CIVIL WAR 1917-21

Question 1

What did some opposition groups see the Revolution as?

Answer 1

An opportunity to launch a counter-offensive against the Bolsheviks.

Question 2

What was the one event that signalled the start of the civil war unrest?

Answer 2

Kerensky’s Petrograd Offensive. (July 1917)

Question 3

When was Kerensky’s and General Krasnov’s offensive brought to a halt?

Answer 3

November 1917

attempt to regain power after PG had been overthrown

Question 4

When did the White armies fight against the Reds?

Answer 4

From December 1918 to the end of 1920.

Question 5

When did Polish forces attack Russia? Where did they reach?

Answer 5

April 1921, they reached as far as Kiev in the east.

Question 6

When did the Red troops drive out the last of the White troops from Southern Russia?

Answer 6

November 1921.

Question 7

Who were the Green Armies?

Answer 7

Groups of armed peasants.

Question 8

What did defeat on the Polish campaign bring upon the Bolsheviks?

Answer 8

Brought a similar kind of humiliation as the Russo-Japanese war had brought upon NII.
- Polish victory resulted in the establishment of the Russo-Polish border that existed until 1939

Question 9

What was not abandoned in foreign policy? What was FP centred on alternatively?

Answer 9

Did not abandon Comintern or the concept of ‘world revolution’. Centred on developing peaceful relations.

Question 10

How many people died as a result of war, famine and disease?

Answer 10

About 10 million.

Question 11

How much had industry fallen in comparison to pre-war levels of capacity?

Answer 11

Ten to twenty per cent.

Question 12

How much had the population of cities declined?

Answer 12

Decimated to around 50% of their 1917 levels.

Question 13

What did the post-war government consist of?

Answer 13

Men who had served in the Red Army, the Cheka and other bodies.

Question 14

What is the militaristic approach to government reflected in?

Answer 14

The introduction of war communism.

Question 15

What was the NEP introduced to bring?

Answer 15

Stability to government even though it appeared to be in contradiction of all that the communists stood for.

Question 16

When was the Civil War?

Answer 16

1918-20

Question 17

How were the allies involved with the Civil War? (3)

Answer 17

Western allies pissed off at Russia’s withdrawal from war, Churchill sent 100m supplies to help whites, USA, Japan and Italy sent troops

Question 18

Strengths of the Reds (4)

Answer 18

Conscription – 5mil in RA by 1920, Trotsky’s disciple, ideological commitment, Red Terror – 50k executions 1918 under Cheka, control of railways

Question 19

Weaknesses of the Whites (4)

Answer 19

. reliance on foreign assistance, dessertions (worried about land issue), no single aim, allies’ puppets

Question 20

Why did the Polish forces attack Russia in the civil war?

Answer 20

German defeat in WW1, Polish nationalism sparked by the re-creation of an independent Polish state, and the Bolsheviks’ determination to carry the gains they had achieved during the Russian Civil War to central Europe.

Question 21

Reds

Answer 21

Communists led by Lenin - “Bread, Peace and Land”, Bolsheviks

Question 22

Whites

Answer 22

All factions opposed to Reds (Mensheviks, tsarist supporters, SRs, etc.)

Question 23

Greens

Answer 23

Peasants who feared Whites would take land

Question 24

KEY IMPACTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

Answer 24

• ECONOMIC POLICY - WAR COMMUNISM AND NEP
• REALISATION OF INTERNAL CONFLICT - crack down heavily on non-Bolshevik socialists. Menshevik and SR deputies were expelled from the central and local soviets
• RED TERROR
• defeat various nationalist movements of the non-Russian peoples e.g hopes of the Tatars, southern Urals ruined

Question 25

By 1920 rouble was worth ____ of its ___ worth

Answer 25

By 1920 rouble was wowth 1% of its 1917 worth

Question 26

What ended the Civil War?

Answer 26

Treaty of Riga March 1921
- 10 million Ukranians and White Russians were put under Polish rule - though a loss, Communist government under Lenin was now secure