Southern Russia White Methodist Movement (1917-1920)

The white movement in south Russia is an anti-Bolshevik movement whose main body is the officers of the Imperial Russia and the Cossacks of the upper strata, and it is an integral part of the Russian civil war. After the October Revolution in1917, some tsarist officers decided to overthrow the rule of the Bolsheviks together with the conservative Cossacks, continue the war with Germany, and reconquest their privileges that were already lost. In about three years, they depended on the excellent officer-troops and valiant Cossack cavalrymen, launched irreconcilable conflict against the Soviet Red Army, once even reached the central Russia, and brought great concussion to the Bolsheviks.Although the Whites of the south Russia had excellent troops, hold many rich regions, and got lots of assistance from the western countries, however, some mortal weaknesses made their final failure unavoidable. The leaders of this movement were officers who knew nothing about political affairs, they disdained the politicians, and never instituted a set of practical reform scheme, never built up highly efficient administrative machinery, so even in the regions under their control, they have no stabile rule. Their richer-protecting policies alienated the working classes, and cannot won broad social support. The tsarist officers fought against the Bolsheviks together with the Cossacks, but their purposes were different from one another; the former wanted to to restore the united Russian Empire, but the latter just wanted to retain their property and autonomy; the contradiction between these two key forces seriously weakened the might of the white movement in south Russia. The Generals’ Great-Russian Chauvinism hurted the national consciousness of the minority nationalities and made them many enemies. They also failed to create close cooperation with other anti-Bolshevik armies (particularly Kolchak’s white army in Siberia), fight their battles alone, finally the Red Army crushed them one by one.All together there are four sections in this thesis, each section contain one chapter.The first section is about the origin and early development of the white movement in south Russia. After the October Revolution, Tsarist officers fled to the Don district and set up the Volunteer Army, they launch two Kuban campaigns, finally located their headquarters in the Kuban district. Besides, the Don Cossacks also established their own troops and fought against the soviet army in1918.The subject investigated in the second section is the domestic affairs and foreign policy of the Whites, and it is the most important part of this thesis. In this section, the author analysed the internal differences in the white movement in south Russia, the composition of the white regime, and also studied the white policies in agriculture, industry and finance. The author believe it was precisely these political-economical activities that foreshadow their final failure.The third section analysed the full scale offensive of the white army against the Reds and its results, the pogroms against Jews launched by the officers and Cossacks, and Wrangel’s final fight. In the beginning of the year1919, the Volunteer Army ultimately combined with the Don Cossack troops and formed the Armed Forces of South Russia, afterwards launched the northern expedition according to Denikin’s "Moscow Directive", but proved to be a disastrous failure. Then Denikin was forced to resign, transfered his power to Wrangel. Wrangel planned to take advantage of the Soviet-Polish War and fought again, but soon his troops was defeated by the Reds, and the white movement in south Russia finished forever.The fourth section is the peroration of this thesis. In this section, the author tried to comprehensively summarized the reasons that caused the failure of the white movement in south Russia. The purposes and the means of the whites are all untimeliness. Although they told the Russian people that their goal was "A Russia Great, United, and Indivisible", it is not difficult to find out that what they wanted to restore was precisely the things that were already destroyed by the revolutions in1917. This is the basic reason of their failure. Besides, their internal contradictions, their fallacious policies and false strategical plan made the failure inevitable.Along with the failure of the white movement in south Russia, the elite classes of the old Russian Empire were devastated, the flowers of the Russian working classes were exterminated. The national economy collapsed, the people were exhausted, and on these bases, the Bolshevik Party built up an autocratic political system, and changed the structure of the international relations in about70years.