Why did the reds win the civil war

The success of the Czech Legion may have lead to the fate of the royal family. Kerensky had sent them to Tobolsk in Siberia where they were under house arrest. As the Czechs had the power to take Tobolsk, they were brought back to Ekateringburg. However, the Whites threatened this city. While the royal family was alive, they could inspire the Whites, therefore, Lenin ordered their execution. This was carried out on July 16th, 1918.

To add to Trotsky’s problems, the British seized Murmansk and Archangel in the north and set up governments led by Socialist Revolutionaries. Another problem for Trotsky was Admiral Kolchak, the former Lord High Admiral. He had joined with the Allies in an attempt to establish a united Eastern Front. Kolchak’s ‘government’ was recognised by the Czechs and the Allies. Kolchak persuaded the Czechs, who had raided Russia’s gold reserves that were stored at Kazan, that the gold could be well used for the common cause of the removal of the Bolsheviks.

In early 1919, Kolchak and the forces he had grouped around him went on the offensive. They took the city of Perm and advanced to the Volga. Kolchak could have marched on Moscow from the Volga but for some reason he did not. The British were advancing from Archangel in the north. A two-pronged attack against the Bolsheviks could have been successful, but it never happened. The British were to shortly pull out of Russia and the Whites probably lost their best opportunity to defeat the Bolsheviks.

One of the main reasons the Reds won was because of Trotsky who, despite the Czech Legion crisis, was a brilliant War Leader. As he was untrained in military matters, Trotsky seemed to be a natural leader of men. His beliefs were simple, if a Red commander was successful in combat; they were promoted, if a commander failed and survived, he paid the price. Trotsky was willing to use ex-tsarist officers, as he knew that they had the military experience the Red Army lacked. Trotsky also knew that the first time the Red Army lost a major battle, it would spell the end of the revolution and all that the Bolsheviks had fought for. He visited the Red Army at the front in his legendary armoured train ensure they knew this, to act as their motivation to continue fighting.

Men flocked to join the Red Army, not necessarily because they believed in what the Reds stood for but because Lenin had ordered that supplies of food went first to soldiers, and what was left went to those who lived in the cities. Lenin also tried to gain further control of the territory already under the control of the Bolsheviks. The party had a secret police unit called the Cheka, which was ruthless in hunting out possible opponents to Lenin. In many areas of Russia, where the Bolsheviks had control, the Cheka was the judge, jury and executioner. Its power was massively extended after August 30th, 1918 after the Socialist Revolutionary Kaplin shot and wounded Lenin.

Trotsky was also not fighting a cohesive unit. The Whites were made up of many groups, groups that hated each other as much as they hated the Reds. The Whites were on the whole a very uncoordinated group that fell out with each other. It seemed as if the Reds were being attacked from all sides, but these attacks were divided and disjointed. The fact that so many groups existed meant that no one person could be appointed to act as their sole commander. With no unified leadership, the Whites were much weakened.

The Whites also had a bad reputation towards the treatment of the local people of any area they controlled. As much of this land was agricultural, these people would have been peasants, the people Lenin had Promised Land to. Some of the Whites wanted to go back to the ‘old days’, which was not accepted by the peasants. The re-establishment of the old order would have maintained a lifestyle none of the peasants would have wanted. This made the peasants in the White territory supporters of the Bolsheviks.

The Whites also suffered a massive blow to their campaign when the Allies withdrew from Russia after November 11th 1918. With the end of World War One, the Allies were more distant in their dealings with the White leaders. Reports reached London that the Whites had committed many atrocities on innocent civilians and the government could not afford to be associated with this. The senior British observer attached to Kolchak wrote to Lloyd George that Kolchak was a “disinterested patriot”. In May 1919, Britain refused to recognise Kolchak and France did the same in May. The Red Army drove Kolchak and his disintegrating forces back to Siberia where he surrendered to the Communists. He died in their custody. White forces in the south of Russia were evacuated from the Crimea from November 1920 on.

After success against forces in Russia itself, Trotsky then faced a challenge from Poland. Poland gained independence in 1918; who then invaded Lithuania, which contained a large Polish population, in 1920. France had given Poland a lot of support to do this, as they wanted a strong Poland on Germany’s eastern side. However, the Polish army was not able to fight off Trotsky’s Red Army. The Red Army broke through the Poles lines and advanced on Warsaw. The Red Army was only stopped from getting into the city by a large number of French volunteers based in Poland led by General Weygand. The French led a counter-attack against the Red Army. Lenin decided to cut his losses and agreed to the Treaty of Riga on March 18th 1921. As a result of this treaty, about 10 million Ukrainians and White Russians were put under Polish rule. The Treaty of Riga brought to an end the Russian Civil War. Within Russia, the Communist government under Lenin was now secure.