The Green Armies weren't an organised force in the same way that the Reds and Whites were during the Russian Civil War, rather it's a term used to describe a number of peasant groups that resisted the Reds in defence of their communities and regions.

Early in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Reds instituted a system called War Communism that called for the collection of grain and recruits to sustain the new government and it's civil war effort. In response to this forced requisitioning of supplies, Green armies comprised of peasant farmers sprung up to protect their communities and livelihoods.

The Green armies were not officially involved in the political scene of revolutionary Russia, though their members and actions were anti-communist by action rather than ideology. While the Green armies constituted a reasonable threat to Soviet influence in rural areas, they petered out by the early 1920s with the end of the Russian Civil War.