Concentrating on the turbulent months from February 1917 to November 1918, Geoffrey Swain explores the origins of the Civil War against the wider background of revolutionary Russia. He examines the aims of the anti-Bolshevik insurgents themselves; but he also shows how far the fear of civil war governed the action of the Provisional Government, and even the plans of the Bolsheviks. If the war itself can seem a fairly straightforward line-up of revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries, this study reveals how complex were the motives of the people who precipitated it.
Chapter 1. The Failed White Counter-revolution
Chapter 2. Lenin Risks a Red–Green Civil War
Chapter 3. Peace for Renewed Civil War
Chapter 4. The British and the Patriotic Socialists
Chapter 5. Defending the Socialist Fatherland
Chapter 6. The Start of the Red–Green Civil War
Chapter 7. Disunity in the Green Camp
Chapter 8. Green Directory, White Counter-revolution