Red Guard

1. A member of an activist youth movement in China, prominent during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, that espoused Maoist principles.
2. A member of a radical political group with Maoist leanings.

[Translation of Chinese (Mandarin) hóng wèibīng : hóng, red + wèibīng, guard (wèi, to defend + bīng, weapons, troops).]

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Red Guards (also called Workers' Militia) were volunteer armed bands formed by industrial workers in the cities during the Russian Revolution of 1917. They played an important role in the turmoil of 1917, in the Bolshevik seizure of power, and in securing the new Soviet government. The term Red Guard originated in Finland during the Revolution of 1905 and reemerged in 1917, especially after April, to signify the more politically militant armed workers.

Volunteer armed workers' bands were formed during and after the February Revolution by industrial workers at factories to protect and advance the interests of the industrial workers during the revolution, to maintain public safety, and to guard against counterrevolution. They were loosely organized (mostly self-organized), chose their own leaders, and were independent of all political parties and the new Provisional Government. They attracted the more militant members of the working class and gravitated politically toward the radical end of the spectrum (thus the tendency in later writing to associate them with the Bolsheviks, even though Socialist Revolutionaries [SRs], anarchists, and even Mensheviks participated, along with non-party elements). Indeed, they were a symbol of the most emphatic worker self-organization and self-assertion. Their organizational base was the factory, and their loyalty was to it and to the factory committees and the soviets of workers' and soldiers' deputies, in Petrograd (the capital) and other cities. The government and more moderate socialists were suspicious of them but unable to suppress them.

The Red Guard grew in size and militancy during the summer and early fall as political tensions increased, the economic situation worsened, and workers sensed that the gains they had made after February were slipping away. Industrial workers increasingly saw the Red Guards as essential to protecting their economic and political interests. By the October Revolution, Red Guard detachments totaled about 150,000 to 175,000 men across the country, about 25,000 to 30,000 of them in Petrograd. The Red Guards and the Bolsheviks found common ground in the slogan "All Power to the Soviets" and the call for radical social reforms and an end to the war. As a result, a close working relationship developed between them.

The Red Guards played an important role in the October Revolution and the first few months of the new Bolshevik regime. In Petrograd they joined with soldiers to secure the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the proclamation of "Soviet power" - the new Bolshevik government. Red Guard bands played a similar role in the transfer of power in Moscow and provincial cities. They fought the initial armed efforts to overthrow the Bolsheviks and provided the new government with much-needed armed coercion. The Red Guards were an important part of expeditionary forces sent from Petrograd and Moscow in late 1917 and early 1918 to secure control over outlying regions. Some Red Guard detachments were incorporated into the new Red Army in 1918, others withered away, and the Soviet government formally abolished the Red Guard in April 1918. The essential features of the Red Guard and workers' militias - self-organization, local orientation, and elected leaders - were not suited to the demands of civil war or the new Communist era.

Bibliography

Wade, Rex A. (1984). Red Guards and Workers' Militias in the Russian Revolution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

—REX A. WADE

Loosely organized bands of militant communists who followed Mao Zedong in attacking conservative or bourgeois elements in China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

Red officers during Finnish Civil War

The Red Guards (Finnish: Punakaarti) formed the army of Red Finland during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, and peaked at 90,000-120,000 during the course of the conflict.

The leadership of the Red Guards altered during the war: Ali Aaltonen, Eero Haapalainen, Eino Rahja and in the end Kullervo Manner. The government of Red Finland was called "The People's Deputation". The Red Guards were in power from 28 January to the end of April 1918 in southern Finland.

The Red Guards' general staff were located in Helsinki; the other major cities controlled by the Red forces were Tampere, Turku, Pori and Viipuri. Red Tampere came to its end on 6 April, 1918 after bloody battles when Mannerheim's White Guards conquered the city.

Thousands of Red Guards were imprisoned, hundreds of them were executed and the rest were transported to POW camps. Helsinki was in White control by April 12, 1918.

During the general strike of 1905 "National Guards" were formed in Finland. These Guards included both Socialists and non-Socialists, but eventually they were divided into opposing militias. In that year, however, bloodshed was still avoided.^[1]

The last surviving Red Guard, Aarne Arvonen, became Finland's oldest ever man before his death in January 2009.

Contents 1 Strength 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

Strength

^{[citation needed]}

End of 1917	20,000 men estimate
When the civil war started	30,000 men
Middle of conflict, (Peak)	90,000+ men
In 1920	Thousands, though all in "Russia"

See also

• Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic
• White Guards (Finland)

References

1. ^ Jussila, Osmo; Seppo Hentilä, Jukka Nevakivi (2004) [1999] (in Finnish). Suomen poliittinen historia 1809-2003 (4th ed.). Vantaa: SanomaWSOY. p. 80. 

External links

• Civil war photos

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