Towards a Bolshevik victory

Following the October Revolution and the end of the ‘dual power’ sharing period, Bolshevik forces faced opposition from factions socialist, nationalist and otherwise, as they tried to consolidate power across the former Tsarist Empire. These conflicts are together known as the Russian Civil War and are dated November 1917 to October 1922.

In neighbouring countries such as Ukraine, power struggles ensued to fill the political vacuum following the end of Russian involvement in the First World War and the Revolutions of 1917.

Bolshevik soldiers in conflict with Ukrainian RADA soldiersThe image reproduced here shows RADA soldiers of the Ukrainian People’s Republic – often comprising former units of the Russian Imperial Army – in conflict with the Bolsheviks. In this particular theatre of conflict, Bolshevik forces attempted to assert control over the country in the Ukrainian-Soviet War – itself part of the wider conflict of the Russian Civil War.

In 1921, following a Bolshevik victory and a loss of territory to Poland negotiated by Soviet Russia at the Peace of Riga, the newly formed Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding states of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

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