Bolshevik Consolidation of Power and Civil War Test

Which area of Russia did General Yudenich threaten?

Petrograd

Which country’s foreign support did General Yudenich receive?

British

Which area of Russia did General Denikin threaten?

The south

Which country’s foreign support did General Denikin receive?

France

Which country’s foreign support did Admiral Kolchak receive?

Britain and Czech Legion

Where did General Yudenich attack from?

The north-west

Where did Admiral Kolchak attack from?

The east

Why did the Civil War not go well for the Reds at first?

They suffered defeat after defeat in 1918 and early 1919 and were attacked on all sides by White armies led by experienced commanders and supported by foreign powers

How many people did Denikin have in his army?

150,000

Why did Denikin’s army advance through the Don region?

They aimed to link up with Kolchak’s army in the east

What happened with Denikin’s army in the summer of 1918?

They were besieging Tsaritsyn

Why was Tsaritsyn vital to the Reds?

It was vital to the Reds in order to protect grain supplies and prevent a link between southern and eastern White armies

What was the result of the Whites’ siege on Tsaritsyn?

They were defeated by a Red counter-attack led by Trotsky and were driven back to the Crimean Peninsula

Who was Denikin replaced by?

Wrangel - he held out until the following November 1920 when he was evacuated by British and French ships

How big was Yudenich’s army?

15,000 (smallest army)

Where did Yudenich’s army reach?

They reached the outskirts of Petrograd in October 1919 with the support of Estonian troops

What did the Estonian troops supporting Yudenich want?

Independence from Russia

What did Yudenich’s army’s failure to secure Petrograd Railway mean for the Bolsheviks?

They were able to send in massive reinforcements to prevent the fall of the city

What did the Bolsheviks do to stop the Estonian troops?

They promised to recognise Estonian independence

What happened to Yudenich without Estonian support?

He dissolved his armies in mid-1920

How big was Kolchak’s army?

140,000

Which two places had Kolchak captured in June 1919?

Kazan and Samara

What happened to Kolchak in autumn 1919?

The Red Army forced him to retreat

What happened to Kolchak in 1920

He was captured and shot (his army’s defeat was due to determined counter-attacks by the Red Army and the differences and quarrels with the Czechs)

What happened to Russia’s economy as a result of the Civil War?

Left Russia’s economy in ruins

What happened to the Russian transport system as a result of the Civil War?

The transport system was near collapse - factories could not get the materials they needed and had to close down

What happened as a result of grain production falling to very low levels (as a result of the Civil War)

There was not enough food for the towns and some peasants began to hide surpluses for their own benefit

What was an interesting statistic about the widespread famine after the Civil War?

More people were dying of hunger during the Civil War than the fighting

What diseases did hundreds of thousands die from after the Civil War?

Typhus, cholera and dysentery

What was their growing opposition to after the Civil War?

War Communism

Why was the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky successful?

It was centralised and unified

Why was their widespread support from peasants?

Effective use of propaganda

What did Lenin provide?

Central political leadership and direction

What ruthless systems did Lenin introduce?

War Communism and use of the Cheka (secret police)

Who was the commander of the Red Army?

Trotsky

When was Trotsky appointed Commissar of War?

March 1918

What was Trotsky able to do

Inspire and rally men

How did Trotsky raise a large army?

He restored conscription for men aged 18-40

What did Trotsky do as part of his reintroduction of the traditional officer structure?

He brought back thousands of former tsarist officers (who were now unemployed and poor)

How did Trotsky ensure the loyalty of the ex-tsarist officers?

He held their families hostage

What was special about Trotsky’s promotion of talented soldiers?

They had never made officers in the nobility-dominated tsarist army - they became the Red Army’s best generals

Why did Trotsky appoint a Bolshevik political commissar to each army unit?

To ensure officers were following the party line

What did Trotsky bring back as part of his restoration of strict military discipline?

The death penalty for a range of offences

Who decided the overall strategy of the Bolsheviks?

Trotsky

What area did the Reds occupy in Russia?

The central Russian-speaking area of the country

Why was the Reds’ occupation of the central Russian-speaking area of the country beneficial to them?

It made territory easier to control and ensured they had to travel shorter distances

Where did most of the population live?

The central areas

How did the high concentration of the population living in the central areas benefit the Reds?

It was easier to conscript more people into the army so the Red armies often vastly outnumbered the Whites

What factories did the central area contain?

Main armament factories

Whose hands did the stores of tsarist army and tsar’s old arsenals fall into?

The Reds

Why was support from the peasantry vital?

Peasants supplied the main body of soldiers on both sides

Why did the peasants want to support the Reds?

Lenin had introduced the Decree on Land in 1917 and the brutality of the White armies drove many peasants to support the Bolsheviks

Why was there such a prominent lack of unity amongst the Whites?

They were made up of many different political parties - they constantly squabbled and did not trust each other

What could the Whites not agree on?

Whether they were fighting for tsarism, republicanism or for the Constituent Assembly

How did Trotsky take advantage of the Whites’ lack of unity?

He was able to deal with each White army in turn rather than a joint, simultaneous attack on all fronts

Why did the Whites lose support of the nationalist groups?

They wanted to restore the Russian empire with its pre-1917 borders, antagonising separatist groups (such as Ukrainians and Georgians) who were looking for greater self-government, if nto independence

Why were the leaders of the Whites poor?

They were cruel and treated their men with contempt (similar to treatment of soldiers during the tsarist regime)

Why was being scattered over large distances bad for the Whites?

It made communications difficult, especially moving men and weapons. It was also very difficult to coordinate attacks of various White armies

Why was it bad that many areas under White control were thinly populated?

It was difficult to conscript large armies?

Why was not controlling the railways bad for the Whites?

They often had to transport troops and supplies across huge distances using very poor roads and they had no telephone links and had to use officers on horseback to convey messages

Why was foreign intervention beneficial for the Bolsheviks?

It gave them a major propaganda opportunity as they could present themselves as defenders of Russia against foreign forces