Democratic counter-revolution during the civil war. Democratic counter-revolution"

1. Speech by the Czechoslovak Corps. Eastern Front In the summer of 1918, the Civil War entered a new stage - the front-line. It began with the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps. The corps consisted of captured Czechs and Slovaks of the Austro-Hungarian army. As early as the end of 1916, they expressed a desire to participate in hostilities on the side of the Entente

The corps recognized itself as part of the French army An agreement was concluded between Russia and France on the transfer of the Czechoslovaks to the Western Front. They were supposed to proceed along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, board ships and sail to Europe

At the end of May 1918, the echelons with the military (more than 45 thousand people) stretched from the Rtishchevo station (in the Penza region) to Vladivostok for 7 thousand km. There was a rumor that the corps should be disarmed, and the Czechs should be handed over to Austria-Hungary as prisoners of war. The corps command decided not to hand over their weapons and fight their way to Vladivostok

Trotsky really issued an order to disarm the corps. This order was intercepted by R. Gaida, the commander of the corps. He gave his order to occupy the stations where they were. In a short time, the Soviet power, with the help of the Czechs, was overthrown in the Volga region, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Far East

2. "Democratic counter-revolution". Eastern Front In the summer of 1918, local governments were created in the territories liberated by the Czechoslovaks from the Bolsheviks: - In Samara - the Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly Komuch of the first composition I. M. Brushvit, P. D. Klimushkin, B K. Fortunatov, V. K. Volsky (Chairman) and I. P. Nesterov

With the support of the Czechoslovaks, the People's Army of Komuch took Kazan on August 6, hoping to cross the Volga and move on Moscow In June 1918, the Soviet government adopted a resolution on the creation of the Eastern Front On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Soviet Republic a military camp

Admiral A.V. Kolchak was invited to the post of Minister of War () Everyone hoped that Kolchak's popularity would allow uniting anti-Bolshevik forces. In November 1918, he accepted the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia

Kolchak in Irkutsk Under the blows of the Red Army, the Kolchak government was forced to move to Irkutsk In December 1919, an uprising broke out against Kolchak In early January 1920, A.V.

3. Red Terror The assassination attempt by Fanny Kaplan on VI LENIN at a Moscow plant.

4. Southern Front The South of Russia became the second center of resistance to Soviet power In the spring of 1918, the Don was filled with rumors about the upcoming equalizing redistribution of land The Cossacks murmured An uprising broke out It coincided with the arrival of the Germans on the Don Cossacks and the Germans entered into negotiations Ataman of the Don Cossacks

From the troops located in the region of Voronezh, Tsaritsyn and the North Caucasus, the Soviet government created the Southern Front in September 1918. The battles took place in the Tsaritsyn region. Krasnov's army broke through the Southern Front and began to move north.

By this time, the foreign policy situation had changed dramatically In early November 1918, the World War ended with the defeat of Germany The Volunteer Army ceased to exist In early April, General P.N.

In April 1918, Turkish troops moved deep into Transcaucasia In May, a German corps landed in Georgia From the end of 1917, English, American and Japanese warships began to arrive in Russian ports in the North and Far East, allegedly to protect these ports from possible German aggression

In April 1918, Japanese paratroopers landed in Vladivostok. They were joined by the British. American, French and other troops of the Government of the Entente countries did not even declare war on Russia. Leniy regarded these actions as intervention and called for an armed rebuff to the aggressors.

After Germany left the First World War in the fall of 1918, the military presence of the Entente countries in Russia acquired an even wider scale. But the war dragged on and this caused dissatisfaction with the personnel of the expeditionary forces. Foreign powers began to evacuate their troops. Only Japanese troops remained in the Far East until October 1922. .

On May 7, 1920, Kiev was taken. But the population of Ukraine regarded the intervention of the Poles as an occupation. Forces of the Red Army were thrown against Poland. They were united as part of the Western and South-Western fronts under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky and A.I. .I.Egorov

Kiev was liberated on June 12, 1920 The offensive developed rapidly The Bolsheviks had hope for a world revolution But on the territory of Poland the Red Army met a fierce rebuff

In 1918, the country of the Soviets found itself in the ring of civil war fronts. Three political forces were quite clearly identified: the first - the majority of the working class and the poorest peasantry, on whose behalf the Bolsheviks spoke; the second - representatives of the overthrown classes and the groups of the population who supported them (officers, most of the Cossacks, the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and other "former"); the third - the most numerous part of the population, the so-called "petty bourgeoisie" of the city and countryside (middle peasantry, merchants, artisans, etc.). If the first two forces were immediately determined to be hostile and irreconcilable, then the third wavered and its position (“on which side”) often depended on the preponderance of the Reds or Whites, because on both sides of the front the bulk of the soldiers were the same peasants, who often rear and "red" and "white" revolts. Of course, such a balance of social forces that came together in a fierce battle is largely conditional, since the composition of each of the warring parties was heterogeneous and mobile. In the ranks of the "Reds" there were many former officers, representatives of the intelligentsia, people from the middle and even upper strata of Russian society. Under the banner of the White movement, both workers, in particular the Ural factories, and poor peasants fought - those who are usually attributed to the social ranks. Having fallen into the cataclysms of the revolutionary era, hundreds of thousands of people were looking for their place in a catastrophically changing life, often rushing like Sholokhov's Grigory Melekhov from one camp to another or living depending on bizarrely intertwined circumstances that pulled them out of their usual life and made them forget about the origin and interests of their social environment.

At the first stage of the civil war, the grain monopoly, requisitions, excesses of food detachments and commanders alienated the masses of peasants from the Bolsheviks and strengthened the position of the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

The socialist parties that did not accept the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and condemned Bolshevik quasi-socialism and violence against the peasants called for the fight against the communists under the flag of the Constituent Assembly. In the summer of 1918, socialist coalition governments were formed in several regions, trying to avoid the extremes of revolutionary radicalism and rabid counter-revolution, trying to choose, according to liberal socialists, the path of the "golden mean" - the democratic renewal of Russia. The term “democratic counter-revolution”, which appeared later in Soviet historiography, meant that from May to November 1918, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries fought against the Bolsheviks under the democratic flag.

To the ideologists of the moderate socialist parties, the Bolsheviks seemed to be no less dangerous force than the adherents of the old system. The future, they believed, belongs to "democracy and socialism", and Bolshevism is a "vulgar parody" of Marxism, which causes no less serious harm to socialism than open reaction.

The catalyst for the unification of the forces of the "democratic counter-revolution" for some time was the rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps. In 1918, about 200 thousand Czechoslovaks were in captivity in Russia. Even under the tsarist government, a 50,000-strong legion was formed from these prisoners of war to participate in hostilities on the Eastern Front. According to the Brest Treaty, the legion should have been disarmed. Therefore, the legionnaires considered the Bolsheviks traitors, although some of them sympathized with the Soviets. When the corps was ousted from Ukraine by the Germans. The Soviet government agreed to transfer it to Vladivostok, and then from there by sea to France. Those who did not surrender their weapons were threatened with execution. But, according to the decision of the congress, representatives from the parts of the corps did not hand over their weapons, deciding to force their way to Vladivostok.

The rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps (May 1918) was supported by the Entente. The French Ambassador to Russia, J. Noulens, on behalf of the Allies, stated that they had decided "to start an intervention ... and consider the Czech army as the vanguard of the allied army." The rebels quickly captured important railway junctions on the Siberian railway, took control of the territory from Chelyabinsk to Samara. As a result, an anti-Bolshevik front arose in the Volga region and Siberia, where Soviet power was overthrown. Two new SR governments immediately formed - Samara, which declared itself the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (KOMUCH), and the coalition Siberian government in Omsk. Moreover, both KOMUCH and the Siberian government claimed all-Russian power. They did not agree on political issues either. The essence of the differences was formulated at one time by Cadet L. Krol: "Samara wanted to keep the revolution at the level of the Socialist-Revolutionary requirements, and Omsk strove back from the revolution, even flaunting a return to the old external forms."

However, in the summer and autumn of 1918, the troops of both governments, using the support of the Czechoslovaks, the sympathetic attitude of a part of the population who believed in democratic slogans, dealt serious blows to the Bolshevik forces. August 6, 1918 "People's Army" Komuch took Kazan. It remained to cross the Volga - then the way to Moscow opened. The troops of the Red Army were also defeated in other regions.

The Soviet government is taking urgent action. An armored train with a select combat team and a military tribunal arrives on the Eastern Front, headed by Trotsky. The emissaries of the center prevent the fall of Sviyazhsk with draconian measures. Twenty-seven Red Army soldiers of the Petrograd Regiment, including the commander and commissar, are shot for fleeing the battlefield on the basis of the decimation principle. Concentration camps are being created in Murom, Arzamas, Sviyazhsk. Trotsky signs an order for a merciless reprisal against alarmists, deserters, disorganizers, including the command of the units. Barrage detachments are introduced, destroying the fighters and commanders who have turned to flight.

On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declares the Soviet Republic a "military camp". The Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by L. Trotsky, is being created from the military-party workers. The commander of the Eastern Front, I. Vatsetis, is appointed commander-in-chief of the Red Army. Mass terror begins against the "enemies of the revolution." Tough measures at the front and in the rear gave their results: already at the beginning of September 1918, in bloody and stubborn battles, the troops of the Eastern Front stopped the enemy and launched a counteroffensive. On September 10, Kazan was taken. The Bolsheviks successfully advanced from the middle Volga to the Urals. The fate of the SR-Menshevik governments was sealed. The fact is that the inter-wise policy of KOMUCH, the Siberian and other regional anti-Bolshevik governments, as well as the one created on September 23, 1918 at the Ufa state meeting of the Provisional All-Russian Government - the Directory - repelled the Cadets, entrepreneurs, officers - on the one hand, and adherents of the Bolsheviks - with another. Conflicts took place over labor and peasant issues, especially sharp disagreements were caused by the future state structure and the country's foreign policy orientation. Under blows both from the right and from the left, KOMUCH, the Siberian, Ural and other governments, and then the coalition Ufa Directory, had to give way to the military dictatorship of the Supreme Ruler - Kolchak.

In the summer of 1918, members of the Constituent Assembly dispersed by the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries in Samara created a Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, which formed Komuch government.

In Yekaterinburg was created Ural Regional Government. In Tomsk was formed Provisional Siberian Government. These governments were headed by the Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, who proclaimed themselves "democratic counter-revolution." Under the slogans "Power not to the Soviets, but to the Constituent Assembly", "Liquidation of the Brest Peace", the Social Revolutionary-Menshevik governments fought the Bolsheviks. With the support of the White Czechs, on August 6, 1918, the Komuch army took Kazan, hoping to cross the Volga and go to Moscow.

In June 1918, the Soviet government created Eastern front commanded by I.I. Vatsetis, and since 1919 S.S. Kamenev. The front included 5 armies urgently formed by the Bolsheviks.

The first concentration camps were set up in Murom, Arzamas, and Sviyazhsk. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Soviet Republic a military camp.

Fighting began in early September. The offensive of the Komuch government troops was stopped. By October, Kazan, Simbirsk, Syzran, and Samara were liberated. The Czechs retreated to the Urals.

In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of all anti-Bolshevik governments was held in Ufa, where it was decided to create a single government, Ufa directory. The offensive of the Red Army forced the directory to move to Omsk in October 1918, where Admiral A.V. Kolchak was appointed Minister of War (fought in Port Arthur, commanded a mine division, from July 1916 commander of the Black Sea Fleet.)

On the night of November 17-18, 1918, Kolchak staged a coup, arrested members of the directory and accepted the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia. Having come to power, the Kolchak government declared illegal all the decrees of the Soviet government. The solution of the agrarian question was postponed until the end of the Civil War. The lands that the peasantry received during the years of the revolution were not legally assigned to them. The peasantry faced a choice between bad and very bad. Having received the land from the hands of the Soviet power, the peasantry, despite the food dictatorship established by the Bolsheviks, eventually supported the Soviet power. The break with the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries also weakened the White movement. As the Socialist-Revolutionary B.V. Savinkov later wrote: “The valiant generals did not understand that an idea cannot be defeated with bayonets, that an idea must also be opposed to an idea ...”. Kolchak decided to resolve all issues with the help of bayonets.

In the spring of 1919, Kolchak carried out a general mobilization, putting 400 thousand people under arms. March - April 1919 having captured the cities of Sarapul, Izhevsk, Ufa, Bugulma, Belebey, Sterlitamak, Kolchak's troops approached Kazan and Simbirsk. A real threat to the existence of the Soviet state was created.

Chairman "Council of Labor and Defense" V.I. Lenin demanded that decisive measures be taken to fight Kolchak. The slogan "Everything to fight against Kolchak" was put forward. Reinforcements were sent to the eastern front. was appointed commander of the front M.V. Frunze.

The counteroffensive of the Red Army began on April 28, 1919. M.V. Frunze defeated the Kolchakites near Samara and in June took Ufa. Yekaterinburg was liberated on July 14, and Omsk, the capital of Kolchak, was liberated in November. Kolchak's government moved to Irkutsk. On December 24, 1919, the anti-Kolchak uprising began. The Czechs declared their neutrality. In early January, Kolchak was extradited by the Czechs to the leaders of the uprising. In February 1920, by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, Kolchak was shot.

Petrograd Front 1918-1919

At the end of 1918 in Finland was created Russian political committee headed by General N.N. Yudenich. IN first half of May 1919 year, in the midst of the battles on the Eastern Front against Kolchak, General Yudenich launched an offensive against Petrograd, creating a real threat to the city. Simultaneously with the offensive of the Whites, uprisings of the Red Army broke out in the forts "White Horse", "Red Hill" and "Obruchev". Having suppressed the uprising, the Red Army went on the offensive and pushed Yudenich's units back into Estonian territory.

In October 1919, in the midst of the fight against Denikin, General Yudenich tried to capture Petersburg for the second time, but was again driven back to Estonia, where his troops were interned.

Northern Front 1918-1919

After the landing in March 1918 of the British landing in the port of Murmansk, Soviet power was overthrown. The troops of the White Guards in the North were commanded by General Miller. After the withdrawal of foreign troops from the North of the country, the Red Army stepped up military operations. The Northern Front was created. In February 1920, the Red Army went on the offensive and liberated Arkhangelsk. In March 1920, Murmansk was liberated. The north of the country was cleared of the Whites.

Southern Front 1918-1920

In the spring of 1918, an uprising of the Cossacks began. It coincided with the advance of the German troops. On April 21, 1918, the Don government was created, which began to create the Don Army. On May 16, the Don Salvation Circle elected General Krasnov as ataman of the Don Cossacks. Krasnov carried out mass mobilization. By mid-July, the size of the Don army reached 45 thousand people. Relying on the support of Germany, Krasnov declared independence Regions of the Great Don Army. In mid-August, Krasnov, together with the German troops, launched an offensive.

From the troops located in the region of Voronezh, Tsaritsyn and the North Caucasus In September 1918, the Southern Front was created by the Bolsheviks. In November 1918, Krasnov broke through the defenses of the Southern Front. Fierce fighting unfolded in the Tsaritsyno direction. Only by December did the Red Army manage to stop the advance of the Cossack troops.

At the same time the second trip to the Kuban began Denikin. The volunteer army focused on the Entente and did not interact with Krasnov's pro-German detachments.

After the end of the First World War in November 1918, the Entente countries insisted on the unification of all anti-Bolshevik forces under the leadership of Denikin. Denikin's government in March 1919 published its draft land reform, which did not arouse the approval of the peasantry. The final decision on this issue was postponed until the complete victory over the Bolsheviks. In fact, all land acquisitions of peasants received on the basis of the Decree on Land, adopted by the Soviet government, were canceled. Under these conditions, the peasants supported the Soviet government. Denikin's administration began to return their land to the landlords. They demanded a third of the total harvest from the occupied lands from the peasants.

Denikin, like Kolchak, decided to resolve all issues by military means. In the midst of fierce fighting on the Eastern Front, the Volunteer Army went on the offensive on the Southern Front.

In May - June 1919, Denikin went on the offensive along the entire front captured the Donbass, part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn. On July 3, 1919, Denikin accepted the Moscow Directive. In July 1919, the Volunteer Army launched an offensive against Moscow. Denikin's troops took Kursk, Orel, Voronezh.

Mobilization began under the slogan "Everything to fight Denikin." He was appointed Commander of the Southern Front A.I. Egorov. In October 1919, the Red Army went on the offensive. The 1st Cavalry Army of S.M. Budyonny played an important role. The offensive was supported by the peasant insurrectionary movement led by N.I. Makhno, who opened a “second front” against Denikin. By the autumn of 1919, the Volunteer Army was divided by the Red offensive into two parts - Crimean and North Caucasian.

In February - March 1920, the North Caucasian group of whites was finally defeated. The volunteer army ceased to exist.

The remnants of the volunteer army concentrated in the Crimea. On April 4, 1920, Denikin announced General Wrangel as his successor and left the country. General P.N. Wrangel became the new commander-in-chief of the armed forces of southern Russia. (April 1920)

War with Poland in 1920

After the October Revolution, the Soviet government recognized the independence of Poland and Finland. The leadership of Poland pursued an anti-Soviet policy from the very beginning. The leader of Poland, the former general of the tsarist army, J. Pilsudsky, considered it possible to increase the territory of Poland at the expense of Belarus and Ukraine. Poland also claimed part of the Lithuanian territories. After the defeat of Germany, Pilsudski clearly set a course for allied relations with the Entente countries. With the support of foreign instructors, the Polish army is being created. (one of the instructors was the future President of France, Captain Charles de Gaulle)

In April 1920, J. Pilsudsky ordered an offensive against Kyiv, announcing this step as a desire to help the Ukrainian people in the fight against the Soviets.

On the night of May 7, Kyiv was taken by the Poles. The calculations of the Polish military for cooperation with the Ukrainian people turned out to be futile. The Ukrainians perceived the campaign of the Polish troops as an occupation.

All the forces of the Red Army, united in Western and Southwestern fronts. They were commanded by M.N. Tukhachevsky and A.I. Egorov.

On June 12, Kyiv was liberated. The Red Army reached the borders of Poland. “Through the corpse of white Poland lies the path to a world fire,” Tukhachevsky wrote in an order to the troops. However, near Warsaw, the Red Army was defeated. October 12, 1920 in Riga a peace treaty was signed Western Ukraine and Belarus passed to Poland. Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, remained part of Poland.

Southern front in 1920

In the midst of hostilities against Poland, the Crimean group of whites "Russian Army", under the command of Baron Wrangel, escaped from the Crimea and launched an attack on the Donbass. Having made peace with Poland, the Soviet command concentrated significant forces in the southern direction. The command of the Southern Front was entrusted to M.V. Frunze. After fierce fighting in Northern Tavria, the Red Army managed to push the Wrangel troops back to the Crimea.

In early November 1920, the Red Army launched an assault on the fortifications. Perekop and Chongar. At the same time, units of the Red Army crossed Sivash bay. The position of the remnants of the Volunteer Army became hopeless. About 100 thousand people fled on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet. The civil war in the central part of Russia ended in the complete defeat of the white movement. Only pockets of resistance to Soviet power remained on the outskirts.

As previously noted (), the Czechoslovak corps, maintained at the expense of the Entente, became the external organizing force and the core for the white counter-revolutionary forces in eastern Russia. The West acted as the initiator of the intensification and expansion of the Civil War with the aim of dismembering Russia, seizing its wealth and bleeding the Russian people in the most brutal fratricidal war.

In May 1918, the famous uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps began, which put an end to Soviet power in the vast expanses of the Far East, Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region for a long time. Almost simultaneously, in April 1918, the Japanese landed troops in Vladivostok, which dramatically changed the military-strategic, political situation in the eastern part of Russia. The British and French governments decided to use the Czechoslovaks as a fighting nucleus for organizing a counter-revolutionary Eastern Front. The soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps were provoked by malicious agitation about the alleged extradition of them to Germany and Austria-Hungary as former prisoners of war. There were clashes between former Austro-German prisoners who were being taken to the west and Czechoslovak legionnaires moving to the east.

Leon Trotsky again acted as a provocateur, ordering the disarmament and arrest of the legionnaires. On May 25, People's Commissar for Military Affairs Trotsky sent a telegram "to all Soviet deputies along the line from Penza to Omsk": "All railway councils are obliged, under pain of heavy responsibility, to disarm the Czechoslovaks. Every Czechoslovak who is found armed on the railway lines must be shot on the spot; each echelon in which there is at least one armed person must be unloaded from the wagons and imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp. Local military commissariats undertake to immediately carry out this order, any delay will be tantamount to treason and will bring down severe punishment on the guilty. At the same time, I am sending reliable forces to the rear of the Czechoslovak echelons, who are instructed to teach the disobedient a lesson. With honest Czechoslovaks who will surrender and submit to Soviet power, do as with brothers and give them all possible support. All railroad workers are informed that not a single wagon with Czechoslovaks should move east.

For their part, the leaders of the corps in the person of Chechek, Gaida and Woitsekhovsky quite consciously played their game, acting on the orders of the French mission, to which they telegraphed in advance that they were ready to march. Having worked out their plan of action and coordinated it in time, the Czechoslovaks began the operation. Thus, the provocation was well prepared and it was a success. The conflict, which could have been resolved through negotiations, escalated into a large-scale armed confrontation. And the Czechoslovak Corps for that time was a serious force (30-40 thousand fighters), whites and reds fought in small detachments and "echelons" - several hundred and thousands of fighters.

On May 25, Gaida and his troops mutinied in Siberia, capturing Novonikolaevsk. On May 26, Voitsekhovsky captured Chelyabinsk, and on May 28, after a battle with local Soviet garrisons, Chechek's echelons occupied Penza and Syzran. The Penza (8,000 fighters) and Chelyabinsk (8,750 fighters) groups of Czechs initially showed a desire to continue moving east. On June 7, Voitsekhovsky's group, after a series of clashes with the Reds, occupied Omsk. On June 10, she connected with the echelons of the Gaida. The Penza group headed for Samara, which they captured on June 8 after a minor battle. By the beginning of June 1918, all the forces of the Czechoslovaks, including the local White Guards, concentrated in four groups: 1) under the command of Chechek (the former Penza group), consisting of 5,000 soldiers, in the Syzran-Samara region; 2) under the command of Voitsekhovsky, consisting of 8000 people - in the Chelyabinsk region; 3) under the command of Gaida (Sibirskaya) consisting of 4000 people - in the Omsk - Novonikolaevsk region; under the command of Diterikhs (Vladivostokskaya), consisting of 14,000 people, was scattered in space east of Lake Baikal, heading for Vladivostok. The headquarters of the corps and the Czech National Council were in Omsk.

Czechoslovak machine gunners

The eastern group of Czechoslovaks under General Dieterichs at first remained passive. All her efforts were aimed at successfully concentrating in the Vladivostok region, for which she negotiated with local authorities with a request for assistance in moving the trains. On July 6, legionnaires concentrated in Vladivostok and captured the city. On July 7, the Czechs occupied Nikolsk-Ussuriysky. Immediately after the uprising of the Czechs, by decision of the supreme meeting of the allies, the 12th Japanese division landed in Vladivostok, followed by the Americans, the British and the French (with the participation of small units of other countries). The Allies took over the protection of the Vladivostok region, and with their actions to the north and towards Harbin, they provided the rear of the Czechoslovaks, who moved back west to join the Siberian group of Gaida. On the way, in Manchuria, the Diterichs group joined up with the detachments of Horvath and Kalmykov, and in the area of ​​​​st. Tin in August established contact with the Gaida detachment and Semenov. The Red detachments in the Far East were partially disarmed and taken prisoner, but some went into the taiga and mountains, blowing up bridges and waging a partisan struggle.

At the same time, the process of creating white "governments" and troops begins. On June 8, the first such “government” was created in Samara - the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly (Komuch). It included five Social Revolutionaries who did not recognize the January decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and ended up in Samara at that time: Vladimir Volsky, who became chairman of the committee, Ivan Brushvit, Prokopy Klimushkin, Boris Fortunatov and Ivan Nesterov. The Committee, on behalf of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, proclaimed itself the temporary supreme power in the country until a new assembly was convened. The former head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, also tried to join the activities of the government, Komuch, but the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party opposed it, and Kerensky left Russia forever. To fight the Bolsheviks, the formation of its own army, called the "People's", began. Already on June 9, the 1st Samara volunteer squad of 350 people was formed. The commander of the squad was Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff Vladimir Kappel. On June 11, Kappel's detachment captured the city of Syzran, on June 12 they took Stavropol-on-Volga (now Togliatti).

Komuch of the first composition - I. M. Brushvit, P. D. Klimushkin, B. K. Fortunatov, V. K. Volsky (chairman) and I. P. Nesterov

On June 10, in Omsk, after the connection of the Chelyabinsk and Siberian Czech groups, a meeting of the Czech command with representatives of the new Siberian white government was held. The meeting adopted a plan to fight the Bolsheviks. The overall leadership of the Czechoslovak troops was entrusted to the corps commander, Russian General Vladimir Shokorov. All forces were divided into three groups. The first - Western, under the command of Colonel Voitsekhovsky, was supposed to advance through the Urals to Zlatoust - Ufa - Samara and connect with the Penza Chechek group, which remained in the Volga region. Then they were to develop their operations against Yekaterinburg from the southwest. The second group, under the command of Syrovoy, was to advance along the Tyumen railway in the direction of Yekaterinburg, in order to divert as many Soviet troops as possible and facilitate the advance of the Western group (merged with the Penza group of Chechek), and then take Yekaterinburg together with it.

On June 19, the Czechoslovaks captured Krasnoyarsk. In this they were actively assisted by local anti-Bolshevik forces, which were formed from volunteers (mostly officers). By mid-June, local White Guard volunteers managed to form in the cities occupied by the Czechoslovaks an entire so-called West Siberian army under the command of Colonel Alexei Grishin-Almazov. By June 20, there were already 2,800 fighters of this "army" in Krasnoyarsk. On June 22, in the area of ​​the Tulun station, the Red detachments from Transbaikalia attacked the Whites and Czechs. The Czechoslovaks and the Whites retreated to the Nizhneudinsk region, where they managed to fortify themselves in the city. On June 25, the Reds launched an attack on Nizhneudinsk early in the morning. The Whites and the Czechs repelled this attack and put the Reds to flight. On June 26, the Whites managed to break into the red rear and destroy 400 inexperienced Red Guard miners there, who were sleeping without guards posted. By July 1, the Whites and Czechoslovaks pushed the Reds back to the Zima station. The Reds retreated towards Irkutsk, which was still one of their few strongholds in Siberia.

On June 23, in Omsk, occupied by the Czechs, the creation of a new Provisional Siberian Government was announced to replace the “Socialist-Revolutionary”, which was formed in Tomsk in underground conditions back in February, but had no real power anywhere and was saved in Chinese Harbin. The well-known lawyer and journalist Pyotr Vologodsky became the chairman of the new Siberian government. The "Socialist-Revolutionary" government of Peter Derber refused to recognize this "coup" and still considered only itself as a legitimate power in Siberia. Komuch announced the mobilization of citizens born in 1897-1898 to serve in his People's Army. In a short time, the Komuch army increased to five regiments. Its most combat-ready core was the volunteer Separate Rifle Brigade under the command of Colonel Kappel ("Kappel").

On July 3, the Orenburg Cossacks entered the city of Orenburg. The power of the Bolsheviks was eliminated throughout the Orenburg province. On July 5, the Czechs of Chechek and the Whites captured Ufa. Having completed the initial task of capturing the Siberian railway, the Czechs continued operations to capture the entire Ural region, advancing with the main forces on Yekaterinburg, and less significant - to the south, towards Troitsk and Orenburg. On July 15, 1918, the second meeting of the Czechoslovak command with the white governments took place in the city of Chelyabinsk. At this meeting, an agreement was reached on joint military operations of the forces of these governments with the corps. Thus, the Soviet republic found itself in the ring of fronts.

Red Eastern Front

The performance of the Czechoslovaks found Soviet Russia at the moment of the formation of its armed forces. In addition, the main forces were connected on the Don Front and the Caucasus and on the line with the Austro-German troops. Therefore, Moscow could not immediately allocate large forces to fight the Czechoslovak Corps. In addition, a number of factors contributed to the rapid success and spread of the Czechoslovaks. Thus, the influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks was strong in the region. The advanced activists of the Bolsheviks were weakened by the allocation of personnel to fight the counter-revolution on other fronts. Often the policy of the Bolsheviks contributed to the growth of popular discontent, and people supported the Whites and Czechs, as they approached, or remained neutral. The approach of the Czechs gave rise to a series of unrest and uprisings prepared by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. So, on June 11, Barnaul rebelled. The Reds managed to suppress the uprising, but this diverted their forces from opposing the Czechoslovaks and the Whites, who were advancing towards Barnaul from the northwest, from Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk). By June 14, the Whites and Czechoslovaks surrounded the city and began to enter it from all directions. The Reds were partly captured and executed, partly fled. On June 13, 1918, an uprising broke out among the workers of the Upper Nevyansk and Rudyansk factories. On June 13-14, there were battles between the Red Army and local anti-Bolshevik forces that raised an uprising in Irkutsk. There was an uprising in Tyumen. During the offensive of the Czechoslovaks on Kyshtym, the workers of the Polevsky and Seversky factories arrested their councils. Uprisings also took place at Kusinsky, Votkinsky, Izhevsk and other factories.

The Soviet government realized that a large and strong army could not be created on a voluntary basis. By the end of April 1918, the size of the army could only be brought up to 196 thousand people, after which the flow of volunteers began to decline. Almost until the summer of 1918, the Red Army was in its infancy. The performance of the Czechoslovak Corps showed that only a regular army could resist a strong enemy. The Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On forced recruitment into the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army” dated May 29, 1918 announced the general mobilization of workers and the poorest peasants in 51 districts of the Volga, Ural and West Siberian military districts, as well as workers of Petrograd and Moscow. The mobilization of communists to the front began. On June 26, 1918, the military people's commissar Trotsky sent a proposal to the Council of People's Commissars on the establishment of universal conscription of the working people. In Soviet Russia, a course has been taken to build an army on traditional principles: unity of command, the restoration of the death penalty, mobilization, the restoration of insignia, uniform uniforms and military parades.

The Red Army in the east of the country during the first period of confrontation consisted of detachments and squads, often numbering 10-20 fighters. For example, on June 1, 1918, there were 13 such detachments in positions near Mias, the total number of which did not exceed 1105 bayonets, 22 sabers with 9 machine guns. Some detachments consisted of conscious and selfless workers, but with little combat experience. Others were pure "guerrilla". As a result, the Reds initially could not successfully resist the Czechoslovak Corps (a regular formation with experience in the World War) and the Whites, who had experienced officer cadres. The Czechs and Whites, even with strong resistance, quickly found the "weak link" and broke the enemy's defense.

On June 13, 1918, Reingold Berzin formed the North Ural-Siberian Front. In June, the "front" was in the Yekaterinburg-Chelyabinsk region, and consisted of about 2,500 people with 36 machine guns and 3 artillery platoons. The northern Ural-Siberian front lasted only one day. The central command also took steps to stabilize the situation in the east of the country. An order was issued to organize a unified control of the red Eastern Front, headed by Mikhail Muravyov, who had previously commanded Soviet troops in Ukraine and tried to stop the Romanian intervention, with the rank of commander-in-chief.

By the time of its transformation into the 3rd Army, the Northern Ural-Siberian Front provided: Yekaterinburg - Chelyabinsk direction with forces of 1800 bayonets, 11 machine guns, 3 guns, 30 sabers and 3 armored cars. In the Shadrinsk direction, he had forces in 1382 bayonets, 28 machine guns, 10 sabers and 1 armored car. In the Tyumen region (Omsk direction) there were 1400 bayonets, 21 machine guns, 107 sabers. The reserve of these forces could be 2,000 workers in Tyumen. The total command reserve did not exceed 380 bayonets, 150 cavalry and 2 batteries. Thus, the formation of four red armies has been outlined: the 1st - on the Simbirsk, Syzran and Samara directions (in the Simbirsk - Syzran - Samara - Penza region), the 2nd - on the Orenburg-Ufa front, the 3rd - on the Chelyabinsk-Yekaterinburg direction (in the region of Perm - Yekaterinburg - Chelyabinsk) and the Special Army in the Saratov-Ural direction (in the region of Saratov-Urbakh). The front headquarters is located in Kazan.

As a result, the Reds managed to detain the enemy near Yekaterinburg. The formation of the red Eastern Front took place. And the performance of the Czechoslovaks allowed the enemies of Russia (internal and external) to tear away from the Soviet republic the vast territories of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. It helped whites form their governments and armies. Having seized the strategic initiative, the Czechs and Whites put the Soviet government in an extremely difficult position. Soviet Russia found itself in the ring of fronts. The second stage of the Civil War began, more large-scale and bloody.

Civil War. 10/25/17, October coup - 10/25/22, the capture of Vladivostok by the Reds. The fighting itself begins in May 1918.

The first stage of the civil war. May - November 1918.

Intervention. 3.12.17 Conference of the Entente countries on the division of spheres of interest in Russia.

In February-May 1918, Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine were occupied by the Germans. 1.03 the Germans occupied Kyiv, 1.05 Taganrog, 8.05 Rostov. According to the Compiègne armistice of 11/11/18, the Germans were to remain in the occupied territories until the arrival of the Entente, but this clause was only partially fulfilled. There was no active participation of the interventionists in the civil war, the goal was to create an eastern front against Germany, obtain economic benefits, and realize the political interests of countries.

Entente forces appeared in the country at the invitation of the Bolsheviks. On March 1, 18, the Murmansk Soviet sent a request to the Council of People's Commissars about the possibility of accepting British assistance, Trotsky ordered to accept any assistance from the allied missions. 03/06/18 English landed in Murmansk. forwarder corps, 03/18/18 French cruiser, 05/27/18 Americans landed. The allies promised to provide Murmansk with food, ensure public order and protection from the Germans and White Finns.

In June-July, the Council of People's Commissars demands the withdrawal of troops, but to no avail, there is a break in relations with the Murmansk Council. On March 15-16, 18, the Entente decided to limit the intervention to small forces. On August 1, 2018, the British landed in Vladivostok; on August 2, 18, Arkhangelsk was captured by the Entente. The northern group of interventionists is the Support Forces of Northern Russia, under the command of the British (Poole, then Ironside).

On January 1, 2018, Japan occupied Vladivostok under the pretext of killing Japanese businessmen in order to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens. In fact, they sought to annex the Far East. 08/03/18 The United States begins an intervention in Vladivostok, under the pretext of helping the Czechs, to balance the influence of Japan.

In January 1919, the Allies decided to abandon their plans for intervention. In March-April 1919 the French left Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sevastopol. In the summer of 1919, the Entente troops were evacuated from Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The bulk of the interventionists were withdrawn by 1920. The Japanese remained in Russia the longest. In general, by 1922, almost all the interventionists were withdrawn.

Territories occupied by invaders:

Germany. Ukraine, part of European Russia (1918 - early 1919), Baltic States (1918 - late 1919).

Türkiye took part in the intervention in the Transcaucasus (from February 1918).

Great Britain. Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Sevastopol, Transcaucasia (Baku, Batumi), Vladivostok, Revel, Narva. Evacuated in June-October 1919, a total of about 32 thousand people.

USA. Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Vladivostok. Withdrawn from Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in June-October 1919. Withdrawn from Vladivostok in January-March 1920. Number up to 15 thousand people.

Italy. Participated in the SPSR (Murmansk, Arkhangelsk), approx. 2000 people Greece. Odessa, ok. 2000 people

Romania. Occupation of Bessarabia in 1918. Poland. Soviet-Polish war 1920.

Japan. Vladivostok, Sakhalin (since April 1918), part of the Trans-Siberian Railway to Khabarovsk. Withdrawn in 1921.

Causes of the democratic counter-revolution: Bolshevik policy, dissatisfaction of the peasantry with economic pressure, dissatisfaction of the workers with the social crisis, dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, dissatisfaction of the population with the Brest Peace, forced mobilization into the Red Army.

The goals of the democratic counter-revolution: the overthrow of the power of the Bolsheviks and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, which will decide the issue of the state system.

The results of the democratic counter-revolution: the failure of the democratic counter-revolution, the governments were unable to unite => in the autumn of 1918 they were defeated => the period of general dictatorship begins.

Democratic governments:

1. Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch). Socialist-Revolutionary government, chairman - Socialist-Revolutionary Vladimir Kazimirovich Volsky. Created in Samara on 06/08/18, dissolved on 12/23/18. He proclaimed an 8-hour working day, allowed the activities of peasant and workers' congresses, trade unions, returned property to the owners, canceled Soviet decrees, allowed entrepreneurship, and revived local self-government. Komuch's power extended to Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk, Kazan and Ufa provinces.

2. Provisional Siberian government. Formed on 05/31/18 in Omsk, chairman of the Social Revolutionary Vologda. Adopted a declaration on the independence of Siberia. In the fall, he transferred power to the Directory.

3. Ufa Directory (All-Russian Provisional Government), a single anti-Bolshevik government. Chairman - Social Revolutionary Nick. Dmitry. Avksentiev, formed on September 23, 1918 in Ufa, residence in Omsk. The government included members of the Provisional. Sib. Government and Komuch. On November 18, power passed to Kolchak as a result of the military. coup.

The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps. Speech in May-August 1918 in the Volga region, Siberia and the Urals. Stationed in Ukraine, the number of 30 thousand people. In March 1918, the Council of People's Commissars forbade the withdrawal of the Czechs through Arkhangelsk, insisting on the withdrawal through Vladivostok. The Czechs feared internment. 05/14/18, Chelyabinsk: a Hungarian was killed, several Czechs were arrested. The Soviets tried to carry out Trotsky's order to disarm the corps, but to no avail. On 05/17/18 they started a rebellion, seized the arsenal and disarmed the Red Guard. The purpose of the speech: the unification of all the forces of the corps, the evacuation to Europe, the continuation of the war with Germany.

4 groups: Diteriks - Penza, Gaida - Omsk, Voitsekhovsky - Chelyabinsk, Chechek - Samara, Syzran. Gaida, Voitsekhovsky and Chechek decided to act in the direction of Irkutsk. In May they occupied Penza, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Kurgan, Petropavlovsk. In summer - Omsk, Samara (5.06), Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg (25.07), Tyumen, Chita, Ufa (5.07), Irkutsk (11.06). Gradually, opponents of the Bolsheviks began to flock under the protection of the corps, Komuch was organized in Samara. After the declaration of independence of Czechoslovakia, from January 1919, the Czechs leave to the east. They were evacuated through Vladivostok at the end of 1919. The uprising of the Czechs ensured the creation of Komuch, the signal for action against the Bolsheviks. The Czechs handed over Kolchak to the Bolsheviks.

August-October 1918. Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising. PriKomuch was created in the Kama region. They captured part of the Perm districts, created the People's Army. Later they broke through to the Siberian army and fought on the side of Kolchak. On November 7 and 13, Izhevsk and Votkinsk were captured by the Reds, the uprising was crushed. Sepychev uprising. They began to form the People's Army. The uprising was brutally suppressed by the Bolsheviks. The rebels killed approx. 40 communists, Bolsheviks shot approx. 80 people, more than 100 were arrested.

Army of Komuch under the command of Kappel, on 06/11/18 he takes Syzran, on 06/12 he took Stavropol, in July he took Buguruslan and Buzuluk, on 07/21/18 he took Simbirsk. On August 7, Kappel took Kazan, seized the arsenals, food and medicine supplies, and Russia's gold reserves. But the lack of reserves and the unwillingness of the peasants to fight led to a series of defeats in September 1918. The troops of the Soviet Eastern Front (Serg. Serg. Kamenev) went on the offensive. 10.09 captured Kazan, 12.09 Simbirsk, 7.10 Samara. Komuch's people's army was defeated, Komuch ceased to exist.