The
Russian Civil War (
Grazhdanskaya voyna v Rossiy) (November 1917-October 1922) was a multi-party war in the former
Russian Empire immediately after the
Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. The two largest combatant groups were the
Red Army, fighting for the
Bolshevik form of
socialism, and the loosely allied forces known as the
White Army, which included diverse interests favoring
monarchism,
capitalism and alternative forms of socialism, each with
democratic and
antidemocratic variants. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological
Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. Eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the
Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White
Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine and the army led by Admiral
Aleksandr Kolchak in Siberia in 1919. The remains of the White forces commanded by
Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in
Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two more years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the
Far East continued well into 1923. Armed national resistance in
Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934. There were an estimated 7,000,000-12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen.