Multi-party war in the former Russian Empire (1917–1923)
For other uses, see Russian Civil War (disambiguation).
Russian Civil War
Part of the Russian Revolution, the aftermath of World War I, and the interwar period
Clockwise from top left:
Soldiers of the Don Army
Soldiers of the Siberian Army
Bolshevik suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion
American troops in Vladivostok during the Allied intervention
Victims of the Red Terror in Crimea
Hanging of Bolsheviks in Yekaterinoslav by the Austrians
A review of Red Army troops in Moscow
Date
7 November 1917 – 16 June 1923[1][2](5 years, 7 months, 1 week and 2 days)
Location
Former Russian Empire
Result
Bolshevik victory
Partial victory by independence movements (see § Aftermath)
Main belligerents
Bolsheviks:
Russian SFSR (1917–22)
Ukrainian SSR ( 1917–18; 1918; 1919–22)
Byelorussian SSR ( 1919; 1919–20; 1920–22)
Transcaucasian SFSR (1922)
Soviet Union (after 1922)
Also:
Bessarabian SSR (1919)
Finnish SWR (1918)
D-KRSR (1918)
Harbin Soviet (1917–18)
Odessa SR (1918)
Taurida SSR (1918)
Baku Commune (1918)
Erzincan Soviet
Estonian Commune (1918–19)
Latvian SSR (1918–20)
Lithuanian SSR (1918–19)
Iskolat (1917–18)
Far Eastern Republic (1920–22)
Galician SSR (1920)
Polrewkom (1920)
Persian SSR (1920–21)
Armenian SSR (1920–22)
Azerbaijan SSR (1920–22)
Mughan Soviet Republic (1919)
Georgian SSR (1921–22)
SSR Abkhazia (after 1921)
Khorezm PSR (after 1920)
Bukharan PSR (after 1920)
Supported by:
Chinese communists (1917–23)
Red Latvian Riflemen (1917–20)
Mongolian People's Party (1920–23)
Murmansk Legion[a] (1918–19)
Russian Republic[b] (1917–18)
Kadets
Octobrists
Progressive Party
White movement:
South Russia (1917–19; Mar–Apr, Apr–Nov 1920)
Russian State (1918–20)
Priamurye (after 1921)
Also:
Provisional Regional Government of the Urals (1918)
Omsk Siberian Government (1918)
Vladivostok Siberian Government (1918)
Transcaspian Government (1918–20)
Transbaikal Republic (1917–20)
Komuch (1918)
North Russia (1918, 1918–20)
Northwest Russia (1918–19)
Crimea (1918–19)
Provisional Military Dictatorship of Mughan (1918–19)
Don Republic (1918–20)
Kuban Republic (1918–20)
Eastern Okraina (1920)
Tambov Land (1921)
Supported by:
Alash-Orda (1917–18)
Bashkurdistan (1917–19)
Mongolia (1921)
Persia (1919–20)
Separatists:
Poland (1918–21)
Ukraine (1917–18; 1918–20)
Finland[c] (1917–18)
Belarus (1918–20)
Estonia (1918–20)
Latvia (1918–20)
Lithuania (1918–20)
Also:
Alash-Orda (1917–18) Kyrgyz Rebel Army (1916-1918)
Bashkurdistan (1917–19)
West Ukraine (1918–19)
Central Lithuania (1920–22)
Moldavia (1917–18)
Transcaucasia (1918)
Georgia (1918–21)
Armenia (1918–20; 1921)
Turkestan (1917–18)
Centrocaspia (1918)
Aras (1918–19)
Caucasian Emirate (1919–20)
Azerbaijan (1918–20)
Northern Caucasus (1917–21)
Green Ukraine (1918–22)
Buryat-Mongolia (1917–21)
Yakutia (1918)
Altai (1917–20; 1921–22)
Karelia (1918–20; 1920; 1920–23)
North Ingria (1919–20)
Basmachi (1918–22)
Bukhara (1920)
Khiva (1918–20)
Supported by:
Sweden[d] (1918)
Hungary[e] (1919–20)
Afghanistan[f] (until 1922)
Anti-Bolshevik left:
Left SRs[g] (1917–21)
Green Army[h] (1918–21)
Makhnovshchina[i] (1918–21)
Kronstadt rebels (1921)
Allied Powers:
Japanese Empire [j] (1918–22)
United Kingdom (1918–20)
United States (1918–20)
France (1918–20)
Czechoslovakia (1918–20)
Also:
Greece
Serbia ( after 1918)
Romania
Italy
China
Canada (1918–19)
Australia (1918–19)
India
South Africa
Central Powers:
Germany (1917–18; 1919)
Austria-Hungary (1917–18)
Ottoman Empire (1917–18; 1920–21)
Freikorps (1918–19)
Also:
Kingdom of Poland (1917–18)
Kingdom of Finland (1918)
Kingdom of Lithuania (1918)
Belarus (1918–19)
Ukrainian State (1918)
Georgia (1918)
Landeswehr (1918–20)
Bermontians (1918–20)[k]
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Yakov Sverdlov † Jukums Vācietis Sergey Kamenev Nikolai Podvoisky Nikolai Krylenko Joseph Stalin Yukhym Medvedev Vilhelm Knorin Alexander Krasnoshchyokov
Alexander Kerensky Alexander Kolchak Lavr Kornilov † Anton Denikin Pyotr Wrangel Nikolai Yudenich Grigory Semyonov Yevgeny Miller Mikhail Diterikhs Pyotr Krasnov Roman von Ungern-Sternberg
Józef Piłsudski Symon Petliura C.G.E. Mannerheim S. Bułak-Bałachowicz Konstantin Päts Jānis Čakste Antanas Smetona Ion Inculeț Noe Zhordania A. Khatisian Nasib Yusifbeyli † Enver Pasha †
Vladimir Volsky Maria Spiridonova Nykyfor Hryhoriv † Nestor Makhno Stepan Petrichenko …and others
Otani Kikuzo Edmund Ironside William S. Graves Radola Gajda Maurice Janin Ludomir Junosza-Stępowski † …and others
H. von Eichhorn † Nuri Pasha Jan Sierada Pavlo Skoropadskyi P. Bermondt-Avalov …and others
Strength
Red Army: 5,498,000 (peak)[3][l]
Makhnovtsi: 103,000 (peak)[4]
Green Army: 70,000 (peak)
Kronstadt Mutineers: 17,961
White Army: 1,023,000 (peak)[m]
Local forces:
AFSR: 270,000 (peak)
Siberian Army: 60,000 (peak)
Komuch Army: 30,000 (peak)
Northwestern Army: 18,500 (peak)
Northern Army: 54,700 (peak)
Western Army: 48,000 (peak)
Orenburg Army: 25,000 (peak)
Ural Army: 17,200 (peak)
Japanese Army: 70,000 (peak)
Czechoslovak Legion: 50,000 (peak)
Also:
AEF, Siberia: 7,950
British Army: 57,636[5]
Romanian Army: 50,000
French Army: 15,600
Hellenic Army: 23,000
CSEF: ~5,000
AEF, North Russia: 5,000
Legione Redenta: 2,500
Beiyang Army: 2,300
Serbian Army: 2,000
British Indian Army: 950
Australian Army: 150
Polish Army: ~1,000,000 (peak)
Ukrainian Army: 100,000 (peak)
Finnish Army: 90,000 (peak)
Also:
Belarusian Army: 11,000 (peak)
Supported by:
Hungarian Army: 30,000 (peak)
Latvian Army: 69,232 (peak)
Estonian Army: 86,000 (peak)
Lithuanian Army: 43,996 (peak)
Finnish Volunteers: 8,000 (peak)
Forest Guerrillas: 2,000 (peak)
Swedish Brigade: 1,000 (peak)
German Army: ~547,000 (peak)
Ottoman Army: 20,000 (peak)
Also:
Saxon Volunteers: 10,000 (peak)
Turkish Army: 20,000 (peak)
Iron Division: 14,000 (peak)
Landeswehr: 10,500 (peak)
Bermontians: 50,000 (peak)
Casualties and losses
~1,500,000[6]
259,213 killed [citation needed]
60,059 missing [citation needed]
616,605 died of disease/wounds [citation needed]
3,878 died in accidents/suicides [citation needed]
548,857 wounded/frostbitten[7][n]
~1,500,000[6]
127,000 killed [citation needed]
784,000 executed/dead [citation needed]
450,000 wounded/sick [citation needed]
13,000 killed
6,500 killed
938+ killed[8]
596 killed
350 killed
179 killed
~250,000
57,000 killed
113,000 wounded
50,000 POWs
~125,000
15,000 killed
~5,000
3,500 killed
1,650 executed/dead
~3,000 killed
3,888 killed
3,046 killed
1,444 killed[9]
55 killed [citation needed]
500 killed
7,000,000–12,000,000 total casualties, including civilians and non-combatants
1–2 million refugees outside Russia
v
t
e
Theaters of the Russian Civil War
October Revolution
Left-wing uprisings
Allied intervention
Central Powers intervention
Northern
Finland
North Russia
Heimosodat
Eastern Karelia
Western
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Petrograd
Poland
Southern
Ukraine
Ukrainian-Soviet War
Western Ukraine
South Russia
Bessarabia
South Caucasus
Ossetia
Georgia
Armenia and Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Armenia
Tambov
Eastern
Czechoslovak Legionary Revolt
Siberia
1st Kazan
2nd Kazan
1st Perm
Spring 1919 offensive of the White Army
Spring 1919 counteroffensive of the Red Army
Great Siberian Ice March
Chita
Mongolia
Yakut revolt
Central Asian
Bukhara
Khiva
Basmachi
The Russian Civil War[o] was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.
The Russian monarchy ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution, and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in the October Revolution, where the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government of the new Russian Republic. Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were the Red Army, fighting for the establishment of a Bolshevik-led socialist state headed by Vladimir Lenin, and the loosely allied forces known as the White Army, which functioned as a political big tent for right- and left-wing opposition to Bolshevik rule. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably the Ukrainian anarchists of the Makhnovshchina and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideological green armies, opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists.[10] Thirteen foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied intervention, whose primary goal was re-establishing the Eastern Front of World War I. Three foreign nations of the Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia.
The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of the former empire. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an emergency peace with the German Empire, who had captured vast swathes of the Russian territory during the chaos of the revolution. In May 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia revolted in Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began their North Russian and Siberian interventions. That, combined with the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government, saw the reduction of Bolshevik-controlled territory to most of European Russia and parts of Central Asia. In 1919, the White Army launched several offensives from the east in March, the south in July, and west in October. The advances were later checked by the Eastern Front counteroffensive, the Southern Front counteroffensive, and the defeat of the Northwestern Army.
By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts.[11] Although the Bolsheviks were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used the disarray to push for national independence.[12] In March 1921, during a related war against Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former Empire, although their success was limited. Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine, Belarus (as a result of the Polish–Soviet War), Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army.[13][14] By 1921, Soviet Russia had defeated the Ukrainian national movements and occupied the Caucasus, although anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s.[15]
The armies under Kolchak were eventually forced on a mass retreat eastward. Bolshevik forces advanced east, despite encountering resistance in Chita, Yakut and Mongolia. Soon the Red Army split the Don and Volunteer armies, forcing evacuations in Novorossiysk in March and Crimea in November 1920. After that, anti-Bolshevik resistance was sporadic for several years until the collapse of the White Army in Yakutia in June 1923, but continued on with the Muslim Basmachi movement in Central Asia and Khabarovsk Krai until 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during the war, mostly civilians.[16]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Mawdsley 2007, pp. 3, 230.
^Последние бои на Дальнем Востоке. М., Центрполиграф, 2005.
^Erickson 1984, p. 763.
^Belash, Victor & Belash, Aleksandr, Dorogi Nestora Makhno, p. 340
^Damien Wright, Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–20, Solihull, UK, 2017, pp. 394, 526–528, 530–535; Clifford Kinvig, Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918–1920, London 2006, ISBN 1-85285-477-4, p. 297; Timothy Winegard, The First World Oil War, University of Toronto Press (2016), p. 229
^ abSmele 2016, p. 160.
^Krivosheev 1997, p. 7-38.
^Wright, Damien (2017). Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–20'. Solihull, UK: Helion and Company. pp. 490–492, 498–500, 504. ISBN 978-1911512103.; Kinvig 2006, pp. 289, 315; Winegard, Timothy (2016). The First World Oil War. University of Toronto Press. p. 208.
^Eidintas, Žalys & Senn 1999, p. 30.
^Russian Civil War Archived 26 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopædia Britannica Online 2012
^Leggett 1981, p. 184; Service 2000, p. 402; Read 2005, p. 206.
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