Page "Red Army" Paragraph 13

At war's start, the Red Army comprised 299 infantry regiments.

Civil warfare intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly ( 5 – 6 January 1918 ) and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ( 3 March 1918 ) removing Russia from the Great War.

Free from international war, the Red Army confronted an internecine war with a loose alliance of anti-Communist forces, comprising the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, the " Black Army " led by Nestor Makhno, the anti-White and anti-Red Green armies, and others.

The 23 February 1923 " Red Army Day " has a twofold, historical significance ; the first day of drafting recruits ( in Petrograd and Moscow ) and the first day of combat against the occupying Imperial German Army.