Soviet Civil War (TheodoresTomfooleries)

The Soviet Civil War (Russian: Советская гражданская война tr. Sovetskaya Grazhdanskaya Voyna refers to the period of Soviet history in which tendencies of reformism and orthodoxy were most apparently in conflict with one another, especially within the Soviet Communist Party. The conflict does not refer to a violent conflict, but rather an era of extreme political tension.

The 'civil war' was fought chiefly between reformist and orthodox factions of the Communist Party, who argued either for reform to the Soviet system (such as Perestroika (lit. 'restructuring'), or maintaining the current system. It should be noted that the ideals 'reformists' and 'orthodoxists' often overlapped: The reformists as a whole oftenly were not opposed to the Soviet Union's existence or socialism, nor were the Orthodoxists entirely opposed to reform in the Soviet system. The conflict has mostly been compared to the political conflict between Mikhail Gorbachev and Grigory Romanov and their factions. Mikhail Gorbachev led the most dominant reformist faction known as the "Gorbachevists", which advocated for 'restructuring' of the Soviet Union, as well as greater political and civil freedoms for Soviet citizens. In contrast, Grigory Romanov led the Communist Party as its General Secretary, and adhered mostly to orthodox Marxism-Leninism. While factions were officially and legally banned within the Communist Party (and had been since 1921), factions de-facto popped up during this era.

The exact timeline of events- as well as the start and end of the 'Civil War' is debated among scholars. Most contend however that the civil war started with the appointment of Grigory Romanov as General Secretary in 1984 to Mikhail Gorbachev's expulsion from both the Communist Party and later exile from the Soviet Union in 1991. Gorbachev continued to speak as an advocate for reform within the Soviet system until his death in August 2022