The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War that followed it are those events in the history of the native and once common Fatherland that continue to divide people into “ours” and not “ours” until now. No other page in the broad sense of Russian history draws such a divide between the citizens of the former USSR as this one. The wound left in 1917 continues to bleed against the backdrop of new "old" problems, diligently acquiring a variegated mythology.
“They fought in the gray light of a September morning on the banks of the river, native to every Russian, for the same Russia, whose happiness and glory were understood in different ways.” - from a novel "Reds and Whites", Aldan-Semenov Andrey Ignatievich, 1970.
It should be noted right away that many concepts, terms and names used in the events of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War in Russia have a long genesis and go back as far as the 18th century. Moreover, many terms of that troubled era are by no means of Russian origin. A significant part of the concepts migrated from France, where in 1789 the Great French Revolution that lasted 10 years broke out. revolution and civil war, as a result of which the First Republic was proclaimed and the absolute monarchy. The French Revolution was an important event in the history of Europe, giving impetus to the revolutionary movement and the struggle against feudalism in order to establish capitalism as more progressive form of social and economic relations: the Spanish Revolution of 1820, the Decembrist uprising in Russia of 1825, the German Revolution of 1848, the Paris Commune of 1871 etc.
It was France that gave the world a significant part of the "revolutionary" concepts, such as, for example, the division of political forces into "right" and "left". Today it is customary to include liberals, nationalists, and fascists into the “right”. To the "left" - social democrats, communists, anarchists. Although initially in France itself, the “right” included supporters of a constitutional monarchy, and the “left” included supporters of the republic, champions of radical changes in society. Subsequently, the revolutionary movement in Europe started by France gave rise to European and Russian social democracy. Why is all this important? Because the history of the names and symbols of the participants in the Russian Revolution and the Civil War is directly connected with the events of the end of the 18th century.
Why were the Bolsheviks called "Reds"?
The Bolsheviks were natives of the Russian Social Democracy. By 1917, as well as in the early stages of the civil war, the Bolsheviks, like a sponge, absorbed the most “leftist” representatives of other popular parties that appeared in the Russian Empire. With rare exceptions, all of them were in one way or another representatives of the same social democracy. One of the main symbols of this political trend was and remains red.
Today, the official symbol of social democracy is the red rose clenched in the fist of a working man. The red rose symbolizes the blood that the common people shed in numerous riots, rebellions, uprisings and revolutions against their oppressors: slave owners, feudal lords, capitalists. That is why the banner of the Social Democracy, and at the same time, the banner of the Bolsheviks, and the communist movement as a whole, has the same red color.
Why were the opponents of the Bolsheviks called "Whites"?
The White movement in Russia was by no means a monolithic force. It included monarchists, supporters of the constitutional monarchy and republicans of various persuasions. The whites themselves did not call themselves whites. In any case, at the initial stage of the Civil War. Most likely, the concept was originally invented by the Bolsheviks to refer to the entire mass of the "counter-revolutionary element." There is also a version that later the term "White Guard" was fixed as an antipode to the concept of "Red Guard" - the military formations of the Bolsheviks that appeared with the start of the war.
In itself, the concept of "white" in relation to the defenders of the old order and the enemies of the revolution was not first invented in Russia. "White" was the name given to the soldiers of the French king who fought against the revolutionaries in the 18th century. The name appeared because of the heraldic colors of the royal house of France: a white cloth with golden lilies. Since the Bolsheviks actively studied the experience of the Great French Revolution, they actively borrowed concepts from its history for their propaganda. There is also a non-zero probability that drawing an analogy and fixing the name in everyday life contributed to the performance of white ribbon students in Moscow against the Bolshevik coup in October 1917.
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Okay, so who are the Greens then?
Any other "bastard" who rode carts and drank vodka! Joke, of course. Among the "greens" there were many worthy people with their own convictions and their own vision of the future of the once common Fatherland. Of course, one should not overly romanticize, and it is important to always remember that during the civil war, all sides of the conflict managed to get their hands up to their elbows in mud and blood. Of course, the brightest and most worthy representative of the green movement is the Ukrainian anarchist and Russian revolutionary Nestor Ivanovich Makhno, or simply (Ukr.) "Father Makhno."
Actually, with the name "Green Army" everything is extremely simple. They got their nickname due to the fact that for the most part they used flags with a green color (although there were exceptions). They did not call themselves "green" either. They were not a monolithic force. Most often, the “greens” were simply peasant rebels who equally did not recognize either the “whites” with their old orders, or the “reds” with their new orders that were not always clear to ordinary people. In the end, part of the "greens" was defeated, part joined the "reds".
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why in the Soviet Union glued old newspapers on the walls.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/220422/62788/