Words: 301
Communications and Geography – Control of Railways, Good supply lines, Control of Petrography and Moscow The Reds made sure their armies and towns were fed, by forcing peasants to hand over food and by rationing supplies Took over factories in Moscow and Petrography so that they could supply their armies with ammunition and weapons more efficiently Good use of propaganda made atrocities by the Whites raise fears for the population and began speculation of possible return of the Tsar and Landlords Trotsky used Russian’s railways like that of the cavalry in former times as a means of transporting troops swiftly in large numbers to critical areas of defense or attack Divided opponents Made up Of many different groups, all with different aims. Also widely spread so unable to coordinate their campaigns against the reds Limited support from the Russian population, peasants didn’t necessarily like he Bolsheviks, but they preferred them to the Whites. If the Whites won, the peasants knew the landlords would return.
Importance of Trotsky Trotsky role as the Reds’ Commissar for War was to defend the red arm’s internal lines of communication to deny the whites the opportunity to concentrate large forces in any one location Also he was to prevent the Whites from maintaining regular supplies Trotsky use of the railways was successful and once the Reds had established effective defense of their main region around Petrography and Moscow, they were able to exhaust the Whites an attacking force, driving them back on the major fronts until they scattered or surrendered Red Brutality The Reds gained recruits by offering defeated enemy troops and neutral civilians the stark choice of enlistment or execution Whatever initial peasant sympathy the Reds had gained had been lost by the severity of their grain requisitioning methods.