Why did the Reds win the Russian Civil War

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Why did the Reds win the Russian Civil War?
Role of Trotsky and the Red Army
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Who fought who?
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Who fought who?
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Recap Strengths/Weaknesses

• Reds
• Small, united revolutionary force.
• Controlled central areas around Moscow and
  Petrograd.
• Controlled majority of rail network.
• Small, geographically limited.
• Initial measures created problems e.g. workers
  and soldiers in charge.

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Recap Strengths/Weaknesses

• Whites
• Much larger in size.
• Included many Tsarist officers.
• Benefited from support from abroad.
• Geographically divided gt lack of co-ordination.
• Many different groups with different aims.
• Foreign intervention played badly with local
  population.

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Role of Trotsky

• Officers had been replaced by elected soldiers
  and soldiers committees (Soviets).
• Ranks and saluting officers had been abolished.
• Red Army was at point of disintegration.
• Appointed Commissar for War in 1918.
• Army renamed Workers and Peasants Red Army.

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Role of Trotsky

• Re-organised the army along hierarchical lines.
• Appointed Tsarist officers to train and command
  army units.
• To ensure loyalty, Trotsky held their families
  hostage.
• Caused ideological conflict. Opposed by leading
  Bolsheviks, e.g. Stalin and Zinoviev but Trotsky
  was backed by Lenin.

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Role of Trotsky

• Political Commissars attached to each army unit
  to report on the actions of the officers.
• Rank, saluting officers and pay differentials
  reintroduced.
• Harsh discipline imposed death penalty for range
  of offences.

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Role of Trotsky

• Trotsky was not a great military leader.
• He was an excellent organiser, co-ordinating the
  war effort.
• But he was incredibly active, travelling around
  by train to boost morale and monitor the war.
• Led the defence of Petrograd when Lenin had given
  it up.

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The Red Army

• By end of 1919 Red Army was around 3 million, by
  1920 5 million.
• Better organised than the Whites, but
• Relied on conscription of peasants.
• Not popular some huge revolts.
• Desertion as high for the Reds as the Whites e.g.
  1 million in 1918.
• Train system imperative in keeping supplies.