The White Movement was the main military-political movement during the Russian Civil War. Its goal was an armed struggle against the Reds (primarily the Bolsheviks) and national separatist movements. The concepts of “Whites”, “White Guards”, “White Movement” were initially more often used by the Bolsheviks to discredit their political opponents by accusing them of striving to restore the monarchy (the white color is a symbol of the Bourbon monarchy during the Great French Revolution). However, the official promotion of monarchical slogans during the Civil War in Russia was an exception for the White Movement, not a rule. Since the early 1920s, these concepts have become widely used among Russian emigration.

The White Movement began to emerge after the February Revolution of 1917, with its prologue being General Lavr Kornilov’s affair in August 1917 aiming to establish a military dictatorship (“firm power”) and disperse the Soviets. The organizational form of the movement began after the October Revolution and the liquidation of the Constituent Assembly in October 1917 – January 1918. It was completed after Admiral Aleksander Kolchak came to power in Omsk on November 18, 1918. At the end of 1917, in the south of Russia, the Volunteer Army was created under the command of General Lavr Kornilov (Commander-in-Chief) and General Mikhail Alekseyev (Supreme Leader).

From November 1918 till early 1920, on an all-Russian scale, the movement was coordinated under the leadership of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, and Navy Aleksander Kolchak. After the fall of Kolchak’s rule in 1920–1922, the White Movement continued to operate on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire: in the Crimea (the Russian Army under the command of Lieutenant General Pyotr Wrangel), Transbaikalia (the armed forces of the Russia Eastern outskirts under the command of Ataman Grigory Semyonov), and in the Far East (the Zemstvo Host under the command of Lieutenant General Mikhail Diterikhs).

Established in December 1917, the Don Civil Council became the first authority of the White Movement. It was headed by Generals Mikhail Alekseyev, Lavr Kornilov, Aleksey Kaledin. Further on, the territories occupied by the Whites were led by: the Special Council of the Supreme Leader of the Volunteer Army Mikhail Alekseyev (later, under the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia Lieutenant-General Anton Denikin), the Provisional Government of the Northern Region (the actual head was General Yevgeny Miller), the North-Western Government (General Nikolay Yudenich) and others. In November 1918 – January 1920, the political centers of the White Movement recognized the power of the Supreme Ruler of Russia Aleksander Kolchak, who was in charge of the highest military and political power.

Formulated in the Volunteer Army declaration and other program documents, the political program of the Whites was finalized in 1919. It provided for an “intransigent armed struggle against the Soviet government” to recreate “a great, united, indivisible Russia” and for the convocation of a new All-Russian Constituent Assembly or the National Assembly after the Civil War (instead of the illegitimate, according to the Whites, Constituent Assembly of 1918, since the elections took place after the Bolsheviks seized power). Such a new National Constituent Assembly was supposed to resolve the issue of the state power form, approve projects of socio-political and economic reforms, which before the victory over the Bolsheviks and the end of the Civil War, could only be developed, but not implemented according to the principle of “non-predetermination”. The position of “non-predetermination” of the state structure of the future Russia was formulated by General Anton Denikin during his speech in Stavropol on August 25, 1918, and generally reflected the views of the main leaders of the White Movement. In the field of national state structure, the Whites allowed granting administrative autonomy to the Cossacks, while the other state formations (Ukraine, the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, etc.) were considered illegitimate by the key White leaders. The government of Pyotr Wrangel was the exception with the allowed possibility of “regional autonomy”.

The Whites declared their loyalty to the allied obligations, to all the treaties concluded by the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government. The Whites used uniform symbolism: the tricolor (white-blue-red) national flag, the coat of arms of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, the anthem “How Glorious Is Our Lord in Zion”.

The White Movement was assisted by foreign countries, mainly the Entente ones: France, Great Britain, USA, Japan. By the autumn of 1919, they (except for Japan in the Far East) refused to provide military support to the Whites but continued to supply weapons and issue loans. The intervention of the troops of the allied states in Russia caused significant damage to the political reputation of the Whites.

By the end of 1922, failing to be supported by the majority of the population, the White Movement was defeated in a military-political confrontation with the Bolsheviks and Soviet power. The leaders, military and civilian structures of the White Movement went into exile.

The Whites