In 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government, resulting in Lenin being elected president of the new government under the Bolshevik regime. Russia was the first state in the world to be under socialist rule. Lenin managed to defeat a weak government and seize power. Lenin, with the help of Leon Trotsky, led the Bolsheviks into a new era in Russian history. Both men put an end to any opposition aimed at conquering them after taking power. They defeated the “White Army,” made up of all those who opposed the Bolshevik government. These groups were the Mensheviks, the Social Democrats, the loyalists of Tsar Nicholas II, the Constitutional or (Cadet) Democrats, the Social Revolutionaries, and the supporters of the Provisional Government. In addition to all these groups opposed to Lenin, he had to fight the advancing German army which was approaching Petrograd (Saint Petersburg). On December 3, 1917, a delegation led by Leon Trotsky met with German and Austrian representatives. representatives. For nine weeks they negotiated continuously and on March 3, 1918, Trotsky was able to finalize the peace talks, creating the Treaty of Brest-Liovisk. The treaty had large parts of Russian territory confiscated for the benefit of the Germans and Austrians, including the Baltics, Finland, the Caucasus, and Ukraine. Lenin appointed Trotsky as war commissioner of the "Red Army", or Bolsheviks, in October 1918. The civil war between the Reds and Whites ended in significant bloodshed on October 25, 1922, when the Final opposition was defeated in Siberia. The Red Army and the Bolsheviks eventually defeated all enemies who posed a threat to their dominant power. They officially became the first socialist state to be recognized worldwide as an official government...... middle of paper ...... civil war." The Slavonic and East European Review 74 (1996): 464- 472.Hill, Christopher Hill. Lenin and the Russian Revolution. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950. Hornung, Andrew “Lenin and the Russian Revolution”. Lenin New York: Thomas Seltzer Inc., 1924. Moss, Walter G. A History or Russia: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 1997. Trotsky, Leon New York: Doubleday Company Inc., 1972. Tucker, Robert. C. The Lenin Anthology New York: WW Norton & Company, 1975. Ulam, Adam B. The Bolsheviks; The Intellectual and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia: Macmillan, 1965. Volkogonov, Dmitri Lenin: A New Biography. New York: The Free Press., 1994.