Osprey Men-at-Arms 305 : The Russian Civil War (2) : White Armies

The White cause began to emerge in the spring and summer of 1917, soon after the February revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. At the time Russia seemed to be descending into chaos. In St Petersburg Kerensky's Provisional Government was rapidly losing its grip on power at the expense of the Bolsheviks. In August/September 1917 the supreme commander of Russia's armed forces, General Lavr Kornilov, attempted to restore order by marching on St Petersburg. His aims were misunderstood, he was arrested, and the Bolsheviks used his 'attempted coup' as a pretext to arm themselves - creating the Red Guards. The October revolution followed as a direct result. From the start opposition to the Bolsheviks was never united - there was no single White Army that fought a coordinated war against its Red counterpart. The forces available to the Whites represented a spectrum of political factions. White monarchist military organisations (which had sprung up all over Russia even before the October revolution) were not always friendly to social-democratic Whites, and on several occasions came to blows. Many of the Cossack hosts sided with the Whites, seeing it as an opportunity to create their own independent states; others remained neutral or hostile to both sides. Everywhere the non-Russian peoples of the Russian empire seized their chance for independence; some, but not all, entered into alliances with White armies. Mikhail Khvostov examines the uniforms and equipment of the White armies of the Russian Civil War accompanied by illustrations by Andrei Karachtchouk. A companion book to Men-at-Arms 293 The Russian Civil War (1) : The Red Army.

Contents

• The White Cause
• Uniforms and Equipment
• The White Armies
• North Russia
• North-West Russia
• South Russia
• East Russia
• The Russian Far East
• Nationalist Forces
• Peasant Risings
• Military Decorations
• The Plates