The Russian Civil War

1918 There has been a revolution in Russia. A communist party, the Bolsheviks, has seized power by force. Their leader, Vladimir Lenin, says he wants to do better for the Russian people. The workers will be allowed to take over the factories and the farmers the agricultural land. Russia will also withdraw from the First World War.

They do, on March 3, 1918. One of Lenin's closest men, Lev Trotsky, does not really want to continue the war. But he would rather continue the war than sign a peace agreement with Germany. Soon he will have a war, but not as he intended. Many Russians do not like the Communists´ ideas.

Especially landowners, who lose their agricultural land after the revolution, and factory owners, who lose their factories. Many of the people who are dissatisfied with the Communists, support Russia's former leader, Tsar Nikolai II Romanov. He and his family have been imprisoned - under house arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg since the country's ‘October 1917 revolution’. The Tsar's supporters want him to regain power. They want to make a revolution against the communist revolution — a counter revolution.

Officers from the Tsar's old army begin to prepare to seize power from the Communists. They form a new army — the White Army. Meanwhile, Communist Lev Trotsky builds an army to defend the Communists: the Red Army. In many other countries, governments are afraid of Communist ideas. They do not want the ideas to spread to their countries.

They support the counter-revolution. Some countries send troops to Russia to help the White Army seize power. The United States and Britain, for example, are angry that the Russians have withdrawn from World War I. And they do not want communism to spread to their countries. Together with Japan and France, they send soldiers to Russia.

When these countries send troops, the Communists claim that the Whites are an invading army and that the Red Army is defending Russia. Full war breaks out. Most of those fighting are Russians - from the same country. It’s a civil war. And it is very cruel.

Almost no prisoners are taken - even those that surrender are killed! The war makes it difficult for farmers to grow enough food. It is also difficult to transport food. There are shortages in the cities. The Red Army forces farmers to give them food even though the farmers do not have enough to eat themselves.

Those who refuse are executed. There is famine. Peasants revolt around Russia, but the Red Army brutally crushes all resistance. Millions of people starve. Many Russians flee to other countries, due to famine, and political persecution.

July 1918 White Army soldiers approach Yekaterinburg. Rumour has it that they will liberate Tsar Nikolai II. The Red Army cannot allow that. So they execute the Tsar, his wife, and their five children. Later that day, the Red Army executes many others in the Romanov family — Russia's Tsarist family is almost eradicated.

In Russia, the civil war is said to end in 1921, but individual skirmishes continue until 1923. The Red Army wins the war that costs at least six, perhaps as many as 12 million lives. In December 1922, Russia changes its name to the Soviet Union. The country is now a communist one-party state where all other political parties are banned. Lenin's promise to the workers and peasants — that they would be allowed to take over factories and farms — is not kept.

The state takes over almost everything! Neither the Russian Revolution nor the Civil War have brought freedom and democracy to the people of Russia. They have brought power to the already powerful Communist Party.