History shows that taking Moscow is rarely easy

Aidan Springs

July 13, 01:13 PM July 13, 01:13 PM

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On June 23, Russia’s Wagner Group, a private military company created by the Kremlin, turned on Vladimir Putin and marched toward Moscow. Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed his coup attempt was born of a patriotic desire to restore honor to the Russian military leadership.

Prigozhin abruptly suspended his march after mediation efforts by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Still, these events have thrown a major question mark over the long-term stability of Putin’s regime.

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Indeed, the last time anything comparable to the Wagner coup occurred was in 1991. During the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced a brief state of civil war. A mix of Soviet hardliners attempted to halt the Union’s collapse by staging a coup d’etat and even firing upon the Russian Parliament. This wasn’t Russia’s first coup attempt, of course. Not by a long shot.

While the Russian Revolution of 1917 is of obvious note here, what shortly thereafter followed the revolution also bears note.

In late 1917, Russia was a nation on the brink of collapse. As Lenin’s revolutionaries consolidated power, the “Whites,” a group of royalists, nationalists, and various other anti-Lenin elements, organized to contest the new regime. The bulk of their fighting force came from the Russian Army’s officer class.

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In the summer of 1919, the Whites mounted their greatest offensive yet: A march on Moscow. The Whites were led by General Anton Denikin and, at least for a time, appeared likely to succeed in taking the Russian capital. But Denikin made a fatal error: He was unable to protect his supply lines and was thus forced into slowing his advance and then a retreat.

The lesson, as also learned by Napoleon and Hitler? Taking and holding Moscow is rarely easy.

Aidan Springs is a rising Junior at American University and a current National Journalism Center intern.