Among the variety of terms that we use when talking about the world around us, there is one that was born during the Civil War and has survived to this day, but has received a completely different meaning. This is the green movement. In ancient times, the so-called insurgent actions of the peasants, who defended their rights with arms, were called so. Today this is the name of the community of people who defend the rights of the nature around us.
Russian peasantry in the post-revolutionary years
The "green" movement during the Civil War is the mass protests of the peasants against the main applicants for the seizure of power in the country - the Bolsheviks, White Guards and foreign interventionists. As a rule, they saw the free Councils formed by the governing bodies of the state, formed as a result of the independent will of all citizens and foreign to any form of appointment from above.
The “green” movement was of great importance during the war, already because its main force - peasants - made up the majority of the country's population. The course of the Civil War as a whole often depended on which of the opposing sides they would support. This was perfectly understood by all the participants in the hostilities and, as far as they could, tried to attract the multimillion peasant masses to their side. However, this was far from always succeeding, and then the confrontation took extreme forms.
The negative attitude of the villagers towards the Bolsheviks and the White Guards
So, for example, in the central part of Russia, the attitude of the peasants towards the Bolsheviks was of a dual nature. On the one hand, they supported them after the well-known land decree, which assigned the landlords to peasants, on the other hand, wealthy peasants and most of the middle peasants opposed the Bolshevik food policy and the forced seizure of agricultural products. This duality was reflected during the Civil War.
The White Guard movement, socially alien to the peasants, also rarely found support from them. Despite the fact that many villagers served in the ranks of the white army , most of them were recruited by force. This is evidenced by the numerous memories of participants in those events. In addition, the White Guards often forced the peasants to perform various economic duties, without compensating for the time and effort spent. It also caused discontent.
Peasant uprisings caused by surplus
The "green" movement in the Civil War directed against the Bolsheviks, as has already been said, was caused mainly by dissatisfaction with the surplus-expansion policy, which condemned thousands of peasant families to starvation. It is no coincidence that the main passions occurred in 1919-1920, when the forced seizure of agricultural products took on the widest scale.
Among the most active demonstrations directed against the Bolsheviks are the “green” movement in the Stavropol Territory, which began back in April 1918, and the ensuing mass uprising of peasants in the Volga region a year later. According to some reports, up to 180,000 people took part in it. In general, in the first half of 1019, 340 armed actions took place, covering more than twenty provinces.
Socialist-Revolutionaries and their Third Way Program
During the Civil War, representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik parties tried to use the "green" movement. They developed a joint tactics of struggle aimed at two fronts. Their opponents, they declared both the Bolsheviks and the leaders of the white movement A. V. Kolchak and A. I. Denikin. This program was called "The Third Way" and was, in their words, a struggle against reaction on the left and on the right. However, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, far from the peasant masses, could not unite significant forces around themselves.
Peasant army of Nestor Makhno
The most popular slogan, proclaiming the "third way", was in Ukraine, where for a long time the hostilities of the peasant rebel army led by N. I. Makhno. It is noted that its main backbone was made up of wealthy peasants who successfully engaged in agriculture and traded in bread.
They actively joined in the redistribution of landowner land and had high hopes for this. As a result, it was their farms that became the objects of numerous requisitions, carried out alternately by the Bolsheviks, White Guards and interventionists. The green movement spontaneously arising in Ukraine was a reaction to such lawlessness.
Anarchism gave a special character to the army, adherents of which were both the commander in chief and most of his commanders. The most attractive in this idea was the theory of the "social" revolution, which destroys all state power and thus eliminates the main instrument of violence against the individual. The main principle of Old Man’s program was Makhno’s people's self-government and rejection of any form of dictate.
Popular movement led by A. S. Antonov
No less powerful and large-scale movement of the "greens" was observed in the Tambov province and in the Volga region. By the name of its leader, it was called "Antonovschina." As far back as September 1917, peasants in these areas took control of the landowner lands and began to actively develop them. Accordingly, their standard of living increased, and a favorable perspective opened up ahead. When in 1919 a large-scale surplus-exploration began, and the fruits of their labor began to be taken away from people, this caused the most acute reaction and forced the peasants to take up arms. They had something to protect.
The struggle took on a special intensity in 1920, when a severe drought occurred in the Tambov region, which destroyed most of the crop. In these difficult conditions, what was still managed to be collected was seized in favor of the Red Army and the townspeople. As a result of such actions by the authorities, a popular uprising broke out, spanning several counties. About 4,000 armed peasants and more than 10,000 people with forks and braids took part in it. The leader and inspirer of the popular movement was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party A.S. Antonov.
The defeat of Antonovschina
He, like other leaders of the "green" movement, put forward clear and simple slogans that were understandable to every villager. The main one was a call to fight with the communists to build a free peasant republic. We must pay tribute to his commanding ability and ability to conduct a flexible guerrilla warfare.
As a result, the uprising soon spread to other areas and took on an even larger scale. The Bolshevik government was worth a tremendous effort to crush him in 1921. For this purpose, units removed from the Denikin Front were sent to the Tambov region, headed by M.N. Tukhachevsky and G.I. Kotovsky.
Modern social movement "Greens"
The fights of the Civil War died out, and the events described above are a thing of the past. Much of that era has sunk forever into oblivion, but the amazing thing is that the term “Green Movement” has been preserved in our everyday life, although it acquired a completely different meaning. If at the beginning of the last century this phrase meant a struggle for the interests of those who cultivated the land, nowadays the participants in the movement are fighting to preserve the nurse-land itself with all its natural wealth.
“Greens” is an ecological movement of our time, which is opposed to the harmful effects of negative factors of technological progress on the environment. In our country, they appeared in the mid-eighties of the last century and over their history have gone through several stages of development. According to data published at the end of last year, the number of environmental groups included in the all-Russian movement reaches thirty thousand.
The most important non-governmental organization
Among the most famous are the movement "Green Russia", "Homeland", "Green Patrol" and a number of other organizations. Each of them has its own characteristic features, but all of them are united by a commonality of tasks and the mass enthusiasm that is inherent in their members. In general, this sector of society exists in the form of a non-governmental organization. It is a kind of third sector that does not belong either to government agencies or to private business.
The political platform of representatives of modern "green" movements is based on a constructive approach to restructuring the economic policy of the state in order to harmoniously combine the interests of people and their environment. There can be no compromise in such matters, since not only the material well-being of people, but also their health and life depend on their decision.