Civil war in the Far East. Introduction. Japanese and Chinese vectors in the civil war in the Far East

On October 25, 1922, units of Army Commander Uborevich entered Vladivostok without a fight. Thus ended the last major operation of the Russian Civil War. It is interesting that in the Far East it was not the Soviet government that fought the whites, but a state formally independent from the RSFSR - the Far Eastern Republic. The final act of the historical drama ended almost bloodlessly - with the victory of the Reds. They fled from the port of Vladivostok by ship. About the final stage of the civil confrontation - in the RT material.

By 1922, the Civil War had ended in almost the entire territory of Russia, except for the Far East. However, here it looked very different from other parts of the former Russian Empire. In the Far East, it was not the Soviet government that fought the whites, but another state - the Far Eastern Republic.

Original solution

In 1920, there was no Soviet power in Transbaikalia and the Far East. Significant white forces were concentrated here: the remnants of Admiral Kolchak’s army, who fled from Siberia, and the detachments of Ataman Semyonov. The Whites were supported by the Japanese. Japan used the Civil War to strengthen its position in the region.

The Soviet government, which was already in a difficult position (the RSFSR at the beginning of 1920 was not recognized by virtually any state, the country continued a grueling war on the western front), could not begin hostilities with Japan.

The RCP (b) made an original decision: to create a separate republic in the Far East, formally independent from the RSFSR, which would wage war against the White Guards and interventionists.

Members of the government of the Far Eastern Republic at a rally. An independent and democratic state entity with a capitalist structure in the economy, proclaimed in the territory of Transbaikalia and the Russian Far East.

The People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) of the republic crushed Semyonov and marched to the Pacific Ocean. As a result, Japan agreed to the withdrawal of its units from Transbaikalia. Without Japanese support, the Whites suffered one defeat after another.

Assault nights of Spassk

The white armies retreated to the east. Some of them infiltrated into Manchuria and China, but many were preparing for a counter-offensive. By the beginning of 1921, an entire Far Eastern army was located in Primorye, assembled from the remnants of Kolchak’s and Semenov’s troops.

People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic on the streets of Vladivostok. 1922
RIA News

In May of the same year, the Whites, with the support of Japan, carried out a coup in Vladivostok, which had previously recognized the power of the Far Eastern Republic. The Amur government of the Merkulov brothers came to power. And the Amur Zemsky Territory was headed by General Diterkhis.

Formally, two state entities fought for the Far East: the Far Eastern Republic and the Amur Zemsky Territory. In addition, the NRA was also supported by local partisans, who differed little from the Makhnovists in their views and degree of organization. For example, in 1920, the troops of the anarchist partisan Yakov Tryapitsyn completely destroyed the city of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. Tryapitsyn himself died that same year, but the Far Eastern partisanship continued to poison the lives of the whites and their Japanese allies.

The decisive battle between the NRA and the “Zemskaya Army” (the so-called army of the Amur government) took place in early October 1922, after units of the NRA under the command of Jerome Uborevich broke through the White fortified area near the city of Spassk. These events are sung in the famous song “Across the Valleys and Over the Hills.”

The Reds, having reached Vladivostok, did not launch an assault; there were still Japanese in the city, who made it clear that in the event of an attack by the NRA they would have to face the Japanese army.

Last evacuation

At the last stage of the Civil War, the struggle was for every inch of land, the offensive did not stop at a certain stage and, each time after a respite, continued until the enemy was completely expelled or destroyed. The White armies, finding themselves pressed against the sea, evacuated several times - on all available ships. Often this happened under continuous attacks by the Reds, in panic and confusion, when there was not enough transport for everyone. Not only soldiers and officers tried to escape, but also civilians.

The White armies of Southern Russia survived the evacuations of Odessa, Novorossiysk and Crimea. Memories of these events are scary to read: people, trying to escape from the advancing enemy, often lost their human appearance. But the last white evacuation followed a different scenario. It was carried out under the cover of the Japanese army, and the NRA was not eager for a new battle and calmly waited until it would be possible to enter Vladivostok. People did not fight on the gangplank, did not push each other into the water, did not shoot because they were unable to take a place on board, as happened in the Crimea.

But even in these relatively calm conditions, those who loaded onto the ships did not experience joyful emotions. They left Russia forever.

The book “The Great Retreat” by Ivan Serebryannikov, Minister of Food of the Kolchak government, provides evidence of the loading of the last white refugees onto ships:

“It was all fussing and loading. Rattling in the darkness, carts with belongings and families arrived. Collapse, complete collapse, catastrophe - that’s what was read on the confused faces of the unfortunate Russian people, who were once again setting off into the unknown distance.”

The end of the Civil War in the Far East is a rather relative concept. The expedition of General Pepelyaev, who was sent there by the Amur government, continued in Yakutia; the Basmachi continued the war in Central Asia for a long time; the Soviet government had to endure several major uprisings.

However, the war in the broad sense of the word, with armies and fronts, ended here. The country chose its path of development, and the NRA army put an end to this choice on October 25, 1922.

Features of the civil war in the Far East. Features of the civil war in the Far East. Periodization of the civil war in the Far East Periodization of the civil war in the Far East The course of the civil war in the Far East Reasons for foreign intervention in the Far East The beginning of foreign intervention Balance of forces Chronology of events Results Dictionary Additional information PLAN:

Features of the civil war in the Far East: The civil war in the Far East is the longest in terms of terms the longest Buffer Far Eastern Republic in fact remained a warring republic all the time Clear and constant superiority of the enemy forces in numbers and, especially, in weapons, which were easily replenished by them Use in the Far East , especially in Primorye, on the widest scale of guerrilla warfare methods. Coordinated combat actions of partisans and the regular People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic, first used in the civil war. The need for maximum use of the means of diplomacy and the combination of these means with military measures (for example, the formation of a buffer Far Eastern Republic)

Periodization of the civil war in the Far East The five-year civil war in the Far East is clearly divided into three periods: January-September 1918. Conventionally, it can be called “Red Guards”. With a few exceptions, Red Guard formations operated there. It was a front-line war. Red Guard autumn 19I8. Partisan period. During this period, Kolchakism and Atamanism were rampant in Siberia and the Far East. The main bases of the interventionists were located in the cities of Primorye, and the port of Vladivostok remained the only point of communication between the interventionists and their countries. The period of united actions of partisans and the regular army of the Far Eastern Republic, which was actually part of the Red Army.

The victory of the October Revolution and the triumphal march of Soviet power since October 1917. to February 1918, when in 79 of the country's 97 cities Soviet power was established peacefully, and the new government easily dealt with scattered counter-revolutionary actions, it clearly showed the imperialists the futility of their hopes that the Bolshevik regime would collapse on its own. The imperialists of the USA, England, France, Japan, Italy and a number of other countries first sought to strangle Soviet power by the forces of internal counter-revolution, then by the forces of united military intervention. The leading role in this action is taken by two warring powers, the USA and Japan. Japan, preparing to take part in the war against Soviet Russia, demanded exclusive rights to the Far East and Siberia, seeking freedom of action and not wanting to recognize American control. The United States pursued its interests, relying on the support of the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia, expelled from Tomsk and located in Harbin. interventions. not wanting to recognize the control of America. The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia. Reasons for intervention in the Far East.

On New Year's Eve, 1918, the Japanese cruiser Iwami unexpectedly appeared in the Vladivostok roadstead with a landing party of soldiers on board. The Japanese Consul General in Vladivostok explained the appearance of the cruiser by the need to protect the Japanese living in Vladivostok. Following the Willows, the Japanese cruiser Asahi and the English Suffocles entered the Golden Horn Bay, and on March 1 the American cruiser Brooklyn appeared with infantry on board. To start an intervention in the depths of the Far East and Siberia, only a pretext was needed. On the night of April 4-5, 1918. The Japanese organized a provocation (the murder of employees of the Isis company), using it as a pretext to begin the intervention. Japanese and British troops landed in Vladivostok. Thus began the intervention of the imperialist powers in the east of the RSFSR. Beginning of intervention in the Far East

1918 1919 1920 1921 – 1922 White Guards 100 thousand people 350 thousand people More than 350 thousand people Interventionists 163 thousand people 270 thousand people 300 thousand people in Japan - 350 thousand. Table 1 Forces of interventionists and White Guards in the Far East during the civil war. Balance of forces: WHITE White: Kolchak’s army, gangs of atamans Semenov and Gamov, Yesaul Kalmykov, Colonel Orlov, etc. Interventionists: Japan, USA, Great Britain, France, Italy, etc.

Balance of power: RED By 1918, approximately 800 thousand people lived in the Far East. By 1918, the armed forces of Soviet Russia in the Far East consisted of: 1. Detachments of the Red Guard, whose strength in Primorye by 1918 was bayonets; 2. Units of the Red Army, which in Primorye was formed almost exclusively from internationalists: Czechoslovaks and Serbs. The actions of the armed forces were led by the Dalsovnarkom, headed by Krasnoshchekov. 3. During the partisan period, on the territory of Primorye alone, 15 thousand people fought in partisan detachments, and in Siberia and the Far East, a thousand people fought in partisan armies. 4. After the formation of the Far Eastern Republic, the People's Revolutionary Army was created under the command of Blucher, which acted together with the partisans. 1. Krivoshchekov A.M. 2. Shevchenko G.M. 3. Lazo S.G. 4. Blucher V.K.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS: 1. Spring 1918 - revolts of atamans Gamov in the Amur region, Semenov - in Transbaikalia, April 1918, provocation of the Japanese in Vladivostok. The beginning of foreign intervention in the Far East in June 1918 - the interventionists and White Guards dispersed the Vladivostok Council, arrested its representatives. In August 1918, the V Congress of Soviets of the Far East was held in Khabarovsk, proclaiming the transition to partisan methods of struggle. 5. August-September 1918 - capture of Primorye, Khabarovsk Territory and Amur Region by the White Guards and interventionists, establishment of Kolchak’s power (until 1919) 6. By March 1920 - revolutionary power was restored in all regions of the Far East. Further

7. April 6, 1920 – formation of the Far Eastern Republic in February 1922. - battles near Volochaevka and Novospasskaya. Volochaevka and Novospasskaya February 1922 - liberation of Khabarovsk by NRA units 10. October 1922 - offensive of NRA units and partisans in Southern Primorye October 1922 - defeat of units of the general. Diterikhs by units of the NRA under the command of I. Uborevich in the Spassk-Dalniy region in October 1922 - liberation of Vladivostok from the interventionists and White Guards by units of the NRA of the Far Eastern Republic and partisan detachments.

RESULTS OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE Far East: On October 25, 1922, units of the NRA of the Far East and partisan detachments of Primorye liberated Vladivostok. Thus ended the civil war in the Far East. On November 14, 1922, the People's Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic adopted a resolution on the liquidation of the Far Eastern Republic, the entry of the Far East into the RSFSR and the introduction of a unified management system throughout the territory of Soviet Russia.

VOCABULARY: 1. Civil war - an armed clash of various social groups, political parties in the struggle for political power 2. Intervention - an armed invasion of the troops of one country into the territory of another. Intervention - 3. Dalsovnarkom - Far Eastern Council of People's Commissars, image - bathed at the III Congress of Soviets of the Far East in December 1917. 4. FER – Far Eastern Republic, formed on April 6, 1920 on the initiative of V.I. Lenin, as a buffer state separating the RSFSR and Japan, bourgeois-democratic in form, but led by the Bolsheviks. 5. NRA - People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic, which is actually part of the Red Army. 6. Red Guard - detachments of armed workers performing military service without leaving work. They were poorly armed and trained, the command staff was elected, and, as a rule, had no military education.

Additional information: 1. The civil war in the Far East ended only on October 25, 1922 and lasted for almost 5 years, not stopping even during the construction of the Far East. 2. From April 1920 to October 25, 1922, the Far Eastern Republic existed for about 30 months, of which 27 were during the civil war. The buffer Far Eastern Republic was always a warring republic. 3. The commander of the Red Czechoslovak battalion in Primorye was Captain Mirovsky.

Document 1. From the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan in January 1918. “It would be useless for Japan to land troops in Vladivostok without trying to seize the railway all the way to Irkutsk. The occupation of Vladivostok and the Siberian railway to Irkutsk will protect Siberia from the German threat. But mainly the Japanese army in Siberia will serve to create a new Russian army.” Document 2. From a statement in the Japanese press: “America must understand that in Vladivostok and along the East China and Siberian Railways, Japan must not be ignored, and America cannot act as it pleases...”

Document 3. From the appeal of the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia, expelled from Tomsk and located in Harbin, to the United States: “... we propose to take control of the Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways... It is possible to quickly take Vladivostok and Karymskaya and send a division to protect the Amur and take Irkutsk."

Chronology

1918 Stage I of the civil war - “democratic”
1918, June Nationalization Decree
1919, January Introduction of surplus appropriation
1919 Fight against A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, Yudenich
1920 Soviet-Polish War
1920 Fight against P.N. Wrangel
1920, November End of the civil war on European territory
1922, October End of the civil war in the Far East

Civil war and military intervention

Civil War- “the armed struggle between different groups of the population, which was based on deep social, national and political contradictions, took place with the active intervention of foreign forces through various stages and stages...” (Academician Yu.A. Polyakov).

In modern historical science there is no single definition of the concept of “civil war”. In the encyclopedic dictionary we read: “Civil war is an organized armed struggle for power between classes, social groups, the most acute form of class struggle.” This definition actually repeats Lenin’s famous saying that civil war is the most acute form of class struggle.

Currently, various definitions are given, but their essence mainly boils down to the definition of the Civil War as a large-scale armed confrontation, in which, undoubtedly, the issue of power was decided. The seizure of state power in Russia by the Bolsheviks and the subsequent dispersal of the Constituent Assembly can be considered the beginning of armed confrontation in Russia. The first shots were heard in the south of Russia, in the Cossack regions, already in the autumn of 1917.

General Alekseev, the last chief of staff of the tsarist army, begins to form the Volunteer Army on the Don, but by the beginning of 1918 it amounted to no more than 3,000 officers and cadets.

As A.I. wrote Denikin in “Essays on the Russian Troubles,” “the white movement grew spontaneously and inevitably.”

In the first months of the victory of Soviet power, armed clashes were local in nature; all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics.

This confrontation truly took on a front-line, large-scale character in the spring of 1918. Let us highlight three main stages in the development of armed confrontation in Russia, based primarily on taking into account the alignment of political forces and the peculiarities of the formation of fronts.

The first stage begins in the spring of 1918 when the military-political confrontation becomes global, large-scale military operations begin. The defining feature of this stage is its so-called “democratic” character, when representatives of the socialist parties emerged as an independent anti-Bolshevik camp with slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains of the February Revolution. It is this camp that is chronologically ahead of the White Guard camp in its organizational design.

At the end of 1918 the second stage begins- confrontation between whites and reds. Until the beginning of 1920, one of the main political opponents of the Bolsheviks was the white movement with the slogans of “non-decision of the state system” and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction threatened not only the October, but also the February conquests. Their main political force was the Cadets Party, and the army was formed by generals and officers of the former tsarist army. The Whites were united by hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, and the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia.

The final stage of the Civil War begins in 1920. events of the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against P. N. Wrangel. Wrangel's defeat at the end of 1920 marked the end of the Civil War, but anti-Soviet armed protests continued in many regions of Soviet Russia during the years of the New Economic Policy

Nationwide scale armed struggle has acquired from spring 1918 and turned into the greatest disaster, the tragedy of the entire Russian people. In this war there were no right and wrong, no winners and losers. 1918 - 1920 — in these years, the military issue was of decisive importance for the fate of the Soviet government and the bloc of anti-Bolshevik forces opposing it. This period ended with the liquidation in November 1920 of the last white front in the European part of Russia (in Crimea). In general, the country emerged from the state of civil war in the fall of 1922 after the remnants of white formations and foreign (Japanese) military units were expelled from the territory of the Russian Far East.

A feature of the civil war in Russia was its close intertwining with anti-Soviet military intervention Entente powers. It was the main factor in prolonging and aggravating the bloody “Russian Troubles.”

So, in the periodization of the civil war and intervention, three stages are quite clearly distinguished. The first of them covers the time from spring to autumn 1918; the second - from the autumn of 1918 to the end of 1919; and the third - from the spring of 1920 to the end of 1920.

The first stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1918)

In the first months of the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, armed clashes were local in nature; all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics. The armed struggle acquired a nationwide scale in the spring of 1918. Back in January 1918, Romania, taking advantage of the weakness of the Soviet government, captured Bessarabia. In March - April 1918, the first contingents of troops from England, France, the USA and Japan appeared on Russian territory (in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, in Vladivostok, in Central Asia). They were small and could not significantly influence the military and political situation in the country. “War communism”

At the same time, the enemy of the Entente - Germany - occupied the Baltic states, part of Belarus, Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus. The Germans actually dominated Ukraine: they overthrew the bourgeois-democratic Verkhovna Rada, whose help they used during the occupation of Ukrainian lands, and in April 1918 they put Hetman P.P. in power. Skoropadsky.

Under these conditions, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to use the 45,000th Czechoslovak Corps, which was (in agreement with Moscow) under his subordination. It consisted of captured Slavic soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army and followed the railway to Vladivostok for subsequent transfer to France.

According to the agreement concluded on March 26, 1918 with the Soviet government, the Czechoslovak legionnaires were to advance “not as a combat unit, but as a group of citizens equipped with weapons to repel armed attacks by counter-revolutionaries.” However, during their movement, their conflicts with local authorities became more frequent. Since the Czechs and Slovaks had more military weapons than provided for in the agreement, the authorities decided to confiscate them. On May 26 in Chelyabinsk, conflicts escalated into real battles, and legionnaires occupied the city. Their armed uprising was immediately supported by the military missions of the Entente in Russia and anti-Bolshevik forces. As a result, in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East - wherever there were trains with Czechoslovak legionnaires - Soviet power was overthrown. At the same time, in many provinces of Russia, peasants, dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks, rebelled (according to official data, there were at least 130 large anti-Soviet peasant uprisings alone).

Socialist parties(mainly right-wing Social Revolutionaries), relying on interventionist landings, the Czechoslovak Corps and peasant rebel detachments, formed a number of governments Komuch (Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly) in Samara, the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region in Arkhangelsk, the West Siberian Commissariat in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), The Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, the Trans-Caspian Provisional Government in Ashgabat, etc. In their activities they tried to compose “ democratic alternative”both the Bolshevik dictatorship and the bourgeois-monarchist counter-revolution. Their programs included demands for the convening of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of all citizens without exception, freedom of trade and the abandonment of strict state regulation of the economic activities of peasants while maintaining a number of important provisions of the Soviet Decree on Land, the establishment of a “social partnership” of workers and capitalists during the denationalization of industrial enterprises and etc.

Thus, the performance of the Czechoslavak corps gave impetus to the formation of a front that bore the so-called “democratic coloring” and was mainly Socialist-Revolutionary. It was this front, and not the white movement, that was decisive at the initial stage of the Civil War.

In the summer of 1918, all opposition forces became a real threat to the Bolshevik government, which controlled only the territory of the center of Russia. The territory controlled by Komuch included the Volga region and part of the Urals. Bolshevik power was also overthrown in Siberia, where the regional government of the Siberian Duma was formed. The breakaway parts of the empire - Transcaucasia, Central Asia, the Baltic states - had their own national governments. Ukraine was captured by the Germans, Don and Kuban by Krasnov and Denikin.

On August 30, 1918, a terrorist group killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky, and the right-wing Socialist Revolutionary Kaplan seriously wounded Lenin. The threat of loss of political power from the ruling Bolshevik party became catastrophically real.

In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of a number of anti-Bolshevik governments of democratic and social orientation was held in Ufa. Under pressure from the Czechoslovaks, who threatened to open the front to the Bolsheviks, they established a unified All-Russian government - the Ufa Directory, headed by the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries N.D. Avksentiev and V.M. Zenzinov. Soon the directorate settled in Omsk, where the famous polar explorer and scientist, former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V., was invited to the post of Minister of War. Kolchak.

The right, bourgeois-monarchist wing of the camp opposing the Bolsheviks as a whole had not yet recovered at that time from the defeat of its first post-October armed attack on them (which largely explained the “democratic coloring” of the initial stage of the civil war on the part of anti-Soviet forces). White Volunteer Army, which after the death of General L.G. Kornilov in April 1918 was headed by General A.I. Denikin, operated on a limited territory of the Don and Kuban. Only the Cossack army of Ataman P.N. Krasnov managed to advance to Tsaritsyn and cut off the grain-producing regions of the North Caucasus from the central regions of Russia, and Ataman A.I. Dutov - to capture Orenburg.

By the end of the summer of 1918, the position of Soviet power had become critical. Almost three-quarters of the territory of the former Russian Empire was under the control of various anti-Bolshevik forces, as well as the occupying Austro-German forces.

Soon, however, a turning point occurs on the main front (Eastern). Soviet troops under the command of I.I. Vatsetis and S.S. Kamenev went on the offensive there in September 1918. Kazan fell first, then Simbirsk, and Samara in October. By winter the Reds approached the Urals. The attempts of General P.N. were also repelled. Krasnov to take possession of Tsaritsyn, undertaken in July and September 1918.

From October 1918, the Southern front became the main front. In the South of Russia, the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin captured Kuban, and the Don Cossack Army of Ataman P.N. Krasnova tried to take Tsaritsyn and cut the Volga.

The Soviet government launched active measures to protect its power. In 1918, a transition was made to universal conscription, widespread mobilization was launched. The Constitution adopted in July 1918 established discipline in the army and introduced the institution of military commissars.

Poster "You have signed up to volunteer"

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was allocated as part of the Central Committee to quickly resolve problems of a military and political nature. It included: V.I. Lenin - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; L.B. Krestinsky - Secretary of the Party Central Committee; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities; L.D. Trotsky - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Candidates for membership were N.I. Bukharin - editor of the newspaper “Pravda”, G.E. Zinoviev - Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, M.I. Kalinin is the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

The Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by L.D., worked under the direct control of the Party Central Committee. Trotsky. The Institute of Military Commissars was introduced in the spring of 1918; one of its important tasks was to control the activities of military specialists - former officers. Already at the end of 1918, there were about 7 thousand commissars in the Soviet armed forces. About 30% of former generals and officers of the old army during the civil war took the side of the Red Army.

This was determined by two main factors:

acting on the side of the Bolshevik government for ideological reasons;
The policy of attracting “military specialists”—former tsarist officers—to the Red Army was carried out by L.D. Trotsky using repressive methods.

War communism

In 1918, the Bolsheviks introduced a system of emergency measures, economic and political, known as “ policy of war communism”. Main acts this policy became Decree of May 13, 1918 g., giving broad powers to the People's Commissariat for Food (People's Commissariat for Food), and Decree of June 28, 1918 on nationalization.

The main provisions of this policy:

nationalization of all industry;
centralization of economic management;
ban on private trade;
curtailment of commodity-money relations;
food allocation;
equalization system of remuneration for workers and employees;
payment in kind for workers and employees;
free utilities;
universal labor conscription.

June 11, 1918 were created committees(committees of the poor), which were supposed to seize surplus agricultural products from wealthy peasants. Their actions were supported by units of the prodarmiya (food army), consisting of Bolsheviks and workers. From January 1919, the search for surpluses was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriation (Chrestomathy T8 No. 5).

Each region and county had to hand over a set amount of grain and other products (potatoes, honey, butter, eggs, milk). When the delivery quota was met, the village residents received a receipt for the right to purchase industrial goods (fabric, sugar, salt, matches, kerosene).

June 28, 1918 the state has started nationalization of enterprises with capital over 500 rubles. Back in December 1917, when the VSNKh (Supreme Council of the National Economy) was created, he began nationalization. But the nationalization of labor was not widespread (by March 1918, no more than 80 enterprises were nationalized). This was primarily a repressive measure against entrepreneurs who resisted workers' control. It was now government policy. By November 1, 1919, 2,500 enterprises had been nationalized. In November 1920, a decree was issued that extended nationalization to all enterprises with more than 10 or 5 workers, but using a mechanical engine.

Decree of November 21, 1918 was installed monopoly on domestic trade. Soviet power replaced trade with state distribution. Citizens received products through the People's Commissariat for Food using cards, of which, for example, in Petrograd in 1919 there were 33 types: bread, dairy, shoe, etc. The population was divided into three categories:
workers and scientists and artists equated to them;
employees;
former exploiters.

Due to the lack of food, even the wealthiest received only ¼ of the prescribed ration.

In such conditions, the “black market” flourished. The government fought against bag smugglers, prohibiting them from traveling by train.

In the social sphere, the policy of “war communism” was based on the principle “he who does not work, neither shall he eat.” In 1918, labor conscription was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, and in 1920, universal labor conscription.

In the political sphere“War communism” meant the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b). The activities of other parties (cadets, mensheviks, right and left socialist revolutionaries) were prohibited.

The consequences of the policy of “war communism” were deepening economic devastation and a reduction in production in industry and agriculture. However, it was precisely this policy that largely allowed the Bolsheviks to mobilize all resources and win the Civil War.

The Bolsheviks assigned a special role to mass terror in the victory over the class enemy. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution proclaiming the beginning of “mass terror against the bourgeoisie and its agents.” Head of the Cheka F.E. Dzherzhinsky said: “We are terrorizing the enemies of Soviet power.” The policy of mass terror took on a state character. Execution on the spot became commonplace.

The second stage of the civil war (autumn 1918 - end of 1919)

From November 1918, the front-line war entered the stage of confrontation between the Reds and the Whites. The year 1919 was decisive for the Bolsheviks; a reliable and constantly growing Red Army was created. But their opponents, actively supported by their former allies, united among themselves. The international situation has also changed significantly. Germany and its allies in the world war laid down their arms before the Entente in November. Revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Leadership of the RSFSR November 13, 1918 canceled, and the new governments of these countries were forced to evacuate their troops from Russia. In Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus, and Ukraine, bourgeois-national governments arose, which immediately took the side of the Entente.

The defeat of Germany freed up significant combat contingents of the Entente and at the same time opened up for it a convenient and short road to Moscow from the southern regions. Under these conditions, the Entente leadership prevailed in the intention to defeat Soviet Russia using its own armies.

In the spring of 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente developed a plan for the next military campaign. (Chrestomathy T8 No. 8) As noted in one of his secret documents, the intervention was to be “expressed in combined military actions of Russian anti-Bolshevik forces and the armies of neighboring allied states.” At the end of November 1918, a joint Anglo-French squadron of 32 pennants (12 battleships, 10 cruisers and 10 destroyers) appeared off the Black Sea coast of Russia. English troops landed in Batum and Novorossiysk, and French troops landed in Odessa and Sevastopol. The total number of interventionist combat forces concentrated in the south of Russia was increased by February 1919 to 130 thousand people. The Entente contingents in the Far East and Siberia (up to 150 thousand people), as well as in the North (up to 20 thousand people) increased significantly.

Beginning of foreign military intervention and civil war (February 1918 - March 1919)

In Siberia, on November 18, 1918, Admiral A.V. came to power. Kolchak. . He put an end to the chaotic actions of the anti-Bolshevik coalition.

Having dispersed the Directory, he proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia (the rest of the leaders of the white movement soon declared their submission to him). Admiral Kolchak in March 1919 began to advance on a broad front from the Urals to the Volga. The main bases of his army were Siberia, the Urals, the Orenburg province and the Ural region. In the north, from January 1919, General E.K. began to play a leading role. Miller, in the north-west - General N.N. Yudenich. In the south, the dictatorship of the commander of the Volunteer Army A.I. is strengthening. Denikin, who in January 1919 subjugated the Don Army of General P.N. Krasnov and created the united Armed Forces of southern Russia.

The second stage of the civil war (autumn 1918 - end of 1919)

In March 1919, the well-armed 300,000-strong army of A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive from the east, intending to unite with Denikin’s forces for a joint attack on Moscow. Having captured Ufa, Kolchak’s troops fought their way to Simbirsk, Samara, Votkinsk, but were soon stopped by the Red Army. At the end of April, Soviet troops under the command of S.S. Kamenev and M.V. The Frunzes went on the offensive and advanced deep into Siberia in the summer. By the beginning of 1920, the Kolchakites were completely defeated, and the admiral himself was arrested and executed by verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.

In the summer of 1919, the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front. (Reader T8 No. 7) July 3, General A.I. Denikin issued his famous “Moscow directive”, and his army of 150 thousand people began an offensive along the entire 700-km front from Kyiv to Tsaritsyn. The White Front included such important centers as Voronezh, Orel, Kyiv. In this space of 1 million square meters. km with a population of up to 50 million people there were 18 provinces and regions. By mid-autumn, Denikin's army captured Kursk and Orel. But by the end of October, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Egorov) defeated the white regiments, and then began to press them along the entire front line. The remnants of Denikin’s army, headed by General P.N. in April 1920. Wrangel, strengthened in Crimea.

The final stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1920)

At the beginning of 1920, as a result of military operations, the outcome of the front-line Civil War was actually decided in favor of the Bolshevik government. At the final stage, the main military operations were associated with the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against Wrangel’s army.

Significantly aggravated the nature of the civil war Soviet-Polish war. Head of Polish State Marshal J. Pilsudski hatched a plan to create “ Greater Poland within the borders of 1772” from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, including a large part of Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, including those never controlled by Warsaw. The Polish national government was supported by the Entente countries, who sought to create a “sanitary bloc” of Eastern European countries between Bolshevik Russia and Western countries. On April 17, Pilsudski gave the order to attack Kiev and signed an agreement with Ataman Petliura, Poland recognized the Directory headed by Petliura as the supreme authority of Ukraine. On May 7, Kyiv was captured. The victory was achieved unusually easily, because the Soviet troops withdrew without serious resistance.

But already on May 14, a successful counter-offensive began by the troops of the Western Front (commander M.N. Tukhachevsky), on May 26 - the Southwestern Front (commander A.I. Egorov). In mid-July they reached the borders of Poland. On June 12, Soviet troops occupied Kyiv. The speed of a victory can only be compared with the speed of a previously suffered defeat.

The war with bourgeois-landlord Poland and the defeat of Wrangel’s troops (IV-XI 1920)

On July 12, British Foreign Secretary Lord D. Curzon sent a note to the Soviet government - in fact, an ultimatum from the Entente demanding to stop the Red Army's advance on Poland. As a truce, the so-called “ Curzon line”, which passed mainly along the ethnic border of the settlement of Poles.

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), having clearly overestimated its own strengths and underestimated the enemy’s, set a new strategic task for the main command of the Red Army: to continue the revolutionary war. IN AND. Lenin believed that the victorious entry of the Red Army into Poland would cause uprisings of the Polish working class and revolutionary uprisings in Germany. For this purpose, the Soviet government of Poland was quickly formed - the Provisional Revolutionary Committee consisting of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, F.M. Kona, Yu.Yu. Markhlevsky and others.

This attempt ended in disaster. The troops of the Western Front were defeated near Warsaw in August 1920.

In October, the warring parties concluded a truce, and in March 1921, a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in western Ukraine and Belarus went to Poland.

At the height of the Soviet-Polish war, General P.N. took active action in the south. Wrangel. Using harsh measures, including public executions of demoralized officers, and relying on the support of France, the general turned Denikin's scattered divisions into a disciplined and combat-ready Russian army. In June 1920, troops were landed from the Crimea on the Don and Kuban, and the main forces of the Wrangel troops were sent to the Donbass. On October 3, the Russian army began its offensive in the northwestern direction towards Kakhovka.

The offensive of Wrangel’s troops was repulsed, and during the operation of the army of the Southern Front under the command of M.V., which began on October 28. The Frunzes completely captured Crimea. On November 14 - 16, 1920, an armada of ships flying the St. Andrew's flag left the shores of the peninsula, taking broken white regiments and tens of thousands of civilian refugees to a foreign land. Thus P.N. Wrangel saved them from the merciless red terror that fell on Crimea immediately after the evacuation of the whites.

In the European part of Russia, after the capture of Crimea, it was liquidated last white front. The military issue ceased to be the main one for Moscow, but fighting on the outskirts of the country continued for many months.

The Red Army, having defeated Kolchak, reached Transbaikalia in the spring of 1920. The Far East was at this time in the hands of Japan. To avoid a collision with it, the government of Soviet Russia promoted the formation in April 1920 of a formally independent “buffer” state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER) with its capital in Chita. Soon, the army of the Far East began military operations against the White Guards, supported by the Japanese, and in October 1922 occupied Vladivostok, completely clearing the Far East of Whites and interventionists. After this, a decision was made to liquidate the Far Eastern Republic and incorporate it into the RSFSR.

The defeat of the interventionists and White Guards in Eastern Siberia and the Far East (1918-1922)

The Civil War became the biggest drama of the twentieth century and the greatest tragedy in Russia. The armed struggle that unfolded across the expanses of the country was carried out with extreme tension of the opponents' forces, was accompanied by mass terror (both white and red), and was distinguished by exceptional mutual bitterness. Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of a participant in the Civil War, talking about soldiers of the Caucasian Front: “Well, son, isn’t it scary for a Russian to beat a Russian?” - the comrades ask the new recruit. “At first it’s really kind of awkward,” he answers, “and then, if your heart gets hot, then no, nothing.” These words contain the merciless truth about the fratricidal war, into which almost the entire population of the country was drawn.

The fighting parties clearly understood that the struggle could only have a fatal outcome for one of the parties. That is why the civil war in Russia became a great tragedy for all its political camps, movements and parties.

“Reds” (the Bolsheviks and their supporters) believed that they were defending not only Soviet power in Russia, but also “the world revolution and the ideas of socialism.”

In the political struggle against Soviet power, two political movements were consolidated:

democratic counter-revolution with slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains of the February (1917) Revolution (many Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks advocated the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, but without the Bolsheviks (“For Soviets without Bolsheviks”));
white movement with the slogans of “non-decision of the state system” and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction threatened not only the October, but also the February conquests. The counter-revolutionary white movement was not homogeneous. It included monarchists and liberal republicans, supporters of the Constituent Assembly and supporters of the military dictatorship. Among the “Whites” there were also differences in foreign policy guidelines: some hoped for the support of Germany (Ataman Krasnov), others hoped for the help of the Entente powers (Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich). The “Whites” were united by hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, and the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia. They did not have a unified political program; the military in the leadership of the “white movement” relegated politicians to the background. There was no clear coordination of actions between the main “white” groups. The leaders of the Russian counter-revolution competed and fought with each other.

In the anti-Soviet anti-Bolshevik camp, some of the political opponents of the Soviets acted under a single Socialist Revolutionary-White Guard flag, while others acted only under the White Guard.

Bolsheviks had a stronger social base than their opponents. They received strong support from urban workers and the rural poor. The position of the main peasant mass was not stable and unambiguous; only the poorest part of the peasants consistently followed the Bolsheviks. The peasants' hesitation had its reasons: the “Reds” gave the land, but then introduced surplus appropriation, which caused strong discontent in the village. However, the return of the previous order was also unacceptable for the peasantry: the victory of the “whites” threatened the return of the land to the landowners and severe punishments for the destruction of the landowners’ estates.

The Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists rushed to take advantage of the hesitations of the peasants. They managed to involve a significant part of the peasantry in the armed struggle, both against the whites and against the reds.

For both warring sides, it was also important what position the Russian officers would take in the conditions of the civil war. Approximately 40% of the officers in the tsarist army joined the “white movement,” 30% sided with the Soviet regime, and 30% avoided participating in the civil war.

The Russian Civil War worsened armed intervention foreign powers. The interventionists carried out active military operations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, occupied some of its regions, helped incite the civil war in the country and contributed to its prolongation. The intervention turned out to be an important factor in the “revolutionary all-Russian unrest” and increased the number of victims.

VLADIVOSTOK, October 25. /TASS/. Exactly 95 years ago, on October 25, 1922, with the capture of Vladivostok, a long and bloody Civil War ended in Russia. On this day, early in October morning, units of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic (NRA FER), under the command of Jerome Uborevich, entered Vladivostok without a fight. The ships with the remnants of the Japanese and White Guard troops, by agreement between the parties, left the city two hours before the entry of the revolutionary army.

Although October 25 is considered the official date of the end of the Civil War, isolated skirmishes between the parties in the most remote lands of the Far East continued for several more years. In Sakhalin and Kamchatka, Soviet power was fully established only after two or three years.

The memory of distant events is still preserved in the Far East. Streets and settlements are named after the Red heroes of the Civil War.

How the events of 95 years ago are assessed today in the regions of the Far East, how the memory of them is preserved, what lessons of history and why should be remembered, is described in the TASS material.

The success of diplomacy, not weapons

The end of the Civil War in the Far East is more a success of diplomacy than of weapons. “The main historical lesson of the events of October 25 is that the most peaceful victories are usually preceded by the heaviest battles both on the battlefield and in the silence of diplomatic offices,” said Associate Professor of the Department of History and Archeology of the School of Humanities at the Far Eastern Federal University in an interview with TASS (FEFU) Anna Savchuk.

According to her, the large contingent of interventionists and White Guards, the weakness of the Bolshevik Party in the region, the lack of the material ability to wage war in such remote and large territories led to the fact that the main emphasis was placed on a diplomatic rather than an armed way to end the war.

According to the expert, negotiations with Japanese representatives, who occupied the Far Eastern regions and supported the White Guard movement, took many months. The fate of Vladivostok was decided at meetings of diplomats in China, during the Washington and Genoa conferences.

“An important role in ending the war was played by English Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Chairman of the Genoa Conference Schanzer, who supported the demands of the Soviet delegation regarding Japan’s non-aggression on the Far Eastern Republic and the end of Japanese government support for the White Guards.<...>The outcome of the diplomatic struggle with Japan was influenced, first of all, by the position of the United States, England and France, who sought to limit Japan’s influence in the Far East,” the historian notes.

As a result of these lengthy negotiations, Japan was forced to agree to the withdrawal of its troops from Primorye by November 1, 1922. According to historical documents, on October 24, the last negotiations took place near Vladivostok, at which an agreement was reached on the procedure for occupying Vladivostok by the revolutionary army, which entered the city without a fight the next day.

On the very outskirts

October 25, 1922 is considered the official day of the end of the Civil War, but skirmishes and battles in the separated territories of the Far East continued for several more years, and the northern part of Sakhalin was liberated from Japanese occupation only in 1925.

As Yulia Dean, an employee of the state historical archive of the Sakhalin region, candidate of historical sciences, said, back on January 14, 1920, a Bolshevik coup was carried out on Sakhalin. Soviet power was proclaimed in the north of the island by Alexander Tsapko.

“His fate was tragic. When the Japanese occupied Aleksandrovsk, they arrested him and took him to one of the ships. After which we have no information what happened to him. Maybe someday we will read the memoirs of the participants in these events from the Japanese side,” he said historian.

The power of the Soviets on Sakhalin did not last long. Already on April 21, the Japanese cruiser Mishima was stationed in the roadstead of Aleksandrovsk; a landing party of 2 thousand soldiers captured the city without resistance. Japanese entrepreneurs actively exploited the island's natural resources. They quickly organized various societies and joint stock companies for timber, fish, coal and oil production. The occupation regime in the north of the island lasted until May 1925.

In one of the most remote territories - Kamchatka - there were no armed uprisings, no clashes between warring parties, no intervention. However, the events of the Civil War were felt in the far northeast of the country for several years after its end. Separate groups of White Guards operated in the region.

As historian Aleksey Buyakov writes in his book “For the Good of the Power,” in 1924 alone, up to 60 former white officers lived in the Petropavlovsk district (as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was called until 1925). In an attempt to escape from Soviet power, the White Guards moved north along the peninsula to Chukotka, then trying to move to America. Thus, the echoes of the civil war in Kamchatka and Chukotka were felt until 1925.

To be remembered

Vladivostok carefully preserves the memory of the events of October 25. Many streets, including in the central part of the city, are named after revolutionaries - Banevur, Bashidze, Gulbinovich, Lazo, Lutsky, Neibut, Sukhanov, Uborevich and others who fought against the interventionists and White Guards. Even the main square of the city is called “To the Fighters for Soviet Power in the Far East” and there is also a sculptural group of the same name with the famous Red Army trumpeter, who has become one of the most recognizable and recognized symbols of the capital of Primorye.

However, in Vladivostok, all these years, the memory of those who found themselves on the losing side was preserved. “In addition to the famous burial of the White Czechs at the Marine Cemetery, we can mention the memorial plaque on the Sedanka station building stating that an agreement was reached here on the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Primorye. A cross was erected on Russky Island in memory of the departure of Rear Admiral Stark’s squadron from the city,” - says Savchuk.

From time to time, there is talk in the city about the possible renaming of the main square of the city, the renaming of streets named after revolutionaries, and the relocation of monuments. However, everything quickly calms down: the townspeople prefer to preserve the memory of long-standing events, giving credit to each side.

“Victor Hugo in the novel “Les Miserables” wrote: “One should not renounce the past of one’s Fatherland any more than one should renounce its present. Why not recognize your whole history?" In our opinion, this quote is very suitable for this situation. There is no need to remove monuments, rename streets, especially to do this in favor of the other side, which left not the best memory of itself," Savchuk notes.

However, the historian believes, there is no need to go to the other extreme - to completely destroy memorial sites associated with the presence of interventionists and White Guards in the city. “In our opinion, a balance should be maintained between the memory of both sides of the conflict, which left their mark on the history of the city. After all, in the end, the ability to accept one’s history with all its events, heroic and negative, is a prerequisite for the formation of historical memory,” - the expert notes.

The civil war in the Far East took place at a very difficult stage and, due to geographical and political reasons, had its own characteristic peculiarities:

1. 1. The civil war in the Far East was protracted. The war lasted almost 5 years and ended only in October 1922.

2. 2. The course of the war was greatly influenced by the region’s remoteness from the country’s industrial centers and its border position.

3. 3. Due to the fact that the Far East was the object of economic expansion of Japan, the USA and other countries, the social war here was closely combined with the war against the invaders.

4. 4. The civil war in the Far East exceeded the intensity and severity of the struggle in the European part of Russia. Only here were various methods and forms of defense of the revolution used. Due to specific natural, social and political conditions, the partisan movement acquired great importance here. In no other region of the country were there such a number of partisan detachments and mass voluntary participation of workers and peasants in them. The long reign of the interventionists here, accompanied by robbery and banditry, executions and executions of civilians, led to a nationwide uprising against them.

5. 5. The majority of the region's population were peasants, who for the most part were prosperous and did not experience acute land shortages. The Far Eastern peasantry was not affected by the organization of the Podkom, it did not know the policy of “war communism”, its integral part - surplus appropriation with the “seizure of surpluses”. There were no food detachments with their violent methods and actions to collect food, and there was no mass expropriation of the wealthy peasantry and Cossacks. The coastal village did not go through the agrarian revolution that the peasantry of the European regions of the country experienced throughout all the years of the revolution.

6. 6. Far Eastern industry was poorly developed, so the number of workers, the main support of Soviet power, was significantly lower here than in the center. Among the urban population, a significant stratum consisted of bureaucrats and the petty bourgeoisie.

7. 7. An important feature of the region was also the fact that here the privileged Cossacks fully retained their military organization, the wealthy part of which rented out most of their land. Along with the kulaks, the urban trading bourgeoisie, the officers of the old army and tsarist officials, the leadership of the Cossacks constituted a significant part of the counter-revolutionary forces of the region.

8. 8. One of the specific features of the civil war in the Far East was the active participation in it of representatives of various nationalities. In addition, there were a large number of prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army and Czechoslovaks. For the Bolsheviks, as well as for their opponents, it was very important which side these people would be on.

9. 9. Difficulties in organizing resistance to internal and external counter-revolution were aggravated in the Far East by the fact that the Bolshevik organizations in the region were relatively small in number and weakened by the repressions of the tsarist government. Until the end of 1917, the parties of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Anarchists still enjoyed significant influence among the peasants, intelligentsia, and students. That is why, after the Bolshevik victory in October 1917, ardent supporters of the monarchy, all anti-Soviet elements, rushed to the Far East, hoping to find salvation here and the opportunity, together with anti-Bolshevik parties, to continue the struggle against the new government.

10. 10. The intensity of the civil war intensified due to the development of large-scale white banditry and Honghuzism, which was largely specific to the region.

11. 11. Combat operations in the Far East developed mainly in the zone of the Amur and Ussuri railways. In winter, the beds of large rivers – the Amur and Ussuri – became important.

12. 12. Another feature was the creation in the Far East in 1920-1922. buffer state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER).

Periodization of war. The history of the civil war in the Far East can be divided into three periods:

1st period from April to September 1918, that is, from the landing of Japanese troops in Vladivostok until the temporary overthrow of Soviet power in the region. The period was characterized by front-line warfare and the beginning of military intervention.

2nd period from September 1918 to February - March 1920. This was the time of the struggle against the interventionists and the Kolchak regime. The main form of struggle in these years was the activity of partisan detachments, which is why the second period is often called partisan. It ended with the overthrow of Kolchak’s power in the Primorsky, Amur, Kamchatka, Sakhalin regions and in the Baikal region. In Transbaikalia, the power of Ataman Semenov was preserved (until November 1920).

3rd period from April 1920 to November 1922. It coincided with the existence of the buffer state - the Far Eastern Republic. This is a period of united actions of partisans and the regular People's Revolutionary Army of the Far East, which ended with the liberation of the Far East from interventionists and White Guards, the liquidation of the Far East and the reunification of the Far East and Soviet Russia.

After the victory of the October Revolution, the governments of the USA, Japan, and the Entente countries began to develop plans to overthrow Soviet power. Great importance was attached to the seizure of Siberia and the Far East as a springboard for the fight against the Soviet Republic. In preparation for the intervention, the governments of the Entente countries and the United States not only sought to save Russia from the Bolsheviks, but also wanted to solve their own selfish interests.

Thus, the United States for a long time persistently prepared to seize Russian territories in Siberia and the Far East, waiting only for an opportunity to carry out its plans. The widely known American historian D.F. Kennan wrote in one of his works: “The Americans (i.e. capitalists, businessmen) persistently demanded that the US government ... show special interest in the vast territory of Siberia.” The “special interest” of US monopolists in the Amur basin is also noted by D.U. Morley, author of the book "The Penetration of Japan into Siberia." The fact that the US government was preparing to carry out the territorial division of Russia is evidenced by the documents of President Wilson's personal adviser, Colonel E. House. The US Ambassador to Russia D. Francis insisted in February 1918 on the need to take Vladivostok under US control. The US government provoked Japan to act, in every possible way encouraged the Japanese military to carry out armed aggression and at the same time sought coordinated actions from its ally, which in reality meant US control. The anti-Soviet orientation of US policy was perfectly understood and fully taken into account by the Japanese militarists. They were quite happy with the American plan to recognize the need to use the Japanese army in the intervention. The Japanese government justified the need to fight against Russia on the Asian continent with its traditional policy, allegedly caused by the historical development of the country. The essence of the foreign policy concept of Japanese imperialism was that Japan should have a bridgehead on the mainland.

Russian counter-revolutionaries contributed to the outbreak of foreign intervention, hoping to overthrow Soviet power with the help of foreign troops. Thus, the Black Hundred-Cadet newspaper “Voice of Primorye” published on March 20, 1918 a message in English about the alleged beating of 10 thousand residents in Blagoveshchensk, about mass executions by Soviet authorities of citizens of the Amur region. This message was a blatant lie, designed to strengthen aggressive aspirations in Japan. After all, it was precisely this that testified to “unrest and anarchy in Russia, and what’s more, coming from the “Russian leaders” themselves, gave Japan and other countries a reason to begin intervention.”

England also actively participated in the deployment of aggression. Busy with the war against the countries of the German bloc in Europe and interested primarily in strengthening its positions in the north of European Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, it sought a speedy invasion of the Far East by Japanese-American troops. At the same time, the British ministers especially noted that the Japanese army was best prepared for immediate intervention. This opinion was especially defended by the Minister of War W. Churchill, who was an ardent supporter of the war with the Bolsheviks.

The French capitalists, who sought to create a “cordon sanitaire” around Soviet Russia and then starve Bolshevism to death, supported the internal counter-revolution by all means and prepared for military intervention. The US and French governments were the direct organizers of the counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps. It was the governments of these states that financed the rebels.

Preparations for armed intervention in the Far East were completed in the early spring of 1918. By this time, the Allied powers had finally agreed to grant the initiative to Japan, to use the Czechoslovak corps for a counter-revolutionary rebellion, and to supply the White Guards with everything necessary. And although there was a strong “rivalry between Japan and America”, as well as between other states, class enmity towards the world’s first socialist state forced them to unite and conduct a joint armed intervention.

By agreement of the governments of the United States and Japan, the latter was given freedom of action in the Far East. Japanese troops were to serve as the main striking force of the states participating in the intervention.

First period of the war. On April 4, 1918, the Japanese export-import office Ishido was attacked in Vladivostok; two Japanese were killed and one wounded. This provocation became the reason for the landing of Japanese and English troops in Vladivostok on April 5, 1918, under the pretext of ensuring the safety of their citizens. Thus, without declaring war, the intervention in the Far East began.

The landing of foreign troops intensified the activities of the internal counter-revolution. Ataman in Transbaikalia Grigory Semenov launched active military operations.

The main blow was directed at Chita. In May, a rebellion of the Ussuri Cossack army began in southern Primorye, led by Yesaul Kalmykov. In connection with this, a revolutionary headquarters was created led by the Bolshevik K. Sukhanov and formed Grodekov Front. The Soviet government managed to suppress the internal counter-revolution quite easily: defeat the detachments of Semenov in Transbaikalia and Kalmykov in Primorye.

For armed struggle in Siberia and the Far East, the interventionists decided to use the Czechoslovak corps, formed in the summer of 1917 with the permission of the Provisional Government from prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army. The Soviet government allowed the evacuation of the corps from the country. Initially, it was assumed that the Czechoslovaks would leave Russia for France through Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. But due to a change in the situation, it was decided to evacuate the corps through Vladivostok. The drama of the situation was that the first echelons arrived in Vladivostok on April 25, 1918, while the rest stretched along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway up to the Urals, the number of the corps exceeded 30 thousand people. In May–June 1918, corps troops, with the support of underground counter-revolutionary organizations, overthrew Soviet power in Siberia. On the night of June 29 there was mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps in Vladivostok, almost the entire composition of the Vladivostok Council was arrested.

On July 3, 1918, the first major battles with the White Czechs began in the Nikolsk-Ussuriysk region. On July 8, after stubborn fighting, the city was abandoned, and Soviet troops retreated to Spassk. On the line Spassk - Iman (now Dalnerechensk) was formed Ussuri Front. On July 16, 1918, Spassk had to be surrendered.

In mid-August, French, Japanese, American and British troops landed in Vladivostok to support the Czechoslovaks.

On August 22-23, 1918, in the area of the Kraevsky crossing, a united detachment of interventionists came out against Soviet units. Soviet troops were forced, after stubborn fighting, to retreat to Khabarovsk.

The threat to Soviet power in the Far East loomed not only from Vladivostok. The western group of Czechoslovaks and White Guards fought their way east. On August 25-28, 1918, the 5th Congress of Soviets of the Far East. In connection with the breakthrough of the Ussuri Front, the issue of further tactics of struggle was discussed at the congress. By a majority vote, it was decided to stop the front-line struggle and disband the Red Guard detachments in order to then organize a partisan struggle.

On October 4, 1918, Japanese and American troops entered Khabarovsk and transferred power to Ataman Kalmykov. Soviet power was overthrown in the Amur region, and Blagoveshchensk fell on September 18. Thus ended the first period of the civil war in the Far East.

The overthrow of Soviet power in the region was due to several reasons.

1. 1. The Red Army was opposed by well-armed and trained units of interventionists and White Guards.

2. 2. The middle peasantry and Cossacks allowed themselves to hesitate, and the rural poor turned out to be insufficiently organized.

3. 3. The left parties were unable to create a united front against the interventionists and the White Guards. Serious inter-party contradictions weakened the resistance forces.

4. 4. Mistakes and miscalculations of the leadership of party and military organizations of the Far East.

However, in the first period, a certain amount of experience was gained in conducting combat operations against the interventionists and the White Guards; for five months, the Far Easterners diverted their significant forces to themselves.

Second period of the war. In November 1918, the All-Russian Government of Admiral Kolchak was formed in Omsk, who declared himself the supreme ruler. The command of the Czechoslovak corps took this notice without much enthusiasm, but, under pressure from the allies, did not resist it. In fact, the relay of the armed struggle against Soviet power on Eastern Front Kolchak's army picked it up. Explaining his political platform, Kolchak stated that his immediate goal was to create a strong and combat-ready army for a “merciless and inexorable fight against the Bolsheviks.” Only after this should a National Assembly be created in Russia “for the reign of law and order in the country.” All economic and social reforms, according to Kolchak, should also be postponed until the end of the fight against the Bolsheviks.

From the first steps of its existence, the Kolchak government embarked on the path of exceptional laws, introducing the death penalty, martial law, and punitive expeditions.

However, in the territory of the Far East there was also “opposition” to the Kolchak government in the person of Ataman Semenov and Kalmykov. Semenov decided to extend his power to the Amur region and the Ussuri region, to concentrate in his hands not only military, but also civil power. The confrontation between Semyonov and Kalmykov in relation to Kolchak only intensified the violence in the region. Bloody terror came from Kalmykov, and from Semenov, and from Kolchak, and from the interventionists. All the prisons in the cities were overcrowded. In Blagoveshchensk, about 2 thousand people were arrested and imprisoned in just 20 days. Every night they were taken out in batches and shot. In November 1918, in Vladivostok, while being transferred from a concentration camp to prison, the chairman of the Vladivostok Council, K. Sukhanov, was killed. Between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok there was a “train of death” – a camp dungeon. None of those who got on this train survived. The corpses were thrown into the Amur from the railway bridge. The response to the terror on the part of the whites and the interventionists was a wave of peasant uprisings that swept throughout the Far East.

But the opposite side was just as blind in its class rage. The list of follies and crimes of the “Red Terror” is also long. The concentration of enormous power in the hands of the Cheka (created in December 1917) and the activities of the military revolutionary tribunal with unlimited powers only intensified mutual cruelty.

The scope of the “white” and “red” terror was due to: firstly, the desire of both sides for dictatorship as a method of control; secondly, the lack of democratic traditions in the country; thirdly, the devaluation of human life as a result of the world war.

In 1918, Bolshevik organizations began to be created in the occupied territory in deep underground conditions. By the end of the year, the Vladivostok Committee of the RCP (b), having established contacts with the communists of Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Nikolsk-Ussuriysk, Harbin, took over the functions of the regional organization. At the beginning of 1919, a Far Eastern Committee of the RCP (b), which included A.A. Voronin, Z.I. Sekretareva, I.M. Gubelman, S.G. Lazo and others. To work among the population, underground committees, trade unions, cooperatives, and zemstvos were used.

The main form of struggle at the second stage of the civil war in the Far East was partisan movement. From October 1918 to February 1919 there was a turn of the middle peasants towards Soviet power. Having felt the power of self-proclaimed rulers and atamans, having experienced all the horror of robberies, murders and violence of white gangs, the peasantry of the Far East decisively turned to a militant alliance with the working class under the leadership of the Bolsheviks. This turn in the mood of the peasants was expressed in mass participation in partisan detachments and material support for the Red Army.

The beginning of the organized formation of the partisan movement in the Amur region was made at the illegal congress of workers of the Khabarovsk district. A military revolutionary headquarters was formed there under the leadership DI. Boyko-Pavlova. In Primorye, to coordinate the actions of partisan detachments, a headquarters was created in the village. Anuchino, commander of all partisan forces was appointed S.G. Lazo. The number of partisans, united under a single command, was 4-5 thousand people. In the summer and autumn of 1919, partisans destroyed 350 bridges and derailed 15 military trains.

By the autumn of 1919, the partisan struggle in the Amur region intensified even more. Partisan detachments began to operate in the southern, northeastern and western directions from Khabarovsk. By the beginning of 1920, about 200 partisan groups and detachments were operating in the Far East, the number of which reached 50 thousand people. Negative factors under normal conditions: the poor population of the region, the presence of vast uninhabited territories, the lack of roads and communications, contributed to the wide scope of the partisan movement in the Far East. Partisan detachments and formations diverted a significant part of the military forces of the White Guards and interventionists.

In general, 1919 was marked not only by the scale of the partisan movement in the region, but also by mass strikes, for example, on May 21, a general political strike of miners took place demanding the withdrawal of American and Japanese troops from Primorye; in July - a general strike of railway workers of the Ussuri Railway, the Vladivostok port and other enterprises.

In 1919, the Soviet government declared the Eastern Front the main front of the civil war. During the fighting, the Red Army under the command M.V. Frunze went on the offensive and practically defeated Kolchak’s army.

Having accepted defeat, Kolchak resigned the title of supreme ruler, transferring it to Denikin. In January 1920, Kolchak was captured and shot.

The successes of the Red Army accelerated the fall of the Kolchak regime in the Far East. To overthrow Kolchak's power, the Bolsheviks of Primorye began preparing armed uprisings in the region. After lengthy discussions on the issue of struggle tactics, the Far Eastern Committee of the RCP (b) decided to refrain from proclaiming Soviet power and carry out the liquidation of Kolchakism under the slogan “All power to the Zemstvo Council.” This decision was dictated by political considerations: the transfer of power to the zemstvo deprived the interventionists of a reason for armed action.

As a result of the uprisings, Kolchak's power was liquidated on January 26, 1920 in Nikolsk-Ussuriysk, on January 31 in Vladivostok, on February 1 in Iman (Dalnerechensk).

In February - March 1920, under the blows of the united forces of partisans and rebel workers, Kolchak’s power in the Far East fell. At this time, several regional governments were formed: in Primorye, where the Japanese remained, power passed to the Primorsky Regional Zemstvo Government; in Khabarovsk - to the Khabarovsk district zemstvo government; in the Amur region, from where Japanese troops were evacuated, Soviet power was restored; in the Baikal region, with the center in Verkhneudinsk (Ulan-Ude), there was a temporary zemstvo government of the Baikal region. Only in Transbaikalia did the regime of Ataman Semenov continue to exist. Thus ended the second stage of the civil war.

The beginning of the third stage of the war. By the spring of 1920, the situation in the Far East had changed dramatically. The governments of the USA, England and France abandoned open intervention and began to withdraw their troops from the territory of the Far East. But the intervention continued with the forces of Japan, which in Primorye maintained 11 divisions numbering about 175 thousand people.

On April 5, 1920, Japanese troops suddenly moved against the revolutionary forces in Vladivostok, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Spassk, Shkotovo, Posyet and Khabarovsk. Members of the Primorsky Military Council were arrested in Vladivostok S.G. Lazo, V.M. Sibirtsev and A.N. Lutsky. At the end of May, Lazo and his associates were taken to the Muravyov-Amursky station (now Lazo) and burned in the locomotive furnace.

During this difficult period for the region, in November 1920, at the first congress of the Red Youth of Primorye, a single Komsomol organization was formed, uniting about 1,900 boys and girls. The regional committee of the RKSM was elected. Headed it Mikhail Yanshin. Komsomol members actively participated in the partisan struggle against the White Guards and interventionists. In the fierce battles for the young Far Eastern Republic, many of them accomplished feats, among them Vitaly Banevur, Ivan Derbenev, Andrei Evdanov and others.

The political situation in the south of the Far East has again reached a critical point. The Soviet government understood that Soviet Russia could not simultaneously wage a war against Poland in the west, against Denikin in the south and against Japan in the east. In order to avoid a direct collision with Japan, to alleviate the situation of the Soviet Republic, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Council of People's Commissars decided to create a buffer state in the territory from Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean - Far Eastern Republic (FER). The difficulty of creating a buffer state was that not only the revolutionary-minded, but also a significant part of the communists stood for the immediate restoration of Soviet power in the Far East. A huge amount of work was required from local party organizations to explain the need for the temporary creation of a buffer state on the eastern outskirts of the country.