As well as all this the main driving force behind the Whites crusade was to put an end to communism and restore Russia back to its Tsarist regime of previous, this involved restoring all land back to the previous land owners. Obviously this lost the Whites a great amount of peasant support, forcing them to side with the Reds who had already promised the peasants the land and the workers the factories in the April Thesis of 1917. Again, this caused the already unorganised army of the Whites to decrease in size even further.
Lastly the leaders of the Whites were all of military aristocracy and not educated men meaning they were unable to see the importance of propaganda in boosting the morale of the troops and gaining support from outsiders. However Lenin had realised the value of propaganda and the support that could be gained from its use. Lenin and the Red produced flyers and posters in his campaign to increase the size of the Bolshevik army.
The Bolsheviks had many other advantages over the Whites and it was these strengths combined with the weaknesses of the Whites that helped result in a White defeat. The Bolsheviks had a highly professional and disciplined army which was under the control of Trotsky; this army was known as the Red Army. Trotsky reintroduced ranks and titles within in the army and rewarded to soldiers through skill rather than social class. He also punished the troops as well as rewarding them. Anyone caught deserting the army was shot on site. All of this encouraged soldiers to do the best that they could and made an incredible army. Lenin had also pulled Russia out of WWI through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk giving the Russian army plenty of time to prepare for the on-coming civil war.
The Bolsheviks had one overall goal; to spread the practice of communism. This gave the army motivation to fight, which is something the Whites lacked. Another thing the Whites lacked was a leader like Lenin. Lenin understood what the people wanted and used this to his advantage. For example he legalized the seizure of the land by the peasants; this gained the Reds a lot of support from the peasant population of Russia, which made 80% of Russia’s overall population. This increased Lenin’s fighting machine greatly.
Another beneficial advantage of the Bolsheviks was the location of the capital, which had been moved from Petrograd to Moscow, a much more central position. Old armament factories from WWI were present in Moscow, as well as all major industry, meaning the Red army had plenty of resources. As well as all this, Moscow was linked by railway enabling troops and supplies to be transported easily to where they needed to be.
Lastly, Lenin introduced a policy known as ‘War Communism’ which involved taking food supplies from the peasants in order to feed the troops on the frontline. Without a policy such as this, the troops would have starved and would have been to weak to fight against the Whites. However it did almost pose as a problem for the Red by pushing peasant support towards the Whites.
Overall I think the Whites were defeated due to the weaknesses present in the army. Troops just weren’t motivated enough to fight the war. They were only there due to conscription and had no personal interest in the various reasons that fuelled the different countries involved. The White army had a severe lack of resources and towards the end of the war support was rapidly decreasing due to their aim of restoring Russia back to its Tsarist state. However it wasn’t only the weaknesses of the Whites that contributed to their eventual defeat in the civil war. Combined with the strengths of the Red Army defeat was inevitable from the beginning. The Reds had an incredibly professional fighting machine that was no match for the disintegrating army of the whites. They had plenty of resources and a quick way of getting them around to where they were needed most. Most importantly they were led by Lenin, who was an incredibly intelligent man who was able to use propaganda as a tool to help him win the war.
By Amy Cook