The White Army

Lore & Background

The name 'White' is associated with white symbols of the supporters of the pre-revolutionary order, dating back to the time of the French Revolution, in contrast to the name of the Red Guard detachments, and then the Red Army. For the first time, the name 'White Guard' was used in Russia for Finnish police detachments created in 1906 to fight the revolutionary movement. Their members wore white bandages on their sleeves; however, this did not have a direct connection with the White Army during the Russian Civil War. The White Armies comprised a number of different groups, who operated independently and did not share a single ideology or political goal. Their leaders were conservative or moderate generals and political leaders, each with different goals and plans to achieve them, and most of these armies did not coordinate their actions. The chain of command in each, as well as individual members, differed from experienced veterans of World War I to fresh volunteers. The White Guards, in addition to directly fighting with the Reds as well as the Makhnovtsi, carried out the White Terror, taking part in mass executions, including assisting allied foreign interventionists.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at Wembley hum to life at 19:42, and the air smells of cut grass and wet concrete. A boy of nine presses his face against the advertising board, his small hands gripping the rail, his white shirt a size too big — his father's old one, stretched and soft at the elbows. Around him, forty thousand voices rise in a low, building drone, the kind of sound that lives in the chest before it becomes a word. The tunnel doors open. White shirts. White shorts. The boy's breath fogs in the November cold. For eleven seconds, the noise stops. Then it does not stop again. His father, three rows back, puts an arm around his shoulders and says nothing. He does not need to. The boy already knows what it means to be part of the White Army: that the colour is not a choice, it is a birthright, and that tonight, for ninety minutes, the whole country is wearing the same shirt and feeling the same electric, terrifying hope.

Reader's Guide

The first White Army was created by Mikhail Alekseyev, calling it the 'Alekseyev Organization'. A Volunteer Army was created from its members. Later, the Don Army, People's Army, Siberian Army, Northern Army, Northwestern Army, and others were formed. On 18 November 1918, Alexander Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia and assumed supreme command of all land and naval forces. He integrated the forces into a single Russian Army on 23 September 1918. The name 'Russian Army' was approved as the union of all White fronts. White Armies drew both from volunteers and on the basis of mobilization, from the population of controlled territories and from captured Red Army soldiers. The strength of the White Armies fighting against the Red Army, according to intelligence estimates, by June 1919 was about 683,000.

Did You Know?

• The name 'White' is associated with white symbols of supporters of the pre-revolutionary order, dating back to the time of the French Revolution.
• The first use of the name 'White Guard' in Russia was for Finnish police detachments created in 1906.
• Historian Ronald Suny notes that a higher proportion of anti-semitic attacks were committed by the White military, accounting for 17% of anti-Jewish atrocities during the Russian Civil War.
• The White Terror included mass executions and Jewish pogroms.