Doug:
> >
> > Has it really? And what do you mean by
> "support"? I'm guessing that
> > even in revolutionary situations, much - maybe most -
> of the pop is
> > just standing aside trying to get by. Revos would have
> a hard time
> > surviving the intense opposition of the majority, but
> silent assent is
> > all you need.
It's hard to tell how popular the Bolsheviks actually were, and obviously it wasn't a static thing (I'm guessing that early in 1917 most people in the Russian Empire had never heard of them). We know they had a lot of support in the big urban areas with large working classes, and in the military (given their "end the war" stance). I'm not sure your average peasant -- i.e., most people -- really knew the difference between the Reds and the Whites and the Blacks etc. etc. etc. while the Civil War was actually in progress. For them it was just a series of armies coming into their territory and declaring "I hereby requisition 50% of your grain in the name of X!" It's not like they had access to newspapers or the ability to read them, for the most part. That is my understanding, at any rate. (Also note that the propaganda posters of all sides in that period tend to be really crude, appealing not to theory but to the idea of a struggle against evil. For
instance, "The Battle of the Red Knight Against the Dark Force": http://www.internationalposter.com/poster-details.aspx?id=RUL07950 , "Wrangel Is Coming!" : http://www.internationalposter.com/poster-details.aspx?id=RUL09255 ,
In fact, up until the 1960s they were still coming across isolated groups in Siberia that were unaware that the Revolution had ever happened.