Another reason why the Bolsheviks won the civil war was that they were a very strong party. They controlled the cities and major population areas. This was a position which was much stronger than that of the whites and it enabled the Bolsheviks to be able to put lots of men into battle quickly. The Bolsheviks also controlled the railways which were a great asset as they could travel all across Russia very quickly. The Bolsheviks inherited military resources from the Tsarist army. They gained 2.5 million rifles, 12000 artillery pieces, 28 million shells and they also gained control of the munitions factories and the support of the workers. This left the Bolsheviks in a strong military situation.
Before Lenin nobody in Russia in the early 20th century would have thought that they would come under Bolshevik rule, and Russia would probably not have without Lenin, but by November 1917 they had power. This shows how important Lenin was to the Bolsheviks success. Lenin gained a reputation as a very intelligent man and because of this people listened to him. After he had gained support, he become a key Bolshevik leader and pushed his party to seize power. He did this whilst in exile but was still listened to and this shows how much of an influence he had over the Bolsheviks. It was Lenin who helped Bolsheviks gain power and it was him who helped retain power. He did, however, have the help from others and two men in particular, Trotsky and Dzherzhinski. Trotsky formed the military side of the Bolsheviks, he created the Red guards who were controlled by Dzherzhinski. If the Bolsheviks had not had Trotsky’s initial input and Dzherzhinski’s control then they would not have had such a strong military. As regard s to the civil war Lenin and Trotsky were the main reason why the Bolsheviks won, Lenin provided tactical decisions and support whilst Trotsky gave the Bolsheviks a strong disciplined army. Dzherzhinski was important but not as much as Lenin and Trotsky were. If the party had not had the partnership of Lenin and Trotsky then I am sure that they would not have had the success that they had as it was military strength and tactical decisions that brought victory to the Bolsheviks.
It was not extremely easy for the Bolsheviks to win but it was also not incredibly hard for them. They had all the advantages where the opposition had no advantages so I would say that it was a confident win but definitely not a simple win.
Overall I believe that the weaknesses of the whites were a major advantage for the Bolsheviks but I think that even if the Whites army was as strong as the Reds they would still not have beaten the Bolsheviks this is because the Bolsheviks had complete unity and organisation whereas the whites had neither.
I also believe that the Bolsheviks strengths greatly aided their success. If they had not had these strengths then it would have been a much harder struggle for them but they would still have won in the end.
It was the leadership that I think was the most important part of the Bolshevik win. If the party had not had Lenin then they would never taken the step to gaining power in the first place and as a result would never have had to deal with a civil war. But they did take power primarily because of Lenin’s persuasive arguments. He carried on to be the main decision maker of the Bolsheviks throughout the Civil war thus leading me to think that it was his input that made the Bolsheviks such a powerful party. Trotsky was also a man which the Bolsheviks relied on and if he had not been there then I think that the Bolsheviks would never have won. So I believe that the most important factor of the Bolshevik win was the partnership between Lenin and Trotsky and the way they controlled and organised the Bolshevik party.
