Reasons For Red Victory

Question 1

What are the 6 main reasons for red victory in the civil war?

Answer 1

Geographical 
Support
Unity and leadership 
Military strength 
Red terror
Propaganda

Question 2

What 2 areas did the red hold?

Answer 2

Moscow and Petrograd

Question 3

Why were Moscow and Petrograd an advantage to the reds?

Answer 3

They could move capital to Moscow at the hub of the railway network
Allowed for military planning
Was an administrative centre
Moscow included main industry and armament factories
Moscow was heavily populated which allowed for mass conscription

Question 4

What weapons and supplies did the reds use?

Answer 4

Supplies from the tsars army

Question 5

What areas did the whites hold?

Answer 5

Scattered around the edge of Moscow and separated

Question 6

Where did the whites base makeshift capitals?

Answer 6

Omsk

Archangel

Question 7

Why was the whites geographical position a disadvantage?

Answer 7

They could not coordinate military attacks
Limited industry and poor transport links
Thinly populated areas made it difficult to recruit

Question 8

Who did the peasants support?

Answer 8

They hated both the reds and whites

Question 9

What did peasants fear the loss of?

Answer 9

Newly acquired land

Question 10

Why did the peasants support the reds?

Answer 10

They were assured by the reds that land they had taken would stay theirs

Question 11

Why did workers and soldiers support the reds?

Answer 11

To protect the gains of 1917

Question 12

Who were the reds pragmatic about?

Answer 12

Nationalists and minorities desire for independence

Question 13

Why did the reds lose support from some groups?

Answer 13

The policy of war communism

Question 14

What political stance were most whites?

Answer 14

Tsarists and wanted to return to pre-revolution

Question 15

Why did the peasants not like the whites?

Answer 15

Whites took land from the peasants in areas under their control and handed it to landlords

Question 16

How many Jews were murdered by the whites?

Answer 16

Deeply anti-Semitic

50,000 Jews murdered

Question 17

How did the whites frighten ethnic minorities?

Answer 17

Their slogan was ‘Russia: one and indivisible’

Question 18

What did the whites want to restore?

Answer 18

Boundaries of the Russian empire to what it was in 1917 therefore they were opposed by nationalists such as Georgians and Ukraine who wanted independence

Question 19

How was an effect of negative cohesion created?

Answer 19

White policies meant that people naturally supported the reds even if they did not fully support what they stood for

Question 20

How were the reds United?

Answer 20

They all fought for one aim which was the survival of Bolshevism and the revolution
This meant it was easier to pass decrees and measures

Question 21

What ensured the red army were fed?

Answer 21

War communism

Question 22

What did the decree on nationalisation enable?

Answer 22

Strong centralised control over areas of production and distribution

Question 23

What were nationalised?

Answer 23

Factories and businesses

Question 24

What was established in the countryside?

Answer 24

Grain requisitioning and the red army was used to maintain unity

Question 25

What was there a ban on?

Answer 25

Private trade

Question 26

What system was introduced?

Answer 26

Rationing

Question 27

What was introduced after money lost all value?

Answer 27

Barter system

Question 28

How were the reds organised?

Answer 28

They had a single unified command structure | Lenin directed from the capital

Question 29

What was made responsible for feeding the armies and cities?

Answer 29

Narkomprov

Question 30

Who were the whites made up of?

Answer 30

``` Liberals SR’s Mensheviks Nationalists Socialists Kadets Tsarists ```

Question 31

Why were the whites divided?

Answer 31

No single unified aim Some wanted military dictatorship others wanted a constituent assembly or a return to tsardom Often whites fought each other No single leader, no single orders or political direction

Question 32

Why were the white leaders ineffective?

Answer 32

They didn’t trust each other and issued different orders to different armies

Question 33

Who did the whites receive support from?

Answer 33

Foreign governments which undermined leadership

Question 34

What did white foreign intervention allow the reds to do?

Answer 34

Portray themselves as patriotic

Question 35

How were the white leaders involved in corruption?

Answer 35

Used aid and weapons from foreign intervention to sell on the black market and were described as a bunch of traders and profiteers

Question 36

How did the white divisions place them at a disadvantage?

Answer 36

The SR’s found it difficult to fight alongside tsarists who wanted to return their lands to its owners

Question 37

How many people were in the red army by 1917 compared to 1920?

Answer 37

1. 5 million in 1917 | 3. 5 million in 1920

Question 38

How was Trotsky a good leader?

Answer 38

He was inspirational who turned the red army into a formidable fighting force He traveled by train to the front line to motivate troops

Question 39

How did Trotsky reorganise the army?

Answer 39

He brought back former tsarist officers and political commissars to ensure loyalty He introduced ranking, pay differentials, extreme punishments He took the families of officers hostage to ensure loyalty He created elite special forces in black leather uniforms Used CHEKA as an instrument of fear

Question 40

How many ex tsarists did Trotsky recruit?

Answer 40

50,000

Question 41

How were the whites militarily weak?

Answer 41

Armies were small Yudenichs had 14,000 men Denikin never had more than 100,000 troops Many white soldiers deserted due to bad conditions

Question 42

Who did the reds execute?

Answer 42

The royal family-were a figurehead for white opposition | Purpose was to terrify all hostile social groups

Question 43

What did the reds reject?

Answer 43

All superior forms of authority-judges, officers, princes, priests, white guards, employers

Question 44

What did lenins political terror include?

Answer 44

Purging political opposition such as SRs kadets Mensheviks | Other groups targeted included workers peasants merchants traders and children

Question 45

How many deaths were there due to terror between 1918-20?

Answer 45

13,000

Question 46

What did the CHEKA support during the war?

Answer 46

Implementation of war communism and grain requisitioning

Question 47

What happened to the royal family?

Answer 47

They were shot by the CHEKA without trial and their bodies were drenched in acid and thrown down a mine shaft

Question 48

What did the red propaganda include?

Answer 48

Posters Films Speakers Propaganda train to carry messages to villages

Question 49

What did the reds exploit in their propaganda?

Answer 49

The need for whites to get supplies from abroad Reds suggested whites were in a league with foreign powers Reds presented themselves as champions of the Russian nation

Question 50

Why was white propaganda weak?

Answer 50

They underestimated its importance