Reds Vs. Whites - The Russian Civil War

·         The whites were anti-Bolshevik supporters of the former Tsarist government, landowners and generals

·         Kolchak was the main white general

·         the signing of Brest-Litovsk made the west very anti-Lenin

·         International Intervention - many countries, including the USA, Japan, Britain and France would send volunteers to Russia to help the Whites overthrow the Reds.

·         However, the white army was never really a united force, they fought separate campaigns against Trotsky’s Red Army who were organized and concentrated in the industrial areas.

·         The war lasted 2 years

·         The Bolsheviks were prepared to win at any price

·         The CHECHA was formed by the Reds - a secret police force who organized the Red Terror - units would go into the countryside and hunt, beat, kill, torture anyone they thought was supporting the whites.

·         At least 50,000 Russians died as a result of these raids.

·         War Communism kept the Red Army fully supplied - banned private trade, took all the food for the soldiers - government run factories, industry and food distribution

·         The population suffered greatly because of this policy

·         Lenin finally realizes the extent of the damage to the people and institutes his New Economic Policy (NEP) 1921.

·         Allowed some private trade, and ownership of some land, relaxing of war communism

·         BUT! A huge famine occurred as a result of 2 years of bad crops

·         The Reds win the Civil war, and have to now reconstruct Russia.

·         In 1922 Russia signs the Treaty of Rapallo, a secret Russian German agreement that allowed Germany to secretly rearm against the Treaty of Versailles

·         1922 Russia renamed the UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS (USSR)

·         Petrograd renamed Leningrad

·         The government was communist, with elected Soviets (only one party to vote for), a Supreme Soviet (The elite rulers) and a council of ministers

·         Lenin’s dream had come true, but he died in January 1924