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Red Terror

Red Terror

The Red Terror was a campaign of mass arrests and deportations targeted against counterrevolutionaries in Russia during the Russian Civil War. It was initiated and conducted by the Bolsheviks as retribution for the simultaneous successful assassination of Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky, and attempted assassination of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin by Fanya Kaplan on August 30, 1918. The fact that these two assasination attempts happened at the same time strongly suggested that they had been coordinated by some larger counterrevolutionary organization, perhaps affiliated with the White movement, which was fighting against the Red Army in the civil war. As such, the Bolsheviks began to fear that more assasination attempts - and perhaps various acts of sabotage - were soon to follow. Therefore, they decided to respond with overwhelming force, both as retribution for the events of August 30 and as a deterrent for any similar future attempts. The first official announcement, published in Izvestiya, "Appeal to the Working Class" in September 3 1918 called for the workers to "crush the hydra of counterrevolution with massive terror". This was followed by the decree "On Red Terror", issued September 5 1918 by the Cheka. Casualties in the fall of 1918 exceeded 10,000. This campaign marked the beginning of the Gulag, with 70,000 imprisoned by September, 1921. The Bolsheviks' enemies, the White movement, adopted similar measures at roughly the same time. These are known as the "White Terror". ---- By extension, the term Red Terror came to refer to any acts of violence carried out by communist or communist-affiliated groups during a period of civil war or other armed conflict. Often, such acts were carried out in response to (and/or followed by) similar measures taken by the anti-communist side in the conflict. See White Terror. Examples of these other "Red Terrors" include the executions of 590 people accused of involvement in the counterrevolutionary coup against the Hungarian Soviet Republic on June 24, 1919, as well as many acts of violence during the Cultural Revolution in China.

External links


- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1920/dictatorvs/index.htm Terrorism or Communism] book by Leon Trotsky on the use of Red Terror. category:Soviet political repressions

Counterrevolution

A counterrevolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part. Monarchists and supporters of the Ancien Régime following the French Revolution were counterrevolutionaries, and so were the monarchies that put down the various Revolutions of 1848. In France before World War I, people who "opposed democratic ideas, parliamentary government, trade-unions, or socialism" were often considered counterrevolutionary by their opponents. The White Army and its supporters who tried to defeat the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution, as well as the German Freikorps who crushed the German revolution of 1919, were also counterrevolutionaries. More recently, the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion into Cuba was conducted by counterrevolutionaries who hoped to overthrow the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro. In the 1980s, the United States sponsored Contra-Revolución rebels fighting to overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government in Nicaragua. In fact, the Contras received their name precisely because they were counterrevolutionaries. Some counterrevolutionaries are former revolutionaries who supported the initial overthrow of the former regime, but came to differ with those who ultimately came to power after the revolution. For example, some of the Contras originally fought with the Sandinistas to overthrow Anastasio Somoza, and some of those who oppose Castro also opposed Batista. The word is often used interchangeably with reactionary; however, some reactionaries (like the Nazis and Italian fascists) used the term counterrevolutionary to describe their opponents - even if those opponents were advocates of a Marxist revolution. Similarly, the clerics who took power following the Iranian Revolution would describe all those who opposed them as counterrevolutionary, even though some were Communists. The term, therefore, should be understood in a relative sense politically, rather than as an absolute concept.

See also


- revolutionary syndicalism
- Anti-Soviet agitation and Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)
- Recontra, the Contras who did not accept the new government after the ejection of revolutionary Sandinists.

References

(1) Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France (1815-1870), Prof. J. Salwyn Schapiro, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., NY, l949. pg 364. Category:Politics Category:Pejorative terms for people Category:Revolutions ja:反革命

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was fought between 1918 and 1922. Following the success of the Russian Revolution, the new Russian (Bolshevik) government made peace with Germany at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ratified on March 6 1918. This negotiated peace was the only option because the Russian army was in a chaotic and undisciplined state when the Germans advanced in February 1918, although the old Russian army had been re-organized in January into the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". This treaty galvanised a number of anti-Bolshevik groups inside and outside Russia to act against the new regime. For example, Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle". Most of the Civil War ended in 1920, but a notable resistance in certain areas continued until 1922 (e.g, Kronstadt Uprising, Tambov Rebellion, and the final resistance of the White movement in the Far East). The Soviet historiography traditionally didn't apply the qualifier "Russian" and used the term "Civil War and Military Intervention of 1917-1922". Accordingly, it included the Polish-Soviet War, resistance in Ukraine, as well as Basmachi resistance and foreign intervention in Central Asia.

Overview

The war was fought mainly between the "Reds" who were the communists and revolutionaries, and the "Whites" who were the monarchists, conservatives, liberals and socialists who opposed the Bolshevik Revolution. Also, a group of nationalist and anarchist movements known as the "Greens", or sometimes the Black Army for the latter, played a much smaller part in the war, harrying both the Reds and the Whites, and sometimes even each other. In addition, the Entente and some other countries intervened on the side of the Whites, which aggravated the civil war. Entente The war was fought across three main fronts — the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into three periods. The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice. The conflict began with dissenting Russian groups, the main force was the newly formed Volunteer Army in the Don region which was joined later by the Czecho-Slovak Legion in Siberia. In the east there were also two anti-Bolshevik administrations, Komuch in Samara and the nationalist Siberian government centred in Omsk. Most of the fighting in this first period was sporadic, involving only small groups amid a fluid and rapidly shifting strategic scene. Among the antagonists were the Czecho-Slovaks, known simply as the Czech Legion or White Czechs (Белочехи, Byelochekhi), the Poles of the Polish 5th Rifle Division and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian riflemen (Красные латышские стрелки,Krasnye Latyshskiye strelki). The second period of the war was the key stage, which lasted only from March to November 1919. At first the White armies' advances from the south (under Anton Denikin), the northwest (under Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich) and the east (under Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak) were successful, pushing back the new Red Army and advancing towards Moscow. But Leon Trotsky reformed the Red Army, which pushed back Kolchak's forces (in June) and Denikin's and Yudenich's armies (in October). The fighting power of Kolchak and Denikin was broken almost simultaneously in mid-November. The final period of the war was the extended siege of the last White forces in the Crimea. Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel had gathered the remnants of the armies of Denikin and they had fortified their positions in the Crimea. They held these positions until the Red Army returned from Poland where they had been fighting the Polish-Soviet war from 1919 or earlier. When the full force of the Red Army was turned on them the Whites were soon overwhelmed, and the remaining troops were evacuated to Constantinople in November 1920.

Course of events

The very first attempt to seize the power from Bolsheviks was made by the Kerensky-Krasnov uprising as early as in October, 1917. It was supported by the Junker mutiny in Petrograd, but quickly put down by the Red Guards. Red Guards of War, and organizer of the Red Army)]] Britain, France, Canada, the United States and seventeen other powers intervened in Russia, initially hoping to recreate the Russian front against Germany. After the Allies defeated the Central Powers in November 1918, most withdrew. Japan remained in the Far East, hoping to annex these regions. Only the United Kingdom, under the influence of Winston Churchill, continued significant military aid, mainly in the form of supplies, during the crucial battles in 1919. Without this support the White armies would have lost the war much earlier due to lack of weapons . Lenin was surprised by the outbreak of civil war and initially underestimated the extent of the forces that rose against his new country. Early successes in the Don region made him overconfident. The initial groups that stood against the Communists were mainly counter-revolutionary generals and local Cossack armies that had declared their loyalty to the Provisional Government. Prominent among them were Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin (Don Cossacks), Alexander Dutov (Orenburg Cossacks), and Grigory Mikhailovich Semenov (Baikal Cossacks). In November, General Mikhail Vasilevich Alekseev, the old tsarist Commander-in-Chief, began to organise a Volunteer Army (Добровольческая Армия, Dobrovolcheskaya Armiya) in Novocherkassk; he was joined in December by Lavr Georgevich Kornilov, Denikin and a number of others. Aided by Kaledin, they took Rostov in December. However, the Cossacks were unwilling to fight, and when the Soviet counter-offensive began in January under Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko the Cossacks quickly deserted Kaledin, who committed suicide. Antonov's forces quickly recovered Rostov and by the end of March 1918 the Don Soviet Republic was declared. The Volunteer Army was evacuated in February and escaped to the Kuban, where they joined with the Kuban Cossacks to mount an abortive assault on Ekaterinodar. Kornilov was killed on April 13 and command passed to Denikin, who retreated back to the Don. There, the Soviets had alienated the local population and the Volunteer Army found many new recruits. April 13 It was not until the spring of 1918 that the Mensheviks and SRs joined the armed struggle. Initially they had been opposed to the armed overthrow of the Bolsheviks but the peace treaty and the establishment of some harsh dictatorial measures changed their outlook. Potentially they could have been a serious threat as they had some popular support and the authority of their election victory on the Russian Constituent Assembly in 1918. However, they needed armed support. An early attempt by the SRs to recruit Latvian troops in July 1918 was a disaster. Fortunately, the Czecho-Slovak legion proved to be a more reliable group to aid their "democratic counter-revolution". The Czech Legion had been part of the old Russian army and by October 1917 numbered around 30,000 men, mostly ex-prisoners of war and deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army. Encouraged by Tomáš Masaryk, the legion was renamed the Czecho-Slovak Army Corps and hoped to continue fighting the Germans. An agreement with the Soviet government to pass by sea through Vladivostok collapsed over an attempt largely to disarm the Corps, and the force rebelled in June 1918 in Cheliabinsk. Within a month the Czecho-Slovaks controlled much of western Siberia, and parts of the Volga and Ural Mountains regions. By August they had extended their control even farther, cutting off Siberia (and its precious grain supplies) from the rest of Russia. The Mensheviks and SRs supported peasant action against Soviet control of food supplies. In May 1918, with the support of the Czecho-Slovaks they took Samara and Saratov, establishing the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Комуч, Komuch). By July the authority of Komuch extended over much of the area controlled by the Czecho-Slovaks. They intended to resume anti-German operations and began to form their own People's Army. They also implemented a socialist reform programme but without the unpopular economic changes the Soviets were pursuing. There were also conservative and nationalist "governments" being formed by the Bashkirs, the Kirghiz and the Tatars (see Idel-Ural State) as well as a Siberian Regional Government in Omsk. In September 1918 all the anti-Soviet governments met in Ufa and agreed to form a new Russian Provisional Government in Omsk, headed by a Directory of five: three SRs (Avksentiev, Boldyrev and Zenzinov) and two Kadets, (V. A. Vinogradov and P. V. Vologodskii). The new government quickly came under the influence of the Siberian Regional Government and their new War Minister, Rear-Admiral Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak. On November 18 a coup d'état established Kolchak as dictator. The members of the Directory were arrested and Kolchak promoted himself to admiral and proclaimed himself "Supreme Ruler". To the Soviets this change of control was a military problem but a political victory because it confirmed their opponents as anti-democratic reactionaries. But as the Soviets feared, Kolchak initially proved himself an able commander. Following a reorganisation of the People's Army, his forces captured Perm and extended their control into Soviet territory. In Soviet territory, following the Fifth Congress of Soviets in July, two Left SRs — Yakov Blyumkin and Nikolay Andreyev — assassinated the German ambassador in Moscow, Count Mirbach, in an attempt to provoke the Germans into renewing hostilities. Other Left SRs captured a number of prominent Bolsheviks and attempted to rouse Red Army troops against the regime. The Soviets managed to put down local uprisings organised by the SRs and Anarchists. Lenin personally apologised to the Germans for the assassination, although German reprisals were unlikely due to the state of the Western Front. There were mass arrests of Left SRs and following two further terrorist acts on August 30 — the assassination of the Chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Moisei Uritsky, and the wounding of Lenin — the "Red Terror" was unleashed in response: the Mensheviks and SRs were expelled from the Soviets and anyone suspected of counter-revolutionary activity could be imprisoned or executed without trial.

Explanations for the Red victory

The Reds had many strengths. They held the central, industrial area, which gave them control over railways and the production of munitions. Trotsky was a superb leader, he was co-ordinated, an excellent organiser who was experienced (he fought in the October revolution). The Reds were united in the face of a common enemy, they feared the Tsar’s return and they made use of the fear of invasion and newfound patriotism in the people. They relied on no-one else, which made it easier to co-ordinate defence. The peasants feared the Tsar’s return and that of the landlords. They were worried that they would lose their land. The Bolsheviks controlled the most populous areas of Russia and, when the decisive battle took place, had more than 3 million men under arms. In 1921 they had 5 million, although desertion and disease depopulated the ranks. More than 75,000 ex-Tsarist officers served in the Red army. The strength of the White armies never exceeded 250,000. The Bolsheviks also controlled the main industrial regions and inherited almost all of the weapons of the Czarist(or Tsarist) army. The policy of War Communism, whereby the Bolsheviks requisitioned grain from the peasants, gave priority to the Red Army. They had the advantage of inner and better lines of communications, in particular railway lines. This allowed soldiers to be transported quickly to battlefields, and sufficient supplies to reach them. Other advantages the Red Army had over the Whites were leadership and discipline. Leon Trotsky was appointed as Commissar for War in 1918 after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. He was a brilliant speaker and military organizer. From a core of Red Guards, which had been armed by the Provisional Government during the Kornilov Revolt, Trotsky built up the Red Army through conscription. Travelling on his legendary train, he boosted the Red Army's morale. He also re-introduced strict discipline (after a short period of "equality" under Soviet Order No. 1). Deserters were shot, and political commissars, committed Bolsheviks, were placed in the ranks to ensure loyalty. Trotsky, however, was not responsible for the conduct of the military operations, which remained in the hands of professional generals from the former Imperial army.

Weaknesses of the whites

The whites were scattered and so it was difficult to communicate between armies. There was a language barrier and many of the generals were jealous of one another. They didn’t trust each other, weren’t all of the same nationality and generally set a bad example. No-one was in agreement about who would take power when the Bolsheviks were gone (this led to arguments between revolutionaries and tsarist for example) and some armies refused to co-ordinate. World War 1 had just ended and soldiers were tired of fighting. Peasants didn’t support the Whites as they threatened to take back land. Other than the advantages of the Red Army, their victory was also partially due to the weaknesses of the Whites. The Whites consisted of a coalition of many different diverse groups, all with different ideologies and objectives. They were unified only in their hatred for the Bolesheviks. This resulted in them being a disunited force. Consequently, this made it difficult for them to get things done as one. Hence, this caused them to be defeated by the stronger, more united Bolsheviks.

Aftermath

At the end of the Civil War, Soviet Russia was exhausted and ruined. The droughts of 1920 and 1921 and the 1921 famine worsened the disaster. The War had taken an estimated 8 million lives, only a few years after the nearly bloodless October Revolution, including at least one million soldiers of the Russian Red Army died in war action. Fifty thousand of Russian Communists were killed by the counter-revolutionary Whites. The economic loss to Soviet Russia was 50 billion of gold ruble. The industrial production value descent 4-20% of the value of 1913. Another million had left Russia -- with General Wrangel, through the Far East, or in numerous other ways -- in order to escape the ravages of the war, the famine, or the rule of either warring faction. These emigres included a large part of the educated and skilled population. War Communism saved the Soviet government during the Civil War, but much of the Russian economy ground to a standstill. Private industry and trade was proscribed, and the newly established (and barely stable) state was unable to run the economy on a sufficient scale. It is estimated that the total output of mines and factories in 1921 had fallen to 20 percent of the pre-World War level, and many crucial items experienced an even more drastic decline. For example, cotton production fell to 5 percent, and iron to 2 percent of pre-war levels. The peasants responded to requisitions by refusing to till the land. By 1921, cultivated land had shrunk to 62 percent of the prewar area, and the harvest yield was only about 37 percent of normal. The number of horses declined from 35 million in 1916 to 24 million in 1920, and cattle from 58 to 37 million. The exchange rate of the US dollar declined from two Rubles in 1914 to 1,200 in 1920. Although Russia eventually recovered and even experienced an extremely rapid economic growth in the 1930s, the combined effect of World War One and the Civil War left a lasting scar in Russian society, and had permanent effects on the Soviet regime.

See also


- Idel-Ural State
- Nestor Makhno
- North Russia Campaign

References

# p. 63-75

External links


- [http://libcom.org/library/russian-revolution Russian Revolution and Civil War archive at libcom.org/library] Category:Civil wars Category:History of Russia Category:Russian Revolution Category:Wars of Russia Category:Wars of the Soviet Union ja:ロシア内戦

Bolshevik

on the Pathfinder Mural in New York City and on the cover of the book Lenin’s Final Fight published by Pathfinder. From left: Zinoviev, Bukharin, Trotsky, Lenin, Radek ]] A Bolshevik ("Большеви́к", derived from the Russian word loosely translated as "majority") was a member of the Marxist Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party's Bolshevik faction. The other faction of the RSDLP was known as the Mensheviks, derived from "minority". The split into two factions occurred at the Second Party Congress in 1903. After the split, the Bolshevik party was designated as RSDLP(b) (Russian: РСДРП(б)), where "b" stands for "Bolsheviks". Bolsheviks had an extreme socialist and internationalist outlook, were opponents of the Russian traditional statehood and the Russian Orthodox Church. Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin seized power in Russia in 1917, an event known as the October Revolution.
Shortly after seizing power, the party changed their name to the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1918 and were generally known as the Communist Party after that point. However, it was not until 1952 that the party formally dropped the word "Bolshevik" from its name. (See Congress of the CPSU article for the timeline of name changes.) The word "Bolshevik" is sometimes used as a synonym of Communist. It was often used by right-wingers outside the Soviet Union as a derogatory term for left-wingers, not all of whom were necessarily Communists. The Bolshevik political platform has often been referred to as Bolshevism. Leon Trotsky frequently used the terms "Bolshevism" and "Bolshevist" after his exile from the Soviet Union to differentiate between what he saw as true Leninism and what Stalin was fashioning the party and state into, respectively.

Origins

Stalin At the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, held in Brussels and London in August 1903, Lenin advocated limiting party membership to a small core of professional revolutionaries, leaving sympathizers outside the party, and instituting a system of centralized control known as the democratic centralist model. Julius Martov, until then a close friend and colleague of Lenin's, agreed with him that the core of the party should consist of professional revolutionaries, but argued that party membership should be open to sympathizers, revolutionary workers and other fellow travellers. The two had disagreed on the issue as early as April-May 1903, but it wasn't until the Congress that their differences became irreconcilable and split the party . Although at first the disagreement appeared to be minor and inspired by personal conflicts, i.e. Lenin's insistence on dropping less active editorial board members from Iskra or Martov's support for the Organizing Committee of the Congress which Lenin opposed, the split quickly grew and became irreconcilable. The two factions were originally known as "hard" (Lenin's supporters) and "soft" (Martov's supporters). Soon, however, the terminology changed to "Bolsheviks" and "Mensheviks", from the Russian "bolshinstvo" (majority) and "menshenstvo" (minority), based on the fact that Lenin's supporters narrowly defeated Martov's supporters on the question of party membership. Neither Lenin nor Martov had a firm majority throughout the Congress as delegates left or switched sides. At the end, the Congress was evenly split between the two factions. From 1907 on, English language articles sometimes used the term "Maximalist" for "Bolshevik" and "Minimalist" for "Menshevik", which proved confusing since there was also a "Maximalist" faction within the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1904-1906 and then again after 1917. The two factions of the RSDLP attempted to reunify in 1907, and maintained the fiction that they were one party for several more years. The factions permanently broke off relations after the Bolsheviks failed in an attempt to take over the RSDLP in 1912. As a result, they ceased to be a faction in the RSDLP and instead declared themselves an independent party though they retained the name RSDLP (Bolshevik). 1912 The Bolsheviks believed in organizing the party in a strongly centralized hierarchy that sought to overthrow the Tsar and achieve power. Although the Bolsheviks were not completely monolithic, they were characterized by a rigid adherence to the leadership of the central committee, based on the notion of democratic centralism. The Mensheviks favored open party membership and espoused cooperation with the other socialist and some non-socialist groups in Russia. Bolsheviks generally refused to co-operate with liberal or radical parties (which they labeled "bourgeois") or even eventually other socialist organizations, although Lenin sometimes made tactical alliances. Leon Trotsky was initially a Menshevik in 1903 but soon became an independent and was not a member of either faction until 1917. In that year he lined up behind Lenin and became a Bolshevik after the February Revolution, as he came to believe that events were confirming Lenin's analysis. February Revolution, and Kamenev at the 1919 Party Congress.]] The Bolsheviks played a minor role in the 1905 revolution, and were a minority in the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies led by Trotsky. The less significant Moscow soviet, however, was dominated by the Bolsheviks. These soviets became the model for the soviets that were formed in 1917. During the First World War, the Bolsheviks took an internationalist stance that emphasized solidarity between the workers of Russia, Germany, and the rest of the world, and broke with the Second International when its leading parties ended up supporting their own nations in the conflict.

February Revolution

Before the revolution of February, 1917, main Bolsheviks (Zinoviev, Trotsky, Lenin) lived and worked in Western Europe, receiving financial support from the European social democrats. The February 1917 revolution came about when Tsar Nicholas II attempted to dissolve the Duma only to have the body reject the action and declare a provisional government. The Tsar abdicated leaving the provisional government in control. While the Mensheviks and other moderate socialists believed that an industrially backwards country such as Russia could not hope to achieve socialism and that the task of the revolution was therefore to complete the country's transformation to liberal capitalism, the Bolsheviks believed that Russia could be the spark that would lead Europe to a socialist transformation of society and did not attempt to moderate their program. In the winter of 1917, German authorities had helped Bolshevik leaders to move to Russia in sealed trains and offered large financial support, on the premise that strengthening the revolutionary movement would cripple Russia and sabotage the war effort. The Petrograd Bolshevik Party had been under the control of Stalin who supported co-operation with the provisional government. Lenin opposed this line in his April Theses and the Bolsheviks became opponents of the government with slogans of All Power to Soviets and Bread, Peace and Land which attempted to appeal to the urban working class, soldiers, and to Russia's huge peasant population. Some radical Mensheviks, such as Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks at this point. Stalin changed his position and decided to support Lenin's line.

July Days

In early July widespread discontent in Petrograd led to militant demonstrations calling for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. The Bolshevik leadership opposed this as premature but ended up leading the demonstrations, hoping to prevent any bloodshed. They felt compelled to do this to win the trust of the workers and also in recognition of the fact that many of the Bolshevik rank and file were already organising and supporting the demonstrations. Troops loyal to the Provisional Government suppressed the demonstrations violently. The following crackdown resulted in the Kerensky government ordering the arrest of the Bolshevik leadership on July 19th. Lenin escaped capture, went into hiding, and wrote State and Revolution, which outlined his ideas for a socialist government. The repression against the Bolsheviks ceased when the Kerensky government was threatened by a rebellion led by General Kornilov and offered arms to those who would defend Petrograd against Kornilov. The Bolsheviks enlisted a 25,000 strong militia to defend Petrograd from attack and reached out to Kornilov's troops, urging them not to attack. They stood down and the rebellion fizzled with Kornilov being taken into custody. However, the Bolsheviks did not return their arms and Kerensky succeeded only in strengthening the Bolshevik position. During this period a situation of dual power developed. While the legislature and provisional government were controlled by Kerensky in coalition with the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the workers' and soldiers' soviets were increasingly under the control of the Bolsheviks.

October Revolution

On October 10, the Bolshevik Central Committee established a smaller Politburo to run party affairs due to the increased demands on the party for day-to-day direction. Bubnov, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Lenin, Sokolnikov, Stalin and Trotsky were elected to the body which operated for two weeks and dissolved on October 25, 1917, once the Bolsheviks had taken power in the October Revolution. The Central Committee of the Bolsheviks had been debating whether to call for an insurrection. Lenin urged the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Provisional government. Zinoviev and Kamenev were the only members of the Central Committee to disagree. They took the unusual step of making their objections public in the pages of Pravda, an act that very nearly got them expelled from the party for breaching party discipline. When Kerensky moved against the Bolsheviks on October 22 by ordering the arrest of their Military Revolutionary Committee, banning the Bolshevik newspaper and cutting off telephone lines to the Bolshevik headquarters in the Smolny Institute, Trotsky urged that the Bolsheviks' decision on overthrowing the government be put into action. Lenin concurred and on October 24, orders were issued for the Bolsheviks' Red Guards to occupy key locations in the city and surround the Winter Palace where the Provisional government had its headquarters. The Bolsheviks raised the slogan All power to the soviets meaning that the country should be run by the workers and soldiers councils and not the constituent assembly. On October 26, 1917 the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed power over to a Soviet Council of People's Commissars with Lenin as chairman, Trotsky as commissar of the Red Army and minister of foreign affairs and Bolsheviks taking the other positions of what was the new government of the country. In March 1918, the Seventh Party Congress of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (Bolsheviks) met and, at Lenin's urging, changed the name of the party to the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the name change, however, the party was generally known as the Communist Party with the name Bolshevik referring to the party prior to 1918.

Notes


- See Israel Getzler. Martov: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat, Cambridge University Press, 2003 (first edition 1967), ISBN 0521526027 p.78

See also


- Marxism
- List of socialists - Bolsheviks
- Soviet Union
- History of the Soviet Union
- Russian Revolution of 1917, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution.
- Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
- Yevsektsiya
- Enemy of the people
- Old Bolshevik
- National Bolshevik

External links


- [http://www.marxists.org/history/archive/bobrovskaya/twenty-years/ Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik], by Cecilia Bobrovskaya
- [http://www.marxist.com/bolshevism/ Bolshevism, the Road to Revolution], by Alan Woods
- [http://libcom.org/library/the-bolsheviks-and-workers-control-solidarity-group The Bolsheviks and Workers Control], by Maurice Brinton
- [http://www.pathfinderpress.com Pathfinder Books, Communist bookstore online] Category:Communism Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union Category:Soviet phraseology Category:Political parties of Russian Revolution Category:History of Russia ja:ボリシェヴィキ simple:Bolshevik

Moisei Uritsky

Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky (Моисей Соломонович Урицкий; 1873–August 17 1918) was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia. He was born in the town of Cherkasy, Ukraine, to a Jewish family. His father, a merchant, died when Moisei was little. Moisei's mother raised her son in a religious environment. Moisei studied at the University of Kiev. Becoming involved in the revolutionary movement, he participated in the revolutionary Jewish bunds. He became a Menshevik, and was active in dispatching revolutionary agents (i.e. with his association with Parvus). Uritsky joined the Bolsheviks a few months before the October Revolution of 1917. Uritsky was made head of the Petrograd Cheka, or secret police. Many victims are attributed to his name. A young poet and military cadet of Jewish descent, Leonid Kanegeiser, successfully assassinated Uritsky on August 17 1918 in retaliation for the execution of his friend and other officers. This event, along with the assassination attempt on Vladimir Lenin by Fanya Kaplan on August 30, provoked the Bolsheviks into a wave of persecution known as the Red Terror. Uritsky, Moisei Uritsky, Moisei Uritsky, Moisei

Fanya Kaplan

Faina Yefimovna Kaplan (Фанни Ефимовна Каплан; 1883–September 3, 1918), a.k.a. Fanny Kaplan (born Dora Kaplan), was a political revolutionary and an attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin. Kaplan was born into a Jewish peasant family, one of seven children. She became a political revolutionary at an early age and joined a socialist group, the Socialist Revolutionaries. In 1906, Kaplan participated in an attempted assassination of a government official. The plot failed and Kaplan was arrested and sentenced to life of katorga works in Akatui, Siberia. She was released when the February Revolution overthrew the imperial government. As a result of her imprisonment, Kaplan suffered from continuous headaches and periods of blindness. Kaplan became disillusioned with Lenin as a result of the conflict between the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolshevik party. The Bolsheviks had strong support in the soviets, which Lenin had argued in his 1917 tract "The State and Revolution" were the only legitimate avenue of post-revolutionary government; however, in elections to a competing body, the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks failed to win a majority in the November 1917 elections and a Socialist Revolutionary was elected President in January 1918. The Bolsheviks, favoring soviets, ordered the Constituent Assembly to be dissolved. Over the next few months conflicts between the Bolsheviks and their political opponents led to the banning of all parties except the Bolsheviks. Kaplan decided to assassinate Lenin. On August 30, 1918, Lenin was speaking at a Moscow factory. As Lenin left the building and before he entered his car, Kaplan called out to him. When Lenin turned towards her, she fired three shots. One passed through Lenin's coat, the other two hit him in the left shoulder and left lung. Lenin was taken back to his living quarters at the Kremlin. He feared there might be other plotters planning to kill him and refused to leave the security of the Kremlin to seek medical attention. Doctors were brought in to treat him but were unable to remove the bullets outside of a hospital. But despite the severity of his injuries, Lenin survived. However, Lenin's health never fully recovered from the attack and it is believed the shooting contributed to the strokes that incapacitated and later killed him. Kaplan was taken into custody and interrogated by the Cheka. She made the following statement: My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot at Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent eleven years at hard labour. After the Revolution I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate other political opponents of Lenin, she was shot on September 3. It is said that later it became clear that due to the blindness that she had suffered ever since she had worked in Siberia, she could not have been responsible for the assasination attempt. It is believed that she sacrificed herself in order to keep information about her friends and associates, who had been the true culrpits, secret. On August 17, only days before the attempted assassination of Lenin, Moisei Uritsky, People's Commissar for Internal Affairs in the Northern Region and head of the Cheka in Petrograd was assassinated. While there was no objective evidence linking the two assassinations, the Bolsheviks used them as an excuse to eliminate their political opponents. An official decree for Red Terror was issued only hours after the Kaplan's shootings calling for "a merciless mass terror against all the enemies of the revolution". In the next few months, about 800 SRs and other political opponents of Bolsheviks were executed without trial. During the first year the scope of Red Terror significantly expanded and the executions counted by thousands even by official statistics. Some historians consider this to be a harbinger of the Great Purge. Kaplan, Fanya Kaplan, Fanya Kaplan, Fanya Kaplan, Fanya

1918

1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January 8 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
- January 22 - Manitoba, Canada film censor board bans comedies
- January 24 - a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1 (Julian calendar date), issued
- January 28 - Vladimir Lenin decrees the establishment of the Red Army.
- February 3 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long).
- February 8 - The Stars and Stripes newspaper
- February 14 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar). As a consequence the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, previously October, now falls in November.
- February 16 - Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany
- February 18 - White Cossack troops retreat from the Don after advancing Bolsheviks
- February 24 - Estonia declares its independence from Russia
- February 26 - Grandstands at the Hong Kong Jockey Club collapse - 604 dead

March-April


- March 1 - German submarine U 19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Nothern Ireland.
- March 3 - World War I: Germany, Austria and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in the war.
- March 5 - The Soviet Russia moves its national capital from Petrograd to Moscow
- March 6 - Finnish Air Force founded. The blue swastika is adopted as its symbol as a tribute to the Swedish explorer and aviator Eric von Rosen who donated the first plane. Von Rosen had painted the Buddhist symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.
- March 7 - World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
- March 12 – Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia
- March 19 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST went into effect on March 31).
- March 21 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins
- March 23 - The giant German cannon, the so called Paris Gun begins to shell Paris from 114 km (75 miles) away
- March 23 - In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital.
- March 23 - The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belorussia independent; Bolshevik armies soon crush them
- March 25 - for the first time Belarus declares independence.
- April 1 - The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.

May-July


- May 1 - German troops enter Don province - they take Rostov May 6
- May 2 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
- May 15 - The Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
- May 16 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by US Congress.
- May 26 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
- May 28 - Armenia gains independence from the Ottoman Empire
- June 1 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
- July - The Siberian Expedition is launched to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian civil war.
- July 4 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Mehmed V (Resad) (1909-1918) to Mehmed VI (Vahdettin) (1918-1922)
- July 9 - Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express killing 101.
- July 15 - World War I: Second Battle of the Marne - The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
- July 16 - Russian Revolution: At Ekaterinburg, Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.

August-October


- August - "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (three times as many as died during the war).
- August 1 - British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Archangel, Russia. August 10 commander is told to help White Russians
- August 1 - Emma Susan Daugherty Banister becomes the first female sheriff in the United States following the death of her husband, John Riley Banister.
- August 8 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."
- August 30 - Strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition.
- August 30 - Fanya Kaplan tries to shoot Lenin. Petrograd head of Cheka is assassinated the same day.
- September 11 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship. (their last World Series win until 2004)
- September 28 - Don Voisko adopts a constitution including declaration of independence. Collapse of Imperial Germany makes it void
- October 3 - Kaiser makes Max von Baden a German chancellor.
- October 3 - Poland declares independence.
- October 8 - World War I - In the Argonne Forest in France, US Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
- October 25 - The Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska, 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
- October 28 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary.
- October 28 - New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)

November


- November 1 - Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
- November 1 - Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares brief independence
- November 3 - World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
- November 3 - Poland declares its independence from Russia.
- November 4 - World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
- November 4 - Mutiny in the German fleet at Kiel begin the German Revolution.
- November 6 - A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
- November 8 - German army withdraws its support of the Kaiser
- November 9 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands.
- November 9 - Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.
- November 11 - World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France.
- November 11 - Poland regains independence after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
- November 11 - Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.
- November 12 - Austria becomes a republic.
- November 14 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
- November 14 - Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland
- November 16 - Hungary declares independence from Austria
- November 16 - Hungarian People's Republic declared
- November 18 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
- November 22 - Spartacist League founds German Communist Party
- November 22 - Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war
- November 26 - the Podgorica Assembly voted for "union of the people", declaring a joining into the Kingdom of Serbia

December


- December 1 - Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains united with Denmark.
- December 1 - New voting laws in Sweden. Votes no longer dependent on taxable assets. One person, one vote.
- December 1 - Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with Romania.
- December 1 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
- December 4 - US President Woodrow Wilson sails for the Paris_Peace_Conference, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
- December 27 - Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań rise against the Germans.
- December 28 - Constance Markiewicz becomes the first woman elected to the House of Commons.

Unknown dates


- Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, January - April.
- Habsburg Empire ceases to exist.
- Grand Duchy of Baden ceases to exist.
- British occupy Palestine
- Katla erupts in Iceland.
- Native American Church is founded.
- Ernest Ansermet founds the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
- John Riley Banister becomes sherrif of Coleman County, Texas.
- Clifton Hillegass, American author born (d. 2001)
- Association Against the Prohibition Amendment founded to promote repeal of prohibition in U.S.

Births

January-February


- January 10 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana
- January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
- January 16 - Nel Benschop, Dutch poetess (d. 2005)
- January 16 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (d. 1996)
- January 19 - John H. Johnson, American publisher, (d. 2005)
- January 20 - Esquivel, Mexican musician (d. 2002)
- January 23 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
- January 25 - Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
- January 26 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
- January 26 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
- January 27 - Skitch Henderson, English-born musician and bandleader (d. 2005)
- January 29 - John Forsythe, American actor
- February 1 - Dame Muriel Spark, Scottish author
- February 3 - Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
- February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author
- February 8 - Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
- February 12 - Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- February 17 - William Bronk, American poet (d. 1999)
- February 22 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, American record-holder as the tallest man (d. 1940)
- February 25 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (d. 1996)
- February 25 - Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995)
- February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (d. 1985)

March-April


- March 1 - Roger Delgado, British actor (d. 1973)
- March 1 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
- March 3 - Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian (d. 2000)
- March 5 - James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
- March 9 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)
- March 9 - Mickey Spillane, American mystery writer
- March 11 - Jack Coe, American evangelist (d. 1956)
- March 12 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)
- March 16 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
- March 18 - Al Benton, baseball player (d. 1968)
- March 18 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (d. 2005)
- March 22 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
- March 25 - Howard Cosell, American attorney, lecturer, and sports journalist (d. 1995)
- March 29 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (d. 1990)
- April 9 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
- April 16 - Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (d. 2002)
- April 20 - Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 22 - Mickey Vernon, baseball player
- April 26 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)

May-August


- May 1 - Jack Paar, American television show host (d. 2004)
- May 9 - Mike Wallace, American journalist
- May 9 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
- May 11 - Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
- May 12 - Julius Rosenberg, American-born Soviet spy (d. 1953)
- May 15 - Eddy Arnold, American singer
- May 16 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
- May 17 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano
- May 20 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- June 6 - Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 18 - Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 18 - Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
- July 4 - Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
- July 4 - Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
- July 5 - George Rochberg, American composer (d. 2005)
- July 13 - Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
- July 14 - Ingmar Bergman Swedish film director
- July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
- July 17 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
- July 18 - Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- July 24 - Ruggiero Ricci, Italian-born violinist
- July 27 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
- July 31 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 3 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)
- August 5 - Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet of Canada (d. 2004)
- August 8 - Brian Stonehouse, English painter and World War II spy (d. 1998)
- August 13 - Frederick Sanger, English biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 1990)
- August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)

September-December


- September 4 - Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
- September 8 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- September 22 - Henryk Szeryng, Polish-born violinist (d. 1988)
- September 27 - Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1984)
- October 4 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- October 5 - Roland Garros, French pilot (shot down) (b. 1888)
- October 8 - Jens Christian Skou, Danish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 19 - Louis Althusser, French philosopher (d. 1990)
- October 31 - Ian Stevenson, American parapsychologist
- November 3 - Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (d. 2003)
- November 4 - Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
- November 10 - Ernst Otto Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 13 - Jack Elam, American actor (d. 2003)
- December 8 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
- December 11 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 12 - Joe Williams, American jazz singer (d. 1999)
- December 15 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961)
- December 21 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003)
- December 21 - Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations and President of Austria
- December 23 - José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (d. 2001)
- December 25 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1981)

Deaths


- January 6 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician (b. 1845)
- January 9 - Émile Reynaud, French science teacher and maker of the first animated films (b. 1844)
- January 28 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (b. 1872)
- February 6 - Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (b. 1862)
- February 10 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1833)
- March 13 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (b. 1835)
- March 25 - Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
- March 27 - Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)
- April 20 - Karl Ferdinand Braun, German phyicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1850)
- April 21 - Manfred von Richthofen, "Red Baron", German World War I pilot (b, 1892)
- May 14 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper publisher (b. 1841)
- May 19 - Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot (b. 1885)
- June 10 - Arrigo Boito, Italian poet and composer (b. 1842)
- July 3 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844)
- July 17 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868) and his family (executed)
- August 1 - John Riley Banister, law officer, cowboy, and Texas Ranger (b. 1854)
- August 18 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (b. 1884)
- September 12 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
- September 28 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1858)
- October 22 - Myrtle Gonzalez, American stage and screen actress (b. 1891)
- November 4 - Wilfred Owen, English poet (killed in action) (b. 1893)
- November 9 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (b. 1880)
- November 19 - Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1838)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
- Chemistry - Fritz Haber
- Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - not awarded
- Peace - not awarded Category:1918 ko:1918년 ms:1918 ja:1918年 simple:1918 th:พ.ศ. 2461

Red Army

:A Red Army is a communist army. This article is about the armed forces of the Soviet Union. See People's Liberation Army for the Chinese Red Army, Red Army Faction for the German insurgent group, and Japanese Red Army for the Japanese group. Japanese Red Army The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krest'yanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. This organisation became the army of the Soviet Union after its establishment in 1922. "Red" refers to the blood shed by the working class in its struggle against capitalism. Although it was officially known as the Soviet Army from 1946, the term Red Army is commonly used in the West to refer to the Soviet military after that date, i.e., during the Cold War. Cold War

Early history

Cold War The Council of People's Commissars set up the Red Army by decree on January 15 1918 (Old Style) (January 28, 1918), basing it on the already-existing Red Guard. The official Red Army Day of February 23, 1918 marked the day of the first mass draft of the Red Army in Petrograd and Moscow, and of the first combat action against the occupying imperial German army. February 23 became an important national holiday in the Soviet Union, later celebrated as "Soviet Army Day", and it continues as a day of celebration in present-day Russia as Defenders of the Motherland Day. Credit as the founder of the Red Army generally goes to Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar for War from 1918 to 1924. At the beginning of its existence, the Red Army functioned as a voluntary formation, without ranks and insignia. Democratic elections selected the officers. However, a decree of May 29, 1918 specified obligatory military service was decreed for men of ages 18 to 40. To service the massive draft, the Bolsheviks formed regional military commissariats (военный комиссариат, военкомат (voenkomat)), which still exist in Russia in this function and under this name as of 2005. (Note: do not confuse military commissariats with the institution of military political commissars.) Following Aleksei Brusilov's offering his professional services, Bolsheviks decided to permit conscription of officers of the army of Imperial Russia. A special commission under the chair of Lev Glezarov (Лев Маркович Глезаров) was set, and by August 1920, about 315,000 of them had been drafted. Most often they held a position of military advisor (voyenspets: "военспец" for "военный специалист", i.e., "military specialist"), and a number of prominent Soviet Army commanders were former Imperial generals. In fact, a number of former Imperial military men, notably, a member of the Supreme Military Council Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, joined Bolsheviks earlier. The Bolshevik authorities assigned to every unit of the Red Army a political commissar, or politruk, who had the authority to override unit commanders' decisions if they ran counter to the principles of the Communist Party. Although this sometimes resulted in inefficient command, the Party leadership considered political control over the military necessary, as the Army relied more and more on experienced officers from the pre-revolutionary Tsarist period. Tsar, and soldiers of the Red Army in Petrograd ]]

Officer Corps

Ranks and Titles

The institution of a professional officer corps was abandoned as a "heritage of tsarism" in the Revolution. In particular, the word officer was condemned and the word commander was used instead. Epaulettes and ranks were abolished, and the titles were purely functional, e.g. “Division Commander”, “Corps Commander”, etc. In 1924, the system was supplemented with “service categories”, from K-1 (lowest) to K-14 (highest). The service categories were essentially ranks in disguise, they were indicative of the experience and qualification of a commander; the insignia now denoted the category, not position of a commander. However, the functional titles still had to be used to address commanders, which could be as awkward as “comrade deputy head of staff of corps” and was simply impossible if the position was not known, in which case one of the possible positions was used, e.g., “Regiment Commander” for K-9. On September 22, 1935 the service categories were abolished and personal ranks introduced. These ranks, however, were a peculiar mix of functional titles and “normal“ ranks. For example, there was a rank of Lieutenant and there was a rank of “Comdiv” (Комдив, Division Commander). It was further complicated by functional and categorical ranks for political officers (e.g., “Brigade Commissar”, “Army Commissar 2nd Rank”), for technical corps (e.g., “Engineer 3rd Rank”, “Division Engineer”), for administrative, medical and other non-combatant branches. On May 7, 1940, the system was modified again. The senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm were replaced with General or Admiral ranks; the other senior functional ranks (“Division Commissar”, “Division Engineer”, etc.) were not affected. On November 2, 1940, the system was further modified by abolishing functional ranks for NCOs and introducing the Podpolkovnik (sub-colonel) rank. In early 1942 all the functional ranks in technical and administrative corps were replaced with regularised ranks (e.g., “Engineer Major”, “Engineer Colonel”, “Captain Intendant Service”, etc.). On October 9, 1942 the system of military commissars was abolished, together with the commissar ranks. The functional ranks were only retained in medical, veterinary and legislative corps. In early 1943, the system was unified and all the remaining functional ranks were abolished. The word “officer” was officially endorsed, together with epaulettes that superseded the previous rank insignia. The ranks and insignia of 1943 did not change much until the last days of the USSR; the contemporary Russian Army uses largely the same system. The old functional ranks of Combat (Battalion or Battery Commander), Combrig (Brigade Commander) and Comdiv (Division Commander) are still used informally.

General Staff

On September 22, 1935, the RKKA Staff was renamed as the General Staff, which was essentially a reincarnation of the General Staff of the Russian Empire. Many of the former RKKA Staff officers had been General Staff officers in the Russian Empire and became General Staff officers in the USSR. General Staff officers typically had extensive combat experience and solid academic training.

Military Education

During the Civil War, the commander cadres were trained at the General Staff Academy of RKKA (Академия Генерального штаба РККА), which was an alias for the Nicholas General Staff Academy (Николаевская академия Генерального штаба) of the Russian Empire. On August 5, 1921 the Academy was renamed as the Military Academy of RKKA (Военная академия РККА), and in 1925 as the Frunze (М.В. Фрунзе) Military Academy of RKKA. The senior and supreme commanders were trained at the Higher Military Academic Courses (Высшие военно-академические курсы), renamed in 1925 as the Advanced Courses for Supreme Command (Курсы усовершенствования высшего начальствующего состава); in 1931, the courses were supplemented by establishing an Operations Faculty at the Frunze Military Academy. On April 2, 1936, the General Staff Academy was re-installed, and it was to become a principal school for the senior and supreme commanders of the Red Army, as well as a centre for advanced military studies.

Purges

Late 30s were marked by so-called Purges of the Red Army cadres, in the historical background of the Great Purge. The objective of the Purges was to cleanse the Red Army of the “politically unreliable element”, mainly among the higher-ranking officers, which inevitably provided a convenient pre-text to settle personal vendettas and eventually resulted in a witch hunt. The Purges are believed by some to have weakened the Army considerably, but this remains a hotly debated subject. A consideration often neglected is that the Army grew significantly while the Purges were in full swing. In 1937, the Army numbered around 1.3 million, and it grew almost three times that number by June 1941. This necessitated quick promotion of junior officers, often despite their lack of experience or training, with the obvious grave implications. Another important consideration is that by the end of the Purges the pendulum swung back, and many of the officers were restored and promoted. Recently declassified data indicate that in 1937, the culmination of the Purges, the Army had 114,300 officers, of which 11,034 were repressed and not rehabilitated until 1940. Yet, in 1938, the Red Army had 179,000 officers (56% more compared to 1937), of which further repressed and not rehabilitated until 1940 were 6,742. In the highest echelons of the Army, the Purges removed 3 of 5 marshals, 13 of 15 army generals, 8 of 9 admirals, 50 of 57 army corps generals, 154 out of 186 division generals, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars.

Doctrines and Weapons

Major conflicts

Civil War

Main article: Russian Civil War

Central Asia

Far East

Battle of Halhin Gol

In 1934, Mongolia and the