What were the western reactions to the Russian Revolution?

Question by Really Wanna Know!: What were the western reactions to the Russian Revolution?
Im doing this for a history speech on the Cold War. We’ve been told to like review the Russian Revolution (which we’ve never studied, awesome school) and the western reactions to it. Could you please help me?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Charles K
Civil war

The Russian Civil War, which broke out in 1918 shortly after the revolution, brought death and suffering to millions of people regardless of their political orientation. The war was fought mainly between the Red Army (“Reds”), consisting of radical communists and revolutionaries, and the “Whites”—the monarchists, conservatives, liberals and moderate socialists who opposed the drastic restructuring championed by the Bolsheviks. The Whites had backing from nations such as Great Britain, France, USA and Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1917 The Red Army was headed the by Leon Trotsky of the Bolsheviks and the White Army was headed by the Czars and was supported by the international community. This conflict led to an increasing degree of stress on the Reds and caused the Reds to become more dictatorial and militant as a defensive measure. The path that they took during the Civil War was known as “War Communism. ”

In 1918 American President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 American troops to Russia to fight on the side of the Czars against the Red Army. Interestingly, the American forces in Russia suffered more attacks and problems from the White Army than from the Red Army. The American commanders in the field reported that the Czarist reign of terror was far more horrific and disturbing that the actions of the Reds. The American forces also discovered that the vast majority of Russians sympathized with the Bolsheviks and supported the revolution. In the end, the American troops were brought home without any fanfare, and the ordeal was considered one of the most ill-conceived interventions in American history up to that time. Major General Graves, who lead the expedition, was accused of being a “Red sympathizer” and was generally disgraced after the event
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/russian_revolution.htm Instead, the Germans realized they might be able to bring about the collapse of the Russian army more cheaply. Russian attempts to make contact with the Germans to spread revolutionary propaganda to their fellow workers provided a conduit for German government propaganda to get back to the Russian soldiers. The Germans also allowed Lenin to return from exile in Switzerland in April in the famous ‘sealed train’.
http://www.answers.com/topic/russian-revolution-of-1917

What do you think? Answer below!