Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

My job today is to help guide you through our history resources in the lesson, and I'm gonna be working to make sure that by the end of our time together, you can securely meet our lesson objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the Russian Revolution, where we are asking ourselves, did communism completely transform life in Russia? By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to explain the course of events and impacts of the Russian Civil War.

So we're really thinking about the events that followed immediately after the revolutions of 1917 in Russia.

There are three key words which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are civil war, minorities and requisitioning.

A civil war is a conflict between people from the same country.

Minorities are small groups of people within a country who differ from the main population in race, religion, culture, or language.

Requisitioning is an act which involves officials taking something from others.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on the origins of the Civil War.

In October, 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power.

From 1918 until 1921, Russia was caught in civil war.

The main fighting forces were the Bolsheviks and their opponents.

These sides became known as Reds in the case of the Bolsheviks and the Whites in the case of their main opponents.

So let's think a little bit more about who exactly the Reds were.

The Bolsheviks became known as the Reds.

The Bolshevik army became known as the Red Army, and the key aim of the Reds was simply to survive during the Civil War and defeat their opponents so that they could maintain power in Russia.

So thinking about what we've just heard, I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

During the Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik army became known as the blank army.

So what is the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was Red.

During the Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik army became known as the Red Army.

So now let's think about the Whites.

The Whites was the collective name for a range of Russians who opposed the Reds, this included tsarist generals, aristocrats, factory owners, and even some socialists.

So we can see there was a huge diversity between different members of the White opposition.

Some Whites wanted to restore tsarist rule, and some wanted to remove the Bolsheviks and provide greater political freedoms. So let's just check our understanding of what we've just heard.

There's a statement on the screen that says the Whites were not a unified group.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the Whites oppose the Reds, but disagreed about what should replace them.

The second justification says that the Whites fought one another as well as fighting the Reds.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A, the Whites opposed the Reds, but disagreed about what should replace them.

In this way, we can tell they were not a unified group.

Some were socialists and still supported the removal of the tsar, whilst others were former tsarist generals who hoped that the royal family could be brought back to power.

The main thing that kept these groups together was simply that they opposed the Reds.

The Russian Civil War was fought by more than just the Reds and the Whites, though.

Two other major groups were involved in the conflict.

These were the Greens and foreign powers.

So let's think a little bit more about both of these additional two groups.

The Greens were people from national minorities across the Russian Empire.

So this included groups such as the Georgians, Ukrainians, and Estonians.

The Greens fought for their own independence from Russia.

This means they weren't really supporters of either the Whites or the Reds.

They wanted their own lands and their people to be free from Russian control.

And the other group involved in the Russian Civil War were foreign powers.

This included armies from Britain, France, Japan, and the USA.

They fought on the same side as Russia during World War I, but became angry when Russia and the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as this broke many of the agreements that the tsarist government and provisional government had previously made with those foreign powers.

Some of these foreign powers also feared the spread of communism, and also used this to justify their involvement in the Russian Civil War.

As a result, the main group that foreign powers in the Russian Civil War fought were the Reds.

So let's make sure our understanding of what we've just heard is really secure.

What was the main reason why the Greens fought against the Bolsheviks? Was it that they were angry at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that they hoped to prevent the spread of communism, or that they wanted independence from Russia? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

The Greens fought against the Reds because they wanted independence from Russia.

The Greens were made up of national minority groups such as Estonians, Ukrainians, and even Georgians who wanted to be free and rule themselves rather than being controlled by Russia.

So let's try another question.

What were the two main reasons why foreign powers fought against the Bolsheviks? Was it that they were angry at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, that they hoped to prevent the spread of communism, that they wanted independence from Russia, or that they wanted to conquer Russia? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see if your two answers are correct.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answers were A and B.

The two main reasons why foreign powers such as Britain, the USA, France and Japan intervened in the Russian Civil War was because they were angry at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which the Bolsheviks had signed in March 1918, and that they also hope to prevent the spread of communism from Russia to their own countries.

So now we're ready to put all of our understanding into practise.

We have two parts to task A.

Firstly, I want you to match up each of the groups who fought in the Russian Civil War with their correct descriptions.

So pause a video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to match up each of the groups who fought in the Russian Civil War with their correct descriptions.

For the Reds, you should have said that they were Bolsheviks and their supporters.

The Whites were the Russian Empire opponents of the Bolsheviks.

The Greens were national minorities like Ukrainians and Estonians, whilst foreign armies came from places like Britain, France, the USA and Japan.

So really well done if you got all of those matched up correctly.

So now we can move on to the second part of task A.

I want you to complete each of the following sentences about the opponents of the Reds.

Our sentences are, some Whites fought against the Reds because.

The Greens fought against the Reds because.

Foreign powers fought against the Reds because.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, really well done for all of your effort on that part of task A.

So I asked you to complete each of the following sentences about the opponents of the Reds.

Your answers may have included, some Whites fought against the Reds because they wanted to restore tsarist rule in Russia.

The Greens fought against the Reds because they were minorities who wanted their nations to gain independence from Russia.

And foreign powers fought against the Reds because they wanted to prevent the spread of communism and were angered by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

So really well done.

If your own answers look something similar to those three, which we've just seen on the screen.

And now we're ready to move on to the second part of today's lesson where we're gonna think about the events of the Russian Civil War.

The Russian Civil War began in 1918.

In March, the Reds were forced out of Ukraine by Green armies.

Meanwhile, foreign armies began to invade Russia after the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

By April, ports on Russian's Northern, Southern and Eastern coasts had been occupied by troops from Britain, France, the USA, and Japan.

In many cases, these foreign armies offered assistance to the Whites and the Greens who were organising their own armies against the Reds.

In May 1918, Georgia secured its independence from Russia.

At the start of 1919, the Reds were outnumbered and surrounded on all sides.

In February 1919, with help from Britain, Green armies in Estonia successfully pushed the Red Army out to their country.

In June, a White Army led from the East by Admiral Kolchak.

The overall leader of the Whites captured the Russian cities of Samara and Kazan.

In October 1919, a separate White Army led from the south by General Denikin, was close to conquering Moscow.

At the same time, another White Army led by General Yudenich attacking from the West reached the outskirts of Petrograd.

This meant that by October 1919, most of Russia was under the control of the Whites and the Reds hold over Russia's two biggest cities was at risk.

So let's make sure our understanding is really secure.

I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

Forces from blank helped Green armies to fight against the Reds in Estonia.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see what the missing word was.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was Britain.

Forces from Britain helped Green armies to fight against the Reds in Estonia.

So we can see that there was some cooperation between the different opponents of the Reds.

In this case, between Greens and foreign powers.

And let's try another question.

Which statement is most accurate? By October 1919, Russia's two main cities were under the control of the Whites.

By October 1919, most of Russia was under the control of the Whites.

Or by October 1919, all of Russia was under the control of the Whites.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

By October 1919, most of Russia was under the control of the Whites.

Although this did not include the two largest cities in the country, Petrograd and Moscow, White armies put both of those cities under risk.

By the end of 1919, the tide of the war had turned.

In November, the Reds defeated the White armies led by General Yudenich and General Denikin.

At the same time, most of the foreign powers involved in a Russian Civil War began to withdraw their armies.

By the end of December 1919, all French and American troops had been removed from Russia as were most of Britain's forces.

When the Japanese army finally began withdrawing from Russia's far east in July 1920, it left the White armies led by General Semyonov unsupported.

In October 1920, Semyonov's army was defeated.

The Red Army also reconquered similar territory lost to the Greens.

By July 1920, the Reds had restored Russian control over most of Ukraine.

And in March 1921, the Red Army reconquered Georgia, although areas like Estonia remained independent.

By the end of 1921, Bolshevik control over Russia was secure.

We have a statement on the screen that says, The Reds were more successful in the second half of the Russian Civil War than the first half.

So is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that by 1921, the White armies had been defeated and foreign armies withdrawn from Russia.

The second statement says that by 1921, the White armies had been defeated and all land lost to Green armies was reconquered.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was A.

By 1921, the White armies had been defeated and foreign armies had withdrawn from Russia.

This left the Reds or the Bolsheviks with secure control over Russia by the end of 1921.

So now that we know our understanding is secure, we're ready to put all of our knowledge of the events of the Russian Civil War into practise.

I want you to complete the timeline by adding in the missing events for the Russian Civil War.

You can see that from February 1919 up to March 1921, our timeline has five missing events.

So those are the blanks that you need to fill in.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to complete our timeline by adding in the missing events.

Your answer should have looked like this.

In February 1919, the Reds were forced out of Estonia.

In October 1919, White armies were able to threaten both Moscow and Petrograd, the two largest cities in Russia.

In July 1920, Japan began to remove their troops from Russia.

In October 1920, the Reds were able to defeat General Semyonov.

And in March 1921, the Reds reconquered Georgia.

So really well done if you were able to identify each of those missing events correctly.

So now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of today's lesson where we're gonna focus on the impacts of the Civil War in Russia.

The methods used by the Reds help them to defeat many of their enemies and win the Russian Civil War.

These methods also had a major impact on ordinary people in Russia between 1918 and 1921.

To win the Civil War, it was important for the Reds to keep their armies well supplied with both food and equipment to fight.

This led to the introduction of War Communism, a series of policies which allowed the government to take control over the economy.

This included the state taking over factories and requisitioning most of the food which was produced by peasants.

As many peasants did not like the idea of having to give up most of the food they grew, the Red Army was sent into the countryside to requisition grain.

However, the Reds even requisition grain seeds, which were needed in order to grow future crops.

As a result of this decision, a terrible famine occurred from 1920 until 1921, which is estimated to have killed 7 million peasants and workers.

So thinking about what we've just heard, I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

Bolshevik practises which increase state control over the economy were part of a policy known as war blank.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word is communism.

Bolshevik practises which increased state control over the economy were part of a policy known as War Communism.

This included taking over factories and also requisitioning grain from peasants.

So now we have a statement on the screen which reads, War Communism contributed to the deaths of 7 million Russians.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement is true, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that millions of Russians were executed for resisting policies like grain requisitioning.

The second says that excessive grain requisitioning by the Reds led to a deadly famine.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was B.

Excessive grain requisitioning by the Reds led to a deadly famine.

In some circumstances, the Reds even took grain seeds, which would've been needed to grow future crops.

Without the ability to plant these seeds, not enough food was grown, and therefore, a deadly famine, which killed 7 million workers and peasants occurred in Russia from 1920 to 1921.

In December 1917, the Bolsheviks created the Cheka, a secret police force.

During the Civil War, the Cheka began what is known as the Red Terror in which those suspected of working against the Bolsheviks and their revolutionary aims were arrested, tortured, and executed.

Those targeted during the Red Terror included more than just the main leaders of opposition groups.

Priests, traders, ordinary peasants, and industrial workers were also targeted.

Victims were sometimes arrested just because they were related to or friendly with another person suspected of opposing the Reds.

The Cheka were heavily involved in managing peasant opposition to War Communism.

There were even reports from some areas of Russia that the Cheka burned peasants at the stake for resisting grain requisitioning.

By the end of the Civil War, an estimated 200,000 people had been killed by the Cheka, and a further 85,000 were put in prison by the secret police.

So thinking about what we've just heard, I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

The Red Terror was led by a secret police force called the Blank.

So pause video here and press play when you're ready to see what the missing word is.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the missing word was Cheka.

The Red Terror was led by a secret police force called the Cheka.

The Cheka was the secret police force set up by the Bolsheviks after they came to power.

So let's try another question.

How many people are estimated to have been killed by the Cheka during the Red Terror? Was it 2,000, 20,000, 200,000 or 2 million? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

200,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the Cheka during the Red Terror.

Some of these were leaders of opposition groups, but others were ordinary people such as priests, traders, peasants, and industrial workers.

And let's try one more question.

How did opposition to the Bolsheviks change as a result of the Red Terror? Is it that people were more likely to oppose the Bolsheviks than before the Red Terror? That people were just as likely to oppose the Bolsheviks as before the Red Terror, or that people were less likely to oppose the Bolsheviks than before the Red Terror? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

The Red Terror meant that people became less likely to oppose the Bolsheviks.

They were worried about what might happen to them, that the Cheka might torture or execute them and perhaps even target their loved ones.

So now it's time to put all of our knowledge and understanding into practise.

I want you to explain how the methods used by the Reds during the Civil War had a devastating impact on ordinary people.

You need to write one paragraph to answer the question.

Your response may focus on the Red Terror or War Communism.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to explain how the methods used by the Reds during the Civil War had a devastating impact on ordinary people.

Your answer may have included: One method used by the Reds during the Civil War, which had a devastating impact on ordinary people was the Red Terror.

The Cheka was used by the Reds to remove and prevent opposition.

This was a problem for ordinary Russians as a Cheka targeted a wide range of people, sometimes targeting victims just because they were related to a suspect.

This led to many ordinary Russians being arrested, tortured, and even executed.

So well done if your own response looks something like that answer we've just seen.

Alternatively, your answer may have included: One method used by the Reds during the Civil War, which had a devastating impact on ordinary people, was War Communism.

The policies which made up War Communism included the requisitioning of grain from peasants to feed the Red Army.

This was a problem because the Reds requisition grain needed to grow future crops as well as present supplies.

As a result, a famine developed from 1920 to 1921, which killed 7 million Russians.

So again, well done if your own response looks something like that model, which we've just seen.

So now we've reached the end of today's lesson, which means we're in a good position to summarise our learning.

We've seen that Russia experienced the Civil War between 1918 and 1921.

The Bolsheviks and their supporters were known as the Reds during the Civil War.

Most of their opponents were known collectively as the Whites, but the Bolsheviks also fought the Greens and foreign powers.

The Bolsheviks won the Civil War in part because of methods such as War Communism and the Red Terror.

War Communism and the Red Terror led to the deaths of many ordinary Russians who are not fighting in the Civil War.

So thank you for all of your effort during today's lesson.

There's been lots for us to think about, but you've handled it really well.

I look forward to seeing you again as we think further about the Russian Revolution and questioning whether communism really transformed the lives of people living in Russia.