How Did The Russian Civil War Affect The Bolsheviks

As the ideas of Karl Marx swept through Europe in the late 1800s, they found their way into Russia. Russia at the time was ruled by an anti-democratic Tsar who refused to share power, believing his power to control Russia came directly from God. “This made Russia a magnet for political radicalism and revolutionary ideas” (Alpha History, 2018). In 1898 a newly group formed called the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (SDs) whom embraced the Marxist theory. Few years later the group split into two parties called the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Soon after the split the leader of the Bolsheviks was named as Vladimir Lenin a young lawyer who wanted a small but disciplined group of “professional revolutionaries” (Alpha History, 2018). The

Social reforms like health care and educational programs were introduced. As the weeks passed and Russia changed it started to go downhill, the Bolsheviks regime resorted to undemocratic methods to maintain control. After failing the constituent assembly, Lenin ordered the formation of the Red Army and CHEKA a force of secret police. Civil War erupted in Russia in mid-1918, the regime imposed a brutal economic policy. The civil war went on for three year between the Red Army and the counter revolutionary ‘Whites’, non-Bolshevik socialists. The Russia Civil War left severe damage on Bolshevik economic policies and a series of severe droughts brought catastrophic famine that killed between five to ten million Russia Peasants. In 1921 the Bolsheviks secured victory in the civil war and the white were forced into exile. Now Practically secure, the Soviet Union began to recover and rebuild after seven years of war. After Lenin’s death in 1924 due to a major stroke his power was taken by Joseph Stalin, party’s secretary at that time. Stalin was never an obvious leader of the party, his duties for the Bolsheviks evolved around fund raising for the