Green Armies - Constituents, Leadership and Goals

Constituents, Leadership and Goals

Despite Soviet attempts to associate the Green armies with White leadership, such a designation overemphasizes the political aspects of the movement. In a broad sense, the Green armies were spontaneous manifestations of peasant discontent rather than of any specific ideology. By 1920 the Reds had secured victory over the Whites and thus the peasant soldiers of the Red army were outraged at the prospect of continuing to violently oppress their own class in the interest of the new government. Groups of deserters consolidated in the forests, eventually leading to their “Green” designation. While these groups opposed the Bolsheviks, they often did so without a plan or alternative form of government in mind; rather, they simply wanted to rid the countryside of Red influence by any means necessary.

Besides Soviet records of their oppositional activity, we have very little personal information about the Green leaders due to the widespread illiteracy and spontaneous nature of their movement. “The Green leaders were men who acted and wrote not”. In order to build substantial forces, a motivated individual would lead a group of soldiers through the countryside, enlisting deserters and village inhabitants along the way. The leaders would enter a village and make an announcement, employing simple messages and vague, reactionary goals in their rhetoric in order to rouse enthusiasm. They often exaggerated Bolshevik weakness and oppositional victories as a means to convince listeners to join. By keeping the objectives simple, the recruitment indiscriminate, and the mood optimistic, Green leaders succeeded in provoking a sense among the peasants that they could actually make a significant dent in Communist power. They also drew support from disillusioned urban and railroad workers, who had “fled back to the villages” and informed the peasants about the horrendous working conditions of developing industry.