Course of the Civil War

1
Course of the Civil War

• War began in the spring of 1918
• Bolsheviks wanted Russia to be a one-party state
• Bolsheviks alienated the other socialist groups
• May 1918 Czech Legion rebels and captures a
  large section of the Trans-Siberian Railway
• June 1918 Murder of the Tsar and his family
• August 1918 Americans and British arrive in
  Russia

2
Course of the Civil War

• December 1918 French land in Russia at Odessa
• Feb. 1919 Red Army occupies Kiev
• April 1919 French evacuate Odessa
• July 1919 Loss of Kharkov and Tsaritsyn leads
  to criticism of Trotsky. Trotskys resignation
  rejected.
• September 1919 Allies evacuate
• February 1920 Red Army invades Georgia

3
Course of the Civil War

• May 1920 Polish army invades Russia and
  occupies Kiev
• July 1920 counter-offensive launched against
  Poles
• August 1920 Red Army defeated by Poles outside
  Warsaw
• November 1920 last surviving White general
  defeated in the Crimea
• March 1921 Treaty of Riga (peace between Poland
  and Soviet Russia

4
Groups of the White Army

• Yudenich in the West
• Smallest army (15000)
• Reached outskirts of Petrograd in Oct. 1919
  before turned back by Bolsheviks
• Denikin and Wrangel in the South
• 150000 men
• Summer of 1918 besieging Tsartisyn
• Bolsheviks held their ground and renamed it
  Stalingrad after their leader, Stalin
• Denikin replaced by Wrangel

5
Groups of the White Army

• Makhnos Insurgents
• Successful guerilla warfare
• Supported by the peasants in Ukraine
• Fought as an irregular division for the Reds
• Bolsheviks then crushed this movement
• Kolchak in the East
• 140000 men
• Built on successes of Czech Legion
• Took Kazan and Samara by June 1918
• By autumn 1919 turned into long retreat

6
What was the role of other countries in the Civil
War?

• Allied troops sent to reopen the Eastern Front
  against Germany
• British (Winston Churchill)
• Among most active forces
• Wanted to stop the spread of Bolshevism
• French
• Had invested millions in Russia and Bolsheviks
  had nationalized all foreign-owned business
  without compensation

7
What was the role of other countries in the Civil
War?

• Japanese
• Interested in gaining valuable territory
• US
• Wanted to stop annexation of land by the Japanese
• Others
• Italy, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Canada
• Allies only provided Whites with valuable supplies

8
Russo-Polish War 1919-21

• Poles hoped to take advantage of the chaos in
  Russia and regain land taken from the Polish
  Empire
• Captured Kiev in May 1920
• Poles were old enemy so non-Bolsheviks even
  joined the Red Army against them
• Poles pushed back to Warsaw
• Reds now overstretched their supply lines and
  lacked support
• Settlement reached in 1921 under Treaty of Riga
  Russians had to surrender White Areas to the Poles

9
How important was the role of Trotsky in the
Civil War?

• Made Commissar for War in 1918
• Restored discipline and professionalism to the
  Red Army
• Reorganized the army along hierarchal lines
• Trotsky kept officers in the army by keeping
  their families as hostage
• Return to traditional army resented by other
  Bolsheviks
• Trotsky had the support of Lenin

10
How important was the role of Trotsky in the
Civil War?

• Attached a political commissar to each army unit
  to watch and report on their actions
• Re-established harsh military discipline
• Brought back the death penalty for some offences
• Formed labor battalions to help on the front

11
How important was the role of Trotsky in the
Civil War?

• Strengths energy, passion, organizational
  abilities
• Dmitri Volkongov (Soviet historian/ex-general)
• Trotsky was not much of a military strategist
  and the key military decisions were taken by
  others.
• His contribution was being in charge and holding
  things together

12
How important was the role of Trotsky in the
Civil War?

• Traveled in a special train to the points of
  fiercest fighting to provide support
• Decided to save Petrograd when under threat from
  Yudenich

13
The Red Army

• Reds began to conscript peasants but they were
  not very willing
• Peasants staged uprisings
• Rates of desertion were as high for Reds as
  Whites
• Those that deserted took their weapons and
  uniforms so the remainder of the army was not
  equipped well
• Full-scale mutinies killing burzhui officers and
  anti-Semitism grew

14
Why were the Whites divided?

• 1918 most Socialist Revolutionaries fled to set
  up Komuch (Committee of the Members of the
  Constituent Assembly)
• Arguments between socialists, liberals, and
  monarchists
• Officers organized a coup and arrested Socialist
  Revolutionary ministers
• Kolchak was named ruler and executed many
  Socialist Rev. activists
• Socialist Revs. then staged revolts and
  undermined his campaign