Other attributes
The Civil War:
Was the result of a revolutionary crisis that unfolded in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907, aggravated during the First World War and led to the fall of the monarchy, economic ruin, a deep social, national, political and ideological split in Russian society . The apogee of this split was a fierce war on a countrywide scale between the armed forces of the Soviet government, the White movement and separatists with the intervention of the Central Powers and the Entente.
Chronology of the event:
Having come to power during the Great October Revolution, the Bolsheviks at their Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies adopted the Decree on Peace - all warring countries and peoples were invited to immediately begin negotiations on the conclusion of a general democratic peace without annexations and indemnities, as well as a decree on the abolition of the death penalty and the Decree on Land, according to which the landed estates were subject to confiscation, all lands, subsoil, forests and waters were nationalized, the peasants received over 150 million hectares of land.
The deprivation of privileges and the nationalization of the property of the ruling classes provoked a reaction from the latter. Part of the officers, the Cossacks, the intelligentsia, the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy and the clergy organized armed resistance to the Bolsheviks in order to return the lost power and restore their socio-economic rights and privileges, known in history as the White Movement.
The Bolsheviks and their supporters (the Red Guard and the Red Army) relied mainly on the organized industrial proletariat. Between the red and white movements began a long bloody confrontation.
The remaining part of the Civil War was the armed struggle of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of the general population against the troops of the main warring parties - the "red" and "white". Attempts to declare independence were rebuffed both by the "whites", who fought for a "united and indivisible Russia", and by the "reds", who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the gains of the revolution.
In February 1918, foreign powers intervened in the internal political struggle that unfolded in Russia. German and Austro-Hungarian troops occupied part of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states. In Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, Crimea and Siberia, the Entente countries began intervention.
In April 1920, the main battles between the Red Army and the White armies took place. Large-scale hostilities unfolded throughout Russia, first bringing success to the “whites”, and then to the “reds”, who defeated the enemy troops and took control of the main territory of the country
The decisive factor in the course of the Civil War was the position of the peasantry, which accounted for more than 80% of the population, which ranged from passive waiting to active armed struggle against the “reds” and “whites”. With the course of the Civil War, the middle peasantry leaned towards Soviet power. The middle peasants saw from experience that the transfer of power to the reactionary forces would inevitably lead to the return of the landowners and the restoration of pre-revolutionary relations.
The civil war ended with the establishment of Soviet power in most of the territory of the former Russian Empire.