Whites

The White movement had no single programme or command. At the end of 1917 Generals Alekseyev and Kornilov began forming the Volunteer Army on the Don, which in February 1918 set out on the Ice March to the Kuban. After Kornilov's death Denikin took command. In Siberia Admiral Kolchak became Supreme Ruler of Russia in November 1918, and Yudenich fought in the north-west. The last White forces, under Wrangel, were driven out of the Crimea by the Red Army in November 1920.

The Whites had Allied support, but they were divided, outnumbered by the Reds and distrustful of the peasants and the non-Russian peoples. Their slogan of a "one and indivisible Russia" stood in the way of any understanding with Poland, Finland and the other new states. In Finland the Whites under Carl Gustaf Mannerheim defeated the Finnish Red Guard with German help in the spring of 1918.