In the spring of 1919, Russia entered the third stage of the civil war. Alternately, at the same time, fierce military operations are unfolding on the most important fronts: Eastern (A. Kolchak), Southern (A. I. Denikin) and North-Western (N. N. Yudenich).

The confrontation of the Bolsheviks and the white governments was complemented by the military operations of small border states: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland - by the "creeping intervention" of the Entente and the "independent" antics of various national separatists. The ebb and flow of the peasant movement, a real third force of the civil war, was no less important.

The Eighth Congress of the RCP (B) (March 1919) was of great importance for the consolidation of the Bolsheviks in the face of the combined forces of external and internal counterrevolution. He accepted the new program of the party, determined the policy of the party in the military field, and confirmed the course towards an alliance with the middle peasant.

The defeat of the "military opposition" (A. S. Bubnov, K. Ye. Voroshilov, G. L. Pyatakov and I. V. Stalin behind them), who opposed the use of military experts, against centralized control and command and disciplinary principles in the army, significantly increased the fighting qualities of the Red Army. About 1,800 thousand people were already in its ranks, of which about 40% were in the active army, and 382 thousand were directly involved in hostilities. The union with the middle peasant, the abandonment of the previous rate on combats and new relations with the working peasantry created social prerequisites for military victories.

However, the significance of the “political turn to the middle peasants” was limited to the central regions of Russia, while in the eastern and southern Russian provinces, in Ukraine for a long time completely different principles were embodied.

In the run-up to the decisive battles and the white regimes formed in the autumn and winter of 1918/1919, the government of A.V. Kolchak developed a draft Constitution, and in April 1919 issued the Land Declaration, which proclaimed the right of the peasants on the crop grown by them, including on maternity and self-occupied lands.

Confirmation of the right to harvest did not signify the transfer of land to the peasants, the question of which was transferred to the future while simultaneously banning new conquests. Such an unresolved peasant question in Siberia led to the opposite effect. Along with mass gatherings and requisitions, forced mobilization into the army, this led to more and more new peasant uprisings. About 150 thousand people took part in the Party movement in Siberia and the Far East alone.

Liberal trends were forgotten: in the Ekaterinburg province alone under Kolchak, more than 25 thousand people were shot. General Rozanov, the special plenipotentiary of the supreme ruler to fight the peasantry, was forced to issue orders for mass executions, for hostages, for the protection of iron roads with collective responsibility for the surrounding villages.

Of the most famous, the resolution of March 27, 1919, according to the first paragraph of which the practice of shooting every tenth participant of resistance in any form was introduced, according to the second - a general shooting of the population of villages that provide resistance, according to the sixth, hostage as a system, etc. The experience of the “democratic reforms” of the government of A. I. Denikin turned out to be unfortunate. Although many well-known public figures (N. I. Astrov, M. V. Bernatsky, S. D. Sazonov, P. B. Struve, and others) were involved in the Special Meeting at the Supreme Leader of the Volunteer Army, it turned out to be only a facade unsuccessful agricultural, financial, and generally domestic policies.

The agrarian policy has been reduced to requisition of one-third of the landowners' landowners and the abolition of the grain monopoly; labor policy - to the proclamation of the "eight-hour" day and "manual" trade unions, which were forbidden to "pursue goals contrary to the laws in force"; administrative - to the actual dominance of the governor-general. A. I. Denikin did not succeed in seriously expanding the social base. Its expansion came only at the expense of those who were dissatisfied with the Soviet authorities, and not as a result of attracting new supporters.