The Bolshevik Revolution sparked a protracted civil war of unprecedented violence and brutality. The biggest opponents were the Bolshevik Red Army and the sundry and disunited White Armies, most notably Admiral Kolchak's Siberian Army, General Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia and Genеral Yudenich's Northwestern Army in the Baltics. Also enmeshed in the conflict were the Czechoslovak Legion, the Cossacks, independence movements in former parts of the Russian Empire, anarchist and socialist military formations of all types, peasant insurrections, local warlords and foreign powers from both sides of World War I.
- von Dreier, Vladimir (1876–1967)
- Крестный путь во имя родины
Bearing the Cross in the Name of the Motherland
- Berlin: Neie Tseit, 1921
Major General Vladimier fon Dreier, a war correspondent with the Armed Forces of South Russia, focuses his account on southern front campaigns. Despite a rather starry-eyed portrayal of General Wrangel, fon Dreier does not omit mistakes of the anti-Bolshevik leadership, nor atrocities committed by some White Army commanders against the civilian population. This publication is also notable for a foreword by major émigré author Aleksandr Kuprin, full of hope for the inevitable destruction of Bolshevik rule despite White Army defeat.
- Lenin, Vladimir Ilych (1870–1924)
- Lessons of the Revolution
- Petrograd: Bureau of International Revolutionary
Propaganda, 1918
The Bureau of International Revolutionary Propaganda was an early effort by the Bolsheviks to spread their ideology beyond Russia's borders. Employing sympathetic Western journalists, the Bureau published daily newspapers in German and Hungarian, as well as pamphlets in a variety of languages. This edition includes essays by Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and head of the Soviet government, and, interestingly, a glossary, as neither terms like "Bolshevik" and "Soviet," nor Lenin's name, had yet established themselves in the English language.
- Сборник народных чтений по социально-политическим вопросам момента
A Collection of People's Readings on the Sociopolitical Issues of the Moment
- Novocherkassk: Izd. Donskogo otdela osvedomleniia, 1919
The Cossacks, the peasant-warrior estate numbering four and half million people, initially attempted to remain neutral during the Civil War. Both the Bolsheviks and the White Armies tried to attract Cossacks to their cause. This pamphlet, targeting the Don Cossacks, the largest of the Cossack communities, expounds the atrocities of Soviet rule and its incompatibility with Cossack self-governance and urges them to join the Armed Forces of South Russia in the anti-Bolshevik struggle.
- Suvorov, Mikhail (1877–1948)
- Kuz'min-karavaev, Vladimir (1859–1927)
- Kartashev, Anton (1875–1960)
- Образование Северо-Западного правительства
Formation of the Northwestern Government
- Helsinki: Akts. Obshch. Evlund i Pettersson, 1920
This pamphlet by three political advisors to General Yudenich document the creation of the anti-Bolshevik Northwestern government with headquarters in Tallinn and explain their refusal to accept cabinet positions. This civil coalition government was formed as a prerequisite for British aid to Yudenichs army. A crucial condition was the recognition of the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Finland (formerly parts of the Russian Empire), which for many anti-Bolshevik leaders was an unacceptable proposition.
- Последние дни Крыма
The Last Days of Crimea
- Constantinople: Izd. gazety Presse du Soir, 1920
Produced mere days after General Wrangel evacuated his Russian Army from Crimea, this urgent account is based chiefly on materials from final Crimean newspapers. It provides a chronology of the evacuation, reprints Wrangel’s last orders and eleventh-hour appeals for help to foreign governments, includes early refugee testimonies from aboard rescue ships and impressions of first days in Constantinople, and ends on a defiant anti-Bolshevik note.
- Nemirovich-Danchenko, G.V.
- В Крыму при Врангеле
In Crimea under Wrangel
- Berlin: [Tip. R. Ol'denburg], 1922
G.V Nemirovich-Danchenko headed Wrangel's press department in Crimea, which subsidized local newspapers. His anti-Semitic views and pseudonymous criticism of Wrangel in the right-wing press led to his dismissal. Part memoir, part political diatribe, Nemirovich-Danchenko's account exposes failures of Crimean civilian government, condemns Wrangel as a statesman, and offers valuable insight into the organization of the press, propaganda and censorship in the final months of anti-Bolshevik resistance.