the russian civil war

Russian Civil War

The war was between the newly elected Bolshevik party (the Bolshevik Red Army) and the anti-Bolshevik forces (the White Army) in 1917. Many foreign nations joined the White Army who were: the Czechoslovak Legion, the Empire of Japan, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia, the United States, the Republic of China and the British Empire (which consisted of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom).

The foreign allies to the White Army joined because of Russia’s withdrawal from the Triple Entente (an alliance between the UK, France and Russia to counter the Triple Alliance of Austria-Hungary and Germany), who feared a possible Russia and German alliance. Another reason was the prospect of the Bolsheviks taking no responsibility for Russia’s huge foreign loans.

In 1923 the Red Army completely resisted the attacks from the White Army and regained control of the Russian Empire, which, however, came at great costs. An estimated 15,000,000 people were killed during the Civil War, and the Russian Soviet republics suffered droughts and famine, with disease taking 3,000,000 lives in 1920, and widespread starvation also taking millions of lives. There were also several million people emigrating, who opposed to the Russian political climate.

The Russian economy was also ravaged by the war, industrial production value was reduced to 1/7th and agriculture 1/3rd compared to 1913. The exchange rate with the U.S dollar declined from two rubles (the Russian currency) in 1914 to 1,200 in 1920.