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Multimedia Histories
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The
Russian Revolution through the Prism of Propaganda |
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The
Civil War |
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 Leon Trotsky & Red Army soldiers (1917) |
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Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government in October 1917, but it
took them several years to consolidate power. Their first objective was
to end their involvement in World War I. In March 1918, a Bolshevik delegation
signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which transferred control of the Baltics
and much of Ukraine to Germany in exchange for an end to hostilities.
This Bolshevik breathing-spell was not to last for long, however. Over
the next two years, Leon Trotsky built the Red Army (pictured above) and
eventually led them to victory over the White armies, led by former tsarist
generals such as Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin. Anarchists known
as the Greens opposed both Reds and Whites in the countryside. |
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In May 1918, over 30,000 Czech soldiers clashed with the Bolsheviks in
the southern Urals town of Chelyabinsk. The Czechs had been prisoners
of war, and they were travelling across Siberia to Vladivostok, from where
they hoped to sail to Europe to join the Entente forces on the Western
front. Small detachments of British troops supported the Whites in the
northern cities of Murmansk and Archangelsk, and Japanese and American
soldiers saw action in the Far East. By August 1918, Admiral Kolchak had
declared himself Supreme Ruler in Siberia. Promising to reconvene the
Constituent Assembly, Admiral Kolchak led his army over the Urals in an
attempt to join up with White and Allied troops in the north. By May 1919,
he had advanced to within a hundred miles of Kazan, and further northward
as well. |
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 Admiral Kolchak |
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 General Denikin |
Meanwhile,
General Denikin's crack Volunteer Army represented the principal threat
from the south. Joined by the Don Cossacks and equipped with British tanks,
in the fall of 1919 he pushed as far north as Orel, within 250 miles of
Moscow. The Civil War began to turn in favor of the Red Army during the
summer of 1919. Unlike the White armies, which were plagued by leadership
rivalries and poor communication, the Red Army possessed internal communication
lines and clear leadership. Their numerical superiority and strict discipline
in 1920 helped them to push Kolchak back across the Urals and Denikin
southward to the Black Sea. |
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Bolsheviks' experiences during the Civil War had a lasting impact on the
Soviet regime. The Soviets long remembered the threat of encirclement
by British, American, and Japanese troops. Their experience with the White
armies taught them to be wary of bourgeois sympathizers within the borders
of the Union. As in the Red Army, political commissars were paired with
former tsarist experts in industry to insure their loyalty. As illustrated
by the cartoon below, the methods Trotsky so successfully used to organize
the Red Army were also employed to martial civilians for the cause of
Socialism.
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Sources:
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