White army civil war personality. History Lessons: Leaders of the White Movement

It is very difficult to reconcile the “whites” and “reds” in our history. Every position has its own truth. After all, only 100 years ago they fought for it. The struggle was fierce, brother went to brother, father to son. For some, the heroes of Budennov will be the First Cavalry, for others, the volunteers of Kappel. Only those who, hiding behind their position on the Civil War, are wrong, they are trying to erase a whole piece of Russian history from the past. Anyone who draws too far-reaching conclusions about the "anti-people character" of the Bolshevik government denies all Soviet era, all its accomplishments - and eventually slides into outright Russophobia.

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Civil war in Russia - armed confrontation in 1917-1922. between different political, ethnic, social groups and state formations on the territory of the former Russian Empire that followed the coming to power of the Bolsheviks as a result of October revolution 1917. The Civil War was the result of a revolutionary crisis that hit Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907, aggravated during the World War, economic devastation, deep social, national, political and ideological split Russian society. The apogee of this split was a fierce war on a national scale between Soviet and anti-Bolshevik armed forces. The civil war ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks.

The main struggle for power during the Civil War was carried out between the armed formations of the Bolsheviks and their supporters (the Red Guard and the Red Army) on the one hand and the armed formations white movement (white army) - on the other hand, which was reflected in the stable naming of the main parties to the conflict as "red" and "white".

For the Bolsheviks, who relied primarily on the organized industrial proletariat, the suppression of the resistance of their opponents was the only way to maintain power in a peasant country. For many participants in the White movement - the officers, the Cossacks, the intelligentsia, the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy and the clergy - the armed resistance to the Bolsheviks was aimed at returning the lost power and restoring their socio-economic rights and privileges. All these groups were the pinnacle of the counter-revolution, its organizers and inspirers. Officers and the rural bourgeoisie created the first cadres of white troops.

The decisive factor in the course of the Civil War was the position of the peasantry, which accounted for more than 80% of the population, which ranged from passive waiting to active armed struggle. The fluctuations of the peasantry, reacting in this way to the policy of the Bolshevik government and the dictatorships of the white generals, radically changed the balance of power and, ultimately, predetermined the outcome of the war. First of all, we are certainly talking about the middle peasantry. In some areas (the Volga region, Siberia), these fluctuations raised the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to power, and sometimes contributed to the advancement of the White Guards deep into Soviet territory. However, with the course of the Civil War, the middle peasantry leaned towards Soviet power. The middle peasants saw from experience that the transfer of power to the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks inevitably leads to an undisguised general dictatorship, which, in turn, inevitably leads to the return of the landowners and the restoration of pre-revolutionary relations. The strength of the vacillation of the middle peasants in the direction of Soviet power was especially manifested in the combat readiness of the White and Red armies. White armies were essentially combat-ready only as long as they were more or less homogeneous in terms of class. When, as the front expanded and moved forward, the White Guards resorted to mobilizing the peasantry, they inevitably lost their combat capability and fell apart. And vice versa, the Red Army was constantly strengthened, and the mobilized middle peasant masses of the countryside staunchly defended Soviet power from the counter-revolution.

The basis of the counter-revolution in the countryside was the kulaks, especially after the organization of the Kombeds and the beginning of a decisive struggle for grain. The kulaks were only interested in liquidating large landlord farms as competitors in the exploitation of the poor and middle peasants, whose departure opened wide prospects for the kulaks. The struggle of the kulaks against the proletarian revolution took place both in the form of participation in the White Guard armies, and in the form of organizing their own detachments, and in the form of a broad insurrectionary movement in the rear of the revolution under various national, class, religious, even anarchist, slogans. characteristic feature The civil war was the readiness of all its participants to widely use violence to achieve their political goals (see "Red Terror" and "White Terror")

part of the Civil War was armed struggle the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of the general population against the troops of the main warring parties - the "red" and "white". Attempts to declare independence were rebuffed both by the "whites", who fought for a "united and indivisible Russia", and by the "reds", who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the gains of the revolution.

The civil war unfolded under conditions of foreign military intervention and was accompanied by military operations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, both by the troops of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance and the troops of the Entente countries. The motives for the active intervention of the leading Western powers were the implementation of their own economic and political interests in Russia and assistance to the whites in order to eliminate the Bolshevik government. Although the possibilities of the interventionists were limited by the socio-economic crisis and political struggle in the Western countries themselves, the intervention and material assistance to the white armies significantly influenced the course of the war.

The civil war was fought not only on the territory of the former Russian Empire, but also on the territory of neighboring states - Iran (Anzelian operation), Mongolia and China.

Arrest of the emperor and his family. Nicholas II with his wife in Alexander Park. Tsarskoye Selo. May 1917

Arrest of the emperor and his family. Daughters of Nicholas II and his son Alexei. May 1917

Dinner of the Red Army at the fire. 1919

Armored train of the Red Army. 1918

Bulla Viktor Karlovich

Civil War refugees
1919

Distribution of bread for 38 wounded Red Army soldiers. 1918

Red squad. 1919

Ukrainian front.

Exhibition of trophies of the Civil War near the Kremlin, dedicated to the II Congress of the Communist International

Civil War. Eastern front. Armored train of the 6th regiment of the Czechoslovak Corps. Attack on Maryanovka. June 1918

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich

Red commanders of the regiment of the rural poor. 1918

Soldiers of the First Cavalry Army of Budyonny at a rally
January 1920

Otsup Petr Adolfovich

Funeral of victims of the February Revolution
March 1917

July events in Petrograd. Soldiers of the Scooter Regiment, who arrived from the front to suppress the rebellion. July 1917

Work on the site of a train wreck after an anarchist attack. January 1920

Red commander in the new office. January 1920

Commander-in-Chief Lavr Kornilov. 1917

Chairman of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky. 1917

Commander of the 25th Rifle Division of the Red Army Vasily Chapaev (right) and commander Sergei Zakharov. 1918

Sound recording of Vladimir Lenin's speech in the Kremlin. 1919

Vladimir Lenin in Smolny at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars. January 1918

February Revolution. Checking documents on Nevsky Prospekt
February 1917

Fraternization of the soldiers of General Lavr Kornilov with the troops of the Provisional Government. 1 - 30 August 1917

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich

Military intervention in Soviet Russia. The command structure of the White Army units with representatives of foreign troops

Station in Yekaterinburg after the capture of the city by parts of the Siberian army and the Czechoslovak corps. 1918

Demolition of the monument to Alexander III near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Political workers at the staff car. Western front. Voronezh direction

Military portrait

Date of shooting: 1917 - 1919

In the hospital laundry. 1919

Ukrainian front.

Sisters of mercy of the Kashirin partisan detachment. Evdokia Aleksandrovna Davydova and Taisiya Petrovna Kuznetsova. 1919

Detachments of the Red Cossacks Nikolai and Ivan Kashirin in the summer of 1918 became part of the consolidated South Ural partisan detachment of Vasily Blucher, who raided the mountains Southern Urals. Having united near Kungur in September 1918 with units of the Red Army, the partisans fought as part of the troops of the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front. After the reorganization in January 1920, these troops became known as the Army of Labor, whose goal was to restore National economy Chelyabinsk province.

Red commander Anton Boliznyuk, wounded thirteen times

Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Grigory Kotovsky
1919

At the entrance to the building of the Smolny Institute - the headquarters of the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution. 1917

Medical examination of workers mobilized into the Red Army. 1918

On the boat "Voronezh"

Red Army soldiers in the city liberated from the whites. 1919

Overcoats of the 1918 model, which came into use during the civil war, originally in the army of Budyonny, were preserved with minor changes until the military reform of 1939. The machine gun "Maxim" is mounted on the cart.

July events in Petrograd. The funeral of the Cossacks who died during the suppression of the rebellion. 1917

Pavel Dybenko and Nestor Makhno. November - December 1918

Employees of the supply department of the Red Army

Koba / Joseph Stalin. 1918

On May 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR appointed Joseph Stalin responsible in the south of Russia and sent him as the extraordinary representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the procurement of bread with North Caucasus to industrial centers.

The defense of Tsaritsyn is a military campaign of the "red" troops against the "white" troops for control of the city of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War.

Commissar for military and maritime affairs RSFSR Leon Trotsky welcomes soldiers near Petrograd
1919

Commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General Anton Denikin and Ataman of the Great Don Army Afrikan Bogaevsky at a solemn prayer service on the occasion of the liberation of the Don from the troops of the Red Army
June - August 1919

General Radola Gaida and Admiral Alexander Kolchak (left to right) with officers of the White Army
1919

Alexander Ilyich Dutov - ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army

In 1918, Alexander Dutov (1864-1921) declared the new government criminal and illegal, organized armed Cossack squads, which became the base of the Orenburg (southwestern) army. Most of the White Cossacks were in this army. For the first time the name of Dutov became known in August 1917, when he was an active participant in the Kornilov rebellion. After that, Dutov was sent by the Provisional Government to the Orenburg province, where in the fall he fortified himself in Troitsk and Verkhneuralsk. His power lasted until April 1918.

homeless children
1920s

Soshalsky Georgy Nikolaevich

Homeless children transport the city archive. 1920s

WHITE ARMY OF THE CIVIL WAR

white army(Also white guard) - a collective name common in historical literature for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Soviet governments during the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922). During the construction of the White Army, the structure of the old Russian army was mainly used, while almost every single formation had its own characteristics. The military art of the White Army was based on the experience of the First World War, which, however, was strongly imprinted by the specifics of the civil war.

ARMED FORMATIONS

In the north

In North-west

On South

In the East

In Central Asia

COMPOUND

White armies were recruited both on a voluntary basis and on the basis of mobilizations.

On a voluntary basis, they were recruited mainly from officers of the Russian Imperial Army and Navy.

On a mobilization basis, they were recruited from the population of controlled territories and from captured Red Army soldiers.

The number of White armies fighting against the Red Army, according to intelligence estimates by June 1919, was about 300,000 people.

Management. In the first period of the struggle - representatives of the generals of the Russian Imperial Army:

    L. G. Kornilov ,

    General Staff General of Infantry M. V. Alekseev ,

    Admiral, Supreme Ruler of Russia since 1918 A. V. Kolchak

    A. I. Denikin ,*

    General of the cavalry P. N. Krasnov ,

    General of the cavalry A. M. Kaledin ,

    Lieutenant General E. K. Miller ,

    General of Infantry N. N. Yudenich ,

    Lieutenant General V. G. Boldyrev

    Lieutenant General M. K. Diterikhs

    General Staff Lieutenant General I. P. Romanovsky ,

    General Staff Lieutenant General S. L. Markov

    and others.

In subsequent periods, military leaders come to the fore, ending the First World War with more officers and who received general ranks already during the Civil War:

    General Staff Major General M. G. Drozdovsky

    General Staff Lieutenant General V. O. Kappel ,

    General of the cavalry A. I. Dutov ,

    Lieutenant General Ya. A. Slashchev-Krymsky ,

    Lieutenant General A. S. Bakich ,

    Lieutenant General A. G. Shkuro ,

    Lieutenant General G. M. Semyonov ,

    Lieutenant General Baron R. F. Ungern von Sternberg ,

    Major General B. V. Annenkov ,

    Major General Prince P. R. Bermondt-Avalov ,

    Major General N. V. Skoblin ,

    Major General K. V. Sakharov ,

    Major General V. M. Molchanov ,

as well as military leaders who, for various reasons, did not join the white forces at the time of the beginning of their armed struggle:

    P. N. Wrangel - future Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in Crimea General Staff Lieutenant General Baron,

    M. K. Diterikhs - Commander Zemskoy Ratyugeneral-lieutenant.

HISTORY OF CREATION

The first white army was created by the Alekseevskaya Organization on a voluntary basis from former officers, which was also reflected in the name of the army - on 12/25/1917 (01/07/1918) the Volunteer Army was created on the Don.

Three months later, in April 1918, the Defense Council of the Don Army formed the Don Army.

In June 1918, the Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly, based on the detachment of Lieutenant ColonelV. O. Kappelya created the People's Army, and the Provisional Siberian Government at the same time created its own Siberian Army.

On September 23, 1918, the Ufa Directory united the Volga People's Army and the Siberian Army into one Russian Army (not to be confused with the Russian Army of General Wrangel).

In August 1918, the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region in Arkhangelsk created the troops of the Northern Region, sometimes referred to as the Northern Army (not to be confused with the Northern Army of General Rodzianko).

In January 1919, the Don and Volunteer armies were merged into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR).

In June 1919, the Northern Army was created from Russian officers and soldiers of the Northern Corps, which had left the Estonian army. A month later, the army was renamed the North-Western.

In April 1920, in Transbaikalia, from the remnants of Admiral Kolchak's troops under the leadership of General G. M. Semyonov, the Far Eastern Army was created.

In May 1920, the Russian Army was formed from the troops of the All-Union Socialist League that had withdrawn to the Crimean Remains.

In 1921, from the remnants of the Far Eastern Army of General Semyonov in Primorye, the Belopovstanskaya Army was formed, later renamed the Zemstvo Army, since in 1922 the Amur Zemstvo Government was created in Vladivostok.

From November 1918 to January 1920, the armed forces of the White movement recognized the supreme leadership of Admiral A. V. Kolchak. After the defeat of the troops of Admiral Kolchak in Siberia, on January 4, 1920, the supreme power passed to General A. I. Denikin.

THE WHITE MOVEMENT AND THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Back in September 1917, while the future leaders of the White movement were imprisoned in Bykhov, the “Bykhov program”, which was the fruit of the collective labor of the “prisoners” and the main theses of which were transferred to the “draft constitution of General Kornilov” - the very first political declaration of the White movement, which was prepared in December 1917 - January 1918 by L. G. Kornilov said: “Permission of the main state-national and social issues postponed until the Constituent Assembly ... ". In the "constitution ..." this idea was detailed: "The government created under the program of the gene. Kornilov, is responsible in her actions only to the Constituent Assembly, to which she will transfer all the fullness of state-legislative power. The Constituent Assembly, as the sole owner of the Russian Land, must work out the basic laws of the Russian constitution and finally construct the state system.

Since the main task of the white movement was the fight against Bolshevism, the white leaders did not introduce any other tasks of state building into the agenda until this main task was resolved. Such a non-predetermined position was theoretically flawed, but, according to the historian S. Volkov, in conditions when there was no unity on this issue, even among the leaders of the white movement, not to mention the fact that supporters of various forms of the future state structure of Russia were present in its ranks, it seemed the only one possible.

HOSTILITIES

A) Wrestling in the Urals

It acted at the beginning against the Red Guard detachments, from June 1918 - against the 4th and 1st armies of the Eastern, from August 15 - the Red Turkestan fronts. In April 1919, during the general offensive of Kolchak's armies, she broke through the front of the Reds, laid siege to Uralsky, abandoned in January 1919, and reached the approaches to Saratov and Samara. However, limited funds did not allow to master the Urals.

In early July 1919, the troops of the Turkestan Front launched a counteroffensive against the Ural army. The well-equipped and armed 25th Rifle Division, transferred from Ufa, under the command of V. I. Chapaeva 5-11 July defeated units of the Ural army, broke through the blockade of Uralsk and 07/11/1919. entered the city. The Ural army began to retreat along the entire front.

On 07/21/1919, the operational control of the Ural Army was transferred by Admiral Kolchak A.V. After the transition of the Ural Army into the operational subordination of the command of the All-Union Socialist Republic, its composition was divided into 3 areas:

    Buzulukskoye, as part of the 1st Ural Cossack Corps (commander, colonel Izergin M.I.); with his 1st, 2nd and 6th Cossack and 3rd Iletsk, 1st Ural infantry divisions and their 13th Orenburg, 13th, 15th and 18th Cossack, 5th Ural infantry, 12th Consolidated Cossack and several other separate regiments (total 6,000 bayonets and sabers);

    Saratov, as part of the 2nd Iletsk Cossack Corps (commander, Lieutenant General Akutin V.I.); and his 5th Cossack division with a number of separate regiments (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th Ural Cossack, 33rd Nikolayevsky Rifle, Guryevsky Foot Regiments, total 8,300 fighters);

    Astrakhansko-Guryevskoye, as part of the Ural-Astrakhan Cossack Corps (commander, Major General Tetruev N. G., partisan detachments of Colonels Kartashev and Chizhinsky and the Separate 9th Ural Cossack Regiment (about 1,400 fighters).

At the end of July 1919, the Ural army withdrew to Lbischensk (which it left on August 9, 1919), then further down the Urals. In late August-early September, a special detachment of Cossacks of the 1st divisionT. I. Sladkova and peasants Lieutenant Colonel F.F. Poznyakov (1192 soldiers with 9 machine guns and 2 guns) under the general command of Colonel N. N. Borodin, undertook a successful raid into the rear of the Reds, to Lbischensk, where on September 5, 1919. destroyed the entire headquarters of the 25th Infantry Division, which was also the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front, led by SV. I. Chapaev, returning Lbischensk to the Ural army. According to tentative estimates, during the Lbischensky battle, the Reds lost at least 2,500 people killed and captured. The total losses of the Whites during this operation amounted to 118 people - 24 killed (including Major General (posthumously) N. N. Borodin) and 94 wounded. The trophies taken in Lbischensk turned out to be very large. About 700 people were taken prisoner, a lot of ammunition, food, equipment, a radio station, machine guns, cinematographic cameras, several airplanes, cars, etc. were captured.

During the raid, important results were achieved: the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front was destroyed, as a result of which the troops of the front lost control, decomposed and were demoralized. Parts of the Turkestan Front hurriedly retreated to the positions they occupied in July, in the region of Uralsk, and in fact ceased active hostilities. The Cossacks, in October 1919, again surrounded and besieged the city.

But after the collapse in October-November 1919 of the Eastern Front of Kolchak, the Ural army was blocked by superior forces of the Reds, thereby losing any sources of replenishment of weapons and ammunition. The defeat of the Urals by the Bolsheviks was only a matter of time.

On November 2, the Turkestan Front, as part of the 1st and 4th armies (18.5 thousand bayonets, 3.5 thousand sabers, 86 guns and 365 machine guns) launched a general offensive against the Ural army (5.2 thousand bayonets, 12 thousand sabers , 65 guns, 249 machine guns), planning to encircle and destroy the main forces of the Urals with concentrated attacks on Lbischensk from the north and east. Under the pressure of the superior forces of the Reds, the Ural army began to retreat. On November 20, the Reds captured Lbischensk, however, they could not surround the main forces of the Urals. The front stabilized south of Lbischensk. The Turkestan front pulled up reserves and replenished with weapons and ammunition. The Ural army had neither reserves nor ammunition. On December 10, 1919, the Reds resumed their offensive. The resistance of the weakened Ural units was broken, the front collapsed. On December 11, Art. Slamihinskaya, on December 18, the Reds captured the city of Kalmykov, thereby cutting off the retreat paths for the Iletsk corps, and on December 22 - the village of Gorsky, one of the last strongholds of the Urals before Guryev.

The commander of the army, General V.S. Tolstov, and his headquarters withdrew to the city of Guryev. The remnants of the Iletsk Corps, having suffered heavy losses in the battles during the retreat and from the typhus and relapsing fever that mowed down the ranks of the personnel, were almost completely destroyed on January 4, 1920 and captured by the Red troops near the settlement of Maly Baibuz. At the same time, the Kyrgyz regiment of this corps, almost in full force, went over to the side of the Alashordans, who at that time acted as allies of the Bolsheviks, having previously “cut out” the headquarters of the Iletsk Corps, the 4th and 5th Iletsk divisions, and “surrendered” the commander to the red corps of Lieutenant General Akutin V.I., who was shot by the troops of the 25th (“Chapaevskaya”) division (according to other sources, he was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later shot). The 6th Iletsk division, retreating to the Volga through the steppe of the Bukey Horde, almost completely died from disease, hunger, and mainly from the fire of the red units pursuing it.

On January 5, 1920, the city of Guryev fell. Part of the personnel of the Ural army and civilians were captured, part of the Cossacks went over to the side of the Reds. The remnants of the units of the Ural army, led by the commander of the army, General V.S. Tolstov, with carts and the civilian population (families and refugees), totaling about 15,000 people, decided to go south, believing to join the Turkestan army of General Kazanovich B.I. (VSYUR troops of General Denikin). The transition took place in the most difficult conditions of a harsh winter, in January-March 1920, in the absence of sufficient drinking water, a catastrophic shortage of food and medicine. The transition was carried out along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea to Fort Aleksandrovsky. After arriving at the fort, civilians, the wounded and sick, were supposed to be evacuated on the ships of the Caspian flotilla of the All-Union Socialist Republic to the other side of the sea in Port-Petrovsk. By the time they arrived at Fort Aleksandrovsky, less than 3 thousand Cossacks remained from the army, most of whom were sick (mostly different forms typhus), or frostbite. The military meaning of the campaign was lost, since by this time Denikin's troops in the Caucasus were retreating and the port of Petrovsk was abandoned these days (the last days of March 1920). On April 4, 1920, from the port of Petrovsk, which became the main base of the red Volga-Caspian flotilla, the destroyer Karl Liebknecht (until February 1919 had the name Finn) and the Zorki fighter boat approached the fort. He later wrote in a report:

A detachment of 214 people (several generals, officers, Cossacks, civilians (family members), led by ataman V.S. Tolstov, left for Persia on April 4, 1920, and the Ural army ceased to exist. The campaign from Fort Aleksandrovsky to Persia was detailed described in the book by V. S. Tolstov “From red paws to an unknown distance” (Campaign of the Urals), first published in 1921 in Constantinople, at present the book is republished in 2007 in Uralsk, in the series “Ural Library” by the publishing house Optima LLP.

B) Turkestan military organization

The TVO was preparing an uprising against the Soviet regime in Turkestan. Active assistance to the organization was provided by agents of foreign intelligence services, primarily English from the border area, and agents acting under the guise of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in Tashkent under the government of the Turkestan Republic. Initially, a speech against Soviet power in the region was scheduled for August 1918, but for a number of reasons, the date of this speech later had to be moved to the spring of 1919.

The Turkestan military organization included many officers, led by Colonel P. G. Kornilov (brother of the famous leader of the white movement L. G. Kornilov), Colonel I. M. Zaitsev, Lieutenant GeneralL. L. Kondratovich, former assistant to the Governor-General of Turkestan, General E. P. Dzhunkovsky Colonel Blavatsky. Later, the commissar for military affairs of the Turkestan Republic, K., joined the ranks of the TVO. P. Osipov, in whose environment such officers as Colonel Rudnev, orderly Osipova Bott, Gaginsky, Savin, Butenin, Stremkovsky and others played a prominent role.

Ultimately, all the anti-Bolshevik forces of the region rallied around the TVO - the Cadets, Mensheviks, Right Social Revolutionaries and bourgeois nationalists, Basmachi, and Muslim clergy, former officials of the tsarist administration, Dashnaks, Bundists. The headquarters of the TVO established contact with Ataman Dutov, General Denikin, Kazakh nationalists, the Alash Ordas, the Emir of Bukhara, the leaders of the Ferghana and Turkmen Basmachi, the Caspian White Guards, and the British consuls in Kashgar, Kulja, and Mashhad. The leaders of the organization signed an agreement under which they pledged to transfer Turkestan under an English protectorate for a period of 55 years. In turn, the representative of the British intelligence services in Central Asia, Malleson, promised the representatives of the TVO assistance in the amount of 100 million rubles, 16 mountain guns, 40 machine guns, 25,000 rifles and the corresponding amount of ammunition. Thus, representatives of the British intelligence services not only helped the conspirators, they determined the goals and objectives of the organization and controlled its actions.

However, in October 1918, the special services of the Turkestan Republic - the TurkChK, together with the criminal investigation department of Tashkent - got on the trail of the TVO, after which a number of arrests were made among the leaders of the organization. The leaders of the underground who remained at large left the city, but some branches of the organization survived and continued to operate. The representative of General Malesson in Tashkent - Bailey went into hiding. It was the TVO that played an important role in initiating the uprising led by Konstantin Osipov in January 1919. At the last stage of its existence, representatives of the new Soviet nomenklatura, the Bolshevik-Leninist Agapov and the technician Popov, actually joined the ranks of the TVO.

After the defeat of the uprising, the officers who left Tashkent formed the Tashkent Officer Partisan Detachment (101 people), which since March fought together with other anti-Bolshevik formations against the red units in the Ferghana Valley, and then near Bukhara. Then the remnants of the Tashkent officer partisan detachment joined with units of the Turkestan army.

IN) Wrestling in the Northwest

General Nikolai Yudenichcreated on the territory of EstoniaNorth-Western Armyto fight the Soviet regime. The army numbered from 5.5 to 20 thousand soldiers and officers.

On August 11, 1919, the Government of the North-Western Region was established in Tallinn (Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance - Stepan Lianozov, Minister of War - Nikolai Yudenich, Minister of Marine - Vladimir Pilkini, etc.). On the same day the Government of the North-Western region, under pressure from the British, who promised arms and equipment for the army in exchange for this recognition, recognized the independence of Estonia. However, the all-Russian government of Kolchak did not approve this decision.

After the recognition of the independence of Estonia by the Government of the Russian North-West region, Great Britain showed him financial assistance, and also carried out minor deliveries of weapons and ammunition.

N. N. Yudenich tried twice to take Petrograd (in spring and autumn), but each time failed.

The spring offensive (5.5 thousand bayonets and sabers for the whites versus 20 thousand for the reds) of the Northern Corps (from July 1, the North-Western Army) to Petrograd began on May 13, 1919. The Whites broke through the front near Narva and, moving around Yamburg, forced the Reds to retreat. On May 15, they captured Gdov. On May 17, Yamburg fell, and on May 25, Pskov. By the beginning of June, the Whites reached the approaches to Luga and Gatchina, threatening Petrograd. But the Reds transferred reserves near Petrograd, bringing the strength of their grouping, which was operating against the North-Western Army, to 40 thousand bayonets and sabers, and in mid-July went on the counteroffensive. In the course of heavy fighting, they pushed back the small units of the North-Western Army across the Luga River, and on August 28 they captured Pskov.

Autumn attack on Petrograd. On October 12, 1919, the North-Western Army (20 thousand bayonets and sabers against 40 thousand of the Reds) broke through the Soviet front at Yamburg and on October 20, 1919, having taken Tsarskoye Selo, went to the suburbs of Petrograd. The Whites captured the Pulkovo Heights and on the extreme left flank broke into the outskirts of Ligovo, and scout patrols started fighting at the Izhora plant. But, having no reserves and not having received support from Finland and Estonia, after ten days of fierce and unequal battles near Petrograd with the Red troops (whose number grew to 60 thousand people), the North-Western Army could not capture the city. Finland and Estonia refused to help, because the leadership thiswhite army never recognized the independence of these countries. On November 1, the retreat of the North-Western White Army began.

By mid-November 1919, Yudenich's army retreated to the territory of Estonia with stubborn battles. After the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty between the RSFSR and Estonia, 15 thousand soldiers and officers of the North-Western Army of Yudenich, under the terms of this agreement, were first disarmed, and then 5 thousand of them were captured by the Estonian authorities and sent to concentration camps.

Despite the exodus of the White armies from native land as a result of the Civil War, in the historical perspective, the White movement was by no means defeated: once in exile, it continued to fight against the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia and beyond.

"WHITE EMIGRATION"

White emigration, which since 1919 has assumed a massive character, was formed in the course of several stages. The first stage is connected with the evacuation of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin from Novorossiysk in February 1920. The second stage - with the departure of the Russian Army, Lieutenant General Baron P. N. Wrangel from Crimea in November 1920, the third - with the defeat of the troops of Admiral A. V. Kolchakai with the evacuation of the Japanese army from Primorye in the 1920-1921s. After the evacuation of the Crimea, the remnants of the Russian Army were deployed in Turkey, where General P. N. Wrangel, his headquarters and senior commanders were able to restore it as fighting force. The key task of the command was, firstly, to obtain material assistance from the Entente allies in the required amount, secondly, to fend off all their attempts to disarm and disband the army, and, thirdly, to reorganize and demoralize the units disorganized and demoralized by defeats and evacuation put in order, restoring discipline and morale.

The legal position of the Russian Army and military alliances was complex: the legislation of France, Poland and a number of other countries on whose territory they were located did not allow the existence of any foreign organizations "having the appearance of formations arranged according to a military model." The powers of the Entente sought to turn the Russian army, which had retreated, but retained its fighting spirit and organization, into a community of emigrants. “Even more than physical deprivation, we were pressed by complete political lack of rights. No one was guaranteed against the arbitrariness of any agent of the power of each of the powers of the Entente. Even the Turks, who themselves were under the regime of arbitrariness of the occupying authorities, were guided by the right of the strong in relation to us, ”wrote N.V. Savich, Wrangel’s employee responsible for finances. That is why Wrangel decides to transfer his troops to the Slavic countries.

In the spring of 1921, Baron P. N. Wrangel turned to the Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments with a request about the possibility of resettling the personnel of the Russian Army in Yugoslavia. Parts were promised maintenance at the expense of the treasury, which included rations and a small salary. September 1, 1924 N. Wrangel issued an order on the formation of the Russian General Military Union (ROVS). It included all units, as well as military societies and unions that accepted the order for execution. The internal structure of individual military units remained intact. The ROVS itself acted as a unifying and leading organization. The Commander-in-Chief became its head, the general management of the affairs of the EMRO was concentrated in the headquarters of Wrangel. From this moment on, we can talk about the transformation of the Russian Army into an emigre military organization. The Russian All-Military Union became the legitimate successor to the White Army. This can be said, referring to the opinion of its creators: “The formation of the ROVS prepares the possibility, in case of need, under the pressure of the general political situation, to accept the Russian army new form existence in the form of military alliances. This "form of being" made it possible to fulfill the main task of the military command in exile - the preservation of existing and the education of new army personnel.

An integral part of the confrontation between the military-political emigration and the Bolshevik regime on the territory of Russia was the struggle of the special services: reconnaissance and sabotage groups of the ROVS with the bodies of the OGPU - NKVD, which took place in various regions of the planet.

White emigration in the political spectrum of the Russian diaspora

The political moods and passions of the initial period of the Russian emigration represented a fairly wide range of currents, almost completely reproducing the picture political life pre-October Russia. In the first half of 1921, a characteristic feature was the strengthening of monarchist tendencies, which were explained, first of all, by the desire of ordinary refugees to rally around a “leader” who could protect their interests in exile and in the future ensure their return to their homeland. Such hopes were associated with the personality of P. N. Wrangel and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, to whom General Wrangel resubordinated the ROVS as the Supreme Commander.

The white emigration lived with the hope of returning to Russia and liberating it from the totalitarian regime of communism. However, the emigration was not united: from the very beginning of the existence of the Russian Diaspora, there was a fierce struggle between supporters of reconciliation with the regime established in sub-Soviet Russia (“Smenovekhites”) and supporters of an implacable position in relation to the communist government and its legacy. White emigration, led by the ROVS and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, formed the camp of irreconcilable opponents of the "anti-national regime in Russia." In the thirties, part of the emigrant youth, the children of white fighters, decided to go on the offensive against the Bolsheviks. It was the national youth of the Russian emigration, first called the "National Union of Russian Youth", later renamed the "National Labor Union of the New Generation" (NTSNP). The goal was simple: to oppose Marxism-Leninism with another idea based on solidarity and patriotism. At the same time, the NTSNP never associated itself with the White movement, criticized the Whites, considering itself a political party of a fundamentally new type. This eventually led to an ideological and organizational break between the NTSNP and the ROVS, which continued to remain in the previous positions of the White movement and was critical of the "national boys" (as members of the NTSNP began to be called in exile).

The civil war became a terrible test for Russia. This page of history, which has been glorified for many decades, was in fact shameful. Fratricide, numerous betrayals, robberies and violence coexisted in it with exploits and self-sacrifice. The white army consisted of different people - people from all classes, representatives of various nationalities that inhabited huge country and those with different backgrounds. The Red troops were also not a homogeneous mass. Both opposing sides experienced largely similar difficulties. In the end, after four years, the Reds won. Why?

When did the Civil War start

When it comes to the beginning of the Civil War, historians give different dates. For example, Krasnov put forward units subordinate to him in order to take control of Petrograd on October 25, 1917. Or another fact: General Alekseev arrived in the Don to organize the Volunteer Army - this happened on November 2. And here is also the Declaration of Milyukov, published in the newspaper Donskaya Rech for December 27th. Why is there no reason to consider it an official declaration of war In a sense, these three versions, like many others, are true. In the last two months of 1917, the Volunteer White Army was formed (and this could not happen all at once). IN civil war it became the only serious force capable of resisting the Bolsheviks.

Personnel and social profile of the White Army

The backbone of the white movement was the Russian officers. Beginning in 1862, its social class structure underwent changes, but these processes reached a particular impetus during the First World War. If in the middle of the 19th century, belonging to the highest military leadership was the lot of the aristocracy, then at the beginning of the next century, commoners began to be increasingly admitted into it. The famous commanders of the White Army can serve as an example. Alekseev is the son of a soldier, Kornilov's father was a cornet of the Cossack army, and Denikin was a serf. Contrary to the propaganda stereotypes that were introduced into the mass consciousness, there could be no talk of some kind of “white bone”. The officers of the White Army, by their origin, could represent a social cross-section of the entire Russian Empire. Infantry schools for the period from 1916 to 1917 released 60% of people from peasant families. In Golovin, out of a thousand warrant officers (junior lieutenants, according to the Soviet system military ranks) there were 700 of them. In addition to them, 260 officers came from the philistine, working and merchant environment. There were also nobles - four dozen.

The White Army was founded and shaped by the notorious "cook's children". Only five percent of the organizers of the movement were wealthy and eminent people, the income of the rest before the revolution consisted only of officer salaries.

Modest debut

The officer intervened political events immediately after It was an organized military force, the main advantage of which was discipline and the availability of combat skills. The officers, as a rule, did not have political convictions in the sense of belonging to a particular party, but they had a desire to restore order in the country and avoid the collapse of the state. As for the number, the entire White army, as of January 1918 (the campaign of General Kaledin against Petrograd), consisted of seven hundred Cossacks. The demoralization of the troops led to an almost complete reluctance to fight. Not only ordinary soldiers, but also officers were extremely reluctant (about 1% of the total) to obey orders for mobilization.

By the beginning of full-scale hostilities, the Volunteer White Army numbered up to seven thousand soldiers and Cossacks, commanded by a thousand officers. She did not have any stocks of food and weapons, as well as support from the population. It seemed that the imminent collapse was inevitable.

Siberia

After the seizure of power by the Reds in Tomsk, Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, underground anti-Bolshevik centers created by officers began to operate. corps was the signal for their open action against the Soviet regime in May-June 1918. The West Siberian Army was created (commander - General A.N. Grishin-Almazov), in which volunteers began to enroll. Soon its number exceeded 23 thousand. By August, the White army, having united with the troops of Yesaul G. M. Semenov, formed into two corps (4th East Siberian and 5th Amur) and controlled a vast territory from the Urals to Baikal. It numbered about 60 thousand bayonets, 114 thousand unarmed volunteers under the command of almost 11 thousand officers.

North

The White Army in the Civil War, in addition to Siberia and the Far East, fought on three more main fronts: Southern, Northwestern and Northern. Each of them had its own specifics both in terms of the operational situation and in terms of the contingent. The most professionally trained officers who passed German war. In addition, they were distinguished by excellent education, upbringing and courage. Many commanders of the White Army came from Ukraine and owed their salvation from the Bolshevik terror to the German troops, which explained their Germanophilia, others had traditional sympathies for the Entente. This situation has sometimes led to conflicts. The northern white army was relatively small.

Northwestern White Army

It was formed with the support of the German armed forces in opposition to the Bolshevik Red Army. After the departure of the Germans, its composition consisted of up to 7000 bayonets. It was the least prepared White Guard front, which, however, was accompanied by temporary success. The sailors of the Chudskaya flotilla, together with the cavalry detachment of Balakhovich and Permykin, having become disillusioned with the communist idea, decided to go over to the side of the White Guards. Volunteers-peasants also joined the growing army, and then high school students were forcibly mobilized. The Northwestern Army fought with varying success and became one of the examples of the curiosity of the entire war. Numbering 17 thousand fighters, it was controlled by 34 generals and many colonels, among whom were those who were not even twenty years old.

South of Russia

Events on this front were decisive in the fate of the country. Population over 35 million, territory equal in area to a couple of large European countries, equipped with a developed transport infrastructure (seaports, railways) were controlled by Denikin's white forces. The south of Russia could exist separately from the rest of the territory of the former Russian Empire: it had everything for autonomous development, including Agriculture and industry. The generals of the White Army, who received an excellent military education and many-sided experience in combat operations with Austria-Hungary and Germany, had every chance of winning victories over the often poorly educated enemy commanders. However, the problems were still the same. People did not want to fight, and it was not possible to create a single ideological platform. Monarchists, democrats, liberals were united only by the desire to resist Bolshevism.

Deserters

Both the Red and the White armies suffered from the same disease: representatives of the peasantry did not want to voluntarily join them. Forced mobilization led to a decrease in overall combat capability. Russian officers, regardless of traditionally constituted a special caste, far from the soldier masses, which caused internal contradictions. The scale of punitive measures applied to deserters was monstrous on both sides of the front, but the Bolsheviks practiced executions more often and more decisively, including showing cruelty towards the families of those who had fled. In addition, they were bolder in their promises. As the number of conscripted soldiers grew, "eroding" combat-ready officer regiments, it became difficult to control the performance of combat missions. There were practically no reserves, the supply was deteriorating. There were other problems that led to the defeat of the army in the South, which was the last stronghold of the whites.

Myths and reality

The image of a White Guard officer, dressed in an impeccable tunic, certainly a nobleman with a sonorous surname, spending his leisure time drinking and singing romances, is far from the truth. We had to fight in conditions of a constant shortage of weapons, ammunition, food, uniforms and everything else, without which it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain an army in a combat-ready state. The Entente provided support, but this assistance was not enough, plus there was also a moral crisis, expressed in a sense of struggle with one's own people.

After the defeat in the Civil War, Wrangel and Denikin found salvation abroad. In 1920, the Bolsheviks shot Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. The army (White) with each bloody year lost more and more new territories. All this led to the forced evacuation from Sevastopol in 1922 of the surviving units of the once powerful army. A little later, the last pockets of resistance on Far East.

Many songs of the White Army, after a certain alteration of the texts, became Red Guards. The words “for Holy Rus'” were replaced by the phrase “for the power of the Soviets”, a similar fate awaited other wonderful new names (“Through the valleys and along the hills”, “Kakhovka”, etc.) Today, after decades of oblivion, they are available to listeners who are interested in history of the White movement.

The White Army did not have strong popular support. The opposite point of view is rooted in the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly, when even at the fronts the majority of votes was won not by the Bolsheviks, but by the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

Community support

The social base of the Red Army was initially much stronger than the White Army. The Bolsheviks could rely on the support of the workers and the peasant poor. These categories of the population could always be mobilized for rations and a small allowance.

The middle peasants fought both against the Whites and the Reds, but they were reluctant to go to foreign provinces and easily moved from one camp to another.

After mass mobilization became the main principle of the formation of the White Army, qualitative composition its troops deteriorated markedly and, in the absence of broad social support, this led to a significant decrease in combat capability.

In addition, by the beginning of the Civil War, the Bolsheviks had already formed a terrorist network, in which yesterday's criminals, raiders and blatari were involved. They harassed regions controlled by whites with sabotage.

aristocrats

If you watch Soviet films about the Civil War, you can see that white officers are all intelligent people, "white bones", nobles and aristocrats. They listen to romances, enter into officer disputes and indulge in nostalgia for the former Russia.

However, this picture is, of course, greatly embellished.

The vast majority of white officers were from the so-called raznochintsy. Not all of them were even literate, which can be found today if you look at the documents of the selection committee of the Academy of the General Staff.

The officers entering it showed "poor knowledge of history and geography", "lack of clarity of thought and general indiscipline of the mind", and made many gross mistakes. And these were not just officers, but the best, since not everyone could qualify for admission to the Academy. Of course, we will not argue that all white officers were illiterate, but the fact that they all had "blue blood" is not true.

Desertion

When today they talk about the reasons for the defeat of the White Army, they like to talk about mass desertion from there. We will not deny that desertion took place, but both its causes and its scale on the opposing sides were different.

In addition to individual cases of voluntary departure from the White Army, there were also massive desertions, which was caused by a number of reasons.

Firstly, Denikin's army, despite the fact that it controlled enough large territories, and could not significantly increase its population due to the inhabitants living on them.

Secondly, in the rear of the whites, gangs of “greens” or “blacks” often operated, who fought against both the whites and the reds. Deserters were often among them. However, all the same, other things being equal, many more people deserted from the Red Army. In just one year (1919-1920), at least 2.6 million people voluntarily left the Red Army, which exceeded the total number of the White Army.

Allied Support

The role of intervention in helping the White Army is greatly exaggerated. The troops of the interventionists practically did not clash with the Red Army, with the exception of minor battles in the North, and in Siberia they even collaborated with the Bolsheviks.

Assistance to the White Army was limited, by and large, only to military supplies.

But the "allies" provided this assistance far from being in vain. They had to pay for armaments with gold reserves and grain, which is why the peasants were the first to suffer.

As a result, the popularity of the movement for the restoration of the "former" Russia was steadily declining. Yes, and this help was insignificant. Denikin, for example, the British supplied only a few dozen tanks, although after the First World War they had thousands in service.

Despite the fact that the last military formations were ousted from the territory of the USSR (in the Far East) in 1925, in fact, the whole point of intervention for the Entente countries became obsolete after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

Captivity

The myth that white officers were very ideological and even under pain of death refused to surrender to the Bolsheviks, unfortunately, is only a myth. Only near Novorossiysk in March 1920, the Red Army captured 10,000 Denikin officers, 9,660 Kolchak officers.

Most of the prisoners were accepted into the Red Army.

Because of a large number former whites in the Red Army, the military leadership of the Bolsheviks even introduced a limit on the number of white officers in the Red Army - no more than 25% of the command staff. "Surplus" went to the rear, or went to teach in military schools.

ROVS

On August 31, 1924, the self-named "guardian", Kirill Vladimirovich, declared himself the All-Russian Emperor Kirill I. Thus, the army automatically passed under his command, since formally it was subordinate to the emperor.

But the next day the army was gone - it was dissolved by Wrangel himself, and in its place appeared the Russian All-Military Union, which the same Wrangel headed. Oddly enough, but the ROVS exists, to this day, following the same principles of 1924.

Wrangel and Blumkin

The Wrangel formations caused serious concern among the Soviet command. Several assassination attempts were even organized on Wrangel. One of them ended before it even started.

In the fall of 1923, Yakov Blumkin, the murderer of the German ambassador Mirbach, knocked on Wrangel's door.

The Chekists posed as French cameramen, whom Wrangel had previously agreed to pose for. The box imitating the camera was filled to the brim with weapons, an additional one - a Lewis machine gun was hidden in a case from a tripod. But the conspirators immediately made a serious mistake - they knocked on the door, which was completely unacceptable both in Serbia, where the action took place, and in France, where they switched to doorbells a long time ago. The guards rightly considered that only people who had come from Soviet Russia could knock, and, just in case, they did not open the gate.

National politics

The big mistake of the White Army was that it lost" national question". Denikin's concept of "one and indivisible Russia" did not even allow a discussion of the issue of self-determination national territories that were part of Russia.

During the capture of Kyiv, Denikin, who denied the independence of Ukraine, could not agree with the leadership of the UNR and the Galician army.

This led to an armed confrontation, which, although it ended in the victory of Denikin, might not have taken place at all. This deprived the white movement of the support of national minorities, many of which were opposed to the Bolsheviks.

General's honor

Was in the history of the White Army and his "Judas". They became the French General Janin. He promised to ensure, if possible, Kolchak's safe passage to wherever he wanted. Kolchak took the general at his word, but he did not keep him. Upon arrival in Irkutsk, Kolchak was detained by the Czechs and first handed over to the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Political Center, and then ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks and was shot on February 7, 1920. Janin received the nickname "general without honor" for his betrayal.

Annenkov

As we have already said, the whites were not entirely aristocrats with an impeccable sense of tact, there were real "outlaws" among them. The most famous of them can be called General Annenkov. His cruelty was legendary. A participant in World War I became famous as a commander of a raid detachment, he had awards. He raised an uprising in Siberia in 1918. He brutally suppressed the Bolshevik uprising in the Slavogorsk and Pavlodar districts. Having seized the congress of peasants, he cut down 87 people. He tortured many people who were not involved in the uprising. Men were cut down by villages, women were raped and cut down. There were many mercenaries in Annenkov's detachment: Afghans, Uighurs, Chinese. The victims numbered in the thousands. After the defeat of Kolchak, Annenkov withdrew to Semirechie, crossed the border with China. He spent three years in a Chinese prison. In 1926 he was extradited to the Bolsheviks and shot a year later.

The White movement or “whites” is a politically heterogeneous force formed at the first stage of the Civil War. The main goals of the “whites” are the fight against the Bolsheviks.

The movement was made up of adherents of various political forces: socialists, monarchists, republicans. The "Whites" united around the idea of ​​a great and indivisible Russia and existed simultaneously with other anti-Bolshevik forces.

Historians offer several versions of the origin of the term "White movement":

  • During the French Revolution White color chosen by monarchists who opposed the ideals of the revolution. This color symbolized the royal dynasty of France. The use of white reflected Political Views. Thus, the researchers deduce the origin of the name from the ideals of the members of the movement. There is an opinion that the Bolsheviks called “white” all opponents of the revolutionary changes of 1917, although among them were not only monarchists.
  • The second version is that during the October Revolution, opponents of the revolution used former armbands. It is believed that this is what gave the name to the movement.

There are several versions of the time of the birth of the White movement:

  • The spring of 1917 is an opinion based on the recollections of some eyewitnesses of the events. A. Denikin argued that the movement was born in response to the Mogilev Officers' Congress, where the slogan "Save the Fatherland!" Was proclaimed. The main idea behind the birth of such a movement was the preservation of Russian statehood, the salvation of the army.
  • Politician and historian P. Milyukov argued that the White movement consolidated in the summer of 1917 as an anti-Bolshevik front. Ideologically, the bulk of the movement are Cadets and socialists. The beginning of the active actions of the "whites" is called the Kornilov performance in August 1917, the leaders of which subsequently became famous figures White movement of the South of Russia.

The phenomenon of the White movement - it consolidated scattered, hostile political forces, the main idea of ​​​​which was state-centrism.

The basis of the "whites" - officers Russian army, professional military. important place among the Whites were occupied by peasants, from whom some of the leaders of the movement came. There were representatives of the clergy, the bourgeoisie, the Cossacks, the intelligentsia. The political backbone is the Cadets, the monarchists.

The political goals of the "whites":

  • The destruction of the Bolsheviks, whose power the "whites" considered illegal and anarchic. The movement fought for the restoration of the pre-revolutionary order.
  • The struggle for an indivisible Russia.
  • Convocation and start of work of the People's Assembly, which should be based on the protection of statehood, universal suffrage.
  • Fight for freedom of belief.
  • The elimination of all economic problems, the solution of the agrarian question in favor of the people of Russia.
  • Formation of active and active local authorities and granting them broad rights in self-government.

Historian S. Volkov notes that the ideology of the "whites" was, in general, moderately monarchical. The researcher notes that the "whites" did not have a clear political program, but only defended their values. The emergence of the White Guard movement was a normal reaction to the chaos reigning in the state.

common opinion about political structure Russia was not formed among the “whites”. The movement planned to overthrow the criminal, in their opinion, the Bolshevik regime and solve further fate statehood during the National Constituent Assembly.

Researchers note the evolution in the ideals of the "whites": at the first stage of the struggle, they sought only to preserve the statehood and integrity of Russia, starting from the second stage, this desire turned into the idea of ​​overthrowing all the achievements of the revolution.

In the occupied territories, the "whites" established a military dictatorship, within these state formations the laws of pre-revolutionary times were in force with the changes introduced by the Provisional Government. Some laws were adopted directly in the occupied territories. In foreign policy The "whites" were guided by the idea of ​​maintaining obligations to the allied countries. First of all, this concerns the countries of the Entente.

Stages of activity of the "whites":

    At the first stage (1917 - early 1918), the movement developed rapidly, he managed to seize the strategic initiative. In 1917, there was still practically no social support and funding. Gradually, underground White Guard organizations were formed, the core of which was made up of officers of the former tsarist army. This stage can be called the period of formation and formation of the structure of the movement and the main ideas. The first phase was successful for the "whites". Main reason - high level training of the army, while the "red" army was unprepared, fragmented.

    In 1918 there was a change in the balance of power. At the beginning of the stage, the “whites” received social support in the form of peasants who were not satisfied with the economic policy of the Bolsheviks. Some officer organizations began to emerge from the underground. An example of a vivid anti-Bolshevik struggle was the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps.

    At the end of 1918 - the beginning of 1919 - the time of active support of the "white" states of the Entente. The military potential of the "whites" was gradually strengthened.

    Since 1919, the “whites” have been losing the support of foreign invaders, and have been defeated by the Red Army. The military dictatorships founded earlier fell under the onslaught of the "Reds". The actions of the "whites" were not successful due to a complex of economic, political and social reasons. Since the 1920s, the term "whites" has been applied to emigrants.

Many political forces, consolidated around the idea of ​​fighting Bolshevism, formed the White movement, which became a serious opponent of the "Red" revolutionaries.

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