Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
CIVIL WAR (Causes (Bolsheviks' political opponents were not prepared…
CIVIL WAR
-
Causes
-
Lenin wanted to destroy his opponents in a short war rather than be challenged them throughtout Bolshevik rule
-
Allies called for direct military action against the Bolsheviks, angered by the Russian withdrawal from the first world war and the cancelling of the Tsar's debts to the allies
Course
Red strengths
-
Introduced conscription in 1918, by 1920 the Red Army was 5 million strong
Trotsky introduced ranks and military discipline, utilised the experience of ex-tsarist officer
-
Reds were united, presented it as an ideological conflict, ensured loyalty and commitment to the cause.
-
Reds controlled the industrial areas, and the hub of the railway system
White weaknesses
-
Lenin able to present foreign intervention as a propaganda tool, suggesting that white armies were just puppets of the allies
White armies were divided and fought as separate detachments , no common sense of purpose.
White armies geographically scattered, communications difficult, no access to railway, fewer factories so less munitions
White army less disciplined, suffered desertions
Lacked centralised leadership and leaders fought against themselves - Yudenich in Estonia, Denikin in the south, Kolchak in the north
Greens
-
-
Limited forces and resources, had to fight both the whites and reds as they were surrounded.
Murder of the Tsar
Following his abdication, the Tsar hoped he would find support from his family in Germany and Britain, however neither country was willing to risk diplomatic issues or antagonising their radical parties.
Reds feared that him & his family would be the centre of Tsarist support for as long as they stayed alive.
On 17th July 1918, a local Cheka detachment executed Nicholas II and his family in Yekaterinburg