Why the Whites lost the Civil War of Russia.

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History Paper 1:  Russia

  Why the Whites lost the Civil War of Russia

  Between 1918 and 1920, there was a civil war between the `Red'

  Russians and the `White' Russians.  The Bolsheviks themselves

  represented the Civil War as a class war, but it was never simply

  this. The sheer size of Russia often meant that local or regional

  considerations predominated over larger ideological issues.

  Introduction

  According to Wade, the Russian civil war might better be referred to

  as a series of plural, civil wars, It was in fact a complex, multi-

  phased event, with overlapping military, economic, national,

  international and other conflicts. The Bolsheviks saw themselves

  engaged in an international civil war, a violent international class

  war, as revolution spread across Europe and then the world.  By the

  beginning of 1920, the Red Army, had for all intents and purposes,

  won the civil war.  Soon most of the territory of Imperial Russia was

  under Soviet control except for "Poland, Finland and the Baltic

  states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania which became independent. In

  1921-22 the Red army crushed the last remaining armed forces opposing

  the communist regime - the peasant armies often called 'Greens'

  Why the Reds won the Civil War

  According to Pipes, the victory of the Red Army was a foregone

  conclusion.  A basic cause of the Red military victory was degree of

  control throughout the period 1917-1920 - over the Great-Russian

  heartland.

  ·       The Reds had the advantage of the human and equipment

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  resources of the Imperial Russian army in the heartland

  ·       The Reds had a years start in the race to prepare for civil

  war

  ·       Fighting on interior lines, they were able to deal with their

  ring of enemies one at a time

  ·       The anti-Bolsheviks found themselves on the periphery of the

  battle front

  ·       The harsh realities of geography meant that they could not

  give mutual support to one another due to poor ...

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