Why Did The Civil War Take Place?

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Why did the Civil war take place?

TheCivil War took place because the Bolsheviks had many domestic and internationalenemies who wanted to overthrow the Bolsheviks.

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Why did the Civil war take place?

The Bolsheviks Lenin had many opponents within Russia who resented the way inwhich Lenin had seized power, confiscated land, shut down the ConstituentAssembly and carried out the Red Terror campaign. These opponents werecollectively known as the Whites and were prepared to go to war to overthrowthe Bolsheviks

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Why did the Civil war take place?

The Royalistssupported the Tsar and wanted to put him back on the throne. The Royalists included many big landownerswho obviously wanted their land back following the Bolshevik Land Decree. Significantly,many generals in the army were royalists who had been appointed by the Tsar.Many of them were aristocrats who had lost land. They were therefore preparedto fight the Red Army to restore the Tsar or at least regain their land.

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Why did the Civil war take place?

The Churchopposed Lenin because he had seized Church lands and was thought to beconsidering the abolition of religion. The Church was also angry about themurders that had taken place during the Red Terror.

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Why did the Civil war take place?

The Social Revolutionaries(“SRs”) opposed Lenin because they had won the general election but beendeprived of their seats in parliament and role in government when Lenin shut itdown. The SRs had always wanted a republic (ie. a democracy without the Tsar)and were furious about Lenin’s dictatorship.

Most peasants inthe countryside supported the SRs and the Church. A significant number wereloyal to their landowners if they had treated them well. Most of the people inthe countryside (whether peasants or aristocratic landowners) therefore opposedthe Bolsheviks

All of the abovegroups had some of their leaders or colleagues killed by the Bolshevik RedGuard or Cheka during the Red Terror. They therefore wanted revenge againstLenin’s increasingly tyrannical regime.Many nationalists were angry about Russiasurrendering to the Germans (particularly when they discovered the punitiveterms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) and were therefore prepared to supportthe Whites

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Why did the Civil war take place?

TheBolsheviks also had many internationalenemies who were willing to help the Whites to overthrow the Bolsheviks.

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Why did the Civil war take place?

The capitalist countries were also afraid that Russia would try to export communist revolutionsto Western Europe and Japan,particularly as Trotsky was known to be a supporter of “permanent revolution”which meant encouraging and supporting communist revolutions in capitalistcountries. The Western Allies were particularly worried about this as theireconomies were in depression following the huge expense and destruction of WW1which meant that many people in capitalist countries were unemployed and livingin poverty which made it more likely they would be susceptible to communism.

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Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

TheBolsheviks won the Civil War for a combination of reasons, the most importantof which were that they were a highly-motivated unified force (who werefighting for a common cause in which they passionately believed), defending asmaller geographical area (which contained good transport links and industry)whereas the Whites were a disunited collection of different groups fighting fordifferent causes over a large geographical area with poor communications and withouta common leader. The net result was that the Reds never had to face aco-ordinated attack by all of their enemies at the same time which meant thatthe Reds were able to survive the individual White attacks and outlast theirenemies with skilful and at times ruthless leadership by Lenin and Trotsky.

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Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

first weakness of the Whites was that they werenot a unified force. Theywere comprised of many different groups with different objectives and differentleaders. This meant that their aims sometimes conflicted and they failed tohelp one another

The net result and crucial error of the Whites wasthat they never forced the Reds to face a co-ordinated and simultaneous attackon different fronts which might well have resulted in a Whitevictory

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Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

The second mistake of the Whites was that theirpolicies alienated many peoplewhich lessened their support and also gave the Reds ammunition for theirpropaganda which helped the Reds to maintain morale. Most of the White leaderswere intent on returning land to the rich which alienated many peasants whichwas counter-productive during the Civil War as the Whites were based inpredominantly agricultural areas where they needed the support of the peasantsfor food supplies and militarily.

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Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

In conclusion, the Reds won the Russian Civil War due to acombination of White weaknesses and Red strengths, the most important of whichwere that the Bolsheviks were a highly-motivated unified force (who werefighting for a common cause in which they passionately believed), defending asmaller geographical area (which contained good transport links and industry)whereas the Whites were a disunited collection of different groups fighting fordifferent causes over a large geographical area with poor communications andwithout a common leader. The net result was that the Reds never had to face aco-ordinated attack by all of their enemies at the same time which meant thatthe Reds were able to survive the individual White attacks and outlast theirenemies with skilful and at times ruthless leadership by Lenin and Trotsky.

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This combination of factors, combined with theirgeographical advantage, meant that the Reds were an efficient andwell-organised fighting force who could withstand the uncoordinated Whiteattacks and outlast their enemy.