User:RJim312/Green armies

The Green armies (Зеленоармейцы), also known as the Green Army (Зелёная Армия) or Greens (Зелёные), 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, however their primary base, the peasantry, were largely reluctant to wage an active campaign during the Russian Civil War and eventually dissolved following Bolshevik victory in 1922.

Background
The Green movement formed as a popular reaction of the peasantry against Bolshevik activities in the countryside during the Russian Civil War, which began after the October Revolution in November 1917. The Bolshevik government instituted the War Communism policy in 1918, sending officials through the peasant lands of central Russia to collect supplies that the state needed to sustain the military and to begin building a socialist economy. Official requisitioning of peasant property occurred, with common targets including recruits for the Red Army, horses, and grain. Requisitioning units and agricultural overseers often overstepped their official duties, plundering households indiscriminately and harming villagers. The official policies inflamed passions, and their harsh implementation engendered widespread resentment to the Bolshevik regime. The violent repression of any popular unrest further alienated the peasantry, and when the Green armies began to form, Bolshevik excesses led many peasants to devote themselves to anti-Bolshevik activities. undefinedAs agricultural conditions in the rural areas worsened and requisitions continued, peasants had begun to reduce their agricultural output in hopes of reducing the burden of requistions, which instead increased the burden that requisitions had on them. undefined The failure of Lenin’s rotation of goods from the industrial centers to the provinces also played a role in their rise. As industry was focused on the war effort it became impossible for the government to pay for grain and other agricultural products. The situation worsened as workers from the cities in regions like Saratov moved to the countryside to to avoid low wages, as this put a bigger strain on the arable land and reduced manufacturing output. Vladimir Brovkin argues that a “dictatorship of the proletariat” was used to establish Bolshevik rule in the countryside, as Committees of Poor Peasants in the urban centers were given full power over property to weaken the more popular Socialist Revolutionaries in the provinces. These committees alienated peasants in the countryside further during the early years of the Civil War However, requisitioning in White controlled areas also encouraged peasants resistance as it did in red controlled areas during the Civil War.

Constituents and Leadership
Despite Soviet attempts to associate the Green armies with White leadership, such a designation overemphasizes the political aspects of the movement. In a broad sense, the Green armies were spontaneous manifestations of peasant discontent rather than of any specific ideology. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had secured victory over the Whites and the peasant soldiers of the Red Army, outraged at the prospect of continuing to violently oppress their own class in the interest of the new government, deserted and consolidated in groups in the forests, eventually leading to their "Green" designation.

Although the Green armies were primarily made up of peasants, leadership roles were often taken up by the deserters of both the disbanded tsarist army and the Red army. These leadership roles were taken up by a tendency of peasants to defer leadership to people with military experience. These deserter leaders would attempt to keep themselves neutral since they desired an end to the Civil War rather than having a particular political side rise to power. The anti-desertion policies of the Soviets, made in 1919, resulted in entire families or villages being targeted in suspicion of a deserter being among them. These both fueled rebellions in later 1920 and fractured some local groups as they would surrender themselves to protect their local communities.

Besides Soviet records of their oppositional activity, there is very little personal information about the Green leaders, described as "men who acted and wrote not" due to the widespread illiteracy and spontaneous nature of their movement. In order to build substantial forces, a motivated individual would lead a group of soldiers through the countryside, enlisting village inhabitants and deserters from the Red Army along the way. The leaders would enter a village and make an announcement, employing simple messages and vague, reactionary goals in their rhetoric to rouse enthusiasm. They often exaggerated Bolshevik weakness and opposition victories as a means to convince listeners to join. By keeping the objectives simple, the recruitment indiscriminate, and the mood optimistic, Green leaders succeeded in provoking a sense among the peasants that they could make a significant dent in Bolshevik power. They also drew support from disillusioned urban and railroad workers, who had "fled back to the villages" and informed the peasants about the horrendous working conditions of developing industry.

Goals
While these groups primarily opposed the Bolsheviks, they often did so without a plan or alternative form of government in mind; rather, they simply wanted to rid the countryside of Bolshevik influence by any means necessary. This sentiment rang especially true in the Tambov Rebellion led by Aleksandr Antonov where the Greens there had formed a committee (Union of the Toiling Peasantry) which was focused on instating a newly elected government and preserving some socialist policies from the Bolsheviks In other regions, like Saratov, there was more focus on survival and regaining lost food stores because of worsening conditions by 1920's. Attacks in those regions were focused on requisition officers and grain stores to either avoid having their goods requisitioned or to acquire food to share with their entire community. Vladimir Brovkin argues the Greens in Gomel had also been motivated to take out specifically Communists by the 1920's because they had viewed the Bolsheviks as the rightful rulers, and the Communists as a separate entity that they combined with Anti-Semitism that was endemic to Russian society.

Bolshevik Response
Although an editorial about the Greens in the publication Pravda on May 13, 1919 had placed them in a favorable light because they fought against the White Army in Western Siberia. The Bolshevik government tried to build an anti-revolutionary, anti-communist image for the Green armies. 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 also exaggerated the influence of the kulaks in Green armies, who were undoubtedly involved but hardly the driving force of the movement. undefined Internally, there was conflicting reactions to the Greens as Trotsky had pushed the narrative of them being tied with the Denikinites of the White Army. While Lenin had viewed the Tambov rebellion as an extension of Bolshevik ideology and proof that rebellion was necessary to achieve the liberation they sought.[9] 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. Pravda played a role in this narrative of counter-revolutionaries as the publication flipped their narrative to align the Greens with White Army advancement from the south. The Bolsheviks also exaggerated the influence of the kulaks in Green armies, who were undoubtedly involved but hardly the driving force of the movement. undefined Internally, Trotsky had pushed the narrative of them being tied with the Denikinites of the White Army.

The Bolsheviks initially believed that they could easily defeat the Greens, treating them as a hopeless cause both in their propaganda and in their military strategies. Instead of focusing armed attention on the Greens as a whole, the Reds treated each peasant army as a specific instance of unrest, suppressing harshly and further angering the peasant population. By the time that Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks realized the strength of the Green movement, it had grown into a serious social and military threat to Bolshevik power. Some scholars credit the Green movements with indirectly forcing the Communist Party to change its economic strategy in 1921 (see New Economic Policy), and yet, while the Greens certainly contributed to changes in Bolshevik policy, the extent of their influence is open to debate. Although there is more agreement that the New Economic Policy – along with increased rainfall – quelled the Green movement by improving rural conditions and thus damaged the Green armies’ foundation for successful recruitment – peasant discontent. By the summer of 1922, as the Bolsheviks were securing their victory in the civil war, the Green troops had all but disappeared.

Reasons for Disbanding
Aside from the Bolshevik response, a number of internal aspects of the Green movements led to its dissolution. Peasant disagreements of the Communists originated from the excessiveness of grain requisition directives. From the peasant point of view, the Communists were the people who took away forcefully took away their cattle and horses rather than a destinct ideological group. The Greens also stayed primarily in their local locality as often times their main goal was to defend their homes and their farms rather than a full-scale rebellion. When The Greens conquered towns or villages, they did not install themselves politically, leaving the territory to be retaken later by Bolsheviks. These local bands were also not unified politically or occupationally as there were peasants, proletariats, monarchists and kulaks that serves in a particular local band of the Greens. Futhermore, they were far less organized than the Red Army who overwhelmed the rebel groups by 1922 when they had no other enemy to focus on.