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Green, black, blue – why partisans during the Russian Civil War associated themselves with a certain color
The Bulgarian Orange Guard played an important role in the radical land reforms in Europe at the time. Photo: vk.com/@anb_bulgaria-volyata-na-selyanina
The Bulgarian Orange Guard played an important role in the radical land reforms in Europe at the time. Photo: vk.com/@anb_bulgaria-volyata-na-selyanina
When World War I ended in 1917 and the empire began to disintegrate, numerous armies appeared across the vast expanses of Europe.
We are more accustomed to red and white, but there were other shades. Let's find out together with historian and writer Igor Vasiliev why revolutionaries and monarchists loved multi-colored symbols so much.
Colour symbols have traditionally been very popular in military names, at least since the late Middle Ages.
White and red come from the French Revolution, Igor Vasiliev continues. – The monarchy at that time was white and used the color of the royal lily as its symbol.
The black flag of the anarchists symbolized irreconcilability with the established way of life (the state, the security forces), the desire to distinguish it from other political tendencies, including revolutionary ones, and the readiness to submit and surrender.
As Igor Vasiliev explains, the Green militias often hid in the forests. That's where the name came from. Many people didn't consider the Red or White army to be legitimate authorities. They condemned terrorism and robbery - the destruction of ordinary people. In this case, the "Greens" could act as local self-defense. In other cases, the "Greens" themselves were a gang of robbers, especially since many of them were deserters.
At the end of 1919, the Committee for the Liberation of the Black Sea (KOCHG) was created. The "Green Republic" was founded by Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks who rebelled against the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Anton Denikin. The manifesto of the Green Party is as follows: "We have entered the reactionary struggle as an independent third force, that is, a democratic force. "We will not lay down our arms until democracy has won completely."
In mid-1921, KOCHG was dissolved by the Red Army and its activists were arrested.
This color symbolism was picked up by anarchist armed units in various regions of Russia. The "Black Guard" units have been operating in Ukraine for a year now.
The legendary Nestor Makhno formed a Black Guard regiment in Gulyai-Pole in 1917, and in April 1918, 50 Black Guard units were active in Moscow, created by the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups (MFAG). In just a few months, the number of "Black Guards" in the capital grew to 15 thousand.
The color black has been associated with anarchism since 1880 and symbolizes the rejection of all repressive structures. Black can also be seen as a counter-movement to the white movement.
During the Civil War in Poland, there was a volunteer army that called itself the "Blue Army". It was created by decree of the French President Raymond Poincaré on the initiative of Roman Dmowski, a politician, publicist, and honorary doctor of Cambridge University.
The army received this name, which became generally accepted, because of the blue French uniform worn by the soldiers.
Based on the latest archival documents, the history of the emergence, activities and liquidation of the rebel organization "Blue Army" in the Chelyabinsk region in 1920 has been reconstructed. The detachment operated under a blue banner. It is unknown why the rebels chose this symbol.
And from 1919 to 1923, the Orange Guard operated in Bulgaria – the paramilitary wing of the Agricultural People's Union, whose ideology was in many ways similar to the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party. The Guard not only served as bodyguards for leader Aleksandar Stamboliyski, but also implemented a radical policy of land reform.