The Russian Civil War was a multi-faceted conflict that can be narrowed down to the Reds
versus the Whites. The Reds were the Bolsheviks, the communists; the Whites... who are they? Why were
they called as such; who led them and did they have a serious chance to overthrow bolshevism?
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The Russian Civil War was a complex conflict that took place from 1918 to 1922 following the Russian
Revolution of 1917. Although some historians say that the Russian Civil War started already
in 1917 and officially ended in 1923. The Whites were a loose coalition of anti-bolshevik forces
that opposed the new Soviet regime and fought against its army (the Red Army). The Whites were a
diverse group that included monarchists, liberals, socialists and nationalists among others. They
were supported by various foreign powers such as Britain and the United States who saw bolshevism
as a threat to the world order. Why were they actually called the Whites? Laura Engelstein wrote
the following about it: “The origin of the label is unclear. It may have referred to the white
flag of the royalist Vendée during the French Revolution, since the monarchy still had its
supporters among the Russian Whites. It may have been used to evoke the image of General Mikhail
Skobelev, known as the White General after the color of his horse. […] St. George, considered a
patron of soldiers, who appeared on the Imperial coat-of-arms and lent his name to the Order of St.
George, awarded for valor, also rode a white horse. There seems to be no solid explanation.” I found
another explanation here: “In all probability, the name was intended as a slander, since the colour
white was connected with monarchist ideas. By calling their opponents 'Whites', the Reds implied that their
goal was to restore the Tsar. Even though the great majority of anti-Bolsheviks had no such
desire, they eventually accepted the name, not the least because white was the traditional colour of
law and order, whereas red symbolised rebellion and anarchy.” Now the label implies there were a
coherent group but the Whites were everything but coherent: “Overall, its leaders represented
the interests of the old military and landowning elites, but not all were reactionary.
Some represented the civic middle—zemstvos, entrepreneurs, professionals—close in spirit
to the Kadet Party. Like the Kadets, they stood for the integrity of the former imperial state,
wanting to recover its boundaries and restore its prestige, if not its political tradition.” So there
were different White armies and in this video we're going to discuss the main ones and let's
start with the Volunteer Army. Near Rostov-on-Don former tsarist officer Mikhail Alekseyev set up
the anti-bolshevik Volunteer Army that later was headed by Anton Denikin. It is estimated that 170 000
former tsarist officers fought for the Whites: in the wake of the October Revolution
many officers were hunted down by angry mobs. The Volunteer Army was later led by General
Anton Denikin, a former tsarist officer who had been appointed as commander-in-chief of the
Armed Forces of the anti-bolshevik White movement. At its height the Volunteer Army numbered 70 000
men and it played a key role in several major battles during the Russian Civil War. On
the 13th of June Kharkiv was taken and Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro) on the 22nd. Led by Pyotr Wrangel and with the
support of British tanks Tsaritsyn (later: Stalingrad; now: Volgograd) was also taken on the 19th of June. The Reds were plagued by poor
morale and many deserted; on the 3rd of July Denikin issued his Moscow Directive which was
meant to deliver the Reds the definitive blow. Then Denikin's forces moved further north and
they captured Orel and were only 400 kilometers from Moscow and 150 kilometers from Tula. For
once the Whites were able to coordinate their attacks and for a few crucial days in October it seemed that
this would be enough to defeat the Reds. In 1920 the Red Army launched a major counter-offensive
and by the end of the year the Volunteer Army had been forced to retreat to the Crimea.
Denikin resigned as commander-in-chief in April 1920 and was replaced by General Pyotr Wrangel.
In November 1920 the Red Army launched its final assault on the Crimea and the Volunteer Army was
forced to flee the country. As the Volunteer Army was disbanded Denikin went into exile and
many of his soldiers went to other countries as refugees. The Siberian Army was known as a Kolchak
army and led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak, a former commander of the Imperial Russian Navy, who was
appointed as Supreme Leader of the Russian State in November 1918. The Siberian Army was composed
of various anti-bolshevik forces including members of the Imperial Russian army and volunteers from
different regions of Siberia. In the spring of 1919 the anti-bolshevik Siberian Army of Admiral
Alexander Kolchak advanced towards the west with the goal of uniting the White forces. One attack
was supposed to reach Archangelsk and a second attack towards Ufa. Another force advanced towards
the southeastern steppe in order to link up with the White forces there and cut off the Reds from
Central Asia. It started well: mid-April Kolchak's forces had advanced 300 kilometers and captured
a territory the size of Great Britain. The Volga River was close and the Reds they were plagued
by peasant uprisings in the rear. Near the end of that month the Red Army led by Mikhail Frunze
attacked: with many conscripted forces and the help of Bashkir units that switched sides they managed
to push back the White onslaught and mid-June Kolchak's forces were back at where they started.
Kolchak was eventually captured by the Red Army and executed in 1920. The Northwestern Army (initially known as Northern Corps) was
primarily based in Estonia and led by General Nikolai Yudenich. It was formed late 1918/ early
1919 and mostly withdrew to Estonia in order to launch an offensive and capture Petrograd (now St. Petersburg)
and overthrow the Bolshevik regime. The army was made up of several anti-bolshevik
forces, members of the Imperial Russian army, Cossacks and even Baltic German volunteers. Under
Yudenich's leadership the Northwestern Army launched several offensives against the bolsheviks
but were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempt to capture Petrograd. The bolsheviks
by Leon Trotsky launched a counter-offensive in the fall of 1919 and the Northwestern Army was forced
to retreat. By early 1920 the Northwestern Army had been pushed back into Estonia where they continued
to fight alongside Estonian forces against the Red Army. However the Estonian government grew
increasingly wary of the North Western Army's presence and eventually ordered them to leave
the country in May 1920. Subsequently the North Western Army was disbanded and Yudenich went into exile
in France. The West Russian Volunteer Army was led by General Pavel Bermondt-Avalov who had served in
the Russian Imperial Army before the outbreak of World War One. The army was composed of primarily
German, Baltic Germans and Russian emigrants who saw to overthrow the Bolshevik government
and established new regime in Russia. The army of Bermondt-Avalov, was also known as the Bermontians,
was formed in the summer of 1919 and only had a few thousand men in its ranks, but with the help
of German support the army grew: by October 1919 the West Russian Volunteer Army consisted of 35 000
men. Eventually they were defeated and forced to retreat. Bermondt-Avalov continued to lead his
army in exile and he hoped to find support of the other European armies, especially when the Germans
withdrew their support and the West Russian Volunteer Army was disbanded shortly after. The
Don Army was also known as the 'White Army of the Don' which consisted of Don Cossacks from
the region. The Don Army was led by a number of different commanders over the course of the civil
war, including Pyotr Krasnov and Alexei Kaledin, but in 1919 Vladimir Sidorin was appointed as
its commander-in-chief. Under his leadership the Don Army became one of the most powerful
anti-bolshevik forces in the region. Sideron was known for his tactical skills as well his
ability to unite different factions. He was also a proponent of the idea that the Don Cossacks should
have their own independent state, separate from the bolsheviks and other White forces that were
fighting in the region. Now despite Sidorin's leadership they eventually were not able to
defeat the Red Army. Sidorin was forced to flee the country the army was soon disbanded and many of
his members either fled the country or were killed. There were other smaller White armies and of course
the nationalist factions which I excluded from this video, except the Don Army because they also
strive for their own independent state. I do want to discuss the Allied intervention force because
the whites receive support by the Americans, the British, the French and Japanese. The Allied
intervention force, during the Russian Civil War, was sent in 1918 to support the anti-bolshevik
White Army against the Red Army which was fighting for the control of the country. The intervention
force was initially successful capturing key cities and territories but ultimately unable
to defeat the Red Army. The intervention force was withdrawn in 1920. I would also like to perhaps
discuss the different White armies individually to get a closer look and also discuss their uniforms
and weaponry. Because there was a huge variety. Now in general the White forces they wore tsarist
uniforms and had similar weaponry. The Allies, notably the British, they provided the White
forces with British uniforms but due to corruption as well as desertion many of these uniforms fell
in the hands of the Reds as was the case with Kolchak's army in Siberia: “English army uniforms and nurses'
outfits were worn by civilians, while many soldiers dressed in rags. Even Allied munitions were sold
on the black market. [British army commander] Knox was dubbed the Quartermaster General of the
Red Army: Trotsky even sent him a joke letter thanking him for his help in equipping the Red
troops.” Now on this channel I discussed the Red Terror. The Whites were no strangers to terror
as well: during the White Terror the White forces carried out a campaign of terror against anyone
they deemed a threat: not only against bolsheviks but also other left-wing factions, as well
as civilians that were suspected of having pro-bolshevik sympathies. The Whites that carried out
mass execution of civilian, burned villages, destroyed crops in order to undermine bolshevik
support in rural areas. Many Jews fell victim to the White Terror as it was believed that they
were responsible for the atrocities committed by the Reds: the myth of judeo-bolshevism originated
from the Russian Civil War; historian Orlando Figes wrote the Following about it: “[I]t must
never be forgotten that while many revolutionaries were Jews, relatively few Jews were revolutionaries.
It was a myth of the anti-Semites that all the Jews were Bolsheviks. In fact, as far as one can tell
from the elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1917, most of the Jewish population favoured
the Zionist and democratic socialist parties. As the Chief Rabbi of Moscow once remarked, not
without his usual Jewish humour: 'The Trotskys make the revolutions and the Bronsteins pay the bills.'”
The Whites were initially successful taking huge parts of Russia establishing anti-Soviet
governments but they were eventually unable to overcome the Reds who were better organized,
better led, and more ideologically committed. The Whites were also plagued by infighting and the
lack of cohesion with different groups pursuing their own political agendas and they were not
able to effectively work together. Many Whites fled Russia after the civil war. The term "White émigré"
refers to a Russian person who fled their home country after the bolshevik revolution of 1917
and the subsequent rise of the Soviet Union. Many of the White emigrants were members of
the Russian aristocracy, intellectuals and military officers who opposed the communist ideology of the
Bolsheviks. Most of these fled to Western Europe, others settled in Central Europe, some
of them made it to China. During their exile White emigrants attempted to organize support
and resistance movements to overthrow bolshevik rule. With the rise of Hitler some of them allied
themselves with the Nazi cause and actively cooperated with the Nazis during their invasion
of the USSR.