The largest historical drama of the 20th century is the Civil War.
In Russia in 1917, a violent enmity broke out between the red and white. People sacrificed themselves for the triumph of their principles and ideas.
The outcome of the Civil War was the defeat of the anti-Bolshevik forces. The White Army and the interventionist forces were defeated.
Most of the territory of Russia was saved as a result of hostilities, and attempts by some regions to secede from the Soviet Republic were suppressed with the help of weapons. Thus, the results of the Civil War consisted in the overthrow of national governments in Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Transcaucasia (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia), in the North Caucasus, Central Asia, and then in the Far East and Siberia. In all these territories Soviet power was established. All this created the prerequisites for the formation in 1922 of a single state of the USSR.
The results of the Civil War created ideological, political, social, geopolitical conditions for the subsequent strengthening of the Bolshevik regime. According to historians, this not only meant the victory of the ideology of the Communists, the state type of property and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The outcome of the Civil War is the elimination of trends that led the country to the western direction of development.
In conditions of national confrontation, any army exists due to the fact that it is possible to take from the peasants. The main ones in the war were people, horses and bread. Of course, the peasants did not voluntarily give all this up (neither red nor white). However, the peasants offered less resistance to the Red Army than White. This was due to several reasons. The main reason was the mutual hatred of the peasantry and the administrative apparatus of the Whites. In some cases, she reached almost racial hostility. Another was the attitude to the peasants of the Reds.
The results of the Civil War in Russia showed the failure of the monarchist idea. The white movement did not have a strong social foundation within the country. The generals emphasized military power, excluding other methods of struggle. This was one of the main reasons for the defeat of the White movement.
A stricter discipline was established in the Red Army (in comparison with that in the White Army). Various methods were used to educate the soldiers, mutual responsibility was of great importance (common responsibility for violations of both one soldier and the whole unit).
The Bolsheviks pursued a policy that contributed in all respects to the victory of the Red Army, which everyone regarded as a multinational army of working people throughout the country.
At the same time, the results of the Civil War of 1917 formed the prerequisites for further disasters in the country. According to historians, the Bolsheviks transferred from the "battlefield" all their military ideas into peaceful life. Subsequently, terror became a necessary element of power. Extraordinary management methods of the administrative apparatus were used to suppress the most insignificant dissent.
The civil war ended with huge human and material losses. The total damage was estimated at 50 billion gold rubles. The rate of industrial production decreased seven times, the country's transport was in complete decline, oil and coal production was at the level of the end of the last century (19th) , and sown area was sharply reduced. People lived starving, lacked medicines, shoes, clothes. Many enterprises were closed in the cities (due to lack of raw materials). But the main disaster after the Civil War was children's homelessness.
According to some reports, the population decreased by more than 10 million people due to military operations, among which about two million emigrated, more than three million civilians died from disease and hunger.