By Justin Arnold
MA Student UNSW
The Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1921 can be seen as the conflict that has defined all other conflicts of twentieth century. It was a war launched by the former officers of the Tsarist regime against the modernisation of Russia’s Political Economy byt he Bolsheviks. The keys to the Red Army victory and White defeat in the Civil War were ,
• The political leadership of Lenin of the Bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks of the working class with a unity of purpose and command or what Lenin calls ‘unity, identity, struggle and the transformation of opposites’ ,
• The winning of support amongst the urban working class and peasnetry of the population of Russia by the Bolsheviks,
• The class prejudice of the White Army who were disinterested in forming allegiances.
• Disunity amongst the White Armies who fought for different reason against as well as against one another.
• Geographical reasons with the Bolshevik’s holding the urbanised and industrial centres of Moscow and St Petersburg.
• Foreign interventions on the side of the White Army which help win the support for the Bolsheviks.
• The ability of The Bolsheviks to adopt to the changing circumstances of the Russian Civil War.
The victory of the Red Army against their White Army counterparts resulted in a plethora of social changes that not transformed Russia into a modern political economy and a global superpower but also brought vast change in the conditions faced by those of working classes around the world during the twentieth century.
1. Political leadership of Lenin with a unity of purpose and command
The main difference between the Red and White armies in the Russian Civil War was the unity of purpose showed by the Bolshevik Red Army under Lenin’s leadership. This approach was contrasted by the loose collaboration of royalist officers, Cossacks, foreign agents and ethnic minorities that made up the White Army. The Bolsheviks’ provided to the Russian what the White Army couldn’t the essential ingredients that a government needs to govern, what Hugh White calls ‘the three basic needs of people and nations alike prosperity, security and identity’ or what Lenin called peace, land and bread.
1.
The unity of the Bolshevik ranks was contrasted by the petty rivalries that caused a disunity of purpose and command amongst the old regime officers and reactionary parties that made up The White Army. It’s four major fronts had several leaders each due to its individualistic and class based ideology of its leaders. Another advantage the Bolsheviks had over the reactionary counter-parts was with there modern and vibrant scientific ideology which Lenin took full advantage of. The key to the Bolsheviks winning over the working class and peasantry was there ability to provide social mobility to the lower classes in Russia by control the mechanism of state in which they were able to achieve after the 1917 October Revolution.
1.
R.B. Rose also describes the ‘brilliant political leadership’ of Lenin as being one of the decisive factors of The Russian Civil War. Lenin leadership of the Bolshevik Movement and inspired the Red Army through, ‘rallying popular support’ through his speeches and by inspiring the Red Army fighters through promises of ‘a glowing future to emerge out of the violence and misery’ . Lenin through his leadership skills was able to raise an Army of over 5 million men, a strong and powerful fighting force that was led by professional and experience officer corp that produced overwhelming force against there counter-revolutionary opponents on the battlefield. Lenin’s ;eadership of tehj whole Bolshevik movement provided it with a untiy of purpose which teh Whtir Armies lacked.
2. The winning of support amongst the urban working class population of Russia by the Bolsheviks
The major factor at play in the Bolshevik victory over their reactionary counterparts was the scientific organisational principle of democratic centralism for the Red Army. This principle which not only gave the ordinary workers and peasants a say in the decisions making process but also ensured a unity of purpose and action after the outcome of the collective decision making process. According to Mawdsley it was the Bolshevik leader Lenin who stated that it was the ‘centralism, discipline and unparalleled self-sacrifice’ of the Red Army helped them achieve victory in the Civil War . The focus on the discipline of action brought about by the utilisation of democratic centralist philosophy which helped in the mass mobilisation of the peasantry in the war effort against their reactionary opponents who were associated with the former tsarist regime and the foreign imperialist sponsors.
2.
The red Army had started out as a small force of industrial workers in northern and central Russia but by the autumn of 1920 it had expanded to a conscript army of more than 5 million with 75 per can of these coming from their peasant class . According to Figes the most important factor in the Red Army’s victory over its White Army counterparts was its ‘mobilising millions of peasants for military service’ . When the White Army’s attempted to conscripted the peasantry into their ranks they failed to do sobecause of their association with teh fromer Tsarist regime which had persecuted them .
2.
The main failure by the forces of reaction occurred due to the speed and volume of which they attempted to cosnript the peasantry into their ranks . Just as Lenin had predicated the Mass mobilisation of the peasants in to the White ranks caused major disruption within the White Army with issues revolving around the mass desertion of peasants who wished to return home at teh first available time. These defections affected both sides in the conflict but were especially pronounced of the White Ranks due to their failure to garner the support of there local inhabitants of the areas in which they operated.
3. The class prejudice of the White Army who were disinterested in forming allegiances with those groups dissatisfied.
An example of the problems faced by the White Army can be seen with the problems that plagued the Southern White Army. This army was made up of two main groups, the Cossacks and a group of former Tsarist Officers who led a volunteer army. Thes former tsarist officers were one of the most socially conservative groups in Russia and had a class based hatred for the Bolsheviks and all that they stood which alienated many potential supporters. The officers also wished to see the Tsarist regime returned and saw the struggle as a solely military affair and did not attempt to play a role in the winning of support of Russia’s lower classes or ethnic minorities. This left these social classes open to Bolshevik influence and recruitment which became a successful tactic in the building of The Red Army to victory over its foes.
3.
The Cossacks differed from their fellow White Amy counterparts by not wishing to see the return of the old regime. The Cossacks were fighting for more self-autonomy in any future federated Russia. The Cossacks were also fighting to help protect their privileged status in South Russian Society from the Bolshevik class based political movement who were threatening to confiscate their land and hand it over to the peasantry. The privelged approach of the Cossacks led the peasantry of South Russia to support to the Bolshevik cause which promised them social mobnility and joined the Red Army en masse to fight against teh White Amries and the forgien supporters.
4. Disunity amongst the White Armies who fought for different reason against as well as against one another
To add to these troubles the distrust that grew between the Cossacks and the former Tsarist Officers based upon their differing agendas grew to such an extent that it seemed like there would be an outbreak of civil war between them. According to Kerez, ‘Many of the Cossacks regarded the officers as unwelcome guest... the generals and colonels… thought of the Cossacks as little better than bandits, people who interpreted the concept of military booty far too broadly’ . These difficulties in the White camp in Southern Russiaaided the Bolshevik cause especially in the Northern Don areas which suffered several rebellions both from both its Cossacks and peasents which distracted the attention of the White Army.
The difference in the White ranks was due to the politics of its personalities, some due to ethnic origins of the groups involved as was the case for the Cossacks and Ukrainians and some was due to the White Army having to reform itself and compromise its principles to fit in with the agenda of its foreign sponsors.
The scientific ideology of the Bolshevik’s, however was seen as a better social movement when compared the proto-fascist beliefs of the White’s by Russia’s lower classes that made up the major of her population. The scientific socialism of the Bolsheviks attracted the support of not only the working class, but also the intelligentsia and the peasants of the outlying regions as well as the ethnic minorities with whom the White Armies refused to work with.
According to Kerez the White’s made little effort to attempt to win over the owe classes due to there chauvinistic conservative and populist prejudices. As Kerez stated ‘their instinctive hostility toward the working class, coupled with their lack of political sophistication’ prevented them from forming alliances with other groups dissatisfied with the Bolshevik rule and which could have provided them with much needed allies .
5. Geographical reasons with the Bolshevik’s holding the urbanised and industrial centres of Moscow and St Petersburg
Fearon & Laitin in their analysis of Civil Wars stated that there are three aspects that an inferior force needs to have to be able to defeat a superior one, ‘rough terrain, foreign sanctuaries and the support of a local population’ . In the case of the White Army they suffered due to their inability to win local support in the areas they held as well as from the haphazard support provided to them form the Imperial Nations. The ability to be able to hide amongst the local population and not be denounced affected the White Army’s war effort against the Bolshevik’s.
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The Bolsheviks throughout most of the Civil War controlled the central Russian territory which had Russians as its major nationality group. It was these parts of Greater Russia that contained the Russian industrial sector as well as the apparatus of the former Tsarist State including its Army. As well it was home to Russia to the largest cities Moscow and St Petersburg and Russia’s teh vast majority of its working classes. Mawdsley describes the holding of these areas of the Russian heartland as the Red Army as a ‘decisive achievement of the Civil War’. The holding of Russia industrial heartland led to the Red Army to having numerical superiority on the battlefield as well as giving the Bolshevik’s a political economyto fund the development of an army.
6. Foreign interventions on the side of the White Army which help win the support for the Bolsheviks
Another factor in contributing to the loss of the White Army in the Civil War was there acceptance of direct Foreign Imperial support so close after the tragedy of Russian human and territorial losses in WWI. Foreign support to the White Army was of such a haphazard manner that it actually had a negative impact upon the White Army’s war effort. This was exemplified by the British War Office not informing it’s own Foreign Office that it had sent two divisions to fight in Russia without any consideration as to what role these soldiers should assume in the war.
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The foreign imperial powers of Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States started the in intervention in Russia without a declaration of war. The English and French landed at Archangel and Murmansk, the Japanese occupied Vladivostok, in the Northern Caucus region the British and French installed a government makeup of its own officers. In the Don region the Cossack were being supported by the Germans and in the middle Volga region the British and French were sponsoring the Czech legion. To add to this the Germans had taken part of the Ukraine’s and had invited the White Army’s to set up a base in the territory. The German and Turks had also sent in troops into the Caucus and sought to supply to the Southern White Army and the Cossacks of the Don with both arms and military support.
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The greatest problem facing foreign forces in Russia however was their lack of intelligence coming from Bolshevik held areas due to there failure to establish embassies and other diplomatic posts. The British also erred though it’s setting up of a government if the Caucus region made up solely of British officers which helped provide the Bolshevik government with a propaganda and recruitment tool for building of the Red Army. As a result the foreign intervention coming so shortly after WWI pushed Russian nationalist into the ranks of the Red Army who saw foreign forces on Russia soil as a greater threat than the communist ideology of the Bolsheviks.
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These interventions by the foreign imperial armies had effectively isolated the Bolshevik held areas from the Russia agriculture regions. The occupation of Rusian soil alos brought the factories of Russia’s two major industrial cities St Petersburg and Moscow to a stand still. It caused a shortage of food for millions of Russians in the lower classes as well as causing the shutdown of Russia industrial sector with the associated lay off of the Russian working classes which resulted in very severe living circumstances for the Russian people.
6.
There resulted a desperate struggle for survival by Russia’s working class against the foreign imperialist invaders and the upper class collaborators. The war led by Lenin and the Bolshevik Red Army was transformed from being a class struggle into a struggle for national liberation, personal survival and a struggle for the future of Russia itself under the banner of ‘All for the Front’ or what Lenin called War Communism.
7. The ability of The Bolsheviks to adpot to the changing circumstances of the Civil War
To combat the threats to Russian Society the Bolshevik’s developed the principle of War Communism in which the government took absolute control of Russia’s political economy. These measures included the government controlling manufacturing output agricultural production as well as fixing prices and banning private trading. It also included the government introducing universal labour controls as well as controls on the distribution of labour and the introduction of conscription for the Red Army. In this way Lenin and the Bolsheviks prepared Russia and her people to fight a war against the foreign imperial powers and the upper echelons of its own society. An approach to governance that still exists today despite the fall from power of the Communist Party in 1991.
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According to Lenin the main difference between the Bolsheviks and the leaders of the White Army’s was the support of the lower classes and the honesty shown by the Bolshevik’s in regards to there objectives in fighting the Civil War. This was contrasted by the White Armies failed to declare what there objectives for fighting the war were and thus failed to build a repore with theRussian people. Hudson agreed with Lenin assessment when he stated, teh main problem of teh White Army was that‘they had no agreed political programme to put to the people of Russia as a possible alternative to Bolshevism’ .
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As Hill stated ‘The fundamental cause of the Russian Revolution, then was the incompatibility of the tsarist state with the demands of modern civilisation’ and it was these failures by the White Army to adapt to the moderanistaion of Russian society that ultimately led to their defeat.