Soviet Democracy

Conditions begin to deteriorate between the Soldiers of Kronstadt and the Bolshevik elite.

The Civil War had ended, the White (or Imperial) Armies had sailed away, but the desperate policies of the Bolshevik party had brought the country to its knees. Many of the Kronstadt sailors' were from peasant families and the letters received from home made for depressing reading. But some of the party elite were beginning to conspicuously beginning to enjoy the priveleges of power.

By the end of 1920, Raskolnokov and Reisner lived a comfortable life in Kronstadt complete with full staff. When not at home they made full use of the flagship and held regular reception parties and they became deeply unpopular with the sailors. The sailors had seen over the civil war, their direct act of democracy in 1917 being replaced with commissars, by people appointed above them, banning of their daily meetings, control of their Soviet and to an extent they had been prepared to put up with that for the civil war period by with as the Civil War had wained, the soldiers anticipated a fulfilment on promises of Soviet Democracy.

Kronstadt Soldiers Duped by Lenin and the Bolsheviks (Part I)

The soldiers of Kronstadt who were the heros of the Russian Revolution, are betrayed by Lenin and the Communist (Bolshevik) Party, and the Red Army advance on Kronstadt. Goals of the 1917 Revolution are lost in the last hope for Russian democracy. (Scene from "Russian Revolution in Color")

Kronstadt Soldiers Duped by Lenin and the Bolsheviks (Part II)

References

Russian Revolution in Color (DVD)
The Russian Revolution and Civil War, this bloodsoaked time from the battlefields, testimonies, and colorized archives help unfold the dramatic story of the Communist rise and seizure of power in 1917.

Peasants of Russian - The Russian Revolution

The unfortunate death toll and affliction the Russian peasants suffered due to the Russian Civil War.

The people of Russia suffered just as much. To feed the urban workers and maintain war production, peasants were forced to hand over their grain surpluses at prices determined by the state. Those who resisted were shot.

Whole villages were wiped out if they failed to hand over their grain to the Checka.

In the worst cases, they also removed the seed grain the peasants needed for planting the following year. At a time of rebellion and drought, this desperate policy lead to another five million deaths.

Trotsky put it in such terms, of the Civil War, 'We got victory in the Civil War, the price was we ruined the country.'

References

Russian Revolution in Color (DVD)
The Russian Revolution and Civil War, this bloodsoaked time from the battlefields, testimonies, and colorized archives help unfold the dramatic story of the Communist rise and seizure of power in 1917.

Allied Forces Support the White Army in the War against the Reds

America, Britain and Japan send support for the White Army to fight the Bolshevik Red Army. The Civil War claims millions of lives, but the Allies feel it is a war they cannot win and pull out, leaving Russia in the hand of the Bolsheviks.

With the collapse of Germany came intervention, or at least support for the Whites becomes a much more serious possibility. The Baltic Sea and Black Sea is open, Turkey has pulled out of the war, and for that allies can move forces into Central Russia.

British Troops occupy the ports of Archangel and Murmansk in the north and advance hundreds of miles inland.

Japan and Britain move into Siberia from Vladivostok in the east, where they are joined by troops from the United States.

France supports the Generals in the south from their base on the coast of the Black Sea.

Russia is now surrounded by former allies and Lenin's paranoia proves itself justifiable. The whole world really was against them.

The different white armies strike again and again at the Reds from almost every direction, but the Red Army has been able to respond to every attack in turn. When Petrograd is threatened with invasion from the White General Yudenich, the sailors from Kronstadt are again dispatched. Again, the whites are defeated. Despite their support, the White armies remain separated by great distances, their supplies are poor and they are unable to coordinate their attacks.

Slowly the white Generals realize that while the Russians maintain control of Russia's industrial heartland they could never succeed. After two years, the last White General is defeated and the allies leave Russia for good.

The Civil War in Russia brutalized life in Russia to an unimaginable degree. Around three million Soviet and enemy troops were killed in action, another two million died of disease. The people of Russia suffered just as much.

References

Russian Revolution in Color (DVD)
The Russian Revolution and Civil War, this bloodsoaked time from the battlefields, testimonies, and colorized archives help unfold the dramatic story of the Communist rise and seizure of power in 1917.

The Red Army

Trotsky and the soldiers of Kronstadt pursue the retreating rebel forces. America, Japan and the British send in support of 200,000 to support the White Army in its battle against the Lenin and the Bolshevik Regime's Red Army.

The Bolshevik leadership believed the Kronstadt sailors were the most resolute and loyal of forces of the Red Cause.

Trotsky and the Kronstadt sailors went back on the river chasing the retreating rebel forces. Aboard the ship that had previously belonged to the murdered Royal family, now a staff ship, Larisa Reisner was exploring her new position as commissar and wife of Fedor Raskolnikov, now commander of the Baltic Fleet.

While aboard, Larisa Reisner noticed the former Czarena Alexandria had etched her name in the window, and she replaced it with her own.

A few months later, on the 11th of November 1918, the war with Germany ended.

Europe seemed to be at peace, but for Russia there was no end to death and killing. The country had exploded into massive civil war that would cause more deaths in Russia, than all the bloody years of the first world war.

The Civil War had grown into a power struggle between the Bolshevik Reds and Conservative White Generals. These men wanted a return to Imperialists rule, to life before the Revolution.

Unlike the trench war with the Germans in the West, the Civil War was fast-moving, troops covered thousands of miles on armored trains and swept across the country-side on horseback.

While the Reds struggled in the War against Germany, the Whites had the advantage. Hurriedly, the government moved the capitol from Petrograd to Moscow as the area controlled by the Bolsheviks shrank to not much more than the core of European Russia. The Whites also had the support of the newly victorious European powers. They saw Lenin's worldwide Communist mission as a clear threat to Democracy and capitalism. Britain, France, America and Japan together sent 200,000 troops to help supply the Whites and strangle any Bolshevik expansion, by keeping them busy at home.

With the collapse of Germany came intervention, or at least support for the Whites becomes a much more serious possibility. The Baltic Sea and Black Sea is open, Turkey has pulled out of the war, and for that allies can move forces into Central Russia.

References

Russian Revolution in Color (DVD)
The Russian Revolution and Civil War, this bloodsoaked time from the battlefields, testimonies, and colorized archives help unfold the dramatic story of the Communist rise and seizure of power in 1917.