Red October at Suite 101

Posted by Christopher Eger Oct 5, 2007

Its October here in the military history section of Suite 101, and I’ve decided to celebrate in style. When people think October they think of Halloween, Columbus Day and other such events. War Nerds think of Red October.

Not the fictional Typhoon class submarine of Tom Clancy fiction, but of the actual affair behind the sub’s name- the October Revolution of 1917. The October Revolution was actually in November by modern calendars (due to the different calendar used in Russia at the time) and it was also militarily a non-event. A few amped up revolutionaries led a crew of mutinous sailors and factory workers to seize a capitol guarded only by some military academy cadets and a battalion of female soldiers. Neither side was tactically trained enough to engage each other in a real live shooting war so not a lot of that happened during the “Ten Days that Shook the World”. Thousands of Russian soldiers sat on their duff and refused to take either side, leaving the coup to be fought and won by amateurs.

This action did however start the Russian Civil War. So without further ado, I hereby declare it Red October month here in the section. Staring with a look at the White Armies of the Civil War, we will look into this conflict all month. They included the very different Southern, Northern, Northwestern, and Siberian White Armies.