12 Facts About Green armies

Green armies, known as the Green Army or Greens, were armed peasant groups which fought against all governments in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922.

The Green armies were semi-organized local militias that opposed the Bolsheviks, Whites, and foreign interventionists, and fought to protect their communities from requisitions or reprisals carried out by third parties.

The Green armies were politically and ideologically neutral, but at times associated with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.

The Green armies had at least tacit support throughout much of Russia.

Green armies knew that the war would not be won without successfully winning over the peasants, workers and national minorities to their side.

Related searches

Besides Soviet records of their oppositional activity, there is very little personal information about the Green armies leaders, described as "men who acted and wrote not" due to the widespread illiteracy and spontaneous nature of their movement.

Green armies came to control the countryside of the Kiev province, but not the big cities, and had 20,000 armed followers.

Notable Green armies movements developed in the regions of Novgorod, Tula, Ryazan, Tver, Voronezh, Kostroma, Syzran, Gomel, Kursk, Bryansk and Oryol, among many others.

Estimations of Green armies forces ranged from a few hundred to fifty-thousand fighters.

Provincial Communist officials announced to locals that the Green armies were a subsection of the villainous White movement, despite the fact that Green armies were generally just as hostile to the Whites as they were to the Reds.

The Bolsheviks exaggerated the influence of the kulaks in Green armies, who were undoubtedly involved, but hardly the driving force of the movement.

The Green armies were underfunded, low on supplies, and outmatched by the Red Army.