1.
Russian Revolution
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The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
2.
Red Guards (Russia)
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Red Guards were paramilitary volunteer formations consisting mainly of factory workers, peasants, cossacks and partially of soldiers and sailors for protection of the soviet power. Most of them were formed in the frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Red Guards formations were organized across most of the former Russian Empire, including territories outside of the contemporary Russian Federation such as Finland, Estonia, Ukraine and they were not centralized and were formed by decision of a local political party and local soviet members. By fighting to protect and extend the power of the soviets, they aided the creation of a new state that would give all power to the soviets, composing the majority of the urban population, they were the main strike force of several radically oriented socialist political factions. Red Guard units were created in March 1917 at manufacturing companies by Factory and Plant Committees, the Red Guards formations were based on the workers strike forces of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Red Guards refused to acknowledge any form of government that had too much power. They refused to follow the Soviet Executive because they felt the group would later serve anti-revolutionary groups, on March 26,1917 the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDRP published a resolution About the Provisional Government since then the term, Red Guards, received the widest usage. The biggest centralized Red Guards formations were created in Petrograd and Moscow, soon thereafter series attempts took place to legalize those formations. On April 14,1917 the Moscow Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party adopted a resolution for creation of its Red Guard, the Vyborg raion council of Petrograd on April 28 declared to transform the squads of workers and factory militia into the Red Guard squads. On May 17 the Samara council of representatives at its session established a commission in creation of Red Guard squads. A big role in creation of the Red Guard squads played the Factory committees, before April 1917 seventeen Russian cities have created Red Guard squads which by the June increased in numbers to 24. Red Guards were the base for the forming of the Red Army, therefore, the term is often used as just another English name for the Red Army in reference to the times of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War. In Petrograd, the head of the Red Guards was Konstantin Yurenev, at the moment of the October Revolution, the Russian Red Guards had 200,000 personnel. During the revolution, training of the Red Guards was arranged by the Military Organization of the RSDLP, enlistment was voluntary, but required recommendations from Soviets, Bolshevik party units or other public organizations. The military training of workers was performed without disengagement from the work at plants. There were both infantry and mounted regiments, at different places the organization was nonuniform in terms of subordination, head count, degree of military training. This state was often called half-partisan, while successful at local conflicts, this loose organization was inefficient when combating larger, organized forces of the White Army. Therefore, when the creation of the Red Army was decreed, Red Guards had become the Army Reserve, eduard Martynovich Dune, Notes of a Red Guard Translated by D. Koenker, S. A. Smith U
3.
Old Style
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Closely related is the custom of dual dating, where writers gave two consecutive years because of differences in the starting date of the year, or included both the Julian and Gregorian dates. Beginning in 1582, the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian in Roman Catholic countries and this change was implemented subsequently in Protestant and Orthodox countries, usually at much later dates. In England and Wales, Ireland, and the British colonies, the change of the start of the year, in Scotland, the legal start of the year had already been moved to 1 January, but Scotland otherwise continued to use the Julian calendar until 1752. When recording British history it is usual to use the dates recorded at the time of the event, but the start of the Julian year was not always 1 January, and was altered at different times in different countries. From 1155 to 1752, the civil or legal year in England began on 25 March so for example the execution of Charles I was recorded at the time in Parliament as happening on 30 January 1648. In modern English language texts this date is shown as 30 January 1649. The corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar is 9 February 1649, designation is particularly relevant for dates which fall between the start of the historical year and the official start date, where different. This was 25 March in England, Wales and the Colonies until 1752, during the years between the first introduction of the Gregorian calendar in continental Europe and its introduction in Britain, contemporary usage in England started to change. In Britain 1 January was celebrated as the New Year festival, some more modern sources, often more academic ones, also use the 1661/62 style for the period between 1 January and 25 March for years before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in England. Through enactment of the Calendar Act 1750, Britain and the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, wednesday,2 September 1752, was followed by Thursday,14 September 1752. Claims that rioters demanded Give us our eleven days out of a misinterpretation of a painting by William Hogarth. The British tax year began on Lady Day on the Julian calendar and thus became 5 April. A 12th skipped Julian leap day in 1800 changed its start to 6 April and it was not changed when a 13th Julian leap day was skipped in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins on 6 April. The European colonies of the Americas adopted the change when their mother countries did, in Alaska, the change took place after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. Friday,6 October 1867 was followed by Friday,18 October, usually, the mapping of new dates onto old dates with a start of year adjustment works well with little confusion for events which happened before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. For example, the Battle of Agincourt is universally known to have fought on 25 October 1415. Events in continental western Europe are usually reported in English language histories as happening under the Gregorian calendar, for example, the Battle of Blenheim is always given as 13 August 1704. However confusion occurs when an event involves both, for example, William III of England arrived at Brixham in England on 5 November, after setting sail from the Netherlands on 11 November, in 1688
4.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
5.
Russian Republic
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According to the Constitution, the Russian Federation is divided into 85 federal subjects,22 of which are republics. Most of the republics represent areas of ethnicity, although there are several republics with Russian majority. The indigenous ethnic group of a republic that gives it its name is referred to as the titular nationality, due to decades of internal migration inside Russia, each nationality is not necessarily a majority of a republics population. Republics differ from other subjects of Russia in that they have the right to establish their own official language and have their own constitution. Other federal subjects, such as krais and oblasts, are not explicitly given this right, the level of actual autonomy granted to such political units varies but is generally quite extensive. The parliamentary assemblies of such republics have often enacted laws which are at odds with the federal constitution, the republics executives tend to be very powerful. However, this autonomy was lessened considerably under Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addition, Putin strengthened the position of the republics legislatures, while weakening their executives power. The Presidents nomination must be accepted by the republics parliament, there are secessionist movements in most republics, but these are generally not very strong. However, there was support for secession among Tatars, Bashkirs, Yakuts. On March 18,2014, the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol were joined by treaty to the Russian Federation, much of the international community and the Ukrainian government do not recognize Crimeas accession to Russia and consider Crimea an integral part of Ukraine. After the dissolution of the USSR, each republic was succeeded by a republic with a similar name. Several autonomous oblasts have become republics as well, the expression autonomous republic is still sometimes used for the republics of Russia
6.
Russian Provisional Government
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The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Republic established immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire on 2 March 1917. The intention of the government was the organization of elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly. The provisional government lasted approximately eight months, and ceased to exist when the Bolsheviks seized power after the October Revolution in October 1917. According to Harold Whitmore Williams the history of eight months during which Russia was ruled by the Provisional Government was the history of the steady and systematic disorganisation of the army. The Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and was led first by Prince Georgy Lvov and it replaced the institution of the Council of Ministers of Russia, members of which after the February Revolution presided in the Chief Office of Admiralty. At the same time the Russian Emperor Nicholas II abdicated in favor of the Grand Duke Michael who agreed that he would accept after the decision of Russian Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Government was unable to make decisive policy decisions due to political factionalism and a breakdown of state structures. This weakness left the government open to challenges from both the right and the left. The weakness of the Provisional Government is perhaps best reflected in the nickname given to Kerensky. The authority of the Tsars government began disintegrating on 1 November 1916, Stürmer was succeeded by Alexander Trepov and Nikolai Golitsyn, both Prime Ministers for only a few weeks. During the February Revolution two rival institutions, the Imperial Duma and the Petrograd Soviet, both located in the Tauride Palace, competed for power. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on 2 March and Milyukov announced the decision to offer the Regency to his brother. Grand Duke Michael did not want to take the poisoned chalice, public announcement of the formation of the Provisional Government was made. It was published in Izvestia the day after its formation, the announcement stated the declaration of government Full and immediate amnesty on all issues political and religious, including, terrorist acts, military uprisings, and agrarian crimes etc. Freedom of word, press, unions, assemblies, and strikes with spread of political freedoms to military servicemen within the restrictions allowed by military-technical conditions, abolition of all hereditary, religious, and national class restrictions. Immediate preparations for the convocation on basis of universal, equal, secret, and direct vote for the Constituent Assembly which will determine the form of government, replacement of the police with a public militsiya and its elected chairmanship subordinated to the local authorities. Elections to the authorities of local self-government on basis of universal, direct, equal, non-disarmament and non-withdrawal out of Petrograd the military units participating in the revolution movement. Under preservation of strict discipline in ranks and performing a military service - elimination of all restrictions for soldiers in the use of rights granted to all other citizens. It also said, The provisional government feels obliged to add that it is not intended to take advantage of circumstances for any delay in implementing the above reforms
7.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
8.
All-Russian Congress of Soviets
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The All-Russian Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917 until 1936, effectively. The October Revolution ousted the government, making the Congress of Soviets the sole. It is important to note that this Congress was not the same as the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union which governed the whole Soviet Union after its creation in 1922, for the earlier portion of its life, the Congress was a democratic body. Over Russia there were hundreds of soviets, democratic local governing bodies in which the population could participate. The soviets elected the delegates to the Congress, and then in turn the Congress held the national authority, there were several political parties represented in the various sessions of the Congress, each of which fought for increasing their own influence in the soviets. The Congress was formed of representatives of city councils and the congresses of the provincial, on the other issues, the Congress and the Central Executive Committee had the same authority. The First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers and Soldiers Deputies was convened by the National Conference of the Soviets and it was dominated by pro-government parties and confirmed the supremacy of the Russian Provisional Government. There were 1090 delegates,822 with a right to vote, representing 305 workers, soldiers and peasant soviets, the breakdown of delegates by party was thus,285 Socialist-Revolutionaries,248 Mensheviks,105 Bolsheviks,32 Menshevik Internationalists, and others. The right to vote was given to these soviets containing at least 25,000 persons, on the first day of the Congress, the Socialist Revolutionaries split into two groups - the Left Social Revolutionaries and the Right Social Revolutionaries. Also on the first day, the Menshevik delegation and Right Socialist Revolutionary deputies walked out in protest,505 delegates voted in favour of the transfer of power to the Soviets. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee and Council of Peoples Commissars was elected by the Congress, naming Lenin the Chairman, uttering what are sometimes called the Land Decree and Decree on Peace. The Bolsheviks comprised 441 of the 707 delegates, on the fourth day January 13, more delegates who had been at the Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasants Deputies arrived. By the end there were 1,587 delegates, the Congress had a Praesidium composed of ten Bolsheviks and three Left Socialist-Revolutionaries with a further delegate from each other group. The Swiss, Rumanian, Swedish and Norwegian Social-Democratic parties, the British Socialist Party, the Congress received, Yakov Sverdlovs report on the activity of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Vladimir Lenins report on the activity of the Council of Peoples Commissars, joseph Stalins report from the Peoples Commissariat of Nationalities on the principles of federation and the nationalities policy for the emerging Soviet state. The Mensheviks, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Menshevik internationalists used the Congress to indicate their opposition to the domestic, the Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People was passed and this went on to become the basis of the Soviet Constitution. It was also agreed to establish the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on the basis of a union of the peoples of Russia. The Congress also approved the Decree on Land which provided the provisions of the redistribution and nationalization of land
9.
Russian Civil War
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The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russias political future. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine, the remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923. Armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934, there were an estimated 7,000, 000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen, many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and fought in the war. Several parts of the former Russian Empire—Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union shortly afterwards. After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917, Political commissars were appointed to each unit of the army to maintain morale and ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it became apparent that an army composed solely of workers would be far too small. Former Tsarist officers were utilized as military specialists, sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty, at the start of the war three-quarters of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers, a Ukrainian nationalist movement was active in Ukraine during the war. More significant was the emergence of an anarchist political and military movement known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or the Anarchist Black Army led by Nestor Makhno, some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers organizations in the cities. The Czechoslovak Legions had been part of the Russian army and numbered around 30,000 troops by October 1917 and they had an agreement with the new Bolshevik government to be evacuated from the Eastern Front via the port of Vladivostok to France. The transport from the Eastern Front to Vladivostok slowed down in the chaos, under pressure from the Central Powers, Trotsky ordered the disarming and arrest of the legionaries, which created tensions with the Bolsheviks. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks, hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle, the British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked like much of material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext began allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the United Kingdom, there were violent clashes with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks
10.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
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The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated in English as CPSU, was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks, a group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. The party was dissolved on 29 August 1991 on Soviet territory soon after a failed coup détat and was abolished on 6 November 1991 on Russian territory. The highest body within the CPSU was the party Congress, which convened every five years, when the Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body. Because the Central Committee met twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Orgburo. The party leader was the head of government and held the office of either General Secretary, Premier or head of state, or some of the three offices concurrently—but never all three at the same time. The CPSU, according to its party statute, adhered to Marxism–Leninism, a based on the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. The party pursued state socialism, under which all industries were nationalized, a number of causes contributed to CPSUs loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some historians have written that Gorbachevs policy of glasnost was the root cause, Gorbachev maintained that perestroika without glasnost was doomed to failure anyway. Others have blamed the stagnation and subsequent loss of faith by the general populace in communist ideology. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state, was established by the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the October Revolution. Immediately after the Revolution, the new, Lenin-led government implemented socialist reforms, including the transfer of estates, in this context, in 1918, RSDLP became Russian Communist Party and remained so until 1997. Lenin supported world revolution he sought peace with the Central Powers. The treaty was voided after the Allied victory in World War I, in 1921, Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy, a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialization and recovery from the Civil War. On 30 December 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire in the Soviet Union, on 9 March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him and effectively ended his role in government. He died on 21 January 1924 and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, after emerging victorious from a power struggle with Trotsky, Stalin obtained full control of the party and Stalinism was installed as the only ideology of the party. The partys official name was All-Union Communist Party in 1925, Stalins political purge greatly affected the partys configuration, as many party members were executed or sentenced for slave labour. Happening during the timespan of the Great Purge, fascism had ascened to power in Italy, seeing this as a potential threat, the Party actively sought to form collective security alliances with Anti-fascist western powers such as France and Britain
11.
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
12.
Leon Trotsky
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Trotsky initially supported the Menshevik Internationalists faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He joined the Bolsheviks just before the 1917 October Revolution, and he was, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin, Sokolnikov and Bubnov, one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution. He was a figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War. As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union from exile, on Stalins orders, he was assassinated in Mexico in August 1940 by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born Soviet agent. Trotskys ideas formed the basis of Trotskyism, a school of Marxist thought that opposes the theories of Stalinism. He was written out of the books under Stalin, and was one of the few Soviet political figures who was not rehabilitated by the government under Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s. It was not until the late 1980s that his books were released for publication in the Soviet Union and his parents were David Leontyevich Bronstein and his wife Anna Lvovna. The family was of Jewish origin, the language they spoke at home was Surzhyk, a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. Trotskys younger sister, Olga, who grew up to be a Bolshevik. Many anti-Communists, anti-semites, and anti-Trotskyists have noted Trotskys original surname, some authors, notably Robert Service, have also claimed that Trotskys childhood first name was the Yiddish Leiba. The American Trotskyist David North said that this was an apparent attempt to emphasize Trotskys Jewish origins but, contrary to Services claims and he says that it is highly improbable that the family was Jewish, as they did not speak Yiddish, the common language among eastern European Jews. Both North and Walter Laqueur in their books say that Trotskys childhood name was Lyova, when Trotsky was nine, his father sent him to Odessa to be educated in a Jewish school. He was enrolled in a German-language school, which became Russified during his years in Odessa as a result of the Imperial governments policy of Russification. As Isaac Deutscher notes in his biography of Trotsky, Odessa was then a cosmopolitan port city. This environment contributed to the development of the young mans international outlook, although Trotsky said in his autobiography My Life that he was never perfectly fluent in any language but Russian and Ukrainian, Raymond Molinier wrote that Trotsky spoke French fluently. Trotsky became involved in activities in 1896 after moving to the harbor town of Nikolayev on the Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea. At first a narodnik, he initially opposed Marxism but was won over to Marxism later that year by his future first wife, instead of pursuing a mathematics degree, Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers Union in Nikolayev in early 1897. Using the name Lvov, he wrote and printed leaflets and proclamations, distributed revolutionary pamphlets, in January 1898, more than 200 members of the union, including Trotsky, were arrested
13.
Pavel Dybenko
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Pavel Efimovich Dybenko, was a Soviet revolutionary and a leading officer. Pavel Dybenko was born in Lyudkovo village, Novozybkov uyezd, Chernigov guberniya, in 1907 he started working in the local Treasury department, but was fired as untrustworthy due to his political activities. He moved to Riga and worked as a port labourer and he tried to avoid enlisting, but was arrested and forcibly enlisted. In November 1911, he joined the Baltic Fleet, the first six months he served on the ship Dvina. The Dvina was utilized by the Navy as a vessel for the new recruits at Kronstadt. Formerly known as the Pamiat Azova its sailors were veterans of the 1906 revolutionary actions, in 1912 he joined the Bolshevik Party. In 1915, he participated in the mutiny on board of the battleship Emperor Paul I and he was imprisoned for six months and sent as an infantry soldier to the German front. There he went on with anti-war propaganda, and was imprisoned for 6 months. He was released after the February 1917 revolution, and returned to the Baltic Fleet, in April 1917, he became the leader of the Tsentrobalt. From the book Radio October. On the “Krechet” in Helsinki, radio operator Makarov hands a telegram to Pavel Dybenko with the report of the commissar, Grigoriy Borisov. The power is in the hands of the revolutionary committee and you have to immediately get in touch with the front committee of the Northern Army in order to preserve unity of forces and stability. ”)Dybenko was appointed the Peoples Commissar of naval affairs. Lenin, who knew Dybenko well enough as not to rely on him as a Navy commander, assigned to him an assistant, on February 18,1918, the German army advanced towards Petrograd. The Lenin-Trotsky government sent Dybenko to defend Petrograd by the force of the Baltic Fleet, the later communist propaganda claimed that revolutionary mariners achieved a great victory there on February 23,1918. February 23 was declared The birthday of the Red Army and this day is celebrated in Russia and Ukraine to this day as a national holiday. A special military decoration,20 years to the Soviet Army was instituted for this occasion in February 1938, however, this medal was never given to Dybenko himself. The truth is that Dybenko and his mariners fled the field, according to the memoirs of Bonch-Bruyevich, the mariners came by a barrel of pure alcohol and consumed it. Their whereabouts were unknown for at least a month, Lenin wrote in his famous article on 25 February 1918, in Pravda evening edition, A lesson humiliating but necessary, Refused to fight. Refused to defend the Narva line. failed to destroy everything as they retreated, implying that Dybenko and his mariners definitely were not an army
14.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
15.
Alexander Kerensky
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Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a Russian lawyer and key political figure in the Russian Revolution of 1917. A leader of the moderate-socialist Trudoviks faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, on 7 November, his government was overthrown by the Lenin-led Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. He spent the remainder of his life in exile, in Paris and New York City, Alexander Kerensky was born in Simbirsk on the Volga River on 4 May 1881. His father, Fyodor Kerensky, was a teacher and director of the gymnasium and was later promoted to Inspector of public schools. He subsequently embarked upon a career, in which he prospered, allowing him to move his business to Moscow. Kerenskys father was the teacher of Vladimir Ulyanov, and members of the Kerensky, in 1889, when Kerensky was eight, the family moved to Tashkent, where his father had been appointed the main inspector of public schools. Alexander graduated with honours in 1899, the same year he entered St. Petersburg University, where he studied history and philology. The next year he switched to law and he earned his law degree in 1904 and married Olga Lvovna Baranovskaya, the daughter of a Russian general, the same year. Kerensky joined the Narodnik movement and worked as a counsel to victims of the Revolution of 1905. At the end of 1904, he was jailed on suspicion of belonging to a militant group, afterwards he gained a reputation for his work as a defence lawyer in a number of political trials of revolutionaries. In 1912, Kerensky became widely known when he visited the goldfields at the Lena River and he was a brilliant orator and skilled parliamentary leader of the socialist opposition to the government of Tsar Nicholas II. According to Kerensky, Rasputin had terrorised the empress by threatening to return to his native village, Rasputin was murdered in December 1916 by monarchists and buried near the imperial residence in Tsarskoye Selo. It is likely the corpse was incinerated in the cauldrons of in the boiler shop of the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, including the coffin. Anything that had to do with Rasputin disappeared permanently, simultaneously, he became the first Minister of Justice in the newly formed Russian Provisional Government. When the Soviet passed a resolution prohibiting its leaders from joining the government, although the decision was never formalised, he was granted a de facto exemption and continued acting in both capacities. On 10 May, Kerensky started for the front and visited one division after another and his speeches were impressive and convincing for the moment, but had little lasting effect. Under Allied pressure to continue the war, he launched what became known as the Kerensky Offensive against the Austro-Hungarian/German South Army on 17 June, at first successful, the offensive was soon stopped and then thrown back by a strong counter-attack. The Russian army suffered heavy losses, and it was clear from the incidents of desertion, sabotage
16.
Pyotr Krasnov
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Pyotr Krasnov was born in 1869 in Saint Petersburg, son to lieutenant-general Nikolay Krasnov and grandson to general Ivan Krasnov. In 1888, Krasnov graduated from Pavlovsk Military School and later served in the Ataman regiment of the Life Guards, during World War I, he commanded a Cossack brigade and a division, in August–October 1917, of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. During the October Revolution, Alexander Kerensky appointed Krasnov commander of the army, however, Krasnov was defeated and taken prisoner. He was released by the Soviet authorities on the condition that he would not continue his struggle against the revolution and he agreed to this but reneged on his promise to do so. Krasnov fled to the Don region and in May 1918, in Novocherkassk, was elected Ataman of the Don Cossack Host, with support from Germany, he equipped the army, which would oust the Soviets from the Don region in May–June 1918. By the middle of June, a Don Army was in the field with 40,000 men,56 guns and 179 machine-guns, in the second half of 1918, Krasnov advanced towards Povorino-Kamyshin-Tsaritsyn, intending to march on Moscow, but was defeated. After Germanys defeat in World War I, he set his sights on the Entente powers in his search for allies, in January 1919, Krasnov was forced to acknowledge General Denikins authority over the White movement, despite animosity towards him. On February 19,1919, Krasnov fled to Western Europe after losing the election for the office of Don Ataman, arriving first in Germany, he moved to France in 1923, where he continued his anti-Soviet activities. In France Krasnov was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth, in exile, Krasnov wrote memoirs and several novels. His famous trilogy From Double Eagle To the Red Flag, in addition to the plot, with its hero, General Sablin, has several sub-plots which encompass many places, events. It presents a vast panorama of the Revolution and the Civil War throughout the country, events are revealed through the fates of many characters, who, in turn, give their own interpretations of the events. Even the revolutionaries have an opportunity to express their views, although, in general, the ideology of the book is thus presented polyphonically. The author, although he tends to align himself with his characters, offers no personal opinion of his own. All major themes, such as authority vs. anarchy, respect for human dignity vs. violence, creative work vs. destruction, as well as cruelty, krasnovs novels were translated into English, German, French, Serbian and other European languages. During World War II, Krasnov continued his German orientation by seeking an alliance with Nazi Germany and he agreed to organize and head Cossack units out of White emigres and Soviet prisoners of war, to be armed by the Nazis. The Nazis, in turn, expected Krasnov to follow their political line, in November 1944, Krasnov refused the appeal of General Andrei Vlasov to join the latters Russian Liberation Army. At the end of the war, Krasnov and his men surrendered to British forces in Austria. All of them were promised upon surrender by Major Davis that they, as White Russian emigres, on May 28,1945, Pyotr Krasnov was handed over to the Soviets by the British authorities during Operation Keelhaul
17.
February Revolution
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The February Revolution, known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution was the first of two Russian revolutions in 1917. The revolution centered on Petrograd, then the Russian capital, arguably beginning on 8 March, Revolutionary activity was largely confined to the capital and its vicinity, and lasted about eight days. It involved mass demonstrations and armed clashes with police and gendarmes, on 12 March mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later the result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, Russian Council of Ministers was replaced by a Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov. The revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, bread rioters primarily women in bread lines, and industrial strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected soldiers from the citys garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, in all, over 1,300 people were killed in the protests of February 1917. A number of factors contributed to the downfall of the Imperial government in the spring of 1917, different historians apply different weights to different factors, liberal historians emphasise the turmoil created by the war, whereas Marxists emphasise the inevitability of change. Rabinowitch summarizes the main long-term and short-term causes, The February 1917 revolution, despite its occurrence at the height of World War I, the roots of the February Revolution date much further back. As historian Richard Pipes writes, the incompatibility of capitalism and autocracy struck all who gave thought to the matter. The first major event of the Russian Revolution was the February Revolution, dissatisfaction of proletarians was compounded by food shortages and military failures. Widespread strikes, riots and the mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin ensued. These conditions caused much agitation among the working and professional classes. This tension erupted into revolt with the 1905 Revolution, and again under the strain of war in 1917. The revolution was provoked by Russian military failures during the First World War, the economic challenges faced due to fighting a total war also contributed. In August 1914, all supported and virtually all political deputies voted in favour of the war. The exceptions included the Bolshevik Party and specifically Vladimir Lenin who argued it was not a war fighting. The declaration of war was followed by a revival of nationalism across Russian society, nearly six million casualties—dead, wounded and missing—had been accrued by January 1917
18.
April Crisis
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The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Republic established immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire on 2 March 1917. The intention of the government was the organization of elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly. The provisional government lasted approximately eight months, and ceased to exist when the Bolsheviks seized power after the October Revolution in October 1917. According to Harold Whitmore Williams the history of eight months during which Russia was ruled by the Provisional Government was the history of the steady and systematic disorganisation of the army. The Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and was led first by Prince Georgy Lvov and it replaced the institution of the Council of Ministers of Russia, members of which after the February Revolution presided in the Chief Office of Admiralty. At the same time the Russian Emperor Nicholas II abdicated in favor of the Grand Duke Michael who agreed that he would accept after the decision of Russian Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Government was unable to make decisive policy decisions due to political factionalism and a breakdown of state structures. This weakness left the government open to challenges from both the right and the left. The weakness of the Provisional Government is perhaps best reflected in the nickname given to Kerensky. The authority of the Tsars government began disintegrating on 1 November 1916, Stürmer was succeeded by Alexander Trepov and Nikolai Golitsyn, both Prime Ministers for only a few weeks. During the February Revolution two rival institutions, the Imperial Duma and the Petrograd Soviet, both located in the Tauride Palace, competed for power. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on 2 March and Milyukov announced the decision to offer the Regency to his brother. Grand Duke Michael did not want to take the poisoned chalice, public announcement of the formation of the Provisional Government was made. It was published in Izvestia the day after its formation, the announcement stated the declaration of government Full and immediate amnesty on all issues political and religious, including, terrorist acts, military uprisings, and agrarian crimes etc. Freedom of word, press, unions, assemblies, and strikes with spread of political freedoms to military servicemen within the restrictions allowed by military-technical conditions, abolition of all hereditary, religious, and national class restrictions. Immediate preparations for the convocation on basis of universal, equal, secret, and direct vote for the Constituent Assembly which will determine the form of government, replacement of the police with a public militsiya and its elected chairmanship subordinated to the local authorities. Elections to the authorities of local self-government on basis of universal, direct, equal, non-disarmament and non-withdrawal out of Petrograd the military units participating in the revolution movement. Under preservation of strict discipline in ranks and performing a military service - elimination of all restrictions for soldiers in the use of rights granted to all other citizens. It also said, The provisional government feels obliged to add that it is not intended to take advantage of circumstances for any delay in implementing the above reforms
19.
July Days
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The Bolsheviks initially attempted to prevent the demonstrations and then decided to support them. The Bolsheviks intended to hold peaceful demonstrations, Lenin went into hiding, while other leaders were arrested. The outcome of the July Days represented a decline in the growth of Bolshevik power. On 16 July spontaneous demonstrations broke out in Petrograd and they were started by the soldiers of the 1st Machine-gun Regiment, who were influenced by the anarchists. At a secret conference on 15 July the anarchists had decided to summon the workers and soldiers of Petrograd to an anti-government demonstration, the machine gunners appeal met a favorable response from the soldiers of the Moscow, Pavlovsky, Grenadiers, and 1st Reserve regiments. These units marched out in a demonstration under the slogan All Power to the Soviets, the leadership of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, dominated by Mensheviks and SRs, forbade the demonstration. The Bolsheviks decided to provide leadership to the movement in order to give it an organized, on the afternoon of 17 July there was a peaceful demonstration by 500,000 workers, soldiers, and sailors under the slogan All Power to the Soviets. Anti-government demonstrations were held in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk. The military authorities sent troops against the demonstration, leaving more than 700 people killed and wounded, the SRs and Mensheviks supported punitive measures against the insurgents. They began to disarm workers, disband revolutionary military units, on 18–19 July the offices and printing plant of Pravda and the headquarters of the Bolshevik Central Committee were destroyed. On 19 July the Provisional Government issued an order for the arrest of Lenin, on 20 July troops loyal to the regime arrived in Petrograd from the front. The demands which the workers and soldiers took to the streets with in the July Days were influenced by the Bolsheviks, All Power to the Soviets and other slogans put forth by the Bolsheviks were taken up by the workers and soldiers on the streets. The demonstration was organized by the Bolshevik Military Organization without initial authorization from the Central Committee after pressure from rank, the Party gave temporary support for the protesters before efforts at the Soviet started to falter. During the afternoon of 16 July, the Central Committee, urged by Kamenev, Trotsky, both Trotsky and Zinoviev persistently argued for the street protests to remain peaceful. No public record was made of the internal debates of the Bolshevik Party around the July Days. There were some within the Bolshevik Party who advocated an intensification of activity on 17 July, others in the Bolshevik Party, including Lenin, were split on what to do. Kerensky ordered the arrest of Lenin and the other leading Bolsheviks and they remained in prison until Kerensky released them in response to the Kornilov Affair. The government crisis was intensified by the resignation of Prime Minister Lvov, on 21 July, Kerensky became prime minister
20.
Kornilov affair
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The affair was initiated when Kerensky requested that Kornilov move forces loyal to the Provisional Government into Petrograd to counter the threat of the radical Petrograd garrison. Kornilov then marched on Petrograd intent on purging the Provisional Government of revolutionary elements, the Government passed legislation that led even Lenin, one of its harshest critics, to declare Russia the freest of all the belligerent countries. The demonstrations during the July Days sparked calls for a need for more discipline, officers of the Russian Army, Kornilov amongst them, led these calls. The officers feared that ill-discipline amongst their troops accounted for the poor performance of the Russian army during the First World War. They demanded the reintroduction of the penalty at the front line as well as the abolition of the various soldiers committees that had sprung up in the months following February. Unease also escalated amongst Russias businessmen and industrialists, whilst even amongst the politicians who formed the Provisional Government support for the restoration of order was strong. Shortly after the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917, Kornilov managed to escape from Bykhov and went to establish the Volunteer Army and he was killed in battle against Bolshevik forces in the town of Ekaterinodar in April 1918. Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of the Kornilov Affair were the Bolshevik Party, though these weapons were not needed to fight off Kornilovs advancing troops in August, they were kept by the Bolsheviks and used in their own successful armed insurrection of October 1917. Bolshevik support amongst the Russian public also increased following the Kornilov affair, another important consequence of the Kornilov Affair is that it severed the tie between Kerensky and the military. When the Bolsheviks staged their revolution in October 1917 Kerensky appealed to the military to defend the government from the insurrection. Several schools of thought surrounding the Kornilov Affair offer contrasting interpretations and have provoked debate among historians, one take on the Kornilov Affair was put forward by Aleksandr Kerensky himself, the main target of the coup. Kornilov, argued Kerensky, was drawn into this long after the preparatory work had been completed. In a 1966 interview with Soviet journalist Genrikh Borovik, Kerensky expressed the view that Winston Churchill had played a role in the conspiracy. In his 1970 work, The Kornilov Affair, A Reinterpretation, Harvey Asher suggests that Kerensky and Kornilov had an agreement to use the military to restore order within Russia. Asher then goes onto argue that, upon learning that Kornilov favoured the idea of a military dictatorship from Lvov, another interpretation of the Kornilov affair is that it was the result of a misunderstanding between Kerensky and Kornilov, caused by the interference of Vladimir Lvov. The American historian Richard Pipes put forward another interpretation of the event in his work The Russian Revolution, a Peoples Tragedy, The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. The Kornilov Revolt, A Critical Examination of Sources and Research, westwood, J. N. Endurance and Endeavour, Russian History 1812–1992. Katkov, G. Russia 1917, The Kornilov Affair
21.
Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks
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They were led or supported by left-wing groups such as some factions of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and anarchists. The uprisings started in 1918 and continued during and after the Civil War until around 1924, the Bolsheviks increasingly abandoned attempts to invite these groups to join the government and instead suppressed them with force. The Bolsheviks called the war an interimperialist war and called for the defeat of their own imperialist government. Within the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionists, there did exist factions that opposed the war and the government. In the July Days of 1917, the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties supported suppression of the Bolsheviks, the Bolshevik Party came to power in the October Revolution of November 1917 through simultaneous election in the most prominent soviets and an organized uprising supported by military mutiny. Several of the reasons for which much of the population supported the Bolsheviks were to end the war and have a social revolution, exemplified by the slogan Peace, Land. The Bolsheviks invited Left SRs and Martovs Menshevik Internationalists to join the government, the Mensheviks and Right SRs walked out. The Left SRs were given four Commissar positions and held posts within the Cheka. The Left SRs still diverged with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the war, the only party banned at first was the pogromist Union of the Russian People, generally known as The Black Hundreds. The White Russian general Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin immediately started a rebellion of the Don Cossacks and this was the beginning of the White Movement and Russian Civil War, which would lead to the deaths of nearly ten million people. The Bolsheviks were willing to use whatever means necessary to win as fast as possible and they portrayed rebellions started during the civil war as helping the Whites. Kaledin was supported by the Kadets, SRs, and some Mensheviks, Anarchists, like the Socialist Revolutionaries, were divided. Some supported the Bolsheviks, holding positions in the government, some were neutral. The Constituent Assembly had been a demand of the Bolsheviks against the Provisional Government, after the October Revolution the elections were run by the body appointed by the previous Provisional Government. It was based on universal suffrage, but used party lists from before the Left-Right SR split, the anti-soviet Right SRs took the majority of the seats but this reflected the opposite of reality, the majority of SRs and the people were pro-soviet. Lenins Theses on the Constituent Assembly argued in Pravda that because of conflicts, conflicts with Ukraine. He argued the Constituent Assembly must unconditionally accept sovereignty of the government or it would be dealt with by revolutionary means. On December 30,1917, the SR Nikolai Avksentiev and some followers were arrested for organizing a conspiracy and this was the first time Bolsheviks used this kind of repression against a socialist party
22.
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
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The Allied intervention was a multi-national military expedition launched during the Russian Civil War in 1918. The initial goals were to help the Czechoslovak Legion, secure supplies of munitions and armaments in Russian ports, after winning World War I, the Allies militarily backed the anti-Bolshevik White forces in Russia. Allied efforts were hampered by divided objectives, war-weariness after they just finished greater conflict, in 1917, Russia was in a state of political strife, public support for war and the Tsar was dwindling. The country was on the brink of revolution, the Provisional Government pledged to continue fighting the Germans on the Eastern Front. The Allies had been shipping supplies to Russia since the beginning of the war in 1914 through the ports of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, in 1917, the United States entered the war on the Allied side. US President Woodrow Wilson dropped his reservations about joining the war with a monarch as an ally, the war became unpopular with the Russian populace. Political and social unrest increased, with the revolutionary Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin gaining widespread support, large numbers of common soldiers either mutinied or deserted the Imperial Russian Army. During the June 18 offensive, the Russian Army was defeated by the German and Austro-Hungarian forces as a result of a counter-attack and this led to the collapse of the Eastern Front. The demoralised Russian Army was on the verge of mutiny and most soldiers had deserted the front lines, Kerensky replaced Aleksei Brusilov with Lavr Kornilov as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Kornilov attempted to set up a dictatorship by staging a coup in late August 1917. He had the support of the British military attaché, Brigadier-General Alfred Knox, Kerensky also claimed Lord Milner wrote him a letter expressing support for Kornilov. A British armoured car squadron commanded by Oliver Locker-Lampson and dressed in Russian uniforms participated in the failed coup, in 1917, the October Revolution led to the overthrow of Kerenskys provisional government, and the Bolsheviks assuming power. Five months later, on March 3, the newly formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and this still however did not permit the redeployment of German soldiers to the Western Front, where the British and French armies were awaiting American reinforcements. The Czechoslovak Legion was at times in control of most of the Trans-Siberian railway, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ensured that prisoners-of-war would be transferred to and from each country. Austro-Hungarian prisoners were of a number of nationalities, some Czechoslovak POWs deserted to the Russian Army. Czechoslovaks had long desired to create their own independent state, the Czechoslovak Legions travelled via the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok. However, fighting between the Legions and the Bolsheviks erupted in May 1918, other concerns regarded the potential destruction of the Czechoslovak Legions and the threat of Bolshevism, the nature of which worried many Allied governments. Meanwhile, Allied matériel in transit quickly accumulated in the warehouses in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, Estonia had established a national army with the support of Finnish volunteers and were defending against the 7th Red Armys attack
23.
Siberian Intervention
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The Imperial Japanese Army continued to occupy Siberia even after other Allied forces withdrew in 1920. Following the Russian October Revolution of 1917, the new Bolshevik government signed a treaty with Germany. Faced with these concerns, the United Kingdom and France decided on military intervention in the Russian Civil War against the Bolshevik government. In the same month, the Beiyang government of the Republic of China accepted an invitation by the Chinese community in Russia, the Chinese later occupied Outer Mongolia and Tuva and sent a battalion to the North Russian Campaign as part of their anti-Bolshevik efforts. The British, short on personnel, only deployed 1,500 troops to Siberia and these men came from the 1/9th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and the 25th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. The Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force, commanded by Major General James H. Elmsley, composed of 4,192 soldiers, the force returned to Canada between April and June 1919. Most Canadians remained in Vladivostok, undertaking routine drill and policing duties in the port city. At the request of Chinese merchants,2300 Chinese troops were sent to Vladivostok to protect Chinese interests there, the Chinese army fought against both Bolsheviks and Cossacks. The Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Estremo Oriente was made of Alpini troops, supported by 2,500 Italian ex-POWs who had fought in the Austro-Hungarian Army, the main areas of operation were the Irkutsk, Harbin and Vladivostok regions. The Japanese were initially asked in 1917 by the French to intervene in Russia, the Japanese government in the beginning refused to undertake such an expedition and it was not until the following year that events were set in motion that led to a change in this policy. Once the political decision had been reached, the Imperial Japanese Army took over full control under Chief of Staff Yui Mitsueh, the American Expeditionary Force Siberia was commanded by Major General William S. Graves and eventually totaled 7,950 officers and enlisted men. The AEF Siberia included the U. S. Armys 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments, plus large numbers of volunteers from the 13th, to operate the Trans-Siberian railroad, the Russian Railway Service Corps was formed of US personnel. Although General Graves did not arrive in Siberia until September 4,1918 and they were quickly assigned guard duty along segments of the railway between Vladivostok and Nikolsk-Ussuriski in the north. The joint Allied intervention began in August 1918, the Japanese entered through Vladivostok and points along the Manchurian border with more than 70,000 Japanese troops being involved. The deployment of a force for a rescue expedition made the Allies wary of Japanese intentions. On September 5, the Japanese linked up with the vanguard of the Czechoslovak Legion, the Japanese, with their own objectives in mind, refused to proceed west of Lake Baikal and stayed behind. The Americans, suspicious of Japanese intentions, also stayed behind to keep an eye on the Japanese, by November, the Japanese occupied all ports and major towns in the Russian Maritime Provinces and in Siberia east of the city of Chita. With the end of the war in Europe, the Allies decided to support the anti-Bolshevik White forces, Allied army support was given to Admiral Kolchaks White government at Omsk, while the Japanese continued to support Kolchaks rivals in Grigory Semyonov and Ivan Kalmykov
24.
North Russia Intervention
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The intervention brought about the involvement of foreign troops in the Russian Civil War on the side of the White movement. The campaign lasted from 1918, during the months of World War I. In March 1917, after the abdication of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the formation of a democratic government in Russia. The U. S. government declared war on the German Empire in April after learning of the attempt to persuade Mexico to join the Central Powers. The Russian Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky, pledged to continue fighting Imperial Germany on the Eastern Front, in return, the U. S. began providing economic and technical support to the Russian provisional government, so they could carry out their military pledge. The Russian offensive of 18 June 1917, was crushed by a German counteroffensive, the Russian Army was plagued by mutinies and desertions. Allied war materiel still in transit quickly began piling up in warehouses at Arkhangelsk, anxious to keep Russia in the war, the Royal Navy established the British North Russia Squadron under Admiral Kemp. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, came to power in October 1917, five months later, they signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, which formally ended the war on the Eastern Front. This allowed the German army to begin redeploying troops to the Western Front, faced with these events, the leaders of the British and French governments decided the western Allies needed to begin a military intervention in North Russia. The British 6th Battalion Royal Marines Light Infantry was scratched together from a company of the Royal Marine Artillery, very few of their officers had seen any land fighting. Their original purpose had been only to deploy to Flensburg to supervise a vote to decide whether northern Schleswig-Holstein should remain German or be given to Denmark, many of the Marines were less than 19 years old, it would have been unusual to send them overseas. Others were ex-prisoners of war who had recently returned from Germany and had no home leave. There was outrage when on short notice, the 6th Battalion was shipped to Murmansk, Russia, on the Arctic Ocean, still not expecting to have to fight, the battalion was ordered forward under army command to hold certain outposts. A British Royal Air Force contingent comprising Airco DH.4 bombers, Fairey Campania, opposing this international force was the Seventh and Eighth Red Army, the Army of the North West, which was poorly prepared for battle in May 1918. In September 1918, the Allies took Obozerskaya, around 100 miles south of Archangel, during the attack, the RAF provided air support to the advancing Allied infantry, conducting bombing and strafing runs. The attack on the village was disorganized and resulted in three Marines killed and 18 wounded, including the commander who had ineffectually led the attack himself. A week later, B and C companies, led this time by a major, made a second attempt to take Koikori. The British were again repulsed at Koikori, the major was killed
25.
Battle of Bolshie Ozerki
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The Battle of Bolshie Ozerki was a major engagement fought during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Beginning on March 31,1919, a force of British, American, Polish, although the initial Allied attacks were repelled, the outnumbered Allies managed to repel the Soviet flanking attempts that followed and the Red Army was later ordered to withdraw. The battle was the last engagement of the intervention to involve British forces, Allied forces began to withdraw rapidly from northern Russia shortly thereafter. Bolshie Ozerki was a village situated between the port city of Onega and an important Allied position at Obozerskaya Station, along the Arkhangelsk-Vologda railroad. Because the port of the main Allied base at Arkhangelsk froze every winter, reinforcements had to be brought overland to the front line from the port of Murmansk, which did not freeze. After destroying the British column and taking control of the railroad, the Red Army would then proceed by clearing the way to Arkhangelsk, several skirmishes occurred at Bolshie Ozerki immediately before the main battle, which began on March 31. The first occurred on March 17, when a Red Army ski detachment led by Osip Palkin reconnoitered the villages defenses, stealthily, the Reds captured two sentries and learned the precise locations of the Allied positions. On the following day the Allies launched an abortive counterattack, samoilo issued orders for the 6th Army to resume offensive operations on March 25, but the Red Army commander-in-chief, Colonel Ioakim I. Vatsetis, countermanded it because of the severe frost, waist-deep snow, which prevented the Allies from charging, and heavy enemy machine gun fire repulsed the attack. Simultaneously,300 White Russians and between 40 and 80 British soldiers assaulted the eastern approaches along the road, also foundering in the face of effective enemy withering fire, Company E, 339th Infantry attempted to flank the enemy defenses by skirting through the forest north of the road. However, the movement required the unit to cover three miles of snow-covered forest in four hours time, exhausted from already marching ten miles and hampered by awkward Shackleton boots, the Americans failed to traverse the forest in time and were ordered to return. The Allies lost about 75 men as result of the two attacks, General Edmund Ironside, who had personally taken command in the sector, ordered an artillery bombardment of Bolshie Ozerki. With the village destroyed by March 25, General Ironside returned to Arkhangelsk. Despite the weather, both continued to bring up reinforcements. The Allies constructed a series of blockhouses, log barricades, and troop shelters at a site about 4 miles east of the village on the road to Obozerskaya. By the end of March, the Allies had brought up all of their artillery from their railroad. A Soviet artillery battery of 4. 2-inch guns had been hauled into position over 37 miles at the cost of uncounted dead horses. At about 8,30 AM on the morning of March 31,1919, three battalion of the 2nd Moscow Regiment then flanked the Allies from the north and attempted to capture two 75 mm guns
26.
Finnish Civil War
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The Finnish Civil War concerned leadership and control of Finland during the transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state. The conflict formed a part of the national, political, the war was fought between the Reds, led by the Social Democratic Party and the Whites, conducted by the non-socialist, conservative-led senate. The paramilitary Red Guards, composed of industrial and agrarian workers, controlled the cities, the paramilitary White Guards, composed of peasants and middle-class and upper-class factions, controlled rural central and northern Finland. Finnish society had experienced population growth, industrialization, pre-urbanization. World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia. A counteroffensive by the Whites began in March, reinforced by an Imperial German Army squad in April, both the Reds and Whites engaged in political terror. A high number of Red POWs died due to malnutrition and disease, altogether, around 39,000 people -36,000 Finns - perished in the conflict. In the aftermath, the Finns passed from Russian government to the German power sphere with a plan to establish German-led Finnish monarchy, the outline was aborted by the defeat of Germany in World War I. Finland emerged as an independent, democratic republic, the main factor behind the Finnish Civil War was World War I, the Russian Empire collapsed under the pressures of the war, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917. The breakdown caused a power vacuum and subsequent power struggle in Eastern Europe. The Grand Duchy of Finland, a part of the Russian Empire since 1809, geopolitically less important than the continental Moscow-Warsaw gateway, the northerly Finnish ground, isolated by the Baltic sea was a peaceful sidefront until early 1918. The war between the German Empire and Russia had indirect effects on the Finns, the German Empire saw Eastern Europe - primarily Russia - as a major source of vital products and raw materials, both during World War I and in the future. Between 30 and 40 million marks were spent on this endeavor, controlling the Finnish area would allow the Imperial German Army to penetrate Petrograd and the Kola Peninsula, an area rich in raw materials for the mining industry. Finland possessed large ore reserves and a well-developed forest industry, russias defeat in the Crimean War in the 1850s led to attempts to speed up the modernization of the country. This caused more than 50 years of economic, industrial, cultural and educational progress in the Grand Duchy of Finland, in 1899, the Russian Empire initiated a policy of integration through the Russification of Finland. In the power struggle, the most radical political group opposing Russia, the Activist movement, included terrorist factions from the working class and the Swedish-speaking intelligentsia. The major reasons for rising tensions among the Finns were the autocratic rule of the Russian Czar. The system originated in the Swedish Empire regime, preceding the Russian power, Finlands population grew rapidly in the 19th century, and a class of industrial and agrarian workers and property-less peasants emerged
27.
Heimosodat
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The term in Finnish historiography heimosodat has been translated literally into English as Kindred Nations Wars, Wars for kindred peoples or Kinship Wars, specifically Finnic kinship. It is sometimes translated as Tribal Wars. It refers to conflicts in territories inhabited by other Baltic Finnic peoples, many of the volunteer soldiers were inspired by the idea of Greater Finland. Some of the conflicts were incursions from Finland and some were local uprisings, Estonian War of Independence Pohjan pojat and I Suomalainen Vapaajoukko helped Estonian troops. Other Finnic peoples were at an organized level of cultural, economic. The Finnish Civil War had awakened strong nationalistic feelings in Finnish citizens and other Finnic peoples, for the two next decades, Finns participated at a relatively high rate in nationalistic activities. This development was related to the traumatization and divisiveness of the Civil War, many of the White sympathizers in the Civil War became radically nationalistic as a result of the war. The strenuous five-year period 1939–45 of total war—which also mostly unified the nation—drained this excess of enthusiasm, heimo Tribe or clan, but in this context, also the ethnic and language kinship between Finnic peoples, kindred peoples. Somewhat comparable to the German concept of Völkisch, sukukansa People that are linguistically and/or ethnically kin to another, suku means family and kansa means people. Finnish Civil War List of Finnish wars Treaty of Tartu Winter war Continuation War War Victims of Finland 1914–1922
28.
Estonian War of Independence
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It was fought in connection with the Russian Civil War during 1918–1920. The campaign was the struggle of Estonia for its sovereignty in the aftermath of World War I and it resulted in a victory for the newly established state and was concluded in the Treaty of Tartu. Soon thereafter, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Estonian Provincial Assembly and temporarily forced the pro-independence Estonians underground in the capital Tallinn and this first period of independence was extremely short-lived, as the German troops entered Tallinn on the following day. The German authorities recognized neither the government, nor its claim for Estonias independence. In late November 1918, Soviet forces moved against Estonia, on 28 November 1918, the 6th Red Rifle Division struck the border town of Narva, which marked the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence. The town was defended by men of the Estonian Defence League, the Reds captured Narva on 29 November, and the Infanterie-Regiment Nr.405 withdrew westwards. The Soviet 2nd Novgorod Division opened a front south of Lake Peipus, with 7,000 infantry,12 field guns,50 machine guns. Estonian military forces at the time consisted of 2,000 men with light weapons, the end of November 1918 saw the formation of the Baltic Battalion, primarily a mounted machine-gun company plus infantry. This contrasts with the Baltische Landeswehr in Latvia, the 49th Red Latvian Rifle Regiment took the Valga railway junction on 18 December and the city of Tartu on Christmas Eve. Also on Christmas Eve, the 6th Red Rifle Division captured the Tapa railway junction, Estonian Bolsheviks declared the Estonian Workers Commune in Narva. By the end of the year, the 7th Red Army controlled Estonia along the front line 34 kilometers east of Tallinn, west from Tartu, Colonel Johan Laidoner was appointed Commander in chief of the Estonian armed forces. He recruited 600 officers and 11,000 volunteers by 23 December 1918, the national government obtained foreign assistance. On 5 December, Finland delivered 5,000 rifles and 20 field guns along with ammunition. A British Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair arrived at Tallinn on 31 December, and delivered 6,500 rifles,200 machine guns, and two field guns. The squadron captured two Russian destroyers, Spartak and Avtroil, and turned them over to Estonia, which renamed them Vambola, on 2 January, Finnish volunteer units with 2,000 men arrived in Estonia. Three armored trains were built in Tallinn under the command of Captain Anton Irv, by the beginning of 1919, the Estonian Army had increased its ranks to a total of 13,000 men, with 5,700 on the front facing 8,000 Soviets. The strengthened Estonian Army stopped the 7th Red Armys advance in its tracks between 2 and 5 January 1919 and went on the counter-offensive on 7 January, Tapa was liberated two days later in a campaign highlighted by the implementation of the highly successful soomusrongid. This turn of events was followed by the liberaton of the sizable town of Rakvere on 12 January
29.
Latvian War of Independence
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The war involved Latvia against the Russian SFSR and the Bolsheviks short-lived Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic. Germany and the Baltic nobility added another level of intrigue, initially being nominally allied to the Nationalist/Allied force, eventually tensions flared up after a German coup against the Latvian government, leading to open war. Following a cease-fire, the Germans developed a ploy, nominally dissolving into the West Russian Volunteer Army led by Gen. Pavel Bermont-Avalov, certain episodes of the Latvian Independence War were also part of the Polish-Soviet War, particularly the Battle of Daugavpils. 11 November, The German Empire and Allies of World War I sign the armistice, the British Empire recognizes de facto independence of Latvia. 17 November, The first legislative institution of Latvia, the Peoples Council, Jānis Čakste becomes the chairman of the People’s Council, while Kārlis Ulmanis becomes prime minister. 18 November, Republic of Latvia is proclaimed in Riga,28 November, The Regency Council of the United Baltic Duchy dissolved. 1 December, The Red Army invades Latvia,17 December, The government of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic, headed by Pēteris Stučka, is formed in Russia. 5 January, The first armed unit of Latvia—the 1st Latvian Independent Battalion, the provisional government retreats from Jelgava to Liepāja. 31 January, Most of Latvia is under the control of the Red Army,18 February, Agreement is signed between Estonia and Latvia, starting formation of North Latvian Brigade led by Jorģis Zemitāns on Estonian territory. 3 March, United German and Latvian forces commence counterattack against the forces of Soviet Latvia,6 March, Oskars Kalpaks, commander of all Latvian forces subordinated to German headquarters, is killed by German friendly fire. He is replaced by Jānis Balodis,10 March, Saldus comes under Latvian control. 21 March, 1st Latvian Independent Battalion is reformed into the Latvian Independent Brigade,16 April, The puppet Latvian Government established by the Baltic nobility organizes a coup detat in Liepāja, the provisional national government of Latvia takes refuge aboard steamship Saratow. 16 May, The Estonian Army starts a major offensive against the Soviets in north Latvia,22 May, The Baltische Landeswehr captures Riga. 23 May, The Latvian Independent Brigade marches into Riga,3 June, The Baltische Landeswehr reaches Cēsis. 6 June, The Landeswehrs North Latvian campaign begins, commanded by Maj. Alfred Fletcher,23 June, The Estonian 3rd Division commanded by Gen. Ernst Põdder, including the 2nd Latvian Cēsis regiment of the North Latvian Brigade defeats the Landeswehr. 3 July, Estonia, Latvia and the pro-German Provisional Government of Latvia sign the Ceasefire of Strazdumuiža,6 July, The North Latvian Brigade enters Riga. 5 October, The German mission secretly leaves Riga for Jelgava,8 October, The West Russian Volunteer Army attacks Riga, taking the Pārdaugava district. 3 November, The Latvian Army, supported by Estonian armored trains,11 November, The Latvian Army, supported by Estonian armored trains and the Royal Navy, defeats the West Russian Volunteer Army in Riga
30.
Lithuanian Wars of Independence
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The wars delayed international recognition of independent Lithuania and the formation of civil institutions. After the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was annexed by the Russian Empire, the Lithuanian National Revival emerged during the 19th century and the movement to establish an independent nation-state intensified during the early 20th century. During World War I, Lithuanian territory was occupied by Germany from 1915 until the war ended in November 1918, on February 16,1918, the Council of Lithuania declared the re-establishment of independence from all previous legal bonds with other states. The declaration asserted the right to self-determination, meaning the creation of a state within ethnic Lithuanian territories, however, Germany did not allow the Council to establish a Lithuanian military force, police force, or civic institutions. On November 11,1918 Germany signed an armistice on the Western Front and officially lost the war, the first national government, led by Augustinas Voldemaras, was formed. Voldemaras issued a declaration that Lithuania did not need a force, as it was not planning to engage in warfare. This view was unrealistic, since military conflicts soon erupted, the first legislative act creating an army was passed on November 23,1918. Its development and organization moved slowly due to lack of funding, arms, ammunition, on December 20 Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras went to Germany to request assistance. However, the departure of both leaders created a domestic situation. The Council of Lithuania released Voldemaras cabinet, Mykolas Sleževičius became Prime Minister of Lithuania, perceiving an imminent threat to the state, he issued a proclamation several days later. Directed at Lithuanian men, the proclamation invited volunteers to join a force to defend the country, Lithuanian volunteers who agreed to join the military force were promised free land. Fulfilling its Armistice obligation to support Lithuanian independence, Germany initially tried to organize a force from units remaining in Lithuanian territory. Crimps were sent to Germany to recruit volunteers, a division of volunteers was soon formed, who were paid 5 marks per day plus 30 marks per month. The first units arriving in Lithuania during January 1919, although some of them were sent away because they were in a poor condition. By the end of January,400 volunteers were stationed in Alytus, Jonava, Kėdainiai and they formed the basis for the 46th Saxonian division, renamed in March to the Southern Lithuanian Saxonian Volunteer Brigade. The brigade consisted of the 18th, 19th, and 20th regiments, the last of these German troops, also known as Freikorps, would leave Lithuania during July 1919. After successful attempts at mustering a voluntary force to defend Lithuanian territories and it applied to men born between 1897 and 1899. At the end of summer 1919, the Lithuanian army numbered about 8,000 men, during the battles that followed,1,700 Lithuanian volunteers died, more than 2,600 were injured, and 800 were missing in action
31.
Ukrainian War of Independence
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Also involved were the Allied forces of Romania and France. The struggle lasted from February 1917 to November 1921 and resulted in the division of Ukraine between the Bolshevik Ukrainian SSR, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. The conflict is viewed within the framework of the Russian Civil War as well as the closing stage of the Eastern Front of the First World War. During the First World War Ukraine was in the front lines of the combatants, the Entente-allied Russian Empire and Romania. By the start of 1917 – after the Brusilov Offensive – the Imperial Russian Army held a front line which partially reclaimed Volhynia, the February Revolution of 1917 encouraged many ethnic groups in the Russian Empire to demand greater autonomy and various degrees of self-determination. The weak and ineffective Provisional Government in Petrograd continued its loyalty to the entente and this Offensive was a complete disaster for the Imperial Russian Army. All this led to the October Revolution in Petrograd, which spread all over the empire. The Kiev Uprising in November 1917 led to the defeat of Russian imperial forces in the capital, hostilities against the Central Rada government in Kiev began immediately. Under these circumstances, the Rada declared Ukrainian independence on January 22,1918, the Rada had limited armed force at its disposal and was hard-pressed by the Kharkov government which received men and resources from the Russian SFSR. As a result, the Bolsheviks quickly overran Poltava, Aleksandrovsk, aided by the earlier Kiev Arsenal Uprising, the Red Guards entered the capital on February 9,1918. This forced the Central Rada to evacuate to Zhytomyr, in the meantime, the Romanians took over Bessarabia. Most remaining Russian Army units either allied with the Bolsheviks or joined the Ukrainian Peoples Army, a notable exception was Colonel Mikhail Drozdovsky, who marched his White Volunteer Army unit across the whole of Novorossiya to the River Don, defeating Makhnos forces in the process. The German and Austro-Hungarian armies then drove the Bolsheviks out of Ukraine, two days later, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which formally ended hostilities on the Eastern Front of World War I and left Ukraine in a German sphere of influence. Former Imperial Russian Army General Pavlo Skoropadsky led a successful German-backed coup against the Rada on April 29 and he proclaimed the conservative Ukrainian State, and reversed many of the socialist policies of the former government. Skoropadsky left Kiev with the Germans, and the Hetmanate was in turn overthrown by the socialist Directorate, simultaneously, the collapse of the Central Powers affected the former Austrian province of Galicia, which was populated by Ukrainians and Poles. Both sides became increasingly hostile with each other, on January 22,1919, the Western Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the Ukrainian Peoples Republic signed an Act of Union in Kiev. Strong anti-foreigner feelings among Ukrainians convinced French officers that intervention in this climate of hostility was doomed without massive support, a new, swift Bolshevik offensive overran most of Eastern and central Ukraine in early 1919. During the spring and summer of 1919, Anton Denikins Volunteer Army and Don Army overran all of central and Eastern Ukraine, yet by winter the tide of war reversed decisively, and by 1920 all of Eastern and central Ukraine except Crimea was again in Bolshevik hands
32.
Red Army invasion of Georgia
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The independence of Georgia had been recognized by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Moscow, signed on 7 May 1920, and the subsequent invasion of the country was not universally agreed upon in Moscow. Soviet forces took the Georgian capital Tbilisi after heavy fighting and declared the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921, the rest of the country was overrun within three weeks, but it was not until September 1924 that Soviet rule was firmly established. Georgia effectively escaped Russian control in the aftermath of the February Revolution in Russia in 1917. After an abortive attempt to unite with Armenia and Azerbaijan in a federative state, although there were a significant number of highly qualified officers who had served in the Imperial Russian military, the army as a whole was underfed and poorly equipped. Since early 1920, local Bolsheviks were actively fomenting political unrest in Georgia, capitalizing on agrarian disturbances in rural areas, the operational centre of the Soviet military-political forces in the Caucasus was the Kavburo attached to the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. Set up in February 1920, this body was chaired by the Georgian Bolshevik Grigol Ordzhonikidze, the Soviet leadership successfully exploited this situation and sent in its army to occupy Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Following the establishment of Soviet rule in Baku in April 1920, Ordzhonikidze, probably acting on his own initiative, when the coup failed, the Georgian government was able to concentrate all its forces on successfully blocking the Soviet advance over the Georgian-Azerbaijani border. Facing a difficult war with Poland, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin ordered a start to negotiations with Georgia, in the Treaty of Moscow signed on 7 May 1920, Soviet Russia recognized Georgias independence and concluded a non-aggression pact. The treaty established the borders between the two nations de jure and also obliged Georgia to surrender all third-party elements considered hostile by Moscow. In a secret supplement, Georgia promised to legalize the local Bolshevik party, despite the peace treaty, an eventual overthrow of the Menshevik-dominated government of Georgia was both intended and planned. Stalin called his homeland the kept woman of the Western Powers, Georgian independence was seen as a propaganda victory for exiled Russian Mensheviks in Europe, the Bolsheviks couldnt long tolerate a viable Menshevik state on their own doorstep. By that time, the British expeditionary corps had completely evacuated the Caucasus, Soviet military intervention was not universally agreed upon in Moscow, and there was considerable disagreement among the Bolshevik leaders on how to deal with their southern neighbor. He strongly supported a military overthrow of the Georgian government and continuously urged Lenin to give his consent for an advance into Georgia. The Peoples Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, strongly disagreed with what he described as a “premature intervention”, for many Bolsheviks, self-determination was increasingly seen as a diplomatic game which has to be played in certain cases. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks had already set up a Georgian Revolutionary Committee in Shulaveri, chaired by the Georgian Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze, the Revkom formally applied to Moscow for help. Disturbances also erupted in the town of Dusheti and among Ossetians in northeast Georgia who resented the Georgian governments refusal to grant them autonomy, Georgian forces managed to contain the disorders in some areas, but the preparations for a Soviet intervention were already being set in train. The ultimate decision was made at the 14 February meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and it was opposed by Karl Radek and was held secret from Trotsky who was in the Ural area at that time. Later Trotsky would reconcile himself to the fact and even defend the invasion in a special pamphlet
33.
Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan
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The invasion coincided with the anti-government insurrection staged by the local Azerbaijani Bolsheviks in the capital, Baku. The invasion led to the dissolution of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, by early 1920, Soviet Russia desperately needed oil supplies from Baku. B. This scheme was used decades later, during the Soviet invasions in Hungary. On 28 April 1920, the Baku Revolutionary Committee filed a formal request for help with the Soviet Russian Government, but a day before, the 11th Red Army, including the 26th, 28th and 32nd rifle divisions and 2nd mounted corps, already invaded the territory of Azerbaijan. Великая речная война, 1918–1920 годы. p.416, Red Army invasion of Georgia Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
34.
Tambov Rebellion
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The Tambov Rebellion, which occurred between 1920 and 1921, was one of the largest and best-organized peasant rebellions challenging the Bolshevik regime during the Russian Civil War. The uprising took place in the territories of the modern Tambov Oblast and part of the Voronezh Oblast, the movement was later portrayed by the Soviets as anarchical banditry, similar to other anti-Soviet movements that opposed them during this period. The rebellion was caused by the confiscation of grain by the Bolshevik authorities. In 1920, the requisitions were increased from 18 million to 27 million poods in the region and this caused the peasants to reduce their grain production since they knew that anything they did not consume themselves would be immediately confiscated. Filling the state quotas meant death for many by starvation, a distinctive feature of this rebellion, among the many of these times, was that it was led by a political organization, the Union of Working Peasants. A Congress of Tambov rebels abolished Soviet power and created the Constituent Assembly that called for universal suffrage, a major tenet proposed by them was returning all land to the peasants. On 2 February 1921, the Soviet leadership announced the end of the prodrazvyorstka, the new policy was essentially a tax on grain and other foodstuffs. This was done prior to the 10th Congress of the Bolsheviks, the announcement began circulating in the Tambov area on 9 February 1921. The Tambov uprising and unrest elsewhere were significant reasons that the policy was implemented. Antonov became a hero to the people of the Tambov region of central Russia where he started his campaigns. In October 1920 the peasant army numbered over 50,000 fighters, the rebel militia proved highly effective and even infiltrated the Tambov Cheka. Alexander Schlichter, Chairman of the Tambov Gubernia Executive Committee, contacted Vladimir Lenin, in January 1921 peasant revolts spread to Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and Siberia. In February, the peasant army reached its peak, numbering up to 70,000, the Red Army, under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky, used heavy artillery and armoured trains and also engaged in the summary execution of civilians. Publications in local Communist newspapers openly glorified liquidations of bandits with the poison gas, seven concentration camps were set up. At least 50,000 people were interned, mostly women, children, each month 15 to 20 percent of inmates in the camps died. The Bolsheviks gradually quelled the uprising in the course of 1921, antonov was killed in 1922 during an attempt to arrest him. Sennikov estimated the losses among the population of Tambov region in 1920 to 1922 resulting from the war, executions. In 1933, the government decided to burn documents that could compromise the Soviet regime
35.
Basmachi movement
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The Basmachi movement or Basmachi Revolt was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim peoples of Central Asia. The movements roots lay in the violence of 1916 that erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service during World War I. In the months following the October 1917 Revolution the Bolsheviks seized power in parts of the Russian Empire. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form a government in the city of Kokand. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a massacre of up to 25,000 people. The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi movements who waged a guerrilla and conventional war that seized control of parts of the Fergana Valley. The fortunes of the decentralized movement fluctuated throughout the early 1920s, after major Red Army campaigns and concessions regarding economic and Islamic practices in the mid-1920s, the military fortunes and popular support of the Basmachi declined. Resistance to Russian rule and Soviet leadership did flare up again, to a lesser extent, prior to World War I, Russian Turkestan was ruled from Tashkent as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. To the east of Tashkent, the Ferghana Valley was an ethnically diverse, under Russian rule, it was converted into a major cotton-growing region. On the whole, living standards did not improve, and many farmers became indebted, many criminals organized into bands, forming the basis for the early Basmachi movement when it began in the Ferghana Valley. Cotton price-fixing during the First World War made matters worse, Muslim clergy decried the gambling and alcoholism that became commonplace, and crime rose considerably. Major violence in Russian Turkestan broke out in 1916, when the Tsarist government ended its exemption of Muslims from military service, the result was a general revolt, centered in modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which was only put down by martial law. Tensions between Central Asians and Russian settlers led to large-scale massacres on both sides, thousands died, and hundreds of thousands more fled, often into neighboring Republic of China. The 1916 rebellion was the first anti-Russian incident on a scale in Central Asia. The suppression of the rebellion was a campaign of annihilation against the Kazakh. Hundreds of thousands of Kazakh and Kyrgyz people were killed or expelled, the ethnic clensing had its roots in the Tsarist government policy of ethnic homogenization. In the aftermath of the February Revolution of 1917, Muslim political forces began to organize, members of the All-Russian Muslim council formed the Shura-i Islam, a Jadidist body that sought a federated, democratic state with autonomy for Muslims. More conservative religious scholars formed the Ulema Jemyeti, more concerned with safeguarding Islamic institutions, together, these Muslim nationalists formed a coalition, but it fell apart after the October Revolution, when the Jadids lent their support to the Bolsheviks who had seized power
36.
History of the Soviet Union
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The History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. The original ideology of the state was based on the works of Karl Marx. Displeased by the few changes made by the Tsar after the Russian Revolution of 1905, Russia became a hotbed of anarchism, socialism. The dominant socialist party, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, starting in 1903 a series of splits in the party between two main leaders was escalating, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin, and the Mensheviks led by Julius Martov. Up until 1912, both continued to stay united under the name RSDLP, but significant differences between Lenin and Martov thought split the party for its final time. Not only did these groups fight each other, but also had common enemies, notably. This resulted in large territorial changes, albeit temporarily for some of these, eventually crushing all opponents, the RCP spread Soviet style rule quickly and established itself through all of Russia. Following Lenins death in 1924, Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the RCP, became Lenins successor and continued as leader of the Soviet Union into the 1950s. The history of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953 covers the period of the Second World War and of victory against Germany while the USSR remained under the control of Joseph Stalin. Stalins power within the party and the state was established and eventually evolved into Stalins cult of personality, Soviet secret-police and the mass-mobilization Communist party were Stalins major tools in molding the Soviet society. World War II, known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union, after World War II the Soviet Unions armies occupied Eastern Europe, where Socialist governments took power. By 1949 the Cold War had started between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, with the Warsaw Pact pitched against NATO in Europe, after 1945 Stalin did not directly engage in any wars. Stalin continued his rule until his death in 1953. The history of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, referred to as the Brezhnev Era and this period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with a much weaker Soviet Union facing social, political, and economic stagnation. The average annual income stagnated, because needed economic reforms were never carried out. Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin replaced him as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, anastas Mikoyan, and later Nikolai Podgorny, became Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The collective leadership first set out to stabilize the Soviet Union and calm Soviet society, in addition, they attempted to speed up economic growth, which had slowed considerably during Khrushchevs last years in power. In 1965 Kosygin initiated several reforms to decentralize the Soviet economy, after initial success in creating economic growth, hard-liners within the Party halted the reforms, fearing that they would weaken the Partys prestige and power
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