however, not everyone supported the communists. many countries that had been part of the russian empire had left, such as latvia, lithuania, estonia, and belarus. the russian civil war began, with the soviet russian red army fighting against the white army of anticommunist russians. the white army was not very united or organized. the allied powers of world war i, such as the united states, the united kingdom, and france, invaded russia to support the white army and stop the red army. the red army eventually won the war in 1922, and established the union of soviet socialist republics (also called the soviet union), along with the newly formed socialist republics of ukraine, armenia, azerbaijan and georgia.