The Soviet revolution began in November 1917. Workers from the Soviet council of Petrograd ( later called Leningrad ) were the first to take political power. The provisional government of capitalist politicians was disposed. A workers government under a Soviet council of people's commissioners was founded. At the head of this new proletarian government, the Soviet of Petrograd elected Vladimir Lenin to be the chairman of the new Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic!
Lenin made an alliance with leftist social revolutionaries and anarchists. But his allies would betray him soon enough. The social revolutionaries hated the peace with Imperial Germany and the anarchists hated the centralized Soviet government. By the winter of 1918, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was under attack from all sides. 200.000 foreign soldiers led by 40.000 British troops aided the anticommunist White Armies to destroy the Soviet government!
The Red Army was founded early 1918, but not ready to fight both 200.000 foreign imperialists and the anticommunist White Armies. Sabotages and assassination of many Soviet leaders forced Lenin to start the Red Terror and War-communism. Under the Red Terror the secret police arrested and killed many supposed enemies of the Soviet revolution. Some people were guilty and others innocent. The capitalist media claims that Lenin was a ''evil dictator'' only because of this Red Terror. Meanwhile the British imperialist forces were supporting the criminal anti-Semitic White Armies, who were killing innocent Jews in Ukraine. At least 150.000 Jews were murdered. Many Ukrainians were told by the Orthodox Church that Jews were behind the Soviet revolution. Almost all peasants were raised to hate Jews and all things that were Jewish. Since Karl Marx was born Jewish like Leon Trotsky, the Church said that the Soviet revolution was a Jewish plot to destroy the Christian world!
Lenin had showed tolerance for many months. It was not until August and September of 1918 when he gave the secret police the order to arrest and eliminate all enemies of the Soviet revolution. Many innocent Jews and supporters of the Soviet government were by then already murdered by foreign soldiers and anticommunists. Also the peasants refused to sell food to the Soviet government. Many farmers wanted good money for their food. During the war the farmers knew that the government needed the food badly. So the rose their prices, leading to many conflicts with the Soviet councils. All that led to the Red Terror!
In the end Lenin forced the farmers to sell him food at a low price. The capitalist media claims that the Soviet government was unfair to the peasants. That maybe so, but this was a time of civil war. The government could not pay high prices, because the workers did not have the money to buy overpriced food. Some anticommunists say that Lenin lived in luxury during the civil war, just another lie. He lived in the Moscow Kremlin and did not own his own house. It is true that Lenin lived his last year in a state owned villa ( Gorki Leninskiye ), but that was because he was very sick and disabled. Also Felix Dzerzhinsky, leader of the Soviet secret police, refused to eat luxurious food and he slept in his own office. Meanwhile the generals of the White Armies did not do the same thing. They saw themselves as better then Russian workers and peasants. In contrast to the Bolsheviks who lived very moderate, unlike the monarchs and presidents of the capitalist world!
The Whites were in control of 2/3 of the former Russian Empire by 1919, the Soviet government seemed to collapse under the foreign and local anticommunist forces. But then the workers started to rebel in Germany around November 1918. Also in Hungary and Finland did the workers rose up. In Finland, the workers fought a brave struggle against German and Finish anticommunists. Unfortunate Soviet Russia could not help them and the Finish Socialist Workers Republic was defeated by the anticommunist forces. Finland became a dictatorship of conservatives who would ban communism until 1944. But the workers rebellion in Germany and Finland created fear into the minds of the European ruling class. Around 1920 the western armed forces were pulled out of Russia. Only Japan remained until 1922.
By 1921 the food production in Russia was largely destroyed by the civil war. All sides were guilty, both the Soviets and the White Armies destroyed farms and farm fields. The summer of 1921 caused a heat wave that destroyed the last fields. Now the population of Soviet Russia faced a famine and the government was not able to deal with it alone. Today we are told that the ''good'' capitalist western world aided Soviet Russia out of pity and that the mighty capitalist USA was able to feed the population of a ''communist'' nation!
In reality the capitalist world did not wanted to help at first. It took the western world nine months to decide if they wanted to send food. Some capitalist nations said: ''A Government which repudiates its foreign debts cannot expect to receive credit''. A reaction to the Soviet government repudiation of all foreign debts in 1917. The capitalists had lost a lot of money after the Soviet revolution. Also many western nations had aided the White Armies and hated the Soviet government.
The capitalist world debated almost a year over this. As the famine stroke Soviet Russia they were still debating. At that moment five million people were starving, the Soviet government did its best to help. But they were still fighting a civil war, the White Armies were not defeated. Although the Red Army was turning the tide, the White forces were still fighting. The Russian Communist Party went through a great deal to help the starving population. Nothing of this is reporting in today's media about the famine. No, we only learn of massive solidarity from capitalist nations to the Soviet government. After nine months of debating the capitalist world were ready to help Soviet Russia. But then the American Relief Administration demanded total control over the Russian railroads. Lenin could not accept this at first, because there was still a civil war to fight. But after the start of the famine and the peasant rebellions he allowed American control over the railroads!
Today the capitalist media loves to tell you the story of how good Christian Americans helped the Russian people. They say that Lenin and the Soviet government are to blame for the famine and that all those people died because of war-communism. Little do these people know of the true. In fact very little attention is giving to the role of the White Armies and the capitalist invaders. Also they forget that the Soviet government knew about the incoming famine and asked for food aid, but it took the capitalist world nine months to decide. The first signs of the famine were seen in July 1921 as the heat wave destroyed the farm fields. It was then that Russian writer Maxim Gorky asked for international aid. But many capitalists asked ''who is going to pay for the food'', so real food aid did not came until 1922!
It is true that many good people in the western world aided Soviet Russia. But there is little attention to the help the Soviet government gave to the starving people. Today it seems that only western food was able to stop the famine. Nothing is said about what the Soviet government tried to fight the famine. It was also because of the famine that Lenin started the New Economic Politics, which reintroduced the market economy in Soviet Russia. Blame for the famine lies not only with Lenin. Sure his war-communism was a heavy burden on the peasantry. But the civil war and the counterrevolutionary sabotages of the rich peasants were also the reason why this famine started. The capitalist world could have reacted sooner, but many capitalists did not wanted to help a ''communist'' government!
The famine of 1921-1922 killed five million people
Many were children!
