Russian Civil War vs Spanish Civil War - Essay Example

The foreign intervention in the Russian Civil War, which occurred from 1917 to 1923, was waged mainly due to ideological reasons. It was a reaction after the Russian Empire fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Allied forces consisted of fourteen countries, joined forces because they were wary of Bolshevism and the Leninist ideology, which eventually gave birth to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Allies were fearful because the Bolsheviks have made it their policy to make the revolution against imperialism, hence endangering the interests of many Western participants. Here, the variable of the economic gain came into play as highlighted by the opposition posed by Britain and France. They openly intervened in the Civil War partly because the Bolshevik economic policy meant the rejection of foreign debt, the nationalization of British and French-owned factories, and so on (Mawdsley 46).

In the case of the Spanish experience, on the other hand, foreign intervention was more like a war by proxy. This argument is best explained in the context of the eruption of the bigger war later on – World War II. Germany and the Soviet Union took very active roles in the internal strife, with each supporting factions that would best advance their military interests. For Germany, the involvement in the conflict was an opportunity to undermine Russia’s political and military ties with Western Europe (Bolloten 97). On the one hand, there was also Russia’s continuing campaign to build an anti-German front, ever wary of the country’s expansionist ambitions. In this respect, one can also say that the Russian strategy was carefully developed according to the concept of enforcement of collective security.

Impact
Naturally, foreign involvement proved to have aggravating effects on the length, the damage and the outcome. Military and political support paved the way for a protracted conflict as warring factions receive financial aid, munitions and other supplies from allied states. In Russia’s case, for instance, by the time the civil war ended, an estimated 800,000 people died coming from both of the Red and the White factions (Mawdsley 285). In the Spanish Civil War, foreign support was also pivotal in the eventual outcome of the conflict. When General Francisco Franco asked Germany for help, Adolf Hitler immediately acceded to the request while Russia was a little late and hesitant in its aid to the Republican government. This latter factor was aggravated by the refusal of Western powers to be involved in the conflict. War-weary and the policy of appeasement for the Central Powers prevented Britain, France and America from taking active parts, which could have changed the course of the Civil War. Eventually, there was an eventual stalemate, which proved advantageous to Franco’s campaign in the end.