'Uniforms' of the Green Armies?

[Ataman]

My interest in this topic came about after I stumbled upon this video of the film: 'Жила была одна баба.'

http://www.youtube.com/v/5OUtFM1kySo?version=3&hl=en_US

I always thought of the Greens as a rag-tag bunch of armed farmers, which admittedly does form a large portion of the force in the video. Howeve, I was intrigued by the cavalrymen at the beginning who have green chevrons on their arms, green cockades, and even a few green trousers.

Not only that, but I've always been under the impression that the classification 'Green' was purely done by the Bolsheviks, and most 'Green' armies considered themselves to be nothing more than anti-Communist (and occasionally anti-White) bands of fighters. Yet here we have Green fighters in uniforms with clearly green insignia marching in formation.

Would this have been a common occurrence among Greens, or is this purely for troops of the Tambov Rebellion (which is what is depicted in the film)?

[cuprum]

Unfortunately, to my knowledge - it is a fantasy the filmmakers.
 In fact Antonov rebels had badges and flags of red.
http://siberia-miniatures.ru/forum/showthread.php?fid=12&tid=193

"Green" - the name of the Civil War, troops of people who did not want to serve either in white or in red army. Among them were many deserters from both opposing armies.
 These people went into the forest, sometimes going into significant units. But no specific political goals they had. Although the authorities (and white, and red) have struggled with the bands - it is dangerous to have a military force in its rear.

[Mark Plant]

I think there were a few overtly political green forces, some of which tended to organise into units with rudimentary markings etc. Antonov is the best known, but I think I recall some in the Kuban as well.

However, I don't think many groups were anti-Red though Ataman, except in the Cossack areas. Most were anti-Bolshevik, but pro-revolutionary.

They certainly weren't "green" because of Soviet terminology -- Lenin pretty much divided the world into red and white. You can read Soviet histories which don't mention the term (which is how Antonov's troops and Basmachi end up in the Osprey book on "whites"). The best a green could hope for would be to be a gangster/bandit (бандит).

Those of you who read French might be interested in http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24397284M/Le_livre_vert