Talk:Red Guards (Russia)

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Peasants

The lead implies peasants were a major component, but the article doesn’t support any role for them or even mention them. My understanding is that peasants resisted the Bolsheviks, especially in Ukraine, leading to mass killings of them by the régime during the civil war and over two decades. Can someone clarify their role?  —Michael Z. 08:44, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

This is an interesting question. It is true that popular support for the Bolsheviks in October/November 1917 was limited to the urban working class and soldiers. However, that is why the Decree on Land was so significant in terms of winning peasant support, as was the Decree on Peace, which was also relevant to the peasantry. While the Bolsheviks still lost the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election to the Socialist Revolutionary Party who actually were popular with the peasants, the peasants never rose up in support of the anti-Bolshevik socialists, even though they had the opportunity in 1918. The People's Army of Komuch failed and the Komuch politicians fled into the Urals and Siberia. Peasant revolts against the Bolsheviks did not become commonplace until the Bolsheviks implemented war communism and used widespread coercion to mobilize people and gather resources.

The Whites, however, practiced the exact same sort of forced conscription and "expropriation." Their disregard for the peasants was not just a matter of policy but part of their normative thinking. The Whites wanted to restore the pre-February Revolution status quo and undo all the pro-peasant reforms. When the Red Army doubled in size in 1919, most recruits came from the Volga region, where peasants had made substantial gains and had the most to lose in the case of a White victory, which seemed very likely when Denikin was driving on Moscow from the south and Kolchak was approaching from the east.

For more on this, see:

Figes, Orlando. 1990. "The Red Army and Mass Mobilization During the Russian Civil War." Past & Present 129: 168-211.

Figes, Orlando. 1996. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924. London. STPatrick1982 (talk) 05:54, 31 December 2023 (UTC)