Russian Civil War: The Failed Fightback Against Bolshevism
The Russian Civil War (1917-22) began shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917. The Bolsheviks (the Reds) immediately found themselves in conflict with various opposition forces who disagreed with Bolshevik policies like abolishing the monarchy, redistributing land to peasants, and withdrawing from the First World War (1914-18). The anti-Bolsheviks were by no means united and included reactionaries, monarchists, those on the right or centre of politics, and members of the military (the Whites), militant peasant groups (the Greens), and Anarchists (the Blacks), as well as rival socialist groups and several foreign powers, notably Japan, Britain, France, and the United States. The Bolsheviks, who called themselves the Communist Party from 1918, eventually won the war, but at a tremendous cost to millions of people across the former Russian Empire in terms of unemployment, famine, and loss of life.
Dating the War
Historians do not agree on when the civil war actually started. Some historians point to the violent repression of opposition by the Bolsheviks immediately after the revolution, that is, between November 1917 and May 1918. Others prefer to begin the civil war with the Czechoslovak Legion uprising in May 1918. There is a similar debate as to when the civil war ended, some historians preferring 1920 when foreign intervention in the west ended, others after the Kronstadt rebellion of 1921 was quashed, and still others as late as October 1922, when Japanese forces withdrew from Siberia and the government could finally claim full control over all of its territories. In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was declared.
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⇒ Russian Civil War: The Failed Fightback Against Bolshevism
