The armed struggle for power in the country is the most acute form of class confrontation, and therefore the dates of the Civil War in Russia are bleeding to the point. Almost all population groups fought for their own political, national and social claims, and the intervention of foreign forces was extremely great.
Historical science has not developed a single concept of civil war. In Russia, the dates of the main battles and their results are far from being considered by all people equally. Indeed, the confrontation was widespread, and it decided the issue of ownership of power.
Constituent Council
The dates of the Civil War in Russia, important for memorization, rightfully begin the inglorious end of the Constituent Assembly. This body was elected in November 1917 in order to determine the future life in the country, including its state structure. The right-wing parties in the elections suffered a crushing collapse (because most of them were already banned, even campaigning for them was dangerous), however, it was the right-wing parties that took upon themselves the defense of the Constituent Assembly, and this became the reason for the birth of the White movement.
Thus, the dates of the Civil War in Russia begin right from the end of the first (it is also the last) meeting of the Constituent Duma - January 6, 1918. First of all, it should be noted that the Commission on Elections to the Constituent Assembly did not recognize the Great October Socialist Revolution, and although the elections were held in only thirty out of seventy-nine districts, the contingent was already selected accordingly. Kerensky, Dutov, Kaledin, Petlyura were elected - one name of another more beautiful. Some odious enemies of the people even attended this single meeting.
"The guard is tired"
From the first speeches, accusations of a coup d'état, a forcible seizure of power by the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars, and the need to continue World War I to a victorious end rained down. This meeting was abandoned by the Bolsheviks almost immediately, as soon as the direction of anti-popular decisions became clear. Therefore, the start date of the Civil War in Russia is the 1917th year, when hostilities have not yet begun. After a couple of hours, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries left the room because of complete disagreement with the decisions made.
The sailors and soldiers who were guarding the Tauride Palace, where the meeting was held, listened to the speeches and every minute grew more gloomy. Only calls for discipline did not allow them to shoot all this "Menshevik bastard." The meeting lasted a long time - it began on the afternoon of January 5, 1918. The dates of the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922) many begin to record from this day. Already at six o’clock in the morning on January 6, 1918, the sailor Zheleznyak went up to the podium and said a phrase that had gone down in history: “The guard was tired. I ask everyone to disperse.” And only after that the premises of the Tauride Palace was freed from the talked anti-Soviet element. There were no more meetings of the Constituent Assembly. There are also opinions that the dates of the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922) should have been listed starting from October 25, 1917, when the Great October Socialist Revolution took place. However, most historians think otherwise.
Spring and summer of 1918
Then, in the late autumn of 1917, in the south of Russia, in the Cossack regions the first shots were fired. There, on the Don, the first volunteer army began to gather by General Alekseev. However, at first it worked out poorly, and until the spring of 1918 more than three thousand people gathered. But in the spring, the white movement began to grow, like a snowball. Anti-Bolshevik forces consolidated in the east of Russia. The main dates of the Civil War in Russia include May 1918, when the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps took place.
It was formed from prisoners of war of the Slavs of the First World War, because the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army decided to join the war against Germany. Just in 1918, the corps was in echelons on the territory of Russia and was preparing to return home (and the path was clear only through the Far East). The Entente did not doze off, the uprising was painstakingly prepared, and since the trains stretched to Vladivostok from Penza, all railway stations, cities and large sorting centers were captured by armed interventionists literally in one day. This rebellion mainly activated the remaining anti-Bolshevik forces. This is where the real war began.
Samara and Omsk
Local governments rose like mushrooms after rain. One is in Samara (Komuch - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly), which declared itself to be an interim revolutionary government chaired by the Social Revolutionary Volsky. Not everyone agreed with the revolutionary coloring of the convictions of their leader, and therefore opponents went to Omsk, where the same government was organized by the cadets. And the very idea of the Constituent Assembly was not very close to the majority of White Guards, but to crush the “red-bellied” ones — that was right from their point of view. And, since there was no agreement among the rebels, Komuch ceased to exist, and his capital Samara was occupied by the Red Army in battle. October 1918 is also on the important dates of the Civil War in Russia.
In the first few months of Soviet power, there were almost no armed clashes, they were of a single and local nature, because the opponents of the Soviet government did not immediately determine their strategy and did not find mutual understanding on convictions. The imperialists took advantage of the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps and, of course, the general difficulties in Russia, and therefore quickly and significantly expanded the intervention of our country. The British during the summer of 1918 captured Onega, Kem, Arkhangelsk. Ashgabat, Baku, almost all of Central Asia and the Caucasus were occupied by them in the south. Let us not forget how the British interventionists dealt with the twenty-six Baku commissars! The Germans continued to violate the Brest Peace and, together with the White Guards, raged throughout the south of the country - Rostov and Taganrog remember this perfectly.
Red and white
Only in the spring of 1918 did the Civil War in Russia truly become front-line. Dates and events on military maps since the beginning of the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps were placed more and more densely. Fronts began to form. And only by the end of 1918 the second stage began, when small local forces no longer opposed, but two powerful armies appeared - white and red. It is probably impossible to say exactly when the Civil War in Russia began. The date can vary from October 25, 1917 to December 1918. It is most convenient to divide all events into three main stages. This was the first.
The second stage is a real confrontation, when young Soviet power was put under real threat of destruction. Moreover, the February conquests could have been eliminated, since the White movement had a good goal of an indivisible Russia without the Bolsheviks, but its base was the generals of the tsarist army, and the Cadets were the political force (this is a constitutional democratic party, not youth from the military school ) The third and final stage can be considered the stage from 1920, marked by the war with the Poles and Wrangel. It is the end of 1920 that is the time when the Civil War in Russia ended. The date is the defeat of Wrangel, about which our commander Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze reported to the command on November 15, 1920.
The most important fights
The main war was over, now it remained to defeat the small but numerous enemy groups that carried out armed attacks on Soviet power in the first years of Soviet economic policy. And this third stage continued for another two years until the end of the Civil War in Russia. The exact date cannot be named. The last battles with basmachi coming from abroad lasted until the beginning of the winter of 1922. One can imagine how bloodless Russia was! The White Army brought fourteen intervention countries to their native country, which plundered it with impunity and brutally in all corners - from edge to edge. You can trace all these losses from the start date of the Civil War in Russia to its end.
Already in December 1918, the Red Army began to beat the enemy in Ukraine, two months later it liberated Kiev, Kharkov, Poltava, and in the spring - Crimea. At the same time, on the Eastern Front, the White Army suffered one defeat after another. Then power was transferred by all separate formations in one hand to Admiral Kolchak, the English protege. There was a groan throughout Siberia. Kolchak’s military dictatorship allowed robbing and killing, and most often innocent hostages suffered - old people, women, children, because the partisan movement grew and expanded, and most men - both workers and peasants - went into the woods. Kolchak decided to reorganize the army, which brought a split to the whole white movement. However, White tried to advance. In December Perm was occupied by them, but near Ufa the Red Army smashed the army to smithereens. At first, the Civil War in Russia was very variable in success. The result of the event, date: the offensive of white was drowned on December 24, 1918.
Events of 1919
Only in March 1919, the white movement united in a united front, which allowed them to launch an offensive in the west. The White Guards managed to occupy the entire Urals, but near Samara they were stopped by the Red Army. The date of April 28, 1919 is considered to be a turning point - Kolchak’s troops under a large-scale offensive of the Reds rolled back farther along the entire front and stopped only in June near the foothills of the Urals. The final defeat awaited them between Ishim and Tobol, the large Siberian rivers, and the whites were forced to retreat to Eastern Siberia. And in the south, Denikin, meanwhile, occupied the North Caucasus and at the end of June occupied Crimea, Aleksandrovsk and Kharkov, and in September - Nikolaev, Odessa, Kursk and Oryol.
And then the Red Army again split the united army of the White Guards into two parts. In February, the White managed to enter Rostov, but their defense was broken through in the Kuban, there was a big battle on February 25, where the whites were utterly defeated. In March, defeat was completed in this direction. And again, at the same time, Yudenich launched two whole attacks on Petrograd: the first in May, the second in September. It was not possible to take the capital, but Pskov and Gdov were busy, though not for long. In September, in the north of Yudenich, his army was finally defeated and disarmed.
1920 year
The White Guards, cramped in the south farther and farther, had to give several big battles in the Kuban with the expectation of opening a second front. At first, this idea was even successfully realized, but still, the Red Army, as the song says, is all the stronger. Already in July, whites were pushed to the Sea of Azov. Wrangel won for some time in Northern Tavria, his army even moved to the Right Bank, but also failed to develop success. Maybe this is because in the Red Army there was a sufficient number of military specialists in the generals from tsarist times - up to sixty percent, according to statistics.
Not all, far from all, decided to sell their homeland to the British, Austrians, Germans, and the rest of the Entente and not the Entente. There were senior officers who accepted the historical course of events and shared its justice. White in October 1920 was pushed back beyond the Dnieper, and right on November 7, the Reds began to storm Crimea. Yes, so competently that by the middle of this month the white Crimea had to leave. From April to November, the actions of the Red Army were truly victorious in all directions. Whites were defeated in Transcaucasia and Central Asia (Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Bukhara).
Ending
The Japanese ruled our Far East all this time, supporting the White Guards in everything. In April 1920, the Soviet government was forced to form an independent (as it were, "buffer") state - the Far Eastern Republic (Far Eastern Republic), and its first capital was Verkhneudinsk (today Ulan-Ude), and then Chita. A republican army was also created, which was not afraid of either the White Guards or the Japanese. The hostilities launched by the army of the Far Eastern Republic were successful: the White Guards were defeated, the Japanese were expelled, Vladivostok was busy, the Far East was cleared of the White Guard evil spirits. Only after that the Soviet government included the Far Eastern Republic in the RSFSR.
Undoubtedly, only a just cause could end in such a victory. It is hard to imagine how the Far East was liberated. The distances are enormous, the republic has been waging bloody battles for two years with the enemy forces that are many times superior. And still wins! And in the Far East, white could not settle confidently. They only tried to defend themselves, they did not take offensives, but they retreated constantly - step by step. True, they seized power in Primorye and Vladivostok in 1921 and were able to hold it for six months - until November. Then they were again defeated - already completely. And on December 1, 1922, the last remaining White Guards removed from the territory of Russia - directly from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, from its very edge. This is the date of the end of the Civil War in Russia.
About the intervention
It is strange to listen to those who consider the white movement a good undertaking. Foreign intervention, thanks to the support of which the white movement could even exist, had a huge impact on the entire balance of power. The Entente and the Fourth Union (by the way, the warring parties of the First World War) actively intervened in the war. Fourteen countries hostile to Russia brought the White Guards to their land. They called the goal of the intervention the eradication of revolutionary ideas, but in reality they wanted to rob, as always. And robbed. And, of course, the Entente had a great desire to continue the world war, and therefore it was impossible to let Russia go without complete victory in it. This agreement was signed by Tsarist Russia, and the Bolsheviks were absolutely not obliged to fulfill these conditions.
But whites agreed in the event of victory over the Soviet regime to meet all the wishes of the Entente. The Entente, as always, was afraid of Russia, and it was very desirable for her to weaken our state, so that our country would have neither political nor economic influence in the world. Therefore, the Entente subsidized the white movement. But not for long. In fact, whites were betrayed by their patrons. But in addition to the White Guards, in Russia, the Japanese, Turks and Romanians atrocities wanted to capture a tasty piece of our territory. The French - in the Crimea. The British - in the North and the Caucasus. Germans - throughout Ukraine, in Belarus, in the Baltic states. And this continued until the end of 1920. The Japanese in the Far East ruled until 1922. But young Soviet Russia survived.