A terrifying toll: The civil war claimed 8 million lives, with most victims succumbing to starvation and epidemics.

   The civil war following the Russian Revolution of October 1917 claimed a staggering 8 million lives. Famine and disease claimed even more lives. In addition to combat deaths, the forced requisitions associated with the Bolsheviks’ “War Communism” policy devastated rural areas and triggered an unprecedented famine. Deteriorating sanitary conditions allowed epidemics such as typhus to rage, claiming some 8 million lives. This tragedy represented the ultimate humanitarian crisis brought about by the clash of radical ideologies and the collapse of social infrastructure.

   The advent of the Russian October Revolution also marked the beginning of a horrific civil war. The Bolsheviks, who had been a tiny minority, clashed with Kerensky’s supporters and their former allies from the early days of the February Revolution. In particular, they came into violent conflict with the White Army, which was supported by the Allied Powers—fearing the spread of Bolshevism to their own countries—as they reorganized. Against Admiral Kolchak’s forces along the Volga, General Yudenich threatening Petrograd, and Denikin, who had seized control of the Don River and Ukraine before laying siege to Tula, Trotsky organized a disciplined army supported by powerful partisan units. Neither side showed mercy. Allied forces landed: the French in Odessa, and the Japanese and American forces in Vladivostok. Even in Moscow itself, it took six days to secure control.

  Trotsky’s Red Army, having appointed a large number of former Imperial Army officers and introduced conscription, saw its ranks swell from 150,000 in 1918 to 3 million by 1920. On July 16, 1918, the imperial family was massacred in Yekaterinburg. The White Army was virtually insignificant in the civil war, despite receiving support from the Allies. Lenin prophesied to the White Guards defending the Kremlin: “Did you think the path of revolution was strewn with roses? No, revolution is no game. That path is covered with thorns and brambles. Clinging to the ground with our claws and teeth, we must march toward communism. Only then can we overcome these trials.”