The Bolshevik Victory

Question 1

What were the strengths of the bolsheviks in the civil war?

Answer 1

Control of most of Russia’s industries and railways
Tactical alliances that meant not having to fight everyone at once
Effective propaganda
Trotsky lead the Red Army and reintroduced discipline making it an effective and unified fighting force
The red army-Conscription built the army up to a powerful fighting force of over 5 million soldiers
War communism:introduced by lenin to tackle the economic crisis
Control of central Russia-this meant shorter distances to supply their armies
Central russia also contained most of russias population who could be conscripted into the red army

Question 2

What were the weakness’s of the whites in the civil war

Answer 2

Whites were not popular with workers or peasants
The whites did not share the same aims:monarchists, liberals and left winged SRs disagreed about how they would run Russia
There was no single white leader:Instead the leaders competed with each other
Foreign intervention to aid the whites was a propaganda gift to the reds
Geographically very spread out-supplying armies was very difficult
The whites didnt have a large population to conscript soldiers from
The whites didnt control many industrial areas so supplying armies was difficult

Question 3

Foreign intervention

Answer 3

British,French,USA and Japanese soldiers were sent to help the whites
Foreign intervention made the whites seem more powerful than they were
Bolsheviks used the foreign intervention as propaganda

Question 4

What was Trotsky’s role in the war

Answer 4

Trotsky was appointed Commisar for war
Trotsky organised the mobilisation of the red army into a huge fighting force
He realised red army needed experienced ex tsarist officers and kept their familes hostage to ensure loyalty
Trotsky’s commisars(political officers) kept strict discipline in the army and also spread Bolshevik propaganda
He encouraged soldiers to read and write and taught them the aims of the Bolsheviks
Trotsky introduced a Socialist Military Oath for all Red army soldiers to swear.This was to encourage loyalty to the bolsheviks