22b: The Uncivilized Wars

On January 12, 1918 the Third National Congress of Soviets established Communist power over Russia. Wherever the Provisional Government had claimed power, the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) was now in control. But before Lenin could up his dictatorship of the proletariat, he had to come through on his promise of peace. The Bolsheviks began peace talks with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk in November 1917, but just halfheartedly. Lenin hoped that America's recent entry into the war would help Britain and France destroy the Central Powers of Germany and Austria. But the Germans still held out on the Western Front, and on the Eastern Front, they were now dangerously close to both Petrograd and Moscow. The Bolshevik slogan "no peace, no war" may have impressed the Russian people, but the Germans held all the cards and they knew it. If Lenin and company wanted Russia to be left alone, the Germans wanted Poland, the Baltics, and most of Ukraine. The time to hesitate was through. The Japanese were already sending troops into Russia's former Far Eastern Empire. Parts of the old Empire were breaking off: the Baltic and Caucasian nations, Poland and Ukraine. In the heartland, the so-called "White Russian" movement united Tsarist generals and various anti-Communist movements against the new Bolshevik regime.

Not all of the Communists (as the Bolsheviks were now called) supported Lenin's decision to surrender Poland, the Baltics, and most of Ukraine. Surrender was not just a blow to Russian pride, but would put the new nation at Germany's economic and military mercy. Once more, Lenin got his way - establishing once and for all his domination of the Communist Party - and the new Soviet state.  The dictatorship of the proletariat was in fact the dictatorship of Lenin. The peace of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March; shortly afterward, the Communist capital moved from Petrograd to Moscow. The Peace of Brest-Litovsk gave France, Britain, and even the US an excuse to land "peacekeeping troops" at several points around the former Russian Empire. Thanks to the Ottoman Empire's decay, the Communist regime was safe from the south. The British, French, and Americans ultimately pulled out. But in the East, the Japanese got even bolder, and were not coaxed out of far eastern Russia until 1920. The new Communist regime was isolated from the rest of a hostile world.

After the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, the Germans set up "buffer states" in Ukraine (including much of Poland), Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Fortunately for those in the "buffer states," German occupation ended, along with the war, with the Armistice of November 11, 1918. Freedom from Germany did not necessarily mean enthusiasm for Communism. Lenin's Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia promised great things: equality for all, political self-determination, freedom of religion, and the right of each people to retain its national culture. All well and good, but the "buffer states" were tired of Russians in general, and preferred to form independent capitalist states. Lenin was in no hurry to press matters. Since he believed that Marx's world revolution was imminent, "independence" was just a cute buzz word to him. Sooner rather than later, the class war would end, putting the world under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Indeed, some Communists even thought that capitalist states would speed the world revolution by radicalizing the workers and peasants. Besides, the Communists' attention was drawn to a bigger internal threat.

The "White Russian" movement was not, in fact, an organized anti-Communist movement. Rather, it was a disorganized flock of ex-Tsarist generals such as the former supreme commander General Kornilov.  Each ex-general had his own client army and his own reasons for hating the Communists. The Whites had no ideas for ruling Russia in case of victory. While the Communist regime was strapped for money and materals, the White armies were strapped for money, materials, and an overriding principle. This was one major Red Army strong point: Red soldiers knew their positions were what Lenin said what they were, and they did as their supreme military commander, Leon Trotsky ordered. In summer 1918, Trotsky conscripted all men between 18 and 40, and pressed ex-Tsarist officers into service as as "military specialists." Because Trotsky had no military experience, the actual fighting was directed by his  lieutenants, but nobody questioned that he was the key to the Red Army's ultimate success. By the end of the Civil Wars, Trotsky's Red Army was 5 million men strong.

The precise details of these wars don't concern us here. They are more important for their magnitude and their savagery.  Both Reds and Whites alike were routinely guilty of terrible atrocities. Sometimes, a city or location changed hands several times during the course of the wars, and suffered accordingly. For example Kiev, cradle of the Rus civilization, had been a part of the Russian Empire since the 1654 treaty of Pereyaslavl. After the February 1917 revolution, Ukraine became one of the German "buffer states"; after the Bolshevik Revolution, the Ukrainians happily established their own National Republic. In 1919, the Ukrainian People's Republic took over. But by this time, the Communists were beating the White Russian movement, freeing the Communists to capture eastern Ukraine, including Kiev. Western Ukraine, meanwhile, had been overrun by the newly-recreated Polish state. Kiev changed hands again on May 7, 1920, when Polish forces and Ukrainian nationalists captured it from the Communists. The Russo-Polish war was on, and Kiev was caught right in the middle. As it turned out, the Communists spent so much time taking Kiev back that they failed to capture Warsaw. The Treaty of Riga, signed March 18, 1921, effectively ending the Russo-Polish war as a draw. Yet Ukrainian revolutionaries continued their desperate resistance against the Communist regime for years. The establishment of the Soviet Union did not mean complete Communist control.