Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War
Part of the Russian Revolution, revolutions of 1917–1923, and the aftermath of World War I
Clockwise from top left: Soldiers of the Don Army in 1919 A White Russian infantry division in 1920 Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Army Leon Trotsky in 1918 Hanging of Yekaterinoslav workers by Austro-Hungarian troops in 1918
Date 7 November 1917 – 25 October 1922[1] Location Former Russian Empire Result Bolshevik victory (see § Aftermath)[2][3][4] Territorial changes Establishment of the Soviet Union
Belligerents
Bolsheviks: Russian SFSR Byelorussian SSR Ukrainian SSR Transcaucasian SFSR Regional forces	White movement: Russian State South Russia	Separatists: Poland Finland Ukraine Belarus Estonia  Latvia Lithuania Georgia Armenia Azerbaijan Northern Caucasus Basmachi movement
Anti-Bolshevik left: Left SRs Green Army Makhnovshchina Right SRs and Mensheviks	Allied intervention:  Japan  United Kingdom  United States  France  Czechoslovakia	Central Powers:  Germany  Austria-Hungary  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Sergey Kamenev Jukums Vācietis Yakov Sverdlov # ...further details	Alexander Kerensky  Alexander Kolchak  Lavr Kornilov † Anton Denikin Pyotr Wrangel ...further details	Józef Piłsudski C. G. E. Mannerheim ...further details
Maria Spiridonova Nestor Makhno ...further details	Edmund Ironside ...further details	H. von Eichhorn X ...further details
Strength
Red Army: 5,498,000 (peak)[5] Makhnovtsi: 103,000 (peak)[6] Kronstadt mutineers: 17,961	White Army: 1,023,000 (peak) Czechoslovak Legion: 50,000 (peak) British Army: 57,636[7] U.S. Army: 12,950 Japanese Army: 70,000[8][9]
Casualties and losses
1,212,824 (official estimate)[10]	1,500,000[11][failed verification] 13,000 killed	250,000 125,000
7–12 million total casualties 1–2 million refugees outside Russia

The Russian Civil War (Russian: Гражданская война в России, romanized: Grazhdanskaya voyna v Rossii) was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the liberal-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.

The Russian monarchy ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution, and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in the October Revolution, where the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government of the new Russian Republic. Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were the Red Army, fighting for the establishment of a Bolshevik-led socialist state headed by Vladimir Lenin, and the forces known as the White movement (and its White Army), led mainly by the right-leaning officers of the Russian Empire, united around the figure of Alexander Kolchak. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably the Ukrainian anarchists of the Makhnovshchina and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideological green armies, opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists.^[12] Thirteen foreign states intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied intervention, whose primary goal was re-establishing the Eastern Front of World War I. Three foreign states of the Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia.

The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of the former empire. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an emergency peace with the German Empire, who had captured vast swathes of the Russian territory during the chaos of the revolution. In May 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia revolted in Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began their North Russian and Siberian interventions. That, combined with the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government, saw the reduction of Bolshevik-controlled territory to most of European Russia and parts of Central Asia. In 1919, the White Army launched several offensives from the east in March, the south in July, and west in October. The advances were later checked by the Eastern Front counteroffensive, the Southern Front counteroffensive, and the defeat of the Northwestern Army.

By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by the start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts.^[13] Although the Bolsheviks were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used the disarray to push for national independence.^[14] In March 1921, during a related war against Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland on one side and Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine on the other. Soviet Russia invaded all newly independent nations of the former empire or supported the Bolshevik and socialist forces there, although the success of such invasions was limited. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine, Belarus (as a result of the Polish–Soviet War), Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army.^[15][16] By 1921, the Bolsheviks had defeated the national movements in Ukraine and the Caucasus, although anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s.^[17]

The armies under Kolchak were eventually forced on a mass retreat eastward. Bolshevik forces advanced east, despite encountering resistance in Chita, Yakut and Mongolia. Soon the Red Army split the Don and Volunteer armies, forcing evacuations in Novorossiysk in March and Crimea in November 1920. After that, fighting was sporadic until the war ended with the capture of Vladivostok in October 1922, but anti-Bolshevik resistance continued with the Muslim Basmachi movement in Central Asia and Khabarovsk Krai until 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during the war, mostly civilians.^[18]