Russian Civil War

when was the civil war?

1918-20

what was a foreign policy trigger for the civil war?

anger at the treaty of Brest-Litovsk 3rd March

armistice - concessions to Germany

lost 1/6 of population

1/3 of agriculture

26% of railways

74% of iron ore and coal supplies

Whites support

wartime allies supported them (Britain, France, USA - capitalist fighting communism/ Bolsheviks refused to pay the Tsars' fees) as they wanted Russia to rejoin the war.

But support was minimal and it gave the Bolsheviks a propaganda platform.

Reds support

Bolsheviks mostly supported by peasants since White associated with the Tsar

Russian capital

moved from Petrograd to Moscow as it's further from Germany

Czech legion

another trigger of the war

30,000 fighting Austro-Hungary for independence

Russia allows them to use Russian railways as can't go back to Germany-controlled Czechoslovakia but then the Bolsheviks try to arrest them - Trotsky orders disarmament - they join SRs

Civil war deaths

10 million from hunger, disease and fighting

April 1918

first battle of civil war in Yekaterinedar

16th July 1918

Nicholas II and family killed

could have been used as a bargaining chip but too dangerous

George V wouldn't have them in London

Greens

mostly peasants who want to end requisitioning

Whites

Mensheviks, SRs, ex-Tsarist - very different aims

Trotsky role

commander of Red Army

introduced conscription - 275,000 enlisted only 40,000 turn up

reverse democratisation of army - bring 48,000 ex-tsarist officers back but hold their families hostage to ensure loyalty

mobile control

Trotsky mobile HQ to move to front quickly

Agiprop trains of propaganda to motivate peasants

November 1918

Germany's defeat in the war - Russia gets land back and foreign support for whites stops and Czechs return home

advantage of war communism

procurement of grain

ration based on class

nationalisation of industry

labour discipline

advantage of geography

reds control Petrograd and Moscow - hub of railways & factories and highly populated

(whites only control the land they stand on)

advantage of Trotsky's organisation

brave & inspiring

used death penalty on unwilling peasants

brings back ex-tsarist experts

Yudenich

western whites leader

15,000 men - smallest army

reached outskirts of Petrograd in 1919

Denikin & Wrangel

southern volunteer army (whites) leaders

150,000 men - mostly Cossacks

Besiege Tsaritsyn in 1918 but Bolsheviks successfully protect

320km from Moscow in 1919

pushed back to Crimea by Trotsky

Kolchak

Eastern whites leader

140,000 men

built on successes of the Czech legion

took Kazan and Samara in 1918 but retreat by summer 1919

internal quarrels with Czechs

Kolchak captured and killed February 1920

Makhno

Green insurgent army leader

guerrilla warfare

strong support from peasants and Ukraine

challenge Bolshevik centralisation

fought for Reds in the end and then crushed

Makhno escaped to Romania

1919 gov

23 different groups claim to be the government

Reds disadvantages

paramilitary version of the Bolsheviks

lack generals

Whites disadvantages

disagreements as only thing in common is anti-Bolshevik. White Generals operate independently

Green purpose

don't want to be conscripted and don't want land to be taken.

fighting for themselves

Foreign support for whites

Britain in Archangel (north)

France in Odessa (south)

July 1919

advances from Caucuses - capture Tsaritsyn

criticism of Trotsky for losses - offers to resign

May 1920

Polish invade and occupy Kiev

defeat Red Army in Warsaw by August

March 1921

Treaty of Riga

peace between Poland and Soviet union

Bolsheviks and USA/UK/France

Refused to pay back borrowed money from tsarist times

1921 output

output decreased 20% from pre-war levels

typhus

swept through cities killing 3 million

1920 population in Petrograd

57.5% lower than 1917

effect on agriculture

1/3 of land abandoned and cattle & horses abandoned in their 1000s

1921 harvest

only 48% of 1913