Civil war Flashcards
Treaty of Brest Litovsk
3 march 1918
Lost 74% of iron/coal reserves, Ukraine
Murder of Tsar by Red Army
17 july 1918
Allies arrived to support whites
August British at Archangel
December French at Odessa
Food supplies dictatorship set up (requisitioned grain from kulaks from workers + red army)
May 1918
Red Terror against Whites, bourgeoise
September 1918 after Aug 30 assasination attempt
Trotsky made leader of the red army/War Commisar
March 1918
How much did Churchill send in support of whites
100K pounds
Faliures of Trotsky’s leadership
4 million by 1921, and 1 mllion dead by typhus and other diseases
Reinstation of old Tsarist style army
Loss of soldiers control = discontent
Economic faliures during civil war
50g bread ration by Feb 1918
Wages in 1919 2% of 1913
War Communism
Extreme policies by red army taken to provision the army/workers
Peasants/workers couldn’t manage production so no supply surplus for army
Lenin just took their own at force (grain requisitioning)
People relied on Black Market
Specific actions Trotsky took
Death penalty for desertion
‘Labor battalions’ composed of bourgeoise and unproductive workers to assist on front
Train to actively visit the frontlines
Who were the whites
Yudenich = northwest
Denikin and Wrangel = South, Don Cossacks
Makhno = Greens
Kolchak = Siberian Tsarist, w/ czech legion
Poles
Sought to take back Polish territory they had long ago
Captured Kiev 1920
Pushed back, Treaty of Riga 1920 Russian loses some territory
Why the whites were lacking in support
Divisions: 1918, repression of Bolshevik political opponents prompted many SR’s to flee link up with Kolchaks eastern army fight with them against reds. However Kolchak wanted a military dicttorship and SR’s didn’t so SR’s were arrested, they got angry with Kolchak and stages coups, undermining him
White’s couldn’t get support: Denikin helped previous Tsarist landowners recover their estates, so many peasats were unwilling to help him. And wouldn’t collaborate with Rightists and Kadets
Why Reds won
Geographical factors - Reds had control of the central area of the fighting and controlled Moscow, railway network, and factories in cities. Lots of people to conscript
Support - reds legitimised right for peasants to have land, which whites did not
Other factors -
