In 1917 the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government resulting in Lenin being elected president of the new government under Bolshevik rule. Russia was the first state in the world to be under socialist rule. Lenin managed to defeat a weak government and take power. Lenin, with the help of Leon Trotsky, led the Bolsheviks into a new era of Russian history. The two stopped any opposition bent on conquering them after taking power. They defeated the “White Army,” made up of anyone who opposed the Bolshevik government. These groups were the Mensheviks, the Social Democrats, the loyalists of Tsar Nicholas II, the Constitutional Democrats or (Cadets), the Social Revolutionaries, and those in favor of the Provisional Government. In addition to all these anti-Lenin groups, he had to repel the advance of the German army that was approaching Petrograd (St. Petersburg). On December 3, 1917, a delegation led by Leon Trotsky met with German and Austrian representatives. For nine weeks they negotiated continuously, and on March 3, 1918, Trotsky managed to conclude the peace talks, creating the Treaty of Brest-Liovisk. The treaty caused the Germans and Austrians to lose large portions of Russian territory, 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 with considerable bloodshed on October 25, 1922, when the final opposition was defeated in Siberia. The Red Army and the Bolsheviks eventually defeated all enemies who had posed a threat to their ruling 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" March 16, 2010. September 23, 2013. Levine, Issac Don. The Man Lenin New York: Thomas Seltzer Inc., 1924. Moss, Walter G. A History or Russia New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 1997. Trotsky, Leon The Young Lenin: Doubleday Company Inc., 1972.Tucker, Robert C. The Lenin Anthology New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1975.Ulam, Adam B. The Bolsheviks: the intellectual history and politics of the triumph of communism in Russia: Macmillan, 1965.Volkogonov, Dmitri Lenin: a new biography New York: The Free Press, 1994.