Battle of Petrograd

Battle of Petrograd
Part of the Russian Civil War, Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, Estonian War of Independence and Heimosodat

A picture of a Young Bolshevik soldier in Petrograd
Date28 September – 14 November 1919
(1 month, 2 weeks and 3 days)
Location60°03′0″N 31°45′0″E / 60.05000°N 31.75000°E / 60.05000; 31.75000
Result

Soviet victory

Territorial
changes
Soviets successfully defend Petrograd
Belligerents
Northwest Russia
 Estonia
 British Empire
 Ingria
 Finland
 Soviet Russia
Commanders and leaders
Nikolai Yudenich Leon Trotsky
Units involved
Northwest Army

Red Army

Strength
18,500
6,000
around 2,000
British Baltic Fleet
55,500

The Battle of Petrograd was a campaign by the White movement to take the city of Petrograd (at various times called Saint Petersburg, Petrograd, and Leningrad; now Saint Petersburg). The city held significant value, notably as it was the same city that the October Revolution took place in. The battle was also at a critical point in the Civil War as the Whites had also been getting closer to Moscow and the Russian State was at its peak.

Using the new Regional Government of Northwest Russia as a base, the newly formed Northwestern Army had launched an attack from Pskov and drove north to Petrograd. The White Army saw a string of victories on the road to Petrograd. After the White advance severed a railroad junction from Moscow to Petrograd, the Bolsheviks began to fear the city might soon fall. Trotsky personally went north to rally the city's defenses, he oversaw the utilization of an alternative rail line to bring in supplies from Moscow needed to fend off the attack.

The advance stalled and reversed, soon the Whites were forced to retreat into Estonia. Hoping to secure a peace deal with Soviet Russia, the Estonian government refused to allow the Northwestern Army to be restationed in the nation. The White cause had begun to disintegrate across Russia however. Though the Northwestern Army was soon allowed to send pockets of units into Estonia, the new government of the Russian State collapsed; simultaneously the army disbanded, ending any chance of Petrograd, the historic capital of Russia, being taken from the Bolsheviks.