White movement: causes of defeat in the Civil War

Perhaps the history of the Civil War in Russia is a very instructive page of the tablets of national memory. These events remind us of something that should not be allowed in any case, for this category of war is the most meaningless, cruel and bloody. Whatever it was, but these events have sunk into the pool of history. But they left behind an impressive amount of questions. One of the most interesting and important: “Why did the white movement lose?” It will not be possible to describe the causes of the defeat of the “whites” in a nutshell, since a whole complex of factors unfavorable for them led to this outcome.

Instead of joining

Oddly enough, but the historical division into "red", "white" and "green" during the war years was practically absent. What is the reason for this? At a time when a terrible discord occurs, it is difficult for a person to unambiguously join one of the parties. For one "ideological" follower of a monarchy or revolution, there are a hundred people "waiting". And this is normal, since such a situation has existed at all times and under any authority.

Easily changed the side of the conflict, not only loners, but even entire military units! Moreover, many moved back and forth several times during the war.

The myth of "red terror"

In many modern sources, one of the most significant reasons for the defeat of the “whites” is considered to be the “all-consuming red terror”, which allegedly “threw a frightened country at their feet”. Alas, there was terror. That's just practiced it by all parties to the conflict, and do not look for them among the "right" and "wrong." In conditions when civil society collapsed, when there is a critical level of tension, people have nothing to lose, and therefore they can easily take the most extreme measures.

In addition, it is not worth considering that the entire territory of the former Russian Empire suddenly turned into the burning crucible of the revolution: initially the red and white were small islands surrounded by whole seas of an absolutely inert peasant mass. It is ridiculous to say, but both the reds and the whites (not to mention the “muddy greens”) practiced the mass recruitment of supporters abroad. Moreover, the glorified “tsarist officers” sometimes did not want to fight at all. There are cases when officers became waiters in restaurants in Kiev, and worked with all the awards. So served more.

Why are we all saying this? Everything is simple. So that you understand what terrible confusion reigned in the first months and even years of the war. There was no "overwhelming superiority" in manpower among the whites, nor was this noted among the reds. Most of the population simply wanted to live in peace, quickly changing their “color” in accordance with political realities. So what crippled the white movement? ” The reasons for his defeat lie in several details at once.

What does the army need?

Roughly speaking, either side needed two things: manpower (that is, conscripts) and bread. Everything else will follow.

Both resources could be taken only in the countryside, only from the long-suffering peasantry, which no longer wanted to give anything to anyone. Hence the practice of terror, which both parties resorted to, as the Provisional Government of Kerensky had used the same tool before. The result was constant peasant unrest, which again was suppressed by all parties to the Civil War, moreover, the most brutal methods.

And so the “terrible red terror” was not something outstanding. In any case, he did not stand out from the white terror. So the Bolsheviks did not win at all thanks to “power actions”. Thus, the causes of the defeat of the white movement are:

• one-man management;
• poor organization;
• imperfect ideology.

Here are 3 reasons for the defeat of white movement. Let's dwell in more detail on each of these points, each of which conceals a whole complex of serious problems. Each of them could distort the white movement. The reasons for the defeat lie in the fact that they acted simultaneously.

Once a swan, cancer and pike ...

In general, initially it was much easier to act in red. They are used to playing in situations where around are security agents, when everyone can betray, but at the same time they need to obey a single “command center”. In Civil they had to do exactly the same thing, but in these conditions the Bolsheviks themselves could establish the required rules of the game. They had to maneuver, but it was much easier to do.

Effective Managers

But white could work in such stressful conditions much worse, and they had several times more points of view on what was happening. At the peak of the war, more than a dozen whites fought against a more or less unified camp of the Reds, and many of their formations were openly opposed. All this did not add any degree of adequacy to what was happening.

In general, all this mess and "originality" deprived the chances of victory of the white movement. The reasons for the defeat lie in the inability to negotiate and eliminate frankly dangerous people in time. So, for example, the situation with the Entente. At one time, the Bolsheviks were frankly weak, weak and fragmented, as Vladimir Ulyanov wrote with bitterness. It would seem that you request weapons and shells from your allies, taking advantage of the fact that all these orders have already been paid for by tsarism, and solve the problem once and for all ...

Abandoned and forgotten

But the same shells decided to ask the Germans. The latter, having lost the First World War, quietly disappeared from the scene, and the “allies” from the Entente, outraged by the behavior of the whites, were in no hurry to provide them with effective assistance. In 1919, they preferred to introduce intervention troops. For what? And what could the white movement give them? It was easier for them to plunder the riches of Russia alone, and they did not need all this “color of officers” (for the time being).

When the Reds were finally formed and were able to conduct effective offensive actions, the interventionists urged to go home, because they did not want to fight at all, and by that time White had completely disconnected, their morale was low, and their goals were as illusive as mirages in the desert. Remember, by the way, that one of the reasons for the defeat of the white movement was, however strange it may seem, the complete lack of ideology.

There are many problems, but no solutions ...

In the rear of the white sat dozens of impudent limotrophs, problems with which only the Reds could solve. Moreover, for every more or less capable white commander in the rear, some “ataman” could freely manage, robbing and killing the population, but the fight against this “freemen” did not go beyond “warnings and reprimands”. What kind of one-man management can we talk about if the glorified officers proved completely incapable of basic organizational activities?

In addition, whites deliberately substituted each other out of short-term interests, could never agree at least on the simultaneous launch of an offensive, constantly concluded separate agreements with any local "kings".

At the same time, they must be paid tribute to the military side: in most cases, former tsarist officers turned out to be more flexible and better savvy in tactics. But over time, many sensible commanders grew out of the Reds, and former autocratic experts left for them. The army of "monarchists" more and more resembled one large gang with predictably low efficiency in battles against linear formations. What other reasons are there for the defeat of the white movement in the civil war?

Organizational chaos

As for the organization of the rear, everything was even worse with it (although, much worse). Denikin alone received from the allies in 1919 74 tanks, at least 148 airplanes, several hundred cars, several tens of tractors, about five hundred artillery pieces, including heavy models, several thousand rifles and machine guns, millions of cartridges for them ... Yes, even the tsarist army, freezing in the trenches of the First World War, could only dream of such wealth! So what are the causes of the defeat of the white movement, when the accumulated mass of technology could break the front anywhere?

Where did it all go?

The lion's share of all the good was either stolen and sold ... all the same red or dead weight settled somewhere in distant warehouses, and ancient rifles were sometimes found even in the mid 40s by the Soviet military during revisions. So the reasons for the defeat of the white movement are banal theft, sloppiness and selfishness.

The latest howitzers uneducated calculations managed to "kill" in just a couple of weeks. Subsequently, the Soviet commanders recalled that whites on one gun for the whole day left no more than 20 shells because of the complete "slackness" of the material part.

Inefficient allocation of resources

But in the rear of the whites there was a continuous “crunch of French rolls”: huge amounts of money were spent on furs and jewelry of mistresses, balls and banquets were organized in the evenings. And this at a time when the troops are suffering desperate defeats from the Reds?

Moreover, today it is often possible to read in the novels about the "highly educated white officer" and about the "ragged red". Perhaps at some point this was the case ... Only Colonel Katomin, who ran to the “whites,” bitterly noted the abundance of drunken officers and soldiers. “This is impossible with the Reds ... Any drunken officer will be shot right there, the morale of your opponents is extremely high,” he said to his new colleagues. For which he was nearly beaten right during the performance. Here they are, the causes of the defeat of the white movement. In short, this is confusion and complete impunity.

And this is not to mention the parts of the “unidentified affiliation” that felt themselves in the monarchical rear very freely. The bandits and deserters, "falling away" from their part of the interventionists and just the gangs of green - there was no one to cope with them, and no one wanted to take on this. As a result, the rear areas were decomposed, a complete mess also reigned on the fronts. No one answered for anything, so the reasons for the defeat of the white movement in the civil war become quite obvious ...

It should also be noted the conditions for the provision of medical care. There are no exact statistics on the scale of medical losses, but it is known that whites provided medical assistance to the wounded ... of worse quality. In memoirs and archival documents, references to mass epidemics of typhus, the complete absence of normal doctors in the army, and the inability to organize a more or less normal hospital even in the rear are repeatedly found.

Ideology

It is generally accepted that the monarchists “with tears in their eyes” recalled “Russia we lost” and tried in every possible way to revive the monarchy. But this is not so. Yes, there were convinced monarchists among the whites, but there are few of those who remember history. In many ways, the reasons for the victory of the Reds and the defeat of the white movement lie in confusion and vacillation, even in the ideological sphere. The “whites” could not even agree with each other on plans for the post-war arrangement of the country, and nobody really wanted to “humiliate” themselves and explain something to their “electorate”. And at that time, when the Reds created an entire institute of commissars, effectively planting their ideology.

"Said - do it!"

Moreover, the Reds should not be considered simple talkers: if they set a goal, then they would achieve their goal. They did this, showing the practical effectiveness of their policies. The monarchists repeated the mistake of “balabol” Kerensky with his Provisional Government: unfulfilled promises, blurry ideology, lack of guarantees for the “electorate” - emphasize the reasons for the defeat of the white movement that you like more.

While Lenin spoke with his brilliant simplicity, a decree in which he promised bread to workers and land for peasants, former tsarist officers and officials competed in wit, discussing the next draft of future legislation. Here are the reasons for the defeat of the white movement.