Key Events of the Russian Civil War 1918-21

By Elebarrhist

  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1st British troops land at Murmansk

    March

  • Red Army established

    January

  • Czech legion rebels + captures parts of Trans-Siberian railway

    May
    -Czech legion formed by Czech nationalists - to get recognition
    4 Czech state independence.
    -idea= fight w Rus against Au+Gr
    -Rus taken out of war bc Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Legion decided
    fight w Allies @ Western front
    -Soviet forces agreed 2 transport CL along Trans-Siberian railway 2 Vladivostok, thn take ship 2 W Eu
    -clashes w local Bolshevik
    -C took over important sections of railway + large parts of western Siberia.
    -Substantial White forces grew up around them

  • Conscription into Red Army is introduced

    May

  • Socialist Revolutionary government is established at Samara

    June

  • Murder of the Tsar and his family

    June

  • Americans arrive in northern Russia and in the east

    August

  • British land at Archangel and establish an anti-Bolshevik government

    August

  • Kolchak assumes control in Omsk

    November

  • French land at Odessa

  • Period: to

    Russian Civil war 1918-21

  • Denikin assumes supreme command in the south-east

    February

  • Red Army occupies Kiev

    February

  • Kolchak's forces cross the Urals but are repulsed by the Red Army

    March

  • Growing discontent in French and British forces

    March

  • French evacuate Odessa

    April

  • Denikin and southern army take Kharkov

    June

  • Denikin advances from the Caucasus and captures Tsaritsyn

    July

  • Loss of Kharkov and Tsaritsyn leads to criticism of Trotsky, he resigns but his resignation is refused

    July

  • Allies evacuate Archangel

    September

  • Denikin takes Orel but is forced back later in the month

    October

  • Yudenich reaches outskirts of Petrograd

    October

  • Yudenich is defeated; Denikin is pushed back

    November

  • Kolchak (captured in January) is executed by the Bolsheviks

    February

  • Red Army invades Georgia

    February

  • Denikin, having been pursued to the Crimea, is succeeded by Wrangel

    April

  • Tukhachevsky mounts Red Army counter-offensive against Poles

    July

  • Red Army defeated by Poles outside Warsaw

    August

  • Wrangel, last surviving White General, is defeated in the Crimea

    November

  • Polish Army invades Russia and occupies Kiev

    May
    Poles wanted to take advantage of the civil war and captured Kiev in 1920.
    By this time, Bolsheviks had defeated most civil war enemies and polish invasion brought non-Bolsheviks to the support of the red banner -the poles were an old enemy.
    Poles were pushed back to Warsaw.
    The reds had overstretched supply lines, lacked support and were defeated by the Poles.
    Settlement in 1921 reached=
    Treaty of Riga, Russians surrendered large areas of white Russia + Ukraine to the Poles.

  • Treaty of Riga: peace between Poland and Soviet Russia

    March