The Red Cross and the Lessons of the Russian Civil War, 1918–26

In 1921 the international Red Cross movement passed a series of resolutions declaring they had a right and duty to intervene in civil wars, ‘social and revolutionary troubles’. This article focuses on the specific historical origins of the resolutions. It argues that these resolutions were a direct response to the Russian Civil War and designed to enable humanitarian interventions against Soviet Russia and other communist revolutionaries. The ICRC followed through on these intentions with robust efforts to access political prisoners in Soviet Russia. However, other parties embraced these resolutions and applied them to nationalist and anti-colonial struggles, such as the Third Silesian Uprising, Irish Civil War and Rif War. These conflicts did not fit the template of the Russian Civil War, leading to reluctant, cautious and often ineffective interventions by the ICRC. The open-ended language of the resolutions hid a much more direct historical context that restricted its viable application

Ancient history · Economic history · Political science · Spanish Civil War · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law