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. Activity Read the two views on the countryside. Imagine your to the events. Write a shor standpoint of: an owner of an estate a small peasant > a journalist 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 Bolshev 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 – attempts to win over different nationalities were only partly successful. Activity Why did people in Central Asia respond to the Russian Revolution in different ways? Source B 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 ould be realised. The second revolution (October Revolution) was accompanie 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 ople perpetuate the same regime…” Kazakh ir in 1919, quoted in Alexander Bennigsen and Chantal Quelquejay, Les Mouvements Nationaux chez les Musulmans de Russie, (1960). Language: English