Exhibition The Accursed Civil War. To the 90th anniversary of the Civil War in Russia.
What lessons can we learn from the tragic events of the past so that they could never happen again?
An exhibition timed to the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War in Russia suggests reflecting on these issues of the day. It proved to be a peak of the Russian Revolution of 1917-1922, the bloodiest and most dramatic of all its stages when various political forces turned the country into the field of battle for the power. The Museum of Political History of Russia is one of a few in our country which has a significant gathering of items concerning the Civil War and is able to display them.
In the center of attention there are the events of 1917-1918 which reflected the polarization of the society after the February Revolution, Russia’s slipping down into the maelstrom of the Civil War, and the early period of the war. The escalation of the Civil War was caused by the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, signing of the Brest Peace, and the policy of the “war communism” carried out by Vladimir Lenin’s government. Actually, all political forces, except for Bolsheviks, found themselves outside the law. The question which way Russia should choose could only be solved with the help of weapons.
The exhibition represents a little known fact that primarily Bolsheviks were opposed by different democratic forces acting under the slogan “All Power to the Constituent Assembly!” This alternative disappeared only at the end of 1918 when two opposing army camps – the Reds and the Whites - were formed. Most people had to choose between the dictatorships of these two parties.
The central part of the exhibition tells about the main events taking place in 1918: The formation of the Volunteer Army and the “Ice Campaign” under Lavr Kornilov, uprising of Czechoslovak troops and first battles of the Red Army, formation of different anti-Bolshevistic governments in Russia and proclamation of Alexander Kolchak the supreme ruler of the country.
The authors of the exhibition tried to be objective and would like to show the horrors of the Civil War, malignancy of the military way of solving political conflicts and social contradictions.
The Museum visitors will be able to see how swift was the escalation of violence – from small local conflicts in the outskirts of the country at the beginning of 1918 to fierce battles on the most part of Russia’s territory by the mid-summer. The North and the Far East, Siberia and the Urals, the Volga region and the Northern Caucasus, the Don and Kuban areas were enveloped in the flames of the Civil War.
Both the Red and White terror carried away thousands of lives. New frightening phenomena - such as hostages, concentration camps, and executions - became part of people’s everyday life. Exhibits telling about numerous human victims and destructions of cultural monuments are evidences of the national tragedy.
For the first time the Museum tells so fully about all the participants of the Civil War. In spite of the fact that the most part of anti-Bolshevistic documents was destroyed in the 1930s-1950s as “ideologically maleficent”, authors of the exhibition managed to restore many of them after the negatives from the Museum funds.
Documents concerning the activities of the Soviet of People’s Commissars and the Committee of the Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Siberian Government and the Government of the North of Russia, the Volunteer Army and personally Admiral Alexander Kolchak reveal their political programs and slogans.
The war was waged not only by the force of weapons but also with the help of ideological means. It is proved by numerous propaganda leaflets and posters of the Soviet power and its opponents which were rather similar to each other in their attempts to create the enemy’s image and usage of propaganda cliché.
The exhibition is trying to uncrown one more traditional myth. It is believed that in the Red Army there were only workers, soldiers, and poorest peasants whereas the White Army consisted of capitalists, landlords, officers, and kulaks (well-off peasants). But in fact everything was much more complicated as the officers’ corps of the Russian Army was split practically in half. On the display there are personal belongings of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Among them there were former officers of the Tsarist Army M. Matiyasevich, A. Nkolaev, A. Samoilo. It was their choice to serve the Bolsheviks.
Also the exhibition represents uniforms of the Volunteer Army, the People’s Army, the Siberian Army; medals and orders of the White Movement. Military uniforms and weapons which anti-Bolsheviks received from the Antanta countries remind us about one more important factor of the Civil War – the intervention.
The State Archive of the Russian Federation took part in this project. It gave materials –posters, photos and documents - concerning the activities of anti-Bolshevistic governments, formation and historical milestones of the White Movement and its leaders – Lavr Kornilov, Mikhail Alexeev, Anton Denikin, Alexander Kolchak, and Petr Karsnov.
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