Green armies

The Green armies, Green Army (Russian: Зелёная Армия), or Greens (Russian: Зелёные) were armed peasant groups which fought against all governments in the Russian Civil War of 1917–22. They fought to protect their communities from requisitions or reprisals carried out by third parties. At times associated with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (by far the largest grouping of the Russian Constituent Assembly elected in 1917), the Green Armies had at least tacit support throughout much of Russia. However, the Green Armies' primary base, the peasantry, were largely reluctant to wage an active campaign during the Russian Civil War.

Backdrop

The Green movement formed as a popular reaction to Bolshevik activities in the countryside during the Civil War of 1917–22. After the second (Bolshevik) revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik government instituted War Communism (1918–21), sending officials through the peasant lands of central Russia to collect supplies that the state needed in order to sustain the military and to begin building a socialist economy. Common targets for official requisitioning included recruits for the Red Army, horses, and grain. (From 1929 collectivization – which required relocation and novel farming techniques – angered peasants who were hardly predisposed to leave their home and adopt a new way of life when they were already struggling to survive.) Requisitioning units and agricultural overseers often overstepped their official duties, plundering households indiscriminately and harming innocent villagers. The official policies inflamed passions, and their harsh implementation engendered widespread resentment to the Bolshevik régime. Bloody repression of any popular unrest further alienated the peasantry, and when Green armies begin to form, Bolshevik excesses encouraged peasants to devote themselves to anti-Communist activities.