Красные и белые

M. : Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2023.

Budnitskii O.

The Civil War ended a century ago, but passions about it have not subsided and are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. Reflecting on of the social catastrophe that befell them, each of the warring camps has produced its own historical narrative and its own and its own cast of heroes. Today, almost all of them, whether white or red, have lost their romantic halo: both opposing sides have demonstrated a rare brutality in this conflict. The book by Oleg Budnitskii is dedicated to the heroes of the Civil War on both sides, Reds and Whites, collective portraits of the most famous military units of both, from "snapshots" of the Red Army in 1918 and "White Crimea" in the fall of 1920, when the Russian Vendée lived out its last days.  
The author counters the superficial glance and the demonization/romanticization of these historical figures with an analysis of the motives and logic behind the actions of key historical figures and an attempt to see them as living people, forced to make difficult political and moral choices.

Keywords: Гражданская война в России 1918-1920, Красные и Белые, Russian Civil War 1918-1920, The Reds and the Whites