Red and white army table civil war. Reds (Russian Civil War)

The Civil War is one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of the Russian people. For many decades, the Russian Empire demanded reforms. Seizing the moment, the Bolsheviks seized power in the country by killing the tsar. Supporters of the monarchy did not plan to cede influence and created the White movement, which was supposed to return the old state system. fighting on the territory of the empire changed further development country - it has become a socialist state under the rule of the communist party.

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Civil war in Russia (Russian Republic) in 1917-1922.

In short, the Civil War is a turning point that changed fate forever Russian people: its result was the victory over tsarism and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

The civil war in Russia (Russian Republic) took place between 1917 and 1922 between two opposing sides: adherents of the monarchy and its opponents - the Bolsheviks.

Features of the Civil War consisted in the fact that many foreign countries also took part in it, including France, Germany and Great Britain.

Important! The participants in the hostilities - white and red - during the Civil War destroyed the country, putting it on the verge of a political, economic and cultural crisis.

The civil war in Russia (Russian Republic) is one of the bloodiest in the 20th century, during which more than 20 million military and civilians died.

Fragmentation of the Russian Empire during the Civil War. September 1918.

Causes of the Civil War

Historians still do not agree on the causes of the Civil War, which took place from 1917 to 1922. Of course, everyone is of the opinion that the main reason is political, ethnic and social contradictions, which were never resolved during the mass protests of the Petrograd workers and military in February 1917.

As a result, the Bolsheviks came to power and carried out a number of reforms, which are considered to be the main prerequisites for the split of the country. On the this moment historians agree that The key reasons were:

  • liquidation of the Constituent Assembly;
  • way out by signing the Brest peace treaty, which is humiliating for the Russian people;
  • pressure on the peasantry;
  • nationalization of all industrial enterprises and liquidation private property, which caused a storm of discontent among people who lost their property.

Background of the Civil War in Russia (Russian Republic) (1917-1922):

  • the formation of the Red and White movement;
  • creation of the Red Army;
  • local skirmishes between monarchists and Bolsheviks in 1917;
  • execution of the royal family.

Stages of the Civil War

Attention! Most historians believe that the beginning of the Civil War should be dated 1917. Others deny this fact, since large-scale hostilities began to occur only in 1918.

Table the generally recognized stages of the Civil War are highlighted 1917-1922:

War periods Description
AT given period anti-Bolshevik centers are formed - the White movement.

Germany moves troops to the eastern border of Russia, where small skirmishes with the Bolsheviks begin.

In May 1918, an uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps takes place, against which the commander-in-chief of the Red Army, General Vatsetis, opposes. During the fighting in the fall of 1918, the Czechoslovak Corps was defeated and retreated beyond the Urals.

Stage II (late November 1918 - winter 1920)

After the defeat of the Czechoslovak Corps, the coalition of the Entente countries begins hostilities against the Bolsheviks, supporting the White movement.

In November 1918, the White Guard Admiral Kolchak launched an offensive in the East of the country. The generals of the Red Army are defeated and in December of the same year surrender key city Permian. By the forces of the Red Army at the end of 1918, the offensive of the Whites was stopped.

In the spring, hostilities begin again - Kolchak conducts an offensive towards the Volga, but the Reds stop him two months later.

In May 1919, General Yudenich was attacking Petrograd, but the Red Army forces in once more manages to stop him and force the whites out of the country.

At the same time, one of the leaders of the White movement, General Denikin, seizes the territory of Ukraine and prepares to attack the capital. The forces of Nestor Makhno begin to take part in the Civil War. In response to this, the Bolsheviks open a new front under the leadership of Yegorov.

In early 1920, Denikin's forces are defeated, forcing the foreign monarchs to withdraw their troops from the Russian Republic.

In 1920 a radical fracture occurs in the Civil War.

Stage III (May - November 1920)

In May 1920, Poland declares war on the Bolsheviks and advances on Moscow. The Red Army in the course of bloody battles manages to stop the offensive and launch a counterattack. The "Miracle on the Vistula" allows the Poles to sign a peace treaty on favorable terms in 1921.

In the spring of 1920, General Wrangel launched an attack on the territory of Eastern Ukraine, but in the autumn he was defeated, and the Whites lost Crimea.

Red Army generals win on the Western front in the Civil War - it remains to destroy the grouping of the White Guards in Siberia.

Stage IV (late 1920 - 1922)

In the spring of 1921, the Red Army begins to advance to the East, capturing Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

White continues to suffer one defeat after another. As a result, the commander-in-chief of the White movement, Admiral Kolchak, is betrayed and handed over to the Bolsheviks. A few weeks later the Civil War ends with the victory of the Red Army.

Civil War in Russia (Russian Republic) 1917-1922: briefly

In the period from December 1918 to the summer of 1919, the Reds and Whites converge in bloody battles, however until neither side gains an advantage.

In June 1919, the Reds seized the advantage, inflicting one defeat after another on the Whites. The Bolsheviks carry out reforms that appeal to the peasants, and therefore the Red Army gets even more recruits.

During this period, there is an intervention from countries Western Europe. However, none of the foreign armies manage to win. By 1920, a huge part of the army of the White movement was defeated, and all their allies left the Republic.

In the next two years, the Reds advance to the east of the country, destroying one enemy grouping after another. It all ends when the admiral and the supreme commander of the White movement, Kolchak, are taken prisoner and executed.

The results of the civil war were catastrophic for the people

Results of the Civil War 1917-1922: briefly

I-IV periods of the war led to the complete ruin of the state. The results of the Civil War for the people were catastrophic: almost all enterprises lay in ruins, millions of people died.

In the Civil War, people died not only from bullets and bayonets - the strongest epidemics raged. According to foreign historians, taking into account the reduction in the birth rate in the future Russian people lost about 26 million people.

Destroyed factories and mines brought industrial activity to a halt in the country. The working class began to starve and left the cities in search of food, usually going to the countryside. Level industrial production fell about 5 times compared to the pre-war. Production volumes of cereals and other agricultural crops also fell by 45-50%.

On the other hand, the war was aimed at the intelligentsia, who owned real estate and other property. As a result, about 80% of the representatives of the intelligentsia class were destroyed, a small part took the side of the Reds, and the rest fled abroad.

Separately, it should be noted how results of the civil war loss by the state of the following territories:

  • Poland;
  • Latvia;
  • Estonia;
  • partly Ukraine;
  • Belarus;
  • Armenia;
  • Bessarabia.

As already mentioned, main feature Civil War is intervention foreign countries . The main reason why Britain, France and others interfered in the affairs of Russia is the fear of a world socialist revolution.

In addition, the following features can be noted:

  • during the hostilities, a confrontation unfolded between various parties that saw the future of the country in different ways;
  • fighting took place between different sections of society;
  • the national liberation character of the war;
  • anarchist movement against reds and whites;
  • peasant war against both regimes.

Tachanka from 1917 to 1922 was used as a means of transportation in Russia.

Civil War- this is a period of sharp class clashes within the state between different social groups. In Russia, it began in 1918 and was the result of the nationalization of all land, the elimination of landownership, the transfer of factories and factories into the hands of the working people. In addition, in October 1917, the dictatorship of the proletariat was established.

In Russia, civil war was exacerbated by military intervention.

The main participants in the war.

In November-December 1917, the Volunteer Army was created on the Don. That's how it was formed white movement. The white color symbolized law and order. Tasks white movement: the fight against the Bolsheviks and the restoration of a united and indivisible Russia. The Volunteer Army was led by General Kornilov, and after his death in the battle near Yekaterinodar, General A.I. Denikin took command.

Established in January 1918 Red Army Bolsheviks. At first, it was built on the principles of voluntariness and on the basis of a class approach - only from workers. But after a series of serious defeats, the Bolsheviks returned to the traditional, "bourgeois" principles of army formation on the basis of universal military service and unity of command.

The third force was Green rebels", or "green army" (also "green partisans", "Green movement", "third force") - a generalized name for irregular, mainly peasant and Cossack armed formations that opposed foreign interventionists, Bolsheviks and White Guards. They had national-democratic, anarchist, and also, sometimes, goals close to early Bolshevism. The former demanded the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, while others were supporters of anarchy and free Soviets. In everyday life, there were the concepts of "red-green" (more gravitating towards red) and "white-green". Green and black, as well as a combination of both, were often used as the colors of the rebels' banners. The specific options depended on the political orientation - anarchists, socialists, etc., just a kind of "self-defense units" without pronounced political predilections.

The main stages of the war:

spring - autumn 1918 d. - rebellion of the White Czechs; the first foreign landings in Murmansk and the Far East; the campaign of the army of P. N. Krasnov against Tsaritsyn; the creation by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks of the Committee of the Constituent Assembly in the Volga region; Social Revolutionary uprisings in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Rybinsk; intensification of “red” and “white” terror; the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Defense Council in November 1918 (V. I. Lenin) and the Revolutionary Military Council (L. D. Trotsky); the proclamation of the republic as a single military camp;

autumn 1918 - spring 1919 d. - intensification of foreign intervention in connection with the end of the world war; annulment of the terms of the Brest-Litovsk peace in connection with the revolution in Germany;

spring 1919 - spring 1920 g. - performance of the armies of white generals: campaigns of A. V. Kolchak (spring-summer 1919), A. I. Denikin (summer 1919 - spring 1920), two campaigns of N. N. Yudenich against Petrograd;

April - November 1920- the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against P. N. Wrangel. With the liberation of the Crimea by the end of 1920, the main hostilities ended.

In 1922 the Far East was liberated. The country began to move to a peaceful life.

Both the “white” and “red” camps were heterogeneous. So, the Bolsheviks defended socialism, part of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries were for the Soviets without the Bolsheviks. Whites included monarchists and republicans (liberals); the anarchists (N. I. Makhno) spoke first on one side, then on the other.

From the very beginning of the Civil War, military conflicts affected almost all national outskirts, centrifugal tendencies intensified in the country.

The victory of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War was due to:

    the concentration of all forces (which was facilitated by the policy of “war communism”);

    transformation of the Red Army into a real military force led by a number of talented military leaders (due to the use of professional military specialists from among the former tsarist officers);

    the purposeful use of all the economic resources of the central part of European Russia that remained in their hands;

    support for the national outskirts and Russian peasants, deceived by the Bolshevik slogan "Land to the peasants";

    lack of general command among whites,

    support Soviet Russia from labor movements and communist parties in other countries.

Results and consequences of the Civil War. The Bolsheviks won a military-political victory: the resistance of the White Army was suppressed, Soviet power was established throughout the country, including in most national regions, conditions were created for strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat and implementing socialist transformations. The price of this victory was huge human losses (more than 15 million people were killed, died of hunger and disease), mass emigration (more than 2.5 million people), economic ruin, the tragedy of entire social groups (officers, Cossacks, intelligentsia, nobility, clergy and etc.), society's addiction to violence and terror, the break in historical and spiritual traditions, the split into reds and whites.

At the first stage of the Civil War of 1917 - 1922/23, two powerful opposing forces took shape - "red" and "white". The first represented the Bolshevik camp, whose goal was a radical change in the existing system and the construction of a socialist regime, the second - the anti-Bolshevik camp, striving to return the order of the pre-revolutionary period.

The period between the February and October revolutions is the time of the formation and development of the Bolshevik regime, the stage of accumulation of forces. The main tasks of the Bolsheviks before the outbreak of the Civil War were: the formation of a social support, transformations in the country that would allow them to gain a foothold at the top of power in the country, and protect the achievements of the February Revolution.

The methods of the Bolsheviks in strengthening power were effective. First of all, this concerns propaganda among the population - the slogans of the Bolsheviks were relevant and helped to quickly form the social support of the "Reds".

The first armed detachments of the "Reds" began to appear on preparatory stage from March to October 1917. Home driving force such detachments were workers from industrial regions - this was the main force of the Bolsheviks, which helped them come to power during October revolution. At the time of the revolutionary events, the detachment numbered about 200,000 people.

The stage of the formation of the power of the Bolsheviks required the protection of what was achieved during the revolution - for this, at the end of December 1917, the All-Russian extraordinary commission, headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. On January 15, 1918, the Cheka adopted a Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, and on January 29, the Red Fleet was created.

Analyzing the actions of the Bolsheviks, historians do not come to a consensus about their goals and motivations:

    The most common opinion is that the “Reds” initially planned a large-scale Civil War, which would be a logical continuation of the revolution. The fighting, the purpose of which was to promote the ideas of the revolution, would consolidate the power of the Bolsheviks and spread socialism throughout the world. During the war, the Bolsheviks planned to destroy the bourgeoisie as a class. So based on this, final goal"Reds" - world revolution.

    One of the admirers of the second concept is V. Galin. This version is fundamentally different from the first - according to historians, the Bolsheviks had no intention of turning the revolution into a Civil War. The goal of the Bolsheviks was to seize power, which they succeeded in the course of the revolution. But the continuation of hostilities was not included in the plans. The arguments of the fans of this concept: the transformations planned by the "Reds" demanded peace in the country, at the first stage of the struggle, the "Reds" were tolerant of other political forces. A turning point regarding political opponents occurred when in 1918 there was a threat to lose power in the state. By 1918, the "Reds" had a strong, professionally trained enemy - the White Army. Its backbone was wartime Russian Empire. By 1918, the fight against this enemy became purposeful, the army of the "Reds" acquired a pronounced structure.

At the first stage of the war, the actions of the Red Army were not successful. Why?

    Recruitment to the army was carried out on a voluntary basis, which led to decentralization and disunity. The army was created spontaneously, without a definite structure - this led to low level discipline, problems in managing a large number of volunteers. The chaotic army was characterized not high level combat capability. Only since 1918, when the Bolshevik power was under threat, did the "Reds" decide to recruit troops according to the mobilization principle. From June 1918, they began to mobilize the military of the tsarist army.

    The second reason is closely related to the first - against the chaotic, non-professional army of the "Reds" were organized, professional military, which at the time of the Civil War, participated in more than one battle. The "Whites" with a high level of patriotism were united not only by professionalism, but also by the idea - the White movement stood for a united and indivisible Russia, for order in the state.

Most characteristic Red Army - uniformity. First of all, it concerns the class origin. Unlike the "whites", whose army included professional soldiers, workers, and peasants, the "reds" accepted only proletarians and peasants into their ranks. The bourgeoisie was to be destroyed, so an important task was to prevent hostile elements from entering the Red Army.

In parallel with the hostilities, the Bolsheviks were implementing a political and economic program. Against the hostile social classes The Bolsheviks pursued a policy of "Red Terror". In the economic sphere, "war communism" was introduced - a set of measures in domestic politics Bolsheviks throughout the Civil War.

Biggest victories for the Reds:

  • 1918 - 1919 - the establishment of Bolshevik power on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia.
  • The beginning of 1919 - the Red Army goes on the counteroffensive, defeating the "white" army of Krasnov.
  • Spring-summer 1919 - Kolchak's troops fell under the blows of the "Reds".
  • The beginning of 1920 - the "Reds" ousted the "Whites" from the northern cities of Russia.
  • February-March 1920 - the defeat of the rest of the forces of Denikin's Volunteer Army.
  • November 1920 - the "Reds" ousted the "Whites" from the Crimea.
  • By the end of 1920, the "Reds" were opposed by scattered groups of the White Army. The civil war ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks.

However, from the spring - summer of 1918, a fierce political struggle began to develop into the form of an open military confrontation between the Bolsheviks and their opponents: moderate socialists, some foreign formations, the White Army, the Cossacks. The second - "front" stage of the Civil War begins, in which, in turn, several periods can be distinguished.

Summer - autumn 1918 - a period of escalation of the war.

It was caused by a change in the agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks: the introduction of a food dictatorship, the organization of committees and the incitement of class struggle in the countryside. This led to the dissatisfaction of the middle peasants and wealthy peasants and the creation of a mass base for anti-bolshevik movement, which, in turn, contributed to the consolidation of two currents: the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik "democratic counter-revolution" and the White movement. The period ends with the rupture of these forces.

December 1918 - June 1919 - the period of confrontation between the regular red and white armies.

In the armed struggle against the Soviet power, the white movement achieves the greatest success. Part of the revolutionary democracy goes to cooperate with the Soviet government. Many supporters of the democratic alternative are fighting on two fronts: with the White regime and the Bolshevik dictatorship. This period of fierce frontline war, red and white terror.

The second half of 1919 - autumn 1920 - the period of the military defeat of the White armies.

The Bolsheviks somewhat softened their position in relation to the middle peasantry, declaring at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) about "the need for a more attentive attitude to its needs - the elimination of arbitrariness on the part of local authorities and the desire for an agreement with it." wavering peasantry leaning to the side Soviet power. The stage ends with an acute crisis in relations between the Bolsheviks and the middle and prosperous peasantry, who did not want to continue the policy of "war communism" after the defeat of the main forces of the white armies.

The end of 1920 - 1922 - the period of the "small civil war".

Deployment of mass peasant uprisings against the policy of "war communism". Growing dissatisfaction with the workers and the performance of the Kronstadt sailors. At this time, the influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks again increased. The Bolsheviks were forced to retreat, to introduce a new, more liberal one.

Such actions contributed to the gradual fading of the civil war.

The first outbreaks of the Civil War.

Formation of the White movement. On the night of October 26, a group of Mensheviks and Right SRs who left the Second Congress of Soviets formed the All-Russian Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland in the City Duma and revolution. Relying on the help of the junkers of the Petrograd schools, on October 29 the committee attempted to carry out a counter-coup. But the very next day this performance was suppressed by Red Guard detachments.

A.F. Kerensky led the campaign of the corps of General P.N. Krasnov against Petrograd. On October 27 and 28, the Cossacks captured Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo, creating a direct threat to Petrograd, but on October 30, Krasnov's detachments were defeated. Kerensky fled. P. N. Krasnov was arrested by his own Cossacks, but then released on parole that he would not fight against the new government.

With great complications, Soviet power was established in Moscow. Here, on October 26, the City Duma created a Committee public safety, which had 10 thousand well-armed fighters at its disposal. Bloody battles unfolded in the city. Only on November 3, after the storming of the Kremlin by revolutionary forces, did Moscow come under the control of the Soviets.

With the help of weapons, a new government was established in the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban, and the South Urals.

At the head of the anti-Bolshevik movement on the Don stood Ataman A. M. Kaledin. He announced the insubordination of the Don Cossacks Soviet government. Everyone dissatisfied with the new regime began to flock to the Don.

However most of The Cossacks adopted a policy of benevolent neutrality in relation to the new government. And although the Decree on Land gave little to the Cossacks, they had land, but they were very impressed by the Decree on Peace.

At the end of November 1917, General M. V. Alekseev began the formation of the Volunteer Army to fight the Soviet regime. This army marked the beginning of the white movement, so named in contrast to the red - revolutionary. The white color seemed to symbolize law and order. And the participants in the white movement considered themselves to be the spokesmen for the idea of ​​restoring the former power and might of the Russian state, the “Russian state principle” and the merciless struggle against the forces that, in their opinion, plunged Russia into chaos - the Bolsheviks, as well as representatives of other socialist parties.

The Soviet government managed to form an army of 10,000, which in mid-January 1918 entered the territory of the Don. Part of the population fought on the side of the Reds. Considering his cause lost, Ataman A. M. Kaledin shot himself. Volunteer army, burdened with convoys with children, women, politicians, journalists, professors, went to the steppes, hoping to continue her work in the Kuban. On April 17, 1918, the commander of the Volunteer Army, General L. G. Kornilov, was killed near Ekaterinodar. General A.I. Denikin took command.

Simultaneously with the anti-Soviet speeches on the Don, the movement of the Cossacks began on Southern Urals. A. I. Dutov, the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, stood at its head. In Transbaikalia, the fight against the new government was led by ataman G. M. Semenov.

These uprisings against the Soviet regime, although fierce, were spontaneous and scattered, did not enjoy the mass support of the population and took place against the backdrop of a relatively quick and peaceful establishment of the power of the Soviets almost everywhere (“the triumphal march of Soviet power,” as the Bolsheviks declared). The rebel chieftains were defeated fairly quickly. At the same time, these speeches clearly indicated the formation of two main centers of resistance. In Siberia, the face of resistance was determined by the farms of wealthy peasant proprietors, often united in cooperatives with the predominant influence of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Resistance in the south was provided by the Cossacks, known for their love of freedom and commitment to a special way of economic and social life.


Intervention.

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Russian Civil War(1917-1922 / 1923) - a series of armed conflicts between various political, ethnic, social groups and state entities on the territory of the former Russian Empire, following the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks as a result of the October Revolution of 1917.

The Civil War was the result of a revolutionary crisis that struck Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907, aggravated during the World War and led to the fall of the monarchy, economic ruin, and a deep social, national, political and ideological split in Russian society. The apogee of this split was a fierce war throughout the country between the armed forces of the Soviet government and the anti-Bolshevik authorities.

White movement- military-political movement of politically heterogeneous forces, formed during the Civil War of 1917-1923 in Russia with the aim of overthrowing the Soviet regime. It included representatives of both moderate socialists and republicans, and monarchists, united against the Bolshevik ideology and acting on the basis of the principle of "Great, United and Indivisible Russia" (ideological movement of whites). The White movement was the largest anti-Bolshevik military-political force during the Russian Civil War and existed alongside other democratic anti-Bolshevik governments, nationalist separatist movements in Ukraine, the North Caucasus, the Crimea, and Basmachi in Central Asia.

A number of features distinguish the White movement from the rest of the anti-Bolshevik forces of the Civil War:

The White movement was an organized military-political movement against the Soviet government and its allied political structures, its intransigence towards the Soviet government ruled out any peaceful, compromise outcome of the Civil War.

The white movement was distinguished by the installation of priority in war time sole power over the collegial, and the military - over the civil. White governments were characterized by the absence of a clear separation of powers, representative bodies either played no role or had only advisory functions.

The White movement tried to legalize itself on a national scale, proclaiming its continuity from pre-February and pre-October Russia.

The recognition by all regional white governments of the all-Russian power of Admiral A. V. Kolchak led to a desire to achieve a commonality of political programs and coordination of military operations. The solution of agrarian, labor, national and other basic issues was fundamentally similar.

The white movement had a common symbolism: a tricolor white-blue-red flag, the official anthem "Glorious be our Lord in Zion."

Publicists and historians who sympathize with the whites name the following reasons for the defeat of the white cause:

The Reds controlled the densely populated central regions. These territories were more people than in areas controlled by whites.

The regions that began to support the Whites (for example, the Don and Kuban), as a rule, suffered more than others from the Red Terror.

The inexperience of white leaders in politics and diplomacy.

Conflicts of whites with the national separatist governments because of the slogan of "One and indivisible." Therefore, the whites repeatedly had to fight on two fronts.

Workers' and Peasants' Red Army- official species name armed forces: ground forces and the Air Force, which, together with the Red Army MS, the troops of the NKVD of the USSR (Border Troops, Internal Guard Troops of the Republic and the State Escort Guard) made up the Armed Forces of the RSFSR / USSR from February 15 (23), 1918 to February 25, 1946.

February 23, 1918 is considered to be the day of the creation of the Red Army (see Defender of the Fatherland Day). It was on this day that the mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army detachments began, created in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army", signed on January 15 (28).

L. D. Trotsky actively participated in the creation of the Red Army.

The supreme governing body of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (since the formation of the USSR - the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR). The leadership and management of the army was concentrated in the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Collegium created under it, since 1923 the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR, since 1937 the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. In 1919-1934, the Revolutionary Military Council carried out direct command of the troops. In 1934, to replace it, the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR was formed.

Detachments and squads of the Red Guard - armed detachments and squads of sailors, soldiers and workers, in Russia in 1917 - supporters (not necessarily members) of leftist parties - Social Democrats (Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and "Mezhraiontsy"), Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists, as well as detachments Red partisans became the basis of the Red Army detachments.

Initially, the main unit of the formation of the Red Army, on a voluntary basis, was a separate detachment, which was a military unit with an independent economy. At the head of the detachment was a Council consisting of a military leader and two military commissars. He had a small headquarters and an inspectorate.

With the accumulation of experience and after the involvement of military experts in the ranks of the Red Army, the formation of full-fledged units, units, formations (brigade, division, corps), institutions and institutions began.

The organization of the Red Army was in accordance with its class character and the military requirements of the early 20th century. The combined arms units of the Red Army were built as follows:

The rifle corps consisted of two to four divisions;

Division - from three rifle regiments, an artillery regiment (artillery regiment) and technical units;

Regiment - from three battalions, an artillery battalion and technical units;

Cavalry Corps - two cavalry divisions;

Cavalry division - four to six regiments, artillery, armored units (armored units), technical units.

The technical equipment of the military formations of the Red Army with fire weapons) and military equipment were basically at the level of modern advanced armed forces of that time

The USSR Law "On compulsory military service", adopted on September 18, 1925 by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, determined the organizational structure of the Armed Forces, which included rifle troops, cavalry, artillery, armored forces, engineering troops, signal troops, air and naval forces, troops of the united state political administration and escort guards of the USSR. Their number in 1927 was 586,000 personnel.