The Civil War (1918-21)

Question 1

List 5 reasons why there was opposition against the Bolsheviks.

Answer 1

• They had failed to deal with food shortages and starvation (Petrograd’s bread ration in March 1918 was 50g)- 60% of workers (2 to 3 million) left the city in search for food
• The Cadets and SRs thought that they had seized power by force
• Reforms on land alienated landowners
• Banking decrees caused the bourgeoisie to lose money
• Nationalists wanted to fight Germany

Question 2

List the 3 groups that were involved in the Civil War, and who each group consisted of.

Answer 2

• Reds: Bolsheviks
• Greens: subject nationalities (wanted to weaken the Bolsheviks to gain independence)
• Whites: - SRs who wanted the Constituent Assembly restored
  - Liberals and moderate Socialists wanted law and order restored
  - Anti-Communists such as foreign powers, industrialists and landowners
  - Tsarists; nobles and nationalists
  - The Czech Legion

Question 3

Who were the Czech Legion and what role did they play in starting the Civil War?

Answer 3

• They were deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army that had decided to fight for Russia in WW1
• They were given safe passage out of Russia after it quit from the war
• They were then ordered to surrender their arms, which they refused and then seized the Trans-Siberian railway
• The Allies (Britain, France and the USA) joined them after Russia left the war and cancelled the payment of loans
• Japan also joined to gain some land

Question 4

List the Whites’ 3 main leaders.

Answer 4

• General Yudenich
• General Deniken
• Admiral Kolchak

Question 5

Who supported General Yudenich, how far did he get, and how did his involvement in the war end?

Answer 5

• British
• Reached the outskirts of Petrograd (1919)
• Dissolved his armies (mid 1920) after Estonian troops left him as the Bolsheviks promised them independence

Question 6

Who supported General Deniken, how far did he get, and how did his involvement in the war end?

Answer 6

• French
• Besieged Tsaritsyn (1918)
• Defeated by Stalin
• Reached Moscow (1919)
• Defeated by Trotsky

Question 7

Who supported Admiral Kolchak, how far did he get, and how did his involvement in the war end?

Answer 7

• Czech Legion
• Captured Kazan and Samara (1919)
• Forced to retreat (autumn 1919)
• Captured and shot (1920)

Question 8

List 5 things Trotsky did to help ensure victory.

Answer 8

• Restored conscription (Reds had over 5 million troops)
• Promoted talented officers regardless of their social class
• Restored strict military discipline
• Brought back former tsarist officers and held their families hostage to ensure their loyalty
• Boosted soldiers’ morale

Question 9

List 6 more general reasons for the Reds’ success.

Answer 9

• Lenin and Trotsky had strong, unified leadership
• They moved their capital to Moscow, which was a railway hub
• Moscow had plenty of men to conscript and factories to make weapons
• They had peasants’ support as well due to the decree on land
• They had a worthy cause; to preserve the revolution
• They used propaganda to emphasise that their defeat meant that foreigners will rule Russia

Question 10

List 8 reasons for the Whites’ defeat.

Answer 10

• They didn’t share a common goal
• They alienated subject nationalities as they didn’t want to give them independence
• Soldiers under the leaders were treated cruelly- similarly to the pre-revolution conditions, and deserted
• The White Generals didn’t work together and Trotsky could fight each individually
• Foreign intervention was only half-hearted at best
• Transporting troops, weapons and messages was slow as they had no access to railways
• Conscripted armies were small as they were in the countryside
• White armies were extremely corrupt and undisciplined

Question 11

Give figures under War Communism.

Answer 11

1913 to 1921
- Grain: 80 to 37.6 million tonnes
- Coal: 29 to 8.9 million tonnes