The Russian “Whites” Were Not Monarchists
During the Russian Civil War, which began with—and was an intrinsic to—Lenin’s coup in November 1917, Bolshevik propaganda affixed the label “Whites” or “White Guards” to the anti-Communist forces. The reference was to the white flag of the restored Bourbon Monarchy in France after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Bolshevik narrative was that its opponents wanted to restore the Tsardom, which was portrayed as an autocracy, despite becoming a constitutional Monarchy in 1905-06. This Communist propaganda had an important role contemporaneously in deterring British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson from seriously supporting the anti-Bolshevik cause, and has coloured perceptions of the “Whites” ever since.
“In reality, not one of the so-called White armies had the restoration of tsarism as its stated objective”, Richard Pipes records in Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime: 1919-1924. “All promised to give the people of Russia an opportunity to decide freely on their form of government.” Moreover, as we shall see, none of the “White” leaders were personally monarchists. What the “Whites” were fighting for was to re-open the Constituent Assembly, which had been elected in November 1917 in the largest democratic exercise in history to that point, and forcibly closed down by the Bolsheviks during its first session in January 1918.
