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"Soldiers Of The Revolution"

The Russian Civil War

Posted on January 13, 2020

The Russian Civil War, November 7, 1917 - October 25, 1922, was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the two Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future.  The two largest combatant groups were the Red Army, fighting for the Bolshevik form of socialism led by Vladimir Lenin, and the loosely allied forces know as the White Army, which included diverse interests favoring political monarchism, economic capitalism and alternative forms of socialism, each, with democratic and anti-democratic variants.  In addition, rival militant socialists and non-ideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites.  Eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the former Allied military forces from the World War and the pro-German armies.  The Red Army eventually defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine and the army led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak to the east in Siberia in 1919.  The remains of the White Forces commanded by Pyotr Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920.  Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two more years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White Forces in the Far East continued well into 1923.  The war ended in 1923 in the sense that Bolshevik communist control of the newly formed Soviet Union was now assured, although armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934.  There were an estimated 7,000,000 - 12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians.

Many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and fought in the war.  Several parts of the former Russian Empire-Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were established as sovereign states, with their own civil wars and wars of independence.  The rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union shortly afterwards.

The movie,"The Road To Calvary", a Netflix film, depicts the tragedy of this war and the families separated and the lives lost in this 5 year war.

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