Western Civilization - History Of European Society

Imperialism, War, and Revolution, 1881–1920 551

soldiers held Moscow, Smolensk, and Kazan (see
map 27.5).
An All-Russian Congress of Soviets immediately
endorsed the Bolshevik revolution and approved a new
government, which Lenin organized with himself at its
head. This Council of Commissars (later called the
Politburo) included Trotsky as commissar (minister) of
foreign affairs and his bitter rival, Joseph Dzhugashvili,
known as Stalin (“the man of steel”), as commissar for
the nationalities. Stalin, the son of a Georgian shoe-
maker, was one of the few Bolshevik leaders who could
honestly claim to be a member of the working class. He
had entered an Orthodox seminary at age twenty, but
had been expelled for his Marxism, and before the war
he had been arrested six times and twice sent to Siberia
for revolutionary politics. The Council of Commisars

acted quickly to consolidate the Bolshevik position by

issuing Lenin’s decrees on peace and land. Although the

decree on peace secured much support, elections for a

constituent assembly gave the Bolsheviks only 25 per-

cent of the vote. The council responded by creating a

new secret police, known as the Cheka, to fight oppo-

nents of the revolution. The Cheka, which was not

greatly different from the czarist secret police, laid the

basis for the new regime to become a police state. And

it showed that Lenin meant his words of 1902: “We

have never rejected, and cannot reject, terror.” Not sur-

prisingly, Lenin and Trotsky closed the constituent as-

sembly in January 1918, on the second day of its

meetings.

Lenin and Trotsky fulfilled their promise to bring

peace. The high command of the German army agreed

POLAND

BESSARABIA

FINLAND

AREA

UNDER

BOLSHEVIK

CONTROL

POLES

DENIKIN

KOLCHAK

CZECHS

BALTIC

GERMANS

YUDENICH

LETTS

FINNS

Pskov

Smolensk

Archangel

Moscow

Kiev

Odessa

Simferopol Novorossiysk

Astrakham

Saratov

Samara

Kazan

Petrograd

Warsaw

FR

EN

CH

BRI

TISH

BRIT

ISH

AL

LI

ES

ALLIE

S

Bal

tic

Se

a

Black Sea

R.

Dniester

R.

Dniep

er

R.

Do

n R

.

Volga R.

Danube

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

Area of Russia under Bolshevik

(Red) control: 1919

Area of Russia under anti–Bolshevik

(White) control: 1919

Area lost by Russia, 1914–1921

White Russian attacks

Non-Russian attacks

Movements of Allies

MAP 27.5

The Russian Revolution and Civil War