Civil war Flashcards
What were the main political beliefs against the Bolsheviks?
Opponents on the right claimed the Bolsheviks had no right to rule, the centre believed they betrayed popular elections and the left believed the Bolsheviks ignored the soviet that placed them into power
How did the right become part of the white army?
- Aristocrats and bourgeoise felt alienated by Bolshevik ideology
- Many on the right wanted the return of the old tsarist regime including army officers who rejected the peace treaty and those with land, money or businesses who felt victimised by socialist policies
How did the left become part of the white army?
- Mensheviks felt alienated by the Bolshevik ideology
- Kadets wanted a, “Russia great, united and indivisible,”
- Left - wing politicians who formed the Komuch in Samara opposed the Bolsheviks for forcing the Kadets and Right - wing SRs later left wing for opposing peace furthermore, the Bolsheviks ignored the elections in the constituent assembly. This led to two assassination attempts on the 14th January 1918 where he was ambushed by two assassins in Petrograd. In addition to the 30th of August where Fanya Kaplan shot Lenin 3 times
Why did ethnic minorities want to join the white army?
- Georgians were uncertain of Bolshevik promises surrounding self - determination so they saw the chaos as a chance to gain independence
- The loss of Ukraine threatened to add food shortages to Russia especially as rationed food was disproportionately shared especially by the bourgeoise who felt a sense of disillusionment
What happened in spring 1918?
A Southern volunteer army was set up with mostly Don Cossacks who wanted independence in their region which was partially financed by Germany but led by Denikin
What happened with the Czechoslavak army of liberation in March 1918?
Bolsheviks gave them permission to travel through Siberia to fight enemies on the western front consistenting of 45000 Czech nationalists. The force travelled along the Trans-Siberian railway in May, some Bolsheviks officials tried to arrest soldiers but fighting broke out leading them to join anti-Bolsheviks towards Moscow
What did Denikin do?
- In the summer of 1918, his Cossack army threatened Tsaritsyn but red armies prevented him from linking with Eastern white armies
- Evidence of looting, raping, pillaging villages for supplies and pogroms against Jewish settlements
- Gained support of landowners as he helped them regain their land
- In the summer of 1919, Denikin began another offensive dangerously lose to Moscow but Trotsky forced Denikin’s army south to Crimea
- In 1920, Denikin was replaced by Wrangel who faced opposition from the greens (a semi-organised local militia who wanted to protect local communities in mostly Georgia and Ukraine) who irregularly fought for the reds
- By November, British and French ships evacuated the rest of the white army from Crimea
What did Kolchak do?
- Awarded the title of supreme ruler
- In the summer of 1918, Kolchak’s army captured Kazan and Samara but halter by red counter attacks
- He arrested hundreds of SR activists and many activists including 10 who were in the original constituent assembly leading to staged revolts that undermined his campaign causing him to retreat in autumn 1919
- In 1920, he was captured and shot
What did Yudenich do?
In October 1919, his army of 15000 troops that reached Petrograd but was stopped y the red army
What happened in the second stage of the civil war?
- Allied troops were initially sent to reopen the eastern front against Germany but they war ended before they could take action but many stayed to guard munition dumps in Archangel and Murmansk
- Churchill sent £100 million worth of supplies as he saw the white army as crusaders against the Bolsheviks but the prime minister and labour party criticised the decision
- French investors put millions into Russia however businesses were nationalised creating feelings of betray as Soldiers mutinied particularly in the black sea
- Japan sent an army to Vladivostok to gain territory encouraging the USA to send troops to prevent the Japanese annexation of land
- Italy, Serbia, Romania, Greece and Canada all sent troops but it similarly lacked support to significantly impact the whites
- In 1919, Poland took advantage of the situation and invaded Western Ukraine to regain territory that was formally part of the Polish empire and were initially successful as Pilsudski captured Kiev in May 1920 but soon pushed back to Warsaw
- Russia initially wanted a revolution in Germany but it soon emerged as a revolutionary war with the rise of red soviets but the reds had overstretched their supply lines and lacked support forcing them to sign the treaty of Riga in March 1921
- This granted Poland, Galicia and parts of Belorussia self - rule as well as the Baltic state independence
How did Trotsky employ discipline?
- As commissar for war, he maintain strict hierarchical lines with the end of soldier’s committees and the election of officers y soldiers leading to further resentment as ranks, salutes, paying differentials, harsh military discipline and the death penalty were reintroduced and controlled by the Cheka
- Many officers were unemployed, hungry and poor so loyalty was gained by Trotsky holding their families
- 50,000 tsarist officers to retrain troops
- A political commissar to each unit who would watch and report to central headquarters the actions of the soldiers but they also helped to install ideological discipline
- In some areas, conscription was used either fighting units of labour battalions were set of men who were unable to fight or the bourgeoise as they were unreliable and their job was to clean debris and remove dead or wounded bodies
How did Stalin and Zinoviev criticise Trotsky?
They wanted a militia without tsarist officers but managed to gain Lenin’s support proclaiming it the only solution to control 3 million men so Trotsky gained full control
What did Dmitri Volkogonov claim?
Trotsky was not a military strategist as key military decision were made by others but his key contribution was through organisation
How did Trotsky boost moral?
- He visited the frontline in an armoured Rolls - Royce and a special train with an elite force in black ether uniform with spare uniforms and supplies
- His train proved essential when Petrograd was under threat as he chose to save it unlike Lenin
- In total, his train travelled 65,000 miles in the war
What were the red army like?
- As the supply of urban workers ran out, peasants were conscripted who often deserted during harvest time
- Peasants also started staged uprising against their best horses and food being taken for the army often engulfing provinces and encouraged many to join the greens
- By 1920, there were around 5 million troops in the army but by 1921, 4 million had deserted taking their weapons and uniforms resulting in a lack of equipment
- Full-scale mutinies happened in which Burzhui officers were murdered and new officers elected leading to rising anti-Semitism within the army
