White Army

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The White Army ( Russian Белая армия Belaja armija ; original spelling : Бѣлая армія ), also White Guard ( Russian Белая гвардия Belaja gwardija ), refers to the troops of the Russian White Movement who fought against the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) against the Bolsheviks whose main adversaries were. The nucleus of the White Army was the volunteer army .

The whites , whose armed arm was the White Army , united politically very different forces in Russian society, whose ideas about the methods, the direction and the goals of the struggle against Soviet Russia differed greatly. Accordingly, neither the White Movement nor the White Army were ever a unified political or military force, but always remained a rather loose association of various groups, whose only unifying bond was their opposition to the Bolsheviks. Its individual members tried in changing internal alliances and with the support of the Entente Powers and other victorious states of the First World War , but often also single-handedly to win the victory over the Bolsheviks and in this way to implement their specific ideas about a post-war order. The lack of internal unity, but above all the lack of a program that would have provided political and social reforms, which were desired by a large part of the Russian population, played a decisive role in the fact that the whites and their armed forces never got the bulk of the population on their side could pull and ultimately lost in the civil war.

Russia, Russian Civil War

Coat of arms of the Kolchak government

Armed formations

At different times the White Army had the following armed formations or combat units :

In the North

• Northern Army or Armed Forces Northern Region (August 1918)

In the north-west

• Northern Corps (October 1918)
↓
• North-Western Army (July 1919)
• West Russian Liberation Army (autumn 1919)

In the south

• Volunteer Army (January 1918)
↘ 		• Don Army (April 1918)
↙
• Armed Forces of Southern Russia (January 1919)
↓
• Russian Wrangel Army in Crimea (May 1920)

In the East

• Komutsch People's Army (June 1918)
↘ 		• Siberian Army (June 1918)
↙
• Eastern Front of the Russian Army (September 1918)
↓
• Far Eastern Army (April 1920)
↓
• White Rebel Army (1921)
↓
• Estates Army (Zemstwo рать) (1922)

In North Asia

Emergence

First troops of the white army were soon after the October Revolution as a response from parts of the Bolshevik seizure of power not consenting Russian society in 1917 Novocherkassk by General Mikhail Alekseyev on December 25, 1917 jul. / 7 January 1918 greg. formed and known as "the volunteer army ". General Kornilov became the first commander , while Alexeyev rose to become the supreme leader of all units. At that time the volunteer army numbered only 2,000 members. Similar military units emerged in the east of Russia in the summer of 1918, and a year later in the north and northwest. The biggest of them were:

As a traditional symbol from the Orthodox Church, white should signal the purity of the idea and justice. The members of the white forces were called White Guards , their opponents were the Red Guards .

Personnel composition

The completion of white armies was carried out in different ways. In addition to the volunteers, they largely consisted of conscripts who were called up through mobilizations, although coercion and the use of force were not excluded. From mid-1919, the captured Red Army soldiers were also forced to "voluntarily join" white troops; in the autumn of the same year they represented almost 60% of the total strength in several units. Their increase in numbers led to negative phenomena, since the volunteers, who were particularly ideologically motivated, increasingly disintegrated into the mass of those who were indifferent to hostile to the ideals of the white movement. This led to a serious loss of morale and strength.

The Bolshevik propaganda also promised the immediate solution of all cardinal questions, while the leaders of the white movement hesitated to tackle the big problems decisively. Their goal remained to convene the new constituent assembly of 1918 , which was dissolved by the Bolsheviks , which would then regulate the political system of the country in a democratic process and only afterwards solve the vital problems of Russian society. This led to moral decline and defeatism over time . A large percentage of white fighters were lower ranks of officers , especially non-commissioned officers , who usually had good military training and extensive military experience. Officers from the old tsarist army formed the core . The command structure can be roughly divided into three groups: At the top were generals who already held the highest positions before the October Revolution. This was followed by the officers who had only made their mark during the civil war but had already served as officers. The third group consisted of NCOs of the old Russian army, who had only risen to the ranks of officers through their merits.

Organization and strategy

When the white armies were formed, the organizational structure of the old Russian army was largely adopted. Typically, a battalion formed the cornerstone of a unit for infantry , while cavalry was a squadron . The only exception were the Cossacks , where the squadron was replaced by a hundred . All troops formed regiments , which were then combined into divisions . A corps consisted of two to three divisions. At the height of their power, the Kolchak and Wrangel armies numbered an average of two to three corps. The White Guards were armed with rifles, machine guns and artillery and owned several armored trains . A large part of the ammunition and weapons came from the camps of the Western powers, which, especially in the first few years, had tried by not inconsiderable means to help the whites. The art of war was based on the experiences gained during the First World War . However, the White Movement weakened itself through divisions within the military leadership and the lack of a strong coordinated organization of military operations, which later enabled the Red Army to win. The white commanders were good, but not outstanding generals and strategists. It was also weakened by the fact that several famous Tsarist generals such as B. Alexei Alexejewitsch Brusilov did not join the anti-Bolshevik troops and even more, supported the newly formed Red Army with advice and action. In terms of strategy, the Whites, as they had a disproportionately large number of cavalry, preferred concentrated, rapid advances in certain main directions to large-scale frontal infantry attacks . In addition, certain units, such as General Mamontov's corps, had "specialized" in raid-like attacks aimed at disorganizing and spreading panic among the ranks of the Red Army. To stabilize the front, one relied on deeply echeloned regiments, a robust reserve and reinforced maneuvers that led to a counterattack on certain areas identified as weak. In general, great weight was attached to a counterattack, which could play a decisive role in good organization. The fact that the great fighting, strategic and tactical experience of the White Movement did not lead to its victory was due, among other things, to the fact that a majority of the Red commanders had also graduated from tsarist military schools and academies and consequently had the same level of knowledge as their opponents . In this situation the Bolsheviks had the upper hand at the moment when they managed to organize and discipline their troops.

Goals and causes of failure

The White Armies took a conservative stance on the future structure and development of Russia. They fought for the preservation of the country's territorial integrity, the protection of the Russian statehood, new elections for a constituent assembly and the gradual democratization of the country. The reintroduction of private property and its protection, the introduction of compulsory schooling for elementary school children, a solution to the land question, recognition of the independence of several peoples and the protection of freedom of trade were considered particularly important . Under the motto “For a great, united and indivisible Russia”, leading ideologues such as Pyotr Struwe and Vasily Shulgin tried to reconcile the different interests of the movement's commanders, but ultimately failed. This quarrel and resentment, paired with the attempt to postpone all questions until the Constituent Assembly was called, were decisive for the failure. This hesitation aroused suspicion and a wait-and-see attitude among the population. The ideologues of the white movement focused far too much on the military side of the struggle, while the problems most vital and pressing for ordinary peasants and workers appeared second, if not third. Increased separatism in areas of the huge empire populated by non-Russian populations and among the Cossacks sometimes led to absurd situations of everyone against each other, to short-term alliances between opponents who were actually hostile and to rapid shifting of the fronts.

Participation in pogroms

In the Russian civil war, especially in Ukraine , there were countless pogroms and wild massacres among the Jewish population , in which soldiers from the White Army were also involved. In the summer of 1919, as the White Army marched from the Don region towards Moscow, it got into a bloodlust that culminated in the Fastow pogrom with 1,500 deaths. There were also isolated pogroms under the command of the Red Army, but the Bolsheviks were the only ones who sharply condemned and opposed the pogroms by the troops.

First stage of the white movement

After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II in March 1917, the monarchists and representatives of the party of constitutional democrats tried to unite in a bloc to stop the development of the revolutionary movement in the country. As the "hard hand" longed for by many, they suggested General Kornilov, who was highly regarded as the commander in chief of the Russian army. On August 21, Jul. / September 3, 1917 greg. he put some troops on the march towards St. Petersburg , but his attempt failed because of the unwillingness of the soldiers. The attempt of the ousted Prime Minister Kerensky to oust the Bolsheviks from power immediately after the successful October Revolution with the help of the 3rd Cavalry Corps under the command of General Pyotr Krasnov ( Kerensky-Krasnov Uprising ) was equally ravaged by failure .

In November, several Cossack leaders in southern Russia declared that they would not recognize the Soviet power , and at the same time General Alexeev continued to form a new army, the so-called volunteer army, in the Don area. In December, the triumvirate of three Tsarist generals Alexejew, Kaledin and Kornilov was formed in Novocherkassk , and it was declared a prototype of the future Russian government. In the Kuban area , a Cuban County government was formed in November 1917 under the leadership of Bych , which allied with the volunteer army in March 1918. Not only in the south and east of Russia, but also in the central core areas of the country, an ever increasing resistance to the Bolsheviks began. In the spring of 1918, representatives of various political groups founded the “Union of the Rebirth of Russia” in Moscow, which openly represented extremely anti-Soviet and anti-communist positions. The leading representatives were the constitutional democrats Astrov and Kishkin , the social revolutionaries Avksentjew and Argunov and others.

Second stage

During this period (from April 1918 to February 1919) the resistance to the Bolshevik movement expanded to almost the entire territory of Soviet Russia . The main reasons for this were the extremely unpopular policy of the Soviet government towards the peasants, better known as war communism , and the increase in nationalist sentiments under the influence of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty, which was shameful for Russia . The white commanders tried to take advantage of this popular resentment. General Denikin , the new commander in chief in southern Russia, formed several alliances with various political currents and entered into direct contact with the Entente . Centers of resistance and illegal committees and associations in the fight against " Bolshevism " were formed all over Russia . At the beginning of February 1919, Denikin extended his area of ​​influence to the North Caucasus . From June to July 1918, Czech legionaries occupied the whole of Western Siberia and the Volga region within a few weeks. Encouraged by such developments, the representatives of several anti-communist and democratic organizations formed a provisional government in the city of Ufa , the so-called Ufimer Directory , which was removed and dispersed by Admiral Kolchak at the end of the year . He declared himself, supported by large parts of the Entente and the officer corps, as Supreme Leader of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of all Russian armed forces. Great Britain, the USA and France in particular supported him financially and materially. At the beginning of August 1918, the representatives of the Constitutional Democrats, Social Revolutionaries and People's Socialists formed the Northern Administration in the city of Arkhangelsk , with the politician NW Tchaikovsky as chairman. At the same time, American and British troops landed there, which were later withdrawn after the unsuccessful attack on Vologda . In the north-west of Russia, General Yudenich formed his own army, which advanced directly against St. Petersburg and besieged the city for several weeks. With the help of the government of Estonia , the Nordic Corps became one of the most powerful white units in northern Russia.

Third stage

It lasted from March 1919 to March 1920 and was marked by both heavy defeats and great victories for the whites. In the spring of 1919, some underground organizations were formed in Moscow. At the end of May 1919, the “Russian Committee” founded a so-called “Political Assembly ” in Helsinki to build a unified front from Finland and the independent Baltic countries against Soviet Russia. In the declaration “On the population of Russian areas of the North-West Front”, she called for the re-establishment of “united, great and indivisible Russia”, a unified land reform and elections for the Constituent Assembly. In August 1919 General Yudenich formed a "government of the northwestern regions" which almost literally took over the program of the "political assembly". On June 19, by a decree of Commander-in-Chief Kolchak, Yudenich's troops were transformed into the North-West Army , whose attempts to take St. Petersburg all failed. At the end of 1919 the North-West Army split up into several parts, all of which settled in the Baltic States. At the same time, the "Government of the Northwest Territories" ceased to exist.

Kolchak began a large-scale attack on the central Russian territories in March 1919, and by the end of April his troops had reached the Volga . However, the Red Army managed to defeat the whites in several spectacular operations. Kolchak's attempts to get the workers and peasants on his side through promises and extremely moderate policies failed. Shortly before he was arrested by the Bolsheviks in early 1920, Kolchak transferred his power as Commander-in-Chief of all Russian Armed Forces and Supreme Leader of Russia to General Denikin. Kolchak's power had long since shrunk to a few areas in eastern Russia, and Denikin's power base was also rapidly dwindling. In the spring of 1920, after a short trial, Kolchak was shot dead. Denikin's troops had their heyday in the summer of 1919, when they approached Moscow from the south within a few hundred kilometers, but suffered some severe defeats, which undermined their morale and forced them to retreat. After the most powerful white army was crushed in early October 1919, it gradually became clear that the Bolsheviks would emerge victorious from the civil war. In early 1920 the power of the whites in northern Russia collapsed after the Allies withdrew their troops and the armed forces of Tsarist General Yevgeny Miller could not withstand the Red Army alone.

Fourth stage

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This period, from April 1920 to October 1922, sealed the final and complete defeat of the anti-Bolshevik forces. In April 1920, after his definite fiasco, General Denikin gave up his authority to General Pyotr Wrangel and emigrated to the West. Wrangel tried to found a democratically legitimized state power in the few remaining areas under his power in southern Russia and in the Crimea, whose economic successes, according to his plan, should serve as a model and give the peasants in the rest of Soviet Russia a motive for an anti-Soviet uprising. However, all of his efforts failed because of the lack of available resources and the indignation of the local population. In November 1920, the last of the white troops were driven from the Crimea peninsula, resulting in bestial acts of revenge by the Red Army soldiers on the captured and wounded white soldiers. Wrangel fled to Constantinople . The white troops led by Grigory Semjonow and Mikhail Diterichs held out in the Far East for almost a year longer . With the support of Japanese troops , they tried in vain to form an independent Far East state. With the capture of Vladivostok at the end of October 1922 and the flight of Semyonov to Manchuria , the Russian Civil War officially ended.

Known commanders

Further, content-related uses of terms

The terms White Troops and White Guards were used by the communist media and organization in later clashes with conservative forces , for example during the Finnish Civil War or in 1929 during the Soviet-Chinese border war . It is less common to find a summary of the nationalists of the Baltic states under these names. For the mostly paramilitary, against the left-wing revolutionary uprisings in the wake of the November Revolution , the völkisch-nationalist Freikorps in the initial phase of the Weimar Republic in Germany were also used in part, but they have not caught on in common parlance, nor are they used by historical scholars .

See also

literature

  • Владимир Черкасов-Георгиевский: Вожди белых армий. Русич, Смоленск 2003, ISBN 5-8138-0131-6 .
  • Семен Спиридонович Хромов: Гражданская война и военная интервенция в СССР. Сов. энцикл., Москва 1987.
  • Encyclopedia Judaica . Vol. 14, pp. 433-506.
  • Karmann, Rudolf: The Cossacks' struggle for freedom. The white army in the Russian Revolution 1917-1920. Puchheim 1985, Idea
  • Nikolaus Katzer: The White Movement in Russia. Power building, practical politics and political programs in the civil war (= contributions to the history of Eastern Europe. Vol. 28). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1999, ISBN 3-412-11698-X (At the same time: Bonn, University, habilitation paper, 1996).
  • Валерий Васильевич Клавинг: Гражданская война в России: белые армии. АСТ, Москва 2003, ISBN 5-17-019260-6 .
  • Военная энциклопедия. Vol. 1.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Benz (Ed.), Handbook of Antisemitism, Volume 4: Events, Decrees, Controversies , p. 297, KG Saur Verlag GmbH & Company, 2011
  2. ^ Die Rote Fahne , August 18, 1929. ZEFYS newspaper information system of the Berlin State Library, accessed on September 17, 2017