Battle of Petrograd

Battle of Petrograd
	Part of the Russian Civil War, Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, Estonian War of Independence and Heimosodat
	; A picture of a Young Bolshevik soldier in Petrograd
Date	28 September – 14 November 1919; (1 month, 2 weeks and 3 days)
Location	Petrograd Governorate, Russian SFSR60°03′0″N 31°45′0″E / 60.05000°N 31.75000°E
Result	Decisive Soviet victory Soviets successfully defend Petrograd and preserve the Revolution;
Territorial; changes	Dissolution of the Northwest Army
Belligerents
Northwest Russia; Estonia ; British Empire ; Ingria; Finland	Soviet Russia
Commanders and leaders
Nikolai Yudenich	Leon Trotsky
Units involved
Northwest Army	Red Army 7th Army; 15th Army;
Strength
18,500; 6,000; around 2,000; British Baltic Fleet	55,500

The Battle of Petrograd was a campaign by the White movement to take the city of Petrograd (at various times called Saint Petersburg, Petrograd, and Leningrad; now Saint Petersburg). The city held significant value, notably as it was the same city that the October Revolution took place in. The battle was also at a critical point in the Civil War as the Whites had also been getting closer to Moscow and the Russian State was at its peak.

Using the new Regional Government of Northwest Russia as a base, the newly formed Northwestern Army had launched an attack from Pskov and drove north to Petrograd. The White Army saw a string of victories on the road to Petrograd. After the White advance severed a railroad junction from Moscow to Petrograd, the Bolsheviks began to fear the city might soon fall. Trotsky personally went north to rally the city's defenses, he oversaw the utilization of an alternative rail line to bring in supplies from Moscow needed to fend off the attack.

The advance stalled and reversed, soon the Whites were forced to retreat into Estonia. Hoping to secure a peace deal with Soviet Russia, the Estonian government refused to allow the Northwestern Army to be restationed in the nation. The White cause had begun to disintegrate across Russia however. Though the Northwestern Army was soon allowed to send pockets of units into Estonia, the new government of the Russian State collapsed; simultaneously the army disbanded, ending any chance of Petrograd, the historic capital of Russia, being taken from the Bolsheviks.

Background

On August 8, the Bolsheviks promised that Estonian independence would be recognized on the condition that the Estonian Army would withdraw from Pskov. Yudenich suggested that the Estonian Army be put under his command in exchange for recognized and secured independence. If the Estonians took the peace deal with the Russian SFSR, the Northwestern Army would have no base for operations. In an effort to preserve an alliance with Estonia, he formed the Regional Government of Northwest Russia to start formal negotiations.^[1]

Battle

White Army offensive

On September 28 the White Northwestern Army launched the offensive. Within the week Luga had been taken, railroads from Pskov to Petrograd had been cut off and Iamburg had been taken by October 11. On October 20 some units had made it to Pulkovo Heights, within the suburbs of Petrograd. The 3rd Infantry Division of the Army had ignored orders to cut the Moscow-Petrograd railway at Tosno to reach Petrograd first.^[2]

Red Army counteroffensive

Trotsky had traveled north to the city in an effort to rally a defense. The railway junction at Tosno, that was left alone, had allowed supplies to be sent to the defenders of Petrograd from Moscow. On October 21 the Red Army attacked pushing the Whites back from Pulkovo and retook Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk 2 days later. Soon the 7th Army attacked east while the 15th Army attacked south taking back Luga on the 31st. On the second anniversary of the October Revolution the two armies linked up east and south of Iamburg.^[3]

Aftermath

After the counterattacks by the 7th and 15th Red Armies, the Northwestern Army was severely weakened. Estonia, who did not want to jeopardize the current peace negotiations, refused to take the White Army in as refugees preventing them from taking shelter in Narva. After several pleas, the Estonian government agreed to take in small groups, provided that they would be unarmed and would not be wearing the uniform of Northwestern Army. The Regional Government of Northwest Russia was disbanded on December 5 and the army itself formally disbanded.^[4]^[5]

Trotsky was later awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his personal role in organising the defence of Petrograd.^[6]

Notes

^ Lincoln 1989, p. 292-293.
^ Lincoln 1989, p. 296-298.
^ Lincoln 1989, p. 298-299.
^ McMeekin, Sean (2017-05-30). The Russian Revolution: A New History. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465094974.
^ Lincoln 1989, p. 299-300.
^ Patenaude, Betrand (21 September 2017). "Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941. Cambridge University Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-108-21041-6.