Russian Civil War: The Failed Fightback Against Bolshevism

"The Bolsheviks (the Reds) immediately found themselves in conflict with various opposition forces who disagreed with Bolshevik policies like abolishing the monarchy, redistributing land to peasants, and withdrawing from the First World War (1914-18). The anti-Bolsheviks were by no means united and included reactionaries, monarchists, those on the right or centre of politics, and members of the military (the Whites), militant peasant groups (the Greens), and Anarchists (the Blacks)."

"Others prefer to begin the civil war with the Czechoslovak Legion uprising in May 1918. There is a similar debate as to when the civil war ended, some historians preferring 1920 when foreign intervention in the west ended, others after the Kronstadt rebellion of 1921 was quashed, and still others as late as October 1922, when Japanese forces withdrew from Siberia and the government could finally claim full control over all of its territories."

The Russian Civil War began soon after the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 and involved multiple rival forces including Whites, Greens, Blacks, monarchists, reactionaries, rival socialists, and foreign powers such as Japan, Britain, France, and the United States. Historians disagree on precise start and end dates, citing events from late 1917 through 1922, with the USSR declared in 1922. The Bolsheviks, renamed the Communist Party in 1918, ultimately won but at tremendous cost in unemployment, famine, and loss of life. Communist victory owed much to superior numbers, a larger population for conscription and supplies, and White forces operating mainly in peripheral regions.

Read at World History Encyclopedia