White movement The White movement ( ) and its military arm the White Army ( Бѣлая Армiя / Белая Армия , " Belaya Armiya " ) , also known as the White Guard ( Бѣлая Гвардiя / Белая Гвардия , " Belaya Gvardiya " ) or the Whites ( Белые and белогвардейцы , " White Guardsmen " ) , was a loose confederation of Anti - Communist forces that fought the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War ( 1917 – 1922 / 3 ) and , to a lesser extent , continued operating as militarized associations both outside and within Russian borders until roughly the Second World War . Remnants and continuations of the movement , some of which only had narrow support , endured within the wider White émigré community until after the fall of communism . Structure and ideology . In the Russian context , " White " had three main connotations : Ideology . The White movement were chiefly opponents of the Red Army . They said they would bring law and order and the salvation of Russia , fighting against traitors , barbarians , and murderers . They often acted in response to previous Red aggression and worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries in White - controlled territory . Overall , the White Army was nationalistic and rejected ethnic particularism and separatism . The White Army generally believed in a united multinational Russia , and opposed separatists who wanted to create nation - states instead of the Tsarist Russian Empire . Amongst White Army members , anti - Semitism was widespread . Western sponsors were dismayed at this , especially as the Bolsheviks had prohibited anti - Semitism and appeared more progressive . Winston Churchill personally warned General Denikin , whose forces effected pogroms against the Jews , that " my task in winning support in Parliament for the Russian Nationalist cause will be infinitely harder if well - authenticated complaints continue to be received from Jews in the zone of the Volunteer Armies . " Many of the White leaders were conservative . They accepted autocracy while being suspicious of " politics " ( which they characterized as consisting of speeches , elections , and party activities ) . Aside from being anti - Bolshevik and patriotic , the Whites had no set ideology or main leader . The White Armies did acknowledge a single provisional head of state , the so - called Supreme Governor of Russia , but this post was prominent only under the leadership of Alexander Kolchak . The movement had no set plan for foreign policy ; Whites differed on policies toward Germany , debating whether or not to ally with it . The Whites wanted to keep from alienating any potential supporters and allies , and thus saw an exclusively monarchist position as a detriment to their cause and recruitment . White movement leaders such as Anton Denikin advocated for Russians to create their own government , claiming the military could not decide in Russians ’ steads . Admiral Alexander Kolchak succeeded in creating a temporary wartime government in Omsk , acknowledged by most other White leaders , only for it to fall with the loss of his armies . Some warlord s who were aligned with the White movement , such as Grigory Semyonov and Roman Ungern von Sternberg , did not acknowledge any authority but their own . Consequently , the White movement had no set political leanings : members could be monarchists , republicans , rightists , Kadet s , etc . Among White Army leaders , neither General Lavr Kornilov nor General Anton Denikin were monarchists , yet General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel was a monarchist willing to soldier for an elected , democratic Russian government . Moreover , other political parties supported the anti - Bolshevik White Army , among them the democrats , the Socialist - Revolutionary Party , and others who opposed the Bolshevik October Revolution of Lenin . But , depending on the time and place , those White Army supporters also exchanged right - wing allegiance for allegiance with the Red Army . Structure . Of the various and disparate White forces , the most important and largest was the Volunteer Army in South Russia . Starting off as a small and well - organized military in January 1918 , the Volunteer Army soon grew . The Kuban Cossacks joined the White Army , and conscription of both peasants and Cossacks began . In late February 1918 , soldiers under the command of General Aleksei Kaledin were forced to retreat from Rostov - on - Don due to the advance of the Red Army . In what was known as the Ice March , they traveled to Kuban in order to unite with the Kuban Cossacks ( most of whom did not support the Volunteer Army . ) In March , men under the command of General Viktor Pokrovsky joined the Volunteer Army , increasing its membership to , and by June to . In 1919 , the Don Cossacks joined and the Army began drafting Ukrainian peasants . In that year , between May and October , the Volunteer Army grew from to soldiers and was better supplied than its Red counterpart . The White Army ’ s rank - and - file comprised active anti - Bolsheviks , such as Cossacks , nobles , and peasants , as conscripts and volunteers . The White movement ’ s leaders and first members were mainly military officers . Many came from outside the nobility , such as generals Mikhail Alekseev and Anton Denikin , who were from serf families ; or Lavr Kornilov , who was a Cossack . The White generals never mastered administration ; they often utilized “ prerevolutionary functionaries ” or “ military officers with monarchististic inclinations ” for administering White - controlled regions The White Armies were often lawless and disordered . Also , White - controlled territories had multiple different and varying currencies with unstable exchange rates . The chief currency , the Volunteer Army ’ s ruble , had no gold backing . Theatres of operation . The Whites and the Reds fought the Russian Civil War from November 1917 until 1921 , and isolated battles continued in the Far East until 1923 . The White Army — aided by the Allied forces ( Triple Entente ) from countries such as Japan , the United Kingdom , France , Italy and the United States and ( sometimes ) the Central Powers forces such as Germany and Austria - Hungary , fought in Siberia , Ukraine , and the Crimea . They were defeated by the Red Army due to military and ideological disunity , as well as the determination and increasing unity of the Red Army . The main White Army war theatres were : Post – Civil War . The defeated anti - Bolshevik Russians went into exile , congregating in Belgrade , Berlin , Paris , Harbin , Istanbul , and Shanghai . They established military and cultural networks that lasted through the Second World War ( 1939 – 45 ) , e . g . , the Russian community in Harbin and the Russian community in Shanghai ) . Afterward , the White Russians ’ anti - Communist activities established a home base in the United States , where numerous refugees emigrated . Moreover , in the 1920s and the 1930s , the White Movement established organisations outside of Russia , which were meant to depose the Soviet Government with guerrilla warfare , e . g . , the Russian All - Military Union , the Brotherhood of Russian Truth , and the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists , a far - right anticommunist organization founded in 1930 by a group of young White emigres in Belgrade , Yugoslavia . Some white émigrés adopted pro - Soviet sympathies and were termed " Soviet patriots " . These people formed organizations such as the Mladorossi , the Evraziitsi , and the Smenovekhovtsi . A Russian cadet corps was established to prepare the next generation of anti - Communists for the “ spring campaign ” — a hopeful term denoting a renewed military campaign to reconquer Russia from the Soviet Government . In any event , many cadets volunteered to fight for the Russian Corps during the Second World War , when some White Russians participated in the Russian Liberation Movement . After the war , active anti - Soviet combat was almost exclusively continued by the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists : other organizations either dissolved , or began concentrating exclusively on self - preservation and / or educating the youth . Various youth organizations , such as the Russian Scouts - in - Exteris became functional in raising children with a background in pre - Soviet Russian culture and heritage . Some supported Albania ' s King Zog during the 1920s , and a few independently served with Francisco Franco ' s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War . White Russians also served alongside the Soviet Red Army during the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang and the Xinjiang War ( 1937 ) .