Revolutions and civil wars can go hand-in-hand. Examples of this could include Syria and the American Revolution (The English and Their History by Robert Tombs, p. 354). The conflict between the Reds and Whites, the Civil War, was one chapter in a larger, more complicated, series of events: the Russian Revolution.

There are four different terms used to describe the period of unrest from 1917 to 1923. First, the February Revolution toppled the Tsarist regime. The Bolshevik Revolution, or the October Revolution, came next and established the Bolsheviks as the party in power. Consequently, the Bolsheviks fought against the Whites in the Russian Civil War. The term used to describe all these events is the Russian Revolution.

The Russian Revolution began in February of 1917 after strikes and protests by hungry, disgruntled workers and a mutiny among soldiers in Petrograd (Crucible by Charles Emmerson, pp. 24-28). Following several days of chaos and protests, Tsar Nicholas abdicated to his brother, Grand Duke Michael. Michael abdicated in turn, transforming the Russian Empire into a republic (ibid, p. 27). This is referred to as the February Revolution. It was the first big step in the Russian Revolution.

During the chaos created by the uprising and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas, Lenin wrote to Bolshevik party leaders in Petrograd and Moscow and urged them, saying,

The Bolsheviks, having obtained a majority in the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of both capitals, can and must take state power into their own hands. (ibid, p. 64)

After writing another letter critiquing party leadership of procrastination, Lenin convinced his party to commit to insurrection and take power for themselves in a meeting in Petrograd. Emmerson writes:

'Procrastination is becoming positively criminal,' [Lenin] tells [the Bolsheviks]. It does not matter where the revolution starts. In Moscow, even: 'victory is certain, and the chances are ten to one that it will be a bloodless victory.'

Lenin decides he can wait no longer... He meets the rest of the Bolshevik leadership [and for] an hour, Vladimir harangues his comrades. He has become convinced that the moment of revolution has arrived. Wait any longer and peace might cut the momentum from the Bolsheviks, and the workers might lose their appetite.

Eventually, the impatient revolutionary prevails. A vote is taken: 10-2 in favour of insurrection. (ibid, p. 67)

It took some time for Lenin's fervor to become infectious. But on the night of 24-25 October 1917, Lenin ordered his Red Guards to seize Petrograd.

His Red Guards seized the most important places in Petrograd--post offices, telephone exchanges, railway stations, bridges and banks--so by the next morning the Bolsheviks were in control. The Provisional Government put up a feeble resistance that was quickly overwhelmed. On 26 October Lenin announced the formation of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars, whose first acts were to proclaim the 'socialisation' of land and an appeal for peace, to begin with a three-month armistice (The First World War by John Keegan, p. 341).

This seizure began the October Revolution and catapulted the Bolsheviks into power. This context is important because both conflicts were two distinct parts of one larger event, but they were technically separate conflicts.

After the Bolsheviks gained power, they successfully defended against a loose, ineffectual coalition of anti-communist White Russians, as well as other like-minded powers such as the British, Americans, Japanese, and Czechs in the Russian Civil War (ibid, p. 385-390). Although things did not appear to be in favor of the Reds at first, the lack of a consolidated command and the disparate motives between the factions opposing the Bolsheviks gave the Reds the upper hand (ibid, p. 390-392). Eventually the Japanese and American forces left Russian soil for home and the Kaiser assured the Bolsheviks that "neither the German forces in the Baltic States nor their Finnish allies would move against Petrograd" (ibid, p.391). This freed the Bolshevik Latvian Rifles regiment to move against the Czech Legion, a force of 40,000 which had been using the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway since they had claimed it for their exclusive use in May 1918 (ibid, p. 389).

So began counter-offensive that eventually unblocked the railway, pushed the Czechs eastward toward Vladivostok and brought supplies and reinforcements to the Red Armies fighting Kolchak's and Denikin's Whites in South Russia and Siberia. The counter-offensive was to result in a Bolshevik victory in the civil war, a victory brought about not despite the Allies' eventual commitment to the Bolshevik's enemies but because of Germany's positive decision to let Bolshevism survive (ibid, p. 391-392).

The entire Russian Revolution is a fascinating subject to study. The phrase "the Reds vs the Whites" is used to describe the Russian Civil War, which comprised one chapter of the entire Russian Revolution.