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THE CIVIL WAR Tatyana Shvetsova
Map: The Penguin Atlas of
World History / 1995 |
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In 1918 a Civil war broke out in Russia following the
Bolshevik revolution of October 1917. Historian Leonid Katzva mentions the
following reasons for the Civil war in this country: The confiscation of property of
landowners, banks, industrial and trade enterprises inevitably sparked an
armed resistance on the part of the landowners and bourgeoisie, seeking to
regain their own at any cost. Repressions
against the press and the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly forced a
major part of the intelligentsia to join the camp of intractable enemies of
Soviet power. The policy regarding the food produce, likewise, forced a
predominant part of the peasant folk and the Cossacks to join the ranks of
the rabid anti-bolshevists. Anti-bolshevist forces received
considerable support on the part of the foreign states, incensed at the
confiscation of their foreign property in In the words of historian Pyotr
Deinichenko, “The first salvos of Civil war resounded as early as in December
1917, when Ataman Alexei Kaledin introduced martial law on the territory of
the Don army. The Bolsheviks, who had seized power in Rostov-on-the-Don,
demanded that Kaledin renounce authority. In response, the Ataman launched
military action, and on December 15th his troops, as a result of a spate of
heavy fighting, secured Kornilov’s
political program presupposed setting up a “powerful temporary supreme power comprising
people with state vision”, which would reinstate private property, curb the
impulsive division of land, and in the future – elect a new Constituent
Assembly. There was no mention of a return to monarchy.” In the winter of 1918 the Bolsheviks found
themselves in a dire situation. As Pyotr Deinichenko notes, “the country
hadn’t yet surfaced from the mire of [ Vladimir Lenin’s curt instructions to the
participants of the delegation at the negotiations demanded that peace be
signed at any cost. The beginning of talks was marred by the suicide of one
of the military consultants of the Soviet delegation, Colonel Vladimir
Skalon. In a suicide note addressed to his wife he wrote: “…I cannot continue to live and be a
witness to Russia’s disgrace, and even greater disgrace that awaits her in
the nearest future, so I choose to take leave of this life.” Negotiations with the German side were
conducted by a delegation of Bolsheviks. Historian Oleg Platonov insists that
part of them (to be exact, Leon Trotsky, Adolph Yoffe and Lev Karahan) were
directly involved with German intelligence. “Traitors within the ranks of the
delegation acted out a real farce regarding the negotiations, the result of
which was a one-sided document - Russia’s avouchment to withdraw from
the military action and demobilize its army,” Oleg Platonov writes. This document,
which Leon Trotsky referred to as ‘neither war, nor peace’, specifically
said: “In the name of the People’s Commissars
the Government of the This document was a veritable gift for the
German alliance. Thanks to it, the German forces dislocated at the Russian
border faced no hindrance at all – they were free to seize any Russian
territory they saw fit. “This was how the Bolsheviks footed
the bill for the money received from the German headquarters in 1913 – 1917,
simultaneously washing their hands of the consequences of the situation
they’d provoked, since they hadn’t signed the ‘annexationist treaty’,” Oleg
Platonov goes on to write. “As a result of all this the defenseless Russian
land was immediately overrun with voracious German hordes. There began an
all-out plundering of occupied territories.” Eventually, in March 1918 the Brest peace
treaty was signed, but on the most relentless terms for this country.
Besides, As if this was not enough, Russia vowed to
pay a 3 billion contribution in bread, ore and other raw material, besides
handing over to Germany almost two hundred and a half thousand kilos of
gold. Oleg Platonov insists that in order to
maintain a hold on their power, the Bolsheviks were prepared to hand all of
historical Russian territory over to the Germans. That German occupation
would bring suffering to so many people of this country was the least of
their concerns. The historian writes that in the case of a German advance in
the spring-summer of 1918 Lenin planned to give them the territory flush up
to the Urals. Lenin said to Leon Trotsky: “We shall retreat further eastwards, set
up a Urals-Kuznetsk republic, drawing on the industry of the Urals and Kuznetsk
basin coal, the Urals proletariat and that part of the Moscow and Petrograd
workers that we shall manage to led with us. We shall hang on. If needs be,
we can move further to the East, beyond the Urals. Even if we have to go as
far as The Russian Orthodox Church denounced the
Brest peace accords, discerning in them a means of undermining the Russian
Orthodox state and splitting the Russian people. Patriarch Tikhon (Belavin)
addressed the parish with a message, where it was said in part: “Blessed is peace amongst peoples, for we
are all brothers, and the Lord summons us all to work peacefully on Earth; He
has equally bestowed on us all his innumerable gifts… The long-suffering
Russian people, entrapped in a bloody fratricidal war, desperately long for
peace. However, is this the peace our Church prays for, and that the people
crave?.. A peace according to which intrinsically Orthodox Ukraine is
separated from fraternal Russia, and the glorious city of Kiev, the Mother of
all Russian towns, the cradle of our Christianity, a vessel of holy sanctity,
ceases to be a city of the Russian Empire… The Holy Orthodox Church, that at all
times aided the Russian people ingathering together and grandifying the
Russian state, cannot look on indifferently as it is plundered and destroyed…
This peace, signed in the name of the Russian people, will not help bring
about fraternal coexistence of peoples… It contains the insidious germs of
future wars and evils for all of humanity.” According to Oleg Platonov, the Germans
continued to channel financial assistance to the Bolsheviks even after the “Please use large sums, since it is in our
vested interests that the Bolsheviks survive. The Ritzler Funds are at your
disposal. Should you need more, do not hesitate to let us know how much… As
much as it is possible we need to prevent the consolidation of The Bolshevist coup and close cooperation
of the Bolshevik regime with Germany sharply enhanced the peculiarities of
the German occupationist policy, which originally started taking shape in the
years of World War I. It was directed towards an artificial fanning of local
separatist movements and the eventual partition of Pursuing the aim of dissecting Russia, the
German Foreign ministry sent their peace negotiators with Russia the
following memo on May 7th 1917: “In order to avoid the word ‘annexation’
in negotiations with Russia, and the equally distasteful to them expression
‘correction of the borders’, its would be advisable to ‘guild the pill’ of
disclaiming Kurland and Lithuania for the Russians, turning these into
allegedly independent states, which shall be granted internal autonomy and
their own government, yet in military, political and economic respects will
be under our complete control”. Prior to WWI no state ever disputed the
legality of the Baltics being a part of the Russian Empire. Historian Oleg
Platonov claims that, “the marionette ‘states’ and ‘governments’ of In December 1917, under dictation from
Berlin, the so-called “Lithuanian council” – “Tariba” – proclaimed ‘eternal,
consolidated ties’ with Germany. And in June 1918 Oleg Platonov stresses that “…new ‘state’
structures were of a purely nominal character. They were the direct result of
German expansion and at the time received no recognition on the part of the
European states. To acknowledge at the time the legality of the setting up of
these states would have been equal to recognizing the legality of A similar manifestation of Germany’s
unlawful occupationist policy was the setting up of the so-called “Ukrainian
statehood” under the name of ‘Central Rada’ (or, in Russian, Central
Council). This state structure was set up by several socialist parties and
organizations headed by freemason Mikhail Grushevsky – who served with the
Austro-Hungarian intelligence. In October 1917 the Central Rada almost
simultaneously with the Bolshevist coup seized power in In April 1918 German forces occupied the
Crimea. Ukrainian ribald groups participated in the occupation of the peninsula.
They were the first to enter Crimea’s central town – On June 13th 1918 General Kraus reported
to Vienna that the Germans ‘intended to retain the Crimea for themselves, as a
colony or in some other such form. They would never let the priceless As a result of Germany’s occupation of
Georgia on May 26th 1918 the so-called ‘independent Georgia’ emerged. In
actual fact, this was a German colonial territory, governed from And these were just several examples of Such was the price of the Leon Trotsky’s followers hoped that the
German aggression against the Soviet Russia would spur on a proletarian
revolution in Germany. However, the German proletariat was in no haste to
demonstrate class solidarity. While The decree of the Soviet of People’s Commissars
“On the formation of a Red Army of Workers and Peasants” said: “The old army served as an instrument of
class persecution of the laborers by the bourgeoisie. With the transfer of
power to the workers and the exploited classes there emerged a need to create
a new army, that would become the bulwark of Soviet power in the present, and
a foundation for substituting a regular army with a ‘citizens-in-arms’ in the
near future, serving to provide support for the looming socialist revolution
in Europe.” As historian Pyotr Deinichenko notes, “The
Decree on the formation of the Red Army of Workers and Peasants was already
signed in January 1918. Leon Trotsky was personally involved in its creation.
The numerical strength and training of the troops, put together from workers’
volunteers and Red Guard units, was certainly not adequate to put up any
resistance worth speaking of to the advancing German war machine. Still, on
February 23rd 1918 detachments of the Red Army succeeded in cutting short the
advance of the enemy on the approaches to Narva and Early in April, under the pretext of
fighting the Bolsheviks, who had gone back on their obligations as allies, 70
thousand Japanese and 7500 Americans landed in the Russian Far East. There
was no frontline there. Besides heightened activity of the foreign
intervention, the Bolshevik’s enemies inside Russia were not idle, either. A
50-thousand – strong Czechoslovak legion of war prisoners, dislocated in
echelon along the entire Transsiberian artery, passed over to their side.
This is what a newspaper of the “Until 1918 Czechia and Slovakia were a
part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and experienced national oppression. This
is what forced them to lay their hopes at During the First World War (Under the
Czarist government in Russia) the Czechs and the Slovaks willingly
surrendered into Russian captivity, at times in whole regiments. They were
the backbone of the 50,000-strong Czechoslovak legion, set up to war against According to the Brest Accords, signed
between the Bolsheviks and The Legion joined sides with the “White”
movement in The revolt of the Czechoslovak
legionnaires stoked up anti-bolshevist forces in those regions of Russia,
where they had their echelons – in other words, across the entire
Transsiberian road – from regions in Central Russia to the Far-Eastern city
of Vladivostok. There were counterrevolutionary revolts in
a number of regions along the The Bolsheviks were successful in putting
down some of the rebellions. However, across a broad expanse of territory
from along the Volga to Siberia, in the Northern areas of the country and the
Transcaucasus their power was overthrown, and governments of the democratic
counterrevolution installed. These governments consisted of
constitutional democrats, socialists-revolutionaries, and Mensheviks, who
were in favor of a democratic renewal of Russia, called for convening the
Constituent Assembly, the ousting of the Bolsheviks and a struggle against
the ultra-right monarchists. In the Northern Russian towns of According to historian Pyotr Deinichenko,
“From that moment the armed standoff between sympathizers and opponents of
Soviet power evolved into a full-scale civil war. In these conditions the Bolsheviks were
forced to reject the voluntary principle of their revolutionary armed forces
and announced total mobilization into the Red Army. Many officers of the Czarist army,
particularly those who had served their way upwards from the lowest ranks,
took up service with the Red Army. It wasn’t fear of possible reprisals alone
that motivated their actions. Many professional army men saw this as an
opportunity for a revival of the army, a chance to counter the military
intervention and the dissolution of The army was built on the principles of
severe discipline. There were no Soldiers’ committees any longer, but instead
there emerged ‘communist units’ and commissar-Bolsheviks. The soldiers were guaranteed a food ration
and benefits. As for the deserters (and their families) – the new authorities
had no qualms about executing them on the spot.” Fearful lest the monarchists in the ‘White
Guards’ midst release the Czar’s family, the Bolsheviks rushed to execute the
royal family which was in the Urals. All the more so since the monarchic
inclinations of a major part of the Russian people, particularly the
peasants, were still strong, just as prior to the revolution. Many peasants
hoped and believed that the Czar would soon return to power, life would get
back on track and everything would return to normal. While the Russian Czar was alive, as a
Supreme leader of the nation, a symbol of Russia’s unity, the Bolsheviks
could not be certain of their own power and the efficiency of their measures
to destroy and dismember Russia. Later, Leon Trotsky admitted in his
recollections that the Bolsheviks particularly feared the “White” movement
would announce a return of the Czar and resurrection of Czarist rule, for
they were convinced this would spell a collapse of the Soviet regime. The decision to execute the royal family
belonged to Vladimir Lenin and was supported by practically all members of the
bolshevist leadership. As to how the Czar’s family was murdered,
historian Oleg Platonov writes the following: “The first victim of the bolshevist plan
to destroy the Czar’s family was the Czar’s brother – Grand Prince Mikhail
Alexandrovich. On the night from the 11th to the 12th of June 1918 a group of
members of the VCheka (The Extraordinary Commission for fighting
counterrevolution and sabotage) aided by soviet militia units, took the Grand
Prince and his personal secretary away to a distant location outside According to historian Oleg Platonov,
Yakov Sverdlov personally oversaw all preparations for the execution of the
royal family: “Through an old-time associate dating to
the terrorist activities of 1905 – 1907 Shaya Goloshekin, Sverdlov chose the
man to do the actual killing of the Czar. It was Yankel Yurovsky, grandson of
a Rabbi. Yurovsky was an individual totally devoid of morals, with a manifest
sadistical streak. He was notorious for monstrous punitive actions against
Russian people incarcerated within the VCheka. Together with Shaya
Goloshekin, Yankel Yurovsky was a Presidium member of the Urals Soviet. A
special headquarters was set up for executing the plan, with the
above-mentioned individuals joined by bolshevist terrorist old-timers. Initially it was planned to kill the Czar
allegedly during his attempt to escape. A false letter was specially written
allegedly from the officers attempting to save him, and handed over to the
Czar. Yet, the latter did not fall for the bait and so his enemies had only
one option left – direct murder. On July 16th 1918 a telegram arrived in
Yekaterinburg where the royal family was kept in custody from Moscow, written
in code. It contained orders to “execute the Romanovs”. The evening of that same day Shaya
Goloshekin, who oversaw the crime, gave Yankel Yurovsky the direct order to
kill the royal family. Yurovsky had already prepared everything. There were
two spots arranged for the bodies to be hidden. One of the participants of the crime,
guard Andrei Strekotin later recalled: “All the arrested were dressed in clean,
festive vestments. The Czar carried his son in his arms… The youngest,
Anastasia, is carrying a small lap dog in her arms; the ex-Empress is
striding arm in arm with her eldest daughter – Olga… When the arrested were
led into the room, a group of people followed them inside. I left my post and
walked after them. They and I stopped on the threshold of the room, which the
arrested had just been led into. With a curt movement of the arm Yurovsky
motions where the arrested should stand, saying in a quiet voice: “Please,
you stand here, and you – over here, like this, in a row.” The arrested stood in two rows: the royal
family in the first, their servants in the second. The heir sat on a chair. The Czar stood on the right flank. One of
the lackeys stood behind him. Yurovsky stood facing the Czar, his right hand
in his trouser pocket. In his left hand he held a small piece of paper. Then
he read out the sentence… He had hardly read the last words, when
the Czar loudly interrupted: “What? I do not understand. Please read it
again.” Yurovsky read it over again. On the last word he instantaneously
brought out his revolver and shot pointblank at the Czar. Several voices
cried out: "Oh!" The Czarina and her daughter Olga tried to cross
themselves, but it was too late. Simultaneously with Yurovsky's shot there
rang out shots made by a group of people specially summoned for the purpose.
The Czar didn't survive the sole bullet released from the revolver and
collapsed on the spot. The other ten people also fell to the ground. Several
more shots were fired at them just in case. The smoky haze shut out the
electric light and made breathing difficult. The firing ceased and the
windows were thrown open to let in some air. Stretchers were carried in and they began
laying the corpses onto them. The body of the Czar was the first to be
carried out. The corpses were piled into a truck, standing in the yard. When
they were placing one of the daughters into the truck, she cried out and
covered her face with her arm. Some of the others also turned out to be
alive. They could no longer fire since through the open doors the shots would
be heard out in the street. According to comrades from the group, even the
first shots were heard on all inside and outside guard posts. Yermakov took
my rifle with bayonet and slaughtered all those who were yet alive...” After murdering the entire royal family,
the Bolsheviks actually announced the fact only several days later, stating
that “the former Czar had been executed”. They consciously and purposefully
disseminated the falsehood that he remaining members of the royal family were
alive and in a safe place. On the following day after the death of
the Czar's family the bolshevist leaders demanded that other members of the
house of Romanov be killed, too. They were also being detained in the Urals,
in Alapaevsk. After beating them up, they threw these people down a 60-metere
mine shaft, following this up with a batch of hand grenades and then covering
the opening up with logs and boulders. However, the agony of the martyrs
continued for several days. Local residents testify to having heard muted
prayers and singing coming from the mine. Having killed the Czar's relatives,
the Bolsheviks lied to the world that these relatives had, allegedly, escaped
from Voicing the opinion of the supreme
leadership of the Bolsheviks, Leon Trotsky wrote in his “Diary”: “...The execution of the royal family was
imperative not simply to instill fear, to shock, deprive the enemy of all
hope, but also to shake up our own ranks, to show that what lay ahead was
either total victory or total ruin.” The Russian Orthodox Church responded to the
murder of the royal family by condemning the criminal regime. Addressing the
Russian people Holy Patriarch Tikhon said: “...recently a terrible crime was
committed: former Czar Nikolai Alexandrovich was executed... We must, in line
with the teachings of the Holy Writ, condemn this action, otherwise the blood
of the victim will fall on us, too, besides those who committed it... Let
them brand us counterrevolutionaries for this, let them incarcerate us,
execute us... We are prepared to take all this, in the conviction that the
words of our Savior: "Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and who
are faithful to it" shall also be referred to us. Here is the opinion of the Russian
Orthodox Church abroad, expressed by Archbishop of Syracuse and Troitsk Averkiy
(Taushev). According to him, the slaughter of the royal family was imbued
with mystical purport: “It was planned and carried out by none
other than servants of the coming antichrist - those, who sold their soul to
the devil, who are preparing for the speedy enthronement of Christ's enemy -
the antichrist. They were perfectly aware that the sole obstacle in their
path was Orthodox Czarist Russia. So it was imperative to destroy Orthodox
Russia, replacing it with a godless, atheist state which would gradually
spread its tentacles of power all over the world. In order to achieve a
speedy and unfailing destruction of Copyright © 2006 The Voice of Originally
published at http://www.vor.ru/English/homeland/home_031.html 01/16/2006 Illustrations: “Russia. A Complete
Encyclopaedic Guide.” |
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