Red Guards (Russia)

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Red Guards (Russian: Красная гвардия) were paramilitary volunteer formations for the "protection of the soviet power", as part of the Bolshevik Military Organizations. The Red Guards consisted primarily of urban workers and cossacks, as well as a partial inclusion of peasants, soldiers, and sailors. Red Guards were a transitional military force of the collapsing Imperial Russian Army, and the base formations of Bolsheviks during the October Revolution and the first months of the Russian Civil War. Most of them were formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and some of the units were reorganized into the Red Army during 1918. The Red Guards formations were organized across most of the former Russian Empire, including territories outside the contemporary Russian Federation such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, and others. They were not centralized, and were typically formed by decision of a local political party and local soviet members.

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