Thread by @Peter_Nimitz

Thread with excerpts from “The Russian Civil Wars 1916-1926: Ten Years that Shook the World” by Jonathan Smele

10.5 million died in the Russian Civil War, another 2 million fled, & 5 million starved to death in the aftermath.

While the Bolsheviks lost the elections decisively, they won the votes of groups that mattered most - major cities & their military garrisons. The SRs won the peasant masses, but they were too diffuse to generate power to match urban & concentrated Bolsheviks.

Azeris & Armenians slaughtered each other in Baku in 1918

2.5 million foreign POWs & 2.5 million foreign refugees in Russia in 1918, of whom ~17k would fight in Red Army. Many foreign veterans would later become prominent communists abroad.

Bashkirs defected to Bolsheviks in February 1919, & were rewarded with the first autonomous republic in Soviet Russia. In 1920, after Bolsheviks favored Tatars, Bashkir leader fled to C Asia to join Basmachi.

Finnish Civil War - German backed White Finns defeated the isolated Red Finns as the Bolshevik troops there largely refused to intervene. 29,059 were killed or died in prison camps.

Transcaucasia (🇦🇲🇦🇿🇬🇪) declared autonomy 1917 & made peace with 🇹🇷, who invaded anyways in 1918. Ethnic 🇦🇲🇷🇺🇬🇪 dominated communist Baku Commune was replaced by Centrocaspian Dictatorship, which asked 🇬🇧 to defend Baku, but were defeated by 🇹🇷. 🇹🇷 then collapsed late 1918.

Whites in S Russia allied with Don Cossacks & took most of the region along with E Ukraine March-November 1918, destroying a 120k strong Red force.

Bolshevik inheritance of the government & military bureaucracy gave them a tremendous advantage over the Whites in organization, communication, & recruitment. Red Army tripled in size over course of 1919.

Latvian communists believed under Roza Luxemburg’s influence that since abolition of serfdom there had occurred without land, Latvians were proletarians & ready to proceed straight to socialism unlike landholding Russian peasants. They abolished money & were hated & overthrown.

Ukrainian identity was weak & cities were mostly Russian. This, & constantly changing fronts (Kiev changed hands 16 times) led to instability exploited by all factions. Entente did little to help 🇺🇦, Whites denied Ukrainians existed (all E Slavs = 🇷🇺), & 🇵🇱 wanted western 🇺🇦.

Whites in both south (Denikin) & Siberia (Kolchak) were sincere supporters of a liberal & democratic government as well as land reform. However their claims to support national self-determination were not sincere - they wanted to keep the whole empire minus Poland together.

The Whites in 1919 had excellent cavalry - in June Andrey Shkuro’s “White Wolves” overran the southern Dnepr, Shilling conquered Crimea, May-Mayevsky took Harkov, & Vrangel ended the brutal siege of Tsaritsyn (modern Volgograd) by storming the city.

July 1919 southern Whites under Denikin decided to drive to Moscow to try to defeat the Reds before their superior numbers could win the war. By October Whites took central 🇺🇦, Tambov, Oryol, Saratov, & Tula - they were only 200 miles from Moscow.

Red offensive October 1919-February 1920 routed Whites in South 🇷🇺 & 🇺🇦. Trotsky’s heavily 🇪🇪 & 🇱🇻 strike force & Budyonny’s mostly Cossack 1st Cavalry Division rolled up White’s western & eastern flanks. 🇵🇱 still refused to figh Reds. Some Whites escaped to Crimea.

After Reds conquered south 🇷🇺, S Caucasus was vulnerable. Azeris held 95% of old empire’s oil supply in Baku & weak military. March 1920 🇦🇲 & 🇦🇿 went to war over Nagorno-Kabarakh, Reds revolted in 🇦🇿 & Red Army invaded. Karabakh was given to Red 🇦🇿 by Reds, & Nakhchivan by 🇹🇷.

🇦🇲 was weak from genocide & war with 🇹🇷 in November 1920, allowing Reds to easily conquer 🇦🇲. 🇦🇲 revolted February-July 1921. 🇦🇲 Revolt & Red desire for friendship with 🇹🇷 led to 🇦🇲 losing Nagorno-Kabarakh & Nakhchivan to 🇦🇿 & 🇦🇲 lands in eastern 🇹🇷 in Treaties of Moscow & Kars.

Ossetians rebelled against Menshevik 🇬🇪 in April 1920 & were massacred. After Red trade agreement was assured with 🇬🇧, Reds invaded 🇬🇪 February 1921 with 🇬🇪 Bolshevik help. Adjarians, Abkhaz, & Ossetians were given autonomy within Red 🇬🇪. 🇬🇪 rebelled against Reds in August 1924.

After the Whites were defeated by the Reds, Vrangel organized a naval evacuation of 145,693 Whites from Crimea. Some were unfortunately left behind, & the Reds executed at least 12,000 people after reconquering Crimea.

Lenin believed that communism was possible in 1917 because the war had already concentrated so much of the economy in the hands of the government.

Russian economy collapsed in Civil War. Food fell 40%, industry 70%, wages 96%. Petrograd’s population fell by 2/3rds, & Moscow’s by 1/3rd. Typhus & other diseases killed millions as malnutrition took its toll.

Bolsheviks exterminated, imprisoned, or expelled the anarchists in their controlled territory, despite temporary alliances with several groups.