How the Red Army was formed Civil War. Reds in the Civil War

The Red Army traces its history back to the Red Guard. The Red Guard is the armed detachments of the proletariat, which originated during the revolution of 1905-1907 in the form of workers' combat squads, as well as red detachments of agricultural workers and peasants. During the February Revolution of 1917, the detachments of the Red Guard, together with the revolutionary soldiers and sailors, were the main armed organization in the overthrow of tsarism. By mid-October 1917, there were more than 20 thousand in Petrograd, and about 30 thousand organized Red Guards united in dozens, platoons, companies (teams) and battalions in Moscow. During the October armed uprising in Petrograd and other cities the Red Guard played decisive role in the defeat of the armed forces of the Provisional Government. In the first months after the October Revolution, the Red Guard, together with revolutionary volunteer detachments of soldiers and Red Cossacks, became the main military force when repulsing the first onslaught of the Romanian interventionists in Bessarabia (Moldova). It was the main military force in the defeat of the counter-revolutionary rebellions of Kerensky - Krasnov near Petrograd, Kaledin on the Don, Dutov in the Southern Urals and other regions and ensured the victorious march of Soviet power throughout Russia. By March 1918, Soviet power was established throughout the country, with the exception of the areas occupied by the Austro-German troops, Transcaucasia (except for Baku), some areas of the Don, North Caucasus, Ural, Kazakhstan and Central Asia. At the first stage of the civil war, the military resistance of the bourgeoisie and landowners could not be broken otherwise than by military means, and "the Red Guards did the noblest and greatest historical work of liberating the working and exploited from the oppression of the exploiters," wrote V. I. Lenin in his work "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet authorities". (PSS, vol. 36, p. 177). At this stage of the civil war in the battles for Soviet power, such commanders of the Red Guard, Red Cossack and volunteer revolutionary detachments as: V. A. Antonov - Ovseenko, R. I. Berzin, R. F. Sievers, Yu. V. Sablin, G. K. Petrov, brothers N. D. and I. D. Kashirin, commissioner P. A. Kobozev and many others.

The Red Army was created directly by the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of V. I. Lenin. By the decree of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of November 8, 1917, during the formation of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), a Committee for Military and Naval Affairs was created, consisting of V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, warrant officer N. V. Krylenko and sailor P. E. Dybenko. At the suggestion of V. I. Lenin, senior officials from the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Military Organization under the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), who had proven themselves in active military work in the party, were additionally introduced into the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs: V. N. Vasilevsky , K. S. Eremeev, P. E. Lazimir, B. V. Legrand, K. A. Mekhonoshin, N. I. Podvoisky, and E. M. Sklyansky. The Committee, after its expansion, was renamed the Council people's commissars for military and naval affairs. On November 23, it stood out People's Commissariat on military affairs, headed by N. I. Podvoisky, under which the Board of Military Commissars was established, and on January 30, 1918, the People's Commissariat for Maritime Affairs and the Board under it, headed by P. E. Dybenko, were created. Having led the army and navy, these bodies completely took over the military administration and High Command. On November 9, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars dismissed Supreme Commander General Dukhonin, who refused to comply with the order of the Soviet government to immediately begin negotiations with the German command on a truce. The order to remove General Dukhonin from the post of commander-in-chief was signed by V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin. Instead of him, the Bolshevik N. V. Krylenko was appointed. General M. D. Bonch-Bruevich, one of the few talented and highly educated generals, was appointed Chief of Staff of the Headquarters of the Council of People's Commissars tsarist army who went over to the side of Soviet power immediately after the revolution.

On November 23, at the direction of V. I. Lenin, a Revolutionary Field Headquarters was created in Mogilev (to combat the counter-revolution), headed by Ensign M. K. Ter-Arutyunyants, a member of the Military Organization under the Central Committee of the Party. The operational part of the headquarters was led by Colonel I. I. Vatsetis, who from the first days of the revolution, together with his regiment of Latvian riflemen, sided with the Soviet government. The revolutionary field headquarters was charged with directing operations on the internal fronts. military apparatus old army- The headquarters, as well as some departments and departments of the military department, were temporarily preserved. The Soviet government could not liquidate them before the creation of the Soviet military apparatus. Under the control of the commissars, these bodies were entrusted with the task of supplying the army and navy. N.V. Krylenko, relying on the Revolutionary Field Headquarters and Headquarters, proceeded to implement the decision of the Central Committee of the Party and the Council of People's Commissars - to gradually demobilize the old army and create a new army from the Red Guard, revolutionary units and detachments, as well as Red Cossacks - an army of liberated workers and peasants . At the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918, the central and local military administration bodies of the old army were liquidated. Instead, Soviet military administration bodies were created, and only some institutions of the old military apparatus were partially used to carry out new tasks. Yes, organs air fleet and naval aviation were reorganized into the All-Russian collegium for the management of the air fleet of the RSFSR. The work of the temporarily preserved bodies of the old maritime ministry began to be directed by the Supreme Naval Collegium. In January 1918, the bodies of local military administration were reorganized, and the Headquarters was abolished by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief N.V. Krylenko. More than a thousand hostile generals, officers and officials were fired from the former War Department. The old commanding elite was eliminated in the military districts as well. Bolsheviks who knew military affairs were appointed commanders of the military districts. By the end of 1917 - at the beginning of 1918, front-line army congresses and congresses of sailors of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleet recognized Soviet power and the Council of People's Commissars headed by V. I. Lenin.

At the beginning of 1918, it became obvious that the forces of the Red Guard, detachments of revolutionary soldiers and sailors, Red Cossacks and partisans were clearly not enough to reliably protect the Soviet state. In an effort to stifle the socialist revolution, the imperialist states, first of all Germany, and then the Entente, undertook a large-scale intervention against the young Soviet Republic, which merged with the performance of the internal counter-revolution: the White Guard revolts and conspiracies of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and the remnants of various bourgeois parties. In this military-political situation, regular armed forces were needed, a new class-based army was needed, capable of defending the young Soviet state of workers and peasants from numerous enemies. For the Bolsheviks, this was a completely unfamiliar problem. “The question of the structure of the Red Army,” said V. I. Lenin, “was completely new, it was not even theoretically raised at all ... We took on a case that no one in the world had ever taken on in such a latitude” (PSS, vol. 38 , pp. 137-138).

From January to May 1918, the Red Army was recruited by volunteers, and the command staff (up to the regiment commander) was selected. On January 15, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a Decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and on January 29, on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF). The documents set out the main principles of building the armed forces of a socialist state. The Decree declared the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR to be the supreme governing body of the Red Army and the RKKF. On January 15, 1918, to lead the formation of the army, the Council of People's Commissars established a special body under the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs - the All-Russian Collegium for the Organization and Formation of the Red Army from representatives of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs and the General Staff of the Red Guard . N. I. Podvoisky was appointed Chairman of the Board.

After the breakdown in Brest-Litovsk peace talks Trotsky On February 18, 1918, the German command launched an offensive against the Soviet Republic. On February 21, the Council of People's Commissars addressed the working people with the Leninist decree-appeal "The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!". The appeal of the Soviet government caused a revolutionary upsurge in the country. Guided by Lenin's decree, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief N. V. Krylenko on February 21 signed an order announcing revolutionary mobilization. On February 23, a mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army began. By decision of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, the date of February 23 was declared the "Day of Defense of the Socialist Fatherland". The formed units of the Volunteer Red Army entered the battle with the advancing German troops. Before the battle, as an oath, the Red Army soldiers read this historical decree - an appeal at rallies and constructions. The appeal became the first oath of the Red Army. So the Red Army received its first baptism of fire. On the Pskov and Narva direction, the number of troops amounted to 5 - 6 thousand people, north of Pskov - 600 people, on central direction- about 5 thousand, in Ukraine - about 35 thousand. Units formed from foreign citizens located in Russia: Hungarian internationalists operating near Narva, and in Ukraine - detachments of Czechs, Slovaks and Serbs. In commemoration of the general mobilization of revolutionary forces to defend the socialist Fatherland, as well as the courageous resistance of the Red Army units near Pskov and Narva, February 23 was annually celebrated in the country as the birthday of the Red Army and the Red Flat (from 1922 to 1946), and then - as the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy.

Having repulsed the German intervention in February 1918, the Soviet Republic concluded a difficult peace treaty with Germany on March 3 and withdrew from the bloody imperialist war. The young Republic of Soviets, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, embarked on radical socio-economic transformations in order to create the foundations of a new socialist system and the construction of the Red Army.

On March 4, 1918, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the Supreme Military Council (VVS) was formed - the first supreme military body of the strategic leadership of the revolutionary armed forces of the Soviet Republic, which, along with the management of military operations, was also entrusted with the general management of the construction of the Red Army, the study and selection of military personnel for the positions of the highest commanders.The military leaders of the Air Force were: M.D. Bonch-Bruevich (March - August 1918), N.I. Rattel (August - September 1918). The 7th Congress of the RCP(b) (03/06/08/1918) confirmed the correctness of Lenin's line on the issue of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, condemned Trotsky's treacherous line on this issue and noted that the main task of the party in this situation is to accept energetic and decisive measures to prepare the workers and peasants, the working masses for the defense of the Socialist Fatherland, the organization of the Red Army and universal military training. By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of April 8, volost, district, provincial and district commissariats for military affairs began to be created, replacing the military departments of the Soviets. The military commissariats were entrusted with the tasks of registering and conscripting those liable for military service, the formation military units and their supply, training of workers and working peasants in military affairs. They played huge role in the construction of the Red Army. V. I. Lenin said: “Without the military commissar, we would not have had the Red Army” (PSS., vol. 41, p. 148). This high appraisal of the role of the military commissars can equally be attributed to the entire institution of military commissars of the Red Army. At the same time, the formation of military districts on the territory of the Soviet Republic was begun. The leadership of party political work in the army was carried out by the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars, established on April 8, 1918. He was entrusted with the management of the activities of the military commissars of units and formations of the Red Army. One of the main functions of military commissars was to exercise political control over the service of old military specialists who were on command, staff and administrative positions. The military commissars resolutely suppressed their slightest attempts at treason. But the functions of the military commissars were far from exhausted. They were the organizers and leaders of all party-political and ideological-educational work in the army. At the same time, the formation of army and navy party organizations took place. On April 20, 1918, by order of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, unified states were introduced, a uniform organizational structure of the Red Army was established. The main combat unit was the regiment, which consisted of 3 battalions. Each battalion included 3 companies, and in a company - 3 platoons. A tactical unit was a brigade of 2 or 3 regiments. 2 - 3 brigades made up a division. Number of members infantry division was set to 26,972 people, including 8,802 bayonets. Persons who completed a 96-hour military training course on the job were taken by the military registration and enlistment offices as liable for military service and could, if necessary, be called up for active service in the Red Army. As for the non-labour elements, they had to carry out their duties in the defense of the Soviet Republic in the rear militias: dig trenches and carry out other defensive work.By a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) on April 22, 1918, universal military training of workers was introduced.

May 8, 1918 The All-Russian General Staff was created instead of the All-Russian Collegium for the formation of the Red Army. Thus, the General Staff of the former tsarist army finally ceased to exist. The All-Russian General Staff was subordinate to the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR. He was entrusted with the duties of accounting for those liable for military service, organizing military training for workers, forming and organizing units of the Red Army, developing measures for the defense of the country, for which there were corresponding departments in the headquarters. The Academy of the General Staff (later the Military Academy of the Red Army) was also subordinate to him. All this together meant the creation of a coherent centralized military command and control apparatus, without which it was impossible to start organizing a mass regular army.

close-up political event in the life of the Red Army was the adoption of the oath of allegiance to the Socialist Motherland. On April 22, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a single text of the oath for the entire army - the Formula of the solemn promise of the soldiers of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, which was printed in the first service book of a Red Army soldier and approved by V. I. Lenin. The solemn promise, as the oath was then called, contained the following words: “I, the son of the working people, a citizen of the Soviet Republic, accept the title of soldier of the working and peasant army... I undertake to strictly and unswervingly observe revolutionary discipline and unquestioningly carry out all orders of commanders appointed by the authorities of the Workers' and Peasants' Government ... I undertake, at the first call of the Workers' and Peasants' Government, to defend the Soviet Republic from all dangers and attempts from all its enemies, and in in the struggle for the Russian Soviet Republic, for the cause of socialism and the brotherhood of peoples, spare neither one's strength nor life itself... During May - June 1918, in all units and divisions of the Red Army, the Red Army soldiers solemnly took the military oath. On May 11, V. I. Lenin participated in the ceremony of taking the oath by the soldiers of the 4th Moscow Regiment, the Warsaw Revolutionary Regiment and the Separate Guard Squad, which took place in the grenade shop of the Michelson plant. He, along with the Red Army soldiers in the ranks, took the oath and became the first fighter of the Red Army. Together with him, members of the Soviet government took the oath.

After the end of the civil war, in March 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the swearing in of all personnel of the Red Army and the Red Navy. A single day for taking the oath was established for the entire army and navy - May 1, and the same procedure for taking it. Warriors took an oath collectively, in the ranks, during the parade.

By the beginning of June 1918, the strength of the Red Army and Navy was 374,551 people. But this was not enough to repel the onslaught of the external and internal counter-revolution, whose troops already at that time numbered about 700 thousand people. The interventionists and the White Guards, who had almost double superiority in strength, managed to surround the Republic of Soviets with a ring of fronts and impose a war on it. The ruling circles of the leading capitalist countries of the West decided to liquidate the Republic of Soviets - as a dangerous center of world revolution - by military means. At the same time, another geopolitical goal was pursued: to divide Russia into spheres of influence with the establishment of a semi-colonial regime in them, to seize its richest Natural resources. The intervention of 14 states, which was prepared and led by the United States, England and France with the active participation of Japan, merged with the civil war into a single whole. workers and peasants. In this regard, on May 29, 1918, the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on compulsory recruitment into the army was announced, with which a new stage of military development began.

On July 10, 1918, the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution "On the organization of the Red Army" on the basis of a general conscription workers aged 18 to 40. Non-working elements were enrolled in the rear militia. All officers and military officials of the old army were subject to compulsory conscription into the army. In the autumn of 1918, 526 former officers General Staff, including 160 generals, 200 colonels and lieutenant colonels. It was the most trained part of the old officer corps. By the middle of 1920. 48.4 thousand officers and generals of the old army, 10.3 thousand former military officials, 41 thousand medical workers served in the Red Army. Most of them, driven by a sense of patriotism, considered it their duty to clear the Russian land of foreign invaders and faithfully served their people. Prominent military leaders among them were I. I. Vatsetis, S. S. Kamenev, A. I. Egorov, D. M. Karbyshev, M. D. Bonch-Bruevich, B. M. Shaposhnikov, M. N. Tukhachevsky, A. I. Verkhovsky, A. I. Kork, V. M. Altvater, A. A. Samoilo and others.

In his welcoming speech on the “DAY OF THE RED OFFICER” to the cadets of the Soviet infantry command courses, Zamoskvoretsky courses, Soviet Tver cavalry courses, etc., after the Parade on Red Square on November 24, 1918, V. I. Lenin said that: “the old command staff consisted mainly of spoiled and perverted sons of capitalists who had nothing to do with a simple soldier. That is why now, when building a new army, we must take commanders only from among the people. Only red officers will have authority among the Soldiers and will be able to consolidate socialism in our army. Such an army will be invincible” (PSS, vol. 37, p. 200). The word "SOLDIER" in the speech of V. I. Lenin sounded with capital letter. The "Day of the Red Officer" was also held in other cities of the Soviet Republic: Petrograd, Saratov, Orel, Tver. The principle of universal military service was enshrined in the Constitution of the RSFSR adopted by the Fifth Congress of Soviets. Defense of the Socialist Fatherland, conquests socialist revolution proclaimed the duty of citizens of the Soviet Republic. However, the honorable right of armed defense of the Soviet state was granted only to working people - workers and peasants of all nations and nationalities. Non-working elements were deprived of this right, because they could use weapons against the working people. Thus, the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets laid the foundations and determined the paths for building up the regular Armed Forces of the Soviet Republic, capable of crushing the internal bourgeois-landowner counter-revolution and resolutely rebuffing the predators of foreign imperialism. In order to guide political education in the army, the congress legislated the creation of an institution of military commissars in all military units and military institutions. The transition to compulsory military service made it possible to increase the size of the Red Army. By the end of October 1918, the strength of the Red Army was about 800 thousand people.

September 6, 1918 Simultaneously with the declaration of the country as a military camp, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) was created instead of the Supreme Military Council, which led the actions of the army through the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic. The commanders-in-chief were: from September 1918 - I. I. Vatsetis, from July 1919. - S. S. Kamenev. The Headquarters of the RVSR, subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief and renamed on November 8 into the Field Headquarters of the Strategic Missile Forces, and from January 10, 1921, was merged with the All-Russian Main Headquarters into the Headquarters of the Red Army.

Having turned into a besieged fortress in the second half of 1918, the country was forced to subordinate its entire life to the interests of defense. In 1918 -1919. the party and the Soviet government carried out a series of extraordinary economic and political measures that went down in history under the name of the policy of "war communism". In order to mobilize all available resources of the country for military needs, November 30, 1918. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee formed the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense (from April 1920 - the Council of Labor and Defense) of the RSFSR under the chairmanship of V. I. Lenin, I. V. Stalin was appointed his deputy. The Defense Council led, directed and coordinated the activities of all Soviet, economic, military (including the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic) organizations in the interests of protecting the revolution and defeating the enemy. Taking under special control all the stocks of the old army, the Soviet government began to expand the production of weapons and equipment. August 17, 1918 under the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh), a Commission for the production of military equipment was formed under the chairmanship of L. B. Krasin, reorganized on November 2 into the Extraordinary Commission for the Supply of the Red Army. At military factories, production was increased, especially of rifle cartridges: in August 1918. - 5 million pieces, in December - 19 million. With great tension there was a struggle for bread. By November, the food-requisition army (Prodarmia) of the People's Commissariat of Food consisted of about 36 thousand fighters. All railways were under martial law. On November 21, private trade was abolished and a planned distribution of food to the population was introduced according to the class principle and according to strict wartime norms. Nationalization was extended to medium industry. The Soviet Republic used its resources centrally.

A huge role in the construction of the Red Army and the Red Navy was played by the 8th Congress of the RCP (b) (18 - 23.3.1919). The military question occupied a large place in the work of the congress. AT new program party, as well as in a special decision of the congress on the military question, the basic principles of the construction of the Red Army and the Red Navy were determined - to complete in the shortest possible time the construction of a strictly class, regular army based on firm conscious discipline, with a centralized control and manning system and a well-established party - political work.

In the summer and autumn of 1918, formations and units of the active army began to be reduced to armies and front-line formations. A year later, there were already 7 fronts with 2 - 5 armies each. By the end of 1919, there were 3 million people in the Red Army. In total, during the war, 139 rifle and 35 cavalry divisions, 61 air squadrons (300-400 aircraft), about 30 sea, lake and river flotillas, artillery and armored units and subunits were formed. A total of 22 armies were formed, including 2 cavalry. During the war years, 6 military academies and over 150 courses trained 60,000 red commanders of various specialties from among workers, peasants, non-commissioned officers, sailors and soldiers. Famous heroes and commanders of the civil war grew up from their midst: V.K. Blucher, S.M. Budyonny, S.S. Vostretsov, O.I. .Primakov, V.I. Chapaev and many others. Under the direct leadership of V.I. Lenin, the professional Bolshevik revolutionary M.V. Frunze became a commander who did not know defeat. In the Red Army, a party-political apparatus was formed, which included the institution of military commissars, a system of political agencies and party organizations. Party political work in the army was managed by the Political Directorate (PUR) under the Revolutionary Military Socialist Republic, created in May 1919 instead of the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars. PUR RVSR at the same time was a department of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). By the autumn of 1920, the strength of the Armed Forces had reached 5.5 million people. Specific gravity workers accounted for 15%, peasants - 77%, others - 8%. As of August 1, 1920, there were about 300 thousand Bolsheviks in the Red Army and the Red Navy, almost half of the entire composition of the party, which was the cementing core of the army and navy. About 50 thousand of them died the death of the brave during civil war.

The period from May 1918 to March 1920 was the most decisive period of the Civil War. On May 25, 1918, a rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps began in Chelyabinsk, the echelons of which were located between Penza and Vladivostok due to the upcoming evacuation to Europe. The rebellion caused a sharp revival of the unfinished bourgeois-landowner and Cossack counter-revolution and the strengthening of the petty-bourgeois counter-revolution, which tried to play a leading role. In May - June 1918, the White Czechs and the counter-revolutionary detachments that arose under their cover captured Syzran, Samara, Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novonikolaevsky and Vladivostok, defeating the party and Soviet apparatus and destroying many party and Soviet workers, revolutionary workers and peasants. On June 4, 1918, the Entente declared the corps part of its troops, declaring that it would consider its disarmament as an unfriendly act towards the allied countries. With the support of the White Czechs and the Entente, counter-revolutionary "governments" arose from the Volga to Vladivostok. In the camp of the counter-revolution, the military dictatorship of the landlord-bourgeois counter-revolution came to the fore: in the East, Kolchak, who united the forces of the counter-revolution in Siberia and the Urals; in the South - Denikin, who subjugated the Cossack counter-revolution and created the "Armed Forces of the South of Russia" (VSYUR); in the Northwest - Yudenich, who formed the Northwestern volunteer corps in Estonia, in the North - Miller. From the Entente, the White Guards received hundreds of thousands of rifles: Kolchak - about 400 thousand, Denikin - over 380 thousand; thousands of machine guns: Kolchak - over 1000, Denikin - about 3000; hundreds of guns, a large number of uniforms, equipment and ammunition. In 1919, Denikin received over 100 tanks and armored vehicles, 194 aircraft, and 1,335 vehicles. Many foreign specialists and instructors were sent to the White Guard troops - only about 2,000 English people. The White Guard armies, fed and led by the Entente, actually fought not for the "white idea", but in the interests of foreign states. One of the organizers of the intervention, W. Churchill, very convincingly testifies to this in his book The World Crisis (p. 174). He writes that it would be a mistake to think that the Entente "fought on the fronts for the cause of hostile to the Bolsheviks" Russian White Guards. “On the contrary, the Russian White Guards fought for our cause. This truth will become unpleasantly sensitive from the moment the white armies are destroyed and the Bolsheviks establish their rule ... " . Today, fans of the beaten and fugitive white generals and admirals, who are presented as patriots and heroes of today's Russia, are trying to hide this truth.

The fight against the White Guard armies of Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich, from March 1919 to March 1920, was the longest and most difficult period of the Civil War. In this decisive struggle, the Red Army took shape as a regular armed force. The main source of victory was the strong military-political alliance between the working class and the peasantry. “And if anything decided the outcome of the struggle against Kolchak and Denikin in our favor, despite the fact that Kolchak and Denikin were supported by the great powers, it was that in the end, both the peasants and the laboring Cossacks, who for a long time remained otherworldly, now went over to the side of the workers and peasants, and only this in the last analysis decided the war and gave us victory” (PSS, vol. 40, p. 183). An important factor organizing a rebuff to the interventionists and the White Guards was the formation of a military-political union of the Soviet republics. June 1, 1919 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree "On the unification of the Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus for the struggle against world imperialism." On the basis of the decree, a unified military command and military organization, councils of the national economy, people's commissariats of finance and other structures. The military-political union of the Soviet republics was an important step towards the formation of the USSR in 1922.

The struggle against the intervention of bourgeois-landlord Poland and the defeat of the White Guard army of Wrangel in April - November 1920 The civil war was basically over. The Soviet Republic began to move from war to peace.

C lelimination of the last centers of counter-revolution, war and intervention at the end of 1920 - November 1922 The civil war is completely over. The RKKA and RKKF, having defeated the armies of the White Guards, expelled the interventionists from the territory of the country, and suppressed the anti-Soviet revolts, won a complete victory on all fronts.

By the end of the military intervention and the civil war, the Armed Forces of the RSFSR included: The Red Army, consisting of: rifle troops, cavalry, artillery, Workers' and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF - from May 24, 1918), armored forces, engineering troops, chemical troops (from November 13, 1918), signal troops (from October 20, 1920); RKKF consisting of: Baltic Fleet, the operating detachment of ships (DOK), sea flotillas (Caspian and Azov), lake and river flotillas (Onega, Volga, Dnieper, etc.); rear units and subunits; building units and subdivisions; military educational institutions; troops of the Cheka, food army, border guards, etc. The military and political leadership of the RSFSR Armed Forces was carried out by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) - the STO of the RSFSR - the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR. The operational and strategic leadership of the army in the field was entrusted to the Commander-in-Chief and the Headquarters of the Red Army.

The Soviet state defeated the interventionists and the Whites, thus proving the viability of the new state and social order. The civil war against the interventionists and the White Guards was a just, domestic war, as it was fought for the interests of the working people against internal counter-revolution and external intervention. The people of labor deeply believed in the idea of ​​​​socialism, in the name of its triumph they were ready to give their lives if the military situation required it. The workers and peasants supported the policy of the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet government headed by V. I. Lenin, despite the extreme fatigue from the world war, losses, hardships, hunger, cold, epidemics, they found the strength to bring the Civil War to complete victory and liberate the country from occupation. The most important condition for victory was that the leading core of the rear and front of the Red Army was the Bolshevik Party, headed by V. I. Lenin, I. V. Stalin, Ya. M. Sverdlov, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, M. And Kalinin and others, united in their solidarity and discipline, strong in their revolutionary spirit, unsurpassed in their ability to organize millions of people and correctly lead them in a difficult situation. Red Army soldiers, commanders and political workers in bloody battles The Civil War showed resilience, courage, mass heroism. For military exploits during the years of the Civil War, 14,998 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army were awarded the Order of the Red Banner (from September 30, 1918 to September 1928), including: 285 people - twice, 31 - three times, and military leaders V. Blucher, S. Vostretsov, J. Fabricius and I. Fedko - four times. This order was also awarded to 55 units and formations of the Red Army, and the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner - 300 units, formations and military educational institutions. The merits of I. V. Stalin on the fronts of the civil war were marked by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 27, 1919 on awarding him the Order of the Red Banner.

The workers and peasants of Soviet Russia waged a difficult confrontation with the armed forces of the interventionists and White Guards with the support of the international proletariat. In the USA, England, France and many other Western countries, the Hands Off Soviet Russia committees were active. In the ranks of the Red Army, partisan detachments more than 200 thousand internationalist soldiers fought courageously and steadfastly: Hungarians, Poles, Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Finns, Chinese, Koreans, representatives of many other nations.

The civil war and military intervention brought enormous hardships to the people. The damage inflicted on the national economy amounted to about 50 billion gold rubles, industrial production fell below 20% of the 1913 level. Agriculture has almost halved. The total population losses on the fronts and in the rear from hunger, disease and terror of the Whites amounted to more than 7.2 million people, including the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to about 1 million people.

The overall result of the victory of the young Soviet Republic in the Civil War was, as V. I. Lenin said after the defeat of Wrangel in November 1920, that “in the process of this struggle, we won the right to independent existence”, having received “not only a respite”, but “... a new era, when our main international existence in the network of capitalist states has been won back” (PSS, vol. 42, p. 22). Thus, the victory of the Soviet state in the Civil War strengthened the gains of the Great October Socialist Revolution, which marked the beginning of the era of transition from capitalism to socialism throughout the world.

Colonel Soviet army G. Khabin

Russian Civil War(1917-1922/1923) - a series of armed conflicts between various political, ethnic, social groups and state formations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, which followed the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks as a result of the October Revolution of 1917.

The Civil War was the result of a revolutionary crisis that struck Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907, aggravated during the World War and led to the fall of the monarchy, economic ruin, and a deep social, national, political and ideological split in Russian society. The apogee of this split was a fierce war throughout the country between the armed forces of the Soviet government and the anti-Bolshevik authorities.

White movement- military-political movement of politically heterogeneous forces, formed during the Civil War of 1917-1923 in Russia with the aim of overthrowing the Soviet regime. It included representatives of both moderate socialists and republicans, and monarchists, united against the Bolshevik ideology and acting on the basis of the principle of "Great, United and Indivisible Russia" (ideological movement of whites). The White movement was the largest anti-Bolshevik military-political force during the Russian Civil War and existed alongside other democratic anti-Bolshevik governments, nationalist separatist movements in Ukraine, the North Caucasus, the Crimea, and Basmachi in Central Asia.

A number of features distinguish the White movement from the rest of the anti-Bolshevik forces of the Civil War:

The White movement was an organized military-political movement against the Soviet government and its allied political structures, its intransigence towards the Soviet government ruled out any peaceful, compromise outcome of the Civil War.

The White movement was distinguished by the installation of the priority in wartime of individual power over collegial, and military - over civil. White governments were characterized by the absence of a clear separation of powers, representative bodies either played no role or had only advisory functions.

The White movement tried to legalize itself on a national scale, proclaiming its continuity from pre-February and pre-October Russia.

The recognition by all regional white governments of the all-Russian power of Admiral A. V. Kolchak led to a desire to achieve a commonality of political programs and coordination of military operations. The solution of agrarian, labor, national and other basic issues was fundamentally similar.

The white movement had a common symbolism: a tricolor white-blue-red flag, the official anthem "Kol our Lord is glorious in Zion."

Publicists and historians who sympathize with the whites name the following reasons for the defeat of the white cause:

The Reds controlled the densely populated central regions. There were more people in these territories than in the territories controlled by whites.

The regions that began to support the Whites (for example, the Don and Kuban), as a rule, suffered more than others from the Red Terror.

The inexperience of white leaders in politics and diplomacy.

Conflicts of whites with the national separatist governments because of the slogan of "One and indivisible." Therefore, the whites repeatedly had to fight on two fronts.

Workers' and Peasants' Red Army- the official name of the types of armed forces: ground forces and the Air Force, which, together with the Red Army MS, the troops of the NKVD of the USSR (Border Troops, Internal Guard Troops of the Republic and the State Escort Guard) made up the Armed Forces of the RSFSR / USSR from February 15 (23), 1918 to February 25, 1946.

February 23, 1918 is considered to be the day of the creation of the Red Army (see Defender of the Fatherland Day). It was on this day that the mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army detachments began, created in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army", signed on January 15 (28).

L. D. Trotsky actively participated in the creation of the Red Army.

The supreme governing body of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (since the formation of the USSR - the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR). The leadership and management of the army was concentrated in the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Collegium created under it, since 1923 the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR, since 1937 the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. In 1919-1934, the Revolutionary Military Council carried out direct command of the troops. In 1934, to replace it, the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR was formed.

Detachments and squads of the Red Guard - armed detachments and squads of sailors, soldiers and workers, in Russia in 1917 - supporters (not necessarily members) of leftist parties - Social Democrats (Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and "Mezhraiontsy"), Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists, as well as detachments Red partisans became the basis of the Red Army detachments.

Initially, the main unit of the formation of the Red Army, on a voluntary basis, was a separate detachment, which was a military unit with an independent economy. At the head of the detachment was a Council consisting of a military leader and two military commissars. He had a small headquarters and an inspectorate.

With the accumulation of experience and after the involvement of military experts in the ranks of the Red Army, the formation of full-fledged units, units, formations (brigade, division, corps), institutions and institutions began.

The organization of the Red Army was in accordance with its class character and the military requirements of the early 20th century. The combined arms units of the Red Army were built as follows:

The rifle corps consisted of two to four divisions;

Division - from three rifle regiments, an artillery regiment (artillery regiment) and technical units;

Regiment - from three battalions, an artillery battalion and technical units;

Cavalry Corps - two cavalry divisions;

Cavalry division - four to six regiments, artillery, armored units (armored units), technical units.

The technical equipment of the military formations of the Red Army with fire weapons) and military equipment were basically at the level of modern advanced armed forces of that time

The USSR Law "On Compulsory Military Service", adopted on September 18, 1925 by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, determined the organizational structure of the Armed Forces, which included rifle troops, cavalry, artillery, armored forces, engineering troops, signal troops, air and sea forces, troops united state political administration and escort guards of the USSR. Their number in 1927 was 586,000 personnel.

By the beginning of the Civil War, the Whites were superior to the Reds in almost everything - it seemed that the Bolsheviks were doomed. Nevertheless, it was the Reds who were destined to emerge victorious from this confrontation. Among the whole huge complex of reasons that led to this, three key ones stand out clearly.

Under the control of chaos

"... I will immediately point out three reasons for the failure of the white movement:
1) insufficient and untimely,
self-serving allied aid,
2) the gradual strengthening of the reactionary elements in the composition of the movement and
3) as a consequence of the second, the disappointment of the masses in the white movement ...

P. Milyukov. Report on the white movement.
Newspaper Latest News (Paris), August 6, 1924

To begin with, it is worth stipulating that the definitions of "red" and "white" are largely arbitrary, as is always the case when describing civil unrest. War is chaos, and civil war is chaos raised to an infinite power. Even now, almost a century later, the question “so who was right?” remains open and intractable.

At the same time, everything that happened was perceived as real end light, a time of complete unpredictability and uncertainty. The color of the banners, the declared beliefs - all this existed only "here and now" and in any case did not guarantee anything. Sides and beliefs changed with surprising ease, and this was not considered something abnormal and unnatural. Revolutionaries with many years of experience in the struggle - for example, the Socialist-Revolutionaries - became ministers of the new governments and were branded by their opponents as counter-revolutionaries. And the Bolsheviks were helped to create an army and counterintelligence by proven cadres of the tsarist regime - including nobles, guards officers, graduates of the Academy of the General Staff. People, in an attempt to somehow survive, were thrown from one extreme to another. Or "extremes" themselves came to them - in the form of an immortal phrase: "The whites came - they rob, the reds came - they rob, well, where should the poor peasant go?" Both individuals and entire military units regularly changed sides.

The prisoners could, in the best traditions of the 18th century, be released on parole, killed in the most savage ways, or placed in their own ranks. An orderly, harmonious division “these are red, these are white, those are green, and these are morally unstable and undecided” took shape only years later.

Therefore, it should always be remembered that when talking about any side of a civil conflict, we are not talking about strict ranks of regular formations, but rather "centers of power". Points of attraction for many groups that were in in constant motion and incessant conflicts of all with all.

But why did the center of power, which we collectively call the “reds” win? Why did the "gentlemen" lose to the "comrades"?

Question about the "Red Terror"

"Red Terror" is often used as ultimate ratio, a description of the main tool of the Bolsheviks, who allegedly threw a frightened country at their feet. This is not true. Terror has always gone hand in hand with civil unrest, because it is derived from the extreme bitterness of this kind of conflict, in which the opponents have nowhere to run and nothing to lose. Moreover, the adversaries could not, in principle, avoid organized terror as a means.

It has already been said earlier that initially the opponents were small groups, surrounded by a sea of ​​anarchist freemen and apolitical peasant masses. White General Mikhail Drozdovsky brought about two thousand people from Romania. Approximately the same number of volunteers were initially with Mikhail Alekseev and Lavr Kornilov. And the bulk simply did not want to fight, including a very significant part of the officers. In Kyiv, officers happened to work as waiters, with uniforms and all the awards - "they serve more like that, sir."

2nd Drozdov Cavalry Regiment
rusk.ru

In order to win and realize their vision of the future, all participants needed an army (that is, conscripts) and bread. Bread for the city (military production and transport), for the army and for rations for valuable specialists and commanders.

People and bread could be taken only in the village, from the peasant, who was not going to give either one or the other "for so", and there was nothing to pay. Hence the requisitions and mobilizations, which both the Whites and the Reds (and before them, the Provisional Government) had to resort to with equal zeal. As a result, unrest in the village, opposition, the need to suppress indignation by the most cruel methods.

Therefore, the notorious and terrible “Red Terror” was not a decisive argument or something that stood out sharply against the general background of the atrocities of the Civil War. Everyone was engaged in terror, and it was not he who brought victory to the Bolsheviks.

1. Unity of command.
2. Organization.
3. Ideology.

Let's consider these points sequentially.

1. Unity of command, or "When there is no agreement in the masters ...".

It should be noted that the Bolsheviks (or, more broadly, the “Socialist-Revolutionaries” in general) initially had a very good experience of working in conditions of instability and chaos. The situation when the enemies are all around, in their own ranks, agents of the secret police and in general " trust no one"- was for them an ordinary production process. With the beginning of the Civil Bolsheviks, in general, they continued what they were doing before, only in more favorable conditions, because now they themselves were becoming one of the main players. They are were able maneuver in conditions of complete confusion and everyday betrayal. But for their opponents, the skill “attract an ally and betray him in time before he betrays you” was used much worse. Therefore, at the peak of the conflict, many white groups fought against a relatively unified (by the presence of one leader) camp of the Reds, and each waged its own war according to its own plans and understandings.

Actually, this discord and the sluggishness of the overall strategy deprived White of victory back in 1918. The Entente desperately needed a Russian front against the Germans and was ready to do a lot to keep at least its visibility, pulling the German troops away from the western front. The Bolsheviks were extremely weak and disorganized, and help could be demanded at least at the expense of partial deliveries of military orders already paid for by tsarism. But ... the Whites preferred to take shells from the Germans through Krasnov for the war against the Reds - thereby creating an appropriate reputation in the eyes of the Entente. The Germans, having lost the war in the West, disappeared. The Bolsheviks steadily created an organized army instead of semi-partisan detachments, tried to establish a military industry. And in 1919, the Entente had already won its war and did not want, and could not, bear large, and most importantly, expenses that did not give visible benefits in a distant country. The forces of the interventionists left the fronts of the Civil War one after another.

White could not come to an agreement with a single limitrophe - as a result, their rear (almost all) hung in the air. And, as if this was not enough, each white leader had his own "ataman" in the rear, poisoning life with might and main. Kolchak has Semyonov, Denikin has the Kuban Rada with Kalabukhov and Mamontov, Wrangel has the Orlovshchina in the Crimea, Yudenich has Bermondt-Avalov.

Campaign poster white movement
statehistory.ru

So, although outwardly the Bolsheviks seemed to be surrounded by enemies and a doomed camp, they could concentrate on selected areas, transferring at least some resources along internal transport lines - despite the collapse of the transport system. Each individual white general could beat the opponent as hard as he liked on the battlefield - and the Reds recognized these defeats - but these pogroms did not add up to a single boxing combination that would knock out the fighter in the red corner of the ring. The Bolsheviks withstood every single attack, accumulated strength and fought back.

Year 1918: Kornilov goes to Yekaterinodar, but other white detachments have already left. Then the Volunteer Army gets bogged down in battles in the North Caucasus, and Krasnov's Cossacks at the same time go to Tsaritsyn, where they receive their own from the Reds. In 1919, thanks to foreign aid (more on that below), Donbass fell, Tsaritsyn was finally taken - but Kolchak in Siberia had already been defeated. In autumn, Yudenich goes to Petrograd, having excellent chances to take it - and Denikin in the south of Russia is defeated and retreats. Wrangel, having excellent aviation and tanks, leaves the Crimea in 1920, the battles are initially successful for the Whites, but the Poles are already making peace with the Reds. Etc. Khachaturian - "Saber Dance", only much scarier.

The Whites were fully aware of the seriousness of this problem and even tried to solve it by choosing a single leader (Kolchak) and trying to coordinate actions. But by then it was already too late. Moreover, real coordination was in fact absent as a class.

“The white movement did not end in victory because the white dictatorship did not take shape. But it was prevented from taking shape by the centrifugal forces, swollen by the revolution, and all the elements connected with the revolution and not breaking with it ... Against the red dictatorship, a white "concentration of power ..." was needed.

N. Lvov. "White movement", 1924.

2. Organization - "the war is won in the rear"

As mentioned above again, for a long time whites had a clear superiority on the battlefield. It was so tangible that to this day it is the pride of the supporters of the white movement. Accordingly, all sorts of conspiracy explanations are invented to explain why everything ended like this and where did the victories go?.. Hence the legends about the monstrous and unparalleled "Red Terror".

And the solution is actually simple and, alas, graceless - the Whites won tactically, in battle, but lost the main battle - in their own rear.

“None of the [anti-Bolshevik] governments ... has been able to create a flexible and strong apparatus of power, capable of swiftly and quickly overtaking, forcing, acting and forcing others to act. The Bolsheviks also did not capture the soul of the people, they also did not become a national phenomenon, but they were infinitely ahead of us in the pace of their actions, in energy, mobility and ability to coerce. We, with our old methods, old psychology, old vices of the military and civil bureaucracy, with the Petrine table of ranks, did not keep up with them ... "

In the spring of 1919, the commander of Denikin's artillery had only two hundred shells a day ... For a single gun? No, for the whole army.

England, France and other powers, despite the later curses of the whites against them, provided considerable or even enormous assistance. In the same 1919, the British supplied 74 tanks, one and a half hundred aircraft, hundreds of cars and dozens of tractors, more than five hundred guns, including 6-8-inch howitzers, thousands of machine guns, more than two hundred thousand rifles, hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition and two million shells ... These are very decent numbers, even on the scale of the just great war, it would not be a shame to cite them in the context of, say, the battles of Ypres or the Somme, describing the situation on separate area front. And for a civil war, forced to be poor and ragged - this is a fabulous lot. Such an armada, concentrated in a few "fists", by itself could tear the red front like a rotten rag.

Detachment of tanks of the Shock and Fire Brigade before leaving for the front
velikoe-sorokoletie.diary.ru

However, this wealth did not unite in compact crushing groupings. Moreover, the vast majority did not reach the front at all. Because the organization of rear supplies was completely failed. And cargo (ammunition, food, uniforms, equipment ...) was either stolen or clogged remote warehouses.

The new British howitzers were spoiled by untrained white crews in three weeks, which repeatedly threw the British advisers into disarray. 1920 - at Wrangel, according to the Reds, no more than 20 shells per gun were fired on the day of the battle. Part of the batteries generally had to be taken to the rear.

On all fronts, ragged soldiers and no less ragged officers of the White armies, without food or ammunition, fought desperately against Bolshevism. And in the rear...

“Looking at these hosts of scoundrels, at these dressed-up ladies with diamonds, at these polished thugs, I felt only one thing: I prayed: “Lord, send the Bolsheviks here, at least for a week, so that even amidst the horrors of the emergency, these animals understand that they are doing."

Ivan Nazhivin, Russian writer and émigré

The lack of coordination of actions and the inability to organize, in modern terms, logistics and rear discipline, led to the fact that purely military victories white movement dissolved in smoke. White chronically could not "squeeze" the enemy, while slowly and irreversibly losing his fighting qualities. The White armies at the beginning and end of the Civil War differed fundamentally only in the degree of brokenness and mental breakdown - and not in the best direction towards the end. But the red ones changed ...

“Yesterday there was a public lecture by Colonel Kotomin, who fled from the Red Army; those present did not understand the bitterness of the lecturer, who pointed out that there is much more order and discipline in the commissar's army than we have, and made a grandiose scandal with an attempt to beat the lecturer, one of the most ideological workers of our national Center; they were especially offended when K. noted that a drunken officer was impossible in the Red Army, because any commissar or communist would immediately shoot him.

Baron Budberg

Budberg somewhat idealized the picture, but the essence was correctly assessed. And not only him. Evolution was going on in the nascent Red Army, the Reds fell, received painful blows, but rose and moved on, drawing conclusions from defeats. And even in tactics more than once or twice White's efforts were shattered by stubborn defense red - from Yekaterinodar to the Yakut villages. On the contrary, the failure of the Whites - and the front collapses for hundreds of kilometers, often - forever.

1918, summer - the Taman campaign, against the Red teams of 27,000 bayonets and 3,500 sabers - 15 guns, at best, from 5 to 10 rounds per fighter. There is no food, fodder, carts and kitchens.

Red Army in 1918.
Drawing by Boris Efimov
http://www.ageod-forum.com

1920, autumn - The strike fire brigade on Kakhovka has a battery of six-inch howitzers, two light batteries, two detachments of armored cars (another detachment of tanks, but he did not have time to take part in the battles), more than 180 machine guns for 5.5 thousand people, a flamethrower team, the fighters are dressed to the nines and amaze even the enemy with their skill, the commanders received a leather uniform.

Red Army in 1921.
Drawing by Boris Efimov
http://www.ageod-forum.com

The red cavalry of Dumenko and Budyonny forced even the enemy to study their tactics. While the whites most often "shone" with a full-length frontal attack of the infantry and bypassing the cavalry from the flank. When the white army under Wrangel, thanks to the supply of equipment, began to resemble a modern one, it was already too late.

The Reds also have a place for regular officers - like Kamenev and Vatsetis, and those who do successful career"from the bottom" of the army - Dumenko and Budyonny, and nuggets - Frunze.

And for the whites, with all the wealth of choice, one of Kolchak's armies is commanded by ... a former paramedic. Denikin's decisive attack on Moscow is led by Mai-Maevsky, who stands out for drinking even against the general background. Grishin-Almazov, major general, "works" as a courier between Kolchak and Denikin, where he dies. In almost every part, contempt for others flourishes.

3. Ideology - "vote with a rifle!"

What was the Civil War for an ordinary citizen, an ordinary inhabitant? Paraphrasing one of modern researchers, in essence, it turned out to be grandiose democratic elections stretched over several years under the slogan “vote with a rifle!”. A person could not choose the time and place where he happened to catch amazing and terrible events of historical significance. However, he could - albeit limitedly - choose his place in the present. Or, at worst, their attitude towards him.

Recall what was already mentioned above - the opponents were in dire need of armed force and food. People and food could be obtained by force, but not always and not everywhere, multiplying enemies and haters. Ultimately, the winner was not determined by how brutal he was or how many individual battles he could win. And the fact that he will be able to offer a huge apolitical mass, insanely tired of the hopeless and protracted end of the world. Will he be able to attract new supporters, maintain the loyalty of the former, make neutrals hesitate, undermine the morale of enemies.

The Bolsheviks did it. But their opponents are not.

“What did the Reds want when they went to fight? They wanted to defeat the Whites and, having gained strength on this victory, to create from it the foundation for the solid construction of their communist statehood.

What did the whites want? They wanted to defeat the Reds. And then? Then - nothing, because only state babies could not understand that the forces that supported the building of the old statehood were destroyed to the ground, and that there were no opportunities to restore these forces.

Victory for the Reds was a means, for the Whites it was the goal, and, moreover, the only one.

Von Raupach. "Reasons for the failure of the white movement"

Ideology is a tool that is difficult to calculate mathematically, but it also has its own weight. In the country where most of the population barely read the warehouses, it was extremely important to be able to clearly explain why it was proposed to fight and die. The Reds could. The Whites were not even able to decide among themselves in a consolidated manner what they were fighting for. On the contrary, they considered it right to postpone the ideology "until later » , conscious nonprejudice. Even among the whites themselves, the alliance between the "property classes » , officers, Cossacks and "revolutionary democracy » called unnatural - how can they convince the wavering?

« ... We have delivered a huge blood-sucking can of sick Russia ... The transfer of power from Soviet hands to our hands would not have saved Russia. We need something new, something still unconscious - then we can hope for a slow revival. And neither the Bolsheviks nor us should be in power, and that’s even better!”

A. Lampe. From the diary. 1920

A tale of losers

In essence, our forced short note became a story about the weaknesses of whites and, to a much lesser extent, about reds. This is no coincidence. In any civil war, all sides demonstrate an unimaginable, transcendent level of chaos and disorganization. Naturally, the Bolsheviks and their fellow travelers were no exception. But whites set an absolute record for what would now be called "gracelessness".

In essence, it was not the Reds who won the war, they, in general, did what they had done before - they fought for power and solved the problems that blocked the path to their future.

It was the Whites who lost the confrontation, lost at all levels - from political declarations to tactics and organization of the supply of the army in the field.

The irony of fate is that the majority of whites did not defend the tsarist regime, and even took an active part in its overthrow. They perfectly knew and criticized all the ulcers of tsarism. However, at the same time, they scrupulously repeated all the main mistakes of the previous government, which led to its collapse. Only in a more explicit, even caricatured form.

In conclusion, I would like to cite the words that were originally written in relation to the civil war in England, but are also perfectly suited to those terrible and great events that shook Russia almost a hundred years ago ...

“They say that these people were swirled by a whirlwind of events, but the point is different. No one carried them anywhere, and there were no inexplicable forces and invisible hands. It’s just that every time they faced a choice, they made the right decisions, from their point of view, but in the end, the chain of individually correct intentions led to a dark forest ... All that remained was to stray in the evil thickets, until, finally, the survivors came out into the light , looking with horror at the road with corpses left behind. Many have gone through this, but blessed are those who understood their enemy and then did not curse him."

A. V. Tomsinov "The Blind Children of Kronos".

Literature:

1. Budberg A. Diary of a White Guard. - Mn.: Harvest, M.: AST, 2001
2. Gul R. B. ice hike(with Kornilov). http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/gul_rb/index.html
3. Drozdovsky M. G. Diary. - Berlin: Otto Kirchner and Ko, 1923.
4. Zaitsov A. A. 1918. Essays on the history of the Russian civil war. Paris, 1934.
5. Kakurin N. E., Vatsetis I. I. Civil war. 1918–1921 - St. Petersburg: Polygon, 2002.
6. Kakurin N.E. How the revolution fought. 1917–1918 M., Politizdat, 1990.
7. Kovtyukh E. I. "Iron Stream" in a military presentation. Moscow: Gosvoenizdat, 1935
8. Kornatovsky N. A. The struggle for Red Petrograd. - M: ACT, 2004.
9. Essays by E. I. Dostovalov.
10. http://feb-web.ru/feb/rosarc/ra6/ra6–637-.htm
11. Reden. Through the hell of the Russian revolution. Memoirs of a midshipman. 1914–1919 Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007
12. Wilmson Huddleston. Farewell to Don. The Russian Civil War in the Diaries of a British Officer. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007
13. LiveJournal by Evgeny Durnev http://eugend.livejournal.com - it contains various educational materials, incl. considered some issues of red and white terror in relation to the Tambov region and Siberia.

Almost a century later, the events that unfolded shortly after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and resulted in a four-year fratricidal massacre receive a new assessment. The war of the Red and White armies, presented for many years Soviet ideology in the form of a heroic page in our history, today it is considered as a national tragedy, to prevent the repetition of which is the duty of every true patriot.

Beginning of the Way of the Cross

Historians disagree on the specific date of the start of the Civil War, but it is traditionally customary to call the last decade of 1917. This view is based mainly on three events that took place during this period.

Among them, it should be noted the performance of the forces of General P.N. Red in order to suppress the Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd on October 25, then on November 2 - the beginning of the formation on the Don by General M.V. Alekseev of the Volunteer Army, and, finally, the publication of P.N. Milyukov, which essentially became a declaration of war.

Speaking about the social class structure of the officers who became the head of the White movement, one should immediately point out the fallacy of the ingrained idea that it was formed exclusively from representatives of the highest aristocracy.

A similar picture became a thing of the past after the military reform of Alexander II, carried out in the period of the 60-70s of the XIX century and opened the way to army command posts for representatives of all classes. For example, one of the main figures of the White movement, General A.I. Denikin was the son of a serf, and L.G. Kornilov grew up in the family of a cornet Cossack army.

The social composition of the Russian officers

The stereotype developed during the years of Soviet power, according to which the White army was led exclusively by people who called themselves "white bones", is fundamentally wrong. In fact, they were representatives of all social strata of society.

In this regard, it would be appropriate to cite the following data: the output of infantry schools in the last two pre-revolutionary years consisted of 65% of former peasants, in connection with which, out of every 1000 ensigns of the tsarist army, about 700 were, as they say, “from the plow”. In addition, it is known that for the same number of officers, 250 people came from the bourgeois, merchant, and working environment, and only 50 from the nobility. What kind of “white bone” could we talk about in this case?

White army at the beginning of the war

The beginning of the White movement in Russia looked rather modest. According to reports, in January 1918, only 700 Cossacks, led by General A.M., joined him. Kaledin. This was explained by the complete demoralization of the tsarist army by the end of the First World War and the general unwillingness to fight.

The vast majority of servicemen, including officers, defiantly ignored the order to mobilize. Only with great difficulty, by the beginning of full-scale hostilities, the Belaya volunteer army was able to replenish its ranks up to 8 thousand people, of which approximately 1 thousand were staffed by officers.

The symbolism of the White Army was quite traditional. In contrast to the red banners of the Bolsheviks, the defenders of the former world order chose a white-blue-red banner, which was the official national flag Russia, approved at the time by Alexander III. In addition, the well-known double-headed eagle was also a symbol of their struggle.

Siberian rebel army

It is known that the answer to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Siberia was the creation of underground combat centers in many of its large cities, headed by former officers of the tsarist army. The signal for their open action was the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, formed in September 1917 from among the captured Slovaks and Czechs, who then expressed a desire to take part in the struggle against Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Their rebellion, which broke out against the backdrop of general discontent Soviet power, served as a detonator of a social explosion that swept the Urals, the Volga region, Far East and Siberia. On the basis of disparate battle groups, the West Siberian Army was formed in a short time, headed by an experienced military leader, General A.N. Grishin-Almazov. Its ranks were rapidly replenished with volunteers and soon reached the number of 23 thousand people.

Very soon, the White army, united with parts of Yesaul G.M. Semyonov, got the opportunity to control the territory stretching from Baikal to the Urals. It was a huge force, consisting of 71 thousand soldiers, supported by 115 thousand local volunteers.

Army that fought on the Northern Front

During the years of the Civil War, hostilities were conducted almost throughout the country, and, in addition to the Siberian Front, the future of Russia was also decided in the South, North-West and North. It was on it, as historians testify, that the concentration of the most professionally trained military personnel who went through the First World War took place.

It is known that many officers and generals of the White Army who fought on the Northern Front got there from Ukraine, where they escaped the terror unleashed by the Bolsheviks only thanks to the help of German troops. This largely explained their subsequent sympathy for the Entente and partly even Germanophilia, which often caused conflicts with other military personnel. In general, it should be noted that the White army that fought in the north was relatively small.

White forces on the Northwestern Front

white army who opposed the Bolsheviks in northwestern regions country, was mainly formed thanks to the support of the Germans and after their departure, there were about 7 thousand bayonets. Despite the fact that, according to experts, among other fronts, this one was different low level training, on it the White Guard units long time was lucky. In many ways, this was facilitated by a large number of volunteers who joined the ranks of the army.

Among them, two contingents of persons were distinguished by increased combat readiness: the sailors of the flotilla, created in 1915 on Lake Peipsi, as well as former Red Army soldiers who went over to the side of the Whites - cavalrymen of the detachments of Permykin and Balakhovich. Significantly replenished the growing army of local peasants, as well as high school students who were subject to mobilization.

Military contingent in southern Russia

And, finally, the main front of the Civil War, on which the fate of the whole country was decided, was the South. The hostilities that unfolded on it covered an area equal in area to two average European states and had a population exceeding 34 million people. It is important to note that, thanks to the developed industry and multifaceted agriculture, this part of Russia could exist independently of the rest of the country.

The generals of the White Army who fought on this front under the command of A.I. Denikin, were all, without exception, highly educated military specialists who already had the experience of the First World War behind them. They also had at their disposal a developed transport infrastructure, which included railways and seaports.

All this was a prerequisite for future victories, but the general unwillingness to fight, as well as the lack of a single ideological base, eventually led to defeat. The entire politically motley contingent of troops, consisting of liberals, monarchists, democrats, etc., was united only by hatred of the Bolsheviks, which, unfortunately, did not become a sufficiently strong link.

An army far from ideal

It can be said with confidence that the White Army in the Civil War failed to fully realize its potential, and among many reasons, one of the main reasons was the unwillingness to let the peasants, who made up the majority of the population of Russia, into its ranks. Those of them who could not avoid mobilization soon became deserters, greatly weakening the combat capability of their units.

It is also important to take into account that the white army was an extremely heterogeneous composition of people both socially and spiritually and morally. Along with the true heroes, ready to sacrifice themselves in the fight against the impending chaos, many scum joined her, taking advantage of fratricidal war to commit violence, robbery and looting. It also deprived the army of universal support.

It must be admitted that the White Army of Russia was far from always being the "holy army" so sonorously sung by Marina Tsvetaeva. By the way, her husband, Sergei Efron, an active participant in the volunteer movement, also wrote about this in his memoirs.

The hardships suffered by the white officers

Over the course of almost a century that has passed since those dramatic times, a certain stereotype of the image of the White Guard officer has been developed by mass art in the minds of most Russians. He appears, as a rule, as a nobleman, dressed in a uniform with golden shoulder straps, whose favorite pastime is drunkenness and singing sentimental romances.

In reality, things were different. As the memoirs of the participants in those events testify, the White Army faced extraordinary difficulties in the Civil War, and officers had to fulfill their duty with a constant shortage of not only weapons and ammunition, but even the most necessary things for life - food and uniforms.

The assistance provided by the Entente was not always timely and sufficient in scope. In addition, the general morale of the officers was depressingly influenced by the consciousness of the need to wage war against their own people.

bloody lesson

In the years that followed perestroika, there was a rethinking of most of the events Russian history related to the revolution and the civil war. The attitude towards many participants of that great tragedy, previously considered enemies of their own Fatherland. Nowadays, not only the commanders of the White Army, such as A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, P.N. Wrangel and the like, but also all those who went into battle under the Russian tricolor, took a worthy place in people's memory. Today, it is important that that fratricidal nightmare become a worthy lesson, and the current generation has made every effort to ensure that it never happens again, no matter how political passions boil in the country.

Creation of the Red Army

The main part of the armed forces of the RSFSR during the Civil War, the official name of the ground forces of the RSFSR - the USSR in 1918-1946. Arose from the Red Guard. The formation of the Red Army was announced in the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", approved on 01/03/1918 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 01/15/1918 V.I. Lenin signed a decree establishing the Red Army. The formations of the Red Army received a baptism of fire when repelling the German offensive on Petrograd in February - March 1918. After the conclusion of the Brest peace in Soviet Russia, full-scale work began on the creation of the Red Army under the leadership of the Supreme Military Council created on 03/04/1918 (the Air Force headquarters was partly created on the basis of the previous Headquarters Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and later, on the basis of the headquarters of the council, the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) arose). an important step to strengthen the Red Army and to attract former officers to it was the order of the Supreme Military Council of March 21, 1918, which abolished the elective beginning. For the transition from the voluntary principle of manning the army to universal conscription, a military administrative apparatus was needed, which was created in Soviet Russia in the spring of 1918. An important advantage of the Bolsheviks over their opponents was the ability to rely on the ready-made control apparatus of the old army.

On March 22-23, 1918, at a meeting of the Supreme Military Council, it was decided that the division would become the main unit of the Red Army. On the twentieth of April 1918, the states of units and formations were published. In the same days, work was completed on a plan for the formation and deployment of a million-strong army.

Creation of military bodies and military districts

In April 1918, under the leadership of the Air Force, the formation of local military administration bodies began, incl. military districts (Belomorsky, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Orlovsky, Priuralsky, Volga and North Caucasian), as well as district, provincial, district and volost commissariats for military affairs. When forming the military district system, the Bolsheviks used the front and army headquarters of the old army, the former corps headquarters played a role in the formation of the headquarters of the curtain troops. The former military districts were abolished. New districts were formed, uniting the provinces according to the composition of the population. During 1918-1922. 27 military districts were formed or restored (after the capture by the Whites or liquidation). The districts played a crucial role in the formation of the Red Army. The rear districts were subordinate to the Higher General Staff, the front-line districts - to the Field Headquarters of the RVSR, the Revolutionary Military Council of the fronts and armies. A network of provincial, district and volost military commissariats was created on the ground. By the end of the Civil War, there were 88 provincial and 617 county military commissariats. The number of volost military registration and enlistment offices was measured in thousands.

In early July 1918, the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided that every citizen between the ages of 18 and 40 must defend Soviet Russia. The army began to be recruited not voluntarily, but by conscription, which marked the beginning of the formation of a mass Red Army.

Organization of the political apparatus of the Red Army

The political apparatus of the Red Army was formed. By March 1918, in order to organize party control and restore order among the troops, the institution of commissars was formed (two in all units, headquarters and institutions). The body that controlled their work was the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars, headed by K.K. Yurenev, originally created at the Air Force. By the end of 1920, the party and Komsomol stratum in the Red Army was about 7%, the Communists made up 20% of the command staff of the Red Army. By October 1, 1919, according to some sources, up to 180,000 party members were in the army, and by August 1920 - over 278,000. During the Civil War, over 50,000 Bolsheviks died at the front. To strengthen the Red Army, the communists repeatedly carried out party mobilizations.

The Air Force organized the registration of military units, combined them into curtain detachments under the guidance of experienced military leaders. The forces of the curtain were grouped in the most important directions (the Northern sector and the Petrogradsky region of the curtain, the Western sector and the Moscow defense region, later, by a decree of the Air Force of August 4, 1918, the Southern sector of the curtain was formed on the basis of the Voronezh region of the Western sector of the curtain, and on August 6 for defense from the interventionists and whites in the North, the North-Eastern section of the curtain was created). Subordinate to the sections and districts were the curtain detachments, which, in accordance with the Air Force order of May 3, 1918, were deployed into territorial divisions, which were named after the names of the corresponding provinces. The first conscription to the Red Army took place already on June 12, 1918. The Air Force outlined a plan for the formation of 30 divisions. On May 8, 1918, the All-Russian General Staff (VGSh) was created on the basis of the GUGSH (ie the General Staff) and the General Staff.

RVSR

On September 2, 1918, by a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, on the initiative of Trotsky and the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya.M. Sverdlov, the RVSR was created, to which the functions of the Air Force, the operational and military statistics departments of the Higher General Staff and the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs were transferred. The composition of the new body was as follows: Chairman L.D. Trotsky, members: K.Kh. Danishevsky, P.A. Kobozev, K.A. Mekhonoshin, F.F. Raskolnikov, A.P. Rozengolts, I.N. Smirnov and commander-in-chief of all armed forces of the republic. The headquarters of the Air Force was transformed into the headquarters of the RVSR. N.I. became the chief of staff of the RVSR. Rattel, formerly head of the Air Force headquarters.

Almost all military administration bodies were gradually subordinated to the RVSR: the commander-in-chief, the Supreme Military Inspectorate, the Military Legislative Council, the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (abolished in 1919, functions were transferred to the Political Department, later transformed into the Political Directorate of the RVSR), the administration of the RVSR, the Field headquarters, the Higher General Staff, the Revolutionary Military Tribunal of the Republic, the Central Administration for the Supply of the Army, the Higher Attestation Commission, the Main Military Sanitary Directorate. In fact, the RVSR was swallowed up by the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, especially since the key posts in these two bodies were occupied by the same persons - People's Commissar for Military Affairs L.D. Trotsky, who is also the chairman of the RVSR and his deputy in both bodies, E.M. Sklyansky. Thus, the RVSR was entrusted with the solution of the most important issues of the country's defense. As a result of the transformations, the RVSR became supreme body military administration of Soviet Russia. According to the plan of its creators, it was supposed to be collegial, but the realities of the Civil War led to the fact that, with a fictitious presence a large number few members actually participated in the meetings, and the work of the RVSR was concentrated in the hands of Sklyansky, who was in Moscow, while Trotsky spent the hottest time of the Civil War traveling around the fronts, organizing local military administration.

The post of commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the republic was introduced in Soviet Russia by a decree of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on September 2, 1918. The first commander-in-chief was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, former colonel I.I. Vatsetis. In July 1919 he was replaced by former Colonel S.S. Kamenev.

The RVSR Headquarters, which arose on September 6, 1918, was deployed into the RVSR Field Headquarters, which actually became the Soviet Headquarters of the Civil War era. At the head of the headquarters were former General Staff officers N.I. Rattel, F.W. Kostyaev, M.D. Bonch-Bruevich and P.P. Lebedev.

The field headquarters was directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief. The structure of the Field Headquarters included departments: operational (departments: 1st and 2nd operational, general, cartographic, communications service and magazine part), reconnaissance (departments: 1st (military intelligence) and 2nd (undercover intelligence) reconnaissance branches, general department and the journal part), reporting (duty) (departments: accounting (inspector), general, economic) and military-political. As in the VGSh, the structure changed. Directorates were created: operational (departments: operational, general, intelligence, communications service), organizational (accounting and organizational department; later - administrative and accounting department with accounting and organizational department), registration (undercover department, undercover department), military control, Central Directorate of Military Communications and Field Directorate of the Air Fleet. An important achievement Soviet military development was that, finally, the dream of many old-school General Staff officers came true: the Field Headquarters was freed from organizational and supply issues and could concentrate on operational work.

On September 30, 1918, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense was established under the chairmanship of V.I. Lenin, designed to coordinate the solution of military issues with civilian departments, as well as to restrain the almost unlimited power of the chairman of the RVSR Trotsky.

The structure of the field control of the fronts was as follows. At the head of the front was the Revolutionary Military Council (RVS), to which the headquarters of the front, the Revolutionary Military Tribunal, the political department, military control (counterintelligence), and the department of the chief of supply of the armies of the front were subordinate. The front headquarters included departments: operational (departments: operational, reconnaissance, general, communications, maritime, topographic), administrative and military communications, inspections of infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineers, directorate of the chief of aviation and aeronautics.

Fronts of the Red Army during the Civil War

During the Civil War, 11 main fronts of the Red Army were created (Eastern June 13, 1918 - January 15, 1920; Western February 19, 1919 - April 8, 1924; Caucasian January 16, 1920 - May 29, 1921; Caspian-Caucasian December 8 1918 - March 13, 1919; Northern September 11, 1918 - February 19, 1919; Turkestan August 14, 1919 - June 1926; Ukrainian January 4 - June 15, 1919; South-Eastern October 1, 1919 - January 6, 1920 .; Southwestern January 10 - December 31, 1920; Southern September 11, 1918 - January 10, 1920; Southern (second formation) September 21 - December 10, 1920).

Army in the Red Army during the Civil War

During the period of the Civil War in the Red Army, 33 regular armies were created, including two cavalry ones. The armies were part of the fronts. The field administration of the armies consisted of: RVS, headquarters with departments: operational, administrative, military communications and inspectors of infantry, cavalry, engineers, political department, revolutionary tribunal, special department. In the operational department there were departments: reconnaissance, communications, aviation and aeronautics. The army commander was a member of the RVS. Appointments in the Revolutionary Military Council of fronts and armies were carried out by the Revolutionary Military Council. Critical function performed by reserve armies, which gave the front ready replacements.

The main unit of the Red Army was a rifle division, organized according to a trinity scheme - from three brigades of three regiments each. The regiments consisted of three battalions, there were three companies in the battalion. According to the state, the division was supposed to have about 60,000 people, 9 artillery divisions, an armored detachment, an air division (18 aircraft), a cavalry division and other units. Such a staff turned out to be too cumbersome, the actual number of divisions was up to 15 thousand people, which corresponded to a corps in the white armies. Since the states were not respected, the composition of the various divisions varied greatly.

During 1918-1920. The Red Army gradually grew stronger and stronger. In October 1918, the Reds could field 30 infantry divisions, and in September 1919 - already 62. At the beginning of 1919 there were only 3 cavalry divisions, and at the end of 1920 - already 22. In the spring of 1919, the army consisted of about 440,000 bayonets and sabers with 2,000 guns and 7,200 machine guns in combat units alone, and the total number exceeded 1.5 million people. Then the superiority in forces over the whites was achieved, which then increased. By the end of 1920, the number of the Red Army exceeded 5 million people, with a combat strength of about 700,000 people.

Command cadres were mobilized in the person of tens of thousands of former officers. In November 1918, the RVSR issued an order to call up all former chief officers under 50 years of age, staff officers under 55 years of age and generals under 60 years of age. As a result of this order, the Red Army received about 50,000 military specialists. The total number of military experts of the Red Army was even higher (by the end of 1920 - up to 75,000 people). The "military opposition" opposed the policy of attracting military experts.

Personnel training

Through an extensive network of military educational institutions, cadres of red commanders were also trained (about 60,000 people were trained). Such military leaders as V.M. Azin, V.K. Blucher, S.M. Budyonny, B.M. Dumenko, D.P. Zhloba, V.I. Kikvidze, G.I. Kotovsky, I.S. Kutyakov, A.Ya. Parkhomenko, V.I. Chapaev, I.E. Yakir.

By the end of 1919, the Red Army already included 17 armies. By January 1, 1920, the Red Army at the front and in the rear numbered 3,000,000 people. By October 1, 1920, with total strength The Red Army had 5,498,000 people on the fronts, 2,361,000 people, 391,000 in the reserve armies, 159,000 in the labor armies and 2,587,000 in the military districts. By January 1, 1921, the Red Army had 4,213,497 eaters, and the combat strength included 1,264,391 people, or 30% of the total. On the fronts were 85 rifle divisions, 39 separate rifle brigades, 27 cavalry divisions, 7 separate cavalry brigades, 294 light artillery divisions, 85 howitzer artillery divisions, 85 field heavy artillery divisions (a total of 4888 guns of different systems). In total in 1918-1920. 6,707,588 people were drafted into the Red Army. An important advantage of the Red Army was its comparative social homogeneity (by the end of the Civil War, in September 1922, 18.8% of workers, 68% of peasants, 13.2% of others served in the Red Army. By the fall of 1920, 29 different charters were developed in the Red Army , 28 more were in operation.

Desertion in the Red Army

Desertion was a serious problem for Soviet Russia. The fight against him was centralized and concentrated since December 25, 1918 in the Central Temporary Commission for Combating Desertion from representatives of the military department, the party and the NKVD. Local authorities were represented by the respective provincial commissions. Only during raids on deserters in 1919-1920. 837,000 people were detained. As a result of amnesties and explanatory work from mid-1919 to mid-1920, more than 1.5 million deserters voluntarily turned up.

Armament of the Red Army

In 1919, 460,055 rifles, 77,560 revolvers, and over 340 million were produced on Soviet territory in 1919. rifle cartridges, 6256 machine guns, 22,229 sabers, 152 three-inch guns, 83 three-inch guns of other types (anti-aircraft, mountain, short), 24 42-line rapid-fire guns, 78 48-line howitzers, 29 6-inch fortress howitzers, about 185,000 shells , 258 airplanes (another 50 have been repaired). In 1920, 426,994 rifles were produced (about 300,000 were repaired), 38,252 revolvers, over 411 million rifle cartridges, 4,459 machine guns, 230 three-inch guns, 58 three-inch guns of other types, 12 42-line rapid-firing guns, 20 48- linear howitzers, 35 6-inch fortress howitzers, 1.8 million shells.

The main branch of the ground forces was the infantry, the shock maneuverable force was the cavalry. In 1919, the cavalry corps of S.M. Budyonny, then deployed to the 1st Cavalry Army. In 1920, the 2nd cavalry army F.K. Mironov.

The Red Army was turned by the Bolsheviks into effective remedy widespread their ideas among the masses. By October 1, 1919, the Bolsheviks opened 3,800 Red Army literacy schools, in 1920 their number reached 5,950. By the summer of 1920, more than 1,000 Red Army theaters were operating.

The Red Army won the Civil War. Numerous anti-Bolshevik armies were defeated in the South, East, North and North-West of the country. During the Civil War, many commanders, commissars and Red Army men distinguished themselves. About 15,000 people were awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner was awarded to 2 armies, 42 divisions, 4 brigades, 176 regiments.

After the Civil War, the Red Army underwent a significant reduction of about 10 times (by the mid-1920s).