The Russian Civil War

[Vendetta]

Now, I thought I was pretty educated (read: well enough to know what it was and what it was about) about the Russian Civil War; what with the Red and White Armies. However, I have recently been tasked with a project about Animal Farm and how it related to the Russian Revolution, and after reading up on a few websites, I find that there were more than just the Reds and the Whites (which, although only slightly surprising, stumped me). My question is: how many armies/movements were actually in the Russian Civil War, and what of the politics/alliances/splinterings/etc between them?

[Everyday Anarchy]

There were small armies of United States marines sent to aid the Whites.

[ComradeOm]

Well while it wasn't quite as simple as Red v White these were, by far, the two largest sides. With the exception of the Ukraine, where Makhno and his nationalists had considerable strength, third armies made little if any impact in the war. That's not to suggest of course that the Whites were a homogenous force. While the Reds were relatively centralised, the White Armies fell under the command of a number of different warlords.

[bezdomni]

There were 21 foreign armies that went in to Russia to fight the Reds, if I am not mistaken.

The US certainly was there.

[apathy maybe]

There were a number of different armies during the Russian civil war. Apart from the foreign armies (which included the USA, UK, France and Czech POWs who had fought in the Austro-Hungarian army), there were the monarchists who wanted a return to the Tsarist days, the liberal/bourgeois who wanted a constitutional monarchy (like in the UK) and the liberal/bourgeois who wanted a republic. These were all considered "white". Then there were various national armies and groups, Polish, Lithuanian, etc. The anarchists had a big army which was also sort of nationalistic in the Ukraine. Then there was the "red" army, which conscripted heaps of people, and which also included a lot Tsarists officers.

And I probably missed some group.

And Wikipedia probably has more info.

[apathy maybe]

From Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_civil_war >

A loose confederation of anti-Bolshevik forces aligned against the Communist government, including republican, conservative, reactionary, pro-monarchist, liberal, non-Bolshevik socialists, and democratic reformist supporters, voluntarily united only in their opposition to Bolshevik rule. Their military forces became known as the White movement (sometimes referred to as the "White Army"), and they controlled significant parts of the former Russian empire for most of the war.

A Ukrainian nationalist movement known as the Green Army and an anarchist movement known as the the Black Army played a much smaller part in the war, sometimes harrying both the Reds and the Whites, and sometimes even each other.

[Vendetta]

Hmm...thanks, you guys. I&#39;ll be sure to use this stuff.