Civil War 1917 - 1921

• Strengths of the Reds:

  • held central areas including Moscow and Petrograd - giving access to industrial production and railway
  • United leadership - especially Lenin and Trotsky
  • Trotsky commissar of war
  • Lenin symbolic figurehead
  • common goal - higher motivation
  • support of the peasants
  • propaganda against the whites - especially regarding foreign support
• Weaknesses of Whites:

  • distributed over Russia
  • no united leadership
  • did not share common cause
  • made up of : Mencheviks, Tsarists, Cadets, Foreign troops
  • Foreign supprt not popular in Russia
  • mistreated peasants
  • aristocratic generald
• Strengths of whites:

  • controlled vast amount of land - so access to food resources
  • contained experienced generals