White movement
The White movement comprised some of the Russian political and military forces that opposed the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and fought against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921. They also fought against the nationalist Green Army and the anarchist Black Army. The adepts of the White movement are sometimes referred to as White Russians.
The terms White army (Белая Армия), the Whites (Белые, Беляки), the White Guard (Белая Гвардия), and White Guards (белогвардейцы) refer informally to a loose confederation of counter-revolutionary forces. Strictly speaking, no monolithic "White Army" existed, since the White forces lacked central coordination; one could speak more correctly of White armies.
The text above the picture reads, "Peace and Liberty in Sovdepiya".
The designation White had two meanings. First, it stands in contradistinction to the Reds of the revolutionary Red Army of supporters of the Soviets and Communism. Second, the word "white" had monarchist associations: historically each Russian Tsar was solemnly called the white tsar, and the monarchist ideal during the civil war was known as the white idea.
The officer core of the White army upheld monarchist ideals. However, the White Army (or, to be more exact, a few of the white armies) sometimes drew support from representatives of many other political movements: democrats, social revolutionaries, and others who opposed the October Revolution. At other times and in other places, these same groups supported the Red Army instead. The rank-and-file troops of the White Army included both active opponents of the Bolsheviks (many cossacks, for example) and enlisted apolitical peasants. At times, the Western Allies of the Triple Entente and interventionist foreign forces provided substantial assistance to White Army units. This prompted some people to see the White Army as representing the interests of foreign powers.
The Russian Civil War between Whites and Reds raged until 1921. The White Army, in intermittent collaboration with interventionist forces from outside Russia (Japanese, British, French, American) held sway in some areas (especially Siberia, the Ukraine and the Crimea) for periods of time and put considerable bodies of troops into the field. But they failed to unite or to co-operate effectively amongst themselves, and the Bolshevik Red Army eventually gained the upper hand.
White activity re-concentrated in émigré circles. Considerable numbers of anti-Soviet Russians clustered in Berlin, Paris, Harbin and Shanghai, setting up cultural networks which lasted until the time of World War II. Thereafter White Russian activity found a new principal home in the United States.
Prominent persons of the White movement
