The Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War

            The Russian Civil War began in 1917 between the newly founded Bolshevik party and anti-Bolshevik armies.¹ The Bolshevik party, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, had recently overthrown the Czar and the Russian Empire when they were suddenly faced with the task of containing socialist revolutionary groups which called themselves collectively the “White Army.”² The Bolsheviks feared the White Army might be able to liberate the captive Czar, so on July 16, 1918, they executed the Czar with his family.³ The White Army used Russia’s mountains to their advantages and were able to hold off the Red Army until 1923, when the Red Army proved that they were superior both in numbers and in technology.⁴

            The textbook defines “civil war” as “armed combat within the boundaries of a sovereign state between parties that are subject to common authority at the start of hostilities.”⁵ I think that this definition does a good job of defining the Russian Civil War. The Russian Civil War was fought within the boundaries of the Soviet Union, although it ranged through several areas therein.  At the time that the Russian Civil War started, both the Bolsheviks and the anti-Bolshevik parties were under control of Lenin’s Communist Party.  The Russian Civil War also had an estimated 1,500 casualties, which gives it enough casualties to be counted as a war and not just a minor conflict or uprising. 

            Although the Russian Civil War satisfies all of the requirements to be defined as a “civil war,” I would argue that the Russian Civil War also has characteristics of a revolution.  The textbook defines “revolution” as “armed conflict within a sovereign state between insurgents and the state, in which both the insurgents and the state claim the allegiance of a significant proportion of the population; authority over the state is forcibly transferred from the state to the insurgents, and the insurgents subsequently bring about wholesale political change.”⁶  I believe that the Russian Civil War could be looked at as a continuation of the Russian Revolution.  The Russian Revolution technically ended with Lenin’s Communist Party taking power and forming the Soviet Union, but from the information that I gave about the Russian Civil war it is obvious that they were continuing to fight a war that Lenin claimed as a victory for his side.  Lenin had the Czar and his family assassinated to prevent the White Army from rescuing them from the Bolsheviks and putting them back in power.  If the White Army had succeeded in doing this, I believe that history would remember the Russian Revolution as a failure and the Russian Civil War as simply a continuation of the Revolution. 

            Although I believe the Russian Civil War was a continuation of the Russian Revolution, I feel that if you look at these as two separate events then the definition the book gives of a civil war does accurately and adequately define the Russian Civil War.   

Sources

1) Encyclopedia Britannica “Russian Civil War”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked

/topic/513737/Russian-Civil-War. Accessed:  11/8/12

2) Encyclopedia Britannica “Russian Civil War”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked-

/topic/513737/Russian-Civil-War. Accessed:  11/8/12

3) Encyclopedia Britannica “Russian Civil War”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked-

/topic/513737/Russian-Civil-War. Accessed:  11/8/12

4) Encyclopedia Britannica “Russian Civil War”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked-

/topic/513737/Russian-Civil-War. Accessed:  11/8/12

5) Samuels, David J. “Comparative Politics” p. 259

6) Samuels, David J. “Comparative Politics” p. 269