35. War and Revolution

The following articles give us a look at what the country was enduring.

"Just before the revolution of 1917, the territory of the present-day Omsk Region was really flourishing. The first and the last All-Siberian Exhibition, held in Omsk in 1911, was a vivid example of that. The ads for this Fair were placed in leading European and American papers, streetcars in St. Petersburg carried impressive posters, inviting people to visit Omsk. And then came a terrible collapse, and the Bolsheviks plunged Siberia into starvation, death and oblivion."  http://club.eomsk.ru/?gid=84&pid=101

"Soon after the October 1917 Revolution, anti-Bolshevik White forces seized control of Omsk. The "Provisional All-Russian Government" was established here in 1918, headed by the Arctic explorer and decorated war hero Admiral Kolchak. Omsk was proclaimed the capital of Russia, and its central bank was tasked with safekeeping the former empire's gold reserves. These were guarded by a garrison of former Czechoslovakian POWs trapped in Siberia by the chaos of World War I and the subsequent Revolution.  Omsk became a prime target, for the Red Army leadership viewed it as a major target of their Siberian campaign and eventually forced Kolchak and his government to abandon the city and retreat along the Trans-Siberian eastward to Irkutsk. Bolshevik forces entered the city in 1919."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omsk

"As the area of Ukraine fell into warfare and anarchy, it was also fought over by German and Austrian forces, the Red Army of Bolshevik Russia, the White Forces of General Denikin, the Polish Army, and anarchists led by Nestor Makhno.  Kiev itself was occupied by many different armies. The city was captured by the Bolsheviks on 9 February 1918, by the Germans on 2 March 1918, by the Bolsheviks a second time on 5 February 1919, by the White Army on 31 August 1919, by Bolsheviks for a third time on 15 December 1919, by the Polish Army on 6 May 1920, and finally by the Bolsheviks for the fourth time on 12 June 1920."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine