✦ History

Russian Civil War

November 7, 1917 – June 16, 1923 · Russia

Result Bolshevik victory

Multi-party conflict in the former Russian Empire from 1917 to 1922, sparked by the Bolsheviks' overthrow of the Provisional Government in the October Revolution. The two largest combatants were the Red Army under Vladimir Lenin and the anti-Bolshevik White forces, along with nationalist and peasant movements; the Bolshevik victory led to the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

On the map Overview Contemporaries

Reds

Whites

Other

Reds Bolshevik-led forces that became the Red Army
Bolsheviks
Soviet Union
Makhnovshchina
Russia
Whites Anti-Bolshevik forces (monarchists, liberals, others)
Japan
United Kingdom
United States
France
Australia
South Russia
Czechoslovakia
Joseph Stalin Member of the Revolutionary Military Council, Bolshevik leader; political commissar at Tsaritsyn and on the Southern and Western Fronts Vladimir Lenin Leader of the Bolsheviks, Head of the Soviet government; directed the Red war effort Semyon Timoshenko Red Army cavalry commander Kliment Voroshilov Red Army commander, Defended Tsaritsyn; political leader of the 1st Cavalry Army Leon Trotsky People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, Founder and supreme commander of the Red Army Yakov Sverdlov Chairman of the VTsIK, Soviet head of state; organized the party and state apparatus, 1917-1919 Felix Dzerzhinsky Chairman of the Cheka, Directed the Red Terror and the suppression of counter-revolution Mikhail Tukhachevsky Red Army commander, Commanded the 5th Army in the recapture of Siberia from Kolchak
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Semyon Budyonny Commander of the 1st Cavalry Army, Led the Red cavalry against Denikin and Wrangel Mikhail Frunze Red Army commander, Defeated Kolchak on the Eastern Front and Wrangel in Crimea Nestor Makhno Otaman of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, Anarchist leader; allied with the Reds against the Whites at times and fought the Reds at others Viktor Chernov military commander Sergey Kamenev military commander Jukums Vācietis military commander
Lavr Kornilov Commander of the Volunteer Army, Co-founded the Volunteer Army; killed at Ekaterinodar, April 1918 Anton Denikin Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia, Led the 1919 advance on Moscow Alexander Kolchak Supreme Ruler of Russia, Headed the White government at Omsk, November 1918 - January 1920 Pyotr Wrangel Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Last White commander in South Russia; evacuated Crimea in November 1920 Nikolai Yudenich Commander of the Northwestern Army, Led the October 1919 offensive on Petrograd

Strength and losses

Killed
c. 1,029,225

Units

Red Army Eastern Front Red Army Southern Front Red Army Western Front (1920) 14th Army (RSFSR) 16th Army (RSFSR) 1st Army (RSFSR) 1st Cavalry Army Army of Wrangel Don Army 11th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 12th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 15th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 17th Rifle Division 20th Rifle Division 21st Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 25th Rifle Division 26th Rifle Division 27th Rifle Division 28th Rifle Division 29th Rifle Division 2nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 30th Rifle Division 35th Rifle Division 36th Rifle Division 3rd Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 45th Rifle Division 4th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 51st Rifle Division 5th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 68th Mountain Rifle Division 6th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) 7th Rifle Division 8th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) Pskov Rifle Division 131st Separate Motor Rifle Brigade 24th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine) Russian Naval Infantry Soviet Navy Baltic Fleet Black Sea Fleet Pacific Fleet (Russia) Amur Flotilla Caspian Flotilla
Armed Forces of South Russia Czechoslovak Legion Kolchak's Russian Army (1918–1920) North-Western Army Royal Marines Volunteer Army Wrangel's Russian Army (1920) 1st Army Corps (Armed Forces of South Russia) 2nd Army Corps (Armed Forces of South Russia) 5th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) Asiatic Cavalry Division
Canadian Army Northwestern Army (Russia) Ukrainian Galician Army Ukrainian People's Army 1st Polish Corps in Russia 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division 2nd Priamur Rifle Division 27th Infantry Regiment (United States)

Battles and events 68

Key events

1917 1 event
1918 27 events
1919 18 events
1920 16 events
1921 6 events

Before and after

Followed from
October Revolution November 7–8, 1917

Related events 1 degree away • 2 degrees away

1915
1917
1919
1921
1923
1925
1927
1929
1931
1933
 
World War I
 
Basmachi movement
 
Russian Revolution
 
Russian Civil War
 
October Revolution
 
Dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly
 
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
 
Estonian War of Independence

Also involved 77

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