White- - Definition

White- (бело-), a prefix used by Bolsheviks to designate their real and alleged enemies of all sorts, by analogy with the White Army.

• White-Guardist ("белогвардеец"): a member of the White Guard. The members of the White movement never applied the term "White Guardist" to themselves. Also, White-Guardists were called simply "Whites" ('белые', 'беляки') by their opponents.

• White-emigrant (белоэмигрант): any citizen of the Tsarist Russian Empire who left the country during the Russian Revolution or the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). White emigrants were perceived as a threat to the Soviet state, a source of espionage and counter-revolutionary plots.

• White-Pole (белополяк): a term that appeared during the Polish-Soviet War, and later reemerged during the annexation of a part of Poland in World War II.

• White-Finn (белофинн): a term introduced during the unsuccessful attempt to initiate a revolution in Finland in 1917-1918, and reintroduced as part of the propaganda related to the preparation of the Winter War against Finland.

• White-Chinese (белокитаец): a term denoting Chinese forces that fought together with the White Army in Siberia and the Russian Far East, as well as anti-communist Chinese during the Chinese Civil War.

• White-Czechs (белочехи): members of the Czech Legion.

• White-Cossacks(белоказаки): cossack military that fought against the Bolsheviks during the Civil War.

These terms were supposed to distinguish, e.g., "good Poles" from "bad Poles", and usually bore a derogatory gist.

To obtain a prefix "white-" in one's papers while being imprisoned in the Soviet Union automatically meant application of Article 58.