EHEMERALE STAATEN des RUSSISCHEN BÜRGERKRIEGES

The United Baltic Duchy existed only a few days at the end of WW1 and as a puppet of the German Empire. It was recognized by the German Empire on 22 September and only got a government on 5 November by which time Courland also joined it. Germany surrendered on 11 November.

So my hot take is: it wasn’t a single “russian civil war” — the narrative of the one civil war was pushed by the Soviets for 70 years.

While there definitely WAS a civil war, it was one of the different conflicts appearing on the map.

It wasn’t one war — it was a dozen overlapping conflicts: an ideological civil war (red vs. white), a class war (peasants vs. requisitioners), and a series of decolonial wars (independent republics vs. the imperial center).

I think this view on this period of time would give you straightaway much more correct view on events and parties involved.

RIP the Free Territories and Makhno. You were a wonderful experience