this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
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Civil wars are messy. Accuracy of information becomes hard to verify. There were excesses that occurred, just like how there are fabrications that occurred. From what little I've read so far into the Civil War, in the beginning stages the Reds tended to be more merciful and normal in their treatment of their enemies whereas the Whites were barbaric, brutal, misanthropic, and prevaricators. As the civil war escalated, the Reds would begin to match the brutality of the Whites - as they realize they wouldn't be shown any mercy - yet were always outmatched in the inhumanity the Whites exhibited.
I'm rather positive that I share their thoughts that if peaceful transition was possible, it would be infinitely preferable to bloodshed. But history shows us that a path towards peaceful or democratic transition to socialism ends with the broken bodies of our dead martyrs.
You don't win by dying for your cause. You win by making the other poor bastards die for theirs.
best take I've seen all day. If you are willing to take a jab at another question: why do you think the Whites were so willing die for their cause? I doubt the majority of them were bougies so what did they think they were fighting for?
A mixture of status quo loyalty, misinformation, religious fervor, utilization of authority granted by the previous regime, force of arms, regional loyalties coinciding with which colour's in charge of them, promises of restoration of standards of living etc. Among the more loyalist members, it would also include loyalty to the old emplaced hierarchy, internalized ideological-pseudoscientific racism, restoration of material wealth, boons of material wealth, promises of rewards in the new order, etc.
By the time the Civil War was coming to a close and the Whites knew they were being snuffed out, many of them either fled into exile beyond the borders, embraced banditry, or simply left for home and tried to put it in the past while living in the victorious USSR.
Any reading you'd recommend to get caught up on the topic?
The trot fantasy writer, yes I know, China Mieville's "October" would be some nice light reading to introduce it in a more captivating manner. As a sort of prequel, John Reed's 10 days that shook the world can be concidered essential reading as a first-person primary source document.
There's also the section on it in short course on The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) by Stalin. I've also been told that The Crisis in Russia, by Arthur Ransome and Through the Russian Revolution, by Albert Rhys Williams are quite alright - even though they both had close ties to Trotsky throughout their lives - as their respective books were written roughly during and at the end of the civil war, therefore being considered primary sources. I was also recommended "A Short History of the Russian Revolution from 1905 to the present day" by R. Page Arnot, present day to Arnot being 1937. Even Kotkin's first Stalin book has a section on it that, as long as you filter it through the lens of critical reading, has an interesting perspective on the civil war while revealing Kotkin's own ideological failings of being a hypocrite.
Honestly you can't throw a fucking pebble into the pond of Russian civil war books without hitting either a reactionary or a trot.
Edit; I remembered I made something of another list before And I dug it up although it had more to do with the slice of history that dealt with the Poles. I'm sure there's some nice reads rattling around the great soviet encyclopedia though.
This is all awesome, thank you!