Russian Civil War

For other uses, see Russian Civil War (disambiguation).

Russian Civil War
Part of the Russian Revolution, Revolutions of 1917–1923, and the aftermath of World War I

Clockwise from top left:
Date7 November 1917 – 25 October 1922[1]
Location
Former Russian Empire
Result Bolshevik victory (see § Aftermath)[2][3][4]
Territorial
changes		 Establishment of the Soviet Union
Belligerents
Bolsheviks:

Russia White movement

Separatists:
Anti-Bolshevik left:
 Allied intervention:
 Central Powers:
Commanders and leaders
Strength
 
Casualties and losses
Krivosheev estimate:
7,731,568 casualties[8]
Smele estimates:
1,500,000[9]
  • 1,500,000[9]
  • Czechoslovakia 13,000 killed
  • United Kingdom 938 killed[10]
  • United States 424 killed[11]
  • Poland 250,000
  • 125,000
  • 5,000
  • 3,000 killed
  • Estonia 3,888 killed
  • Latvia 3,046 killed
  • 1,444 killed[12]
  • 7–12 million total casualties
  • 1–2 million refugees outside Russia

The Russian Civil War[a] was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the liberal-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.

The Russian monarchy ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution, and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in the October Revolution, where the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government of the new Russian Republic. Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were the Red Army, fighting for the establishment of a Bolshevik-led socialist state headed by Vladimir Lenin, and the loosely allied forces known as the White Army, which functioned as a political big tent for right- and left-wing opposition to Bolshevik rule. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably the Ukrainian anarchists of the Makhnovshchina and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideological green armies, opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists.[13] Thirteen foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied intervention, whose primary goal was re-establishing the Eastern Front of World War I. Three foreign nations of the Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia.

The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of the former empire. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an emergency peace with the German Empire, who had captured vast swathes of the Russian territory during the chaos of the revolution. In May 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia revolted in Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began their North Russian and Siberian interventions. That, combined with the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government, saw the reduction of Bolshevik-controlled territory to most of European Russia and parts of Central Asia. In 1919, the White Army launched several offensives from the east in March, the south in July, and west in October. The advances were later checked by the Eastern Front counteroffensive, the Southern Front counteroffensive, and the defeat of the Northwestern Army.

By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts.[14] Although the Bolsheviks were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used the disarray to push for national independence.[15] In March 1921, during a related war against Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former empire, although their success was limited. Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine, Belarus (as a result of the Polish–Soviet War), Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army.[16][17] By 1921, Soviet Russia had defeated the Ukrainian national movements and occupied the Caucasus, although anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s.[18]

The armies under Kolchak were eventually forced on a mass retreat eastward. Bolshevik forces advanced east, despite encountering resistance in Chita, Yakut and Mongolia. Soon the Red Army split the Don and Volunteer armies, forcing evacuations in Novorossiysk in March and Crimea in November 1920. After that, fighting was sporadic until the war ended with the capture of Vladivostok in October 1922, but anti-Bolshevik resistance continued with the Muslim Basmachi movement in Central Asia and Khabarovsk Krai until 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during the war, mostly civilians.[19]

  1. ^ Mawdsley 2007, pp. 3, 230.
  2. ^ "Russian Civil War". Encyclopædia Britannica. 10 May 2024.
  3. ^ Murphy, Brian (2 August 2004). Rostov in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1920: The Key to Victory. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-27129-0.
  4. ^ Bullock, David (6 June 2014). The Russian Civil War 1918–22. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-472-81032-8 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Erickson 1984, p. 763.
  6. ^ Belash, Victor & Belash, Aleksandr, Dorogi Nestora Makhno, p. 340
  7. ^ Damien Wright, Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–20, Solihull, UK, 2017, pp. 394, 526–528, 530–535; Clifford Kinvig, Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918–1920, London 2006, ISBN 1-852-85477-4, p. 297; Timothy Winegard, The First World Oil War, University of Toronto Press (2016), p. 229
  8. ^ Krivosheev et al. 1993, p. 54.
  9. ^ a b Smele 2016, p. 160.
  10. ^ Wright, Damien (2017). Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–20'. Solihull, UK: Helion. pp. 490–492, 498–500, 504. ISBN 978-1-911-51210-3.; Kinvig 2006, pp. 289, 315; Winegard, Timothy (2016). The First World Oil War. University of Toronto Press. p. 208.
  11. ^ Robert L. Willett, "Russian Sideshow" (Washington, D.C., Brassey's Inc., 2003), p. 267
  12. ^ Eidintas, Žalys & Senn 1999, p. 30.
  13. ^ Russian Civil War Archived 26 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopædia Britannica Online 2012
  14. ^ Leggett 1981, p. 184; Service 2000, p. 402; Read 2005, p. 206.
  15. ^ Hall 2015, p. 83.
  16. ^ Lee 2003, pp. 84, 88.
  17. ^ Goldstein 2013, p. 50.
  18. ^ Hall 2015, p. 84.
  19. ^ Mawdsley 2007, p. 287.


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