'The Bolsheviks only won the Civil War because of violence and terror.' To what extent does this statement accurately for the reasons for Red victory?
The Bolsheviks were victorious because they were a stronger, more cohesive team than those of the White Army. It can be argued that for any civil war to come toa definite end, one side must be decisively victorious. Since history can attest to the Bolsheviks’ victory, it can be argued that they won primarily because of their own strengths and not because of their enemies’ shortcomings. When examined more closely, it can be seen that the Bolsheviks’ were superior in their economic, military and political policies and could therefore decisively defeat the White Army.
One main advantage the Bolsheviks had, was that they were concentrated in the cities they had seized, such as Petrograd and Moscow. Thus, this consolidated their power in Central Russia, forcing the Whites to build bases in largely non-Russian territories. By doing so they had access to telegraph offices - better communications, and finally - the Bolshevik's support was always greater than the support of any of the White factions. With Bolsheviks controlling populated urban centres, industry and fertile agricultural lands. They had prepared defence positions that were easy to defend against White attacks – and they were forced to attack to try and wrestle the two capitals away. With such a heavily industrialized region, the Bolsheviks were less dependent on foreign aid than Whites. Bolsheviks were able to coordinate military operations in a more rational way, especially with use of railways. This is one of many reasons of why the Red's triumphed over the Whites in the Russian Civil War.
One utmost reason why the White's lost the Russian Civil war, was simply, because they could not make up their minds. The Whites were made up of different groups with different aims including tsarists, capitalists, cossacks, okrana members basically ANYONE who opposed...