the impact of the russian revolutionrussianrevolution.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/wp...professor...

Professor Mary Davis & Tommy Hodgson

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THE IMPACT OF THERUSSIAN REVOLUTIONON THE COURSE AND OUTCOME OFWORLD WAR 1 1917-1922

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Timeline of the

RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONThe ‘Dress Rehearsal’:• Revolutionary disturbances led to Bloody Sunday - the Tsar ordered troops to clear

the streets. Over a thousand were killed. This was the trigger for revolution: Troops mutinied. Mass strikes spread. Committees of workers, soldiers andpeasants, called Soviets, seized control of towns and cities. Tsarist forcesrepressed the revolution. The Bolshevik party was forced underground but thememory of the mass power exercised by the Soviets remained.

• Russia, as part of the Triple Entente with Britain and France, became heavilyinvolved in WW1.

By this point, over two million Russian soldiers had died as a result of the war andalmost as many civilians. Alone the Bolsheviks opposed the war. There were tworevolutions in 1917.

FEBRUARY The First Revolution:On International Women’s Day (23 Feb), women textile and munitions workersdemonstrated. The Tsar ordered the troops to clear the streets but the troopsmutinied. The following day the capital was in the hands of the people.

FEBRUARY-OCTOBER ‘Dual Power’ Period: The Tsar resigned. Power was handed to a Provisional Government composed ofexisting ministers but parallel to this, Soviets were elected across Russia as analternative source of power. The Provisional Government continued the war.

APRIL Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders returned from exile. Lenin published theBolshevik program ‘The April Theses’ arguing for the end of dual power and apeople’s revolution based on opposition to the war and an alliance between peasantsand workers.

JULY The Provisional Government sought to halt the rising influence of theBolsheviks. Britain and France demanded a new Russian offensive to relieve pressureon the Western Front, as the pro-war Kerensky was made Prime Minister. The Julymilitary offensive proved to be a disaster. Troops mutinied across the front. Kerenskyordered the suppression of the Bolsheviks, with Lenin and other leaders once moreforced into exile.

AUGUST Kerensky gave military command to Kornilov to rally the officer corpsbehind the government. Kornilov then attempted a coup d’état. Kerensky was forcedto enlist the support of the Soviets and the Red Guards to thwart the Kornilov revolt.Kornilov was defeated and imprisoned, but Kerensky’s reliance on the Bolshevikshighlighted the ever-growing weakness of the Provisional Government. The followingweeks saw mass desertion in the army, the decline of the Menshevik party in theSoviets and a split in the Socialist Revolutionary party. The popular mood wasgravitating towards the Bolsheviks and their policies, summarised in the slogan‘Peace, Bread and Land’.

SEPTEMBER The Petrograd Soviet adopted a Bolshevik motion calling for theformation of a Soviet government and the ending of dual power. Similar motions wonsupport in the Soviets across Russia and in the armed forces.

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OCTOBER The Second Revolution:

• 7 October: Lenin returned once again to Petrograd.• 9 October: The Petrograd Soviet voted to create a Military Revolutionary

Committee.• 10 October: The Bolshevik Central Committee voted for immediate preparations to

take state power, which would take place over the next two weeks.• 24 October: Kerensky made a final unsuccessful attempt to hold on to power.• 25 October: On a signal from the Cruiser Aurora, Soviet detachments moved to

take over the telephone exchanges, the electricity stations and transport. Theministers of the Provisional Government were later arrested during the storming ofthe Winter Palace.The revolution was almost entirely peaceful. An entirely new type of state powerhad to now be created. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets endorsedLenin’s motions of land to the peasants, the formation of a workers and peasants’government and the immediate opening of peace negotiations.

• 30 October: Kerensky attempted a counter-attack in Petrograd; the Russian CivilWar had begun.

DECEMBER Negotiations began with German High Command.The White Russian army was created under General Kaledin in the south to counterthe revolution. This was established along with a ‘government in-exile’.

MARCH The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed ending Russia’s participation inWW1. This treaty was unpopular among many because it gave away too muchRussian land especially in Ukraine. Anti-Bolsheviks seized on this dissatisfaction towhip up support for their (White) side in the Civil War. The Red Army was created todefend the revolution. British forces landed in Murmansk to aid the Whites.

APRIL British and Japanese forces landed in the Far East at Vladivostok.

MAY US and French forces landed at Archangel.

JULY The new Russian constitution renamed the country the Russian SocialistFederative Soviet Republic (RSFSR).

AUGUST US troops landed in the Far East. The Civil War waged on.

OCTOBER The short-lived German Revolution began, inspired by the Russianexample.

NOVEMBER Armistice ended WW1.

MARCH The First Congress of the Third International, or the Comintern, was held inMoscow, attended by representatives from over twenty countries.

The short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic was established.

NOVEMBER The majority of the White Army surrendered - the Red Army wasultimately victorious by this point, though pockets of resistance remained for yearsafterwards. The Civil War and the Wars of Intervention, which included fourteencountries sending troops, armaments and money to aid the Whites, resulted in 10.5million dead, as well as widespread devastation and starvation. The policy of foreignintervention in Russia was opposed by socialists and workers in many Europeancountries.

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NOTE: Throughout 1917 until January 1918 we have used the Julian calendar, then in use in Russia. There is a differenceof 13 days between that calendar and our (Gregorian) calendar. An example is the day of the first revolution of 1917. It is dated as having occurred on International Women’s Day which then in Russia was February 23rd, whereas for us it isMarch 8th. Soviet Russia abandoned the use of the Julian calendar in February 1918.


SOVIETSThe first Soviet (or Council) wasestablished in 1905 during a textile strikein Ivanovo (about 250 miles fromMoscow). It began as a strike committeebut developed into an elected body of thetown's workers. During the 1905 revolutionsuch Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, formedas an alternative workers’ government,were established in around fifty differenttowns including Moscow, St. Petersburgand Odessa. However, the defeat of therevolution and the re-imposition of theTsarist autocracy led, inevitably, to thecrushing of the Soviets.

Nonetheless the tradition of directworkers’ democracy lived on, and henceSoviets were re-established during theFebruary Revolution of 1917 andcontinued thereafter. The most importantof these was the Petrograd Soviet ofWorkers' and Soldiers’ Deputies. Everybattalion (250 men) had the right to electone deputy in Petrograd (formerly St.Petersburg; its Germanic name waschanged in 1914), whereas there was onedeputy for every 1,000 workers. (It shouldbe noted that by this time 15 million menhad been conscripted into the RussianArmy). During the period of the ‘dualpower’ (February-October 1917),Bolsheviks did not have a majority on thePetrograd Soviet.

By June 1917 there were 400 Soviets inexistence with Mensheviks and SocialistRevolutionaries (SRs) dominating at leastthree-quarters of them. This fact is borneout by looking at the figures of therespective parties at the First Congress ofSoviets in June 1917. 1,090 delegatesattended, of which 285 were SocialistRevolutionaries, 248 were Mensheviksand 105 Bolsheviks.

However, by the time of the OctoberRevolution things had changed. TheMensheviks and SRs were increasinglyunpopular mainly because of theircontinued support for World War 1(WW1). By now there were over 900Soviets in Russia and the discrediting ofthe rival parties enabled the Bolsheviks togain majority control in all the Soviets inthe major towns and cities. This includedthose in Petrograd and Moscow. This wasa critical factor in ensuring the victory ofthe Bolshevik revolution and theestablishment of the Russian SocialistFederated Soviet Republic (RSFSR).

WORLD WAR 1 (WW1)In 1914, WW1 broke out. This was not a ‘Great War’; it was aconflict between rival imperialisms, and despite the fact that allparticipating governments appealed to patriotic sentiment, therewas significant opposition to it, particularly in Russia. The warwas fought initially between two power blocks; the TripleAlliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) and the TripleEntente (Britain, France and Russia). These alliances were notstable. Turkey joined the Triple Alliance in October 1914, Italychanged sides in April 1915 and the USA declared war onGermany in 1917.

There have been unending debates among historians about thecause(s) of the war citing such issues as the thirty year Balkancrisis, the alliance system itself, massive investments inarmaments (including the Dreadnought submarine race) andmost importantly rival imperialisms. By 1914 the world had beendivided up by the richest powers, with Britain, France andGermany having grabbed the lion’s share. Any dissatisfactionabout the apportionment of the world and its resources amongthe Great Powers (Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungaryand Russia) could only be settled by re-division: inevitably thismeant war. Whichever side won would be able to re-divide theworld in their favour as was clearly shown in the series of treatiesending the war which addressed the dismemberment of thevanquished Ottoman, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires.This drive for territory helps to explain the lack of war aims, theshifting alliances and the secret treaties extant during WW1.

War disrupts society. WW1 was no exception, but far fromdisrupting the existing trends within the labour movement it hadthe effect of stimulating them. The pre-war militancy of sectionsof the working class, women’s and labour movements in manyEuropean countries continued unabated, whilst the exigencies ofwar gave some labour leaders the chance to become fullyenmeshed within the state apparatus. The gulf between the twowidened to such an extent that it was difficult for both to co-existwithin the same organisations, and hence there was a split inmany European Social Democratic parties on the issue ofsupport versus opposition to the war.

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Tsarist propaganda posters (above and opposite) in support of Russia’s involvement inWW1 (Source: Sputnik)


This division was not reflected in the stance of theSecond (Socialist) International (1889-1916) whichfailed to live up to its earlier anti-war declarations. Theresolutions of the Second International, incondemning colonialism (1907 Stuttgart Congress)and calling for workers to oppose war (1910Copenhagen Congress), were promptly forgotten inthe rush to arms. In consequence, the Internationalitself collapsed during WW1.

However, divisions over the issue of the war wereespecially marked in many individual countrieswhose labour movements had affiliated to theSecond International. This was particularly the casein Russia where it was a significant factor inaccounting for the success of the Bolshevikrevolution in 1917. The war also divided the labourmovement, the women’s movement and socialistparties in Germany and Britain. In Britain, the'unofficial' opposition, reflecting the chasm betweenthe leaders and the led, generated its own structuresin the form of the Shop Stewards and Workers'Committees Movement. Although no longer unofficial,the shop stewards of today can trace their origins tothis wartime period during which rank and fileworkers kept effective trade unionism alive in the faceof their leaders' surrender.

Thus, WW1 with its devastating number of casualtiespolarised opinion to such an extent that it led torevolutions in three countries and uprisings in many

others. After four years of bitter battles on the easternand western fronts, the total number of military andcivilian casualties was more than 38 million. It isestimated that there were over 18 million deaths and20 million wounded, ranking it among the deadliestconflicts in human history.

RUSSIA AS PART OF THETRIPLE ENTENTE The Triple Entente was formed between France, GreatBritain and Russia as a response to Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy's Triple Alliance (the CentralPowers). After Russia went to Serbia's defence duringthe final Balkan crisis, it then became embroiled inhostilities against Germany and Austria-Hungary whohad shared aims in the Balkans in opposition toRussia. This was the spark which inevitably led, viathe alliance system, to the greater war against theCentral Powers. As the war dragged on, however,Russian people, including the soldiers themselves,began to question the undeclared aims of the war andthe colossal devastation and senseless humansacrifice engendered by it. In short, the call for peacebecame an ever more persistent rallying cry. Russia'sparticipation in the war left millions of their ownsoldiers dead. The campaign was chaotic, as many ofthe soldiers were dispatched without enough arms orfood, leading not only to war weariness, but tooutright opposition to the conflict. The ProvisionalGovernment when appointed after February 1917,continued Russian involvement in the war.

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SYKES-PICOTAGREEMENT 1916 ANDREVELATION OF THESECRET TREATIES 1917Britain and France concluded a secretagreement in May 1916 known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, after the British and Frenchrepresentatives who negotiated it. Theagreement related to the Arab territory in theOttoman Empire which Britain and Franceaimed to dismember after WW1 and divide thevast territory ruled by the Turks between them,as shown in the map above. Russia was madeprivy to this secret treaty partly because it wasas one of the Entente powers, but also becauseit had an interest in Jerusalem as a ‘protector’of Orthodox Christians. A copy of the secretSykes-Picot treaty was shared by France andBritain with Russia’s Foreign Office. When theBolsheviks took power in Russia in November1917, Trotsky, as Commissar for Foreign Affairs,discovered the Sykes-Picot treaty in Tsaristfiles. Realising the potential impact ofdisclosure, he published a summary of theSykes-Picot text in the government newspaperIzvestiya on November 22nd, 1917. Thedisclosures created a sensation both insideand outside the corridors of power.

THE FIRST REVOLUTION:FEBRUARY 1917INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’SDAY (IWD) IN RUSSIA ANDTHE FEBRUARYREVOLUTIONAlthough International Women’s Day had beeninaugurated in 1910, it was not celebrated in Russiauntil 1913. The issue of support versus opposition tothe war accentuated the class divisions in the alreadyfractured women’s movement. The bourgeois feministmovement supported WW1, whereas working women,influenced by their Bolshevik sisters were opposed toit. This led in 1917 to IWD marking the first revolution.

By 1917 a vast number of women were working infactories replacing conscripted men. On February23rd, 1917 (March 8th in our Gregorian calendar),IWD was marked by strikes and huge demonstrationsof women. The Bolshevik paper Pravda reported thatthis led to revolution:

‘…the first day of the revolution was women’sday…the women…decided the destiny of thetroops; they went to the barracks, spoke to thesoldiers and the latter joined the revolution…Women, we salute you.’

The result was the overthrow of the Tsar and theestablishment of a bourgeois Provisional Governmentunder the leadership of Prince Lvov and later, Kerensky.

LENIN’S ARRIVAL INPETROGRAD AND THEAPRIL THESES The day after his arrival in Petrograd from exile, Leninpublished an important document, known as the AprilTheses. This set out the Bolshevik policy to transformthe current Russian bourgeois republic into a socialiststate. In effect, it turned into the demands aroundwhich revolutionary workers, soldiers and peasantsrallied. These were the main points:

• Oppose WW1.

• The February revolution is a transitional stage toa full socialist revolution and thus a Sovietrepublic must be established.

• The unelected Provisional Government shouldnot be supported.

• Landed estates and banks will be confiscatedand nationalised.

• Production and distribution to be under thecontrol of workers’ Soviets

• A new International will be established

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Source: MML


DUAL POWER (February-October 1917)Lenin referred to the period between the Februaryand October revolutions of 1917 as the phase of the‘dual power’. Although the unelected ProvisionalGovernment de facto ruled Russia after the overthrowof the tsarist autocracy, at grass roots level theelected Soviets of workers and soldiers, within thetowns especially, were exercising an increasinglyimportant influence on the daily lives of the Russianpeople. This is clearly seen in the massdemonstrations that took place on May Day and inJuly 1917.

‘In what does this dual power consist? In the factthat side by side with the ProvisionalGovernment, the government of the bourgeoisie,there has developed another government, weakand embryonic as yet, but undoubtedly anactually existing and growing government — theSoviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.’(Lenin)

THE JULY OFFENSIVE ANDTHE JULY DAYSPersuaded by his Entente partners, war ministerKerensky launched a military offensive in Galicia inJuly 1917 which had disastrous consequences. Itsobjective was to strengthen the weak Eastern Frontand to improve troop morale and discipline. On bothcounts it had the opposite effect. The Russian armywas forced to retreat from the German advance.Russian soldiers mutinied in protest against theirappalling conditions and calamitous militaryleadership. In early July, the refusal of a machine-gunregiment to be dispatched to the front lines began aprotest during which workers and soldiers inPetrograd staged armed demonstrations calling forthe Provisional Government to step down. TheBolsheviks were reluctant to support these calls asthey were not yet in a position to take power. Inresponse to the demonstrations, the Provisional

Government announced a crackdown on theBolsheviks and many were attacked or arrested bythose troops still loyal to the government. This led tothe banning of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda.Lenin disappeared into hiding. Kerensky becamePrime Minister and continued participation in the war.

ATTITUDE OF RUSSIANSOLDIERSThe Provisional Government continued the war, whichwas now extremely unpopular amongst troops andcivilians. After the devastating failure of the JulyOffensive, morale amongst Russian soldiers was evenlower and soldiers refused to move to the front lines orsimply deserted. More and more soldiers joined theSoviets, demanding peace. The Bolshevik promise ofpeace negotiations gave them majority supportamongst soldiers. Thus, the Bolshevik recognition ofthe need to end the war was a key factor in thesuccess of the October Revolution.

RABOTNITSA & THE ROLEOF WOMEN

Lenin actively supported campaigning amongworking women and was among those whoadvocated the publication of a new paper, Rabotnitsa(The Woman Worker) which first appeared in 1914.However, the outbreak of WW1 meant that it was

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May Day 1917 in Petrograd (Source: MML)

Shooting of Bolsheviks in Petrograd on July 5th, 1917 (Source: MML)S

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supressed. In 1917 Bolsheviks were heavily engagedin agitational work among women assisted by the re-appearance of Rabotnitsa which came out severaltimes a month with a circulation of 40 – 50,000.

A commonly accepted view is that Russian womenfeatured only twice in 1917. The first time was inPetrograd on February 23rd as harbingers of therevolution which established the ProvisionalGovernment.

The second time, bourgeois women played areactionary role as part of a battalion defending theWinter Palace, the seat of government, againstBolshevik attack on October 25th.

Both these events occurred, but lazily citing only themfails to do justice to the enormously important role ofwomen throughout the revolutionary process asmidwives of the revolution. They were present at thebirth and were crucial in the final stages of delivery. Inaddition, they played a vital role in defending therevolution during the Civil War.

THE SECOND (SOCIALIST)REVOLUTION; OCTOBER1917The October Revolution was the culmination ofpopular sentiment directed against the ProvisionalGovernment which was achieving little for themajority of people to satisfy their need for changefrom its Tsarist past. In particular, the unelectedbody continued to participate in the very unpopularWW1 opting, as seen in the July Offensive, forparticipation in further military campaigns whichhad provoked outrage amongst soldiers andworkers alike.

After the February Revolution which hadestablished the Provisional Government, theBolsheviks gradually gained in strength andinfluence during the period of the dual power,especially in the Soviets and in the army after July.

The Bolshevik slogan ‘Peace, Bread and Land’summarised their programme and was increasinglypopular. They established their headquarters in theSmolny Institute. This was a former girls' conventschool which also housed the Petrograd Soviet. TheProvisional Government now headed by Kerensky,was still officially in power and under pressure fromthe nobility and industrialists, Kerensky waspersuaded to take decisive action against theBolsheviks. Thus, on October 22nd he ordered thearrest of the Bolshevik Military RevolutionaryCommittee (MRC) which had been establishedwithin the Petrograd Soviet on October 12th andwas led by Trotsky. The government was aware ofthe unstated purpose of the MRC which it feared,correctly, was to prepare for armed insurrection.The next day, October 23rd, the governmentattempted to close down the Bolshevik newspapersand cut off the telephones to the Smolny Institute.However, soldiers and Red Guards ultimatelythwarted all Kerensky’s plans.

Following this, a long debate took place at a secretmeeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee. At thismeeting the main issue centred around Lenin’sproposal that the Bolsheviks should take actionbefore the elections for the Constituent Assembly;in other words, the socialist revolution shouldproceed without delay. Zinoviev and Kamenevdissented, but importantly the MRC had alreadydeployed commissars to all garrison units. Inessence this was both a measure of defence and,at the same time, a preparation for attack.

Lenin, Trotsky and others urged the overthrow ofthe Provisional Government. Thus, orders weregiven for the Bolsheviks to occupy the railwaystations, the telephone exchange and the StateBank. In the early morning of October 25th, armedworkers started occupying key points of Petrogradin conjunction with pro-Bolshevik sailors landing atthe city's harbour. Power stations were seized andstrategic bridges were held. These instancesproduced very little resistance and were not metwith violence.

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A blank shot from the Cruiser Aurora (picturedabove) in the evening signalled the siege of theWinter Palace, which was to be the final offensiveof the revolution. Crowds of Red Guards andinsurgents surrounded the palace and securedentry, leading to the surrender of the remaininggovernment officials in the early hours of themorning. Members of the Provisional Governmentthat had not already fled the capital wereimprisoned. Kerensky had managed to escapefrom the city.

The revolution itself was brief, being almost entirelypeaceful in its execution. Posters were distributedacross the city declaring that ‘the ProvisionalGovernment is overthrown’ and ‘Long live theRevolution of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!’Lenin emerged from the revolution as one of itsmost notable strategists and a potential leader inthe new era.

On October 26th 1917, the second All-RussianCongress of Soviets met and handed over power tothe Soviet Council of People's Commissars. Leninwas elected chairman. Among other appointments,Trotsky was appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairsand Alexandra Kollontai Commissar for SocialWelfare. Two decrees were adopted at the firstsession: the Decree on Peace, which authorisednegotiations with Germany to enable Russia’swithdrawal from the war in order to bring about ‘a

just and democratic peace’; and the Decree onLand, which proposed to transfer land away fromlandowners and the church to peasant committees.In addition, the Council of People's Commissarsnationalised the banks, and workers control offactory production was also introduced. ‘Peace,Bread and Land’ was thus transformed from aslogan into a living reality.

The army was demobilised in December and theSoviet Government announced that it planned toseek an armistice with Germany. In the same month,Trotsky led the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk tonegotiate peace terms with representatives fromGermany and Austria-Hungary. Thus it was that thefull Bolshevik programme, as outlined in Lenin’s‘April Theses’ was implemented within three monthsof the successful socialist revolution.

DECREE ON PEACE (abridged translation from Izvestia article)

‘The workers’ and peasants’ government,created by the Revolution of October 24-25th …… calls upon all the belligerent peoples andtheir governments to start immediatenegotiations for a just, democratic peace. [This]means an immediate peace withoutannexations…. and without indemnities. Thegovernment considers it the greatest of crimesagainst humanity to continue this war over theissue of how to divide among the strong and richnations the weak nationalities they haveconquered… At the same time the governmentabolishes secret diplomacy, … and [will]conduct all negotiations quite openly in full viewof the whole people.’

BREST-LITOVSKThe Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was the peace treatysigned on March 3rd, 1918, between the newBolshevik government of Russia and the CentralPowers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, andTurkey). It ended Russia's participation in WW1. Thechief negotiator was Trotsky. This treaty wasunpopular among many because it gave away toomuch land especially in the Baltic States and Ukraine,thereby losing almost a third of its rich agriculturalproduction and almost a quarter of its total territory.The Soviet Government, despite deep dissatisfactionwith the German terms, had no option but to accept;they had no troops able or willing to continue anunpopular war. Anti-Bolsheviks seized on thisdiscontent at the loss of territory to whip up supportfor their (White) side in the Civil War.

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The Storming of the Winter Palace (Source: Sputnik)

Source: MML


RUSSIAN CIVIL WARIt was almost inevitable that the October Revolutionwould lead to a devastating Russian Civil War wagedby forces hostile to socialism. Indeed, Lenin hadpredicted this very outcome. At the end of October1917, a military advance by troops loyal to Kerenskyreached the outskirts of Petrograd but was defeatedby Red Guards organised by the MRC.

Just after October 1917, with Bolshevik powerapparently secured in Petrograd and other cities, acoalition of monarchists, anti-Bolsheviks, liberals andregional forces came together to form the White Army.The Whites established a 'government in-exile' in theeast under the command of Kolchak. In the NorthernCaucasus, the Whites were supported by someCossack troops and attacked newly-establishedBolshevik strongholds. The Bolsheviks defended therevolution using the newly formed Red Army.

The Whites, with the help of the Czech Legion (a unitof the Russian Imperial Army during WW1), begangaining important territory and mobilising other forces.The Red Army grew to over a million men owing to theintroduction of conscription in June 1918. (By 1920 ithad grown to over four million). But by late 1918, thesituation for this new army was looking bleak, as theirstrongholds were being surrounded by the Whites

aided by foreign powers. Indeed, the survival of therevolution appeared inconceivable at this stage.

However, despite the initial successes of the Whites,by March 1919, the Red Army could record somevictories. They had defeated Kolchak's forces in theeast, although General Denikin, having capturedmuch of the south and Ukraine pushed northwards inconjunction with General Yudenich (assisted byEstonian troops). These armies reached the outskirtsof Petrograd from different directions by October1919. The Red Army managed to repel both theseattacks. This would prove to be the closest the Whiteswould come to tipping the war in their favour.In Ukraine, Denikin deliberately carried out anti-Semitic pogroms, linking Jews to the ‘evil’ ofcommunism and presuming that targeting them couldbe used to appeal to the local population. A Britishwar correspondent, John Hodgson, who travelled withDenikin's forces, noted:

‘I had not been with Denikin more than a monthbefore I was forced to the conclusion that theJew represented a very big element in theRussian upheaval. The officers and men of theArmy laid practically all the blame for theircountry's troubles on the Hebrew.’ J.E. HodgsonWith Denikin’s Armies (Temple Bar, 1932), p.32.

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Defend Petrograd 1917 (Source: Sputnik)

Registration for active service (Source: Henry Sara collection, MRC)

‘Solemn Promise on Joining the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army,1919’(Source: Sputnik)


By the end of 1919, most of the Whites in the eastsurrendered. Kolchak was handed over to the Redsand executed. Wrangel replaced Denikin as leader ofthe White Army, but their numbers were nowdwindling. In late 1920, remnants of the White Armyfled, leaving the Bolsheviks to conquer the remainingregions. Pockets of resistance to Bolshevik controlremained but the bloodiest parts of the Civil War wereover by 1922.

The Whites failed for a number of reasons, having lesspolitical unity and general organisation than the Redsfor much of the period. In addition, they failed torepresent all anti-Bolshevik forces in a unified front.The Reds' build-up of a tightly-run army with strictdiscipline gave them the advantage in most battlesagainst the Whites, leading to their ultimate victoryagainst a variety of opposing forces which includedintervening world powers. The Red Army suffereddevastating losses too, but despite this and manyother problems, morale amongst the Reds remainedhigh during this destructive war. The Civil War and theparallel Wars of Intervention were seen as anecessary defence of the October Revolution. TheBolshevik victors were then faced with the enormoustask of rebuilding a ravaged and starving country.

WARS OF INTERVENTIONImmediately after the October Revolution, theBolsheviks kept to their promise of peace by openingnegotiations at Brest-Litovsk with Germany to secureRussian withdrawal from WW1. This was a blow for theremaining Entente powers who were reliant on Germanyhaving to fight on two fronts – west and east. WithRussia now out of the war, the Allies drew up plans tointervene militarily in Russia. As early as December23rd 1917, the Allied Supreme War Council suggestedthat anti-Bolshevik troops, and any other forces whowanted to continue the fight against Germany in Russia,should be fully supported. The British War Cabinetdecided to provide the White General Kaledin, andother successive white forces, with financial support.For their own reasons the Germans agreed with an anti-Russian interventionist policy and participated fully untilNovember 1918; the end of WW1.

Thus, surprisingly, during the first six months of theintervention, the two opposing sides although stilllocked in conflict in WW1, were nonetheless united intheir desire to crush Bolshevism. The Germans, havinggained vast swathes of Russian territory (including theBaltic States and Ukraine) as a result of the treaty ofBrest-Litovsk, were anxious to capitalise on theirterritorial advantages by exploiting Russian weakness.However, this alarmed the Allies, who gained supportfrom like-minded anti-Bolshevik countries. By the

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Russia Allied White Offensive Map (Source: J Swettenham Allied Intervention (George Allen and Unwin, 1967)).


spring of 1918, Britain, France, the United States,Japan and ten other nations were actively sendingtroops into Russia to intervene in support of the WhiteArmy. Britain, assisted by American troops, occupiedMurmansk and Archangel in the north and togetherproceeded southward towards the Caucasus regionswhere White Armies had a stronghold. Japaneseforces occupied Vladivostok and, aided by the CzechLegion spread across large parts of the Far East andSiberia. Allied pressure intensified after the armisticeended WW1. The French fleet entered the Black Seaand French troops landed at Odessa and the Crimea.Of equal importance to the deployment of troops wascapitalist allies’ mass supply of arms, equipment andcash to the Whites. Thousands of tons of supplies andequipment were sent to the White Army, to GeneralDenikin in the south and to Kolchak in the east,originating mainly from Britain.The aim of these interventionist powers in assistingthe Whites was three-fold. Initially, it was predicatedon the assumption that ousting the Bolsheviks wouldmean that Russia would re-enter WW1 and thusensure that, once again, German troops would beforced to fight on two fronts. Secondly, and moreimportantly, after WW1 ended the interventionistcapitalist countries were motivated by the desire toprevent the spread of communist ideology andpractice, which was becoming popular and influentialwithin sections of the labour movement in their owncountries. Finally, those capitalist countries which hadinvested heavily in the industrialisation of Russiaduring the Tsarist years were anxious to recoup theirmassive financial speculation.Ultimately it became clear to the interventionistpowers that their efforts were not able to overthrowSoviet Russia. Not being prepared to intervene on amuch larger scale, the French withdrew their soldiersin April 1919. Towards the end of 1919, the Red Armypushed the Whites out of many areas and had themon the retreat. By 1920, the last British and Americantroops had left Russia, unsuccessful in their task ofbringing the White Army to victory. Japaneseoccupation in the Far East remained for a further two

years, as they had gained disputed land which theylaid claim to for many years afterwards. Of the major powers, Britain put the most effort into theWars of Intervention. This was not popular even amongsome of the higher echelons of the British State whowere in charge of administering government policy inRussia. This was revealed in January 1919, when TheTimes published a correspondence between Rear-Admiral J. W. Kemp and the British Consul atArchangel, Douglas Young. Archangel was the Russianport where Britain was officially attempting to channelits armed forces into an offensive against the RedArmy. Kemp repeated the establishment line thatBritain should continue attempts to intervene againstthe Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. The Consul,Young, denounced the British Government's policies inRussia. His outspoken critique of British state policy ledto attempts by the Foreign Office to stifle his protestsand eventually he was forced to resign from theDiplomatic Service. For Young's honesty in exposingBritain's intervention in Russia, writer Andrew Rothsteindubbed him The Consul Who Rebelled in a later book. British soldiers also displayed opposition to thegovernment’s intervention policy. Again, AndrewRothstein chronicled this in his book The Soldiers'Strikes of 1919. Rothstein, the son of exiles fromTsarist Russia, had been drafted to serve the BritishArmy as a corporal from 1917-19. Upon news that hisunit was to be dispatched to the port of Archangel tofight the new Soviet government, he refused and themajority of his regiment followed his lead. This wasthe first of many soldiers' rebellions and mutiniesagainst British Army intervention in Russia. Churchill (then Secretary of State for War) personallyviewed communism as a dangerous threat to Westernsociety, infamously stating in 1919 that the Bolsheviks

‘have driven man from the civilisation of the 20thcentury into a condition of barbarism worse thanthe Stone Age, and left him the most awful andpitiable spectacle in human experience,devoured by vermin, racked by pestilence, anddeprived of hope.’

12

Germans at Kiev 1918 (Source: MML) Send off ceremony for the Red Army going to the Polish front, August1920 (Source: Sputnik)


A war-weary British public, and especially its labourmovement, were increasingly disinclined to supportintervention. Ultimately this meant that material aidand troop support was withdrawn. However, a lastattempt at ousting the Bolsheviks was made by proxyvia Poland’s ambitious aggression.Poland had been re-constituted as an independentcountry by the Treaty of Versailles. Its new head of state,Pilsudski, was not only fiercely anti-communist but alsowished to re-establish Poland’s pre-partition 1772borders. This included parts of Ukraine and Belarus:Soviet territory. In April 1920, the Poles in alliance withWhite Ukrainians launched a devastating attack, backedwith British munitions, and by May had captured Kiev,Ukraine’s capital. However, the Red Cavalry counter-attacked with great success and pushed the Poles backalmost as far as Warsaw. Poland conceded the battleand made peace with the Bolsheviks, with stipulationsthat Poland would remain independent but Belarus andUkraine would fall under Soviet control.

THE IMPACT OF THERUSSIAN REVOLUTIONOUTSIDE RUSSIAWhile capitalist countries opposed the Bolshevikrevolution, this was in sharp contrast to the attitude oflabour movement organisations. There waswidespread support for the Russian Revolution inmany countries especially in Europe. This took severalforms. In some countries, notably Hungary andGermany the Russian example inspired similar, albeitshort-lived revolutions. In many countries, the left inthe trade union and labour movement, stimulated bythe Russian example, was strengthened, resulting inchallenges to the existing order and the labourleadership itself. There was also extensive oppositionto the Wars of Intervention waged against SovietRussia by fourteen capitalist countries.

BRITAIN:SHOP STEWARDS, STRIKES& SCOTLANDIn defiance of the leadership of the British labourmovement who supported WW1 and supported thegovernment’s ban on strikes, rank-and-file tradeunionists elected shop stewards who played anincreasingly important role during the war. A nationalnetwork of shop stewards’ committees was formed onthe model of the inaugural and most militant one – theClyde Workers Committee (CWC), in which WillieGallacher and John MacLean played prominent roles.The CWC was strongly anti-war and enthusiasticallysupported the Russian Revolution. In fact, MacLean’sagitational and educational role led to his beingappointed by Soviet Russia as the Bolshevik Consulfor Scotland.

1919 witnessed thebroadest and mostserious strike wave yetseen. Thirty-five millionworking days were lostin strike action - sixtimes as many as in theprevious year. Thisincluded strikes of thosenormally relied upon tocarry out the repressivefunctions of the state -the police and thearmed forces. Miners,transport workers,printers joined those

who had been taking action throughout the war. Theirmood was influenced by the news of the workers'risings in Germany and Hungary and their strongsupport for the fledgling Soviet Russia. At the forefrontwas, once again, the CWC which organised the massstrike in January 1919, accompanied by masspicketing, for the forty-hour working week.Unlike the wartime strikes, this one was not defensive- it was a political offensive against the power ofcapital. It was all the stronger for its well-establishedlinks with discharged soldiers and sailors. Women toowere fully involved in the action and on the picketlines. The huge demonstration in George Square,Glasgow, resulted in a battle with the forces of lawand order, supported by young troops sent there by apanic-stricken government anxious to nip theBolshevik spirit in the bud. Strike leaders werearrested and Glasgow fell under virtual militaryoccupation. That is not to say that the CWC was not ahighly political organisation, but its limitations wereinherent in the fact that it remained a loose federationof workplace organisations which, while having aclear line on the daily struggles, had little in the way ofa clear revolutionary perspective beyond a generalsupport for socialist principles. This point was laterexpressed thus by Gallacher:

‘We were carrying on a strike when we ought tohave been making a revolution.’ W. GallacherRevolt on the Clyde (Lawrence & Wishart, 1936).

PEOPLES’ RUSSIAINFORMATION BUREAU(PRIB)One of the first organisations in Britain to support theRussian Revolution was the Peoples’ RussiaInformation Bureau established in September 1918 bythe veteran women’s suffrage campaigner andsocialist feminist, Sylvia Pankhurst. As early as 1917,the weekly paper she edited, The Workers’Dreadnought, carried articles wholeheartedlysupporting the October Revolution. The purpose ofthe PRIB was to publish reliable and supportive

13

Source: MML


information about Soviet Russia. In fact it was the onlybody in Britain to do so. Much of the information itpublished came from Soviet Russia and wastranslated into English. Weekly newsletters and atleast a hundred (possibly more) pamphlets werepublished on different aspects of Soviet politics,economics and ideology including a unique first; asmuggled edition of an English translation of theRussian Socialist Federated Socialist Republic(RSFSR) inaugural Constitution. The PRIB was abroad left organisation which included affiliates from arange of labour movement organisations.

HANDS OFF RUSSIAThe founding conference of Hands off Russia (HoR)was held on January 18th 1919 at the Memorial Hall,Farringdon Street, London, attended by 350delegates from various socialist organisations. Itspurpose was to call a General Strike to opposecontinued military and economic intervention byBritain and other allied countries against SovietRussia. Although HoR attracted widespread support,this did not include the leaderships of either theLabour Party or the TUC which both ardentlysupported WW1 and thus opposed Russia’swithdrawal from it. In fact, the Labour Party eveninvited Kerensky, the former head of the RussianProvisional Government, deposed by the OctoberRevolution, to address their 1918 conference. As aconsequence, the TUC and the Labour Party heldaloof at this stage from either supporting therevolution or opposing Allied Intervention. It took themsome while to change their minds on intervention butwhen they did it was owing to pressure from below.

JOLLY GEORGEPressure from below was the critical factor in inducinga change of attitude by labour movement leaders.The most important trigger for this was the refusal ofthe London dockers and coal heavers, in May 1920,to load the Jolly George, a munitions ship bound forPoland for use against the Red Army. Harry Pollitt,who helped to lead the Hands off Russia movement,along with Sylvia Pankhurst, led the dockers in theiraction. Pollitt (in his autobiography Serving My Time)noted that it had proved difficult to persuade tradeunionists to take strike action beforehand but:

‘The strike on the Jolly George had won itsgreatest victory. It was the action whichcompletely changed the international situation-a change that was forced on the BritishGovernment’.

COUNCILS OF ACTIONThe consequence of the Jolly George success wasan intensification of the anti-intervention campaignwhich ultimately, by August 1920, drew in officialLabour Party and TUC support. The reason for thevolte-face was the increasing strength of the Handsoff Russia movement. But it was also due, ironically, tothe success of the Red Army which by July 1920 haddriven the Poles out of Russia. The British and Frenchgovernments, alarmed by this Soviet success,announced that they would declare war on Russia ifthe latter invaded Poland thus engendering thewidespread fear that munitions would besupplemented by sending troops. They warned thatthe danger of war was ‘extremely menacing’.Therefore the Labour and TUC leaderships were atlast prompted to take action. They called upon theindustrial power of the labour movement to preventwar. The chosen means for organising such aresponse was the establishment of Councils of Actionin August 1920. The national Council of Actionauthorised the formation of local bodies and around400 were formed throughout the country largely onthe initiative of local Trades Councils, or sometimes bythe Labour Party branch in the area.

14

Source: M

ML

Source: M

RC


1920 BRITISH LABOURDELEGATIONActing in response to a resolution passed at a specialTrades Union Congress on December 10th 1919 for ‘anindependent and impartial inquiry into the industrial,political and economic conditions in Russia’, adelegation of representatives from the TUC and LabourParty visited Russia in May 1920. According to SylviaPankhurst, the labour delegation did not leave ‘a goodimpression in Russia’. Not only did they demand to gowhere they wanted ‘and to see what and whom theychose without interference’ but one of them ‘bolsteredup her prejudices by visits to counter-revolutionariesand anti-communists’. Sylvia Pankhurst Soviet Russiaas I Saw It (Workers' Dreadnought Publishers, 1921).

THE IMPACT OF THERUSSIAN REVOLUTIONOUTSIDE BRITAIN

GERMAN REVOLUTIONIn 1918 Germany was in turmoil with strikes, mutiniesand uprisings in almost all cities. Inspired by theRussian Revolution, Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councilswere formed. This led to the formation of a Republicwith Ebert (SPD) as Chancellor in alliance with theIndependent Social Democrats (USPD). This wasopposed by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht wholed a left breakaway from the USPD - the SpartacusLeague - in November 1918. It was later the core of the

German Communist Party (KPD). The split between leftand right was so intense that the right social democrats(now in power) were determined to crush the revolutionand used a private mercenary army (Freikorps) to dothis. In January 1919 the Freikorps murderedLuxemburg and Liebknecht, and the army commencedthe brutal suppression of the workers’ revolution.

HUNGARIAN REVOLUTIONAfter the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,Hungary transitioned into a Republic with a veryactive Communist party. Against a background ofpopular unrest, in March 1919, the liberal President ofHungary resigned and a Communist coalition cameinto power. Known as the Hungarian Revolution of1919, it was a short-lived attempt at a socialist state,led by Béla Kun. The Hungarian Red Army wasformed and attempted to win back some of the landlost as a result of WW1. After some militarysuccesses, the Communist government becamevulnerable internally and the hostility of the RomanianArmy led to its downfall a few months later.

THE THIRD INTERNATIONALThe Third International, also known as the CommunistInternational (Comintern), was established as a resultof the victory of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia.Its purpose was to assemble revolutionary movementsworldwide that could work together to ‘hasten thevictory’ of international socialism and the dismantling ofcapitalism. It was created as a response to the failureof the Second International, which broke up by 1916over the issue of WW1, with the revolutionary wingopposing it and the reformists supporting it.

The First Congress of the Comintern was held inMoscow March 2nd-5th 1919, whilst the Russian CivilWar was ongoing. Thirty-five organisations from overtwenty countries were represented at this foundingcongress, despite many logistical difficulties.

The Second Congress of the Comintern occurred inJuly 1920, and over sixty organisations wererepresented from forty countries, including many fromoutside Europe. Here, the twenty-one conditions onbeing admitted to the Third International wereestablished, and a solution was sought on how to reachthe international proletariat who sympathised with theRussian Revolution but still followed centrist leaders.Historian E. H. Carr described this congress as

‘the crowning moment in the history of theComintern as an international force, the momentwhen the Russian revolution seemed mostcertainly on the point of transforming itself into aEuropean revolution.’ Carr The BolshevikRevolution 1917-1923 Vol. 3 (Macmillan & Co,1953), p. 196.

The Comintern continued to hold meetings until it wasformally dissolved in 1943.

15

Ger

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Com

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(S

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‘Fou

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis project would not have been possible without a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the support and accommodation of MarxMemorial Library (MML). We have been given generous access to archive material and images from MML, the Society for Co-operation inRussian and Soviet Studies (SCRSS), Sputnik, RIA Novosti and the Modern Records Centre (MRC) at the University of Warwick. We recordour grateful thanks to these immensely valuable sources. Final thanks go to Claire Weiss who painstakingly proof read this document. Shouldthere be any remaining errors, they are those of the authors!


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