Russian Civil War: A History from Beginning to End (History of Russia), by Hourly History.

................................................................................................

RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR: A HISTORY

FROM BEGINNING TO END

(History of Russia),

by Hourly History.

................................................................................................

"“They transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus into Russia.”

"—Winston Churchill"

................................................................................................

One got this book on sudden impulse to read, after finishing the volume on Russian Revolution in the series, and hadn't quite realised that the title relates to a period quite so familiar to one not very well versed in history, via various favorite and much loved books of literature, including films based on them.

One recalls Dr. Zhivago, of course, immediately. But there's much more, suddenly coming to the fore at one point or another and very vividly so, as one reads on, and some names are familiar. There's the excellent, lesser known Knight Without Armour from James Hilton, known mostly for his Random Harvest and Lost Horizon.

The last mentioned, though, is not known as much by title as by the name (- and the very concept which seems to have been his adaptation of other, older concepts from Indian loves related to Himaalaya -) Shangri-La, which however is placed by Hilton somewhere between Chinese and European rather than Indian culture in his work, chiefly due to a colonial mindset that couldn't escape racist disdain against India, and thereby went down in the process where he sought to stay clear of accusations of having 'gone native'.

At any rate, coming back to the subject of this title, it - the whole landscape - begins to seem so familiar as to border on haunting, and one wonders, did one know of it only through these three, namely, Dr Zhivago, Knight Without Armour, and Sidney Reilly? Or did one know this land and this era more, somehow?

................................................................................................

"“They transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus into Russia.”

"—Winston Churchill"

................................................................................................

As the protests grew out of control, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. A provisional government was hastily created to control Russia until elections could be held to determine what might come next. This caught almost everyone by surprise, including those opposed to the existing regime.

"One of the most notable of these was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (better known as Lenin). Lenin was a staunch supporter of revolution and the ideas of Karl Marx. His angry writings had seen him exiled to Siberia before he left Russia to take up residence in Switzerland. By early 1917, he was the leader of the Bolshevik Party, though still living in Switzerland. Germany, sensing that Russia was tottering on the brink of collapse, connived with the Swiss authorities to allow Lenin to take a sealed train that crossed Germany and Finland before arriving in Petrograd on Easter Sunday, 1917. The Bolshevik leader immediately began speaking against the Provisional Government and in favor of revolution."

Cousin Willie's revenge was thus exacted against the beautiful little Alix for refusing his proposal and falling in love with another cousin, Tsarevich Nicholas, instead! So Cousin Willie had Lenin sent into Russia, sparking revolution, ending in massacre of her en famille and several other romanovs too, including another sister of hers who - after being a widow of another Romanov - had joined a convent!

................................................................................................

"“We must put an end once and for all to the papist-Quaker babble about the sanctity of human life.”

"—Leon Trotsky"

Somehow it's assumed that, because he was exiled and assassinated by Soviet regime, he was not merely opposed to them but to leftism, repressions, and violence, practically a saint one step lower to Abraham Lincoln, so to speak.

An unforeseen benefit of reading this, and the previous one about Russian Revolution in this series, is finding quotes from Trotsky, that startle one into realising just how far from reality such subconscious assumptions are, created only due to his banishment and assassination.

................................................................................................

"Towards the end of 1917, parts of Russia had descended into anarchy and chaos. In southern Russia, bands of revolutionaries looted homes and businesses. Officers and members of the nobility were shot on sight. Prisons were opened, and political prisoners and criminals alike were allowed to escape. Tens of thousands of soldiers fleeing from the front joined the revolutionaries."

Portrayed so realistically by James Hilton, in his Knight Without Armour.

................................................................................................

"In the city of Rostov, a professor of military science and the tsar’s former head of staff, General Mikhail Alekseev, began to create a volunteer army to oppose these roving revolutionary gangs. The new Volunteer Army quickly attracted eager recruits including former officers in the tsar’s army and officer cadets from military schools. By the end of December 1917, Alekseev’s army controlled the cities of Rostov, Taganrog, and Novocherkassk. Then, in early 1918, the first units of the Red Guards began to appear in the Don area, and for the first time, there would be combat between White and Red troops. Most historians accept this as the true beginning of the Russian Civil War."

Hilton doesn't mention him by name, if memory serves right, but the chaos of these towns held new by one and then another, is depicted vividly.

................................................................................................

"The Volunteer Army was led by the bold, charismatic General Lavr Kornilov. Kornilov’s army probably numbered no more than 2,000 men (though like so many aspects of the civil war, there are no reliable records to provide precise numbers). Opposing him was a Red Army thought to number anywhere between 100,000 and 150,000 men. Kornilov quickly understood that remaining in Rostov to fight the Red Army would be suicide. Instead, he led his men out into the frigid winter landscape of the Kuban region. For several months, they trekked through snow and ice, subsisting on what food they could find and with only the weapons and ammunition they had or could take from the enemy."

Amazingly, this too is not unfamiliar after Knight Without Armour, and it's only the names that are new, but not the names of locales - those seem quite familiar too!

................................................................................................

"Incredibly, they survived and seemed to win almost every encounter with the Red Army, despite their lack of numbers. By April, they reached the city of Yekaterinodar only to discover that it was under Red control. Bolstered by the arrival of a contingent of Kuban Cossacks, they attacked more than 18,000 Red Army defenders supported by artillery and machine guns. General Kornilov was killed during the assault, however, and the attack was called off. As the White troops withdrew, Kornilov was replaced by General Anton Denikin.

"This first phase of the civil war, which became known as the First Kuban Campaign, was followed by the Second Kuban Campaign, where Denikin led his growing numbers of troops across the region. This second campaign was much more successful. By July 15, the important rail junction city of Tikhoretskaya was in White hands. On August 15, the city of Yekaterinodar was taken and, two weeks later, the port city of Novorossiysk. By the end of November, the Whites—now totaling more than 60,000 men supported by artillery and armored cars—had also taken the cities of Armavir and Stavropol and were in control of a large part of the Kuban region. Fighting was also taking place in other parts of Russia.

Again, names seem vaguely familiar - several years after the first reading of Knight Without Armour, but more realistically, due to reading it some time within last two to three years.

................................................................................................

"Troops of what had become known as the Czechoslovak Legion had been serving in the tsar’s army since the outbreak of World War I. Most were renegades who had fled Austria-Hungary. There was no Czechoslovakia at that time; what would become that country was simply a region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarians regarded men serving in the Russian Army as traitors, and Czech prisoners were usually executed out of hand. Since the fall of the tsar, the 50,000 men of this legion had been attempting to leave Russia in order to travel to the western front to fight for the Allies.

"The Bolsheviks were keen to get rid of them, but the Germans insisted that these men be disarmed before they left Russia. The Czechs refused, and in May 1918, fighting broke out between members of the Czech Legion and the Red Army. The Legion then embarked on one of the most audacious and successful campaigns in military history, as they defeated one Bolshevik garrison after another. By the end of June, they occupied positions along the Volga River, but they were far from finished. Using the Trans-Siberian Railroad, they traveled to Russia’s far east and succeeded in taking the city of Vladivostok by the end of August. In just three months, the men of the Czech Legion had captured more territory than any other nation in World War I!

................................................................................................

"The appearance of the men of the Czech Legion in the east of Russia also led directly to the emergence of a new center of White resistance there. In mid-November, officers in Omsk deposed the Bolshevik administration and appointed a new White leader, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, a well-known and respected former explorer and senior naval officer. Within a short time, Kolchak was announced as “Supreme Ruler of All Russian Land and Sea Forces” and began mobilizing support for the anti-Bolshevik cause.

"The day after he was appointed in his new role, Kolchak made a speech in which he claimed, “My goal is to create a battle-worthy army, attain a victory over Bolshevism, and establish law and order so that the people may without prejudice choose for themselves the manner of government which they prefer.”

"These developments represented a major threat to the Reds. From the Volga River, it would be possible to launch an attack on Moscow. If that city fell to the Whites, this would be a major and perhaps fatal setback for the Reds. And, there was yet another looming issue for the Reds by the end of 1918: World War I had finally ended with the armistice between the Allies and the Central Powers on November 11, 1918. Many amongst both Reds and Whites assumed that now that their war with Germany was over, the Allies would fight in Russia against the Reds."

That takes it to where the story of Sidney Reilly takes added acceleration, having begun with evacuation of Eastern posts during Russo-Japanese War.

................................................................................................

"“I am all in favour of declaring war on the Bolsheviks.”

"—Sir Henry Wilson, British Chief of the Imperial General Staff"

................................................................................................

"Allied intervention in Russia began even while World War I was still in progress. The Allies were aware that large quantities of arms and ammunition intended for the tsar’s army were in Russian ports and were concerned that these might be seized by Germany following the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. These concerns increased when a division of German troops entered Finland in April 1918; from there, they were able to threaten the Murmansk-Petrograd railway, which, if captured, might allow German troops to take control of the strategically vital ports of Murmansk and possibly Arkhangelsk.

"Thus, the first appearance of Allied troops in Russia was a response not directly to the revolution but to fears that Germany might successfully exploit the chaos in Russia to make significant gains. British troops were sent to Murmansk to help the Bolsheviks defend that city against a potential German attack almost as soon as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. Meanwhile, British naval personnel were also sent to Estonia, which had declared independence, to help that new country defend against attacks by the Red Army.

................................................................................................

"While both Britain and France agreed that some form of military intervention was necessary in Russia to prevent German advances, both nations were critically short of troops after four years of horrendous losses on the western front. For that reason, most of the troops sent to Russia while World War I was still in progress came from other nations.

"The United States sent two expeditionary forces to Russia: 5,000 American troops of the American North Russia Expeditionary Force were sent to Arkhangelsk while another 8,000 of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia landed in Vladivostok. Canadian, Australian, and Indian troops formed two further forces, the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force and the North Russia Intervention. Around 2.500 Italian troops of the Corpo di Spedizione were also dispatched to Russia, but the single largest foreign army came from Imperial Japan which sent more than 70,000 men to Siberia with the intention of helping to create an independent buffer state."

Why isn't this interlude known as much as it should have been, if only due to the international coming together of efforts to help Russia, regardless of political scenario, against the aggressor Germany that it was long before existence of nazis?

................................................................................................

"When the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary ended in November of 1918, the role of these foreign troops came into question. While the war had been raging, their presence was needed to ensure that Germany was not able to exploit the Russian Revolution for its own ends. Now, in several areas, these troops found themselves caught between White and Red factional fighting. To some Allied leaders, the threat of Bolshevism seemed just as serious as the war with Germany, and they suggested that the intervention should continue even after the war was over in an attempt to overthrow the Reds.

"Winston Churchill, a particularly vociferous opponent of Communism, demanded that British troops be used to support the Whites. He would later tell the British Parliament, “I think the day will come when it will be recognized without doubt, not only on one side of the House, but throughout the civilized world, that the strangling of Bolshevism at its birth would have been an untold blessing to the human race.”

"When Admiral Kolchak announced his new White regime in Omsk, he did so with the support and encouragement of British military forces in the area. When the armistice was announced, British, Commonwealth, and American troops in Russia eagerly looked forward to being allowed to return home. They would soon discover that this was not to be.

................................................................................................

"When Admiral Kolchak launched an offensive against the Reds in early 1919, he did so with troops trained and partly equipped by the British and supported by aircraft of the Royal Air Force. In Murmansk, the raising of a White Army was progressing slowly due to a lack of volunteers. Thus, in early 1919, British troops were ordered south to occupy lands that would provide access to additional potential volunteers. In less than two months, and after several pitched battles, British forces had occupied more than 3,000 square miles (7,700 square kilometers) formerly held by the Red Army including the towns of Soroko and Olimpi.

"In North Russia, British troops also attacked the city of Shenkursk while a combined British/American force took the towns of Bolshie Ozerki and Seltskoe, south of Arkhangelsk. Still, many of the foreign troops in Russia proved less than enthusiastic about fighting the Reds. There were mutinies in some British, Canadian, and American units, led by men who had seen more than enough of war and simply wanted to go home. The situation was made worse by the White forces who were supposed to be their allies. Many were badly led and included large numbers of men who had been conscripted against their will. Some White units defected en-masse to the Reds and turned on the foreign troops. It was evident that more troops would be needed to support the Whites.

"Thus, in Britain, there was an attempt to raise a volunteer force to fight in Russia. By the end of April 1919, more than 3,500 men had joined the North Russian Relief Force, and these troops joined the men of the British Army in North Russia soon after. And, it wasn’t only on the White side that foreign troops fought. Large numbers of volunteers from countries including Germany, Austria, China, Romania, and Poland joined what were effectively international brigades in the Red Army. It has been estimated that, by mid-1918, as many as 50,000 members of this army originated from countries other than Russia. By that time, White forces had launched their greatest offensive, and it looked for a time as though the Bolshevik regime and the revolution were doomed."

................................................................................................

"“My chief aims are the organisation of a fighting force, the overthrow of Bolshevism, and the establishment of law and order, so that the Russian people may be able to choose a form of government in accordance with its desire and to realise the high ideas of liberty and freedom.”

"—Admiral Alexander Kolchak"

................................................................................................

"In March of 1919, Admiral Kolchak launched what would be the single largest offensive by White forces during the Russian Civil War. This was a bold plan, envisaging an advance to the west, through the Ural Mountains, and on towards Moscow. This route would give the Whites three options: to attack Moscow itself, to attempt to link with British and Allied troops holding territory in northern Russia, or to move south to connect with General Denikin’s White forces in southern Russia.

"On paper, Kolchak’s force looked formidable. More than 200,000 men had joined the White forces in the east and these were divided into three armies. The Siberian Army under the command of General Gajda (a former leader of the Czech Legion) had around 45,000 men, the Southern Army had about 30,000 men, and General Khanzhin’s Western Army commanded over 40,000 troops. In addition, two formidable Cossack armies provided an additional 30,000 mounted men. With rear areas protected and controlled by British troops, this combined force of almost 150,000 men would face the Red Armies with a total of around 110,000 troops. Still, the Red Army troops were provided with more artillery and machine guns and had large reserves available for transfer from the center of the country. The Red Army had also improved notably in terms of training and experience and was no longer the mass of enthusiastic but inexperienced men faced in earlier battles."

Funny, they had all sorts of shortages when facing German forces, but suddenly had strength in the short interval since!

Why, then, not proceed to fight to get back all that was ceded to Germans? Did it have to be Germany emulating Mongols in burning, looting and massacring millions on their way through Russia in early 1940s, before Russia could rise in wrath?

................................................................................................

"The offensive began on March 4, 1919, with an advance by General Khanzhin’s Western Army. Initially, gains were spectacular: by the end of April, this army had advanced through deep snow for almost 300 miles (500 kilometers), taking the important cities of Bugulma and Buguruslan. For a short time, it seemed that nothing could stop the advance of the White Armies to the west. Progress slowed, however, when the spring thaw turned tracks into rivers of mud and, more significantly, a lack of coordination created dangerous gaps between the three main White Armies.

"General Gajda’s Siberian Army had moved to the northwest while the Southern Army had advanced to the southwest. Although all three White Armies were making progress towards the west, they had become separated, leaving them operating virtually independently. When the roads and tracks finally dried out after the snow had melted, the Reds launched a major counteroffensive. Because of the separation between the White Armies, the Reds were able to concentrate on the most advanced, the Western Army of General Khanzhin.

"The Red Army advanced steadily and despite heavy losses. By June, the White Western Army had been forced to retreat more than 50 miles (80 kilometers). The Reds then began to apply pressure on the other two White Armies. The Siberian Army was driven back beyond the city of Yekaterinburg, and the Southern Army was also forced to retreat. The new effectiveness of the Red Army in combat was a stunning shock to the Whites and to their Allies supporters, but even more concerning was the unreliability of the White Armies themselves.

................................................................................................

"The vast majority of White troops were conscripts, forced to join the cause whatever their personal feelings about the revolution. Many thousands of these men either deserted to make their way back to their homes or even defected to join the Red Army. In February 1919, 2,000 men of the Muslim Bashkir Corps, part of the Southern Army, went over to the Red side. As the Whites were forced to retreat, they found their conscript army starting to evaporate. Kolchak’s position was weakened further when all British troops were withdrawn from Russian territory in Central Asia in April.

"Admiral Kolchak responded to these setbacks by dismissing his main military leaders. General Gajda was fired and replaced by General Anatoly Pepelyaev, after which the Siberian Army was renamed the 1st Army. General Khanzhin was dismissed, and the Western Army became two new armies: the 2nd under the command of General Nikolai Lokhvitsky and the 3rd under the command of General K. V. Sakharov. Despite these changes in command, the Red Armies continued to advance. White forces were forced to retreat across the Siberian plain before they reached the Ishim River, just over 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the city of Omsk. Here, they made a stand and here, finally, the Red advance briefly ran out of steam.

"On September 1, Admiral Kolchak ordered a large-scale counterattack, and at first, this was successful. White forces advanced towards the Ural Mountains once again, driving the Reds before them. By October 14, they had advanced more than 125 miles, but by that point, the Red Army had been bolstered by the arrival of more than 40,000 reserves. A Red counterattack drove the Whites back. By the end of October, White forces had retreated once again to the Ishim River. The issue for Admiral Kolchak became not how to win a victory but how to protect his capital, Omsk, from the advancing Reds."

................................................................................................

"The retreat of Denikin’s southern armies that had begun in autumn continued without a pause during the remainder of 1919 and into the following year. First, these armies attempted to hold the city of Kursk but were quickly driven out by a determined Red assault. Next, the city of Kharkov fell to the Reds on December 11. White forces retreated once again to Rostov, but the defenders were weakened by an outbreak of typhus that killed or incapacitated more than 40,000 soldiers, and that city too fell in early January 1920."

Very graphically, memorably Portrayed in Knight Without Armour.

................................................................................................

"Next, Tsaritsyn was taken by the Reds on January 3. Denikin was forced to undertake a retreat to the west, relocating his headquarters first to Rostov, then to Tikhoretskaya, and finally to Novorossisk. From the latter city, the only hope of further retreat was a withdrawal to Crimea. By the middle of March, the continuing advance of Red units made that evacuation a necessity, and Denikin called for Allied help to relocate what remained of his armies.

"With the assistance of French and British ships, large numbers of White troops were evacuated from Novorossisk, though they were forced to abandon much of their heavy equipment and artillery. On March 27, the last White destroyer picked up the remaining White troops and General Denikin. The once-powerful Southern Army now controlled only Crimea."

This is as far as Knight Without Armour goes in Russian Civil War saga.

................................................................................................

"Luck was on the Bolsheviks’ side, though, and the Red troops were soon able to take advantage of a “miracle.” There was, in fact, one other potential route of access into Crimea: the Syvash salt marshes. These were almost always impassable and had been discounted by both sides. On the night of November 7/8 (the third anniversary of the revolution) unexpectedly strong winds blew across the marshes, temporarily drying them out, something that happened only once in several decades. Red troops were alerted and crossed the salt marshes to attack White defensive positions on the Perekop peninsula from the flank and rear. By November 9, White forces were retreating across Crimea.

"On the 11th, Wrangel recognized the inevitability of defeat and ordered his armies to disengage and begin a retreat towards ports in the south of Crimea. There, White ships supported by members of the French Navy were waiting. Between November 14 and 16, more than 140,000 White troops were evacuated from Crimea. Most were taken to Constantinople, where they became exiles. With this evacuation, the last White Army in western Russia had been defeated. Red forces controlled all of Russia other than the extreme east, where the last forces of Admiral Kolchak remained."

This is roughly the end of Russian Civil War part of Knight Without Armour.

................................................................................................

"“We were always for revolutionary war. The bayonet is an essential necessity for introducing communism.”

"—Karl Radek"

................................................................................................

"With the string of Red victories in the east in the autumn of 1919, Admiral Kolchak was faced with a stark choice: he could attempt to defend his capital at Omsk, or he could retreat and abandon it. He chose the latter, deciding to establish a new White capital in the city of Irkutsk, the largest city in Siberia.

"Kolchak left Omsk on November 14 on a train bound for Irkutsk. He reached that city, but many of his troops and supporters were not so fortunate. More than 300 trains left Omsk headed east, but less than 70 arrived; breakdowns, congestion, and a lack of locomotives left many trains and their passengers stranded in the city of Krasnoyarsk. Those who were able to find places on trains were the fortunate ones: up to 150,000 soldiers and refugees were forced to make their way east on the Sibirsky Trakt, a series of ancient tracks that led through the barren Siberian taiga to the east of Omsk. Making their way on horse-drawn sleds, they were pursued by the advancing Red Army and constantly harried and attacked by an estimated 80,000 partisans operating in the forests of Siberia. Only a few would reach the safety of Irkutsk."

This too is incorporated in Knight Without Armour.

................................................................................................

"As temperatures plunged in December, the situation became worse. People stranded on trains in Krasnoyarsk froze to death. A typhus epidemic swept through the city and decimated the survivors. Then, on January 8, 2020, the first units of the Red Army arrived in Krasnoyarsk. White units who resisted were annihilated. Many deserted. By that time, a revolt by Socialist Revolutionaries in Irkutsk had ended any hope Kolchak might have had of continuing the war. The rail line and much of the territory around the city was still controlled by the troops of the Czech Legion. Its commander, General Jan Syrovy, arranged a deal with the Reds. He would hand over Admiral Kolchak and the imperial gold he carried with him in exchange for free and safe passage for the Czechs out of Russia."

Reminds of last stages of Russian Civil War part of Knight Without Armour.

................................................................................................

"“An interminable vista of violence and misery was all that remained for the whole of Russia.”

"—Winston Churchill"

Funny, one does get the impression from most accounts that the "violence and misery" was not new to either the post revolution or later era; on the contrary, those were reasons why revolution did, in the first place, come to happen.

................................................................................................

"A lack of reliable records on both sides makes trying to assess the human cost of the Russian Civil War almost impossible. Casualties in the Red Army directly attributable to combat have been estimated at anything from 400,000 to 1.3 million. White combat casualties lie somewhere between 300,000 and 1.2 million. As many as 400,000 people may have been executed by Red forces during the civil war and up to 50,000 by the Whites. Still, these figures do not come close to showing the total number of deaths directly caused by the war. Famine and disease attributable to the war are believed to have killed anything up to 14 million people in Russia. By any standards, this was the deadliest civil war the world has ever seen.

"When the war began, most observers assumed that the Reds would quickly be defeated. Their approach to military discipline alone was thought to mean that they would be completely ineffective in any confrontation with the more conventional White troops. In the earliest stages, the Red Guards and the Red Army did struggle when fighting the Germans and the Whites, but they soon learned to adapt."

Obviously, not soon enough to fight German troops, only to fight other Russians.

................................................................................................

"Another reason that outside observers assumed that the Whites would be victorious was the support provided by other countries. Great Britain, France, Japan, and the United States all provided troops, materials, and supplies for the Whites. For the most part, foreign troops were only deployed in rear areas, but in the west, aircraft of the Royal Air Force operated against the Red Army and British tanks (sometimes with British crews or commanders) supported the White armies.

"Given these factors, why didn’t the Whites win the Russian Civil War? Part of the answer is geographic. The Reds controlled central Russia including a comprehensive rail network. Working within these shortened, interior lines of supply meant that it was much easier for them to move troops from one theatre to another and to keep the units of the Red Army provided with supplies and replacements. White armies were generally forced to operate with extended supply lines which were vulnerable to interdiction. The ease of supply for Red forces more than made up for the limited support the Whites received from other nations, and in addition, the Bolsheviks were able to use the presence of foreign troops supporting White forces as propaganda that Russia was being invaded."

The part about "Reds controlled central Russia including a comprehensive rail network" does remind one of the Strelnikov encounter scene from Dr. Zhivago.

................................................................................................

"Perhaps the single largest issue was that in the period 1918-1920, the Reds do seem to have been able to call on far wider popular support than the Whites. Even though it wasn’t always true, the vast mass of people associated the Whites with a return to Tsarist Russia. The revolution had provided a break from the iniquities of that system, and few ordinary people were keen to return to the previous way of life. The Whites notably failed to develop a political and social agenda that had widespread popular appeal. This was closely tied in to the issue of land reform. The Bolsheviks had promised a complete redistribution of the ownership of land. In the end, they did not deliver on this promise, but the belief that this change was coming gave the Reds enormous support amongst the ordinary Russian people.

"The other issue was one of centralized control. Lenin, through his leadership of the Bolshevik Party and especially working through his deputies Stalin and Trotsky, was able to exercise complete control over the actions of the Red Army. It was possible to take an overview of the wider situation and to rush troops and supplies to where they were most needed. The White Armies had no such ability.

"The three principal White forces, in the east under Admiral Kolchak, in the south under General Denikin, and in the north under General Yudenich, were each completely separate. It was not possible to transfer troops or equipment between these armies, and their actions were only loosely coordinated. Although Admiral Kolchak was nominally the leader of all White Russian forces, he was only able to exercise the broadest control over Denikin and even over his appointee Yudenich. Because White military actions were not closely coordinated, the Reds were able to move troops from theatre to theatre as required to deal with threats as they arose.

................................................................................................

"Red victory in the Russian Civil War led directly to the establishment of a centrally controlled Communist state and to the export of the ideals of Communism to many other countries around the world. This also led to the Cold War, the armed stand-off between east and west that blighted international relations for more than 40 years after World War II.

"The civil war left deep scars in Russia that only began to heal following the fall of the Communist regime in 1991. In 2002, a statue of Admiral Kolchak was erected in Saint Petersburg. In 2005, the remains of General Denikin were transferred from America and reburied in the Donskoi Monastery in Moscow. In 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the application of the general’s daughter, Marina Denikina, for citizenship in the new, nationalistic Russia. The old Russian national anthem has been resurrected, but with new words suggesting that finally, this country is ready to come to terms with and move on from the horrors of the Russian Civil War."

What about Elizabeth Romanov, the murdered nun who was a sister of Tsarina Alexandra and another Romanov widow? Reds had killed her for no reason.

................................................................................................

"Revolutions and their aftermath are, by their very nature, chaotic. It is tempting to assign particular dates to events and to point in retrospect to certain moments as having particular significance. The reality for the people involved was often perceived very differently. The Russian Civil War, which followed the Russian Revolution of 1917, formed part of a particularly turbulent period. There is no agreement between participants even on when it began and ended or how many lives it cost. What we do know is that opposition by the so-called White faction to the Red Bolshevik assumption of power began immediately after the revolution in 1917, and the first White military units were created in November 1917. However, actual combat between White and Red forces did not take place until early January 1918, and that is now generally accepted as marking the true beginning of the civil war.

................................................................................................

"It is more difficult to say precisely when this war ended. Many people take the evacuation of White forces from Crimea in late 1920 to mark the end of the war. Others look to 1922—the year in which the final large uprisings were crushed by the Bolsheviks and the last foreign troops finally left Russia—as the end. Yet there was still fighting between White and Red military forces in 1923, and sporadic resistance to Red rule in Ukraine, the Caucasus, and elsewhere continued virtually throughout the 1920s. Some might even argue that the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is a continuation of the same conflict.

"This is not a war with a clear-cut beginning and end, nor is it a war that followed conventional military doctrine or approach. The Bolshevik revolution was something entirely new, and its leaders were struggling to understand what a Communist state (and a revolutionary army) might look like. The civil war that ensued was also a war driven not by national interests but by ideology and using new and old weapons in very different ways. This is not a neat or simple story, but understanding the Russian Civil War is critical to any understanding of modern Europe and the world."

................................................................................................

"“They transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus into Russia.”

"—Winston Churchill"

................................................................................................

"At the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, Russia appeared to be one of the most powerful nations on Earth. The Russian army was huge, and the country could conscript vast numbers of additional troops from its population of over 150 million. The rule of the tsar seemed secure; the autocratic Romanovs had ruled the country for more than 300 years. However, under the surface, all was not as stable as it appeared.

"Russia had been wracked by growing and increasingly violent protests against inequality. Assassinations of even senior members of the government led to violent and brutal repression that increased hostility towards the tsar. Food shortages, famines, and industrial unrest led to further protests. This was briefly reduced when Russia entered World War I as an ally of Great Britain and France, fighting against Imperial Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Tsar Nicholas II and others believed that the surge of patriotism that would come from war might reduce the unrest. Initially, they were right.

................................................................................................

"The tsar led Russia’s armed forces, though he had little enthusiasm for the task. Russia had an army of almost 1.4 million men, but its supply and manufacturing infrastructure were archaic and overstretched. It has been estimated that up to 50% of Russian soldiers in service at the beginning of the war lacked essential equipment, including rifles. Fighting better-equipped German troops, the Russians suffered terrible casualties, and by the end of 1914, Russia had lost over one million men killed, wounded, or captured. The supply of ammunition was almost exhausted, and factories were unable to keep pace with demand. The lack of rifles became moot for units that had no bullets.

"In 1915 and 1916, Russian troops continued to be pushed back by a combined German/Austro-Hungarian advance. Refugees streamed east to avoid the fighting and swamped Russian cities. Food and fuel shortages became endemic, made even worse by the severe winter of 1916/1917. Finally, in early March 1917, women began marching in the streets of Petrograd (present-day Saint Petersburg) to protest the lack of bread. The response in the Russian Duma (government) was typified by conservative politician Vasily Shulgin who announced that “Only hot lead could drive this terrible beast, that somehow had burst free, back into its den.”

................................................................................................

"The Duma and the tsar agreed. Fortunately, there were more than 180,000 troops in barracks in and around the city, so there was a ready source of hot lead. The troops were sent out, but then something completely unexpected happened: the troops not only refused to fire on the protesting women (the first time in Russian history that this had happened), but large numbers of them actually joined in protests against the tsar. As the protests grew out of control, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. A provisional government was hastily created to control Russia until elections could be held to determine what might come next. This caught almost everyone by surprise, including those opposed to the existing regime.

................................................................................................

"The Bolsheviks, with the support of many more socialist and anarchist groups, finally succeeded in overthrowing the Provisional Government and taking control of the city of Petrograd on November 8. As news of this spread, there were Red uprisings in many other Russian cities, and by November 15, Moscow was also within control of the Red forces. Lenin triumphantly announced that a revolution had taken place and that Russia was now controlled by the Bolsheviks. The truth was less simple.

"Russia was still at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary, though Russian troops were increasingly unwilling to fight. Large numbers began to desert and stream to the east. Some wanted to join the revolution; others wanted to oppose it. Many simply wanted to go home. When they got home, they would discover that industrial and agricultural production had virtually ended. It was clear that food shortages would turn into famine when winter came. The situation became even more complicated when areas that had previously been controlled by Russia seized the opportunity presented by the revolution to declare independence. These included Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

"Most threatening of all, groups were beginning to form in different areas to oppose the Red takeover of Russia. These so-called Whites had no single leader or ideology other than their opposition to the Bolsheviks. The revolution may have been over, but the civil war was about to begin."

................................................................................................

"“We must put an end once and for all to the papist-Quaker babble about the sanctity of human life.”

"—Leon Trotsky"

................................................................................................

"With the success of the Bolshevik revolution in many Russian cities, Russians found themselves facing a stark choice: they could support the Reds, or they could align themselves with the Whites who stood against them. However, while the Reds had a clear ideology and vision centered on Lenin and the ideas of Karl Marx, the Whites were a much more disparate group. Some were monarchists who wanted to see the return of the tsar. Some were from wealthy families and were instinctively opposed to Bolshevism. Others favored the creation of some form of democratic government. A few were simply adventurers who saw opportunity in the chaos that was engulfing Russia. Most Whites, though, coalesced into military units created by men who had served as senior officers in the armed forces of the tsar.

"Three men would become the main leaders of the anti-revolutionary movement. Generals Anton Denikin and Pyotr Wrangel led large armies in southern Russia, while Admiral Alexander Kolchak led a sizeable force in Siberia. In addition, Generals Nikolai Yudenich and Yevgeny Miller led smaller armies in the north. All these White leaders were united by their opposition to Lenin and the Bolsheviks, but by little else.

................................................................................................

"One critical area in which the Whites failed to develop a coherent approach was that of land reform. This was one of the central issues that had led to the uprising against the tsar. The Church, nobility, and wealthy landlords had owned virtually all the agricultural land in Russia prior to the revolution. The people who worked the land were little more than indentured slaves with no hope of improvement or of ever owning their own land. Revolutionary leaders had seized land and property and promised to re-distribute these to the people, a promise which was overwhelmingly popular. White leaders lacked a single approach to this issue. In many instances, when territory was occupied by White forces, former owners reappeared to claim back their land.

"The vast majority of ordinary people in Russia had been worse off before the revolution, which seemed to promise real change for the better. Many saw White victory as inevitably leading to a return to pre-revolutionary suffering. White leaders never seemed to grasp this, but it was a major factor in ensuring that Whites consistently lacked the broad support of the people that the Reds received.

................................................................................................

"Although on the surface, they seemed more aligned, the Reds themselves were also lacking in cohesion. Although the Bolsheviks led by Lenin were the largest and most powerful single group, there were also substantial numbers of Mensheviks, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, and Right Socialist Revolutionaries who were only loosely affiliated. While factional differences between nominally Red groups did cause problems, on the key issue of land reform all were broadly aligned.

"To further complicated the situation, there were smaller groupings known as the Greens. These included members of nationalist groups seeking independence as well as simple bandits hoping to make a profit from the collapse of the tsarist regime. These Greens might choose to fight for either Reds or Whites (or against either or both) depending on their circumstances and aspirations. Finally, there were the anarchists, the Blacks. They too supported radical land reform, but they opposed the kind of central state control envisaged by the Bolsheviks. Blacks generally fought alongside the other Reds, but they often found themselves directly opposed by the Bolsheviks.

................................................................................................

"Geographically, the Reds, and particularly the Bolsheviks, had a distinct advantage. They controlled Petrograd, Moscow, and much of Central Russia. This included most of Russia’s industrial capacity and, critically, almost all its arms and ammunition manufacturing plants. Central Russia also had more railways than any other part of the country, allowing the Reds to move troops and supplies more quickly than the Whites who were generally reliant on men on foot or horseback and on horse-drawn transport.

"The slogan most often used by the Reds in these early days of revolution was “All power to the Soviets.” Outside Russia, the term “Soviet” became conflated with Bolshevik, Communist, and even Russian, but it had a very particular meaning that was intrinsic in the way in which the new revolutionary state would operate. Soviets were workers’ and soldiers’ councils, which had the power to make important decisions at local levels. They dictated industrial and agricultural output and the conditions in which workers spent their time.

................................................................................................

"In the army, the effect of the soviets was disastrous. On coming to power, the Bolsheviks had created the Red Guards, a military unit formed of volunteers whose role was to protect the state. This was to be an army like no other: there would be no saluting, no trappings of rank, and no orders imposed by superior officers. Instead, elected soldiers’ soviets would make decisions dictated by the will of the majority, including the appointment of officers. These orders would then, so the theory went, be happily acted upon by the enthused troops. As the Red Guards expanded to become the Red Army in February 1918, the same ethos was used.

"In early 1918, Russia was still at war with Germany and Austro-Hungary, and it was possible to test these new concepts in action. Lenin and others were so convinced that these ideas were workable that they expected large numbers of the enemy to defect and join Russian forces once they learned of this revolutionary army. That wasn’t how it worked out. Discipline in the Red Army was non-existent, drunkenness common, and allowing men to elect their officers meant that they generally elected those least likely to get them killed. Against the professional German Army, the nascent Red Army proved almost completely ineffective. One military catastrophe followed another, and Russia seemed powerless to halt the German advance."

That should have told them leftist theory doesn't work.

................................................................................................

"Finally, in March 1918, Lenin and the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in which they withdrew all support for Britain and France, ceded large parts of Ukraine and the Baltic States to Germany, agreed to recognize the independence of the remainder of Ukraine, and gave parts of the South Caucasus to Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. In return, Germany and Austria-Hungary agreed to end their war against Russia.

"In terms of the ceding of territory, this treaty was a crushing blow to Russia, but ending the war against the Central Powers was essential because by that time the Reds were facing increasing military action by the reactionary Whites. They could not continue the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary if they were to survive the coming civil war."

................................................................................................

"“We fully regard civil wars, i.e., wars waged by the oppressed class against the oppressing class, slaves against slave-owners, serfs against land-owners, and wage-workers against the bourgeoisie, as legitimate, progressive and necessary.”

"—Vladimir Lenin"