The military war was fought across three main fronts - the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into three periods.

The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice. The conflict began with dissenting Russian groups, the main force was the newly formed Volunteer Army[?] in the Don region which was joined later by the Czecho-Slovak Legion in Siberia. In the east there were also two anti-Bolshevich administrations, Komuch[?] in Samara and the nationalist Siberian government centred in Omsk. Most of the fighting in this first period was sporadic, involving only small groups amid a fluid and rapidly shifting strategic scene. The main antagonists were the Czecho-Slovaks and the pro-Bolshevik Latvians.

This treaty galvanised a number of anti-Communist groups both inside and outside Russia into action against the new regime, Winston Churchill declaring that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".