CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIA: MORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE OF THE WARRING PARTIES ACCORDING TO MEMORIES OF PARTICIPANTS OF EVENTS
The article deals with the problem of the moral and psychological state of the warring parties in the Russian Civil war of 1918-1920. It had both general regularities characteristic of all civil wars in different historical epochs, and distinctive features inherent only in this conflict. Civil war, in contrast to inter-state military conflicts, covers all or most of the country’s territory, and almost the entire population is involved in it voluntarily or unwittingly. When people are faced with a choice of which side to take, such qualities as the conviction of active participants in the civil conflict in the rightness of their cause, their ability to convince the majority of the country’s population that they are expressing their interests come to the fore. Therefore, the moral and psychological state of the warring parties best illustrates the possibilities and prospects for success in the civil war. It is defined by two important points: people and ideas. The white movement had serious problems with ideas that could unite significant sections of Russian society from the very beginning. The uncertainty and irrelevance of the goals of the white movement were the most important demoralizing factor that had a disastrous effect on all its structures from top to bottom from the moment of organization until the predictable defeat. It is impossible to say that the opponents of the white movement did not have problems of a moral and psychological nature, but they were of a slightly different nature and were mostly successfully overcome during the Civil war. And again, people and ideas ensured this victory.