Russia
The Civil War – How did
the Bolsheviks Win?
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Learning objectives
Learning objectives
What we will learn in this presentation:
Who made up the different forces that
fought in the Civil War.
Why the White forces lost.
Why the Bolsheviks introduced War
Communism.
Why the Red forces won.
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Who was involved in the civil war?
Almost as soon as they came to power the Bolsheviks
faced a civil war. Below are the main forces that were
involved with reasons for their allegiances.
The Reds
The Radishes
were the Bolshevik government
and the armies who fought for
them. They fought to defend
the Bolshevik victory.
Like the vegetable, these
people were red on the
outside but white in the
middle. What do you think this
means?
The Whites
Foreign Interventionists
were led by the former officers
of the tsar’s army, and the
people who were outside of the
area that the Reds controlled
between 1917 and 1921.
were countries such as the
USA, Britain and France who
wanted to bring the Bolshevik
government to an end.
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The course of the war
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War Communism
You’ve seen some reasons why the Whites lost, now look
at some reasons why the Reds won. The Bolsheviks
started a policy known as war communism:
surplus food was given to the army
the state took control of the railways
money was abolished in favour of barter
terror was used to force people to obey.
The Cheka was a secret police
force that terrorized people
into fighting for the Reds.
Suspects were rounded up
and tortured and their families
were threatened.
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Millions of Russians died
of starvation as food
was confiscated to be
given to the troops
fighting against the
Whites in the civil war.
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War Communism
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Why did the Reds win the civil war?
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Quiz
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Essay question
Why did the Reds win the civil war?
Having just identified the types of reasons, you should now
be able to write this essay, using the following headings:
1.
Which were the most important factors:
strategic, economic, control or morale?
2.
Could the Whites have won even if they had
managed to work together or did the Reds have
too many advantages?
3.
How important was the use of terror tactics in
controlling the troops and winning the war?
4.
How important was morale as a factor in
winning the war?
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