Feature civil war in Russia there was an interweaving of internal political struggle with foreign intervention.
Reasons for foreign intervention:
1. the Western powers sought to prevent the spread of the socialist revolution around the world;
2. to avoid multibillion-dollar losses from the nationalization of the property of foreign citizens, carried out by the Soviet government, and refusal to pay the debts of the tsarist and Provisional governments;
3. to weaken Russia as its future political and economic rival in the post-war world.
The Entente countries signed an agreement on non-recognition of the Brest-Litovsk Peace and the future division of Russia into spheres of influence.
Foreign intervention began in the spring of 1918. German troops occupied Ukraine, Crimea, and part of the North Caucasus in the Brest Peace. Romania captured Bessarabia. At the beginning of March 1918, 2 thousand people landed in Murmansk. landing of British troops, and by the middle of the month French and American troops arrived there. In April, Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok. Turkey, an ally of Germany, sent its troops to Armenia, Azerbaijan. England captured part of Turkmenistan, occupied Baku. The seizure of large territories by foreign interventionists was accompanied by the destruction of the organs of Soviet power, the restoration of the previous order, and the looting of material assets.
At the end of the summer of 1918, the nature of the intervention changed. The troops received orders to support anti-Bolshevik movements. In August, mixed parts of the British and Canadians entered the Transcaucasus, occupied Baku, where they overthrew Soviet power, then retreated under the onslaught of Turkey. The Anglo-French troops landed in Arkhangelsk in August, overthrew Soviet power there, and later supported the Omsk government of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. In Odessa, French troops were stationed, which provided rear services for the army of A.I. Denikin, leading fighting on the Don.
By the fall of 1918, serious changes had taken place in the international situation. The First World War is over. Germany and her allies were completely defeated. Revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Soviet leadership canceled the Brest Treaty, and the new German government was forced to withdraw its troops from Russia. In Poland, the Baltic states, in the Ukraine, bourgeois - nationalist governments arose, which immediately took the side of the Entente.
The defeat of Germany freed up significant military contingents of the Entente and at the same time opened for her a short and convenient road to Moscow from the south. In these conditions, the leadership of the Entente inclined to the idea of defeating Soviet Russia with the forces of their own armies. At the end of November 1918, British troops landed in Batumi and Novorossiysk, and French troops landed in Odessa and Sevastopol. The total number of interventionist troops concentrated in the south was increased by February 1919 to 130 thousand people. The Entente contingents increased significantly in Far East(up to 150 thousand people), in the north (up to 20 thousand people).
At the same time, public circles in European countries and the United States advocated the return of their soldiers home. In these countries, a democratic movement has developed under the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia!"
In 1919, fermentation began in the occupation units of the Entente. Fearing the Bolshevization of their troops, the leadership of the Entente in the spring of 1919 began to withdraw its troops from the territory of Russia.
1919 was the most difficult for the Bolsheviks. The fate of the Soviet state was being decided. The Entente command has developed a new plan to fight Russia. This time the struggle against the Bolsheviks was to be expressed in the combined military actions of the white armies and the armies of the states neighboring Russia. In this regard, the leading role was assigned to the white armies, and the auxiliary - by the troops of small states (Finland and Poland), as well as the armed formations of the bourgeois governments of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, which retained control over part of their territories.
England, France, the United States have stepped up military and economic assistance to all anti-Bolshevik forces. During the winter period 1918-1919. only the troops of A.V. Kolchak and A.I. Denikin received about a million rifles, several thousand machine guns, about 1200 guns, tanks, aircraft, ammunition, uniforms for hundreds of thousands of people.
At the end of 1919, the victory of the Bolsheviks became more and more evident. The Entente countries began to speed up the withdrawal of their troops from Russia.
By the spring of 1920, the Red Army fought its way to Transbaikalia. The Far East was occupied by the Japanese. To avoid collision with them, the government of the RSFSR promoted the formation of a formally independent "buffer" state - the Far Eastern Republic (DRV) with its capital in Chita. In November 1920, the DRV army began military operations against the remnants of the white armies supported by the Japanese, and in October 1922 it occupied Vladivostok. The Far East was cleared of White Guards and interventionists. After that, the DRV was liquidated and became part of the RSFSR.
Thus, on the territory of the former Russian Empire, with the exception of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Finland, Soviet power won.
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The split in Russian society was outlined during the first revolution, and after October coup he reached the extreme point of civil war. Civil war is a large-scale confrontation between various groups of the population of a single state.
The main reasons for the Civil War and foreign intervention:
1) an extreme aggravation of the struggle between the antagonistic classes - the working people and their exploiters (the bourgeoisie of town and country, the landowners);
2) after the October Revolution, which radically dealt with the country's past way of life, the military confrontation between the country's social forces began to grow;
3) Russia's refusal to sign peace in Brest (February 1918) with Germany on annexationist terms;
4) the exit of Soviet Russia from the First World War did not suit the Entente countries.
During the Civil War, the following main stages are usually distinguished:
1)) the initial period (October 1917 - February 1918);
2) the deployment of the Civil War and military intervention (May 1918 - March 1919);
3) decisive victories of the Soviet power (March 1919 - March 1920);
4) the fight against the Polish and Wrangel armies (April - November 1920);
5) the final period, which ended with the victory of the revolutionary forces (1920–1922).
In the initial period of the Civil War, the main goal of the revolutionary forces was the establishment and consolidation of Soviet power on the ground. For a very short term Soviet power was established in most of the territory of the former Russian Empire. In literature, this period is called the triumphal march of Soviet power. The seizure of power everywhere took place mainly in a peaceful way, the armed struggle developed only in 15 out of 84 provincial cities, since by the end of 1917 the Bolsheviks were supported by radical sections of the population, primarily soldiers, who demanded an immediate end to the imperialist war. The great popularity of the Bolsheviks among the working people is also associated with the first decrees of the Soviet government (Decree on Peace, Decree on Land).
The situation was complicated by the introduction of unpopular economic measures in the country, especially the surplus appropriation system, and the split between the Bolsheviks and revolutionary democrats. This contributed to the start of peasant revolts against the Soviet regime. There were 245 mass demonstrations in 20 provinces of Russia. In 1918 the whole country was engulfed in the Civil War.
The united anti-revolutionary forces, the White movement, fought against the Soviet power: 1) the national bourgeoisie; 2) landlords; 3) leaders of the liberal and Menshevik parties; 4) other armed forces, including the troops of Germany and other countries, which began the invasion of Russia.
The situation remained difficult in 1919. Only at the cost of the utmost concentration of all the forces of Soviet Russia was it possible to reverse the situation on the fronts of the Civil War and successfully complete it. However, the victory in the Civil War cannot be called a triumph, since it was a great tragedy for the entire people of the country, whose society was split into two parts. The amount of economic damage caused by the Civil War amounted to more than 50 billion gold rubles.
Major fronts.
Soviet Russia during the Civil War was going through a very difficult time. In 1918, foreign invaders (British, French, American, Japanese troops) and the forces of the White movement surrounded the Soviet Republic with a ring of fronts.
In order to repulse the onslaught of opponents, the Soviet government began to implement measures to mobilize all forces and turn the country into a single military camp. All available resources were collected for the needs of the country's defense. The construction of the Red Army proceeded at a rapid pace. The general leadership of the country was concentrated in the Labor and Defense Council (STO), which was headed by V.I. Lenin.
To coordinate the actions of military institutions and fronts, the Revolutionary Military Council (RMC) was formed.
In the summer and autumn of 1918, two main fronts were defined - the Eastern and the Southern.
Eastern front
In the eastern direction, in the Volga and Ural region, the performance of large forces of White Czechs and White Guards merged with a wave of kulak revolts. The commander Eastern Front was appointed in July 1918 by I.I. Vatsetis (in 1919-1920 the front was headed by SS Kamenev, MV Frunze). The Red Army was opposed by forces led by Ataman Dutov (Ural Cossack army), later - Admiral Kolchak. The Red Army, through great efforts, managed to push these forces back beyond the Urals.
Southern front
From October 1918, fierce fighting broke out on the Southern Front, which covered the regions of the Don, the Lower Volga and the North Caucasus. The forces of the Red Army were commanded by V.M. Gittis and V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko (Ukrainian front). Here Soviet troops had to repel the onslaught of the Don White Cossack army of the ataman P.N. Krasnova, who tried to take Tsaritsyn and cut the Volga, and the Volunteer Army of General L.I. Denikin, who managed to capture the Kuban. By March 1919, the Don army was defeated, its remnants went under the cover of the Volunteer Army.
Russia in a ring of fronts
The spring of 1919 became very difficult for the Soviet Republic. An even more powerful offensive was being prepared against the Soviet state. It was supposed to involve the White Guard armies, as well as the troops of the Entente and other states neighboring Russia. The offensive of the hostile forces had to start from different parts of Russia and head towards its center - Moscow.
The offensive of the interventionists and the White Guards began at the same time on six fronts. The main blow was planned to be delivered by the forces of the Kolchak army, which was actively supported by the Entente countries. The offensive of troops under the command of A.V. Kolchak began on March 4, 1919. His performance was supported by other counter-revolutionary forces: in the western direction - the White Poles, and near Petrograd - General N.N. Yudenich, in the north - the white army of General E.K. Miller, in the south - the troops of A.I. Denikin. Despite the difficult situation, the Soviet state managed to withstand.
Southwestern Front
In April 1920, Poland entered the war with Soviet Russia. South Western front commanded by A.I. Egorov, Zapadny - M.N. Tukhachevsky. By the spring of 1920, the Civil War was drawing to a close.
In 1920, the Red Army repelled the Polish offensive and defeated the armies of P.N. Wrangel.
The civil war and intervention became one of the most tragic pages in the history of Russia.
In essence, the “allied” intervention was the turning point of the Russian revolution in its transformation into a civil war. The "allies" came to the aid of the white armies, including at the numerous requests of the "friends of the Russian people" from the liberal intelligentsia, cadets, and white generals.
As a result, there are millions of dead, destitute, crippled citizens. In addition, these years have brought severe moral losses to the Russians. After a foreign invasion and civil war, the population of Russia decreased from 1917 to 1923 by almost 13 million, mainly due to civilians... The casualties among the armed forces on both sides amounted to about 2.5 million. 1.5-2 million people left their homeland, became emigrants. And the rest - urban and rural residents - suffered incredible suffering from hunger, cold, epidemics, red and white terror.
Until now, historians argue about the reasons and other aspects of the intervention in Russia during the civil war, but there is still no certainty on this score.
Civil war, its causes and consequences
The literature has repeatedly noted that the October Revolution cost little blood. However, the shock caused by her soon passed, and the disaffected took up arms.
The civil war as a process of open military confrontation between different classes, estates and groups of the population began at the end of May 1918 and lasted until the end of 1920. During this period, the military question became the main, central issue in the life of the Soviet state.
The period of the civil war was conventionally divided into four stages:
- the beginning of the civil war and military intervention of the Entente (May-November 1918);
- the strengthening and failure of Aktanta's direct intervention (November 1918 - March 1919);
- the stage of decisive battles (spring 1919 - early 1920);
- Soviet-Polish war and the defeat of Wrangel's troops (1920).
R. Pipes calls a strange and extremely tendentious cause of the civil war. In his opinion, none other than Lenin provoked this great disaster: "He seized power in order to unleash a civil war." An amazing desire for a head of state - to create terrible difficulties for his people and himself!
In reality, things were quite different. The landowners could not come to terms with the loss of their land, the factory owners - with the loss of their enterprises and wanted to return it all.
However, not only they turned out to be opponents of Soviet power. The peasantry, to whom the revolution gave the land, was enough until the state demanded grain from it for the surplus appropriation, and then it deserted to the camp of enemies new government... True, it soon became clear that here they were threatened by the return of the landlords with all the ensuing consequences. The most far-sighted of the white generals - AI Denikin, PN Wrangel - tried to bribe the peasantry with certain concessions, in one way or another recognizing the "black redistribution" produced by the revolution. But they could not fully satisfy the needs of the peasants - otherwise the whole meaning of the white movement would be lost.
Special mention should be made of such a specific group of the population as the Cossacks. Before the revolution, the Cossacks were, although a laboring, but a privileged class. The revolution intended to equate them with the entire peasantry, which irritated the Cossacks. However, the Cossacks were not homogeneous, and they treated the new government differently. It split, and the Cossacks fought on both sides of the front, sometimes changing these sides. The problem of the relationship between the North Caucasian Cossacks and the mountain peoples was specific. The Soviet government tried to solve the old problem of the local land shortage by returning the Cossack lands to the mountaineers who once inhabited them, mainly the Chechens and Ingush. This, of course, attracted the highlanders to her side, but accordingly threw the Cossacks into the white camp.
Officers became an important force in the civil war. Having lost their privileges after the February Revolution, and even more so after October, now humiliated and insulted by the soldiers, who, in turn, have had enough of the former commander's zubotychins, the officers rallied in sufficient mass around the most authoritative generals and created the so-called Volunteer Army under the leadership of M.V. Alekseeva and L.G. Kornilova, and then joined other white formations. This impressive military force became the core of the white movement.
The new government turned against itself and another powerful enemy - the church. The Orthodox Church could not come to terms with the loss of its lands transferred by the revolution to the peasantry; it was also not satisfied with the elimination of the special position that the church had before the revolution, being the ideological support of the old system, a kind of part of the state apparatus. Patriarch Tikhon, elected shortly after October, in a special message reproached the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars for all revolutionary transformations and, above all, for the nationalization of lands, factories, factories, etc. The Bolsheviks, being irreconcilable ideological atheists, did not want to seek and could not reach any compromise with the clergy. On the contrary, the widespread forms of anti-religious struggle were at times openly offensive to believers and thus inevitably led them to the anti-Soviet camp.
In the course of the civil war, even a certain section of the workers, who began to live worse materially than before, also sometimes became opposition, sometimes even armed, to the Soviets.
The role of the external counter-revolution should also be noted. The Western powers, having lost, along with Russian entrepreneurs, their factories and plants in our country, and also having learned about the refusal of the revolutionary government from the debts of tsarism and the Provisional Government, of course, wanted to return all this. In addition, the spread of the fire of the revolution to Europe and other continents was frightening.
Finally, both yesterday's opponents and yesterday's allies of Russia saw in the current situation in the country a convenient chance for solving their own geopolitical tasks. They were united by a common goal - to weaken the Russian rival, and, if possible, by fragmentation in general, to remove him from the world arena. England, very much afraid of Russia's historical advance towards the "pearl of the British crown" - India, dreamed of pushing the Russian competitor away from the Central Asian region. France, although it saw Russia as a counterweight to Germany, nevertheless also took steps to dismember our state. Russia's neighbors - Germany, Poland, Japan - strove to grab pieces of Russian land for themselves.
That is why the Entente countries, the United States of America, Japan and others very soon became anti-Soviet. They gave decisive support to the White movement, especially with weapons and equipment, which, moreover, they had nowhere to put after the end of the world war. There were also facts of direct intervention of these forces.
Intervention against the country of the Soviets
In 1915, the President of France wrote in his diary: “Samba ... emphasized the effectiveness of Russian aid and categorically stated:“ Say without fear that if it were not for Russia, we would be swept by a wave of enemy invasion. Keep this in mind every time you come across this or that consequence of the internal regime of this great country. "
And Lamzdorf, the future Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, wrote back in 1891: “The French are going to besiege us with proposals to conclude an agreement on joint military actions of both powers in the event of an attack by some third party. Completely entangled in their networks, we will be betrayed and sold at the first opportunity. "
In Russia after October 1917, before the eyes of the West, something was happening that radically contradicted its plans. Churchill wrote:
“At the beginning of the war, France and Great Britain relied heavily on Russia. And in fact, Russia has done an enormous amount. Losses were not feared, and everything was at stake. The rapid mobilization of the Russian armies and their rapid onslaught on Germany and Austria were essential in order to save France from destruction in the first two months of the war. And even after that, despite the terrible defeats and the incredible number of killed, Russia remained a loyal and powerful ally. For almost three years, it detained more than half of all enemy divisions on its fronts, and in this struggle it lost more dead than all the other allies taken together. Brusilov's victory in 1916 rendered an important service to France and especially Italy; even in the summer of 1917, after the fall of the tsar, the Kerensky government was still trying to organize an offensive to help the common cause ...
But Russia fell halfway and during this fall completely changed its appearance. Instead of an old ally, a ghost stood before us, unlike anything that had existed on earth until now. We saw a state without a nation, an army without a fatherland, a religion without God. The government, which had a claim to represent the new Russia in its person, was born of the revolution and fed on terror. It rejected the obligations arising from the treaties; it concluded a separate peace; it made it possible to remove a million Germans from the eastern front and throw them westward for the final assault. It announced that no relationship of mutual trust could exist between it and a non-communist society, either in private or public affairs, and that there was no need to comply with any obligations. It canceled both the debts that Russia had to pay and those that were owed to it. Just at the moment when the most difficult period had passed, when victory was near and countless victims were finally promising fruit, old Russia was swept off the face of the earth, and in its place came to power the "nameless monster" predicted in Russian folk legends .. . ".
Thus, the policy of the "allies" in relation to the Bolsheviks and Russia was unambiguously defined already in the first months after the October Revolution.
On November 30, 1917, US Secretary of State Lansing instructs US Ambassador to Russia Francis to investigate the possibility of forming an army in southern Russia to confront the Bolsheviks.
On December 3, the Military Cabinet decided that “the British government is ready to support any responsible authority in Russia that actively opposes the movement of maximalists (Bolsheviks), and at the same time freely finances such bodies within reasonable limits as they are ready to help the cause of the allied powers. ". According to D. Davis and Y. Trani, "such a policy incited a civil war and implied a certain kind of intervention of Great Britain" in the internal affairs of Russia. "
On December 12, Japanese warships entered the Golden Horn Bay in Vladivostok under the pretext of protecting Japanese companies and citizens. The attempt to land the troops met with a strong protest from the US government.
And soon the protocol of the British War Cabinet No. 298 ordered: not to refuse the requested money to support resistance to the central authorities in southeastern Russia, that is, the Bolsheviks, if war department and the Foreign Office will deem it necessary. On the same day, England and France provided General Kaledin with £ 10 million. to create an army of 2 million people. The chief of British intelligence suggested: “Kaledin should be supported as the head of the largest remaining loyal organization in relation to the allies in Russia. Either he or the Romanian king should turn to the United States with a request to send two divisions to Russia - nominally to help in the fight against the Germans, but in fact to create an assembly point for elements loyal to the former government. A decisive person, even with a relatively small army, can do a lot. " The British ambassador had a different opinion. Buchanan, meeting with the associates of Kaledin, identified them as adventurers. The ambassador said that betting on a gallant general (but a naive politician) threatens to turn Russia into a German colony.
At the end of December, Churchill announced that after the withdrawal from the war and the beginning of separate negotiations with Germany, the Bolsheviks should be considered "openly recognized enemies."
The British War Cabinet drew up a memorandum stating that the Allies should immediately contact the Bolsheviks through unofficial agents. It was conceived to maintain ties with Ukraine, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus. The first task was to provide subsidies for the reorganization of Ukraine, for the maintenance of the Cossacks and Caucasian troops.
On December 23, simultaneously with the decree on the support of "local governments and their armies," England and France concluded a convention dividing Russia into spheres of invasion. The French zone was supposed to consist of Bessarabia, Ukraine and Crimea, and the English zone was to consist of the territories of the Cossacks, the Caucasus, Armenia, Georgia and Kurdistan.
Already on January 9, France begins the implementation of the "convention": it provides a cash loan to the hostile Soviet government to the Ukrainian Rada and appoints the head of its military mission in Ukraine as an official French representative to the Ukrainian Rada.
Wilson signs a report by Secretary of State Lansing (December 10) on the provision of covert support to British and French initiatives directed against Soviet power. It was about helping Kaledin. Since Kaledin and his supporters were not recognized de jure, the law forbade lending to them, so Lansing emphasized the importance of avoiding publicity of the United States' intentions to demonstrate sympathy for the Kaledin movement, much less lend its financial aid... For this purpose, assistance was carried out through England and France. In early January, American Consul D. Poole arrives in Rostov for secret talks with Generals Kaledin and Alekseev.
18 january General base The main command of the Entente armies adopted a resolution "On the need for the intervention of the allies in Russia": "... The Bolshevik regime is incompatible with the establishment of a lasting peace. It is vital for the Entente powers to destroy it as soon as possible ... It is urgent to come to an agreement in order to establish the principles of intervention in Russia, clarify the assigned responsibilities, and ensure a unified leadership. This agreement should be the first step in organizing peace. "
On February 26, Allied Commander-in-Chief Marshal Foch, in an interview that appeared in the American press, said that "America and Japan must meet Germany in Siberia - they have the opportunity to do so" ... Since that time, the Allied press has intensified agitation for support of the Japanese intervention. French political circles, along with the voice of the French press, saw in the Japanese occupation of Siberia a "just" punishment for the Bolsheviks for canceling debts and concluding a separate peace.
March 5 The Daily Mail insisted on inviting Japan to Siberia and creating a counterbalance to European Russia from Asian Russia. And on March 6, British Marines land in Murmansk.
On March 23, the Inter-Allied Naval Council considered the possibility of sending an allied military expedition to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in order to protect the combat stocks stored in these ports. In Note 17, the council expressed the hope that the operations naval forces in Murmansk will be continued in order to keep this port at the disposal of the Allies for as long as possible.
On April 5, Japanese Admiral Kato landed troops in Vladivostok. The Entente countries declared this landing a simple police precaution, attributing it to the initiative of the Japanese admiral.
On April 7, the French military mission received an instruction: “Do not cooperate with the Russian army, it will become a threat social order and can resist Japan. "
On April 12, the War Cabinet approved a plan for the British occupation of Murmansk, which should have been carried out, if possible, with the consent of the Soviets. Although this project was blocked by the American military representative, General T.Bliss, Britain decided to do it its own way.
England submitted for consideration to the Entente Supreme Military Council (note No. 25) a plan for the transfer to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk of about twenty thousand Czechs from the Czechoslovak Legion. The plan was approved.
Soon the Allied "military attachés gathered in Moscow and unanimously acknowledged that it was necessary for the Allies to intervene in Russian affairs.
On June 1, England obtained Wilson's consent to take part in the intervention. On June 3, the Supreme Military Council adopted a joint note No. 31 - "Allied intervention in the Russian Union ports."
It is noteworthy that there was no complete unanimity in the Allied camp regarding the intervention in Russia; in particular, US President W. Wilson actively opposed it. In addition, Russia did not yet have sufficiently significant White Guard formations that could be used for a successful intervention and for its formal legalization. It was also necessary to end the First World War, and Russia could play its role in this.
Unlike the February Revolution after the October Revolution, the new government was not recognized as "allies." They even preferred to communicate with the Bolshevik government through their representatives.
England recalled its ambassador from Russia. The Americans had three lines of struggle with respect to Bolshevik Russia. The first was voiced by the head of the military mission, Judson, and the leaders of the Red Cross mission, who believed that the Bolsheviks, having taken power, ceased to be German spies and turned into defencists, and their semi-recognition would help restore the front. Consul General Summers, on the other hand, called for unequivocally and publicly to deny recognition to the Soviets. As a result, the third point of view won out - Ambassador Francis, who proposed not to do anything in anticipation of the inevitable fall of the Bolshevik regime from day to day.
The activities of representatives and ambassadors of England, France, and the United States are best characterized by W. Churchill. True, he wrote about US policy in post-war Europe, but the principles, the essence of this activity does not change at all when the place of application is changed: in post-war Europe or post-revolutionary Russia: “Walking among the masses of disorganized and angry people and asking them what they think about it or what they would like is the surest way to in order to rekindle mutual strife. When people help in things they do not understand and in which they have little interest, they naturally reinforce a sublime and impartial mood for themselves. “Let's get to know all the facts before making a decision. Let's get to know the situation. Let's find out the desires of the population. " How wise and right it all sounds! And yet, before the commission, in which in the end only American representatives remained, traveled a third of the way through the areas it surveyed, almost all interested peoples raised an armed uprising ... " In the case of Russia, the words of “allies” and of Churchill himself about adherence to democratic principles and obligations sounded very wise and correct, but the result was the same as in post-war Europe.
But the "allied" ambassadors and representatives were engaged in more than subversive activities. For example, the American ambassador also misinformed and provoked his State Department and the president, reporting on June 20, 1918: “I telegraphed to the department that sober-minded, homeland-loving Russians, who are disposed in favor of the allies, are losing patience, awaiting an allied intervention, and are inclined to negotiate with Germany - in fact, they are ready to come to an agreement even with the devil himself, just to get rid of the Bolsheviks. I advised starting an intervention ... ".
The ambassadors' negotiations with the Soviet government were accompanied by active interventionist activities of the "allies" who financed the White Guard armies in southern Russia, revolts in the center, landed their troops in the north of Russia, captured Ufa in Siberia, and Vladivostok in the Far East. The industrial centers were cut off from Donetsk coal and food regions of southern Russia and Ukraine. Famine began in central Russia. Negotiations with the allies lost their meaning, as their real goals became more and more vividly. In fact, the allies were already waging an open, but unofficial war with Russia, which really turned into a "besieged camp." The Bolsheviks, to one degree or another, controlled less than a quarter of the country's territory. By the summer of 1918, a "state of emergency" was introduced in Russia, the "Red Terror" was declared, the "allies" and opponents expected the imminent fall of the Bolsheviks. The German Ambassador Mirbach came to the conclusion that "there is no point in further supporting the Bolsheviks." As he put it in a letter to the Foreign Minister on June 25, “We are certainly standing at the bedside of a hopelessly ill person. Bolshevism will soon fall ... At the hour of the fall of the Bolsheviks, German troops must be ready to capture both capitals and begin to form a new government. The alternative could be monarchists, but they have lost their orientation and care only about the return of their privileges. The core of the future (pro-German) government should be moderate Octobrists and Cadets, with the involvement of prominent figures from business and finance. "
In 1918, the Bolsheviks had no choice but to cooperate with Germany. The "allies" persistently "pushed the Bolsheviks into the hands of the Germans," and the Soviet government was forced to rely on its peace treaty with the Germans in order to be able to resist the interventionists and the white armies. On August 1, 1918, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin proposed to the German embassy a joint Soviet-German expedition with the aim of liberating two regions of Russia - the Murmansk railway and the Don region. Gelferich conveyed Lenin's proposal to Berlin with the comment: the Bolsheviks should be led by the nose by the possibility of cooperation, and the trained German troops should be used to overthrow them. Gelferich was an ardent supporter of the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. On August 1, he demanded: a small blow is enough for the ghostly Bolshevik regime to crumble to pieces.
Ultimately, the point of view of Admiral Hinze won out: “What do we want in the east? Military paralysis of Russia. The Bolsheviks provide it better and more thoroughly than any other Russian party without a single mark or a single person as assistance from our side. Let us be satisfied with the impotence of Russia. " Ginze wrote that Alekseev on the Don should not have been supported, but overthrown.
In Berlin on August 27, the additional agreements with Soviet Russia. In essence, it was an agreement that the Bolshevik government would fight against the Entente in the north of the European part of Russia. Control over the remnants was transferred to Germany Black Sea Fleet and port equipment on the Black Sea. It was agreed that if Baku is returned to Russia, then a third of oil production will go to Germany. The treaties had political and economic articles, as well as secret additions. According to secret articles, the Soviet government promised to drive out the troops of the West from the territory of the country with the help of German and Finnish troops.
Meanwhile, a large-scale intervention has already begun. The interventionists from England, France, the United States have already accumulated enough reasons and reasons for this.
W. Churchill wrote: "Many millions of people died from war and persecution, and even more died later from hunger ... But the allies were forced to intervene in the affairs of Russia after the Bolshevik revolution in order to win the great war ..." But soon, in six months, the war will end, and new reasons will be put forward for continuing the intervention, for "protecting democracy" and "helping to restore the constitutional order in Russia."
American Ambassador Francis justified his position as a champion of intervention by the fact that "the leading impulse of the Bolsheviks is class hatred ... The success of the Bolsheviks in Russia poses a threat to all orderly created governments, not excluding ours, a threat to the very foundations of social order." W. Churchill developed the theme: “Bolshevik imperialism threatens not only the states bordering on Russia, Bolshevism threatens all of Asia; he is as close to America as he is to France. "
W. Churchill casually mentions other reasons. He begins the last volume of The World Crisis with an enthusiastic statement: “The end The great war raised England to unprecedented heights. The Russian Empire, which was our ally, gave way to a revolutionary government that renounced all claims to Constantinople and which ... was not able to soon become a serious military threat to India. " But the October Revolution darkened Churchill's joy. The appeal of the Bolsheviks to the oppressed peoples of the world blew up all the foundations of the world imperialist system, the most reactionary apologist of which by the beginning of the 20th century was Great Britain. In addition, during the short period of their existence, the Bolsheviks established themselves as adherents of a strong Russian state and demonstrated their ability to achieve their goals. This came into sharp contradiction with the convictions and plans of Churchill, which is why he declared: “... The set goal has not yet been achieved. There were still other enemies; the winners are challenged by new forces that impede a fair resolution of world problems. It was time to remember the motto of the ancient Romans: "Spare the conquered and pacify the proud."
The rationale for the policy of the interventionists in relation to Russia was also formulated by W. Churchill: "The formal non-recognition of any of the Russian governments made it possible to speak of Russia as a chaos, unable to self-organize without outside help." "At the meetings of the allies there was no longer Russia - instead of her there was a gaping abyss, not filled with anything."
Interestingly enough, American interventionist troops began to show solidarity with the Bolsheviks. The commander of the British contingent in Siberia, Colonel Ward, reported: “In Nikolsk, a telegram was received from the head of the Kraevskaya station, indicating that ... a detachment of Red Guards came to the station and in the presence of American soldiers guarding railroad, arrested him and his employees and took over the station. "
President W. Wilson was the most active and consistent against the intervention. He based his position on a number of fundamental principles: democratic - non-interference in the affairs of another country; humanistic - intervention in Russia will undermine its vitality and bring only suffering and devastation; civilizational - considering, despite all the shortcomings, the revolution in Russia one of the most progressive phenomena in human history; pragmatic - organizing a conference on the Princes' Islands. Only after the Republican President came to power in the United States in 1920, the situation changed dramatically - in March 1921, the new Secretary of State Hughes replied through the American Consul with a note denying the possibility of even trade relations between the two countries.
A difficulty for the intervention was the signing of peace treaties by the Soviet republic with Latvia (April 16, 1920), Lithuania (July 12), Finland (October 14). On March 16, 1921, a trade agreement was concluded with Great Britain, and on March 18, an armistice was signed with Poland, the last of the nearby enemies of Soviet Russia.
From the very beginning of the intervention in the Entente countries, a growing movement of solidarity with Soviet Russia emerged, which began with numerous refusals of workers to load military supplies for the intervention, in 1919 real uprisings began, for example, of the 55th Infantry Regiment near Tiraspol or sailors of the French fleet on the Black sea. Within a couple of months, the Entente became convinced of the ineffectiveness of the actions of their troops in the south. The soldiers were unwilling to fight and revolutionized.
As a result, the intervention collapsed. Why didn't the interventionists launch such a massive aggression against Russia?
Firstly, they could not, purely for material reasons. Russia is not Spain or Finland. Devastated by the First World War, the economies of the "allies" could not bear another large-scale war.
Secondly, democratic principles, unlike fascist Germany and Italy, were no longer an empty phrase for England and even more so for the United States. W. Churchill in this regard in an original way criticized Lloyd George for his hesitation regarding intervention in Russia.
Thirdly, the peoples of the interventionist countries and their advanced politicians, including the President of the United States, recognized the progressive nature of the Russian revolution and, in one way or another, provided it with substantial support.
With the end of the official intervention, the war of the "allies" against Russia did not end; it only began to acquire new forms, in which the principles of the old "cheap imperialist policy" were clearly visible. These new forms surfaced in the form of open aggression in the Polish-Soviet war.
The stories that suddenly appeared on the scene with radical slogans of the abolition of private property, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the world revolution, the Bolsheviks, which is not surprising, caused a reaction of rejection, or, at least, fears of Western states for their future. Therefore, it would be at least naive to expect immediate recognition of Bolshevik Russia under these conditions.
The communists had to prove their right to exist in practice. But this required time, which the Bolsheviks were not given - the intervention began before they had time to get on their feet.
In fact, not all of the West followed the path of the need for intervention. V. Wilson, for his part, quite openly tried to avoid it. Churchill became a clear opponent of Wilson, speaking of the need for intervention as inevitable.
Official intervention in the Soviet Republic collapsed. There are many reasons for this. This is the signing of peace treaties, and an active movement of solidarity with the new country, and other, no less significant, circumstances.
However, the intervention, coupled with the civil war, brought many sad consequences to the Soviets: loss of life, poverty, hunger, epidemics.
Having suffered defeat in the intervention, the West did not abandon the thought of ending Soviet Russia. This time his plans were even more ambitious - the involvement of Russia in the wars with Poland, Japan, Germany ...
Test: “Civil War. "War Communism" (1st option).
1. One of the main reasons for the civil war in Russia
A) the alliance of the Bolsheviks with the Left SRs.
B) strengthening and developing a multi-party system.
C) the coming of the Bolsheviks to power and their policies.
D) deployment of intervention by the Entente countries.
2. A full-scale civil war in Russia began:
A) in the spring of 1917 . B) in the fall of 1917 C) in the spring of 1918 D) in the fall of 1918
3. One of the generals of the White Army during the Civil War:
A) A.I. Egorov. B) A. I. Denikin. C) M.V. Frunze. D) I.I. Vatsetis.
4. What is civil war?
5. Objectives of the Reds in the Civil War:
A) Constitutional order, integrity and indivisibility of Russia.
C) The dictatorship of the proletariat.
A) the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps;
B) Wrangel's performance;
C) Yudenich's attack on Petrograd;
D) the war with Poland.
7. The policy of "war communism" is characterized by
A) the introduction of self-sufficiency and self-financing;
C) encouraging free trade;
D) rapid economic growth.
8. The obligatory surrender by the peasants to the state at fixed prices of all surpluses in excess of the established norms during the years of war communism was called
A) labor service;
B) tax in kind;
C) nationalization;
D) surplus appropriation.
A) Creation of the Revolutionary Military Council headed by Trotsky.
B) War with Poland.
C) Overthrow of the Provisional Government
D) Kolchak's attack on Moscow.
10. Set the correspondence.
A) V.I. Lenin.
1) Commander of the Western Front of the Red Army in the war with Poland.
B) A.V. Kolchak.
2) Commander of the Red Army division.
C) M.N. Tukhachevsky.
3) Admiral, “The Supreme Ruler of Russia”.
D) V.I. Chapaev.
4) Leader of the Party of Right Socialist Revolutionaries.
5) Chairman of the Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Defense.
Test: “Civil War. "War Communism" (2nd option).
1. One of the reasons for the intervention of the Western powers during the civil war:
A) an alliance with the Bolsheviks and Left SRs;
B) assistance to the red movement during the war;
C) the establishment of socialism in their countries;
D) weaken Russia as a competitor.
2. The elimination of the last white front in the Crimea was completed:
A) in the spring of 1920 B) in the fall of 1920 C) in the spring of 1919 D) in the fall of 1922
3. One of the commanders of the Red Army during the Civil War;
A) M. N. Tukhachevsky. B) A. I. Denikin. C) N. N. Yudenich. D) A. V. Kolchak.
4. What is intervention?
5. Objectives of whites in the civil war:
A) The return of autocracy, the integrity and indivisibility of Russia.
B) Democratic Russia, elections to the Constituent Assembly.
C) The dictatorship of the proletariat.
6. The beginning of the civil war is associated with
A) the attack on Petrograd Yudenich.
B) Wrangel's speech.
C) the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps.
D) the offensive of neighboring states.
7. The policy of white governments is characterized by:
A) rapid economic growth;
B) the nationalization of industry;
C) the abolition of the Bolshevik Decree on Land
D) the introduction of surplus appropriation.
8. Admiral, who proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia:
A) P.N. Krasnov.
B) A.V. Kolchak.
C) L.G. Kornilov.
D) A.F. Kerensky.
9. Arrange events in chronological order.
A) The defeat of Wrangel.
B) The seizure of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks.
C) Denikin's movement to Moscow.
D) Decree on the organization of the RK of the Red Army.
10. Set the correspondence.
A) L.D. Trotsky.
1) Commander of the white forces in the south of Russia.
B) P.N. Wrangel.
2) The commander of the Red Army.
C) M.V. Frunze.
3) Chairman of the Provisional Government.
D) A.I. Denikin.
4) Commander of the White Volunteer Army.
5) Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic.
Answers
Option 1
Option 2
This is an armed clash of various
social groups for power within one country
This is the violent intervention of others
states in the internal affairs of the state
VGB
BGVA
A-5, B-3, B-1, G-2
A-5, B-1, B-2, G-4
The civil war and military intervention of 1917-1922 in Russia is an armed struggle for power between representatives of various classes, social strata and groups of the former Russian Empire with the participation of the troops of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente.
The main reasons for the Civil War and military intervention were: the irreconcilability of the positions of various political parties, groupings and classes in matters of power, economic and political course of the country; the stake of the opponents of Bolshevism on the overthrow of Soviet power by armed means with the support of foreign states; the desire of the latter to protect their interests in Russia and prevent the spread of the revolutionary movement in the world; the development of national separatist movements in the territory of the former Russian Empire; the radicalism of the Bolsheviks, who considered one of the essential funds achieving their political goals, revolutionary violence, the desire of the leadership of the Bolshevik Party to put into practice the ideas of the world revolution.
(Military encyclopedia. Military. Moscow. In 8 volumes - 2004)
After the withdrawal of Russia from the First World War, German and Austro-Hungarian troops in February 1918 occupied part of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and southern Russia. To preserve Soviet power, Soviet Russia agreed to the conclusion of the Brest Peace (March 1918). In March 1918, Anglo-Franco American troops landed in Murmansk; in April, Japanese troops in Vladivostok; in May, a revolt of the Czechoslovak corps began, following the Trans-Siberian Railway to the East. Samara, Kazan, Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and other cities along the entire length of the highway were captured. All this created serious problems for the new government. By the summer of 1918, three-quarters of the country's territory had formed numerous groups and governments that opposed the Soviet regime. The Soviet government began to create the Red Army and went over to the policy of war communism. In June, the government formed the Eastern Front, in September - the Southern and Northern Fronts.
By the end of the summer of 1918, Soviet power remained mainly in the central regions of Russia and in part of the territory of Turkestan. In the second half of 1918, the Red Army won its first victories on the Eastern Front, liberated the Volga region and part of the Urals.
After the revolution in Germany in November 1918, the Soviet government annulled Brest Peace, Ukraine and Belarus were liberated. However, the policy of war communism, as well as decossackization, provoked peasant and Cossack uprisings in various regions and made it possible for the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik camp to form numerous armies and launch a broad offensive against the Soviet Republic.
In October 1918, the Volunteer Army of General Anton Denikin and the Don Cossack Army of General Peter Krasnov went on the offensive against the Red Army in the South; the Kuban and Don region were occupied, attempts were made to cut the Volga in the Tsaritsyn area. In November 1918, Admiral Alexander Kolchak announced the establishment of a dictatorship in Omsk and proclaimed himself supreme ruler Russia.
In November-December 1918, British and French landings were landed in Odessa, Sevastopol, Nikolaev, Kherson, Novorossiysk, Batumi. In December, Kolchak's army stepped up its actions, capturing Perm, but the Red Army troops, having captured Ufa, suspended its offensive.
In January 1919, the Soviet troops Southern front managed to push back from the Volga and defeat Krasnov's troops, the remnants of which joined the Armed Forces of the South of Russia created by Denikin. In February 1919, the Western Front was created.
At the beginning of 1919, the offensive of French troops in the Black Sea region ended in failure, a revolutionary ferment began in the French squadron, after which the French command was forced to evacuate its troops. In April, British units left Transcaucasia. In March 1919, Kolchak's army launched an offensive along the Eastern Front; by early April, she captured the Urals and advanced to the Middle Volga.
In March-May 1919, the Red Army repelled the offensive of the White Guard forces from the east (Admiral Alexander Kolchak), the south (General Anton Denikin), and the west (General Nikolai Yudenich). As a result of the general counter-offensive of the units of the Eastern Front of the Red Army in May July, the Urals were occupied and in the next six months, with the active participation of partisans, Siberia.
In April-August 1919, the interventionists were forced to evacuate their troops from the south of Ukraine, from the Crimea, Baku, Central Asia... The troops of the Southern Front defeated Denikin's armies near Orel and Voronezh and by March 1920 pushed their remnants back to the Crimea. In the fall of 1919, Yudenich's Army was finally defeated near Petrograd.
At the beginning of 1920, the North and the coast of the Caspian Sea were occupied. The Entente states completely withdrew their troops and lifted the blockade. After the end of the Soviet-Polish war, the Red Army inflicted a series of blows on the troops of General Pyotr Wrangel and drove them out of the Crimea.
In the territories occupied by the White Guards and interventionists, a partisan movement was operating. In the Chernigov province, one of the organizers partisan movement was Nikolai Shchors, in Primorye the commander-in-chief of the partisan forces was Sergei Lazo. The Ural partisan army under the command of Vasily Blucher in 1918 carried out a raid from the region of Orenburg and Verkhneuralsk through the Ural ridge in the Kama region. She defeated 7 regiments of Whites, Czechs and Poles, disorganized the rear of the Whites. After passing 1.5 thousand km, the partisans joined up with the main forces of the Eastern Front of the Red Army.
In 1921-1922, anti-Bolshevik uprisings were suppressed in Kronstadt, in the Tambov region, in a number of regions of Ukraine, etc., the remaining centers of interventionists and White Guards in Central Asia and the Far East were eliminated (October 1922).
The civil war on the territory of Russia ended with the victory of the Red Army, but it brought enormous disasters. The damage done national economy, amounted to about 50 billion gold rubles, industrial production fell to 4-20% from the level of 1913, agricultural production was reduced by almost half.
Irrecoverable losses of the Red Army (killed, died of wounds, missing, did not return from captivity, etc.) amounted to 940 thousand and sanitary losses of 6 million 792 thousand people. The enemy, according to incomplete data, lost only 225 thousand people in battles. The total losses of Russia in the Civil War amounted to about 13 million people.
During the Civil War, military leaders in the Red Army were Joachim Vatsetis, Vladimir Gittis, Alexander Egorov, Sergei Kamenev, August Kork, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Jerome Uborevich, Vasily Blucher, Semyon Budyonny, Pavel Dybenko, Grigory Kotovsky, Mikhail Frunze, Ion Yakir and others.
Of the military leaders of the White movement, the most prominent role in the Civil War was played by generals Mikhail Alekseev, Anton Denikin, Alexander Dutov, Alexey Kaledin, Lavr Kornilov, Peter Krasnov, Yevgeny Miller, Grigory Semyonov, Nikolai Yudenich, and Admiral Alexander Kolchak.
One of the controversial figures of the Civil War was the anarchist Nestor Makhno. He was the organizer of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, which fought against whites, then against red, then against all at once.
The material was prepared on the basis of open sources