Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

Describe the main features of Bolshevik rule, the civil War, War Communism and the reasons for the Bolshevik victory. Main features of Bolshevik rule: The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, aimed to create a communist society in Russia. They did this by banning religion, destroying the churches, and also to radically kill any religious individuals, such as the priests and the bishops. Through this, Lenin wanted to create society which was independent of religion, as he believed that was not needed. Furthermore, Lenin tried to offer and accept different styles of life for the Russian people. For the first time, free love, divorce and abortion was allowed openly which aimed to give more freedom to Russia. On the other hand, Lenin aimed to use terror to control ideas in Russia. Firstly, the CHEKA, the Russian secret police, would arrest anyone against the Bolsheviks. People would be sent to labor camps or imprisoned. Furthermore, newspapers were censored and people had very limited human rights; no freedom of speech, conscience, and thoughts. The Tsar and his family was also killed and put to death supposedly in 1918. Therefore the Bolsheviks wanted to set up a totalitarian state. As they came into power, they introduced communist laws. Land was taken away from the Tsar and other noble classes to the peasants. Lenin wanted the peasants to remain loyal to him, as the majority of the Russian population was the peasants (this was part of the promise with the slogan Lenin made; Bread, Peace, Land. The land word meant he wanted to satisfy the demands of the peasants to make them happy. War Communism: War Communism also played a role in the features of Bolshevik rule. Due to the civil war, Lenin decided to adopt a policy called War Communism. War Communism referred to diverting all resources of the country for the causes, expenses and resources needed for the war. Grain requisitioning started, in which the secret police would seize grain from peasants. Because of the inflation, the peasants did not sell their grain because they knew money no longer hand any value anymore. Furthermore, all of the factories were under the control of the government; they decided what the factory would produce and how much, which were often armaments and war materials for war. In addition, the opposition was treated harshly; anyone who resented the policy was shot. Furthermore, even though there were already food shortages, food rationing was introduced to the citizens of Russia to further limit the amount of food normal people will get. In addition, money became worthless. The middle class had to pay more taxes. As a result, they had to sell apartments and houses in order to pay them back. Some of them sold them to the black market. Some of the middle class went to other countries, as a result of War Communism, hoping to find a better life and higher wages, such as going aboard to Paris, France. The Civil War: After the Bolshevik party had taken power, Lenin renamed it as the Communists. The Communists became under attack in 1918 mainly by one group, which was known as the Reds. The Reds were the enemies of the Whites. For three years, both groups fought for power in a civil war in

Russia. Another group was known as the Greens, who were independent groups of nationalists, or other forms of society who would fight against people who raided towns and villages. However, they fought for each other, but not for control. Finally, the Reds won the Civil War. Many factors contributed to the success of the reds: The aims of the Reds were simply and direct; to stay in power and to create a socialist society. Because of this factor, they were able to trust each other. There was a sense of unity in the group, and they were proactive and were willing to fight for one another. However on the other hand, the Whites were divided on their aims and views. Some of them wanted the Tsar back, some wanted land, which their most common goal which was to build a new socialist society. Due to the divided goals, they were not loyal to each other, and were fighting over for control. The Whites did not have a sense of unity and fear their fellow comrades might betray them. The geographical factor benefited the Reds compared to the Whites. The Communists gained control of the Eastern region of Russia, which included Moscow and Petrograd, and the most important industrial areas in Russia. Because of this, they were able to control factories and force them to produce the goods they needed, which in this case were armaments and war materials. This allowed them to have a good, strong supply of war material to continue the war against the Whites. Moreover, the Whites gained control of the main infrastructure of Russia and its transport systems, including the railway lines. Because of this, they were able to transport their troops to the war zone and to send supplies over there. This was an advantage over the Whites. The Whites, on the other hand, were very scattered all over Russia, and it was hard for them to communicate with each other. They could not coordinate their attacks on the Whites. They scattered all over the place made it easier for the Reds to take them out one by one. The leadership roles were very important to the success of the Communists. The Red Army was led by Trotsky, who set out an excellent example to the troops. He enforced extremely strict discipline procedures that must be followed. For example, troops who retreat without official orders would be shot. This created a well disciplined army. Moreover, Trotsky would always travel in his armoured train to the war front and encourage the troops to continue to fight hard. This made them feel more motivated to fight against the enemies of the Communists. However, on the other side, the Whites did not have a good leader. Many of the leaders were fighting for control, and were a bad example to the troops. They would be drunk and fought with each other. This made the morale level go down quite low. The Reds did not receive any foreign assistance. The Whites, however, did. Many foreign western countries, such as Britain, France, Japan and the USA assisted the Whites militarily; they would send troops to the battleground to help them. However, this was unsuccessful because the unity in the Whites was not strong. Although they were given valuable weapons to fight, they saw no reason to do, and some began to understand and agree with the Bolshevik cause. In addition, there were increasingly criticisms of foreign intervention in the Civil War; the British Labour Party didnt want any more use of UK troops to attack Russian workers, while the French navy in the Black Sea mutinied and protested. On the other hand, the only reason the Americans were there was because they wanted to make sure that Japan would not seize land in the East, as the Americans had key interests their. As a conclusion, the foreign help was not seen as effective or efficient to help the Whites to win the Civil War.