ABSTRACT
The establishment of Kolchak's dictatorship marked the end of the democratic phase of counter-revolution in Russia. It was plain that in the ruthless conditions of a class civil war, Russia was far from ready for democratic methods of government. The Volunteer Army embarked on a second Kuban campaign which eventually freed from Bolshevik control the area north of the Caucasus mountains between the Black and Caspian seas. During the summer of 1918 the very existence of the Soviet regime was precarious. Czech victories, German occupation, the success of the Volunteer Army, and Allied intervention had restricted the Soviet Republic to an area roughly equal to that of the old Muscovite principality of the fifteenth century. With the increase in size of the Red Army, the organization became more complex. On 2nd September the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by Trotsky, was established to direct the operations and administration of the armed forces.
