Bolshevik Revolution: War, State Organization, and Civil War
On War and the Bolshevik Regime
The Bolshevik regime proposed a “just peace” to end the war. Continued fighting was impossible due to the disorganization of the army and officer defection. The Germans imposed their conditions, and Russia signed a peace treaty with Germany, without the Entente allies, who continued the war. Russia lost many territories, resulting in significant demographic and economic losses, including 75% of mineral production.
After the defeat of the Central Powers and the end of World War I, these areas transformed into independent states.
Organization of the Soviet State
The Bolsheviks created a Council of People’s Commissars, a government of workers and peasants, primarily composed of Bolsheviks. Leon Trotsky served as Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Lenin as President, and Joseph Stalin as Commissar for Nationalities. This government was accountable to the Soviets but acted independently with unlimited powers.
The disciplined Bolshevik party tightly controlled the government, and the Constituent Assembly, convened before the October Revolution, was forcibly dissolved. Legislative power passed to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. A declaration of rights for working and exploited people was drafted, proclaiming Russia a republic of Soviets formed by workers, soldiers, and peasants—a universal republic of the oppressed, without distinction of nations. Finally, a constitution was approved.
The Civil War and Its Consequences (1918-1921)
During the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), the Bolsheviks, controlling the Midwest, faced a broad coalition that challenged them from the periphery. This coalition combined various armies:
- Army of White Russians: Led by former Tsarist generals, opposed the Bolsheviks, and supported by the Russian Orthodox clergy.
- Armies of marginalized groups: Including Socialist and anarchist armies from southern Ukraine, opposed the Bolshevik regime.
- Armies of peripheral nations: Seeking survival and expansion at the expense of other nations.
- Allied Armies: Landed in the White Sea, the Pacific, and the Black Sea, comprising various nationalities.
These forces established a cordon sanitaire around the Bolshevik regime, implementing measures of isolation and hostility in international forums. The Allies rejected Russia because it was the home of revolutionaries and had deserted the war against Germany.
Ultimately, the Bolsheviks triumphed in the Civil War due to:
- The disunity and heterogeneity of their adversaries.
- The support of peasants and workers fearing the loss of gains from the October Revolution.
- The creation of the Red Army, organized by Trotsky.
- Strong internal repression through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police, which pursued political dissidents.
- A war economy, known as War Communism, nationalizing industries and requisitioning resources from the countryside to supply the front.