The initial triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution at the end of October, 1917, did not mean that the entire population of Russia had been converted to Bolshevism. Lenin was aware of this. To gather national support, Lenin resorted to slogans for the masses. The most important of them was "Bread, Land, Peace and All Power to the Soviets." The capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow in the heart of European Russia.

The moment Lenin stepped into power, he knew what he wanted. All along, ever since the start, Lenin had wanted a Proletariat Revolution, which had been achieved, and then a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, in which he would rule on their behalf. His government would have complete power and the people would not have any opportunity to decide if they wished to be controlled by other parties. Marx had said in his writings that this was necessary to put down all opposition and put Communist reforms into place.

All political parties had been banned and party committees were set up all over to govern Russia. The most important committee was the Central Committee, made up of 3 sub-committees called the Orgburo, the Politburo and the Secretariat. When Lenin promised that a Constituent Assembly would be formed, he fulfilled his promise by holding elections immediately. However, it met only once and was disbanded shortly after.

The Bolsheviks had a secret police known as the Cheka. A Polish-born Communist by the name of Felix Dzerzhinsky was appointed the head of the Cheka. Their job was to hunt down opponents and critics of the Bolsheviks. These people were arrested, jailed, tortured and killed. The Cheka attacked many groups, including the Liberals, the Mensheviks and the SRs[1].

THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR

The Civil War occurred from 1918-1921. After a few months of victory in the revolution, the Bolsheviks were faced with a new threat...power from within Russia itself. These included Tsarists, Liberals, SRs and Mensheviks.

Lenin could not afford to involve the nation in a civil war. He knew that peace was necessary in order for the Bolsheviks to govern. The Russians began to negotiate with the Germans and Austro-Hungarians, to withdraw from the War. On March 3, 1918, the Russians signed the TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK. This treaty deprived Russia of the entire Ukraine, the Baltic provinces, Finland and other territory that Russia had spent 300 years trying to acquire. One third of Russia's population was gone, 80% of its iron, and 90% of its coal. There was a sizable outcry against the Treaty within Russia itself.

There were hundreds of army officers who had sacrificed a great deal for the tsar's war, and now it seemed the Bolsheviks had just given away everything they had fought for. These army officers, combining their forces with the Tsarists, Liberals, SRs and Mensheviks, formed the White Army to engage in a war against Trotsky's Red Army.

Causes of the civil war

HATRED OF THE BOLSHEVIKS: The Whites hated the Bolsheviks, as they could see how the Bolsheviks were so successful and victorious in their revolutionary activities and how they now had power to control Russia. The Whites, however, all had different political purposes and ideals, thus making them disunited and less effective. The Reds were organized and united for the cause to keep the Bolsheviks in power.

FOREIGN INTERVENTION: Foreign countries like France, Britain, Japan, the USA and Poland got involved in the war for many different reasons.

1.   At first, many countries got involved because they hoped a new government would aid them in the war against Germany. Even though Germany was defeated later on, they continued intervention, showing that this was not a very major reason.

2.   A more major reason was probably their fear and hatred of the Bolsheviks as they anticipated the spread of Communism into Europe if they were allowed to carry on, maybe even throughout the world. They hoped that defeating the Reds would halt this spread.

3.   For Poland, they wished to regain some former lands that Russia had taken from them previously.

4.   Russia's former allies in World War I had provided them with military supplies, stored in the northern ports of Murmansk and Archangel. They were anxious to retrieve it and not let it be used by the Communist Bolsheviks.

5.   The French were annoyed as the Bolsheviks refused to pay foreign debts left behind by the Tsar's government when he borrowed money to finance the war.

Course of the civil war

Isolated groups of opposition began appearing in various parts of Russia, and as the Bolsheviks did not have total control over Russia, their opponents could establish their own governments in opposition to the Moscow government. These people then formed the White Army

The Bolsheviks only controlled central Russia, but managed to invade Ukraine, defeating the White Generals Kornilov, Alexeyev and Denikin, as they were uncoordinated

The Czechoslovak Legion, soldiers taken prisoner by the Russians in WWI and given permission by the Bolsheviks to leave Russia by the Trans-Siberian Railway, seized control of it. The Legion then joined the White Army against the Communists, but the Red Army regained possession of the area in a few months

Several countries intervened in 1918, with the French, British and Americans attacking from the north and other French and British troops from the south in a bid to regain lost oilfields.

The Tsar and his family, held in the Ural Mountains were murdered as the Reds feared he might fall into enemy hands. 1919 was the period when they faced a major offensive from the Whites, with different generals attacking from all sides - Kolchak attacked from the east, Denikin from the south and Yudenich from Estonia. However, these attacks were largely uncoordinated and the Reds were able to defeat them easily. Communication was poor, military expertise was poor and personal quarrels between them also existed. By the end of 1919, the Reds had gained the upper hand in the war, and the foreign countries returned to their homelands

Reasons for Bolshevik victory

TROTSKY: Trotsky was probably one of the most important reasons why the Bolsheviks won. He had tremendous military skill and leadership. He was in charge of the Red Army and he worked hard to build up into a strong and skilful military force. By reintroducing conscription to provide more manpower, and making use of experts from the Tsar's army, he helped the Red Army achieve so much.

LOCATION: Another reason was the strategic location of the Bolshevik headquarters. They controlled central Russia, which made it easier for them to organize and coordinate their defence. The Whites, on the other hand, were spread all over and it was difficult to coordinate and communicate due to the long distances.

DIFFERENCE IN MENTALITY: The Bolsheviks were much more committed to their cause of the Red victory than the Whites were. Not only were they fighting for the Communist cause, they were also defending the newly-established Communist state. However, the Whites, who were not originally from one cause, had divided loyalties. They often quarreled amongst themselves and could not defeat the Bolsheviks decisively.

FOREIGN INTERVENTION: The Whites had the support of the foreign powers such as France and Britain. On the other hand, the Bolsheviks presented themselves as an extremely patriotic nationalist cause, fighting for the rights of Russia. The Whites were thus very unpopular due to their foreign links.

THE PEASANTS: The Bolsheviks had a lot of support from the peasants, much more than the Whites had. This was because the Whites treated the peasants very harshly in the areas they controlled. Furthermore, they had close ties with the old aristocracy, which led to even more hatred.

WAR COMMUNISM: The most important economic reason was Lenin's implementation of war communism. His plan was very important as it ensured that the military received its necessary supplies on time.

LENIN'S LEADERSHIP: Lenin's political leadership was, of course, a very important reason. His decision to introduce war communism was one of the most critical to the Red Army victory. In contrast, the Whites had ineffective and weak leadership provided by the different leaders of varied beliefs and ideals.

WAR COMMUNISM

Lenin hoped to move gradually into Communism through economic reforms. The Civil War increased the need for this to be implemented, as the soldiers needed food and other supplies. The peasants also had to supply the Red Army with food to continue fighting. The Reds needed clothes and other equipment if they wanted to win the war. As such, Lenin made the critical and crucial decision to introduce a great economic programme to help the Bolsheviks win the war. This programme was known as War Communism.

War communism in terms of agriculture

Communism was implemented in terms of agriculture in 1917, to supply the soldiers with enough food later on. The first measures of peasant land seizure were put in place, followed by nationalization of all land - meaning the state now owned the land. However, it was put under the peasants' control, basically meaning that they had the use of the land and they could do whatever they liked with it.

Insufficient grain was reaching the cities for certain reasons, so the government introduced grain requisitioning; excess food was seized. The government paid a very low price for this grain and there was, of course, widespread resistance to this. Most peasants would rather burn their crops and kill their livestock than hand them over to the Cheka. This resulted in an acute shortage of food and a great famine in 1920 and 1921. About 7.5 million Russians died from starvation and disease during the civil war.

War communism in terms of industry

All large-scale businesses were nationalized too, and without compensation. This was extended to all businesses with ten or more people by the end of 1918. In conjunction with communism, all private trade was abolished. The government controlled the people's food with ration cards and the workers were paid through food rations. The workers were directed where to work and strikes were made illegal.

Although the industries did function and the Red Army was supplied, industrial production declined. Starving workers went into the countryside to look for food. The distribution and transportation system was in such bad shape that the extra strain put on them by the civil wars caused them to collapse almost completely. Factories had to close down as raw materials were not reaching them on time and fuel was in short supply. There had been many illegal strikes by the time the civil war ended, as workers had become increasingly dissatisfied with War Communism.

Impact of war communism

Although War Communism helped the Bolsheviks to win the civil war, it was a very unsuccessful economic programme, which caused the near-collapse of the Russian economy in 1921. There was a lot of resentment among the peasants and the workers, as can be seen from the numerous large-scale uprisings and riots in the countryside and towns.

War communism had introduced the people to two key features of the Communist state: nationalization of land and businesses, and government planning and control of the economy. However, it was clearly evident that the plan was not working, so Lenin dropped War Communism in 1921 and instead adopted the NEW ECONOMIC POLICY (or NEP).

New Economic Policy

Lenin's NEP was implemented to rebuild the Russian economy. Basically, some old capitalist forms of trading were reintroduced. Private ownership of smaller industries was permitted, but communism in the form of government control over industries such as banking and power supplies was still present.

Under NEP, the government stopped its policy of requisitioning the peasants' entire crop and instead began to take only what was needed to meet the minimum requirements of the army and urban workers. The peasants were still forced to pay a heavy tax in kind but they were now allowed to sell the remainder of their crop. They could sell either privately or to the state. In a word, peasant agriculture became capitalist and the profit motive reappeared.

Over the course of five years, NEP allowed industrial and agricultural output to rise to its pre-war levels. But, NEP was also bitterly disliked by leading communists who saw it as a reversal of everything they believed. The NEP was quite a success until the 1924, when Lenin died. His successor decided not to continue with the NEP after that.