the white movement during the russian civil war

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Welcome to the White Movement! This is an informal executive committee, where the heads of the various factions of the anti-Bolshevik forces congregate to plan strategy together. You are ultimately responsible for deciding the ends to which the White Army will march and the means by which it gets there. 

It is the year 1917. The Russian Empire ceased to exist in February, replaced by the Provisional Government led first by Lvov, then Kerensky. The Great War rages on in Europe and the rest of the world, where Russia’s allies and enemies vie for the future of the 20th century. The war took a grievous toll on Russia, and anti-war sentiments have given rise to the Bolshevik movement, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The Kerensky government’s refusal to seek peace with Germany has motivated the war-weary to throw their support behind Lenin and his revolutionaries, who used their popularity to overthrow the provisional government in October. Now, chaos reigns in Russia. The various forces opposed to a Bolshevik takeover or a revolution at all have risen up across Russia and moved against the new government in Moscow, presently seeking peace with Germany at any price. The price the Germans ask is the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which will strip many of Russia’s border regions away and convert them into German client states. Many of the people in these states have also risen up, whether for or against the Bolsheviks. The impending treaty worked to galvanize resistance to the Bolsheviks, resulting in a loose network of anti-Leninist forces mobilizing across Russia. As the leaders of that network, you will collaborate to defeat the Bolshevik menace and save Russia, or at least your part of it.

Alexander Hoefel is a graduate student at the University of Kansas! He is studying for his doctorate in Political Science, with which he is planning to teach at a college level. His focus is in  Comparative Politics and International Relations, as well as Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian studies. He has been doing Model UN at various schools since 2020. 

This will be his third HawkMUN, but this time he will be crisis director for the “Red, White, and You: The White Movement during the Russian Civil War, 1917-1923” crisis committee.  He can’t wait to see how the crisis goes, and how the committee members might change history.