 Red  White
Army: Army:
5,498,000 1,023,000
(peak)[4][l] (peak)[m]

 Black
Army:
103,000
(peak)[5]
 Green
Army:
70,000 (peak)
 Kronstadt
 Mutineers:
17,961

Local forces:

 Japanese Army: 70,000 (peak)

 Czechoslovak Legion: 50,000 (peak)

 Polish Army:
~1,000,000 (peak)
Also:  Finnish Army:
90,000 (peak)

Also:

 German Army:
~547,000 (peak)

Also:
Casualties and losses
 ~1,500,000  ~1,50  ~400,
[citation needed]
0,000 000
[citation needed]

 259,213 killed  57,000

[citation needed]
 127,000 killed
 60,059 missing killed  113,000
[citation needed] [citation needed]
wounded
 616,605 died of  784,000  50,000
disease/wounds executed/ POWs
[citation needed]
dead
 3,878 died in [citation needed]
 ~125,
accidents/suicides  450,000 000
[citation needed]
wounded/
 548,857 sick  15,000
wounded/frostbitt [citation needed]
killed
en[7][n]
 ~5,00
0
 13,00
0 killed  3,500
 6,500 killed
killed  1,650
 executed/
dead

 3,888
 938+ killed
killed[8]  3,046
 596 killed
killed  1,444
 350 killed[9]
killed  55
 179 killed
killed

 500
killed

7,000,000–12,000,000 total casualties, including

civilians and non-combatants

1–2 million refugees outside Russia

 v
 t
 e

Theaters of the
Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War (Russian: Гражданская война в России, tr. Grazhdanskaya voyna v
Rossii; 7 November 1917 — 16 June 1923)[1] was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian
Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the monarchy and the new republican government's
failure to maintain stability, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future, resulting
in the formation of the RSFSR and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale
marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.

The Russian monarchy had been overthrown by the 1917 February Revolution, and Russia was
in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in the Bolshevik-led October Revolution,
overthrowing the Provisional Government of the Russian Republic. Bolshevik rule was not
universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were
the Red Army, fighting for the Bolshevik form of socialism led by Vladimir Lenin, and the
loosely allied forces known as the White Army, which included diverse interests favouring
political monarchism, capitalism and social democracy, each with democratic and anti-
democratic variants. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably Makhnovia anarchists and Left
SRs, as well as non-ideological Green armies, opposed the Reds, the Whites and foreign
interventionists.[10] Thirteen foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the former
Allied military forces from the World War with the goal of re-establishing the Eastern Front.
Three foreign nations of the Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with
the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of the country. They made an emergency
peace with the German Empire, who had captured vast swathes of Russia in the chaos of the
revolution and the context of World War I. In May 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia
revolted in Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began an intervention in Northern Russia and Siberia.
That, combined with the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government, saw the reduction
of the Bolsheviks to most of European Russia and parts of Central Asia. In November,
Alexander Kolchak launched a coup to take control of the Russian State, establishing a de facto
military dictatorship.

The White Army launched several attacks from the east in March, the south in July, and west in
October 1919. The advances were later checked by the Eastern Front counteroffensive, the
Southern Front counteroffensive, and the defeat of the Northwestern Army. The White
Movement also suffered greater loss as the Allies pulled back from northern and southern
Russia. With the main base of the Russian SFSR secured, the Soviets could now strike back.

The armies under Kolchak were eventually forced on a mass retreat eastward. Soviet forces
advanced east, despite encountering resistance in Chita, Yakut and Mongolia. Soon the Red
Army split the Don and Volunteer armies, forcing evacuations in Novorossiysk in March and the
Crimea in November 1920. After that, anti-Bolshevik resistance was sporadic for several years
until the collapse of the White Army in Yakutia in June 1923, but continued on in central Asia
and Khabarovsk Krai until 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during the
war, mostly civilians.[1]: 287 

Many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and
fought in the war.[3]: 7  Several parts of the former Russian Empire—Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, and Poland—were established as sovereign states, with their own civil wars and wars
of independence. The rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union
shortly afterwards.[11]