Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War

Eastern Front
Part of the Russian Civil War

American soldiers marching in Vladivostok in 1918, Japanese soldiers stand at attention on the left.
DateMay 14, 1918June 16, 1923
Location
Result Bolshevik victory; collapse of White and anti-Soviet Resistance.
Belligerents
White Movement:
Russian State
Priamur Government
(1921–1922)
Siberian Army
Don Army
Komuch
(June-November 1918)
Mongolia
(May–August 1921)
Right SRs
Allied Powers:
Japan
 United States
 United Kingdom
 Canada
France (Until 1921)
 Italy
Czechoslovakia
Poland
China
Green Ukraine
Buryat-Mongolia
Mongolia
Left SRs
(After March 1918)
Anarchists
Bolsheviks:
Russian SFSR
Far Eastern Republic
Mongolian People's Party
Left SRs
(Until March 1918)
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Kolchak 
Grigory Semyonov
Mikhail Diterikhs
Vladimir Kappel
Vasily Boldyrev
Alexander Dutov 
Mikhail Pleshkov
R. Ungern-Sternberg 
Anatoly Pepelyayev
Mikhail Korobeinikov
Viktorin Molchanov
Radola Gajda
Stanislav Čeček
Sergei Wojciechowski
Jan Syrový
Kikuzo Otani
Yui Mitsue
William S. Graves
George E. Stewart
Edmund Ironside
Alfred Knox
Ernest Broșteanu
Yuri Hlushko-Mova
Boris Khreschatitsky
Bogd Khan
Leon Trotsky
Jukums Vācietis
Sergey Kamenev
Mikhail Muravyov 
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Frunze
Aleksandr Samoylo
Pavel Lebedev
Vasily Blyukher
Hayk Bzhishkyan
Reingold Berzin
Fyodor Raskolnikov
Ivan Smirnov
Yakov Tryapitsyn 
Mikhail Velikanov
Sergey Lazo 
Vasily Chapayev 
Filipp Goloshchekin
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev
Ivan Strod
A. Krasnoshchyokov
Damdin Sükhbaatar
Khorloogiin Choibalsan
Dambyn Chagdarjav 
Soliin Danzan
Dogsomyn Bodoo 
Strength
White Army: 420,000
Siberian Army: 80,000
Czechoslovak Legion: 42,000
People's Army of Komuch: 10,000
Irregulars and Bandits: 50,000
Allied Expeditionary Force: 140,000
Green Ukraine: 5,000
Red Army: 5 Field Armies
Total: 600,000
Casualties and losses
250,000-400,000 150,000-300,000

The Russian Civil War spread to the east in May 1918, with a series of revolts along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the part of the Czechoslovak Legion and officers of the Russian Army. Provisional anti-Bolshevik local governments were formed in many parts of Siberia and other eastern regions during that summer. The Red Army mounted a counter-offensive in the autumn, and in 1919 defeated the White commander Aleksandr Kolchak in Siberia. Smaller-scale conflicts in the region went on until 1923.

Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion

In May 1918, soldiers of the Czechoslovak Legion revolted against the Bolsheviks in Chelyabinsk. The revolt was triggered by Trotsky's order to local Bolshevik commanders to disarm the Czechs (in violation of previous agreements) following a confrontation between the Czechs travelling Eastwards and a train full of Austro-Hungarian former POW's travelling Westwards. The dispute arising because the Czechs had been fighting against the Austro-Hungarians within whose Empire the Czech lands were, tensions were exacerbated because several Czech regiments of the Austro-Hungarian army had gone over to the Russians in the early years of World War I and these former Austro-Hungarian regiments formed the core of the Czech Legion. The Legion was trying to evacuate to the Western Front to continue the fight against the Central powers, but after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March, the Bolsheviks no longer supported this move.[1] The revolt quickly spread across Siberia, because the Czechoslovaks used the Trans-Siberian Railway to move their troops east quickly and because they were supported by local uprisings instigated by Russian army officers. When the uprising reached Yekaterinburg, the former Tsar and his family who were being held there by the Bolsheviks were executed to prevent their release by the Whites. By the end of August, Vladivostok was in Czechoslovak hands.[2]

Provisional White governments

In the power vacuum left by the departure of the Bolsheviks multiple White Movement governments were established, most importantly KOMUCH at Samara and the Provisional Siberian Government. KOMUCH quickly ordered a general mobilisation, but its troops were small and badly trained. The Czechoslovaks allied with KOMUCH and advanced to the west, taking Kazan, where they captured the tsar's gold reserves which had been moved east for safekeeping.[3]

In Petrograd, Lenin had called upon factory workers to be dispatched to the Eastern Front.

See also

Notes

  1. Bullock 2008, p. 44-46.
  2. Bullock 2008, p. 46.
  3. Bullock 2008, p. 46-48.

References

  • Bullock, David (2008). The Russian Civil War 1918-22. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-271-4
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