Osprey Men-at-Arms 293 : The Russian Civil War (1) : The Red Army

Every civil war is a tragedy for the nation involved. The tragedy for Russia was aggravated by its relative backwardness, its enormous territory, the mass illiteracy of its population, and by the pompous promises of a better world to come, which never came true. The loss of about 13 million lives within five years speaks for itself. The Civil War in Russia lasted from 1917 until 1926, although major military operations were over by 1922. Residual fighting continued in Central Asia, where the Reds were opposed by local independence movements, and in Russia and the Ukraine, where Cheka security forces viciously put down a number of peasant uprisings. The main instrument with which the Bolsheviks imposed communism on Russia was the Red Army. Traditionally the origins of this army were among the factory workers who laid down their tools and took up arms as a way of expressing their grievances against the Imperial Russian state. Already formed by the time of the revolutions of 1905 and February 1917, these militant workers organised themselves into parliamentary detachments known as the krasnogvardeytsi, or 'Red Guards'. In this first of two books [Men-at-Arms 305 The Russian Civil War (2) : White Armies] focusing on the Russian Civil War, Mikhail Khvostoc examines the Red Army's organisation, weaponry, uniforms and insignia, in a text complemented by a multitude of illustrations including diagrams, contemporary photographs and eight full page colour plates by Andrei Karachtchouk, with lengthy commentaries. The companion book is Men-at-Arms 305 : The Russian Civil War (2) : White Armies.

Contents

• Introduction
• The Red Guards
• The Red Army
• Chronology
• Red Army Organisation
• Weaponry
• Uniforms and Insignia
• The Plates