Vzestup a pád rudého jezdectva v ruské občanské válce, 1918‒1920. Případ 1. jízdní armády

• Authors: Bohuslav Litera

Title variants

EN

The Rise and fall of the Red Cavalry in the Russian Civil War (1918‒1920). The Case of the 1st Cavalry Army

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

Between 1918 and 1920, the 1st Cavalry Army, a formation of the Red Army, reflected the way in which the peasant world had been transformed and deformed by the civil war. The army itself drafted or rather forcibly conscripted young men, its members chose their own lower-rank commanders, and it ensured its own supplies, arms and equipment. It didn’t originate from the initiative of either the military or the political authorities in Moscow, but rather it evolved from „below“, more precisely from partisan divisions. Formed mainly by peasants, these divisions arose out of local conditions and resources, and aimed at defending the people from the „whites“. The crisis of the 1st Cavalry Army, the elite unit of the Red Army, was a sign that the Bolshevik regime was to about to face new trends: the disintegration of its power base, without which it could never have won the civil war, but which now threatened to destroy it, i.e. the unrest and rebellion of Red Army units which had begun to fall apart. The Red Army soldiers were mostly peasants, who tired, disillusioned and hungry, were rife to start a rebellion. Furthermore, the country was afflicted by widespread famines and there were outbreaks of several larger and minor uprisings in the countryside. The only solution was to effectuate a fundamental change in the overall state political system: the transition from the politics of War Communism to the New Economic Policy.

Keywords

EN

History; the 20th century; Russia; the civil war; Polish-Soviet war; the army

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Moderní dějiny: sborník k dějinám 19. a 20. století (Modern History: Studies into 19th and 20th century history)
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 71-88

Contributors

author

Bohuslav Litera

• Historický ústav AV ČR, Prosecká 76, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic