Red Guards (Russia)

Red Guards
Russian: Красная гвардия
LeadersRSDLP(b) and Soviets
Dates of operation1917–1918
(became core units of the Red Army)
HeadquartersEvery major city
Active regionsRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Russian Republic
IdeologyCommunism
Political positionFar-left
Part ofRed Army (since January 1918)
Allies Finnish Red Guards
OpponentsRussia Russian Provisional Government
Russia White Movement
Entente
Pro-independence movements in Russian Civil War
Battles and warsOctober Revolution
Russian Civil War
Red guard unit of the Vulkan factory in 1917

Red Guards (Russian: Красная гвардия) were paramilitary volunteer formations consisting mainly of factory workers, peasants,[dubious ] cossacks and partially of soldiers and sailors for "protection of the soviet power". Red Guards were a transitional military force of the collapsing Imperial Russian Army and the base formations of Bolsheviks during the October Revolution and the first months of the Russian Civil War. Most of them were formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and some of the units were reorganized into the Red Army during 1918. The Red Guards formations were organized across most of the former Russian Empire, including territories outside the contemporary Russian Federation such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, and others. They were not centralized and were formed by decision of a local political party and local soviet members. By fighting to protect and extend the power of the Soviets, they aided the creation of a new state that (according to its original conception) would give "all power to the soviets": the Soviet Union.


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