Civil War 2 3rd edition. "Civil War II" - Marvel's new global event
World War II and Civil War II
An unsuccessful attempt to make a revolution and establish a “Bavarian Soviet Socialist Republic” in Germany, stories, publications of Russian emigrants and German participants in the civil war, primarily von der Goltz’s division, about events in Russia, the atrocities of the Cheka and the Red Army of Comrade Trotsky, publications taken from Russia's "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" not only strengthened anti-communist and anti-Semitic sentiments, but also created the preconditions for people's support of the National Socialist Party of Germany as a counteraction to the party of communist internationalists. The members of the Imperial Family, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich and his German wife, miraculously saved from the massacre of the communists, emigrated to her family estate in Bavaria. Wanting to take revenge on the Communists and the Red Army for the murder of the entire Imperial Family and Russian officers, they introduced the then unknown Adolf Hitler to influential people in Germany, primarily General Ludendorff, industrialist Ford and others.
Killers of members of the Imperial Family in Yekaterinburg.
The victory of the National Socialists in Germany and the defeat of the Communists completely changed the course of history in Europe. The work of Comintern agents on direct orders from Moscow in Spain and France led to new centers of war in Europe.
The communists from the USSR send the “republicans”, led by an agent of the Comintern, assistance with tanks, weapons, instructors and “internationalists”. The National Socialists from Germany send their military aid to General Franco. Russian emigrants, former ranks of the Russian Army, including General Fok, who later became a national hero of Spain, also enlisted on Franco’s side to fight the “communist international.”
Red Army prisoners captured during the attack
Red Army to Finland
The war in Spain, the seizure of the Baltic states and Western Ukraine by Stalin, and Poland by Hitler, clearly showed that war between the Red Army and the German Armed Forces was inevitable. The very beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR divided the entire Russian emigration into “defeatists” and “defencists.”
The officers of the Russian Army, although they were preparing their replacements in cadet corps and schools, had too little strength for an independent war with the regular units of the Red Army. Most officers believed that it was necessary to join the armies of Germany and Italy to jointly fight the Red Army and turn the Second World War in Russia into the Second Civil War.
Officers of the Russian Guard, Cossacks, the Head of the Imperial Family, the Russian Orthodox Church sent greetings to the Leader of the German people, Chancellor Hitler, in connection with the start of a “decisive attack on the satanic Bolshevik government” and called on all Russian emigration to stand under the banner of a new crusade for the liberation of Russia.
Without encountering strong resistance in the first months of the war, the troops of Germany and Italy occupied a significant part of the European territory of the USSR. Unwilling to resist or abandoned by their commanders, thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers were captured. Even before the approach of the German Armed Forces, local residents staged uprisings against the “Soviet occupiers” in the Baltic states.
The number of Soviet prisoners of war began to be measured in the millions, and all of them, regardless of the reasons for their captivity, were declared outlaws by the “father of nations”, war criminals and deprived of the assistance of the international Red Cross. The German command, having limited food supplies, did not know what to do with so many prisoners of war; hunger and disease were rampant in the camps. In the south of Russia, on the Cossack lands, the German command often sent prisoners of war home.
From the very beginning of hostilities, old emigrants went to fight against their old enemies as part of the German (reconnaissance units) and Italian (cavalry) Armed Forces. In Belgrade, the ranks of the former 1st Army Corps of the Russian Army, together with grown-up children from cadet corps and military schools, united into the Russian Corps, but the German command left it in the Balkans to fight Broz Tito’s red partisans, never allowing it to the Eastern Front. The captured Red Army soldiers began to form the “Eastern Volunteers,” or “Khiwis.” The German command did not trust the Russians and allowed them to recruit captured Red Army soldiers into units up to and including a battalion, but no more. General Vlasov’s statement on the creation of the “Russian Liberation Army” in 1942 remained more of a declaration, since the German Command allowed the formation of the ROA as a higher military formation only in 1944, when it was already too late.
Cossack units, being more reliable, were allowed to form units up to a regiment and above.
The discovery of Russian Orthodox Churches in the territories occupied by the Germans and Italians, the appearance, as in pictures of the past, of burkas, sabers, sparkling shoulder straps, Cossacks with St. George's crosses and medals on their chests, fighting "For Faith and Fatherland" against commissars, red commanders with cubes and diamonds on their uniforms , were supposed to turn the Second World War into the Second Civil War. Seeing the threat of the war turning into a second civil war, the smartest and cunning politician, Stalin also decided to play on patriotic feelings and restored the Orthodox Church, shoulder straps, orders and all the external signs of the Russian Army, down to the uniforms. At the same time, propaganda work was sharply intensified.
The formation of the Russian National Liberation Army met strong resistance from some leaders of the National Socialist Party; the army command, on the contrary, in every possible way welcomed and helped the formation of Russian units.
The mistakes of the German command in the occupied territories with the professional activities of partisan detachments led by career NKVD officers turned the German rear into a combat area. Using the old principle of the Red Army - “Victory at ANY cost”, the offensive of elite German units on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge and other fronts was stopped.
The retreat of the German units entailed not only the departure of Russian military units, but also numerous civilian refugees who did not want to live again in “Stalin’s paradise.” Among them is the “Cossack camp” of old people, women and children.
Unlimited human resources, mass production of military equipment, sometimes not inferior in quality to German, the growing heroism and skill of Soviet soldiers, allied assistance with vehicles and food, the opening of the “Second Front” led to the defeat of Germany and its allies and the occupation of half of Germany by the Red Army and many European countries in accordance with the Yalta Agreement between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.
Fulfilling its duty to its allies, the Red Army, violating the non-aggression pact with Japan, attacked and defeated the Kwantung Army in August 1945, capturing Northern China and Korea. The American nuclear bombing of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced the Emperor of Japan to sign an order of surrender for the sake of preserving the nation. The northern part of China, where a significant part of the “first wave” of emigration lived in Harbin, Three Rivers and other cities of Manchuria, found itself in the Soviet zone of occupation; Shanghai and the southern areas of residence of Russian emigrants remained for some time under the control of Chiang Kai-shek and foreign concessions.
Kirill ALEXANDROV
Andrey ZUBOV, column leader, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor at MGIMO, executive editor of the two-volume “History of Russia. XX century":
“We are accustomed to considering the mass repressions of the 1930s as a cruel, almost manic extermination of people loyal to the Soviet regime. Often this was the case, but often, to the credit of the citizens of our country, it also happened differently. By the early 1930s, many experienced the criminal and inhumane nature of Soviet power and began to fight against it. In this struggle, the Red Army was not at all an obedient instrument in the hands of Stalin and his henchmen. Many soldiers and commanders, realizing the dilemma: the people or the ruling regime, were ready in those years to take the side of the people.
Historian Kirill Alexandrov, who has studied the archives of the OGPU-NKVD a lot, talks about this, naming the names of many warriors - heroes of real Russia.
During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, according to Lenin’s famous statement, “Russia was conquered by the Bolsheviks.” But resistance to them did not end with the evacuation of the White armies and the suppression of peasant uprisings in 1920-1921. The next surge of mass resistance to Soviet power was associated with the armed struggle of the peasantry against the collective farm system that they hated.
According to the OGPU, in 1930, 13,453 mass peasant uprisings took place in the USSR (including 176 rebel ones), and 55 open armed uprisings. In total, almost 2.5 million people took part in them. The largest number of anti-collective farm protests occurred in Ukraine (4098), in the Volga region (1780), in the North Caucasus (1467), in the Central Black Earth (1373) and Moscow (676) regions, and in Siberia (565). In 1930, 179,620 people passed through the OGPU troikas, of whom 18,966 were sentenced to death by security officers. The most popular slogans and calls of the rebels in different areas sounded like this:
“Down with collectivization, long live Stolypinism!”(Ukrainian SSR);
“Down with Soviet power and collective farms”(Ukrainian SSR, North Caucasus region of the RSFSR);
“Down with Leninist communism. Give us the king, individual farms and old rights"(Ukrainian SSR);
“Soviet power is an enemy, religion is a friend”
“Down with the communist tyrants. Long live the word of freedom and free peasant labor."(Middle Volga region);
“Citizens, stand as one person in defense of the Constituent Assembly, the only exponent of the true will of the people.”(Moscow region);
“Long live capitalism, the Tsar and God, down with the autocracy of communism”(Central Black Earth Region of the RSFSR);
“Peasants, take weapons, sticks, knives and pitchforks, burn them, destroy the communists, take the government into your own hands before it’s too late.”(Western Siberia).
The poorly armed rebels had no qualified commanders and were in dire need of ammunition. The enemy's overwhelming military-technical superiority left them no chance.
Stalin was much more concerned about the situation in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. There was a dull unrest among the troops. In 1932, the Special Departments of the OGPU, with the help of operational measures, recorded 313,762 cases of negative political statements and 5,054 insurgent statements in the troops, and in 1933, 346,711 and 4,148, respectively. The security officers caught 230,080 Red Army and Red Navy men displaying “anti-Soviet sentiments.” 48,706 junior commanders and 55,777 representatives of mid-level command staff. Considering that the payroll number of the Red Army in 1932-1933 fluctuated between 675-740 thousand people, these were serious numbers.
Voice of the People
The sentiments of the Red Army servicemen of that time are evidenced by the reports of employees of special departments of the OGPU-NKVD bodies, and material evidence attached to the denunciations.
“Everyone in the village is being robbed, deprived of their rights and evicted. During political classes, the political instructor states that workers abroad are being exploited. Look how many unemployed people live in our country and everyone has nothing to eat. If only the foreign countries would rise up, and there we would kill all the communists like bastards, we would chop them up with pitchforks.<…>They are squeezing all the juice out of us... Life was even easier under Kolchak.”(unidentified Red Army soldier of the artillery division of the 21st Rifle Division, Siberian Military District, spring 1930).
On March 15, 1932, at the school of the 10th artillery regiment of the North Caucasus Military District (SKVO), a note was found from a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, cadet Yasko: “Brothers, it smells like gunpowder. Beat the communists—your enemies.”
On April 23, 1932, at the entrance to the party cell room of a separate chemical company of the North Caucasus Military District, an anonymous leaflet was found: “Comrade Commissioner, you say that the promise(Red Army warrior. - K.A.)We give to the workers and peasants that we will fight to the end for them. But I am gathering the courage to assure you that the time will come when we will not defend the communists, a bastard like you. We will not take up arms, if you know politics, then we know our business. Down with the war, down with Soviet power, down with collective farms - you give a war against the USSR.”
“In the very first battle, put a bullet in the forehead first of the company commander, and then of the rest of the command staff and go over to the side of the whites.”(Red Army soldier of the 4th rifle company of the 65th rifle regiment Popov, North Caucasus Military District, July 1932).
On August 12, 1932, an inscription was discovered on the wall of the fodder warehouse of the 221st Infantry Regiment (SKVO): “Comrade Red Army soldier, remember that your enemy is the communists. “I am sure that in case of war, which will soon happen, we will first of all turn our weapons against our enemies, the communists and Komsomol members, and with great success we will destroy this infection.”
On August 13, 1932, 4 copies of a handwritten leaflet were found in the student division of the 1st Artillery Regiment (Volga Military District): “We are not allowed to think, speak, they keep us half-starved, and at the same time they claim that this is socialism. It's time for us students to look behind the screen called socialism. She covers a pack of robbers, murderers and deceivers.”
“The whistling growl of sirens, heavy sighs of factories and the dead splashing of water masses at the Dneprostroy and Volkhovstroy dams is the groan of tens of thousands of proletarians and peasants exhausted from hard work and hungry stomachs. It is the blood of millions of workers mixed with cold sweat and now turning heavy millstones and powerful turbines.”(From an open letter dated September 6, 1932 to the party cell of the platoon commander of the 81st Infantry Division, Ionov. Arrested on September 28).
On November 3, 1932, in the 250th Infantry Regiment (Moscow Military District, Moscow Military District), an anonymous leaflet was found on the fence near the command staff canteen: “Comrade Red Army soldiers, have you really sold your country and your own children for a fatty stew? You are being fed for slaughter. You must soon go to defend... a pack of criminals who have brought the country to shame, hunger and poverty. Your relatives are being ruined in broad daylight. Save the country. Long live freedom and democracy!”
“Life is nowhere<…>. People on collective farms are starving and say: “Fuck, we’ll still have to fight with you.”(Red Army soldier of the cavalry squadron of the 28th Infantry Division Nikolai Prokopov (SKVO). Arrested on February 17, 1933).
“We are told everywhere that there is famine in Germany, that the workers there are starving, but what is happening here. The famine is not in Germany, but here"(Head of the 2nd sector of the II directorate of the Red Army headquarters, former staff captain Grigory Vasiliev, December 1934. Arrested).
“If the peasants knew what would happen to them, they undoubtedly would not have followed the Bolsheviks, because some of the peasants were exiled, some went under the ice, and the rest were driven into the collective farm.”(cadet of the 1st battery of the Kyiv art school Shiryaev, at a lecture on the history of the CPSU (b) on January 3, 1935. Arrested together with the cadet Chabanov who supported him).
“What a hero Nikolaev was, who killed Kirov. It’s a pity that they didn’t kill Stalin, if only such a hero could be found.”(Red Army soldier of the 138th rifle battalion Alexander Smolyanets, Kiev Military District, August 1936. Arrested).
Case "Spring"
Documents and materials available today from the first half of the 1930s allow us to say that “anti-Soviet groups” did not always exist only in the imagination of security officers. They fabricated not only fakes under investigation, but also conducted cases that had very real background. The undeclared war of the authorities against the peasantry most decisively affected the condition of the army. And it would be strange if such a social reaction did not follow.
Since the late 1920s, the highest nomenklatura of the CPSU (b) was seriously afraid of “counter-revolutionary actions” with the participation of the military. In 1929-1930, 16,695 people belonging to “class alien elements” were dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army. In accordance with Order No. 251/119 of the OGPU dated August 9, 1930, “On the fight against counter-revolution and espionage in units of the Red Army,” in less than two years, security officers liquidated 594 counter-revolutionary organizations and groups in the troops, arrested 2,603 of their participants, including 106 representatives command and control personnel.
In August 1930, with the liquidation of the peasant “Left Bank Headquarters of the Insurgent Troops” in the Borzny district of the Konotop district of the Ukrainian SSR, the famous case of an underground organization in the Red Army (with its center in the Ukrainian Military District) began. Later, this high-profile case received the operational name “Spring”, according to one version, in connection with the preparation of a coup, first scheduled by the conspirators for the spring of 1930, but later postponed to the spring of 1931. The main defendants in “Spring” were former generals and officers of the imperial army, “military experts” who ended up serving in the Red Army under various circumstances.
The share of “military experts” in the command cadres of the Red Army, as the Soviet government ceased to need former officers, steadily decreased: 75% in 1918, 34% in 1921, 12.5% in 1931. In total, 3,496 people were arrested in the “Spring” case, the vast majority of them were “military experts.” One of the main leaders of the conspiracy was considered the chief military commander of Kyiv, Knight of St. George and former Major General Vladimir von Olderogge. He was shot on the night of May 27, 1931 in Kharkov on charges of leading an underground organization in Ukraine consisting of former officers. In 1974, the military tribunal of the Kyiv Military District posthumously rehabilitated Olderogge “for lack of corpus delicti.” This gave grounds to declare the whole case fabricated. But his materials still leave a lot of questions.
In 1930, in the 20th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division, commanded by Yakov Strombach, who was later executed in the “Spring” case, a massive loss of weapons was discovered. 300 rifles, 2 machine guns, tens of thousands of cartridges, and grenades disappeared. The regiment commander and his assistant were arrested on charges of transferring weapons to the headquarters of the rebel peasants on the Left Bank.
Single resistance
Many underground groups arose without any connection with “Spring”. Other opponents of Stalin acted alone. In February 1930, in the Volga Military District, the assistant commander of the 95th Infantry Regiment, Smirnov, was arrested, who turned out to be a colonel of the Volunteer Army and had been hiding for 10 years under a false name. During a search in Smirnov’s house, security officers seized 4 boxes of ammunition. The platoon commander of the 192nd Infantry Regiment of the 64th Infantry Division, Poptus, tried to leave with weapons across the border into Poland.
In the spring, the platoon commander of the 45th Infantry Division, Glushchenko, tried to unite a group of like-minded people around himself. On behalf of the Liberation Union, Glushchenko distributed several leaflets to the regiment with the following content: “Citizens! Bolshevik terror has intensified, the people are suffering under the Bolshevik bondage of the communists. The communists have become the same double-dealers; the peasantry is being turned into a colony. For weapons against communism. For freedom and work, for a free life."
In July, in Novgorod-Volynsky, security officers uncovered a conspiracy organization headed by the demobilized squad commander of the 131st Infantry Regiment and member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Neshchadimenko. In Neshchadimenko’s group there were about 10 fighters and commanders, whose goal was to prepare an uprising in the regiment and seize weapons. Everyone was arrested.
In May 1931, a conspiracy organization was discovered in the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division (Belarusian Military District), whose members were preparing an uprising in the regiment and were planning to leave for Poland with weapons. The leader of the group, the chief of staff of the battalion of the 12th regiment, Ivan Lyutsko, managed to escape from the unit to the border and died in a shootout with security officers.
On September 7, 1934, NKVD officers in the Moscow region arrested a group of servicemen from the 23rd air brigade, led by assistant platoon commander of a communications company Suchkov. During the search, two “counter-revolutionary appeals” were confiscated from him, including a plan to conduct anti-Stalin agitation in his own company.
An extraordinary event was the desperate speech of the chief of staff of the artillery division of the Moscow city camp assembly Osoaviakhim Artyom Nakhaev. At dawn on August 5, 1934, he attempted to raise an armed uprising in the Krasnoperekopsk barracks of the Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division in Moscow. Former member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Nakhaev led a division (200 fighters) to the barracks of the 2nd regiment, lined up the participants in the gathering and addressed them with an impassioned speech, pointing out to the listeners the complete loss of the gains of the revolution, as well as the seizure of factories, factories and land by a handful of communists . According to Nakhaev, the Stalinist state enslaved workers and peasants and destroyed freedom of speech. He ended his speech with the call: “Down with the old leadership, long live the new revolution, long live the new government!”
With a group of fighters who supported him, the brave commander tried to break into the guardhouse to arm the division with combat rifles. But the guard opened fire and scattered the attackers. Nakhaev was captured and executed in December by decision of the Politburo.
Flying in dreams and in reality
Airplane hijackings from the Soviet Union have become more frequent. For example, on February 1, 1927, former warrant officer Klim, commander of the 17th air squadron, flew to Poland. He later changed his last name and moved to the United States. In 1931, security officers arrested one of the test pilots, Trenin, who was planning to hijack a plane to Poland. During a search of Trenin’s apartment, they found two “counter-revolutionary appeals” that he intended to publish abroad. In particular, Trenin wrote: “We, military pilots of the Red Army, could not stand the extreme exploitation, broke the bandit Bolshevik chains and flew under your free roof.” During interrogation, the pilot stated: “The army is a stronghold of a handful of people who have seized power, and under the cover of bayonets they commit violence against a population of 150 million.”
On March 26, 1933, a pilot of the 57th air squadron, Kuchin, flew to Poland from the Smolensk region. His aircraft technician, Strizhov, also flew behind him in a fighter. In 1934, Georgy Kravets flew to the territory of Latvia from the Leningrad Military District, and in 1938, the head of the Luga Aero Club, senior lieutenant Vasily Unishevsky, who died in 1944 in the Luftwaffe, flew to the territory of Lithuania on a U-2 plane.
Despite the Great Terror
The Great Terror of 1937-1938 did not weaken protest sentiments. They were given new impetus by the difficult war with Finland in the winter of 1939/40. Documents from reports from district prosecutor's offices and reports from Special Departments of the NKVD clearly show that 20 years after the formal end of the Civil War, the authorities were still unable to achieve even a semblance of “social peace”:
“During the war, the peasantry will not forgive the Soviet regime for the years 1932-1933 and in case of war will go against the Soviet regime”(Red Army soldiers of the 17th separate chemical platoon Stepan Loboyko, Andrey Ivchenko, Stepan Gapchenko, KVO, summer 1937. Arrested).
“Give me some ammunition, I’ll shoot all the communists and Komsomol members”(Red Army soldier of the 132nd Infantry Regiment Ivan Baranov, KVO, August 1937. Arrested).
“The Soviet government deliberately exported grain abroad so that the peasants would die of hunger and go to collective farms.”(Red Army soldier of the 6th corps artillery regiment Ivan Tovkalin, KVO, August 1937).
“The party and government forcibly drove the peasants into collective farms and ruined the peasantry. In 1933, due to collectivization, many peasants died of hunger; collectives brought them to starvation and death. The party has reached a dead end and is now looking for a way out by creating enemies and destroying them.”(Red Army soldier of the 71st Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division Nikolai Didimov, KVO, autumn 1937. Arrested).
“Proletarian dictatorship is the oppression of everyone, including the peasantry”(political instructor of the 186th Infantry Regiment of the 52nd Turkestan Infantry Division Efim Kaplan, KVO, autumn 1937).
"The hammer and sickle - death and hunger"(Red Army soldier Lavrenko, 204th anti-tank division of the 163rd rifle division, winter 1939/40).
“If the Finns had taken prisoners, they could have surrendered and then turned their bayonets against their commanders while in captivity.”(Red Army soldier Kozyrev, 3rd company of the 246th separate engineer battalion of the 47th Rifle Corps).
In the summer of 1940, among materials about the moral and political state of the troops of the Kyiv Special Military District, which was then one of the main districts in the west of the Soviet Union, a special message was received about an emergency incident in the 7th Chernigov Rifle Division of the 12th Army. Ironically, the same division in which, ten years earlier, the mysterious disappearance of 300 rifles and two machine guns occurred. An anonymous note written in clumsy handwriting came to the commander of the 300th Infantry Regiment along with various letters. An unknown fighter wrote: “Comrade fighters! You understand very well that your commanders and commissars are deceiving you and mocking you. Walk around in rags, hungry and cold, and you don’t know why you are going into battle against Romania. Take up arms against the Soviets and down with the power of the Soviets. It’s enough to deceive the peasant fighters, give them freedom and freedom, give the peasants bread.”
There was exactly a year left until the bloodiest war.
about the author
Kirill Mikhailovich ALEXANDROV, Candidate of Historical Sciences. Born in 1972 in Leningrad. Graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen in 1995. Since 1992, he has been constantly engaged in research in the archives of Russia, the USA and Germany. Since 2005, he has been a senior researcher in the specialty “History of Russia”, working at the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University. Doctoral student at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He studies military history, the history of Russian military emigration and the anti-Stalin protest of 1927-1945. Author of the books “Russian Soldiers of the Wehrmacht” (M., 2005), “Officer Corps of the Army of Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasova 1944-1945" (M., 2009), etc. Author and compiler of the collection "Under the Germans" (St. Petersburg, 2011).
The struggle in the Parliamentary camp between Presbyterians, Independents and Levellers in the autumn of 1647 revived Charles I's hopes of continuing the war and winning and allowed him to prepare a conspiracy. The result of this conspiracy was a promise of support from the commandant of Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, and the king’s flight to this island, and the choice of this particular island as an impregnable refuge, in view of successful negotiations with Holland on sending a military squadron. Negotiations with the Scots were also successful, promising to act in the North after the performance of the king’s supporters in Wales and the South-East of England. The Scottish "Covenanters", fearing the abolition of "Presbyterianism" in England as a result of the domination of the Independents, decided to support the king's conspiracy.
The Second Civil War began in February 1648. Military operations took place in three regions of England: Wales (Pembroke, Cardiff), the North (Carlisle, Portefract), and the South-East (Colchester, Rochester, Canterbury, Dover). After Cromwell, having taken Pembroke in July, defeated the royalists in Wales, and Fairfax managed to take Colchester in the East in August, the parliamentary army under Cromwell's Command hurried to meet Hamilton's 20,000-strong Scottish army, which was rapidly advancing through Lancashire to the south. Appearing on August 17, 1648 near the city of Preston in thick fog, unexpectedly on the enemy’s right flank, Cromwell, despite the small number of his troops (about 9 thousand), achieved complete victory. Having received this news, the commandant of Carisbrooke Castle did not allow the king to leave Fr. White, effectively arresting him. The Dutch fleet never managed to land troops on the island.
By the end of August 1648 the second civil war was over, but at the beginning of September the Presbyterian parliament began new negotiations with the king. He was now required to make minor concessions: to cancel all declarations directed against parliament, to introduce a Presbyterian system in the church until the convening of a national Synod, to transfer control of the militia (county militia) to parliament for 20 years.
These negotiations with the king were not completed due to the joint actions of the Independents and Levellers. Their positions came closer back in April, when “agitators” from among the Levellers were invited to a meeting in Windsor of army leaders, and it was decided to call to account, i.e. to the trial of Charles Stuart for "the blood he shed and for the gravest crimes against the cause of God in this poor country." Now, in September, cooperation resumed: Cromwell announced support for a new version of the “People's Agreement”, and the Levellers, in turn, especially emphasized in the new text the obligation of the new and future parliaments to not allow the abolition of private property and the equalization of property. As a result of the unification of the Independents and Levellers, on December 2 the army re-entered London, and the command was located in the royal palace of Whitehall. At the same time, a detachment of independents captured the king and transported him from the Isle of Wight to the secluded Hearst Castle. On December 5, the army surrounded Westminster, where Parliament was sitting, and on December 6, Colonel Pride, by order of the Independent command, carried out a second “cleansing” of Parliament. As a result, almost all Presbyterians (about 140 people) were removed from parliament. Parliament, like the army, became a stronghold of independents.
The new political system emerged as a result of the civil war and was completely determined by it. Having seized power, the communists began to take away people's political rights and property. This was how the civil war was provoked with all its terrible consequences. People lost their deposits, insurance, shares, property, and lives. Looting began in the capital in November-December 1917. In the summer of 1918, the communists transferred the civil war to the countryside. The Poor Peasants' Committees, which temporarily replaced the Soviets, confiscated about 50 million hectares of land from wealthy peasants, as well as a significant part of agricultural implements and livestock. 90. The main task of the poor peasants' committees was to report on neighbors who were hiding grain from the new government. The informer received part of the confiscated bread 91.
In August 1918, the communists abolished the right of private ownership of real estate in cities 92 . In October 1918, V. Ulyanov issued a decree on an emergency tax on urban and rural property owners in the amount of 10 billion rubles. Moscow and the Moscow province pledged to pay the new government 3 billion rubles, and the Minsk province – 60 million rubles 93 . These measures ignited an all-Russian civil war.
Numerous political parties and groups that took part in the civil war over time transformed into three forces: whites, reds and peasants. In other words, the two most active groups fought: former owners and communists. The peasants remained passive. Both the “whites” and the “reds” tried to win over the peasants to their side. The so-called “reds” or communists won for several reasons. First of all, they occupied the central, most economically developed regions of the country. The railway network allowed the Reds to quickly concentrate troops in the desired direction. The communists soon abandoned their previous democratic passions and created an army based on forced recruitment. Deserters were caught and shot. The Red Army soldiers were paid good salaries. Their families enjoyed benefits. In the fall of 1919, during the decisive battles, there were 3 million people under arms in the Red Army, and the combined forces of the white armies did not exceed 250 thousand people 94. During the period from October 1918 to April 1919, the government announced the mobilization of 3.6 million people; of these, 917 thousand, or 25%, did not show up at recruiting stations. In 1919, the number of deserters in the Red Army amounted to 1,761 thousand people 95.
The Red Army inherited from the previous regime huge reserves of military equipment, which was enough not only for the period of the civil war. Military specialists from the old army went to serve the communists. In 1919, 30 thousand officers of the previous regime served in the Red Army. The new army was distinguished from the previous one by its strict discipline. Foreign communists, especially irreconcilable towards the so-called bourgeoisie, actively joined the Red Army. In the first months, the Bolsheviks relied on three brigades of Latvian riflemen, the total number of which reached 35 thousand people. 96 They were commanded by the former colonel of the tsarist army, Joakim Vatsetis. The total number of foreigners in the Red Army by the summer of 1920 was 250 thousand fighters, which exceeded the number of foreign interventionist troops. Between 1918 and 1920 In the Red Army, 701,847 people died in battle, not counting the missing. 250 thousand died during the suppression of peasant uprisings. In general, the losses of the Red Army amounted to 3/4 of the losses suffered by the Russian army in the First World War, estimated at 1.3 million people. The losses of the “whites” amounted to 127 thousand people. Approximately 2 million people were killed by epidemics. 91% of the victims of the war were civilians 97 . Civilian casualties were much greater. During the period of the civil war 1918-1922. More than 15 million people died. This is approximately 10% of the population. In Spain in 1936-1939. 1.8% of the population died 98.
The victory of the “Reds” was largely ensured by mass propaganda. Newspapers, posters, and agitators flattered the workers and peasants and their calloused hands. At the same time, buckets of mud were poured onto all other classes and strata of Russian society. I. Ilyin noticed that in Soviet newspapers lies are a continuous wall 99. The workers were frightened by the return of the capitalists, and the peasants by the landowners. The "White" movement was portrayed as exclusively monarchical, although none of its leaders advocated the restoration of the monarchy. Alekseev, Kornilov, Denikin were from peasant backgrounds.
Communist propaganda assured that the Soviet government would be much better than the old one. Millions of people who entered the political field for the first time believed the promises of the “Reds”. After two or three years, the deception was revealed, but the new dictatorship had already established itself. The Bolsheviks won because they used everything the 20th century states had at their disposal. instruments of coercion against the peasantry in the 19th century. Russian peasants lacked political consciousness. They saw no difference in forms of government and did not value parliamentary democracy. The peasants were satisfied with minor economic concessions granted by the Kremlin in the spring of 1921. The Land Code of 1922 allowed the hiring of workers, the rental of land, and recognized the inheritance of children's rights to use their parents' land. The victory of the Communists in the civil war should be considered not as an expression of popular support, but as a manifestation of the not yet formed national consciousness and the political backwardness of the Russian peasantry, the majority of the people 100. Russia was not ready for democratic statehood.
The weakness of the “white” movement was that it failed to become a unifying national force. It remained almost exclusively a movement of officers, devoid of any social base. The White movement was unable to establish effective cooperation with the liberal and socialist intelligentsia, and, politically, with the Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who were simply irreplaceable in the government administration. Whites were suspicious of workers and vindictive of peasants. They were unable to win over the Ukrainians and Cossacks through unity of common goals. The white movement failed to create a disciplined army, let alone a state administration. It is only with great stretch that one can talk about the Kolchak government.
It was a civil war within Russian society. Each side used state institutions and coercion to mobilize the peasant masses to fight for a cause alien to them. It was a war imposed from above, as evidenced by the mass desertion of both Reds and Whites. Kolchak and Denikin canceled the October 1917 decree on land, turning the peasantry against themselves at the very moment when they were dissatisfied with the Bolsheviks. Wrangel gave the peasants of Crimea land as eternal hereditary property, but it was too late 101.
An important consequence of the civil war was the Communist Party's fear of the peasantry. The generation of communists that emerged in those years went through a bloody and dangerous struggle with the peasantry. Many of their comrades were torn to pieces by the "green bandits", often in many places the power of the Bolsheviks was overthrown or threatened by the peasants. The Communists have always been aware that they are a minority party in a hostile peasant environment. 102.
The most important component of the civil war was the military actions of state power against rural communities. The war of the communist state with the peasantry was long and bloody. In 1918, 245 major anti-Soviet uprisings broke out in just 20 provinces of Central Russia. The beginning of 1919 was marked by an uprising of the peasants of the Middle Volga. In 1929-1921 the civil war becomes a peasant war. In the Ishim district of the Omsk province in 1921, the rebel army numbered 60 thousand fighters. Sapozhkov’s “First Army of Truth,” operating in the Volga region, numbered 1,800 bayonets, 900 sabers, 10 machine guns, 4 guns 103. However, the peasant war did not threaten the cities.
The concept of “civil war” should also include military actions aimed at maintaining the former borders of the state. Already in March 1917, the Rada demanded internal autonomy of Ukraine, and in June - recognition of the national independence of Ukraine. Lithuania and Latvia also demanded independence. In December 1917, the Finns demanded independence from Lenin. The Council of People's Commissars agreed, but then secretly sent a trainload of weapons to the Finnish communists. Civil war broke out. N. Yudenich asked the Finns to help him capture Petrograd. The Finns refused, since N. Yudenich did not recognize the independence of Finland from Russia. The leaders of the “white” movement unequivocally advocated a “united and indivisible Russia.” A. Denikin fought against the forces of Ukrainian independence. The Communists continued this policy, but more flexibly. For the sake of preserving the country and his power, V. Lenin made territorial concessions.
On March 3, 1918, an agreement was signed in Brest-Litovsk. Compared to 1914, the territory of Russia decreased by 800 thousand square kilometers. The Soviet army had to leave Ukraine, Russia had to make peace with the Ukrainian Rada, renounce claims to Finland and the Baltic countries, and give Kars, Batum and Ardahan to Turkey. 26% of the population lived in these territories, 32% of agricultural and 23% of industrial products, 75% of coal and iron were produced. Russia was obliged to pay 6 billion marks in reparations to Germany 104.
V. Ulyanov (Lenin) made great efforts to preserve the Russian state within its former borders and to prevent the secession of the territories conquered by the tsars. The peoples of Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland were able to win national independence. Attempts by the Red Army to capture Warsaw and Lvov and to instigate a communist takeover in Finland failed. However, the SNK managed to keep Ukraine, Belarus and other national-state formations within a single state with the help of the Red Army, as well as local communist groups. The Red Army also prevented the separation of Central Asia and Transcaucasia. As a result, the communists preserved a multinational state and stopped the attempts of non-Russian peoples to self-determination by force of arms.
Thus, in 1918-1922. Moscow waged a war to regain lost imperial possessions. Poland, Finland and the Baltic states separated. The remaining territories were united by the communists into the USSR. The army played a decisive role in its creation. The new union was a unitary state, not a federation. The USSR became the legal successor of the Russian Empire. The imperial policy remained, but it changed the flag. If the tsars used the ideology of Pan-Slavism, then V. Lenin used the so-called “proletarian internationalism”. The new Russian government justified its active foreign policy by the need to protect the interests of the international proletariat.
In 1919, V. Lenin created the Communist International to prepare the world revolution. All the delegates of this International, with the exception of three, constantly worked in Moscow and did not represent real communist parties of the West. Moscow's foreign policy was dual: the Council of People's Commissars signed peace treaties, and the Communist International financed the Communist Parties of European countries, organized terrorist attacks, the so-called “revolutionary uprisings of the working people.” The Comintern eventually turned into a branch of the USSR intelligence services. In 1943, the Comintern ceased to exist.
The Civil War taught us to govern through mass murder and made it a way of thinking to expose our enemies. She replaced politics with fighting. The civil war meant the extreme brutalization of society, and especially its ruling class. The war, which lasted more than three years, led to the mutual extermination of the most active elements of civil society. In 1920 the civil war ended 105. That is, massive military operations by armies have ceased. However, internal peace was not achieved in the country. The partisan struggle (political banditry) continued, and underground anti-Soviet organizations operated. The repressions of the Cheka-OGPU continued. During the years of the Civil War, the number of urban residents, who in 1917 constituted only 18% of the population, sharply decreased. Most of the emigrants were city dwellers. The most “Europeanized” layer of Russian society emigrated. By 1921, Moscow had lost half of its workers, Petrograd – 2/3. In 1921, the Russian proletariat numbered less than 1 million people. The country returned to subsistence agriculture. After the revolution, Russia turned out to be a more agrarian and peasant country than before the war 106.
In June, the first issue of Marvel's global crossover, Civil War 2, hit American store shelves. So far, 4 of the 8 issues of the main series have been published (5 including issue zero). "World of Fantasy" takes a break mid-distance to figure out: what's going on in Marvel comics right now?
What is Civil War 2?
“Civil War 2” is an event that tells the story of the discord between Iron Man Tony Stark (not yet a black girl) and Captain Marvel Carol Danvers (not yet Brie Larson). The quarrel involves an Inhuman named Ulysses, who has not appeared in comics before. Ulysses is able to see the future, and Stark and Danvers disagree about him. Can a prophet be trusted? Is it possible to prevent predicted crimes before they occur? Will superheroes in Civil War 3 kill each other because some like cats and others like dogs?
The title tries to convince us of the 2006 Civil War, but don't fall for it. The only connection to the original is a short dialogue between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers on the topic “do you remember, we also once had a moral dispute.”
The author and screenwriter of the event is Brian Michael Bendis, one of the leading comics artists of our time. His pencillers account for the lion's share of the Ultimate imprint's comics, including Ultimate Spider-Man. He also worked on the classic Spider-Man and Daredevil series, created Jessica Jones, wrote Age of Ultron, which served as the basis for the film of the same name, and much more.
For all his cult status, Brian often generates controversy among fans, not shunning controversial turns and from time to time engaging in outright trolling. Fortunately, his sense of humor is in place, and Bendis knows how to twist a plot.
Beware, spoilers ahead!
You have been warned!
Who's on whose side?
The camps, under the pretentious names Protect the Future and Change the Future, are led by Tony Stark and Carol Danvers, respectively.
They quarreled, as already mentioned, Ulysses - a young non-human who is able to see the future, and invariably bad (a typical teenager!). Stark is not ready to blindly believe the guy’s visions and does not approve of the idea of punishing future crimes. Danvers, on the other hand, can’t wait to step on the worn-out sci-fi rake, and she sets about heroically changing the future. There are also Inhumans, but for the most part they remain observers - they say, “this is not our war.”
It is difficult to understand who is on which side. In the first four issues, most of the heroes do not show obvious sympathy for one camp or another. Only at the end of the fourth volume do we see how the teams split up.
Team Stark (Protect the Future):
Captain America (Steve Rogers), another Captain America (Sam Wilson), Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Thor (Jane Foster), Vision, Nova, Doctor Strange, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Luke Cage, Cyclops, Human -ice.
Team Danvers (Change the Future):
Ultimates, Alpha Team, S.H.I.E.L.D., Guardians of the Galaxy, Jean Gray, Storm, Thing, Agent Venom, Iceman (oddly enough).
And yes, you didn’t think so: the teams were presented differently in the promotional art.
The motives of the characters and the choice of sides this time are taken outside the main series and scattered across tie-ins. But do you really need logic in the actions of the heroes? They are going to fight over a person who can see the future, even though there are characters in this world who can fly off into the future and return with fresh news (Cable, Bishop). Let's get straight to the plot.
Who are Inhumans and what are tie-ins?
The Inhumans are a fictional race from Marvel comics. It differs from people by the prefix “non-” and superpowers (some also by appearance, but these are few). They differ from mutants in that they were bred by the alien race Kree, developed separately from humanity and live separately in their own kingdom. That is, almost nothing.
Recently, Marvel has been putting a lot of effort into their popularization, simultaneously exterminating the X-Men. A virus is spreading across the Earth, creating favorable conditions for non-humans and killing mutants. So the role of the X-Men in big events is minimized, and the Inhumans stand at the center of Civil War. Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that the X-Men movie rights are owned by rival studio Fox, right?
Tay-ins are parts of a global event related to the main series. Included in the series of heroes who participate in the event. They are needed to leave such rudiments as logic, motivation and character development outside the main plot brackets. For example, if Spider-Man struggles for a long time when choosing sides, the authors would be more likely to include his throwing in his own comic, rather than in the main series. An issue of a Spider-Man comic tied to the main event is called a tie-in.
So, how is the war going there?
On Earth, New York City is attacked by an unknown force capable of turning everything into radioactive ash. But dozens of superheroes are already ready to fight back. A powerful something was defeated, since the heroes knew where and when to wait for it - information was kindly provided by the Inhumans.
How do they know about the attack? They were enlightened by Ulysses, who at times sees the future. Stark wonders how these visions work and whether they can be trusted. And Danvers only needs one averted apocalypse to not doubt Ulysses.
Then James Rhodes, aka War Machine, dies. He dies under the command of Danvers, who, on a tip from Ulysses, attacked Thanos. Also in a coma is She-Hulk, Danvers' friend. The death of his friend unsettles Tony slightly, and he kidnaps the clairvoyant to scan his brain.
Danvers and the Inhumans attack Stark Tower, but are stopped from brawling by a vision of Ulysses, which this time is broadcast to everyone present. The vision shows the Hulk killing a bunch of heroes, including Stark and Danvers. This is what Stark was afraid of: what if the vision accuses one of us?
Superheroes are coming in droves to Bruce Banner, who has not turned into the Hulk for a year (instead, Amadeus Cho, a young man of Asian appearance, who has not yet found a place in “Citizen”), works as the Hulk. They do everything to prevent Banner from losing his temper: they break into his home with a threatening look, accuse him of a crime that has not yet been committed and put him under arrest. But for some reason this still infuriates Banner.
And then Bruce is killed by Hawkeye (Clint Barton). However, at the trial it turns out that Banner himself asked to kill him if he began to turn into the Hulk, and even gave Barton a special tip. At the moment of the shot, Barton was sure that green appeared in Banner's eyes. No one else saw it, but Hawkeye's vision is legendary. The court acquits Barton (apparently, in the Marvel world you don’t get imprisoned for “good” murders).
Meanwhile, Stark figures out how Ulysses' powers work. His brain absorbs information, analyzes it and reproduces the worst-case scenario. Lest we doubt it, the information is confirmed by Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, who plays the role of Morgan Freeman in this comic: he knows everything and explains everything.
Thus, the entire original conflict is annulled, because we are not talking about the future, but only about one of the many probabilities of the future. But Danvers is inspired by the example of Batman-Affleck and decides that if there is even a percentage chance of a crime, it must be stopped. Stark decides that this will not happen, and the heroes finally go head to head. Thus ends the fourth issue.
Is Civil War 2 worth reading?
The choice is yours.
Of course, the comic is full of weak points. Firstly, it cannot stand comparison with the first "Citizen". The fight between Iron Man and Captain America was awesome. The battle between Iron Man and Carol Danvers... Let's just say: no one expected it. The second cannot reach the emotional intensity of the first “citizen”.
Secondly, the cause of the conflict is not impressive. The dilemma from “Minority Report” will give food for thought only to young people; Older readers have chewed and chewed it. The Superhero Registration Act of 2006 was something new and asked difficult questions: Can uncontrolled superheroes be trusted? Can the state trust superheroes? Are the freedoms of the heroes violated when signing the act?
Thirdly, this is an Iron Man comic. Forget about equality and choosing sides: there is a clear protagonist Stark and a clear antagonist Danvers. We look at most events through Tony's eyes; only he analyzes the situation. Yes, Stark is simply more interesting: while he jokes, looks for arguments in his favor and the strength to survive the death of his friends, Carol plays a typical martinet, rushes ahead and coins functional proposals.
But there are also positive aspects. By revealing the true abilities of Ulysses, Bendis, although he killed the severity of the conflict, managed to refresh the social implications. By replacing the future with a worst-case future, he moved from the fantasy problem of punishment before crime to the real problem of freedom and control in society. How to ensure the safety of citizens without violating their rights and freedoms is one of the most difficult issues of our time. Is it possible to detain a person if there is a 10% chance that he will commit a crime?
Among Bendis’s successful discoveries, one can note the conflict of generations. Young heroes Nova and Miles Morales stand for Stark, and this correlates with the real state of affairs. Most young readers will choose the side of Tony, who this time preaches freedom of choice. Older, more conservative readers will find truth in Danvers's choice of security over freedom.
So why all this?
Marvel is trying to straddle two stools. The first is the cinematic universe in its current form, from which you need to get maximum income. It doesn't take a genius, a playboy, or a philanthropist to see the connection between the premiere of the Civil War movie and the release of a comic book with the same name and a two at the end.
The calculation is for people who, after watching the fight between Downey Jr. and Evans, will think: “Shouldn’t I go to a comic book store?” A continuation of what they saw in the movies awaits them in the store, Stark is in the main characters, and even Steve Rogers is lurking somewhere. And the adult Peter Parker is relegated to the background so as not to discord with the Schoolboy Spider from the film.
On the other chair is the cinematic universe of tomorrow. The studio is laying the foundation for heroes who will receive their own films or TV series in the future. Therefore, the Inhumans and Captain Marvel are at the center of the plot. You may ask, why are these foundations needed, since people went to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Ant-Man” without them? But among the Inhumans there is no raccoon who speaks in the voice of Bradley Cooper. And films about female superheroes in general, as we know, are a risky business.
One of the important consequences of the “citizen” will be the disappearance of Tony Stark. Whether to the next world or not, we don’t know yet, but he most likely won’t be Iron Man anytime soon. This is also work for the future. Robert Downey Jr. has been trying to leave Marvel for a long time, and his fees are a nightmare for studio bosses. By the 2020s, Riri Williams should gain popularity in comics, and it will be possible to put her on the silver screen. And the second Iron Man will be Doctor Doom.
Overall, Civil War 2 is positioned as a pivotal event that will change the balance of power in Marvel comics. But it’s too early to say how. Judging by the teasers, the heroes will have to work on opposite sides of the barricades even after the end of the event.
Starting in the fall, Marvel comics will be published under the Marvel NOW! logo. The main goal of the rebranding is to bring little-known heroes to the forefront so that films can be made about them. Those sold to Fox will be cold-bloodedly replaced with Inhumans in the next big event - Death of X.
