The Struggle Of The Russian Civil War

The Bolshevik October Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin to power. Lenin’s vow to end the war and open negotiations with the Germans provoked the Allies and led to the detachment of a military excursion to oppose the newly established government and aid rebels who had begun a civil war to oust the Bolsheviks.

Lenin (Bolsheviks) more radical and driven for revolution now. SDs split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1912 over the membership of the party. When the war gets bad, people go back to Lenin as the party that opposed war.

In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought

Trotsky’s leadership during the civil war was essential for the victory of the reds. His organisational skills and strong will transformed the red army into an effective fighting force. However a combination of factors also attributed to the Reds seizure of power , this includes; their geographical strength and control of industry and the weaknesses of their opponents.

On 24-26 October, the Bolshevik Party seized power from Kerensky’s Provisional Government. This was achieved with surprising ease. Retaining their newly acquired power, however, was to prove difficult. Nonetheless, the Bolsheviks proved successful in consolidating their power from 1917-1924, achieving this through a combination of pragmatic reforms and ruthless terror. This ultimately led the Bolsheviks far from their original goals and ideologies, and by 1924, the Soviet Union was a highly centralised one-party state.

Socialism must be implemented, according to Marx, in the wake of a successful and vast capitalistic structure. Russia was without such a structure, so Lenin and the Bolsheviks, insistent on their socialist dreams by any means necessary, turned to force to institute their version of socialism. The atrocities committed by the newly coined Soviets, their Red Army, and the Cheka or police force, against their enemies and those who resisted came to be known as the Red Terror.

The Marxists in Russia divided into two different political parties: The Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Lenin led the Bolsheviks, they believed that the only way Russia would prevail was if it where to be governed by a small elite core of revolutionaries. February of 1917, workers gave protesting another try and actually had the soldiers side with them. The Tsar finally admitted defeat and stepped down from the throne and a provisional government was put into place. The leader of the provisional government was Andrew Kerensky, and when he decided to continue fighting World War I many soldiers deserted him and everyone turned to the Bolsheviks. The only political party to be completely against the provisional government as well as World War 1.

The Russian Revolution is a series of political events that occurred during the years 1905 to 1924. The February Revolution, in which overthrew the imperial government and the October Revolution, placed the Bolsheviks in power (britannica.com). The Russian Revolution happened because of discontentment of with the tsar, poverty in Russia, and lack of control over the government. During the In January of 1905, protesters were protesting in front of the winter palace because of extreme poverty and starvation due to peasants’ wages decreasing. The Russian workers and peasants wanted a better working and living conditions. More than 1000 protesters were killed and injured after the tsar, Nicholas the II, ordered his army to gun down the protesters. This incident, known as Bloody Sunday, led to the 1905 revolution. During the 1905 revolution, Russian Social Democratic Social Party split into two factions, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Later in October of 1905, Nicholas the II issued the October Manifesto, which ended the Russian Revolution of 1905. In July of 1914, World War I begun which caused the Russians a lot of damage because four million Russian soldiers killed, wounded or captured. The Russian Soldiers refused the fight and people back in Russian were starving because of the lack of income from the war. World War I also caused the tsar to lose control of Russia as the war has caused chaos in Russia. Soon, continuous protests and revolts led to the March Revolution of

This was done to create the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (the Bolshevik party) as the single permitted party in the Soviet Union. Similar ever-changing alliances were played out among many rebellious parties within the Communist Party of SU, for example the Workers Opposition and Left Communists, with Joseph Stalin and his supporters increasing absolute authority indoors of the party by the

The first event that sparked the Bolshevik revolution was that World War One was going very poorly for an industrializing Russia. Almost two million people were killed during the war against more industrialized countries, whom Russia was bound to face many casualties against. Firstly, only the soldiers who fought in the front lines of the war were the

Another reason why they were able to remain in power was the weakness of the Whites. Their weakness gave the Reds a huge advantage, as it meant that the Reds could over power them. The whites were divided into two sections, lead by Kolchak and Denikin. They hated each other, and therefore didn’t communicate. This caused confusion in the Whites because they were telling everyone two different things. Overall, the Whites had no main ambition for fighting, but were deeply divided to communicate to one and other. The only thing keeping them united was their hatred for the Bolsheviks. The only thing that gave the Whites an advantage was that the British, French and Americans supported the Whites because they wanted Russia back in the war against Germany. Foreign support was sort of counter-production because it allowed the Reds to play the patriotic role and claim to be defending Russia. Although the Whites were weak, the reason they were able to keep hold of power was due to the Red’s success.

The Measures of the Bolsheviks to Maintain Power and Address the Problems of Russia Before the Outbreak of Civil War

After his expulsion from Tiflis Theological Seminary, Stalin bounced around for almost two whole decades as a so-called “professional revolutionary.” Among other things, Stalin would write Marxist propaganda and organize anti-tsarist strikes during his time as a revolutionary (Joseph Stalin Britannica Library). Stalin was jailed numerous times between 1902-1913 for his revolutionary actions, including even being exiled to Serbia in 1903. Stalin later escaped from his exile and returned to his revolutionary ways. In the year 1903, when the Social Democratic party split into two separate parties, Stalin ended up joining the more militant of the two groups. The group called themselves the Bolsheviks, and they were led by Vladimir Lenin. The other of the two groups, the Mensheviks, was opposed to the Lenin’s ways of violence (Joseph Stalin). In 1912 Stalin caught the attention of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin appointed Stalin to the Bolshevik Central committee (History.com Staff). Stalin was arrested once again in 1913. He was exiled to Siberia, but unlike the first time, Stalin failed to escape. However, all political prisoners were freed in 1917 at the beginning of the Russian Revolution, and Stalin returned to St. Petersburg to help aid in the Bolshevik revolution (Joseph Stalin Britannica Library). The year of 1917 was tremendously important to the Communist cause. The tsarist system collapsed during February

Stalin had many rivals, his most notable rival was Lev Trotsky. Trotsky was the commander of the Red Army.

The Russian Civil War raged from 1918 until the start of 1921. During this time the Bolsheviks faced massive opposition to their rule in the form of the White Armies, led by the former officers of the Tsarist state, and also from intervention by the forces of foreign countries. The Bolsheviks were surrounded, and often outnumbered by their opponents. At times, their situation seemed hopeless. Yet, by the start of 1921, the Bolsheviks had defeated their enemies and gained a complete victory. This victory can be attributed to the party’s aims, leadership, geography, and support.