document_title: Russian Civil War

question_text: what caused the civil war in russia what were the effects read more

question_tokens: what caused the civil war in russia what were the effects read more

text: Russian Civil War

text: Background[edit]

text: February Revolution[edit]

text: After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917.

text: Formation of the Red Army[edit]

text: From mid-1917 onwards, the Russian Army, the successor-organisation of the old Russian Imperial Army, started to disintegrate;[12] the Bolsheviks used the volunteer-based Red Guards as their main military force, augmented by an armed military component of the Cheka (the Bolshevik state-security apparatus). In January 1918, after significant Bolshevik reverses in combat, the future People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Leon Trotsky headed the reorganization of the Red Guards into a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in order to create a more effective fighting force. The Bolsheviks appointed political commissars to each unit of the Red Army to maintain morale and to ensure loyalty.

text: In June 1918, when it had become apparent that a revolutionary army composed solely of workers would not suffice, Trotsky instituted mandatory conscription of the rural peasantry into the Red Army.[13] The Bolsheviks overcame opposition of rural Russians to Red-Army conscription units by taking hostages and shooting them when necessary in order to force compliance,[14] exactly the same practices used by the White Army officers.[15] The Red Army utilized former Tsarist officers as "military specialists" (voenspetsy),[16] sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty.[17] At the start of the civil war, former Tsarist officers comprised three-quarters of the Red Army officer-corps.[17] By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers.[18]

text: Anti-Bolshevik movement[edit]

text: While resistance to the Red Guard began on the very day after the Bolshevik uprising, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the political ban [clarification needed] became a catalyst[19] for the formation of anti-Bolshevik groups both inside and outside Russia, pushing them into action against the new regime.

text: A loose confederation of anti-Bolshevik forces aligned against the Communist government, including landowners, republicans, conservatives, middle-class citizens, reactionaries, pro-monarchists, liberals, army generals, non-Bolshevik socialists who still had grievances and democratic reformists voluntarily united only in their opposition to Bolshevik rule. Their military forces, bolstered by forced conscriptions and terror[15] and by foreign influence and led by Gen. Yudenich, Adm. Kolchak and Gen. Denikin, became known as the White movement (sometimes referred to as the "White Army") and controlled significant parts of the former Russian Empire for most of the war.

text: A Ukrainian nationalist movement was active in Ukraine during the war. More significant was the emergence of an anarchist political and military movement known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or the Anarchist Black Army led by Nestor Makhno. The Black Army, which counted numerous Jews and Ukrainian peasants in its ranks, played a key part in halting Gen. Denikin's White Army offensive towards Moscow during 1919, later ejecting White forces from Crimea.

text: The remoteness of the Volga Region, the Ural Region, Siberia and the Far East was favorable for the anti-Bolshevik forces, and the Whites set up a number of organizations in the cities of these regions. Some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers' organizations in the cities.

text: The Czechoslovak Legions had been part of the Russian army and numbered around 30,000 troops by October 1917. They had an agreement with the new Bolshevik government to be evacuated from the Eastern Front via the port of Vladivostok to France. The transport from the Eastern Front to Vladivostok slowed down in the chaos, and the troops became dispersed all along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Under pressure from the Central Powers, Trotsky ordered the disarming and arrest of the legionaries, which created tensions with the Bolsheviks.

text: The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks. They were worried about (1) a possible Russo-German alliance, (2) the prospect of the Bolsheviks making good on their threats to default on Imperial Russia's massive foreign loans and (3) that the Communist revolutionary ideas would spread (a concern shared by many Central Powers). Hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".[20] The British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked like much of that material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext began allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the United Kingdom and France sending troops into Russian ports. There were violent clashes with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks.

text: The German Empire created several short-lived satellite buffer states within its sphere of influence after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: the "United Baltic Duchy", "Duchy of Courland and Semigallia", "Kingdom of Lithuania", "Kingdom of Poland", the "Belarusian People’s Republic", and the "Ukrainian State". Following the defeat of Germany in World War I in November 1918, these states were abolished.

text: Finland was the first republic that declared its independence from Russia in December 1917 and established itself in the ensuing Finnish Civil War from January–May 1918. The Second Polish Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia formed their own armies immediately after the abolition of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the start of the Soviet westward offensive in November 1918.

text: Geography and chronology[edit]

text: In the European part of Russia the war was fought across three main fronts: the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into the following periods.

text: The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice. Already on the date of the Revolution, Cossack Gen. Kaledin refused to recognize it and assumed full governmental authority in the Don region,[21] where the Volunteer Army began amassing support. The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk also resulted in direct Allied intervention in Russia and the arming of military forces opposed to the Bolshevik government. There were also many German commanders who offered support against the Bolsheviks, fearing a confrontation with them was impending as well.

text: During this first period the Bolsheviks took control of Central Asia out of the hands of the Provisional Government and White Army, setting up a base for the Communist Party in the Steppe and Turkestan, where nearly two million Russian settlers were located.[22]

text: Most of the fighting in this first period was sporadic, involving only small groups amid a fluid and rapidly shifting strategic scene. Among the antagonists were the Czechs, known as the Czechoslovak Legion or "White Czechs",[23] the Poles of the Polish 5th Rifle Division and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian riflemen.

text: The second period of the war lasted from January to November 1919. At first the White armies' advances from the south (under Gen. Denikin), the east (under Adm. Kolchak) and the northwest (under Gen. Yudenich) were successful, forcing the Red Army and its allies back on all three fronts. In July 1919 the Red Army suffered another reverse after a mass defection of units in the Crimea to the anarchist Black Army under Nestor Makhno, enabling anarchist forces to consolidate power in Ukraine. Leon Trotsky soon reformed the Red Army, concluding the first of two military alliances with the anarchists. In June the Red Army first checked Kolchak's advance. After a series of engagements, assisted by a Black Army offensive against White supply lines, the Red Army defeated Denikin's and Yudenich's armies in October and November.

text: The third period of the war was the extended siege of the last White forces in the Crimea. Gen. Wrangel had gathered the remnants of Denikin's armies, occupying much of the Crimea. An attempted invasion of southern Ukraine was rebuffed by the anarchist Black Army under the command of Nestor Makhno. Pursued into the Crimea by Makhno's troops, Wrangel went over to the defensive in the Crimea. After an abortive move north against the Red Army, Wrangel's troops were forced south by Red Army and Black Army forces; Wrangel and the remains of his army were evacuated to Constantinople in November 1920.

text: Warfare[edit]

text: October Revolution[edit]

text: In the October Revolution the Bolshevik Party directed the Red Guard (armed groups of workers and Imperial army deserters) to seize control of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) and immediately began the armed takeover of cities and villages throughout the former Russian Empire. In January 1918 the Bolsheviks dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and proclaimed the Soviets (workers’ councils) as the new government of Russia.

text: Initial anti-Bolshevik uprisings[edit]

text: The first attempt to regain power from the Bolsheviks was made by the Kerensky-Krasnov uprising in October 1917. It was supported by the Junker Mutiny in Petrograd but was quickly put down by the Red Guard, notably the Latvian rifle division.

text: The initial groups that fought against the Communists were local Cossack armies that had declared their loyalty to the Provisional Government. Gen. Kaledin of the Don Cossacks and Gen. Semenov of the Siberian Cossacks were prominent among them. The leading Tsarist officers of the old regime also started to resist. In November, Gen. Alekseev, the Tsar's Chief of Staff during the First World War, began to organize the Volunteer Army in Novocherkassk. Volunteers of this small army were mostly officers of the old Russian army, military cadets and students. In December 1917 Alekseev was joined by Gen. Kornilov, Denikin and other Tsarist officers who had escaped from the jail, where they had been imprisoned following the abortive Kornilov affair just before the Revolution.[24] At the beginning of December 1917 groups of volunteers and Cossacks captured Rostov.

text: Having stated in the November 1917 “Declaration of Rights of Nations of Russia” that any nation under imperial Russian rule should be immediately given the power of self-determination, the Bolsheviks had begun to usurp the power of the Provisional Government in the territories of Central Asia soon after the establishment of the Turkestan Committee in Tashkent.[25] In April 1917 the Provisional Government set up this committee, which was mostly made up of former Tsarist officials.[26] The Bolsheviks attempted to take control of the Committee in Tashkent on 12 September 1917 but it was unsuccessful, and many leaders were arrested. However, because the Committee lacked representation of the native population and poor Russian settlers, they had to release the Bolshevik prisoners almost immediately due to public outcry, and a successful takeover of this government body took place two months later in November.[27] The triumph of the Bolshevik party over the Provisional Government during 1917 was mostly due to the support they received from the working class of Central Asia. The Leagues of Mohammedam Working People, which Russian settlers and natives who had been sent to work behind the lines for the Tsarist government in 1916 formed in March 1917, had led numerous strikes in the industrial centers throughout September 1917.[28] However, after the Bolshevik destruction of the Provisional Government in Tashkent, Muslim elites formed an autonomous government in Turkestan, commonly called the "Kokand autonomy" (or simply Kokand).[29] The White Russians supported this government body, which lasted several months because of Bolshevik troop isolation from Moscow.[30] In January 1918 the Soviet forces under Lt. Col. Muravyov invaded Ukraine and invested Kiev, where the Central Council of the Ukrainian People's Republic held power. With the help of the Kiev Arsenal Uprising, the Bolsheviks captured the city on 26 January.[31]

text: Peace with the Central Powers[edit]

text: The Bolsheviks decided to immediately make peace with the German Empire and the Central Powers, as they had promised the Russian people before the Revolution.[32] Vladimir Lenin's political enemies attributed that decision to his sponsorship by the Foreign Office of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, offered to Lenin in hope that, with a revolution, Russia would withdraw from World War I. That suspicion was bolstered by the German Foreign Ministry's sponsorship of Lenin's return to Petrograd.[33] However, after the military fiasco of the summer offensive (June 1917) by the Russian Provisional Government, and in particular after the failed summer offensive of the Provisional Government had devastated the structure of the Russian army, it became crucial that Lenin realize the promised peace.[34][35] Even before the failed summer offensive the Russian population was very skeptical about the continuation of the war. Western socialists had promptly arrived from France and from the UK to convince the Russians to continue the fight, but could not change the new pacifist mood of Russia.[36]

text: On 16 December 1917 an armistice was signed between Russia and the Central Powers in Brest-Litovsk and peace talks began.[37] As a condition for peace, the proposed treaty by the Central Powers conceded huge portions of the former Russian Empire to the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire, greatly upsetting nationalists and conservatives. Leon Trotsky, representing the Bolsheviks, refused at first to sign the treaty while continuing to observe a unilateral cease-fire, following the policy of "No war, no peace".[38]

text: In view of this, on 18 February 1918 the Germans began Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front, encountering virtually no resistance in a campaign that lasted 11 days.[38] Signing a formal peace treaty was the only option in the eyes of the Bolsheviks because the Russian army was demobilized, and the newly formed Red Guard was incapable of stopping the advance. They also understood that the impending counterrevolutionary resistance was more dangerous than the concessions of the treaty, which Lenin viewed as temporary in the light of aspirations for a world revolution. The Soviets acceded to a peace treaty, and the formal agreement, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was ratified on 6 March. The Soviets viewed the treaty as merely a necessary and expedient means to end the war. Therefore, they ceded large amounts of territory to the German Empire.

text: Ukraine, South Russia, and Caucasus 1918[edit]

text: Under Soviet pressure, the Volunteer Army embarked on the epic Ice March from Yekaterinodar to Kuban on 22 February 1918, where they joined with the Kuban Cossacks to mount an abortive assault on Yekaterinodar.[39] The Soviets recaptured Rostov on the next day.[40] Gen. Kornilov was killed in the fighting on 13 April, and Gen. Denikin took over command. Fighting off its pursuers without respite, the army succeeded in breaking its way through back towards the Don, where the Cossack uprising against Bolsheviks had started.

text: The Baku Soviet Commune was established on 13 April. Germany landed its Caucasus Expedition troops in Poti on 8 June. The Ottoman Army of Islam (in coalition with Azerbaijan) drove them out of Baku on 26 July 1918. Subsequently, the Dashanaks, Right SRs and Mensheviks started negotiations with Gen. Dunsterville, the commander of the British troops in Persia. The Bolsheviks and their Left SR allies were opposed to it, but on 25 July the majority of the Soviet voted to call in the British and the Bolsheviks resigned. The Baku Soviet Commune ended its existence and was replaced by the Central Caspian Dictatorship.

text: In June 1918 the Volunteer Army, numbering some 9,000 men, started its second Kuban campaign. Yekaterinodar was encircled on 1 August and fell on the 3rd. In September–October, heavy fighting took place at Armavir and Stavropol. On 13 October Gen. Kazanovich's division took Armavir, and on 1 November Gen. Pyotr Wrangel secured Stavropol. This time Red forces had no escape, and by the beginning of 1919 the whole Northern Caucasus was controlled by the Volunteer Army.

text: In October Gen. Alekseev, the leader of the White armies in southern Russia, died of a heart attack. An agreement was reached between Denikin, head of the Volunteer Army, and PN Krasnov, Ataman of the Don Cossacks, which united their forces under the sole command of Denikin. The Armed Forces of South Russia were thus created.

text: Eastern Russia, Siberia and Far East of Russia, 1918[edit]

text: The revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion broke out in May 1918,[41] and the legionaries took control of Chelyabinsk in June. Simultaneously Russian officers' organizations overthrew the Bolsheviks in Petropavlovsk (in present-day Kazakhstan) and in Omsk. Within a month the Whites controlled most of the Trans-Siberian Railroad between Lake Baikal and the Ural regions. During the summer Bolshevik power in Siberia was eliminated. The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia formed in Omsk. By the end of July the Whites had extended their gains westwards, capturing Ekaterinburg on 26 July 1918. Shortly before the fall of Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918, the former Tsar and his family were executed by the Ural Soviet to prevent them falling into the hands of the Whites.

text: Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries supported peasants fighting against Soviet control of food supplies.[citation needed] In May 1918, with the support of the Czechoslovak Legion, they took Samara and Saratov, establishing the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly—known as the "Komuch". By July the authority of the Komuch extended over much of the area controlled by the Czechoslovak Legion. The Komuch pursued an ambivalent social policy, combining democratic and socialist measures, such as the institution of an eight-hour working day, with "restorative" actions, such as returning both factories and land to their former owners. After the fall of Kazan, Vladimir Lenin called for the dispatch of Petrograd workers to the Kazan Front: "We must send down the maximum number of Petrograd workers: (1) a few dozen 'leaders' like Kayurov; (2) a few thousand militants 'from the ranks'".[42]

text: After a series of reverses at the front, the Bolsheviks' War Commissar, Trotsky, instituted increasingly harsh measures in order to prevent unauthorized withdrawals, desertions and mutinies in the Red Army. In the field the Cheka special investigations forces, termed the Special Punitive Department of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combat of Counter-Revolution and Sabotage or Special Punitive Brigades, followed the Red Army, conducting field tribunals and summary executions of soldiers and officers who deserted, retreated from their positions or failed to display sufficient offensive zeal.[43][44] Trotsky extended the use of the death penalty to the occasional political commissar whose detachment retreated or broke in the face of the enemy.[citation needed] In August, frustrated at continued reports of Red Army troops breaking under fire, Trotsky authorized the formation of barrier troops - stationed behind unreliable Red Army units and given with orders to shoot anyone withdrawing from the battle line without authorization.[45]

text: In September 1918 Komuch, the Siberian Provisional Government and other local anti-Soviet governments met in Ufa and agreed to form a new Provisional All-Russian Government in Omsk, headed by a Directory of five: three Socialist-Revolutionaries (Nikolai Avksentiev, Boldyrev and Vladimir Zenzinov) and two Kadets, (V. A. Vinogradov (ru) and PV Vologodskii).

text: By the fall of 1918 anti-Bolshevik White forces in the east included the People's Army (Komuch), the Siberian Army (of the Siberian Provisional Government) and insurgent Cossack units of Orenburg, Ural, Siberia, Semirechye, Baikal, Amur and Ussuri Cossacks, nominally under the orders of Gen. V.G. Boldyrev, Commander-in-Chief, appointed by the Ufa Directorate.

text: On the Volga, Col. Kappel's White detachment captured Kazan on 7 August, but the Reds re-captured the city on 8 September 1918 following a counteroffensive. On the 11th Simbirsk fell, and on 8 October Samara. The Whites fell back eastwards to Ufa and Orenburg.

text: In Omsk the Russian Provisional Government quickly came under the influence - then the dominance - of its new War Minister, Rear-Admiral Kolchak. On 18 November a coup d'état established Kolchak as dictator. The members of the Directory were arrested and Kolchak proclaimed the "Supreme Ruler of Russia". By mid-December 1918 White armies had to leave Ufa, but they balanced this failure with a successful drive towards Perm, which they took on 24 December.

text: Central Asia 1918[edit]

text: In February 1918 the Red Army overthrew the White Russian-supported Kokand autonomy of Turkestan.[46] Although this move seemed to solidify Bolshevik power in Central Asia, more troubles soon arose for the Red Army as the Allied Forces began to intervene. British support of the White Army provided the greatest threat to the Red Army in Central Asia during 1918. Great Britain sent three prominent military leaders to the area. One was Lt. Col. Bailey, who recorded a mission to Tashkent, from where the Bolsheviks forced him to flee. Another was Gen. Malleson, leading the Malleson Mission, who assisted the Mensheviks in Ashkhabad (now the capital of Turkmenistan) with a small Anglo-Indian force. However, he failed to gain control of Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva. The third was Maj. Gen. Dunsterville, who the Bolsheviks drove out of Central Asia only a month after his arrival in August 1918.[47] Despite setbacks due to British invasions during 1918, the Bolsheviks continued to make progress in bringing the Central Asian population under their influence. The first regional congress of the Russian Communist Party convened in the city of Tashkent in June 1918 in order to build support for a local Bolshevik Party.[48]

text: Left SR uprising[edit]

text: In July two Left SR and Cheka employees, Blyumkin and Andreyev, assassinated the German ambassador, Count Mirbach. In Moscow a Left SR uprising was put down by the Bolsheviks, using Cheka military detachments. Lenin personally apologized to the Germans for the assassination. Mass arrests of Socialist-Revolutionaries followed.

text: Estonia, Latvia and Petrograd[edit]

text: Estonia cleared its territory of the Red Army by January 1919.[49] Baltic German volunteers captured Riga from the Red Latvian Riflemen on 22 May, but the Estonian 3rd Division defeated the Baltic Germans a month later, aiding the establishment of the Republic of Latvia.[50]

text: This rendered possible another threat to the Red Army—one from Gen. Yudenich, who had spent the summer organizing the Northwestern Army in Estonia with local and British support. In October 1919 he tried to capture Petrograd in a sudden assault with a force of around 20,000 men. The attack was well-executed, using night attacks and lightning cavalry maneuvers to turn the flanks of the defending Red Army. Yudenich also had six British tanks, which caused panic whenever they appeared. The Allies gave large quantities of aid to Yudenich, who, however, complained that he was receiving insufficient support.

text: By 19 October Yudenich's troops had reached the outskirts of the city. Some members of the Bolshevik central committee in Moscow were willing to give up Petrograd, but Trotsky refused to accept the loss of the city and personally organized its defenses. He declared, "It is impossible for a little army of 15,000 ex-officers to master a working-class capital of 700,000 inhabitants." He settled on a strategy of urban defense, proclaiming that the city would "defend itself on its own ground" and that the White Army would be lost in a labyrinth of fortified streets and there "meet its grave".[51]

text: Trotsky armed all available workers, men and women, ordering the transfer of military forces from Moscow. Within a few weeks the Red Army defending Petrograd had tripled in size and outnumbered Yudenich three to one. At this point Yudenich, short of supplies, decided to call off the siege of the city and withdrew, repeatedly asking permission to withdraw his army across the border to Estonia. However, units retreating across the border were disarmed and interned by order of the Estonian government, which had entered into peace negotiations with the Soviet Government on 16 September and had been informed by the Soviet authorities of their 6 November decision that, should the White Army be allowed to retreat into Estonia, it would be pursued across the border by the Reds.[52] In fact, the Reds attacked Estonian army positions and fighting continued until a cease-fire went into effect on 3 January 1920. Following the Treaty of Tartu most of Yudenich's soldiers went into exile. Finnish Gen. Mannerheim planned an intervention to help the Whites in Russia capture Petrograd. He did not, however, gain the necessary support for the endeavor. Lenin considered it "completely certain, that the slightest aid from Finland would have determined the fate of Petrograd".

text: Northern Russia 1919[edit]

text: The British occupied Murmansk and, alongside the Americans, seized Arkhangelsk. With the retreat of Kolchak in Siberia, they pulled their troops out of the cities before the winter trapped them in the port. The remaining White forces under Yevgenii Miller evacuated the region in February 1920.

text: Siberia 1919[edit]

text: At the beginning of March 1919 the general offensive of the Whites on the eastern front began. Ufa was retaken on 13 March; by mid-April, the White Army stopped at the Glazov–Chistopol–Bugulma–Buguruslan–Sharlyk line. Reds started their counteroffensive against Kolchak's forces at the end of April. The Red Army, led by the capable commander Tukhachevsky, captured Elabuga on 26 May, Sarapul on 2 June and Izevsk on the 7th and continued to push forward. Both sides had victories and losses, but by the middle of summer the Red Army was larger than the White Army and had managed to recapture territory previously lost.

text: Following the abortive offensive at Chelyabinsk, the White armies withdrew beyond the Tobol. In September 1919 a White offensive was launched against the Tobol front, the last attempt to change the course of events. However, on 14 October the Reds counterattacked, and thus began the uninterrupted retreat of the Whites to the east.

text: On 14 November 1919 the Red Army captured Omsk.[53] Adm. Kolchak lost control of his government shortly after this defeat; White Army forces in Siberia essentially ceased to exist by December. Retreat of the eastern front by White armies lasted three months, until mid-February 1920, when the survivors, after crossing Lake Baikal, reached Chita area and joined Ataman Semenov's forces.

text: South Russia 1919[edit]

text: The Cossacks had been unable to organize and capitalize on their successes at the end of 1918. By 1919 they had begun to run short of supplies. Consequently, when the Soviet counteroffensive began in January 1919 under the Bolshevik leader Antonov-Ovseenko, the Cossack forces rapidly fell apart. The Red Army captured Kiev on 3 February 1919.

text: Gen. Denikin's military strength continued to grow in the spring of 1919. During several months in winter and spring of 1919, hard fighting with doubtful outcomes took place in the Donbass, where the attacking Bolsheviks met White forces. At the same time Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) completed the elimination of Red forces in the northern Caucasus and advanced towards Tsaritsyn. At the end of April and beginning of May the AFSR attacked on all fronts from the Dnepr to the Volga, and by the beginning of the summer they had won numerous battles. French forces landed in Odessa but, after having done almost no fighting, withdrew on 8 April 1919. By mid-June the Reds were chased from the Crimea and the Odessa area. Denikin's troops took the cities of Kharkov and Belgorod. At the same time White troops under Wrangel's command took Tsaritsyn on 17 June 1919. On 20 June Denikin issued his famous "Moscow directive", ordering all AFSR units to get ready for a decisive offensive to take Moscow.

text: Although Great Britain had withdrawn its own troops from the theater, it continued to give significant military aid (money, weapons, food, ammunition and some military advisors) to the White Armies during 1919. Major Ewen Cameron Bruce of the British Army had volunteered to command a British tank mission assisting the White Army. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order[54] for his bravery during the June 1919 battle of Tsaritsyn for single-handedly storming and capturing the fortified city of Tsaritsyn, under heavy shell fire in a single tank; this led to the successful capture of over 40,000 prisoners.[55] The fall of Tsaritsyn is viewed "as one of the key battles of the Russian Civil War" which greatly helped the White Russian Cause.[55] Notable historian Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart comments that Bruce's tank action during this battle is to be seen as "one of the most remarkable feats in the whole history of the Tank Corps".[56]

text: After the capture of Tsaritsyn, Wrangel pushed towards Saratov but Trotsky, seeing the danger of the union with Kolchak, against whom the Red command was concentrating large masses of troops, repulsed his attempts with heavy losses. When Kolchak's army in the east began to retreat in June and July, the bulk of the Red Army, free now from any serious danger from Siberia, was directed against Denikin.

text: Denikin's forces constituted a real threat and for a time threatened to reach Moscow. The Red Army, stretched thin by fighting on all fronts, was forced out of Kiev on 30 August. Kursk and Orel were taken. The Cossack Don Army under the command of Gen. Konstantin Mamontov continued north towards Voronezh, but there Tukhachevsky's army defeated them on 24 October. Tukhachevsky's army then turned towards yet another threat, the rebuilt Volunteer Army of Gen. Denikin.

text: The high tide of the White movement against the Soviets had been reached in September 1919. By this time Denikin's forces were dangerously overextended. The White front had no depth or stability—it had become a series of patrols with occasional columns of slowly advancing troops without reserves. Lacking ammunition, artillery and fresh reinforcements, Denikin's army was decisively defeated in a series of battles in October and November 1919. The Red Army recaptured Kiev on 17 December and the defeated Cossacks fled back towards the Black Sea.

text: While the White armies were being routed in the center and the east, they had succeeded in driving Nestor Makhno's anarchist Black Army (formally known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine) out of part of southern Ukraine and the Crimea. Despite this setback, Moscow was loath to aid Makhno and the Black Army and refused to provide arms to anarchist forces in Ukraine. The main body of White forces, the Volunteers and the Don Army, pulled back towards the Don, to Rostov. The smaller body (Kiev and Odessa troops) withdrew to Odessa and the Crimea, which it had managed to protect from the Bolsheviks during the winter of 1919–1920.

text: Central Asia 1919[edit]

text: By February 1919 the British government had pulled its military forces out of Central Asia.[57] Despite this success for the Red Army, the White Army’s assaults in European Russia and other areas broke communication between Moscow and Tashkent. For a time Central Asia was completely cut off from Red Army forces in Siberia.[58] Although this communication failure weakened the Red Army, the Bolsheviks continued their efforts to gain support for the Bolshevik Party in Central Asia by holding a second regional conference in March. During this conference a regional bureau of Muslim organizations of the Russian Bolshevik Party was formed. The Bolshevik Party continued to try to gain support among the native population by giving them the impression of better representation for the Central Asian population and throughout the end of the year were able to maintain harmony with the Central Asian people.[59]

text: Communication difficulties with Red Army forces in Siberia and European Russia ceased to be a problem by mid-November 1919. Due to Red Army successes north of Central Asia, communication with Moscow was re-established and the Bolsheviks were able to claim victory over the White Army in Turkestan.[58]

text: South Russia, Ukraine and Kronstadt 1920–21[edit]

text: By the beginning of 1920 the main body of the Armed Forces of South Russia was rapidly retreating towards the Don, to Rostov. Denikin hoped to hold the crossings of the Don, then rest and reform his troops, but the White Army was not able to hold the Don area and at the end of February 1920, started a retreat across Kuban towards Novorossiysk. Slipshod evacuation of Novorossiysk proved to be a dark event for the White Army. About 40,000 men were evacuated by Russian and Allied ships from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, without horses or any heavy equipment, while about 20,000 men were left behind and either dispersed or captured by the Red Army. Following the disastrous Novorossiysk evacuation, Denikin stepped down and the military council elected Wrangel as the new Commander-in-Chief of the White Army. He was able to restore order to the dispirited troops and reshape an army that could fight as a regular force again. This remained an organized force in the Crimea throughout 1920.

text: After Moscow's Bolshevik government signed a military and political alliance with Nestor Makhno and the Ukrainian anarchists, the Black Army attacked and defeated several regiments of Wrangel's troops in southern Ukraine, forcing him to retreat before he could capture that year's grain harvest.[60] Stymied in his efforts to consolidate his hold, Wrangel then attacked north in an attempt to take advantage of recent Red Army defeats at the close of the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1920. This offensive was eventually halted by the Red Army, and Wrangel's troops were forced to retreat to the Crimea in November 1920 pursued by both the Red and Black cavalry and infantry. Wrangel and the remains of his army were evacuated from the Crimea to Constantinople on 14 November 1920. Thus ended the struggle of Reds and Whites in Southern Russia.

text: After the defeat of Wrangel, the Red Army immediately repudiated its 1920 treaty of alliance with Nestor Makhno and attacked the anarchist Black Army; the campaign to liquidate Makhno and the Ukrainian anarchists began with an attempted assassination of Makhno by Cheka agents. Angered by continued repression by the Bolshevik Communist government and its liberal use of the Cheka to put down anarchist elements, a naval mutiny erupted at Kronstadt, followed by peasant revolts. Red Army attacks on the anarchist forces and their sympathizers increased in ferocity throughout 1921.

text: Siberia and the Far East 1920–22[edit]

text: In Siberia, Adm. Kolchak's army had disintegrated. He himself gave up command after the loss of Omsk and designated Gen. Grigory Semyonov as the new leader of the White Army in Siberia. Not long after this Kolchak was arrested by the disaffected Czechoslovak Corps as he traveled towards Irkutsk without the protection of the army, and turned over to the socialist Political Centre in Irkutsk. Six days later this regime was replaced by a Bolshevik-dominated Military-Revolutionary Committee. On 6–7 February Kolchak and his prime minister Victor Pepelyaev were shot and their bodies thrown through the ice of the frozen Angara River, just before the arrival of the White Army in the area.[61]

text: Remnants of Kolchak's army reached Transbaikalia and joined Semyonov's troops, forming the Far Eastern army. With the support of the Japanese army it was able to hold Chita, but after withdrawal of Japanese soldiers from Transbaikalia, Semenov's position became untenable, and in November 1920 he was driven by the Red Army from Transbaikalia and took refuge in China. The Japanese, who had plans to annex the Amur Krai, finally pulled their troops out as Bolshevik forces gradually asserted control over the Russian Far East. On 25 October 1922 Vladivostok fell to the Red Army, and the Provisional Priamur Government was extinguished.

text: Aftermath[edit]

text: Ensuing rebellion[edit]

text: In central Asia Red Army troops continued to face resistance into 1923, where basmachi (armed bands of Islamic guerrillas) had formed to fight the Bolshevik takeover. The Soviets engaged non-Russian peoples in Central Asia, like Magaza Masanchi, commander of the Dungan Cavalry Regiment, to fight against the Basmachis. The Communist Party did not completely dismantle this group until 1934.[62]

text: Gen. Anatoly Pepelyayev continued armed resistance in the Ayano-Maysky District until June 1923. The regions of Kamchatka and Northern Sakhalin remained under Japanese occupation until their treaty with the Soviet Union in 1925, when their forces were finally withdrawn.

text: Casualties[edit]

text: The results of the civil war were momentous. Soviet demographer Boris Urlanis estimated the total number of men killed in action in the Civil War and Polish–Soviet War as 300,000 (125,000 in the Red Army, 175,500 White armies and Poles) and the total number of military personnel dead from disease (on both sides) as 450,000.[63]

text: During the Red Terror, estimates of Cheka executions range from 12,733 to 1.7 million. William Henry Chamberlin suspected that there were about 50,000.[64] Evan Mawdsley suspected that there were more than 12,733, and less than 200,000.[65] Some sources claimed at least 250,000 summary executions of "enemies of the people" with estimates reaching above a million.[66][67][68][69] More modest estimates put the numbers executed by the Bolsheviks between December 1917 and February 1922 at around 28,000 per year, with roughly 10,000 executions during the Red Terror.[70]

text: Some 300,000–500,000 Cossacks were killed or deported during decossackization, out of a population of around three million.[71] An estimated 100,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine, mostly by the White Army.[72] Punitive organs of the All Great Don Cossack Host sentenced 25,000 people to death between May 1918 and January 1919.[73] Kolchak's government shot 25,000 people in Ekaterinburg province alone.[74] "White terror" has killed about 300,000 people in total.[75]

text: At the end of the Civil War the Russian SFSR was exhausted and near ruin. The droughts of 1920 and 1921, as well as the 1921 famine, worsened the disaster still further. Disease had reached pandemic proportions, with 3,000,000 dying of typhus alone in 1920. Millions more also died of widespread starvation, wholesale massacres by both sides and pogroms against Jews in Ukraine and southern Russia. By 1922 there were at least 7,000,000 street children in Russia as a result of nearly ten years of devastation from the Great War and the civil war.[76]

text: Another one to two million people, known as the White émigrés, fled Russia, many with Gen. Wrangel—some through the Far East, others west into the newly independent Baltic countries. These émigrés included a large percentage of the educated and skilled population of Russia.

text: The Russian economy was devastated by the war, with factories and bridges destroyed, cattle and raw materials pillaged, mines flooded and machines damaged. The industrial production value descended to one-seventh of the value of 1913 and agriculture to one-third. According to Pravda, "The workers of the towns and some of the villages choke in the throes of hunger. The railways barely crawl. The houses are crumbling. The towns are full of refuse. Epidemics spread and death strikes—industry is ruined."[citation needed] It is estimated that the total output of mines and factories in 1921 had fallen to 20% of the pre-World War level, and many crucial items experienced an even more drastic decline. For example, cotton production fell to 5%, and iron to 2%, of pre-war levels.

text: War Communism saved the Soviet government during the Civil War, but much of the Russian economy had ground to a standstill. The peasants responded to requisitions by refusing to till the land. By 1921 cultivated land had shrunk to 62% of the pre-war area, and the harvest yield was only about 37% of normal. The number of horses declined from 35 million in 1916 to 24 million in 1920 and cattle from 58 to 37 million. The exchange rate with the US dollar declined from two rubles in 1914 to 1,200 in 1920.

text: With the end of the war the Communist Party no longer faced an acute military threat to its existence and power. However, the perceived threat of another intervention, combined with the failure of socialist revolutions in other countries—most notably the German Revolution—contributed to the continued militarization of Soviet society. Although Russia experienced extremely rapid[citation needed] economic growth in the 1930s, the combined effect of World War I and the Civil War left a lasting scar on Russian society and had permanent effects on the development of the Soviet Union.

text: British historian Orlando Figes has contended that the root of the Whites' defeat was their inability to dispel the popular image that they were dually associated with Tsarist Russia and supportive of a Tsarist restoration.[77]

text: Brief Timeline[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
25 October 1917—Alexander Kerensky and his supporters flee Petrograd.
5 January 1918—The Red Guard breaks up a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on Lenin's orders.
28 January 1918—Trotsky sets up the Red army.
March 1918—Bolsheviks move the Russian capital to Moscow from Petrograd for protection and better communications, as it is in the center of their territory.
14 October 1919—Gen. Denikin's army reaches Orel 300 km from Moscow.
22 October 1919—White forces reach the outskirts of Petrograd. Trotsky organizes a counterattack.
Early November 1919—Western allies pull the plug on support for the Whites. Troops begin to desert.
7 February 1920—Kolchak is executed by the Bolsheviks after being handed over by the Czech Legion.
April 1920—Poles are driven back into Poland by the Bolsheviks
1921—Kronstadt uprising crushed
1922-Provisional Priamur Republic dissolved.
1923-Yakut Revolt put down, ending the last White resistance in Russia.
1934- Basmachi Revolt finally put down.

text: In fiction[edit]

text: Literature[edit]

text:
The Road to Calvary (1922–41) by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Chapaev (1923) by Dmitri Furmanov
The Iron Flood (1924) by Alexander Serafimovich
Red Cavalry (1926) by Isaac Babel
The Rout (1927) by Alexander Fadeyev
How the Steel Was Tempered (1934) by Nikolai Ostrovsky
Optimistic Tragedy (1934) by Vsevolod Vishnevsky
And Quiet Flows the Don (1928–1940) by Mikhail Sholokhov
The Don Flows Home to the Sea (1940) by Mikhail Sholokhov
Doctor Zhivago (1957) by Boris Pasternak
The White Guard (1966) by Mikhail Bulgakov
Byzantium Endures (1981) by Michael Moorcock
Chevengur (novel) (ru) (written in 1927, first published in 1988 in the USSR) by Andrei Platonov.
Fall of Giants (2010) by Ken Follett
Last Train over Rostov Bridge (2011) by Marion Aten; revised edition originally published 1961.
A Splendid Little War (2012) by Derek Robinson (novelist)
A Forgotten Land (2013) by Lisa Cooper

text: Film[edit]

text:
Arsenal (1928)
Storm Over Asia (1928)
Chapaev (1934)
Thirteen (1936), directed by Mikhail Romm
We Are from Kronstadt (1936), directed by Yefim Dzigan
Knight Without Armour (1937)
The Year 1919 (1938), directed by Ilya Trauberg
The Baltic Marines (1939), directed by A. Faintsimmer
Shchors (1939), directed by Dovzhenko
Pavel Korchagin (1956), directed by A. Alov and V. Naumov
The Forty-First (1956), directed by Grigori Chukhrai
And Quiet Flows the Don (1958), directed by Sergei Gerasimov
The Wind (1958), directed by A. Alov and V. Naumov
Doctor Zhivago (1965), directed by David Lean
The Elusive Avengers (1966)
The Red and the White (1967)
The Flight (1970), directed by A. Alov and V. Naumov
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) directed by Franklin Schaffner briefly mentioned
Reds (1981), directed by Warren Beatty
Corto Maltese in Siberia (2002)
Admiral (2008)
Sunstroke (2014), directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

text: Video Games[edit]

text: Battlefield 1 (2016); In The Name of the Tsar expansion released in 2017


document_title: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

question_text: where did the name cedar rapids come from

question_tokens: where did the name cedar rapids come from

root

text: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

text: History[edit]

text: The location of present-day Cedar Rapids was in the territory of the Fox and Sac tribes.

tag: p

text: The first permanent settler, Osgood Shepherd, arrived in 1838. When Cedar Rapids was first established in 1838, William Stone named the town Columbus. In 1841 it was resurveyed and renamed by N.B. Brown and his associates. They named the town Cedar Rapids for the rapids in the Cedar River at the site, and the river itself was named for the large number of red cedar trees that grew along its banks.[10] Cedar Rapids was incorporated on January 15, 1849.[11] Cedar Rapids annexed the community of Kingston in 1870.

text: The economic growth of Cedar Rapids increased in 1871 upon the founding of the Sinclair meatpacking company.

text: In 2010, the Census Bureau reported Cedar Rapids' population as 87.98% white, and 5.58% black.[12]

text: Flood of 2008[edit]

text: During the Iowa flood of 2008, the Cedar River reached a record high of 31.12 feet (9.49 m) on June 13, 2008, the previous record was 20 feet (6.1 m) surpassing the 500-year flood plain. 1,126 city blocks were flooded, or more than 10 square miles (26 km2), 561 city blocks were severely damaged, on both banks of the Cedar River. This is 14% of the city's total area. There were a total of 7,749 flooded properties that had to be evacuated, 5,900 were homes, and 310 were city facilities including the City Hall, Central Fire Station, Main Public Library, Ground Transportation Center, Public Works building, and Animal Control building. It is estimated 1300 or more properties are to be demolished in the Cedar Rapids area because of the flood, which caused several billions of dollars in damages. More than 4000 members of the Iowa National Guard were called up to assist the city. The temporary levees became saturated not only with the flood waters but also with additional rainfall causing the levies to fail.[13][14]

text: Flood of 2016[edit]

text: During the flood of 2016, remnants of Hurricane Paine from the eastern Pacific Ocean via the Gulf of California caused the second highest recorded crest of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids reaching 22 feet (6.7 m) on Tuesday, September 27, 2016.[15][16][17] The inundation of southern Minnesota, central and western Wisconsin, and northeastern Iowa by Hurricane Paine's remnants began on September 21 and 22 and continued until the end of September 2016.[18][19][20][21] This cresting in Cedar Rapids was below the initial estimate of 25 feet (7.6 m) and the revised estimate of 23 feet (7.0 m), but more than 10 feet (3.0 m) above the flood stage of 12 feet (3.7 m).[22][23][24] This flood was above levels considered to have about a 1 percent chance of occurring in a given year.[25][a] More than 5,000 homes were affected including the flooded areas around Time Check Park, the Czech Village, and the New Bohemia district causing over 5,000 persons to be evacuated.[25][14][26][27] The Cedar Rapids Schools did not have school for a week.[28]

text: In 2015, the city of Cedar Rapids approved a $625 million flood protection plan over 20 years for levee improvements.[25] Although the improvement to the levee system in Cedar Rapids had not been completed due to over $80 million in funding not appropriated by the United States Congresses of 2014 and 2016 and the voting down by local residents of a temporary increase in the local sales tax to pay for the levee improvements,[b] Out of school students along with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and 412 Iowa National Guard troops filled more than a quarter of a million sand bags in a successful effort that prevented any major flooding of the city outside of the evacuation zone.[25][29] A 9.8-mile (15.8 km) system of Hesco barriers, earthen berms, and over 400,000 sand bags were used to plug the gaps in the levee system.[25][30][31] The city of Cedar Rapids purchased additional Hesco barriers from Iowa City for $1.4 million.[32] Numerous upstream cities which had been earlier affected by the September flooding and mandatory evacuations including Charles City, Greene, Manchester, Clarksville, Shell Rock, Vinton, Janesville, Cedar Falls and Waterloo sent hundreds of thousands of unused sand bags to support efforts in Cedar Rapids and nearby communities.[19][27] The remnants of Hurricane Paine did not produce any rain to saturate the temporary earth berms and sand bags, which would have greatly increased the likelihood of breach in the temporary levee structures and thus causing a much greater flooded area; the river crested during very sunny weather in Cedar Rapids. Additionally beginning on the evening of Sunday, September 25, 300 to 400 National Guard troops along with the Iowa State Patrol, other law enforcement agencies, and 60 duly sworn law enforcement officials enforced an 8pm to 7am curfew, nightly.[27][28][29]

text: Geography[edit]

text: The city is divided into four quadrants, used in addressing. 1st Avenue (U.S. Route 151 Business) divides the north and south sides of the city, and the Cedar River divides east and west. Mays Island, in the middle of the river, is the only area of the city where addresses have no quadrant. Areas outside of the city limit that use the "Cedar Rapids" city name on their mailing address also do not use the quadrants.

text: Except in the downtown area, 1st Avenue and the Cedar River tend to run diagonally instead of along the cardinal directions. Due to the curving of 1st Avenue, there are some areas in western Cedar Rapids where NW addresses are actually south of SW addresses.

text: Cedar Rapids is divided into fourteen ZIP Codes. Mays Island and the downtown area are covered by 52401. The northeast quadrant is covered by 52402 and 52411. The southeast quadrant is covered by 52403. The southwest quadrant is covered by 52404. The northwest quadrant is covered by 52405. Post office boxes are covered by ZIP codes 52406, 52407, 52408, 52409, and 52410. Several other ZIP codes are for specific business (Aegon USA, Rockwell Collins, etc.).

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 72.07 square miles (186.66 km2), of which, 70.8 square miles (183.37 km2) is land and 1.27 square miles (3.29 km2) is water.[2]

text: Neighborhoods[edit]

text: There are twelve active neighborhood associations in Cedar Rapids. The neighborhoods nearest downtown include Wellington Heights and Oakhill Jackson in the southeast quadrant and Moundview in the northeast quadrant. Also farther north in the northeast quadrant is the Kenwood Park, which was independent until it was incorporated into the Cedar Rapids city limits, and Noelridge Park neighborhood. The boundaries of Kenwood are 32nd Street to Oakland Road to Old Marion Road to C Avenue to 40th Street then 1st Avenue between 40th street and 32nd Street.[33]

text: In addition to the neighborhood associations in Cedar Rapids, there are many informal, unofficial neighborhoods, such as Bowman Woods, Vernon Heights, Stoney Point, New Bohemia (NewBo) and Wilderness Estates.

text: Czech Village is located along 16th Avenue SW, which is south of the Cedar River. It is home to such Czech-related businesses as The Czech Cottage, Sykora Bakery, and White Lion Treasures. The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library is one of the major tourist attractions in Cedar Rapids, and the nearby Bohemian National Cemetery may also be of interest to visitors. The National Czech & Slovak Museum's main building was located directly on the river and was badly damaged by the 2008 floods. 1400 The museum moved a few blocks after the flood to Inspiration Pl SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404.

text: The Cedar Rapids Czech Heritage Foundation is one of many local organizations working to promote and preserve Czech heritage in Cedar Rapids. They support and sponsor many programs and events throughout the year. One of these programs is the Miss Czech-Slovak Iowa pageant. Two Miss Czech-Slovak US queens can claim this community as home: Lisa Volesky and Stasia Krivanek.

text: Olga Drahozal was the famed band leader of the Czech Plus Polka Band, a performing group that frequents the Kosek Band Stand in Czech Village. She, along with Bessie Duggena and Leona Poduška, taught Czech School (Česká škola) at Wilson Middle School.

text: In 2003, the African-American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa opened its doors. Cedar Rapids is also home to the historic 26 acre (105,000 m²) Brucemore Estate, on which sits a 21-room mansion, and the Masonic Library and Museum.

text: In 2009, Cedar Rapids was rated one of the "Top 10 cities to Grow Up In" in the United States, partly due to a low crime rate and a good public school system.[34]

text: Climate[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids has a humid continental climate with long, cold, sometimes brutal winters with plenty of snow, while summers are hot and humid, with frequent severe thunderstorms.

text: The record low temperature in Cedar Rapids is −29 °F (−34 °C), set on January 15, 2009,[35] while the record high temperature of 104 °F (40 °C) was set on July 31, 1988.

text:
[hide]Climate data for Cedar Rapids, IA

Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Year

Record high °F (°C)
65
(18)
67
(19)
88
(31)
95
(35)
96
(36)
100
(38)
104
(40)
102
(39)
98
(37)
92
(33)
77
(25)
67
(19)
104
(40)

Average high °F (°C)
28
(−2)
34
(1)
47
(8)
61
(16)
71
(22)
80
(27)
84
(29)
82
(28)
75
(24)
62
(17)
47
(8)
32
(0)
59
(15)

Average low °F (°C)
11
(−12)
16
(−9)
27
(−3)
38
(3)
49
(9)
57
(14)
63
(17)
61
(16)
51
(11)
40
(4)
28
(−2)
15
(−9)
38
(3.3)

Record low °F (°C)
−29
(−34)
−21
(−29)
−20
(−29)
1
(−17)
25
(−4)
39
(4)
46
(8)
40
(4)
27
(−3)
18
(−8)
−11
(−24)
−22
(−30)
−29
(−34)

Average precipitation inches (mm)
0.92
(23.4)
1.27
(32.3)
2.10
(53.3)
3.05
(77.5)
4.15
(105.4)
4.92
(125)
4.46
(113.3)
4.48
(113.8)
3.16
(80.3)
2.62
(66.5)
2.11
(53.6)
1.42
(36.1)
34.66
(880.5)

Average snowfall inches (cm)
6.20
(15.75)
6.90
(17.53)
3.10
(7.87)
1.00
(2.54)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0.10
(0.25)
1.70
(4.32)
7.80
(19.81)
26.80
(68.07)

Source: http://www.intellicast.com/Local/History.aspx?location=USIA0138

tag: table

text: Demographics[edit]

text:
Historical populations

Year
Pop.
±%

1860
1,830
—

1870
5,940
+224.6%

1880
10,104
+70.1%

1890
18,020
+78.3%

1900
25,656
+42.4%

1910
32,811
+27.9%

1920
45,566
+38.9%

1930
56,097
+23.1%

1940
62,120
+10.7%

1950
72,296
+16.4%

1960
92,035
+27.3%

1970
110,642
+20.2%

1980
110,243
−0.4%

1990
108,772
−1.3%

2000
120,758
+11.0%

2010
126,326
+4.6%

2016
131,127
+3.8%

"American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau.  and Iowa Data Center
Source:
U.S. Decennial Census[36]

text: The Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of Linn, Benton, and Jones counties. The MSA had a 2000 census population of 237,230, with an estimated 2008 population of 255,452;[9] Linn County was the only county in the MSA before the MSA was redefined after the 2000 census.

text: As a growing job center, Cedar Rapids pulls commuters from nearby Marion and Hiawatha. Other towns that have become bedroom communities include Ely, Swisher, Shueyville, Palo, Atkins, Fairfax, Walford, Robins and Bertram.

text: Based on the 2010 American Community Survey[37] 1 Year Estimates, the median income for a household in the city was $51,186, and the median income for a family was $63,265. Males had a median income of $40,413 versus $26,402 for females. The per capita income for the city is $26,370. About 6.3% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.5% of those under the age of 18 and 4.3% of those 65 or older.

text: 2010 census[edit]

text: As of the census[38] of 2010, there were 126,326 people, 53,236 households, and 30,931 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,784.3 people per square mile (688.9/km²). There were 57,217 housing units at an average density of 808.2 per square mile (312.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 87.98% White, 5.58% African American, 0.31% Native American, 2.21% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 2.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.31% of the population.

text: There were 53,236 households of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.95.

text: Age spread: 23.5% under the age of 18, 11.2% from 18 to 24, 27.4% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.3 years. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.4 males.[39]

text: 2000 census[edit]

text: In the 2000 census, Cedar Rapids was 91.9% non-Hispanic white, with well over half of the population claiming a specific ethnic European ancestry, such as Germans (35.5%), Irish (17.1%), English (9.4%), Czechs (7.8%), Norwegians (5.1%), and French from either France or Canada (3.2%).[40] The city also has a growing minority population: for example, in the three-year period from 2006 to 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 4.9% of the Cedar Rapids population identified as African Americans, up from 3.7% in the 2000 census.[40][41]

text: Muslim heritage[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids has played an important role in Muslim culture in the United States. The National Muslim Cemetery, on 12 acres (49,000 m2) of land donated by Haj. Yahya William Aossey in 1948, is said to be the first exclusively Muslim cemetery in North America.[citation needed] Graves in the cemetery face Mecca.[42] The Mother Mosque of America, dedicated on June 16, 1934, is the longest standing mosque in North America.[43][44] In 1972, another mosque was built and the original mosque was sold and fell into disrepair before being purchased in 1990 by the Islamic Council of Iowa and renovated.[45][46] It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Iowa flood of 2008 extensively damaged the basement, destroying many historic documents.

text: Muslim presence in the area dates to 1895 when the first immigrants arrived from the Beqaa Valley in today's Lebanon and Syria.[47] Islamic Services of America (I.S.A.) was established in Cedar Rapids in 1975 and provides Halal Certification and supervision throughout the world.[48]

text: Economy[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids is one of the largest cities in the world for corn processing. The grain processing industry is Cedar Rapids' most important sector, directly providing 4,000 jobs that pay on average $85,000, and also providing 8,000 indirectly.[50] Fortune 500 company Rockwell Collins and trucking company CRST are based in Cedar Rapids,[51] and Aegon has its United States headquarters there. A large Quaker Oats mill, one of the four that merged in 1901 to form Quaker Oats, dominates the north side of downtown. Other large companies that have facilities in Cedar Rapids include Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, General Mills, Toyota Financial Services and Nordstrom.[50] Newspaperarchive, based in Cedar Rapids, is the largest newspaper archive in North America with a repository of more than 150 million pages assembled over 250 years; it was taken offline for two days by the 2008 flood.

text: Top employers[edit]

text: According to Cedar Rapids' 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[52] the top employers in the area are:

text:
#
Employer
Employees

1
Rockwell Collins
8,700

2
Transamerica
3,872

3
St. Luke's Hospital
3,184

4
Cedar Rapids Community School District
2,936

5
Hy-Vee
2,599

6
Mercy Medical Center
2,312

7
Kirkwood Community College
1,895

8
City of Cedar Rapids
1,311

9
Nordstrom
1,200

10
Quaker Oats
1,018

text: Arts and culture[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids is home to Orchestra Iowa, the Paramount Theatre, Theatre Cedar Rapids, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, and Brucemore, a National Trust Historic Site, among others.

text: Cedar Rapids is also home to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, The Cedar Rapids Ceramics Center, Legion Art's CSPS Hall, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, the African American Historical Museum, Kirkwood Community College's Iowa Hall Gallery, and the legendary Grant Wood Studio at 5 Turner Alley. These Cedar Rapids venues have recently hosted world class and award nominated exhibitions, including the works of Andy Warhol, Grant Wood, and the Iowa Biennial, among others.

text: The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art houses the largest collection of Grant Wood paintings in the world. The 1920s Paramount Theatre is home to the Orchestra Iowa and the Cedar Rapids Area Theatre Organ Society. Concerts and events such as high school graduations, sporting events, exhibitions, and political rallies are held in the U.S. Cellular Center, formerly known as The Five Seasons Center.

text: Many arts centers in Cedar Rapids sustained severe damage during the June 2008 flood. Among those severely damaged are the Paramount Theatre, Theatre Cedar Rapids, the National Czech & Slovak Museum, and the African American Historical Museum. Two Wurlitzer organs were damaged, located at the Paramount Theatre and Theatre Cedar Rapids. The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art suffered minor damage. It is expected to cost $25 million to repair the Paramount;[53][54] Theatre Cedar Rapids reopened in February 2010.[55]

text: Sports[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Cedar Rapids is home to four minor league sports franchises:

text:
the Cedar Rapids Kernels, a member of minor league baseball's Midwest League since 1962, are the Class-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins and play at Veterans Memorial Stadium
the Cedar Rapids Roughriders are members of the United States Hockey League, playing at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena
the Cedar Rapids Titans, members of the Indoor Football League, play at the U.S. Cellular Center
the Cedar Rapids Rampage play Major Arena Soccer League matches at the U.S. Cellular Center

tag: ul

text: Parks and recreation[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids has over 3,360 acres (13.6 km2) of city owned property for undeveloped green space and recreational use. There are 74 formally named parks or recreational facilities. These include baseball and softball fields, all-weather basketball courts, two frisbee golf courses, sand volleyball courts, the Tuma Soccer Complex, a BMX dirt track, two off-leash dog exercise areas, the Old MacDonald's Farm (a children's zoo), 10 splash pads, and many parks that have pavilions, picnicking areas and restroom facilities. The various trail systems in Cedar Rapids have a total of 24 miles (39 km) for walking, running or bicycling.[56]

text: The YMCA has had a local chapter since 1868. It has many facilities including Camp Wapsie.[57]

text: Government[edit]

text:
Cedar Rapids mayors since 1969

Mayor
In office

 Don Canney
 1969–1992

 Larry Serbousek
 1992–1995

 Lee Clancey
 1995–2002

 Paul Pate
 2002–2006

 Kay Halloran
 2006–2009

 Ron Corbett[58]
 2010–

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: From April 6, 1908, to December 31, 2005, Cedar Rapids used the city commission form of government. It was one of the few larger American cities remaining to operate under this model. Under this form of government, the council was made up of a public safety commissioner, a streets commissioner, a finance commissioner, a parks commissioner, and a mayor. The council members worked on a full-time basis, served two-year terms, and were considered department heads. Don Canney, the longest serving mayor in city history, served for twenty-two years under this system.[59] The last mayor of Cedar Rapids under this form of government was Paul Pate.

text: In 2005 the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce spearheaded a movement to change from the commission form of government. A panel was appointed by Mayor Pate and the City Council to study the issue, and recommended that voters be presented with three options:

text:
Stay with the current commission form of government.
Adopt a "strong mayor form" where the council would be part-time, the mayor would be full-time, and a city manager would run the day-to-day affairs of the city.
Adopt a "weak mayor form" of government, in this form the mayor and council would both work on a part-time basis. A full-time city manager would run the day-to-day operations of the city.

text: On June 14, 2005, voters went to the polls to decide whether to adopt a new form of government or continue with the commission form. 28,818 of the 83,514 registered voters (29.72%) cast ballots on the issue. 68.80% of the voters decided to adopt a new form of government.[60] Elections were held on November 8, 2005 and 30 candidates ran. Kay Halloran, a retired attorney and state legislator, became the first mayor elected under the new system. Several members of the city council were elected outright; however, the remaining races were close enough to require a runoff election, which took place in December.

text: Cedar Rapids now has an Iowa "Home Rule" charter which establishes a weak mayor system with a part-time City Council and Mayor both on four-year terms.[61]

text: Education[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids is home to two four-year colleges: Coe College and Mount Mercy University. The University of Iowa also has an evening MBA facility there.[62] Kirkwood Community College is the area's only two-year college, while Kaplan University (formerly Hamilton College) and Upper Iowa University also have campuses there. Cornell College in Mount Vernon and the University of Iowa's main campus in Iowa City are both within 30 miles (48 km) of Cedar Rapids.

text: The Cedar Rapids Community School District is the largest school district in the metropolitan area with an enrollment of 17,263 in the 2006–2007 school year.[63] The district contains 24 elementary schools, six middle schools, and four high schools: Jefferson, Washington, Kennedy, and Metro High School (an alternative high school).[64] Two neighboring school districts draw students from within the Cedar Rapids city limits. The Linn-Mar Community School District serves part of the northeast quadrant of the city and has seven elementary schools inside the city limits.[65] The College Community School District serves part of the southwest quadrant of Cedar Rapids as well as neighboring rural portions of Linn, Benton and Johnson counties. Located in a central campus off Interstate 380 are College Community's five elementary schools, Prairie Creek Intermediate, Prairie Point Middle School & Ninth Grade Academy, and Prairie High School.[66]

text: The Cedar Rapids Metro Catholic Education System, which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque, consists of six elementary schools,[67] two middle schools,[68] and one high school (Xavier). The Cedar Rapids Catholic Education System and Cedar Rapids Community School District are synonymous with each other in the Cedar Rapids Public and Parochial School System.

text: The city hosts several private schools, including Summit Schools, Cedar Valley Christian School, Trinity Lutheran School, Isaac Newton Christian Academy, and Faith Christian Learning Center.

text: Media[edit]

text: Radio[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids' radio market, which consists of Linn County,[69] is ranked 211th by Arbitron with 172,000 listeners aged 12 and older.[70]

text: iHeart Media owns four stations in the Cedar Rapids area, including WMT 600 AM, a news/talk station that has broadcast since 1922. Clear Channel also owns KKSY-FM 96.5, a modern country music station; KMJM 1360 AM, a classic country station; and KOSY-FM 95.7 FM, a hit music station.[71] Townsquare Media owns four radio stations in Cedar Rapids, which were formerly owned by Cumulus Media: KDAT 104.5 FM (adult contemporary), KHAK 98.1 FM (country music), and KRNA 94.1 FM (classic rock). Townsquare also operates KRQN 107.1 under a Lease-Management Agreement. KRQN broadcasts a (contemporary hits) format.[72] Three other stations in Cedar Rapids are independently owned: KZIA 102.9 FM (contemporary hits), KGYM 1600 AM (sports radio), and KMRY 1450 AM/93.1 FM (Classic Hits).[73] Several stations from Davenport, Waterloo, and Iowa City also figure into ratings in Cedar Rapids.[74] These stations include Waterloo-licensed contemporary Christian "Life 101.9," KNWS-FM; KFMW 107.9 FM, known as "Rock 108," with an active rock format; and KOKZ 105.7 FM, which has a classic hits format. Clear Channel-owned KKRQ 100.7 FM, with a classic rock format, is the Iowa City station that is typically highly rated in Cedar Rapids.

text: The only noncommercial station licensed to Cedar Rapids is KCCK-FM 88.3 FM, a jazz station licensed to Kirkwood Community College. KXGM 89.1 is a non-commercial contemporary Christian music station licensed to neighboring Hiawatha.[73] NPR stations from Cedar Falls (KUNI (FM) 90.9 FM) and Iowa City (KSUI 91.7 FM and WSUI 910 AM) reach Cedar Rapids.[75]

text: Television[edit]

text: The Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City-Dubuque media market consists of 21 eastern Iowa counties: Allamakee, Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Cedar, Chickasaw, Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette, Grundy, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Keokuk, Linn, Tama, Washington, and Winneshiek.[69] It is ranked 90th by Nielsen Media Research for the 2016–17 television season with 346,330 television households.[76]

text: Cedar Rapids is home to four network-affiliated stations: KGAN channel 2 (CBS), KCRG channel 9 (ABC), KFXA channel 28 (Fox), and KPXR-TV channel 48 (ION). NBC affiliate KWWL channel 7 and The CW affiliate KWWL-DT2 are based in Waterloo and maintain a newsroom inside the Alliant Energy tower in downtown Cedar Rapids. Other stations in the market are KWKB channel 20 (This TV), licensed to Iowa City and KFXB-TV channel 40 (CTN), licensed to Dubuque. Public television is provided by Iowa Public Television, which has two stations in the area: KIIN channel 12 in Iowa City and KRIN channel 32 in Waterloo. KWWF channel 22 (RTN), which operated from Waterloo, ceased broadcasting in 2013. Mediacom and local company ImOn Communications provide cable television service to Cedar Rapids.

text: Print[edit]

text: The Gazette is the primary daily newspaper for Cedar Rapids. The Cedar Rapids Gazette won a Pulitzer Prize in 1936, under editor Verne Marshall and primarily due to his efforts and articles, for its campaign against corruption and misgovernment in the State of Iowa.[77]

text: Film[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids is an American comedy film about a naive insurance agent, played by Ed Helms, who is sent to represent his company at a regional conference in big town Cedar Rapids.[78] Although the film is set in Cedar Rapids, it was actually mostly shot in Ann Arbor, Michigan, although exterior shots were done in Cedar Rapids.[79]

text: The 2017 film Amelia 2.0 is a scifi drama set in a nameless fictional city. The majority of the movie was filmed in Cedar Rapids, using iconic locations such as the Cedar Rapids Public Library and Theater Cedar Rapids as important set pieces.

text: Released on February 26, 2010,The Crazies is a 2010 film which fictionally takes place near Cedar Rapids at Odgen Marsh, Iowa. In the film, residents both in and near Ogden Marsh become infected with a "Rhabdoviridae prototype" biological weapon called Trixie. At the end of the movie, David and Judy, who are unaffected victims within the affected area, arrive at a truck stop to search for a vehicle but discover that the National Guard have also executed those who were evacuated. Fending off three Trixie infected persons, they escape in a semi-truck. In order to stop the infection from spreading, the National Guard destoys Ogden Marsh in a massive explosion. As the couple flees, their truck flips in the passing shockwave. They then exit their wrecked semi and begin walking towards Cedar Rapids. A view from a military satellite highlights first the couple, then the city of Cedar Rapids. The words "Initiate containment protocol" appear, signifying a new containment attempt by the National Guard. Later, during the credits, Bruce Aune, a real newscaster from KCRG-TV 9 in Cedar Rapids reports that an explosion originating from the Dakon Pendrill chemical plant started a massive fire in Ogden Marsh which is merely a cover story for the National Guard's actual destruction of the town. Bruce Aune then reports that a perimeter has been set and civilians are not being allowed into the area. A Trixie-infected individual appears on camera just before the signal is lost.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87]

text: Infrastructure[edit]

text: Transportation[edit]

text: Cedar Rapids is served by Cedar Rapids Transit, consisting of an extensive bus system and taxis. Cedar Rapids Transit operates scheduled bus service throughout the city and to Marion and Hiawatha.[88] A series of enclosed pedestrian skywalks connect several downtown buildings.[89]

text: The city is also served by The Eastern Iowa Airport (formerly known as the Cedar Rapids Airport), a regional airport that connects with other regional and international airports. Cedar Rapids Transit and private bus lines also connect at the airport.[90]

text: Interstate 380, part of the Avenue of the Saints, runs north-south through Cedar Rapids. U.S. Highways 30, 151, and 218 and Iowa Highway 13 and Iowa Highway 100 also serve the city.[91]

text: Cedar Rapids is served by four major railroads. They are the Union Pacific, the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway (Crandic), the Canadian National, and the Iowa Northern Railway Company [IANR]. The Iowa Northern Railway has its headquarters in the historic Paramount Theater Building. The Crandic and the Iowa Interstate Railroad also are headquartered in Cedar Rapids. The Iowa Interstate reaches the city via the Crandic tracks, running a daily train from Iowa City, Iowa to Cedar Rapids.[citation needed]

text: Cedar Rapids is linked to other Midwestern cities by the Burlington Trailways bus hub at the Eastern Iowa Airport.[92]

text: Health care[edit]

text: There are two hospitals in Cedar Rapids, St. Luke's and Mercy Medical Center.

text: Notable people[edit]