Expansion of intervention. In May-June 1918, the armed struggle took on a nationwide scale. AT end of May began an armed uprising of 45,000 Czechoslovak Corps in Siberia. In Kazan, the Czechoslovaks seized the gold reserves of Russia (over 30 thousand pounds of gold and silver with a total value of 650 million rubles).

In August, the British landed in Transcaucasia, driving out German troops from there, Anglo-French landing forces occupied Arkhangelsk and Odessa.

The transformation of the war into a national one. At the same time, in many central provinces of Russia, peasants, dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks, joined the armed struggle. More than 200 peasant uprisings took place in the summer (108 in June alone). The uprisings of peasants in the Volga region and the Urals became one of the reasons for the fall Soviet power in these regions. Part of the peasants participated in the "People's Army" Komuch; the Ural peasantry served in Kolchak's army.

In August 1918 there was Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising of workers, who created an army of about 30 thousand people and held out until November, after which the rebels were forced to retreat and go with their families to Kolchak's army.<

National Defense Organization. September 2, 1918 The Central Executive Committee made a decision about the transformation of the Soviet Republic into a military camp. Created in September Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic chaired L. D. Trotsky- the body that was at the head of all fronts and military institutions. On November 30, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on education was adopted Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense headed by V. I. Lenin. The head of the military department, L. D. Trotsky, took energetic measures to strengthen the Red Army: strict discipline was introduced, forced mobilization of former officers of the tsarist army was carried out, and an institution of military commissars was created to control the “political line” of commanders. By the end of 1918 the number of the Red Army exceeded 1.5 million people.

Formation of "democratic governments". The socialist parties, relying on peasant rebel groups, formed in the summer of 1918 a number of governments in Arkhangelsk, Samara, Tomsk, Ashgabat, etc. Their programs included demands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of citizens, the rejection of one-party dictatorship and strict state regulation of economic activity peasants, etc.

- Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch)(predominantly a Socialist-Revolutionary organization, chairman - V. K. Volsky) was created on June 8, 1918 in Samara and ruled the Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk, Kazan and Ufa provinces. In the territory under its control, the Committee proclaimed the restoration of democratic freedoms, an 8-hour working day, allowed the activities of workers' and peasants' congresses, conferences, trade unions, convened the Council of Workers' Deputies and created the People's Army. Here, the decrees of the Soviet government were canceled, industrial enterprises were returned to their former owners, banks were denationalized, and freedom of trade was allowed; previously confiscated lands were retained by the landowners.

- Provisional Government of Siberia was formed at the end of June in the city of Omsk (chairman - Social Revolutionary P. V. Vologodsky). In July, it adopted a declaration on the independence of Siberia. In October Komuch itself dissolved, but the regional government created in Omsk did not cease its activities.

- Ufa Directory (All-Russian Provisional Government, Chairman - Socialist-Revolutionary N.D. Avksentiev) was formed on September 23, 1918. It included 2 Social Revolutionaries, a cadet, 2 non-party people, including the chairman of the Siberian government. Directory, having entered the struggle with the Bolsheviks, she advocated the continuation of the war and the restoration of treaty relations with the powers of the Entente. Members Directories achieved the abolition of all regional, national and Cossack "governments".

The attitude of the peasants towards "democratic governments" changed after their attempts to create their own armed forces by mobilizing the local population, including using repressive measures. In addition, the regional democratic governments were defeated by the Red Army detachments successfully advancing in the Volga region.

November 18, 1918 in Omsk, Admiral A. V. Kolchak made a coup, as a result of which the provisional governments (including the Directory) were dispersed and a military dictatorship was established. Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Under him, the Omsk government was created, under whose authority all Siberia, the Urals, and the Orenburg province turned out to be.

3. Third stage (November 1918 - Spring 1919). At this stage, the military-dictatorial regimes in the east became the leading force in the fight against the Bolsheviks (Admiral A.V. Kolchak), south (general A.I. Denikin), northwest (general//. N. Yudenich) and the north of the country (general E. K. Miller).

Mass intervention against Russia. The third stage of the Civil War was associated with changes in the international situation. The end of the First World War made it possible to release the fighting forces of the Entente powers and direct them against Russia. At the end of November 1918, French and British troops landed in the Black Sea ports of Russia. By the beginning of 1919 the number of foreign armed forces in the south reached 130 thousand soldiers, in the north - up to 20 thousand. In the Far East and Siberia, the allies concentrated up to 150 thousand troops.

The military intervention caused a patriotic upsurge in the country, and in the world - a solidarity movement under the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia!".

In the autumn of 1918 the main one was the Eastern Front. A counter-offensive of the Red Army under the command of I. I. Vatsetis, during which the White Guard units were ousted from the Middle Volga and Kama regions.

4. Fourth stage (spring 1919 - April 1920).

Combined offensive of anti-Bolshevik forces. By the beginning of 1919 The military-strategic situation has noticeably worsened on all fronts. AT March 1919 from the east, in order to connect with Denikin for a joint attack on Moscow, the army launched an offensive A. V. Kolchak(the offensive was reflected by the Eastern Front under the command S. S. Kameneva and M. V. Frunze), in the northwest - the army N. N. Yudenich carried out military operations against Petrograd. To summer 1919 the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front, where the general's army was. I. Denikina began its movement to Moscow, approaching Tula.

peasant movement. Simultaneously with the actions of the White armies, peasant uprisings began in the Ukraine, the Urals, and the Volga region. In March 1919, an uprising of 30 thousand Cossacks broke out on the Don, which lasted until the summer, after which it merged with the white movement.

Gradually, however, the peasant war changed its direction. The decisive role was played by the fact that the White Guard forces did not recognize the results of the agrarian reform and tried, like the Denikin government, to ensure the return of the land to the old owners. A certain role was also played by the correction of the course of the Bolsheviks in relation to the middle peasantry, the rejection of disorderly confiscation and early 1919 transition to surplus appropriation with a fixed amount of household duty. Peasant armies in Ukraine (from 12 to 20 thousand soldiers under the command N. I. Makhno), in Siberia and other regions, having initially opposed both the Whites and the Reds, they were more and more inclined to fight for land against the Whites. The change in the sentiments of the peasantry at the decisive stage of the war ultimately predetermined the outcome of the civil confrontation in the country.

At the end of October 1919, the Whites were stopped by the troops of the Southern Front (commander A. I. Egorov) and with the support of the army N. I. Makhno thrown back in the Black Sea region. Yudenich's army was pushed back to Estonia, the remnants of Denikin's troops, led by P. N. Wrangel, fortified in the Crimea. In late 1919 - early 1920, under the blows of the Red Army and peasant rebel detachments, Kolchak's troops were finally defeated.

5. Fifth stage (May - November 1920). In May 1920, the Red Army entered the war with Poland, trying to capture the capital and create the necessary conditions for the declaration of Soviet power there. However, this attempt ended in military failure. Due to inconsistency in the actions of the troops, the army M. N. Tukhachevsky was defeated near Warsaw. AT March 1921 was signed Riga Peace Treaty, under the terms of which a significant part of the territory of Ukraine and Belarus went to Poland.

The main event of the final period of the Civil War was the defeat of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, headed by General P. N. Wrangel. Troops of the Southern Front under the command M. V. Frunze in November 1920 took complete control of the Crimea.

During 1920-1921 With the help of the Red Army detachments, the process of Sovietization in the territory of Central Asia and Transcaucasia was completed. To end of 1922 ceased hostilities in the Far East. November 14 Far Eastern Republic(existed as "buffer" state since April 6, 1920) reunited with the RSFSR.

6. Peasantry at the final stage civil war. The civil war ended, but the peasant uprisings continued. In the Tambov province in August 1920, an anti-Bolshevik uprising broke out, led by the Socialist-Revolutionary L. S. Antonov, on the side of which, by the beginning of 1921, two armies of 20-25 thousand people each acted. In January 1921, the West Siberian uprising began, engulfing the Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg provinces. Here more than 100 thousand peasants participated in the armed struggle. Sabotage, concealment of grain reserves, draft evasion, terror against the communists, and the defeat of communes were also common forms of resistance to the policy of the surplus appraisal.

It began with an open military intervention of the imperialist states, unification and external counter-revolution for a joint struggle against the Soviet state. The invaders landed on the White and Black Seas, in the Far East. On July 6-7, a Left SR rebellion took place in Moscow, which was suppressed. The rebellion of M.A. Muravyov (he commanded the forces of the Reds in the Volga region), as well as the uprisings in Yaroslavl and Rybinsk, also failed. In the fall of 1918, the Reds recaptured Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara from the Whites, and Tsaritsyn defended from the troops of Krasnov. The first clashes began as early as November 1917, near Petrograd (battles with the detachments of Kerensky and Krasnov), but Kornilov’s campaign against Yekaterinodar, during which Kornilov died, became its true beginning.

The main military-political results of this stage were the further strengthening of Soviet power and the first serious victories of the Red Army over the united forces of counterrevolution.

During this period, a villainous attempt on V.I. Lenin took place, and the RKSM, the Russian Communist Youth Union, was founded.

"... the Entente's attempt to break the Soviet Republic with its own troops failed."

At this stage, the BSSR is formed - the Belarusian Soviet Socialist

Static Republic, Soviet power is established in Lithuania and Latvia.

Having failed in its attempt to liquidate the Soviet state with its own armed forces, the Entente at the third stage in the struggle against the proletarian state placed its main stake on the internal White Guard forces and the bourgeois states bordering the Soviet Republic. In the summer of 1918, the troops of Denikin (the commander-in-chief of the White forces of the South of Russia) captured Ukraine and repulsed the Red offensive. In the autumn of 1919 they moved to Moscow, but due to lack of forces they were defeated. In March 1920, they were finally defeated and evacuated from Novorossiysk.

The main result of the new stage was the decisive victory of the Red Army over the enemies.

International imperialism is sending against our country the armed forces of bourgeois-landlord Poland and the White Guard troops of Wrangel. In the summer of 1920, Wrangel launched an offensive in the south, but in November he was already expelled from the Crimea. In 1920, the Poles attacked Soviet Russia. The Reds, led by Yegorov and Tukhachevsky, launched a counteroffensive, entered Poland, but were defeated near Warsaw. This stage ended with the victory of the Soviet armed forces. A peace treaty was signed with Poland.

Chapter 3. Post-war Russia. Political consequences of the war

After the end of the civil war in Soviet Russia, an acute socio-political crisis began. During a fierce struggle that lasted 5 years, the Bolsheviks managed to keep power in their hands. However, Russia lost Poland, the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia), Finland, Bessarabia. Significant changes have taken place in Soviet Russia's relations with other countries, in its position on the world stage. Convinced that the military intervention and blockade of the RSFSR did not produce the desired results, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided on January 16, 1920 to lift the blockade and resume trade relations with Russia. On February 12, 1920, Great Britain and the RSFSR signed an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war, and on March 16, 1921, a trade agreement and a declaration providing for the recognition by the Soviet government in principle of obligations to indemnify “private persons who provided Russia with goods or services for which they were not paid ". On May 6, 1921, both countries signed an interim agreement providing for the de facto recognition of the RSFSR, the exchange of official representations and trade workers. In Rapallo on April 16, 1922, the signing of the Soviet-German treaty took place, which removed all mutual claims of the two countries, determined the restoration of diplomatic relations and opened up prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Germany. In November, Germany extended the Rappal Treaty to other Soviet republics.

Certain successes have been achieved in the normalization of relations with the countries of the Baltics and the East. On February 2, 1920, the RSFSR concluded a peace treaty with Estonia, on July 12 - with Lithuania, on August 11 - with Latvia. According to the Riga Peace Treaty of March 18, 1921, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were ceded to Poland. In the fall of 1920, diplomatic relations were established between the RSFSR and Persia, and on February 26 of the following year, both states signed a peace treaty. On February 28, 1921, the Soviet-Afghan Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood was signed. In order to regulate relations between Turkey and the three Transcaucasian republics (Azeirbajan, Armenia, Georgia), Soviet Russia and Turkey signed an appropriate agreement on October 13 of the same year.

Economic consequences of the war

The total amount of damage to Russia from the civil war and military intervention was 50 billion gold rubles, which accounted for a quarter of the entire state of Russia. Human losses amounted to 13 million people, taking into account those who died from hunger and epidemics (according to other sources, 16 - 17 million people) . The irretrievable losses of the Red Army (killed, died of wounds, missing, did not return from captivity, etc.) reached 940 thousand people, and sanitary losses - 6 million 792 thousand people. Eight years of the World and Civil Wars caused enormous damage to the country's economy.

The fall in electricity production and the most important types of industrial products by 1921.

Type of industry
Electricity (billion kWh)
Oil (million tons)
Coal (million tons)
Steel (million tons)

Industrial production by 1920 was reduced by 7 times. The production of cast iron in 1920 (116,000 tons) decreased 4.5 times compared to 1918, and 23 times compared to 1911. Steel 2.5 times and rolled 2 times (in comparison with 1918). Coal production amounted to 8.6 million tons, which was less than in 1899 and was only 30% of the 1913 level. Oil in 1920 was produced 3.8 million tons, as in 1890 and more than two times less than in 1913. Thus, the production volumes of the metallurgical and mining industries were practically equal to the volumes of the beginning of the industrial revolution. This led to a 2-3-fold decrease in the supply of machinery and implements to agriculture. In 1920, there were not enough 3 million plows, more than 1 million seeders. The number of livestock, especially workers, has decreased. The lack of workers, agricultural implements and seed stock caused a reduction in sown areas by 25% in 1920 compared to 1916, and the gross harvest of agricultural products decreased by 40-45% compared to 1913. In Transcaucasia and Turkestan, cotton crops have been reduced. The irrigation systems of Central Asia and Kazakhstan fell into disrepair. The disruption hit transport the hardest. During the war years, more than 70 thousand km of railway lines and half of the rolling stock were out of order. The transport was so destroyed that it could not even provide transportation for the demobilized Red Army soldiers. In some cases, they were sent on a marching order.

There was no lighting on the streets of the cities, trams did not run, houses were hardly heated.

The propertied classes - the nobility, industrial, commercial, financial bourgeoisie suffered heavy losses during the civil war. The best, most energetic representatives of these classes were destroyed. Many officers died on the fields of the civil war or were evacuated with white troops abroad. Those who remained in the country were deprived of their former economic and political power. But the remnants of the urban bourgeoisie retained some property in small industry and other material values. Therefore, despite the significant weakening of the propertied classes, the Bolsheviks failed to create a unified state system immediately after the end of the civil war, because. a significant part of the economy remained in the hands of private owners.

The difficult economic situation in Soviet Russia caused a political crisis in the country. The working peasantry during the years of the war against the White Guard counter-revolution and foreign invaders fully supported the Soviet government, which brought them liberation from the landowners and capitalists. The peasants, believing in a bright future, put up with devastation, with surplus appropriation, with the need to give all surplus products to the state. However, in peacetime, these measures of the Soviet state began to cause discontent among broad sections of the peasantry. During the war, the composition of the peasant masses changed, and the number of the wealthy decreased. But the number of the poor, who were the main support of the Bolsheviks in the countryside, also decreased. The incredibly difficult situation in the countryside, created as a result of the policy of "war communism", the crisis of the peasant economy shook the confidence of the peasants in the Soviet government. Exhausted by the surplus appropriation, they were no longer interested in developing their economy, expanding crops, and stopped listening to the Bolsheviks.

Thus, after the civil war, the Bolsheviks practically lost support among a significant part of the population of their country. The remnants of the bourgeoisie were hostile to the Soviet regime, the peasants lost faith in it and ceased to support it, the working class stratified, degraded and could no longer be a solid support for the Bolsheviks. The dissatisfaction of the peasants was expressed not only in passive resistance (avoidance of the surplus appropriation, concealment of grain surpluses, etc.). Armed resistance to the state arose in different parts of the country. By the end of 1920 - the beginning of 1921, almost all regions of Russia were engulfed in the flames of peasant revolts, uprisings and wars. The uprisings took place under various party, religious, national slogans. But the peasants were always the rebels, and their goal was the struggle for liberation from the policy of “war communism” that suffocated the peasantry.

So, in Ukraine, under the banner of anarchism, the so-called "father" Makhno raised an uprising. His army consisted of peasants, and they fought for peasant interests, and not for abstract anarchist ideas. In Dagestan, Muslim peasants led by Imam Gotsinsky rebelled. In the Tambov land, under the leadership of Antonov, a peasant uprising broke out. And in Siberia, a real peasant war unfolded. From February 28 to March 18, 1921, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet and the garrison of Kronstadt opposed the policy of the Bolsheviks. They demanded the re-election of the Soviets, freedom of speech and the press, the release of political prisoners, etc. These sentiments of the general population could not but affect the situation in the ruling party itself, within which a split was planned. The leadership of the Bolshevik Party at the 10th Congress in March 1921 decided to replace the surplus tax with a tax in kind, which meant the rejection of the policy of "war communism" and the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP).

NEP as a solution to the economic and social crisis of post-war Russia

During the period of "war communism", in view of the complete breakdown of the entire financial system and the entire monetary business, in view of the impossibility of improving it while the war was going on, the country carried out a direct exchange of goods between the city and the countryside. The surplus appropriation, on the basis of which the surplus of grain was confiscated from the peasant, was an integral part of this policy. Under the conditions of the civil war, "war communism" was the only possible form of using the country's meager food and material resources. Being an important condition for winning victory, war communism did not ensure the development of productive forces.

The low level of agricultural production had a negative impact on industry. Before starting the restoration of industry, it was necessary to provide the city with bread and other foodstuffs, give light industry raw materials, and create the necessary reserves for food. These tasks could not be solved on the basis of surplus appraisal.

The most important task of the New Economic Policy was to strengthen the working class and the peasantry. The essence of the new economic policy, - V.I. Lenin pointed out, - is the union of the proletariat and the peasantry, the essence is in the bond between the vanguard, the proletariat and the broad peasant field.

Tax deliveries are almost twice as low as surplus appropriation deliveries. Despite this, there was still a shortage of industrial goods, and the area under crops increased slightly. Instead of the planned 240 million poods of food tax in 1921-1922, only 150 million were collected. A famine began in the country, which affected about 20% of the population and led to the death of almost 5 million people.

The Communist Party and the Soviet state took almost all measures to overcome the terrible disaster. The Central Commission for Assistance to the Starving (Promgol) was created, headed by M.I. Kalinin. The population of the provinces affected by the drought was completely exempt from taxes. An important measure was the evacuation of the starving to productive provinces. In total, approximately 650 thousand people were evacuated.

In the first half of August, a "Foreign Committee for Organizing International Assistance to the Starving in Soviet Russia" was set up in Berlin. From all over the world, food and monetary aid went to Soviet Russia. In 1921-1922, the Mezhrabpom collected and sent to Russia food, goods and money in the amount of more than 5 million dollars.

The difficult situation of the RSFSR, which had just ended the civil war (although hostilities continued on the outskirts of the vast country), the imperialists tried to use for their anti-Soviet purposes. Armed bandits, spies and saboteurs were thrown into the territory of Soviet Russia. The White Guards, in alliance with the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and bourgeois nationalists, provoked kulak uprisings in Ukraine, the Urals, Siberia, the Volga region and the central provinces. The American Relief Administration (ARA), created in 1919 and headed by US Secretary of Commerce Hoover, tried to carry out subversive activities on the territory of the RSFSR under the banner of helping the starving. In the struggle against the state of workers and peasants, the imperialists also used the so-called "Public Committee for Assistance to the Starving", created in 1921, which included former ministers of the Provisional Government, the Cadets Prokopovich, Kuskova and other anti-Soviet elements.

Under the NEP, state enterprises were required to take economic initiative. For these purposes, trusts were established. On a cooperative basis, they began to unite in syndicates that were engaged in sales, supplies, loans, and foreign trade.

An important role in the restoration and development of the national economy was assigned to the plan for the electrification of Russia (GOELRO). This plan provided for the construction of a large number of power plants (steam and hydroelectric power stations) with a total capacity of 1500 thousand kW within 10-15 years.

Freedom of trade was introduced throughout the country. Large fairs resumed: Nizhny Novgorod, Baku, Kyiv, etc. In cities, all citizens were charged for utilities. Commercial and industrial enterprises began to pay taxes. The state received a steady cash income.

In addition to improving the economy, the NEP created conditions for the restoration of trade between town and country, and this, in turn, contributed to the mitigation of the social crisis in the country.

The increasing role of money required the stabilization of the Soviet ruble. In October 1921, the State Bank of the RSFSR was established. In the fall of 1922, the State Bank began issuing banknotes in denominations of 1,2,5,10,25,59 chervonets. One chervonets was equal to 10 gold rubles. This was the first stage of the monetary reform, which was carried out in subsequent years.

Significant changes were also taking place in agricultural production. In connection with the revival of economic life in the country, agriculture began to receive consumer goods and agricultural implements. This, together with the policy of tax in kind and free trade, awakened the economic activity of the peasants.

The positive results of the NEP affected very quickly. Reduced social tension in the country. It was possible to liquidate peasant uprisings, petty rebellions stopped. The peasants, having received the opportunity to restore their economy, again became loyal to the Soviet regime. Successful collection of the tax in kind was an indicator of this.

In industry, the recovery of coal, metallurgical and other industries took place. Light industry was even more successfully restored.

At the 9th All-Russian Congress of Soviets in December 1921, the first successes in the development of industry and the implementation of the GOELRO plan were noted.

In the political report of the Central Committee to the 9th Congress of the RCP (b) in 1922, it was noted that the main goals of the NEP had been achieved. During the year of the existence of the NEP, it became clear to what extent the concessions to the private capitalist elements had to be extended.

The goal of the NEP - the revival of the economy, the mitigation of the social situation by 1922 was achieved.

By 1917, the emperor completely withdrew from power, letting everything take its course, hoping for a chance that it would subside on its own. But it was no longer 1905, and the power was no longer the same. The country stood on the threshold of the February Revolution. Chapter 2. The Russian Revolution of 1917 from February to October. §one. The situation in the country on the eve of 1917 and the causes of the February Revolution. By 1917, 130 million people lived in the countryside. Agrarian...

The defensive position demanded that the revolutionary movement be transferred to other countries in order to kindle the fire of the world revolution. The Right SRs, on the other hand, declared their support for the war, loyalty to the allies and the need to break with Bolshevism. They also, contrary to the policy of the Provisional Government, advocated state regulation of production, the establishment of control over foreign and domestic trade and ...

Societies with the nation and forced the traditional elites to seek massive voter support. However, one can question the fact that the failure of nationalism is the main cause of the Russian revolution. Because even in countries such as Germany and the UK, where national parties have won significant mass support, they have never received a majority of the popular vote. Seems...

Causes of the Civil War.

A.A. Iskanderov identifies three main causes of the Civil War in Russia. The first is the conditions of the Brest Peace that were humiliating for Russia, which was regarded by people as a refusal of the authorities to defend the honor and dignity of the country. The second reason was the extremely harsh methods of the new government. Nationalization of all land and confiscation of the means of production and all property, not only from the big bourgeoisie, but also from medium and even small private owners. The bourgeoisie, frightened by the scale of the nationalization of industry, wanted to return factories and plants. The liquidation of commodity-money relations and the establishment of a state monopoly on the distribution of goods and products had a painful blow to the property position of the middle and petty bourgeoisie. Thus, the desire of the overthrown classes to preserve private property and their privileged position was also the cause of the outbreak of the Civil War. The third reason is the red terror, largely due to the white terror, but which has become widespread. In addition, an important reason for the Civil War was the internal policy of the Bolshevik leadership, which alienated the democratic intelligentsia and the Cossacks from the Bolsheviks. The creation of a one-party political system and the "dictatorship of the proletariat", in fact the dictatorship of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), alienated the socialist parties and democratic public associations from the Bolsheviks. By the Decrees “On the Arrest of the Leaders of the Civil War against the Revolution” (November 1917) and “On the Red Terror,” the Bolshevik leadership legally substantiated the “right” to violent reprisals against their political opponents. Therefore, the Mensheviks, right and left SRs, and anarchists refused to cooperate with the new government and took part in the Civil War.

stages of the civil war.

1) End of May - November 1918- The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps and the decision by the Entente countries to launch a military intervention in Russia, the aggravation of the situation in the country in the summer of 1918 in connection with the rebellion of the Left Social Revolutionaries, the transformation of the Soviet Republic into a "single military camp" since September of this year, the formation of the main fronts.

2) November 1918 February 1919- Deployment at the end of the First World War of a large-scale armed intervention of the Entente powers, the consolidation of "general dictatorships" within the framework of the White movement.

3) March 1919 March 1920- The offensive of the armed forces of the white regimes on all fronts and the counteroffensive of the Red Army.

4) Spring autumn 1920 the final defeat of the White movement, under the command of Wrangel, in the South of Russia against the backdrop of an unsuccessful war with Poland for the RSFSR.

The war finally ended only in 1921-1922.

Prologue of the war: the first pockets of anti-government protests. One of the first acts of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets was the Decree on Peace, adopted on October 26, 1917. All warring peoples of the world were asked to immediately begin negotiations on a just democratic peace. On December 2, Russia and the countries of the Quadruple Alliance signed an armistice agreement. The conclusion of the armistice allowed the government of the Russian Soviet Republic to concentrate all its forces on defeating the anti-Soviet forces. On the Don, the ataman of the Don Cossack army, General Kaledin, acted as the organizer of the fight against Bolshevism. On October 25, 1917, he signed an appeal in which the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks was declared a crime. The Soviets were dispersed. In the Southern Urals, such actions were taken by the chairman of the Military Government and the chieftain of the Orenburg Cossack army, Colonel Dutov, a supporter of firm order and discipline, the continuation of the war with Germany and an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks. With the consent of the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, on the night of November 15, Cossacks and cadets arrested some of the members of the Orenburg Soviet who were preparing an uprising. On November 25, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars declared all the regions in the Urals and the Don, where "counter-revolutionary detachments are found," in a state of siege, and classified Generals Kaledin, Kornilov, and Colonel Dutov as enemies of the people. The general management of operations against the Kalinin troops and their accomplices was entrusted to the People's Commissar for Military Affairs Antonov-Ovseenko. At the end of December, his troops went on the offensive and began to quickly move deep into the Don region. The front-line Cossacks, tired of the war, began to abandon the armed struggle. General Kaledin, in an effort to avoid unnecessary casualties, on January 29 resigned as a military chieftain and shot himself on the same day.

A flying combined detachment of revolutionary soldiers and Baltic sailors under the command of midshipman Pavlov was sent to fight the Orenburg Cossacks. On January 18, 1918, together with the workers, they occupied Orenburg. The remnants of Dutov's troops withdrew to Verkhneuralsk. In Belarus, the 1st Polish Corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky opposed the Soviet government. In February 1918, detachments of Latvian riflemen, revolutionary sailors and the Red Guard under the command of Colonel Vatsetis and Lieutenant Pavlunovsky defeated the legionnaires, pushing them back to Bobruisk and Slutsk. Thus, the first open armed uprisings of opponents of Soviet power were successfully suppressed. Simultaneously with the offensive on the Don and the Urals, actions were intensified in Ukraine, where at the end of October 1917 power in Kyiv passed into the hands of the Central Rada. A Difficult Situation Arose in Transcaucasia In early January 1918, an armed clash took place between the troops of the Moldavian People's Republic and units of the Romanian Front. On the same day, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on breaking diplomatic relations with Romania. On February 19, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. However, the German offensive did not stop. Then the Soviet government on March 3, 1918 signed a peace treaty with the Quadruple Alliance. The heads of the governments of Great Britain, France and Italy, having discussed the situation in Russia in March 1918 in London, decided to "render assistance to Eastern Russia to launch an allied intervention" with the involvement of Japan and the United States.

The first stage of the Civil War (end of May November 1918).

At the end of May 1918, the situation escalated in the east of the country, where echelons of units of a separate Czechoslovak corps stretched out at a great distance from the Volga region to Siberia and the Far East. By agreement with the government of the RSFSR, he was subject to evacuation. However, the violation of the agreement by the Czechoslovak command and the attempts of local Soviet authorities to forcibly disarm the corps led to clashes. On the night of May 25-26, 1918, a rebellion broke out in the Czechoslovak units, and soon they, together with the White Guards, captured almost the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. The Left SRs, considering the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a betrayal of the interests of the world revolution, decided to resume the tactics of individual terror, and then the central terror. They issued a directive on the universal assistance in the termination of the Brest Peace. One of the ways to achieve this goal was the assassination in Moscow on July 6, 1918 of the German ambassador to Russia, Count W. von Mirbach. But the Bolsheviks sought to prevent a break in the peace treaty and arrested the entire Left SR faction of the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets. In July 1918, members of the "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" rebelled in Yaroslavl. Uprisings (anti-Bolshevik) swept through the Southern Urals, the North Caucasus, Turkmenistan and other regions. In connection with the threat of the capture by parts of the Czechoslovak Corps of Yekaterinburg, on the night of July 17, Nicholas II and his family were shot. In connection with the assassination attempt on Lenin and the murder of Uritsky, on September 5, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on "On the Red Terror", which ordered to provide assistance to the rear through terror.

Since May 1918, the civil war enters a new phase. It was characterized by the concentration of forces of the opposing sides, the involvement in the armed struggle of the spontaneous movement of the masses and its transfer to a certain organized channel, the consolidation of the opposing forces in "their" territories. All this brought the civil war closer to the forms of regular war, with all the ensuing consequences.

Four stages can be clearly distinguished in the period of civil war and intervention. The first of them covers the time from the end of May to November 1918, the second - from November 1918. to February 1919, the third - from March 1919, until the spring of 11920. and the fourth - from spring to November 1920.

Stage I: May - November 1918.

The turning point that determined the new stage of the civil war was the performance of the Czechoslovak corps. The corps consisted of prisoners of war Czechs and Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian army, who expressed a desire to participate in hostilities on the side of the Entente as early as 1916. In January 1918, the leadership of the corps proclaimed itself part of the Czechoslovak army, which was under the command of the commander-in-chief of the French troops. An agreement was concluded between Russia and France on the transfer of the corps to the Western Front. The echelons with the Czechoslovaks were supposed to proceed along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, and from there sail on ships to Europe.

The Ango-French-American governments took over the material support of the corps. The United States provided a loan of 12 million dollars. From March to May 1918, England spent 80 thousand pounds sterling on the maintenance of the corps, France - more than 1 million rubles.

By the end of May 1918 63 echelons with well-armed parts of the corps stretched along the railway line from Penza to Vladivostok, i.e. over 7 thousand km. The main places of accumulation of echelons were the areas of Penza, Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Irkutsk, Vladivostok. The total number of troops was more than 45 thousand people. On May 25, the commander of the Czechoslovak units concentrated in the Novonikolaevsk area, R. Gaida, in response to the intercepted order of L. Trotsky, confirming the disarmament of the corps, ordered his echelons to seize the stations where they were currently located.

On May 26, the Czechoslovaks captured Novonikolaevsk, on May 27 - Chelyabinsk, on May 29 - Penza, on June 7 - Omsk, on June 8 - Samara, on June 29 - Vladivostok. They united around themselves all the anti-Soviet forces of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East.

In June, the front line was marked. It covered the center of the country, which remained in the power of the Soviets: from the Finnish border to the Urals, from the Belaya River along the Volga to the steppes of the Southern Urals, along the Turkestan region, from the Caspian Sea to the Don. Behind this line are large military groups: in the North - the army of the Northern Republic, in the East - the Czechoslovak corps in cooperation with various anti-Soviet military formations; in the North Caucasus - the Volunteer Army, created by generals Kornilov, Denikin, Alekseev; on the Don - Cossack formations led by General Krasnov.

Numerous local governments were formed behind the backs of these armies: in Samara, the White Guard-Socialist-Revolutionary government, called Komuch (Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly) and consisting of former members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly; in Yekaterinburg, the SR Ural government with the participation of the Cadets; in Tomsk, the SR-Cadet government of Siberia; in the North - the government of the People's Socialist N.V. Tchaikovsky, etc.

The situation on the Eastern Front was becoming threatening. Simbirsk was captured on July 22, Yekaterinburg on the 25, and Kazan on August 7. At the direction of V. I. Lenin, troops are transferred to the Eastern Front from the Western and Southern Fronts. The Revolutionary Military Council sent the 1st and 2nd Moscow regiments, the 1st Vitebsk regiment, the 2nd Kursk brigade, the 1st Kursk, the 3rd and 4th Ufa, the 1st, 4th and 5th regiments to the Eastern Front th Latvian regiments. From May 8 to August 12, 1918, the Eastern Front received 54,077 fighters and commanders.

The measures taken by the Bolsheviks soon yielded results. In August, the advance of the White Guard was stopped. In September and October 1918, the troops of the Eastern Front went on the offensive. September 10, they occupied Kazan, September 12 - Simbirsk, October 7 - Samara. Buguruslan, Belebey, Buzuluk, Sterlitamak were soon released. The Second Army, in cooperation with the Volga Flotilla, liberated Chistopol, Sarapul and other cities.

The liberation of the Volga region was the first major victory of the Red Army over the interventionists and the White Guards. A turning point has been reached on the Eastern Front.

Fierce battles in the summer and autumn of 1918 took place on the Southern Front. The German government supplied the army of General P. N. Krasnov with weapons and helped the White Cossacks in every possible way. Using cruel methods, P. N. Krasnov carried out mass mebolization, bringing the size of the Don Army to 45 thousand people by mid-July 1918. By mid-August, units of P. N. Krasnov occupied the entire Don region and, together with the German troops, launched an offensive against Tsaritsyn (Volgograd), trying to intercept the Volga, establish contact with the Trans-Volga counter-revolution and move to Moscow as a united front.

In the summer of 1918, the troops of P. N. Krasnov managed to surround Tsaritsyn from the north and from the south. They were opposed by the 5th Ukrainian Army, headed by K. E. Voroshilov, as well as the partisan detachments of the North Caucasus, headed by S. M. Budyonny. On August 20, troops led by K. E. Voroshilov went on the offensive, which ended in success. The troops of General P. Krasnov on September 6 were driven back beyond the Don.

The second attack on Tsaritsyn began in October 1918 by the joint forces of the armies of Krasnov and the Volunteer Army of A. I. Denikin. He was supported by the Cossack detachments of the Don, Kuban, Astrakhan. But this time, too, the troops led by the RVS of the Southern Front, with the help of the Steel Division of D.P. Zhloba, who arrived in time from the North Caucasus, defeated the White Cossacks. On October 17 and 18, the units of General P. N. Krasnov were defeated.

Taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Red Army were thrown to the Eastern Front, the Volunteer Army of A. I. Denikin captured a huge one in the south of the country in a relatively short time. On August 15, the troops of A.I. Denikin occupied Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar). The Taman army was cut off from the main forces operating in the North Caucasus, and was forced to retreat to Tuapse - Armavir. This transition lasted more than twenty days. On September 17, the Tamanskaya army united with units of the Red Army in the area of ​​the village of Dondukhovskaya. Somewhat later, the XI Army was organized from these units.

At the end of 1918, the XI Army operating in the North Caucasus found itself in a difficult situation. Of the 124,000 soldiers in the army, 50,000 were sick and 12,000 wounded. However, she continued to fight.

According to A. I. Denikin himself, at a meeting of the Kuban Rada, in the fight against the XI Army, he lost only 30 thousand killed. Human. According to him, the officer regiments named after Kornilov and Markov, which had 5 thousand people each, left the battle with 200 to 500 people.

Deep autumn 1918. the situation on the fronts has changed significantly. Germany and its allies were defeated in the World War. Bourgeois-democratic revolutions took place in Germany and Austria. This allowed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to annul the humiliating Brest Treaty. German troops left the territories they occupied.

Soviet power was restored in Ukraine. The military units of the Soviet Ukraine joined the Red Army. The defensive power of the Soviet rear increased due to the industry of the Donbass, the grain regions of Ukraine. But the social situation became more complicated. The more prosperous peasantry of Ukraine did not go through the harsh "school" of commanders, food detachments. It was necessary to take into account their possible sharp reaction to the apportionment, mass state farm construction in the countryside.

With the end of the World War, all its participants lost arguments in favor of continuing the occupation of Russian territory. The public of the USA, England, France demanded the return of soldiers and officers home. A broad democratic movement unfolded under the slogan "Hands off Russia!". The uprising of soldiers (in the north) and sailors (on the ships of the French fleet on the Black Sea) hastened the start of the evacuation (at the end of 1919).

During October and November, the Eastern Front under the command of I. I. Vatsetis went on the offensive and drove the opponents out of the Urals. The restoration of Soviet power in the Urals and the Volga region ended the first stage of the civil war.

Autumn-winter campaign 1918-1919. was a decisive test of the strength of the two hostile camps. In the Soviet rear, economic difficulties increased, uprisings and rebellions continued, and centralized administration was established with great difficulty. However, the regime of food dictatorship held out. In the autumn of 1918, out of 5,402 factories fulfilling military orders, 3,500 were captured by the White Guard. The rest reduced output. For example, the Tula Arms Plant from 40,500 rifles in 1917 to 8,350 rifles in 1918. After the introduction of the 3rd shift, piecework wages, and the improvement of food supply, already in February 1919, 24,000 rifles were produced. The nationalized enterprises continued to partially operate. Mobilizations made it possible to complete all the new regiments of the Red Army. The front received more and more food and ammunition. During the second half of 1918, the Red Army received 2,000 field guns, 2.5 million shells, more than 900,000 rifles, 8,000 machine guns, more than 500 million cartridges, and about 8 million hand grenades. The proletarian dictatorship stood on its feet. The main groups of the population and the countryside put up with it, since the most important gains of the revolution (land for the peasants, factories for the workers, bread for the starving) were not liquidated.

The leaders of the opposite camp also held a severe test. The agrarian-peasant, and national-liberation, and poor-proletarian revolution presented its account to them. And the result was negative. The program of the anti-Soviet movement did not imply a radical solution to the land issue (on the contrary, landowners returned to their estates), national (the right to self-determination of peoples was denied, up to secession; the principle of “one, indivisible Russia” was still implanted), social (the position of workers on private enterprises has not changed.

From the declaration of A. I. Denikin

“Retention of the owners of their rights to the land. At the same time, in each individual locality, the amount of land that can be kept in the hands of the former owners must be determined, and the procedure for the transfer of the rest of the privately owned land to the small land must be established ... "

From the declaration of the government of A. V. Kolchak

“...Land seizures must be stopped. In order to fully satisfy all sections of the population in their land demands in various parts of a vast state, where in places there are the most diverse forms of agriculture, it is required, taking into account all the local land and household characteristics of the various nationalities inhabiting the country, to develop a land law that meets the interests of their labor elements. . This law will be sanctioned by the All-Russian Constituent or National Assembly.

On November 18, 1918, relying on the interventionists, Admiral A.V. Kolchak carried out a coup in Omsk, the power of the Social Revolutionary-Cadet directory was replaced by a military dictatorship. A. V. Kolchak declared himself the "Supreme Ruler of Russia." In the hands of the Whites was a territory inhabited by 22 million people, a territory rich in bread, meat and fish. Kolchak was actively supported by the wealthy Cossacks and kulaks.

Being the "Supreme Ruler", Kolchak could not determine the domestic and foreign policy of "his state", it was determined by those who put him in power. Under the government of A. V. Kolchak, there were representatives of almost all major capitalist states. The United States was represented by Consul General Harris, England by Elliot and General Knox, France by Renew and General Janin, and Japan by Consul General Matsushima and Colonel Fukuda. In preparation for the seizure of Siberia, the US government won special rights in Russia from the Supreme Council of the Entente. The United States received the right to establish consulates in all major cities of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East.

In December 1918, a special company, the Russian Branch of the Military Trade Council, was formed, headed by such large US monopolists as McCormick, Strauss and others.

The Entente countries considered the army of A. V. Kolchak as the vanguard of international imperialism. They formed it, supplied it with everything necessary, trained it, and they also led its military operations. The French General Janin was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops of the allied states in the East and Western Siberia. A. V. Kolchak remained the commander-in-chief of the White Guard armies, but he had to coordinate all operational plans with the representative of the high inter-allied command, General Zhanen. The English General Knox was appointed head of the rear and supply of the White Guard armies.

The interventionists considered themselves sovereign masters of Siberia and the Far East. More than 150,000-strong army of invaders brought "order" in the rear. Using the Siberian Railway, the invaders exported millions of tons of food and raw materials. From May to September 1919 alone, the Kolchak Foreign Trade Committee issued orders for the shipment of goods abroad in the amount of 1050 wagons, worth more than one billion rubles. Buying furs from the peoples of Siberia and the Far East for next to nothing, the interventionists received fabulous profits. The Russian Economist newspaper wrote about this: “It is noteworthy that the Americans are making 4,000% per annum in Russia.”

Stage II: November 1918 - February 1919.

In mid-November 1918, squadrons of French and British ships arrived in the Black Sea. Troops landed in Novorossiysk, Odessa, and Sevastopol. British troops entered Azerbaijan and Georgia with the consent of the counter-revolutionary nationalist governments.

In November 1918, A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive in the Urals with the aim of connecting with the detachments of General E.K. Miller and organizing a joint attack on Moscow. Again, the Eastern Front became the main one. On December 25, the troops of A. V. Kolchak took Perm, but already on December 31, their offensive was stopped by the Red Army. Ufa was liberated, and in January 1919 - Orenburg and Uralsk. In the east, the front temporarily stabilized.

At the same time, the actions of the Red Army units on the Northern Front intensified. In the second half of January 1919, they occupied the city of Shenkursk, pushing American troops to the north.

In the territory occupied by Germany, the struggle against foreign invaders intensified. The annulment of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk allowed Bolshevik Russia to provide direct and widespread support for the national liberation movement. In the autumn of 1918, the liberation of the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, Transcaucasia from the German invaders began.

In Estonia, the Provisional Estonian Revolutionary Committee took power into its own hands and announced the creation of the Estonian Labor Commune. In December 1918, Bolshevik power was established in Latvia and Lithuania. In Belarus, a Provisional Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government was created, which in January 1919 proclaimed an independent Belarusian Soviet Republic.

Stage III: March 1919 - Spring 1920

In January 1919, at the Paris Conference, the members of the "Council of Four", which included the heads of the governments of the United States, Britain, France and Italy, outlined a plan for a more powerful onslaught on Soviet Russia than the previous ones.

Together with A. V. Kolchak, the armies of A. I. Denikin, N. N. Yudenich, E. K. Miller, bourgeois-landlord Poland and their own interventionist troops were to take part in this campaign.

The spring of 1919 was not chosen by chance to start the campaign. By March 1919, the food situation in the country had become extremely aggravated. The disruption in transport and the fuel crisis did not allow the withdrawal of grain from the liberated regions. The invasion of the interventionists was combined with numerous armed uprisings of the kulaks in the rear of the Red Army.

The White Guard and the interventionists intended to deliver the main blow on the Eastern Front. They believed that a swift offensive in this place would divert a significant part of the Red Army forces from the Southern Front, and this, in turn, would create favorable conditions for an attack on the Soviet Republic from the south.

According to the plan, carefully developed at a joint meeting of representatives of the interventionists and the command of the White Guard in Chelyabinsk, A. V. Kolchak decided in March 1919 to develop an offensive on the central sector of the Eastern Front, level the front line, take the most advantageous strategic positions and, with the support of the armies of A. I. Denikin and N. N. Yudenich to strike at Moscow. The Supreme Council of the Entente announced an agreement "to assist the government of Admiral Kolchak and its allies with weapons, military equipment and food."

More than 400 thousand rifles, several million rounds of ammunition and uniforms worth more than 110 million dollars were sent from the USA to the Kolchak troops. France provided military equipment worth 210 million francs, and Japan - 16 million. yen.

Against the troops of the Eastern Front, numbering one hundred thousand bayonets and sabers, 1882 machine guns and 374 guns, the White Guard launched a perfectly armed 140,000-strong army into the offensive.

On March 4, 1919, the troops of Admiral Kolchak launched an offensive in the area of ​​​​the junction of the II and III Red Armies. Having broken through the front, the Kolchakites achieved significant success. The Siberian army, fighting on the northern flank, captured Sarapul, Izhevsk, and Votkinsk in the first half of April. II and III armies, waging heavy battles, retreated behind the Kama.

Having broken the resistance of the Fifth Red Army, the Western Army of Admiral Kolchak in the first half of March captured large strategic points: Birsk, Ufa, Chishma. At the same time, the kulaks of the Volga region revolted in the Simbirsk and Samara provinces. Supported by the local kulaks, the advanced units of Admiral Kolchak reached the line of the Ik River by the beginning of April. The territory of 300 thousand square meters was in the hands of the White Guard units. km with a population of over 5 million people.

By mid-April 1919, the Kolchakites were 80 km from Kazan and Samara and 100 km from Simbirsk.

In the Kuban and the North Caucasus, A.I. Denikin united the Don and Volunteer armies into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Relying on the tops of the Don and Kuban Cossacks and on the kulaks, the troops of A.I. Denikin in a short time captured the Don, the North Caucasus, part of the Donbass, and tried to break through to Tsaritsyn. Denikin's men sought to unite on the Volga (near Saratov) with the troops of A. V. Kolchak. According to A. I. Denikin, his armies were provided with everything necessary by the allies. Requests from the Denikin headquarters for the provision of weapons, ammunition and instructors were carried out by the allied command unconditionally.

In the north, with the help of the Entente, General E. K. Miller formed his army. In the Baltic states, General N. N. Yudenich was preparing for a campaign against Petrograd.

On May 16, 1919, the troops of N. N. Yudenich, with the support of the British Navy and the Estonian White Guards, struck from Estonia in the direction of Gatchina and Krasnoye Selo, trying to bypass Petrograd from the southwest. The second group of interventionists and White Guards developed an offensive towards Dno-Bologoye in order to cut off Petrograd from Moscow.

On the Karelian and Petrozavodsk directions, coordinating their strikes with the troops of E.K. Miller, the White Finns and mixed detachments of the Anglo-French-American interventionists advanced. In the spring of 1919, units of the Red Army, under the onslaught of superior enemy forces, left the Baltic states and Belarus. In March, a bourgeois dictatorship is established in Estonia, in May - in Latvia. Later, Belopan Poland occupied part of Lithuania with Vilnius as its capital.

Finally, a difficult situation developed in the south-west of the country in the Astrakhan region. Against the troops of Turkey and England, supported by local counter-revolutionaries, the command of the Red Army creates the Caspian-Caucasian Front. It also includes the XI Army, which withdrew from the North Caucasus.

A real threat arose that all the forces of the external and internal counter-revolution would unite, advancing from different directions on Moscow and Petrograd. Nevertheless, the numerous troops of A.V. Kolchak posed the greatest danger, so the Eastern Front again becomes the main front, as in the summer of 1918.

On April 11, 1919, general mobilization was announced in the front line. By mid-April, 877,000 people were drafted into the ranks of the Red Army.

On April 10, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic brought the troops of the Eastern Front into two groups, one located south (Southern) and the other north (North) of the Kama River. The southern group included I, IV, V and Turkestan armies. M. V. Frunze was appointed commander of this group. The Northern Group, commanded by V. I. Shorin, included the II and III armies. The Volga military flotilla, the Ural and Volga military districts were subordinated to the Eastern Front.

The main task of the Southern Group was to prevent the army of Admiral Kolchak from reaching the Volga, to prevent it from connecting with the troops of A.I. Denikin, but to defeat it east of the Volga. The workers of Penza, Syzran, and Orenburg rendered great assistance to the troops of the Southern Group.

On April 28, 1919, the general offensive of the shock group and the units of the 1st and 5th armies supporting it began. The counteroffensive of the troops of the Eastern Front consisted of three successive operations: Buguruslan, Belebey and Ufa. During them, on May 4, the Red Army occupies Buguruslan, on May 13 - Bugulma, on May 17 - Belebey. On May 21, M.V. Frunze gave the order to attack Ufa.

In the last days of May, the troops of the Eastern Front began fierce battles for Ufa. On May 29-30, the 25th division under the command of V.I. Chapaev defeated the enemy in the Chishma area and opened the way for parts of the Turkestan army to the Belaya River.

On the night of June 7-8, units of the 25th division began crossing the Belaya River north of Ufa. The 217th Pugachevsky and 220th Ivanovo-Voznesensky regiments were the first to cross. A fierce battle ensued. On the morning of June 9, the Whites went on the offensive, but on the evening of June 9, the Chapaevs occupied Ufa.

The general offensive of the Red Army to the Urals began. On June 10, the troops occupied Aleksandrov-Gai and Birsk. At the same time, partisans operating in the rear of Kolchak's army took Turgai. On July 1, the Red troops occupied Perm and Kungur. On July 14, the II Army entered Yekaterinburg, and on July 24, the 242nd Petrograd Regiment captured Chelyabinsk. In the battles near Chelyabinsk, the regiments of the White Guard suffered heavy losses, only more than 15 thousand soldiers and officers surrendered. On August 4, the Red Army occupied Troitsk. The Kolchakovsky front was cut into two parts.

Taking advantage of the fact that the command of the Red Army withdrew part of the troops from the Yuzhnouralsk sector, the Ural White Cossack army made an attempt to unite with Denikin's army in the Saratov region. On June 26, the White Cossacks occupied Nikolaevsk. However, on July 10, the city was liberated by the Chapaev division.

The liberation of the Urals was of great importance for the Soviet Republic. Only in July - December 1919, the Urals gave the country about 350 thousand pounds of pig iron, 2 million pounds of iron, more than 10 thousand pounds of copper.

In 1919, a partisan movement unfolded in Siberia, caused by dissatisfaction with the internal policy of the "Supreme Government", the terror of the interventionists and the White Guards.

In the Altai Territory, the Yenisei and Tomsk provinces, partisan detachments numbered more than 3 thousand people. In September 1919, the partisans of Altai created a single "Main Headquarters of the Partisans", it numbered more than 25 thousand people, E. M. Mamontov was chosen as the commander.

About 145 thousand people fought in the partisan detachments of Siberia and the Far East. This powerful army diverted large forces from the army of A.V. Kolchak and helped to establish the power of the Bolsheviks in Siberia.

A split occurred in the troops of Admiral Kolchak. The internal weakness of the anti-Soviet movement, the ambitions of a number of leaders who claimed to lead the entire movement, had an effect. The split between the socialists, the Cadets, and the monarchists deepened. Growing dissatisfaction with the economic policy of the main part of the army - the peasantry. A departure from the white movement of national units (since their peoples did not receive state self-determination, autonomy), the Cossacks began.

Developing the summer offensive, the troops of the Red Army at the beginning of 1920 reached Baikal. The Kolchak government was forced to move to Irkutsk. On December 24, 1919, an anti-Kolchak uprising was raised in Irkutsk. Allied troops and the remaining Czechoslovak detachments declared their neutrality. In early January 1920, the Czechs handed over A. V. Kolchak to the leaders of the uprising. After a short investigation, the "Supreme Ruler of Russia" was shot in February 1920.

In May 1919, when the Red Army was winning decisive victories in the east, the troops of N. N. Yudenich moved to Petrograd. N. N. Yudenich planned to strike the main blow with the forces of the Northern Corps, commanded by Rodzianko, in the direction of Yamburg - Krasnoe Selo - Petrograd. The "Northern Corps" consisted of 4700 bayonets, 1100 sabers, 11 light guns. The 1st White Estonian division, acting together with the corps, had 5800 bayonets, 30 guns, 2 armored cars and 2 tanks. An auxiliary blow was to be delivered by Bulak-Balakhovich's detachment and the 2nd White Estonian division.

The offensive of the army of N. N. Yudenich was supported by the English military squadron operating in the Baltic Sea. The squadron consisted of 12 light cruisers, 20 destroyers, 12 submarines, 3 minelayers, 16 minesweepers and up to 30 auxiliary vessels.

May 13, 1919 "Northern Corps" went on the offensive. On May 15, the interventionists captured Gdov, on May 17 - Yamburg, on May 26 - Pskov. On June 12, the troops of N. N. Yudenich approached Krasnaya Gorka. At the same time, the counter-revolutionary organization "National Center" is preparing a rebellion at the forts of Krasnaya Gorka and the Gray Horse. On June 13, the rebels arrested more than 350 fighters defending Krasnaya Gorka and brutally executed them.

On June 15, 1919, the ground, sea and air forces of the Petrograd Front launched a joint attack and captured Krasnaya Gorka on the night of June 16. The offensive of the ground units of the Red Army was supported by the ships of the Baltic Fleet, which prevented the landing of British troops. On the night of June 23, the destroyers Gavriil, Azard, Svoboda, Konstantin, Gaydamak put a detachment of British naval ships to flight.

Under these conditions, on June 21, the troops of the Petrograd Front launched a decisive offensive against Yamburg. Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the troops of N. N. Yudenich, the VII Army occupied Koporye on July 3.

On August 5, Yamburg was occupied by units of the Red Army, on August 26 - Pskov. The troops of N. N. Yudenich retreated.

The second offensive of N. N. Yudenich on Petrograd in October 1919 also ended in defeat. His troops were disarmed and interned by the Estonian government, which did not want to come into conflict with Soviet Russia, which offered to recognize the independence of Estonia.

In July 1919, the offensive of the army of A.I. Denikin began. It was well equipped by the Entente countries: France provided 558 guns, 1.7 million shells, 160 million rounds of ammunition, 12 tanks; USA - 106 tanks, 100 thousand rifles, 200 machine guns, 3 million rounds of ammunition.

The 150,000-strong army of A. I. Denikin occupied the Don region, the Donetsk basin, and the Left-Bank Ukraine in a short time; On June 30, having captured Tsaritsyn, Denikin's troops reached the Volga. By the end of the summer of 1919, the main industrial and agricultural regions of the country were in the hands of the Armed Forces of the South: the Donetsk coal basin, Grozny, Baku, Maykop, the North Caucasus, Transcaucasia.

Having seized a huge territory from Tsaritsyn to the Dnieper, with a population of over 40 million people, AI Denikin established a military-monarchist regime everywhere. All power belonged to the military dictator, as well as to the missions and representative offices of the Entente. The representative of England at the headquarters of A. I. Denikin was General Holman, France - General Magen, USA - Admiral McKelly.

On July 3, 1919, Denikin signed the "Moscow directive", in which Moscow was the ultimate goal of the campaign to be launched. The "Moscow directive" defined the tasks of each White Guard army. So the army, under the command of General May-Maevsky, was to advance on Moscow through the Donbass, Kurs, Orel. The Don army, commanded by General Sidorin, was to advance through Voronezh - Kozlov - Kashira. The Caucasian army of General Wrangel should capture Saratov, develop an offensive against Penza, Arzamas, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, and then strike at Moscow.

At the same time, A. I. Denikin ordered part of the forces of the army of General Wrangel to strike at Astrakhan, since the XI Red Army, which defended the city, created a serious threat to the rear of Denikin's armies.

The successes of the Red Army on the Eastern Front made it possible to transfer part of the regiments and divisions to the Southern Front. In mid-July, the armies of the Southern Front had 171,600 bayonets and cavalry, and Denikin's troops had 151,500 bayonets and cavalry. But, despite the numerical advantage, the Red Army in July-August 1919 could not develop the offensive.

Using this fact in the twentieth of August, the White Poles captured Zhytomyr and Novgorod-Volynsky, the Petliurists took Berdichev, Fastov, Belaya Tserkov, and on August 30 they captured Kyiv.

Together with the Petliurists, Denikin's troops entered Kyiv. Parts of the Southern Group of the XII Red Army, operating in the Odessa-Tiraspol region, were completely cut off from the main forces.

On July 23, 1919, S. S. Kamenev, newly appointed Commander-in-Chief, presented a plan to defeat the armies of General Denikin. According to the plan, by mid-August, the troops of the IX and X armies were supposed to deliver the main blow through the Don and Kuban, and the auxiliary - by the troops of the VIII and XIII armies in the direction of Voronezh - Kursk - Kharkov - Donbass.

To implement this plan, two shock groups were created. The IX and X armies and the Cavalry Corps of S. M. Budyonny were combined into a Special Group under the command of V. I. Shorin. The group had 45 thousand bayonets, 12 thousand sabers with 1080 machine guns and 240 guns. Parts of the VIII and XIII armies were also combined into an independent group of troops under the command of V. I. Selivachev. Selivachev's group had 43 thousand bayonets, 4660 sabers, 1600 machine guns and 310 guns.

The delay in the advance of the Red Army allowed Denikin to thoroughly fortify himself in the territory he had occupied. On August 10, Mamontov's cavalry captured Novokhopersk, then Kozlov.

On August 14, the troops of V.I. Shorin went on the offensive, and on August 15, the troops of V.I. Selivachev. However, it was not possible to develop a counteroffensive due to the superiority of the troops of A.I. Denikin in the cavalry. On September 20, Denikin's troops took Kursk.

In early autumn, the Bolsheviks carry out additional mobilization among the Communists and Komsomol members. Troops were transferred from the Western and Northern fronts. By November 15, more than 160 thousand infantrymen, more than 20 thousand cavalrymen fought in the southern direction in the Red Army, there were 4416 machine guns and 1192 guns.

On October 11, 1919, the shock group of troops of the Southern Front went on the offensive. Trying to disrupt it, the troops of General Yudenich and Admiral Kolchak stepped up their actions. Never before had the position of the Bolsheviks been so dangerous.

On October 13, the troops of A. A. Denikin occupied Oryol. Stubborn bloody battles flared up in the Oryol and Voronezh directions. By decision of the Politburo, the XII Army and 61 rifle divisions were transferred to the troops of the Southern Front.

On October 24, the Cavalry Corps of S. M. Budyonny, supported by units of the VIII Army, took the city of Voronezh. In fierce battles in the region of Kromy - Oryol - Voronezh, A. I. Denikin's "Volunteer Army" suffered serious damage. The cavalry corps of Shkuro and Mamontov were defeated.

On October 27, troops of the XII Army took Berdichev. During the offensive battles of the Southern Front, cavalry raids are organized on the rear of the enemy. For this purpose, a cavalry group was created under the command of V. M. Primakov, which included the Latvian and Kuban cavalry regiments. The advanced units of the Cavalry Group November 4, 1919. took Ponyri station, and on November 5 - Fatezh.

On November 6, the troops of the shock group of the Southern Front took Sevsk, on November 11 - Dmitreev and Livny, launched battles for the Shchigry station. With the capture of this station, Denikin's railway communication was interrupted.

On November 25, the 1st Cavalry Army under the leadership of S. M. Budyonny, with the support of the XIII Army, occupied Novy Oskol, and on November 27 entered Bobrov. On December 12, with the help of partisans and workers, Kharkov was liberated. On December 16, units of the XII Army liberated the capital of Ukraine - Kyiv.

At the same time, taking advantage of the fact that the Denikin command withdrew part of its troops from the right flank, the troops of the South-Eastern Front launched a decisive offensive. On November 28, they took Kalach, launched an attack on Tsaritsyn. December 10, 1919 units of the VIII and IX armies crossed the Don and inflicted a serious defeat on the troops of A. I. Denikin near the village of Veshenskaya. Having destroyed about a thousand soldiers and officers, units of the Red Army inflicted irreparable damage on the Don Cossack Army of General Sidorin.

December 25, 1919 began fighting for the Donbass. Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the White Guard troops, the 1st Cavalry Army liberated part of the Donbass in a few days. Fierce battles were going on in the Gorlovka region. By January 1, 1920. Donbass completely passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks.

The troops of the South-Eastern Front, having crossed the Northern Donets, occupied the Millerovo station. Parts of the X Army took possession in early January 1920. Tsaritsyn, and on January 7 they took Taganrog. The 1st partisan brigade under the command of D.P. Zhloba occupied Novocherkassk.

Bloody battles broke out for Rostov-on-Don. On January 10, the 4th Cavalry Division broke into Nakhichevan, the 6th Cavalry Division launched an assault on Rostov-on-Don. By the end of the day, the city was cleared of enemy troops. The capture of the city ended the decisive stage in the fight against the troops of A. I. Denikin. During the offensive, the troops of the Southern Front captured more than 40 thousand. enemy soldiers and officers captured 750 guns, 1130 machine guns, 23 armored trains and 11 tanks.

Having lost Rostov-on-Don, the White Guard troops retreated south in three directions: to the North Caucasus, Crimea and Odessa.

Stubborn battles unfolded on the Caucasian front, which went on for a long time with varying success. On February 14, 1920, the troops under the command of M. N. Tukhachsky launched an offensive. March 1 launched an offensive in the area of ​​​​the village of Yegorlykskaya.

At the same time, the troops of the X and XI armies occupied the Kavkazskaya station, and then Stavropol, Armavir, and Nevinnomysskaya. The troops of A. I. Denikin began to retreat to the south. Pursuing the enemy, the troops of the IX Army broke into Yekaterinodar on March 17. On March 22, the Cavalry Army entered Maikop. On March 27, Novorossiysk was taken by the combined efforts of the VIII and IX armies and partisan detachments of the Black Sea region. During the further offensive, units of the Red Army captured the cities of Tuapse and Sochi. Pressed against the borders of Georgia, the 60,000-strong Kuban army was forced to capitulate.

The remaining significant forces of the White Guard fortified themselves in the Crimea, which became the base for the formation of the army of P. N. Wrangel.

The extensive partisan movement contributed to the significant successes of the Red Army. Drunkenness, flogging, pogroms, looting became commonplace in the Volunteer Army in 1919. Hatred for the Bolsheviks and in everyone who supported them drowned out all other feelings, lifted all moral prohibitions. Therefore, soon the rear of the Volunteer Army also began to shake from peasant uprisings, as the rear of the white armies of A.V. Kolchak shook. They gained especially wide scope in Ukraine, where the peasant element found an outstanding leader in the person of N. I. Makhno.

At the beginning of 1919, a powerful social movement unfolded in Europe and the USA under the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia!". In total, by February 1919, the Entente troops were in Russia with a total number of 202.4 thousand soldiers and officers, including 44.6 thousand British, 13.6 thousand French, 13.7 thousand American, 80 thousand soldiers. Japanese, 42 thousand Czechoslovak, 3 thousand Italian, 3 thousand Greek, 2.5 thousand Serbian. Encountering the stubborn resistance of the local population and the Red Army units, experiencing intense Bolshevik propaganda, the soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Forces refused to participate in the fight against the Soviet regime. It came to their revolutionary speeches. The largest of them was the mutiny of sailors on French ships that were on the roads of Odessa and Sevastopol. Fearing the complete Bolshevization of their troops, the Supreme Council of the Entente in April 1919 began their urgent evacuation. A year later, only the Japanese invaders in the Far East remained on the territory of our country.

Stage IV: spring - autumn 1920.

By the spring of 1920, the Red Army had defeated the main anti-Bolshevik forces, which strengthened the position of the RSFSR. In this situation, at the IX Congress of the RCP (b), held on March 29 - April 5, 1920, it was decided to steadily implement a single economic plan. However, its implementation was hampered not only by internal, but also by external difficulties.

From the beginning of 1920, the head of the Polish state, J. Pilsudski, became more and more active in favor of the restoration of Poland within the borders of 1772. All attempts to peacefully resolve territorial disputes between the RSFSR and Poland were unsuccessful, since neither side made concessions. On April 21, the Polish government signed an agreement with the Ukrainian Directory in Warsaw, according to which it was recognized as the Supreme Government of independent Ukraine. In exchange for this, the Ukrainian Directory agreed to the annexation of Eastern Gvalia, Western Volhynia and part of Polissya to Poland. At the same time, Ukrainian troops were subordinated to the Polish command.

The implementation of the plan by Yu. Pilsudski was hindered by the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR. Therefore, on April 17, 1920, he gave the order "to conduct an offensive operation against Volhynia and Podolia" in order to defeat the XII and XIV armies of the Southwestern Front. The offensive of the Polish troops began on April 25. Thanks to the help of the United States, Britain and France, by this time Poland had 148.4 thousand soldiers and officers, 4157 machine guns, 302 mortars, 894 guns, 49 armored vehicles and 51 aircraft on the Eastern Front. In cooperation with the Ukrainian units, they captured Kyiv on May 6. The Belopolyaks were supported by the Petliurists. Gangs of Ukrainian nationalists operated in the rear of the Red Army. The armies of the Southwestern Front suffered heavy losses and only by mid-May managed to stop the advance of the Poles. In order to prevent the defeat of the Southwestern Front, the troops of the Western Front under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky, without waiting for the completion of the transfer of troops from other fronts, went on the offensive on May 14. However, the offensive of the Western Front ended in failure due to lack of forces and haste in preparation. At the same time, it forced the Polish command to transfer part of its forces from Ukraine to the territory of Belarus, where the troops of the Western Front were operating.

The troops of the Southwestern Front, taking advantage of this on May 26, 1920, launched a counteroffensive and liberated Kyiv on June 12. The Western Front, having received reinforcements, resumed its offensive on July 4 and by the end of the month had captured a significant part of Belarus, reaching the ethnic borders of Poland. The main forces of the Southwestern Front continued their successful advance in the Lvov direction, and its XIII Army fought hard battles in Northern Tavria with units of the Russian Army of General P. N. Wrangel that broke through from the Crimea in early June

In July, P. N. Wrangel, trying to help the troops of the White Poles, began to advance on the Donbass. He was supported by counter-revolutionary detachments operating in the Kuban region. In early August, fierce battles began for the Kakhovka bridgehead.

Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, the armies of the Western Front on July 24 broke through the fortified line of the White Poles in the Grodno region - the Neman River - the Shara River - Slonim, and by the end of the day captured Volkovysk. On July 27, Osovets and Pruzhany were liberated, on July 30, the large industrial and railway center of Kobrin. A gap formed between the armies of the Western and Southwestern Fronts, advancing in divergent directions. The Polish command, taking advantage of this, prepared the conditions for a strong counterattack on the flank and rear of the troops of the Western Front.

On August 13, the decisive battle of the troops of the Western Front on the Vistula began. By the end of the day, units of the Red Army occupied the heavily fortified Radzinin point and reached the approaches to Warsaw.

The French General Weygand, who actually led the fighting of the Polish troops, prepared a counterattack simultaneously in the rear and on the flank of the Soviet troops. The troops of the Western Front, tired as a result of a 500-kilometer offensive, without receiving timely support, without ammunition, were forced to retreat under the blows of superior enemy forces.

On August 14, the Polish army launched a counteroffensive and by the end of the month had thrown the troops of the Western Front back to their original positions before the offensive. The Soviet government, in order to avoid defeat, was forced to negotiate an armistice in Poland, which was signed on October 12, 1920.

With the help of the governments of the Entente, P. N. Wrangel increased the number of his troops many times over, providing them with perfect weapons, ammunition and uniforms in abundance. The main content of P. N. Wrangel’s plan was to, while holding Northern Tavria, transfer part of the forces to the Kuban and, relying on the wealthy Don and Kuban peasantry, jointly eliminate the power of the Bolsheviks.

To implement this plan, Wrangel at the beginning of 1920 achieved the signing of a formal agreement with the former Cossack chieftains of the Don, Kuban, Terek and Astrakhan, according to which the Cossacks of these regions, in case of victory, recognized complete independence in governance. The plan of P. N. Wrangel, which was a continuation of the policy of American imperialism towards the Cossacks of Russia, was actively supported by the US government.

P. N. Wrangel managed to land numerous landings on the Don and Kuban, but these landings were destroyed by the bold actions of the IX Army of the Caucasian Front and the Azov military flotilla.

During August, Soviet troops held the Kakhovka bridgehead, threatening the left flank of the Wrangelites in Northern Tavria, pinning down significant enemy forces, preventing them from moving a single step forward to the north. By decision of the Council of Labor and Defense, the 2nd Don and 9th Rifle, as well as the Naval Expeditionary Divisions, the 5th and 7th Cavalry Divisions were sent to the front against Wrangel from the Caucasian Front, the International Cavalry Brigade and three rifle regiments were sent from Turkestan . M. V. Frunze was appointed commander of the front.

By mid-September 1920, 45,400 fighters and commanders, 288 guns, 1,067 machine guns, 45 aircraft and 7 armored trains were concentrated on the Southern Front. The army of P. N. Wrangel consisted of 28.4 thousand infantrymen and 15.5 cavalrymen. The troops were armed with 267 guns, 1377 machine guns, 60 tanks, 6 armored trains and 40 aircraft.

In October 1920, bloody battles began in Northern Tavria. The troops of P. N. Wrangel attacked the Kakhovka bridgehead. On the morning of October 14, 80 guns opened heavy fire. Planes dropped thousands of bombs. The tanks of the Whites, supported by the infantry, broke through the first line of the Reds' barriers and moved towards the Dnieper. However, they met active resistance from the Red Army. By evening, the turning point came. Under the blows of the Red Army, the Wrangelites were forced to go on the defensive.

On October 28, 1920, the counteroffensive of the troops of the Southern Front began. The main blow was dealt by the 1st Cavalry Army. The right-flank group of troops, consisting of the 4th and 14th cavalry divisions, attacked in the direction of Novo-Troitsk, Otrada, Salkovo. The left-flank, which included the 6th, 11th cavalry divisions, advanced in the direction of Agaiman, Serogoza. On the night of October 30, the 4th Cavalry Division under the command of S. K. Timoshenko, having defeated the Markov officer regiment, numbering more than two thousand people, occupied the station Novo-Alekseevka and Genichesk. On October 30, Soviet troops occupied Melitopol.

During the fighting from October 29 to November 3, 1920, the troops of the Southern Front basically completed their tasks. In six days of fighting, they captured up to 20 thousand prisoners, more than 100 guns, many machine guns, tens of thousands of shells, up to 100 locomotives, 2 thousand wagons, etc. The northern coast of Sivash was cleared of enemy troops. The main forces of Wrangel's army were destroyed, only some of the White Guard regiments and detachments managed to break through to the Crimea.

The best specialists of the Entente countries worked on the creation of fortifications on the Crimean peninsula. Fortification work in the Crimea was led by General Fock. In the construction of fortified lines and defensive structures in the Crimea, and in particular on the Perekop Isthmus, the English admirals Seymour, McMalay, Gop, French generals Case and Mangin took part.

The Turkish rampart was most heavily fortified. Several strong fortified lines were erected here, armed with numerous artillery (including heavy artillery), machine guns and mortars. The length of the Turkish rampart, erected on the Perekop Isthmus, reached 11 km, width - 15 m, height - 8 m. A ditch was dug in front of the rampart 10 m deep and more than 20 m wide.

More than 70 guns and about 150 machine guns, located on the rampart and south of the rampart, kept all the approaches under fire. Approximately 25 kilometers from the Turkish Wall, a second, more powerful Yushun defensive line was built, covering the exits from the isthmus to the Crimean peninsula. It consisted of four, and in some places six lines of trenches, equipped with artillery and machine guns. On the Lithuanian peninsula, which crashed into the Sivash, the Wrangelites erected several lines of trenches. Chongar and the Arabat arrow, which separated the Sivash from the Sea of ​​Azov, were no less carefully fortified.

The command of the Southern Front decided to strike a decisive blow in the Perekop direction with the forces of the VI Army, under whose control the 2nd Cavalry Army was temporarily transferred. The 1st Cavalry Army was also transferred here. From 3 to 7 November, intensive preparations were underway for the assault.

On November 6, M.V. Frunze ordered the start of a general offensive. The 153rd and Separate Cavalry Brigades, units of the 52nd and 15th Infantry Divisions were supposed to cross the Sivash on the night of November 8, go to the Lithuanian Peninsula and strike at flank and rear of the troops of P. N. Wrangel, who defended the Turkish Wall. All other units of the 51st Division launched a frontal attack on the Turkish Wall in the morning.

At 2 o'clock in the morning on November 8, with a fifteen-degree frost, the advanced units reached the Lithuanian peninsula along the Sivash swamp. By 8 am, the peninsula was almost completely captured. At 9 o'clock in the morning, units of the Red Army launched a frontal attack on the Turkish Wall, but it was repulsed.

On November 9, a new attack on the Turkish Wall began. About a hundred guns and several hundred machine guns rained down fire on the fortified positions of the Whites. However, the second attack was also repulsed.

At three o'clock in the morning, units of the 51st division launched a third attack on the Turkish Wall. Could not withstand the onslaught, the Wrangel troops began to retreat to the Yushun fortified line.

With the support of the landing on the night of November 10, 1920, the 51st division launched an assault on the Yushun fortifications. By 9 o'clock the division had captured the first line of enemy positions. In the afternoon, the second line of defense was captured. In the evening, units of the 15th and 52nd rifle divisions approached the third line of fortifications. On the morning of November 11, the Yushun fortifications fell. The survivors of the Wrangel retreated to the ports of the Black Sea.

At the same time, the IV and 1st Cavalry armies broke through the Chongar fortifications and occupied the Chongar Peninsula. On November 13, the 1st Cavalry took Simferopol, and on November 15, with the assistance of the sailors of the Black and Azov Seas, they occupied Alushta, Sevastopol and Feodosia.

On November 16, M.V. Frunze reported to Moscow: “Today Kerch has been taken by our cavalry. The southern front has been liquidated."

The defeat of P. N. Wrangel marked the end of the civil war. The remnants of his troops were evacuated with the help of the allies to Turkey. In November 1920, the civil war actually ended. Only isolated pockets of resistance to Soviet power remained on the outskirts of Russia.



Expansion of intervention. In May-June 1918, the armed struggle took on a nationwide scale. AT end of May began an armed uprising of 45,000 Czechoslovak Corps in Siberia. In Kazan, the Czechoslovaks seized the gold reserves of Russia (over 30 thousand pounds of gold and silver with a total value of 650 million rubles).

In August, the British landed in Transcaucasia, driving out German troops from there, Anglo-French landing forces occupied Arkhangelsk and Odessa.

The transformation of the war into a national one. At the same time, in many central provinces of Russia, peasants, dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks, joined the armed struggle. More than 200 peasant uprisings took place in the summer (108 in June alone). The uprisings of the peasants in the Volga region and the Urals became one of the reasons for the fall of Soviet power in these regions. Part of the peasants participated in the "People's Army" Komuch; the Ural peasantry served in Kolchak's army.

In August 1918 there was Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising of workers, who created an army of about 30 thousand people and held out until November, after which the rebels were forced to retreat and go with their families to Kolchak's army.<

National Defense Organization. September 2, 1918 The Central Executive Committee made a decision about the transformation of the Soviet Republic into a military camp. Created in September Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic chaired L. D. Trotsky- the body that was at the head of all fronts and military institutions. On November 30, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on education was adopted Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense headed by V. I. Lenin. The head of the military department, L. D. Trotsky, took energetic measures to strengthen the Red Army: strict discipline was introduced, forced mobilization of former officers of the tsarist army was carried out, and an institution of military commissars was created to control the “political line” of commanders. By the end of 1918 the number of the Red Army exceeded 1.5 million people.

Formation of "democratic governments". The socialist parties, relying on peasant rebel groups, formed in the summer of 1918 a number of governments in Arkhangelsk, Samara, Tomsk, Ashgabat, etc. Their programs included demands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of citizens, the rejection of one-party dictatorship and strict state regulation of economic activity peasants, etc.

- Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch)(predominantly a Socialist-Revolutionary organization, chairman - V. K. Volsky) was created on June 8, 1918 in Samara and ruled the Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk, Kazan and Ufa provinces. In the territory under its control, the Committee proclaimed the restoration of democratic freedoms, an 8-hour working day, allowed the activities of workers' and peasants' congresses, conferences, trade unions, convened the Council of Workers' Deputies and created the People's Army. Here, the decrees of the Soviet government were canceled, industrial enterprises were returned to their former owners, banks were denationalized, and freedom of trade was allowed; previously confiscated lands were retained by the landowners.

- Provisional Government of Siberia was formed at the end of June in the city of Omsk (chairman - Social Revolutionary P. V. Vologodsky). In July, it adopted a declaration on the independence of Siberia. In October Komuch itself dissolved, but the regional government created in Omsk did not cease its activities.

- Ufa Directory (All-Russian Provisional Government, Chairman - Socialist-Revolutionary N.D. Avksentiev) was formed on September 23, 1918. It included 2 Social Revolutionaries, a cadet, 2 non-party people, including the chairman of the Siberian government. Directory, having entered the struggle with the Bolsheviks, she advocated the continuation of the war and the restoration of treaty relations with the powers of the Entente. Members Directories achieved the abolition of all regional, national and Cossack "governments".

The attitude of the peasants towards "democratic governments" changed after their attempts to create their own armed forces by mobilizing the local population, including using repressive measures. In addition, the regional democratic governments were defeated by the Red Army detachments successfully advancing in the Volga region.

November 18, 1918 in Omsk, Admiral A. V. Kolchak made a coup, as a result of which the provisional governments (including the Directory) were dispersed and a military dictatorship was established. Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Under him, the Omsk government was created, under whose authority all Siberia, the Urals, and the Orenburg province turned out to be.

3. Third stage (November 1918 - Spring 1919). At this stage, the military-dictatorial regimes in the east became the leading force in the fight against the Bolsheviks (Admiral A.V. Kolchak), south (general A.I. Denikin), northwest (general//. N. Yudenich) and the north of the country (general E. K. Miller).

Mass intervention against Russia. The third stage of the Civil War was associated with changes in the international situation. The end of the First World War made it possible to release the fighting forces of the Entente powers and direct them against Russia. At the end of November 1918, French and British troops landed in the Black Sea ports of Russia. By the beginning of 1919 the number of foreign armed forces in the south reached 130 thousand soldiers, in the north - up to 20 thousand. In the Far East and Siberia, the allies concentrated up to 150 thousand troops.

The military intervention caused a patriotic upsurge in the country, and in the world - a solidarity movement under the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia!".

In the autumn of 1918 the main one was the Eastern Front. A counter-offensive of the Red Army under the command of I. I. Vatsetis, during which the White Guard units were ousted from the Middle Volga and Kama regions.

4. Fourth stage (spring 1919 - April 1920).

Combined offensive of anti-Bolshevik forces. By the beginning of 1919 The military-strategic situation has noticeably worsened on all fronts. AT March 1919 from the east, in order to connect with Denikin for a joint attack on Moscow, the army launched an offensive A. V. Kolchak(the offensive was reflected by the Eastern Front under the command S. S. Kameneva and M. V. Frunze), in the northwest - the army N. N. Yudenich carried out military operations against Petrograd. To summer 1919 the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front, where the general's army was. I. Denikina began its movement to Moscow, approaching Tula.

peasant movement. Simultaneously with the actions of the White armies, peasant uprisings began in the Ukraine, the Urals, and the Volga region. In March 1919, an uprising of 30 thousand Cossacks broke out on the Don, which lasted until the summer, after which it merged with the white movement.

Gradually, however, the peasant war changed its direction. The decisive role was played by the fact that the White Guard forces did not recognize the results of the agrarian reform and tried, like the Denikin government, to ensure the return of the land to the old owners. A certain role was also played by the correction of the course of the Bolsheviks in relation to the middle peasantry, the rejection of disorderly confiscation and early 1919 transition to surplus appropriation with a fixed amount of household duty. Peasant armies in Ukraine (from 12 to 20 thousand soldiers under the command N. I. Makhno), in Siberia and other regions, having initially opposed both the Whites and the Reds, they were more and more inclined to fight for land against the Whites. The change in the sentiments of the peasantry at the decisive stage of the war ultimately predetermined the outcome of the civil confrontation in the country.

At the end of October 1919, the Whites were stopped by the troops of the Southern Front (commander A. I. Egorov) and with the support of the army N. I. Makhno thrown back in the Black Sea region. Yudenich's army was pushed back to Estonia, the remnants of Denikin's troops, led by P. N. Wrangel, fortified in the Crimea. In late 1919 - early 1920, under the blows of the Red Army and peasant rebel detachments, Kolchak's troops were finally defeated.

5. Fifth stage (May - November 1920). In May 1920, the Red Army entered the war with Poland, trying to capture the capital and create the necessary conditions for the declaration of Soviet power there. However, this attempt ended in military failure. Due to inconsistency in the actions of the troops, the army M. N. Tukhachevsky was defeated near Warsaw. AT March 1921 was signed Riga Peace Treaty, under the terms of which a significant part of the territory of Ukraine and Belarus went to Poland.

The main event of the final period of the Civil War was the defeat of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, headed by General P. N. Wrangel. Troops of the Southern Front under the command M. V. Frunze in November 1920 took complete control of the Crimea.

During 1920-1921 With the help of the Red Army detachments, the process of Sovietization in the territory of Central Asia and Transcaucasia was completed. To end of 1922 ceased hostilities in the Far East. November 14 Far Eastern Republic(existed as "buffer" state since April 6, 1920) reunited with the RSFSR.

6. Peasantry at the final stage civil war. The civil war ended, but the peasant uprisings continued. In the Tambov province in August 1920, an anti-Bolshevik uprising broke out, led by the Socialist-Revolutionary L. S. Antonov, on the side of which, by the beginning of 1921, two armies of 20-25 thousand people each acted. In January 1921, the West Siberian uprising began, engulfing the Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg provinces. Here more than 100 thousand peasants participated in the armed struggle. Sabotage, concealment of grain reserves, draft evasion, terror against the communists, and the defeat of communes were also common forms of resistance to the policy of the surplus appraisal.