Red Guards
적위대
Volunteer armed detachments formed by industrial workers at factories during the 1917 Russian Revolution, serving as the Bolsheviks' main strike force in the October Revolution and the military foundation of Soviet power in the early months of the Civil War. Organized on a localized, self-governing basis through factory committees and local soviets, they proved inadequate against regular armies and were disbanded and absorbed into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in January 1918.
Related people
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia: добровольные вооружённые отряды, создававшиеся территориальными организациями РСДРП(б) для захвата власти в 1917 году; основная форма вооружённых формирований большевиков при подготовке и осуществлении Октябрьской революции; к концу сентября 1917 года действовали в 104 пролетарских центрах, численность до 250,000 человек
- Wikipedia (EN) English Wikipedia: paramilitary volunteer formations consisting primarily of urban workers; transitional military force of the collapsing Imperial Russian Army and base formations of Bolsheviks during the October Revolution and first months of the Civil War; 200,000 personnel at the time of the October Revolution
- encyclopedia.com Encyclopedia of Russian History (Rex A. Wade): term originated in Finland during the 1905 Revolution; loosely organized, self-organized, chose own leaders; attracted more militant members of working class; organizational base was the factory; formally abolished in April 1918
- soviethistory.msu.edu Lewis Siegelbaum (Michigan State University): Red Guard units were rag-tag and inadequate to the task of defending the new government, leading to the January 15, 1918 Sovnarkom decree forming the Worker-Peasant Red Army