ROUND ONE : January-February 1918
Opposition was first disorganised and ineffective. The most important resistance came from the Volunteer Army in the Don region. The Red Army was created with Trotsky as War Commissar. The Bolsheviks scored successes defeating the White Armies led by Generals Alexeyev, Kornilov and Denikin.

ROUND TWO: March-April 1918
The Germans occupied the Ukraine. The Bolshevik government relocated to Moscow.
The Bolsheviks lost much land in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
The Whites reorganised themselves. Tsar killed.

ROUND THREE : May-August 1918
Success for the Whites.
The Czech Legion, who had been fighting as part of the Imperial Russian Army and were trying to leave Russia via Siberia, attacked the Bolsheviks. They captured Kazan and the Tsarist gold reserves.
Foreign Powers began to send troops to Russia in June .

ROUND FOUR : September-November 1918
The Bolsheviks counter-attacked against the Czechs and recaptured Kazan.
In November Admiral Kolchak took control of the White forces in the East.

ROUND FIVE : Whole of 1919
A number of White offensives (Kolchak's in March, Denikin's in August-October (he commanded the Don Cossacks and the Volunteer Army and was equipped with British tanks) and Yudenich's in September-October) but they were not coordinated and the Bolsheviks were able to deal with them separately.
The Foreign Powers began to withdraw their forces, a process which was almost complete by December.

ROUND SIX : to March 1921
Kolchak was captured and executed.
Soviet-Polish War began in Spring 1920 with an invasion of the Ukraine. Despite Lenin’s counter offensive the Poles rallied driving out the Red Army. Lenin had to make the Treaty of Riga, March 1921.
The Red Army went on to smash the Whites (now under Baron Wrangel).