Editing Russian Civil War (section)

==Geography and chronology==
{{Main|Southern Front of the Russian Civil War|North Russia Campaign|Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War|Yakut Revolt|Finnish Civil War}}
In the European part of Russia the war was fought across three main fronts: the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into the following periods.
[[File:Volunteer Army infantry company.jpg|thumb|left|White [[Volunteer Army]] in South Russia, January 1918]]
The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice, or roughly March 1917 to November 1918. Already on the date of the Revolution, [[Cossack]] General [[Alexey Kaledin]] refused to recognize it and assumed full governmental authority in the [[Don River, Russia|Don]] region,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Каледин, Алексей Максимович. A biography of Kaledin (in Russian) |url=http://www.hrono.info/biograf/kaledina.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108100553/http://www.hrono.info/biograf/kaledina.html |archive-date=8 November 2017 |access-date=24 February 2008}}</ref> where the [[Volunteer Army]] began amassing support. The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk also resulted in direct Allied intervention in Russia and the arming of military forces opposed to the Bolshevik government. There were also many German commanders who offered support against the Bolsheviks, fearing a confrontation with them was impending as well.

During the first period, the Bolsheviks took control of [[Central Asia]] out of the hands of the Provisional Government and White Army, setting up a base for the Communist Party in the [[Eurasian Steppe|Steppe]] and [[Russian Turkestan|Turkestan]], where nearly two million Russian settlers were located.{{Sfn|Wheeler|1964|p=103}}

Most of the fighting in the first period was sporadic, involved only small groups and had a fluid and rapidly shifting strategic situation. Among the antagonists were the Czechoslovak Legion,<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 July 2005 |title=The Czech Legion |url=https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A4241062 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719122821/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4241062 |archive-date=19 July 2012 |access-date=29 October 2020 |website=h2g2.com |publisher=Not Panicking}}</ref> the Poles of the [[4th Rifle Division (Poland)|4th]] and [[5th Rifle Division (Poland)|5th Rifle Divisions]] and the pro-Bolshevik Red [[Latvian riflemen]].

The second period of the war lasted from January to November 1919. At first the White armies' advances from the south (under Denikin), the east (under Kolchak) and the northwest (under Yudenich) were successful, forcing the Red Army and its allies back on all three fronts. In July 1919 the Red Army suffered another reverse after a mass defection of units in the Crimea to the anarchist Insurgent Army under Nestor Makhno, enabling anarchist forces to consolidate power in Ukraine. Leon Trotsky soon reformed the Red Army, concluding the first of two military alliances with the anarchists. In June the Red Army first checked Kolchak's advance. After a series of engagements, assisted by an Insurgent Army offensive against White supply lines, the Red Army defeated Denikin's and Yudenich's armies in October and November.

The third period of the war was the extended siege of the last White forces in the [[Crimea]] in 1920. General [[Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel|Wrangel]] had gathered the remnants of Denikin's armies, occupying much of the Crimea. An attempted invasion of southern Ukraine was rebuffed by the Insurgent Army under Makhno's command. Pursued into Crimea by Makhno's troops, Wrangel went over to the defensive in the Crimea. After an abortive move north against the Red Army, Wrangel's troops were forced south by Red Army and Insurgent Army forces; Wrangel and the remains of his army were evacuated to [[Istanbul|Constantinople]] in November 1920.