Russian Civil War
- When: Took place between 1918 and 1921
- Background Information: In 1917 during the October Revolution Vladimir Lenin marched the streets of (St.) Petrograd with his Bolsheviks and stormed the Winter Palace. He seized power from the Provisional Government and in November 1917, Lenin took Bolshevik (Red )leadership in Russia. Because of Lenin’s failures which disenchanted his supporters, the Civil War broke out due to the continually rising resentment.
- Why did resentment grow:
- The Social Revolutionaries which was the party of the peasants, didn’t support the Bolsheviks
- The Bolsheviks which was the party of the proletariat didn’t have overwhelming support because Lenin was unpopular
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; Lenin signed off much of it’s useful and fertile land, leaving the citizens living there confused, coal, oil and iron stores, and many of its history
- War Communism: collectivizing requisitioning and nationalizing greatly unpopular among proletariat and peasants
- Crisis of 1921: War Communism had led peasants to starve; people were now feeding on each other as sources of food.