Editing Russian Civil War (section)

=== White movement and foreign interventions ===
==== From "democratic counter-revolution" to the White movement ====
{{Main|White movement}}
[[File:Колчак, Нокс и английские офицеры восточного фронта.jpg|thumb|left|Admiral [[Alexander Kolchak]] (seated) and General [[Alfred Knox]] (behind Kolchak) observing military exercise, 1919]]

The main Russian military and political force opposing the Bolsheviks was known as the [[White movement]], or simply the Whites; its armed formations were known as the [[White Army]].

Some historians distinguish the White movement from the so-called "democratic counter-revolution"<ref>{{Cite web |last=<!--Not stated--> |title=Democratic counterrevolution of 1918 in Siberia |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/democratic-counterrevolution-of-1918-in-siberia/902F77B1E6F60CF8CC8EDFCB66A3894 |website=www.cambridge.org}}{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |fix-attempted=yes |url=}}</ref><ref name="rev">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_4SuDQAAQBAJ |title=Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928 |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1987-3482-6}}</ref> led mainly by the [[Right Socialist-Revolutionaries|Right SRs]] and the [[Mensheviks]] that adhered to the values of [[parliamentary democracy]] and maintained anti-Bolshevik counter-governments ([[Komuch]], [[Ufa Directory]]) on the basis with alliance with the right-wing parties of Russia until November 1918. Until this period, [[parliamentary democracy]] was the main tendency of the anti-Bolshevik forces on the East (but not the South) of Russia, but since then, the White movement unified on an [[Right-wing dictatorship|authoritarian-right]] platform around the figure of [[Alexander Kolchak]] who [[Kolchak Coup|rose to power through a military coup]] as its principal leader and his [[Russian Government (1918—1919)|All-Russian government]].<ref name="rev" /><ref name="shubin1">{{Cite web |last=А. В. Шубин |author-link=Alexander Vladlenovich Shubin |title=Великая Российская революция. 10 вопросов |url=https://historyrussia.org/images/documents/shubin-10-voprosov-revolution.pdf |language=ru}}</ref><ref name="shubin">{{Cite book |last=А. В. Шубин |author-link=Alexander Vladlenovich Shubin |title=1918 год. Революция, кровью омытая |isbn=978-5-8291-2317-8 |language=ru}}</ref> After the Kolchak coup, the Right SRs and the Mensheviks went to opposition to the Whites and co-operated with both factions of the Civil War on a tactical level, while also attempting to overthrow White administrations or establish themselves as "the third force" of the war: for example, they attempted to stage an anti-Kolchak mutiny in November 1919 with the help of the Czech general [[Radola Gajda]], and in 1920, they formed an organisation called 'Political Centre' and successfully overthrew the White administration in Irkutsk.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC |title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990 |date=8 September 1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5214-7771-0}}</ref>

Although the White movement included a variety of political opinions, from the liberals through monarchists to the ultra-nationalist [[Black Hundreds]],<ref>Osborne, R. (14 April 2023). ''[https://study.com/academy/lesson/white-army-history-facts-russian.html White Army of Russia | History, Significance & Composition]''. Study.com. "Loosely commanded by former imperial admiral Alexander Kolchack, the White Army was composed of volunteers, conscripts, liberals, conservatives, monarchists, religious fundamentalists, and any group that opposed Bolshevik rule"</ref> and did not have universally-accepted leader or doctrine, the main force behind the movement were the conservative officers, and the resulting movement shared many traits with widespread right-wing counter-revolutionary movements of the time, namely [[nationalism]], [[racism]], distrust of liberal and democratic politics, [[clericalism]], contempt for the common man and dislike of industrial civilization;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kenez |first=Peter |date=1980 |title=The Ideology of the White Movement |journal=Soviet Studies |volume=32 |issue=32 |pages=58–83 |doi=10.1080/09668138008411280}}</ref> although not all of the participants of the movement wanted a restoration of [[Tsarism]], it generally preferred it to the revolution, and its main goal became to establish an order which would share the main features of the imperial one;<ref name="shubin" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kenez |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Kenez |title=Red Advance, White Defeat: Civil War in South Russia 1919–1920 |date=2008 |publisher=New Acdemia+ORM |isbn=978-1-9558-3517-6 |quote=Not all the participants in the White movement wanted to recreate tsarist Russia. [...] Nevertheless, the Civil War divided those who preferred tsarist Russia to the society which they feared their country was heading toward, and those who hated the old and had confidence that they could build a more just and rational society. After three years of struggle the Whites lost the war, proving that the traditional order had too few defenders... The defeat of the Whites was the final and conclusive defeat of Imperial Russia.}}</ref> its positive program was largely summarized in the slogan of "united and indivisible Russia" which meant the restoration of imperial state borders (excluding Poland and Finland)<ref name="un1">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGib6O8vocoC |title=The People in Arms: Military Myth and National Mobilization Since the French Revolution |date=2 November 2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5210-3025-0}}</ref><ref name="un2">{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Paul |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/10472/chapter-abstract/158344535 |title=The White Russian Army in Exile 1920-1941 |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1992-5021-9 |pages=1–15 |chapter=Civil War |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250219.003.0001}}</ref><ref name="un">{{Cite web |title=In the Wake of Empire |url=https://www.hoover.org/research/wake-empire}}</ref> and its denial of the [[right to self-determination]] and the resulting hostility towards the [[Pro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War|movements for national independence]];<ref name="shubin1" /> the movement is associated with [[Pogroms during the Russian Civil War|pogroms]] and [[antisemitism]], although its relations with the Jews were more complex, as at first, for example, Jewish proprietors supported the anti-Bolsheviks, but later the movement became known for its antisemitic pogroms and propaganda and discrimination against the Jews.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Budnitskii |first=Oleg |title=Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920 |date=2012 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-0814-6}}</ref>

When the White Army was created, the structure of the [[Russian Army (1917)|Russian Army of the Provisional Government period]] was used, while almost every individual formation had its own characteristics. The military art of the White Army was based on the experience of World War I, which, however, left a strong imprint on the specifics of the Civil War.<ref>Military Encyclopedic Dictionary / Editorial Board: Alexander Gorkin, Vladimir Zolotarev et al. – Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia, RIPOL Classic, 2002 – 1664 Pages</ref>

====Allied intervention====
{{Main|Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War}}
The Western Allies armed and supported the Whites. They were worried about a possible Russo-German alliance, the prospect of the Bolsheviks making good on their threats to default on Imperial Russia's massive [[External debt|foreign debts]] and the possibility that Communist revolutionary ideas would spread (a concern shared by many Central Powers). Hence, many of the countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. [[Winston Churchill]] declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".<ref>[http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=282 Cover Story: Churchill's Greatness.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004110408/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=282 |date=2006-10-04}} Interview with Jeffrey Wallin. (The Churchill Centre)</ref> The British and French had supported [[Russia during World War I]] on a massive scale with war materials.

After the treaty, it looked like much of that material would fall into the hands of the Germans. To meet that danger, the [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|Allies intervened]] with Great Britain and France sending troops into Russian ports. There were violent clashes with the Bolsheviks. Britain intervened in support of the White forces to defeat the Bolsheviks and prevent the spread of communism across Europe.<ref>Howard Fuller, "Great Britain and Russia's Civil War: The Necessity for a Definite and Coherent Policy". ''Journal of Slavic Military Studies'' 32.4 (2019): 553–559.</ref>

==== Central Powers anti-Bolshevik intervention ====
{{Main|Central Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War}}
The Central Powers also supported the anti-Bolshevik forces and the Whites; after the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]], the main goals of the intervention were to maintain the newly conquered territories and prevent a re-establishment of the Eastern Front. After the defeat of the Central Powers, many armies that stayed mostly helped the [[Russian White Guard]] eradicate communists in the Baltics until their eventual withdrawal and defeat. Pro-German factions fought against the newly independent Baltic states until their defeat by the Baltic States, backed by the victorious [[Allies of World War I|Allies]].

====Pro-independence movements and German protectorates====
{{Main|Pro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War}}
[[File:Map Treaty Brest-Litovsk.jpg|thumb|Borders of the buffer states drawn by the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]]]
The German Empire created several short-lived [[buffer state]]s within its sphere of influence after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: the [[United Baltic Duchy]], [[Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918)|Duchy of Courland and Semigallia]], [[Kingdom of Lithuania (1918)|Kingdom of Lithuania]], [[Kingdom of Poland (1916–1918)|Kingdom of Poland]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bullivant |first=Keith |title=Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identity and Cultural Differences |last2=Giles |first2=Geoffrey J. |last3=Pape |first3=Walter |date=1999 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=9-0420-0678-1 |pages=28–29}}</ref> the [[Belarusian People's Republic]], and the [[Ukrainian State]]. Following Germany's Armistice in World War I in November 1918, the states were abolished.<ref>Mieczysław B. Biskupski, "War and the Diplomacy of Polish Independence, 1914–18." ''Polish Review'' (1990): 5–17. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25778473 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127202015/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25778473 |date=27 January 2020}}</ref><ref>Timothy Snyder, ''The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999'' (Yale University Press, 2004)</ref>

Finland was the first republic that [[Finnish Declaration of Independence|declared its independence from Russia]] in December 1917 and established itself in the ensuing [[Finnish Civil War]] between nationalist German-supported [[White Guard (Finland)|White Guards]] and socialist Bolshevik-supported [[Red Guards (Finland)|Red Guards]] from January–May 1918.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirby |first=D. G. |date=1978 |title=Revolutionary ferment in Finland and the origins of the civil war 1917–1918 |journal=Scandinavian Economic History Review |volume=26 |pages=15–35 |doi=10.1080/03585522.1978.10407894 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Second Polish Republic]], [[History of Lithuania|Lithuania]], [[History of Latvia|Latvia]] and [[History of Estonia|Estonia]] formed their own armies immediately after the abolition of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the start of the [[Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919|Soviet westward offensive]] and subsequent [[Polish-Soviet War]] in November 1918.<ref>Anatol Lieven, ''The Baltic revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the path to independence'' (Yale University Press, 1993) pp. 54–61. {{Cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/Baltic-Revolution-Estonia-Lithuania-Independence/dp/0300055528 |title=Archived copy |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=16 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316223710/https://www.amazon.com/Baltic-Revolution-Estonia-Lithuania-Independence/dp/0300055528 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>