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Churchill and Bolshevism

Churchill argued that Tsar was very popular.

He believed that the White Army had a very good chance of winning against the Bolsheviks.

He thought that the British people would not mind taking part in another war immediately after ending one.

He wasn't aware of the understanding and sympathy some of the British people had for the Russians.

He did not realize that the allies Britain had during World War one would not be willing to fight again.

Britain had a non-intervention policy towards other countries happenings.

-Churchill campaigned for these changes and was eventually granted permission for an attack on Russia. However just before this was able to take place, the Whites were defeated. This made it too dangerous for Britain to attack and therefore Churchill did not get his aim.

-In November 1920, Britain withdrew from any intervention in Britain.

When the first world war began in 1914, Churchill was in Government and worked very closely with the Royal Navy.

Whilst this was taking place, Britain began to experience many internal problems; there were many strikes during 1919 which some people argue may have been obtained "inspiration" from the Russian situation. Churchill therefore saw this as a threat and began to use his powers immediately even threatening to bring in the French to attack the workers.

Troops appeared at strikes and those that they did not they were often urged by Churchill to do so.

These actions indicate the hate Churchill had for the Russian Bolsheviks and the activity this lead to in Britain.

Conclusion

From all of Churchill's actions and the facts of this topic there are two divided opinions:

The Bolsheviks

The Bolsheviks believed in communism which were the ideas of Karl Marx. They had 5 aims:

5-Dictatorship:Lennin ensured he ruled by autocracy.

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Churchill misjudged the situation and acted based only upon his views for communism. That there was never any sign of revolution in Britain and he therefore took unnecessary and violent action.

He was willing to put soldiers into Russia, despite facing a defeat.

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Churchill predicted a dangerous situation in Russia which might spread to Britain and therefore took necessary steps to prevent or stop this from happening. He wanted to support the Whites who supported Britain during World War 1.

1- Peace:The Bolsheviks did

not want to fight and made

peace with Germany. This

caused them to loose a huge

amount of land.

4- Propaganda: Huge amount of effort was put into ensuring that communism was shown as a great subject.

2- Economy:

They gave land which was owned to the poor and focused heavily on economics.

3- Laws:

Things were put into place like:

Religion and history being banned, divorce was also allowed,

The Bolsheviks could be said to have been ruthless in their way of ensuring that these aims were put into place. Evidence for this is the: being unconcerned in signing away huge amounts of Russia by making peace with Germany , breaking former treaty obligations and murders of their royal family which they can be linked too.

Churchill joins the Cabinet in 1919

With Churchill now in the Cabinet, his main aim was to gain permission for an attack on Russia and its communist state. His views on the matter were that the struggle facing them was simply a fight between good and evil. He was sure that communism would bring about only bad affects and therefore a stop should be put to this before it grew any further.

Opposition

Disadvantages of the proposed attack by Churchill.

The Tsarist military Chiefs raised opposition against the Bolsheviks until a large force grew against them. This force was nicknamed "The Whites". The growth of this force sparked a civil war in Russia in 1918. From this Britain had 3 choices:

3-Britain could make no action,

Aim- To have no part in any events taking part in Russia.

1- Britain could send intervention into Russia to guard supplies which has been sent there. The aim of this would be to stop the supplies falling into the hands of the communists

2- Launch a full scale intervention in order to force Russia to stay in the War.

Aim- To overthrow the revolution of communism.

Churchill's involvement

The situation in Russia

Faced with this decision Churchill had a very strong opinion on how Britain should act. With a strong hatred towards communism, Churchill could see no other option but to attack Bolshevism and overthrow them in order to provide support to the Whites who had supported them at the beginning of the war.

As Tsar had abdicated, a Russian Provisional Government was established; this was lead by Alexandra Kerensky. This government shared power with the Petrograd Soviet and didn't bring about many major changes. It simply brought:

-Abolishment of press censorship

-Allowance of political freedom

These changes brought about more freedom for groups to express their views and attack the government with them.

The Russian people did not have huge support of the Russian Provisional Government and so when it was attacked did not support it.

At the time, Russia was ruled by Tsar Nicholas ||. He controlled his people and essentially ruled relying very heavily on the army.

In 1905 the people of Russia staged a revolution but little threat was brought to the autocracy of Tsar.

This proved too much for Tsar .

He was assassinated soon after.

However, Britain was facing a huge attack and therefore did not have the power to fight a war in two places. So instead Britain intervened by simply protecting supplies in Russia.

SO Tsar continued ruling and in 1914, Britain and France gained an ally with Russia. The War resulted in the Russian people staging mass demonstrations in 1917.

The Russian Provisional Government was attacked and overthrown by the Bolsheviks. Their leader was Vladimir Lennin.

Churchill's hate for communism

From hindsight we can see that Churchill left parliament when there was a liberal-labour coalition. He did this as all though the labour party were a socialist party Churchill saw this as communism.

Churchill, all though he had some liberal views, was a strong conservative. Communism is the opposite end of the political spectrum.

He described communism as "a pestilence more destructive of life than the Black Death or the Spotted Typhus"

"In Russia a man is called reactionary if he objects to having his property stolen, and his wife and children murdered"

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