The Russian Civil Wars

Following the October Revolution in 1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks finally had control over the Russian Government, however Russia was still in the midst of chaos and the Communists had yet to consolidate their power. There were still many political groups that strove for control of Russia, and even by the start of 1918, the Bolsheviks were not sufficiently large enough to be de facto leaders of Russia.

How the Civil Wars Started
One of the principal reasons for the start of the Civil War was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. From the start, the Bolsheviks wanted to end the war with Germany, something that both the Tsar and the Provisional Government had failed to do. They knew that Russia, nor they, could survive unless it ended, and so would pay any price for it to come to an end. In the treaty, Russia lost Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, the Ukraine, and Georgia as well as 33% of its population, 33% of its arable land, and 75% of its coal and iron resources. As Lenin said, “A disgraceful peace is proper, because it is in the interest of the proletarian revolution and the regeneration of Russia” However, many did not share the same point of view, in particular, the leading generals in the army.

The Bolshevik nationalisation of industry was also an unpopular move by Lenin and his party. They had offered no compensation, and upset many factory owners as well as workers.



The many nationalities contained within the Russian Empire saw this period of time as the perfect opportunity for gainingtheir freedom and independence. Previously, the Romanovs had captured their lands, and the old policy of Russification was very unpopular among these nationalities. They sought the freedom to practice their beliefs and cultures freely without intervention.

Many conservative groups such as the Church and the Upper Class simply wished to restore Tsardom.

The Left Socialist Revolutionaries as well as the Mensheviks, who had been kicked out in early 1918, fled to Samara where there regrouped and laid claim to the rightful rule of Russia. They vehemently opposed the rule of the Bolsheviks and made up one of the key components of the White Forces.

The allies wanted Russia to once again join them in the war against Germany, fearing that without Russia, they might lose. They sent over troops and supplies with the aim to support the White Forces in Russia, and overthrow the Bolsheviks who had signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In addition, they hoped that if the Bolsheviks were overthrown, the new Government would pay off the loans due to the allies, something the Bolsheviks refused to do.

The Russian Civil Wars
From February 1918, the Bolsheviks had begun to build to a Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army as they wanted to be able to help with the possible Berlin Working Class Uprising. Also, the military challenge previously presented to Sovnarkdom was believed to be easily surmountable and this was similar to the way in which Kornilov had been defeated. They had also fought a successful campaign when the Bolsheviks invaded Ukraine in December 1917.

 In May 1918, Lenin realised that he had been wrong to think he was safe. This was because the Socialist Revolutionary Leadership had fled to Samara on the river Volga to establish a Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) which laid claim to the legitimate government of Russia. However, they had a weaker military capacity. Other Russian Opponents were much stronger than them. These consisted for example of generals Alekseev and Kornilov who were gathering a volunteer army action against the Bolsheviks and general Kolchak   who was one of the contingents of the Imperial Officers who were being formed of those whom had once commanded the Black Sea fleet. These forces became known as the White Armies. As a result to the Whites being stronger than the Bolsheviks, Lenin asked the Germans for help as their forces remained the dominant military power in the western borderlands of the former Russian Empire.

 Meanwhile, the Brest-Litovsk treaty had angered the English to the point of dispatching a contingent to Archangel and Murmansk. But they were not the only ones to react. The French eventually landed a naval garrison in Odessa on the Black Sea, the Turks were moving towards the Transcaucasus and Japanese forces occupied the far east with the Americans not far behind. Many of Lenin’s strongest supporters began to wonder whether or not the treaty had been a good idea as the military situation began to deteriorate. As Czech and Slovak POWs   were being shipped to Europe across the trans-Siberian railway, Trotsky started to fear them, and therefore dealt with them accordingly. However, the Czech and Slovak legions resisted and reached the Urals and the Volga to pick up the rest of their units. By May they had crushed the Bolshevik Local Administrations on their way. They had been persuaded by Komuch to forget about helping the allies fight the Central Powers and to instead fight against Sovnarkdom. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries tried to plan an insurrection against Bolsheviks because they wanted to wreck the German-Bolshevik relationship. They were planning on doing so by assassinating Court Mirbach, the German ambassador of Moscow. When this happened on 6th July, Lenin immediately apologised to ensure that the Germans did not rip up the Brest Litovsk treaty. The Latvian Riflemen were then ordered to arrest the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and were also able to rescue the chairman of the Cheka, Dzierzynski. The Red Army’s first task at this point was to retake Kazan. On September 10th, the city was recaptured. Trotsky did not worry about destroying historical landmarks, and proved to Lenin that he was not weak-minded. Lenin then sent telegrams to other Red Army Commanders emphasising the need to clear the Volga of Komuch forces. The Komuch’s base was overrun on 7th October, and the Czechoslovak legion retreated to the Urals, then later to mid-Siberia and then regrouped under Admiral Kolchack who later organised a coup against the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and was proclaimed “Supreme Ruler”.

 On the 9th November, the Kaiser abdicated, and so ended the Treaty of Brest Litovsk. Lenin therefore sought to strengthen his links with German Communist Parties and the Red Forces were made to come to aid local Bolsheviks to set up Soviet republics in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. In June 1918, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks as well as Kadets were excluded from the soviets as they were associated with “counter-revolutionary” organisations as Lenin and Trotski as well as the head of the Cheka believed it was better to overkill than to run the risk of being overthrown. On August 30th 1918, Lenin got shot in the neck. This vastly increased the Terror of the Reds. Executions by the Cheka went from infrequent to a common occurrence as Lenin wanted everyone to be scared of the Bolsheviks, including his own supporters to stop any opposition. It is estimated that the Cheka may have killed as many as 300,000 people.

 In order to satisfy the needs of the army, land was divided, and quotas of grain were assigned to each area for delivery to the government. However, the People’s Commissariat of Food Supplies took as much as they could in reality. Lenin tried to prevent hoarding by establishing “committees of the poor villages” (kombedy); they would report hoarding and would, in return, get some of the grain taken back by the government. However, everybody was very poor so it failed to work and the scheme was abandoned in December. Monetary wages became worthless as the currency devalued to 0.006 cent of its pre war value by 1921. This resulted in people starting to steal and use the black market in order to survive and a large number of villages to seal themselves off in order to hoard grain.

 The Reds were mainly able to take on the whites due to inherited military supplies. Gradually, the Communist Party’s methods became more militaristic. Their membership rose from 300,000 to 625,000 between 1917 and 1921, the major part of them fighting in the Red Army. Sovnarkdom eventually lost its authority to the Politburo, which was chaired by Lenin. This gave rulings on everything from the military to the price of eggs and became the unofficial government cabinet. In 1918 to 1919, when Kolchack had made great advances into the Urals, Lenin had considered asking the allies to give the communist power of the parts of the country that were not occupied by the Reds, and leave the rest to them. However, Kolchack was defeated by the Reds in April 1919 and Perm was back in the hands of the Reds by July, followed by Omsk in November. He was eventually captured and executed the following year. The Volunteer Army in Southern Russia, which had been founded by anti-Bolsheviks including Kornilov, was taken over by General Denikin who later moved his forces into Ukraine in the summer. As a result to this, a devastating counter attack was later made against the Whites who by mid December had lost Kiev. The Russians then later established the Ukrainian Soviet Republic.

 In order to make their work easier both during and following the civil wars, Lenin established a People’s Commissariat for Nationalities (Narkomnats) which was to be lead by Stalin. This encouraged and allowed non-Russians to exercise their freedom as they were offered native language schools and cultural autonomy. Enquiries were also made to ascertain the boundaries of territories of the various nationalities. The Russian Cossacks in the North, for example, were ejected from their farms in favour of the local Chechens. Their land had been seized by previous Tsars and given to the Cossacks in the 19 th Century. Aside from Ukraine, other Soviet republics were declared in Belorussia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and therefore satisfied these nationalities and peoples. However, the RSFSR was subjected to highly centralised authority and both the RSFSR and the other Soviet Republics were ruled by the Politburo. The Stipulation of the Party Rules stated that the communist organisations in the various soviet republics were regarded as regional organisations of the Russian Communist Party and Soviet Republics on the borders of the RSFSR were not allowed to have ties with other republics other than the RSFSR. The concessions made for non-Russians were enough to make the Civil War easier on the Bolsheviks, who also benefited from the fact that the effort coming from the opposing allies was only half hearted and therefore made the Bolsheviks’ job easier.

Why the Bolsheviks Won
The Bolsheviks were by no means guaranteed to win the Civil Wars, but due in part to luck, and also to Lenin’s decisive actions, they were able to resist the strong opposition they faced.

Firstly, despite the fact that the opposition was large, it was divided. There was no single command, and the opposition was divided in its intentions. They failed to co-ordinate their attacks, something that could have potentially vastly increased their effectiveness. Furthermore, these forces were spread out over thousands and thousands of miles, again reducing their effectiveness.

<p class="MsoNormal">In contrast, the Reds were concentrated and in control of Central Areas of Russia, making them very effective. Furthermore, they were also in control of the industrial areas of Russia, allowing them to have increased firepower than what they otherwise might have had. In addition, and again unlike the Whites, the Bolsheviks were untied. The War Commissar, Leon Trotsky was in single command and built up the Red Army into a disciplined and effective force. Part of his recruitment process involved heavy use of terror; the Reds would threaten to kidnap and kill families of men if they refused to join the Reds. This not only secured numbers for the Reds, but also ensured the loyalty of its members.

<p class="MsoNormal">In terms of numbers, unlike the Reds the Whites were never able to raise over 650,000 soldiers. By April 1919, the Reds had over 500,000 soldiers and by June 1920, there were over 5 million men in the Red army.

<p class="MsoNormal">The fact that the support of the allies was only half hearted only further helped the Reds. The demand for soldiers to be returned home as well as the weak economies of the allies prevented the allies from giving their full support, and thus depriving the Whites of what could have been their most useful resource.

<p class="MsoNormal">However, despite the smaller amount of help from the allies, the arrival of these foreign troops still proved to be somewhat disadvantageous as it was very unpopular amongst the peasants. They feared that they were going to be invaded, and so the Bolsheviks could argue that they were defending Mother Russia against foreign intruders, gaining for them some support.

<p class="MsoNormal">Furthermore, even though some peasants did support the Left Social Revolutionaries, they feared the Whites, as many suspected that the whites might give the peasant’s land back to the nobility.

<p class="MsoNormal">Clearly, through a combination of organization, terror, and a bit of luck, the Bolsheviks were able to successfully deal with the Whites and other opposing forces and thus successfully consolidating their power, ensuring in the process that all opposition would be eliminated. <h2 class="MsoNormal">Bibliography A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Putin (2003) - Robert Service