The Civil War:
When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to break up. Soldiers, mostly peasants, wished to go home for the redistribution and deserted. Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the Bolshevik uprising. Their leaders moved to south Russia and organised troops to fight the Bolsheviks (the ‘reds’). During 1918 and 1919, the .greens. (Socialist Revolutionaries) and .whites. (pro-Tsarists) controlled most of the Russian empire. They were backed by French, American, British and Japanese troops . all those forces who were worried at the growth of socialism in Russia. As these troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil war, looting, banditry and famine became common.
When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to break up. Soldiers, mostly peasants, wished to go home for the redistribution and deserted. Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the Bolshevik uprising. Their leaders moved to south Russia and organised troops to fight the Bolsheviks (the ‘reds’). During 1918 and 1919, the .greens. (Socialist Revolutionaries) and .whites. (pro-Tsarists) controlled most of the Russian empire. They were backed by French, American, British and Japanese troops . all those forces who were worried at the growth of socialism in Russia. As these troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil war, looting, banditry and famine became common.
Supporters of private property among .whites. took
harsh steps with peasants who had seized land. Such actions led to the loss of
popular support for the non-Bolsheviks. By January 1920, the Bolsheviks controlled
most of the former Russian empire. They succeeded due to cooperation with
non-Russian nationalities and Muslim jadidists. Cooperation
did not work where Russian colonists themselves turned Bolshevik. In Khiva, in Central Asia, Bolshevik
colonists brutally massacred local nationalists in the name of defending
socialism. In this situation, many were confused about what the Bolshevik government
represented. Partly to remedy this, most non-Russian nationalities were given political
autonomy in the Soviet Union (USSR) . the state the Bolsheviks created
from the Russian empire in December 1922. But since this was combined with unpopular policies that
the Bolsheviks forced the local government to follow - like the harsh
discouragement of nomadism (Lifestyle of those who do not live in one place but move from area to area to earn their living)- attempts to win over different nationalities
were only partly successful.
Central Asia of the October Revolution: Two Views
M.N.Roy was an Indian revolutionary, a founder of
the Mexican Communist Party and prominent Comintern leader in India, China and
Europe. He was in Central Asia at the time of the civil war in the 1920s. He
wrote:
‘The chieftain was a benevolent old man; his
attendant…… a youth who….. spoke Russian….. He had heard of the Revolution,
which had overthrown the Tsar and driven away the Generals who conquered the
homeland of the Kirgiz. So, the Revolution meant that the Kirgiz were masters
of their home again. “Long Live the Revolution” shouted the Kirgiz youth who
seemed to be a born Bolshevik. The whole tribe joined’.
M.N.Roy, Memoirs (1964).
‘The Kirghiz welcomed the first revolution (ie
February Revolution) with joy and the second revolution with consternation and
terror….. [This] first revolution freed them from the oppression of the Tsarist
regime and strengthened their hope that… autonomy would be realised. The second
revolution (October Revolution) was accompanied by violence, pillage, taxes and
the establishment of dictatorial power ….. Once a small group of Tsarist
bureaucrats oppressed the Kirghiz. Now the same group of people….. perpetuate
the same regime ....’
Kazakh leader in
1919, quoted in
Alexander Bennigsen and Chantal Quelquejay, Les Mouvements Nationaux chez
les Musulmans de Russie, (1960).
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