He created the slogan ‘Work, discipline and order will save the Soviet republic’ , he sought for full Soviet support for the construction of the Red army, he enforced this heavily enthusiastically speaking about it to try and create an army with higher morale. There were only a few quality officers so Trotsky had to accept former Tsarist officers. However, he ensured their allegiance by keeping a register of their families making it known that their families would be taken as hostage if they deserted the Red army. He also places communist commissars at each officer's side to make sure the politically correct nature of judgements made. This greatly benefited the red army, having experienced quality officers without the issue of deserting, he provided effective control in the army.The army quickly built up to 3.5 million in 1920, although desertion was high, the white army could never match these numbers. It is entirely to Trotsky’s efforts that an effective army did emerge in the Civil war, however, the Bolsheviks controlled the railways , the main industry areas to manufacture weapons,and areas with a much higher population, even with Trotsky’s immense efforts to create an effective army without these key advantages fuelling him, an army with the size, resources and morale as the Red army may not have been created.
The weaknesses of the whites, although not as important of a factor, still played a role in Bolshevik success. Although they had weaknesses like their lack of unity, which allowed the Red’s to pick off the white armies one by one, their failure to win vital support perhaps was their most fatal flaw. The Whites' failure to gain the support of different national groups weakened their campaign significantly . An example of this is in October 1919, when Denikin failed to bring the Poles into battle against the Bolsheviks, as they were not prepared to come to the aid of someone whose view was that Russia was one united country, meaning that he would not give any level of independence to the national groups. The effect of this error was highlighted by the strength and skill of the Poles, which is shown by the failure of the much larger Red Army to defeat the Poles in 1920. Just as the Whites failed to win the real support of national groups within the former Russian Empire, so they also failed to win the committed support of the foreign powers.Britain and the United States were reluctant to support groups they considered to be supporters of the autocratic Tsar and as a result never sent enough troops to be of much assistance to white efforts.
Even more vitally they failed to gain peasant support. Kolchak refused to allow any land seizures except for those of unused land. As a result on the southern and eastern fronts the White regimes failed to recruit a sufficient number of soldiers. In the summer of 1918 they found it very difficult to recruit peasants and could only create an army of 10,000 men. Four out of five of the peasants conscripted into Kolchak’s army deserted, many simply transferring to the Red army.Although these weaknesses were crucial, they would not have been too damaging had the Bolsheviks not exploited each one. The Bolsheviks, unlike the whites were skilful in negotiating with national groups, for example in June 1919 they negotiated an agreement in July 1919 with the Poles, whereby the Bolsheviks would recognise the Polish border so long as the Poles did not assist Denikin in his Moscow Directive. They also managed to deal with the peasants much more skillfully, being much more successful retaining the deserters.
The main reason however, was the strengths of the Bolsheviks. Three massive ones may have confirmed their success before the war even started. They controlled the most densely populated areas of Russia, their territory contained 70 million, the whites only containing 20. This meant they had a much larger population to recruit for the army, leading to them gaining a huge numerical advantage. As a result of Russia’s participation in WWI Russia was full of munitions and other war material,estimated as 2.5 million rifles, 12,000 artillery pieces and 2.8 million shells, these all fell into the Bolsheviks possession.However, they did not need to rely on these, they controlled Russia’s main engineering factories which meant they could manufacture new weapons. They also controlled railways, which meant they could easily rush reinforcements to front where they were threatened , the whites transport and communication system in comparison had extremely limited communication and was fatally slow.
However, although these may have lay the groundwork for their success, there is no denying their skilful political measures they used to grow their power. This was shown in their control of the peasants, the peasants were more concerned with possession of the land than political change and the Bolshevik October 1917 Land Decree recognised the peasant seizure of the land. The peasants largely preferred the self-government granted by the Bolsheviks. In addition, the Bolsheviks destroyed the Tsarist state’s restriction on the peasants in the countryside which achieved their goal of self government. Although they were clearly granted. The Bolsheviks cleverly used the peasantry’s distrust of the Whites. In the first four months of 1919 the Red Army doubled to 1,600,000 with many of the recruits coming from the Volga region where many peasants had most to fear from a White victory. In July and September 1919 the Bolsheviks recruited two million peasants in Orel and Moscow. The Bolsheviks also proved more flexible than the Whites in retaining the peasantry. For example, by 1921 four million peasants had deserted from the Red Army. Between July and 9 the Bolsheviks were able to return 1,426,000 deserters to the army with the promise of no punishment.The Bolsheviks were also much more skilful in dealing with the different national groups.In 1920, the Bolsheviks were prepared to recognise the independence, through a treaty, of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in order to have the flexibility to defeat the Whites and to prevent further fronts from emerging. Moreover, in 1919 Lenin demonstrated his flexibility by allowing the Ukrainians to use their own language within the Soviets to prevent a nationalist revolt. Although they were clearly granted massive advantages, without being combined with their skilful political manipulation they may not have been as successful.
In conclusion, the key reason for Bolshevik success was their political flexibility, being able to negotiate with the nationalities and the peasants and temporarily granting them their wishes meant they had massive advantages in both numbers and territory. Combined with their far superior resources, territory and transport system, even without the skilful leadership of Trotsky, they had gained an advantage against the whites in every way using political negotiations, their win in the civil war was inevitable.