The leadership of leon trotsky was the most important factor in the russian civil war
Trotsky, 3
white weakness 2
Red strength +red brutality 1
The whites where heavily reliant on supplies from there funding from the allies,which often left them underprepared when supplies either came to little or to late
The white armies where not a united force
They fought in separate groups
They all had individual interest for the civil war and would not sacrifice them in order to form a more cohesive force
Whites wernt fighting in one unit- even if they wanted to combine would be near impossible due to the geographical size of russia and them being scattered across it
THey aims other then to overthrow the bolsheviks where vastly differerent
Link to trotskythey did not have a leader of the ability of trotsky, meaning they were being tatically outplayed
Trotsky tatical use of controlling the railways was key to the sucsess.
Could transport grain and food meaning bolshevik forces were well prepared and fed in contrast to the whites, who lacked resources
Railway also made armies more mobile, Red army could get were they needed to be much quicker than the whites and allowed them to travel the large continent of Russia with greater success than the whites
Trotsky recognize the whites had problems with there armies being split up over Russia
trotsky used this information to his advantage by controlling communication lines stopping whites forming coherent force
Trotsky focoused on deffending petrograd and moscow,
This is because these were the areas with the most bolshevik influence and where the head of Bolshevik power was, if the whites were to take over it would destroy the bolshevik's organization of their armies and leave them leaderless and scattered.
LInkAlthough trotsky was a good leader the overpowering size of the reds and weakness of the whites significantly helped his war efforts and made the situation alot easier for him
Red terror
Whites could not keep up with the reds
THe murder of the romanovs
Link to trotkythe red armies were marvelously organised by trotsky
JUly 1918 romanovs where killed by bolsheviks
This removed the figurehead for the whites to rally around, those who wanted to return to the tsar no longer had a tsar to return to, this lowered the morale for many white soldiers and made the war seem hopeless
Lenin used his attempted assasination On august 30 1918 in order to invoke red terror. this allowed the cheka and the bolsheviks to terrorise and brutalise the peasants bourgasie and all politcal opposition, meaning they gained the upper hand in supplies and removed those who spoke against them
The red army was overwhemingly better equiped and beter organised than the whites
Reds could afford to be more brutal