Red Army VS White Army
General Lavr Kornilov now organized a Volunteer Army and in January 1918 his forces numbered 3,000 men. Over the next couple months, many had joined the general and they were known as the Whites.
The Cadets joined the White Army. They wanted to continue war against the Central Powers. Some Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries joined the Cadets in the fight. Landowners who had lost their estates, factory owners who had their property nationalized and members of the Russian Orthodox Church also joined the resistance.
The Bolsheviks were threatened by the German Army that was advancing towards Petrograd. In March of 1918, Vladimir Lenin signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. This treaty forced Russia to surrender the Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic, Caucasus and Poland provinces. This decision increased the hostility inside Russia towards the Bolsheviks. In May, 1918, the Czechoslovak Corps fought the Red Guards.
Vladimir Lenin made Leon Trotsky commissar of war. Trotsky was sent to rally the Red Army in the Volga. Trotsky proved to be an outstanding military commander by retaking Kazan and Simbirsk in September, 1918. The following month he took Samara.
The main threat to the Bolshevik government came from General Nikolai Yudenich. In October, 1918, he captured Gatchina, very close to Petrograd. Trotsky arrived to direct the defence of the capital. Red Guard troops outnumbered Yudenich at the capital, so he retreated back to where he came from.
Admiral Alexander Kolchak set up an anti-Bolshevik military dictatorship in eastern Siberia. To help the White Army, troops from Britain, France, Japan and the United States joined the fight against the Bolsheviks.
The Red Army continued to grow and had over 500,000 soldiers in its ranks. This included over 40,000 officers who had served under Nicholas II. Some troops feared the troops that served under Nicholas II would betray the Red Army. Trotsky then developed a punishment system for anyone deemed disloyal to the Red Army.
