Decree on the creation of the Red Army. Conscription and military service
Decree
Council of People's Commissars
"" January 1918
Petrograd
The old army served as an instrument of class oppression of the working people by the bourgeoisie. With the transfer of power to the working and exploited classes, it became necessary to create a new army, which will be the bulwark of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing people's army armament of the proletariat in the future and will serve as support for the coming Socialist revolution in Europe.
I.
In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides: to organize a new army under the name "Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army" on the following grounds:
I / The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army is being created from the most conscious and organized representatives of the working masses.
Access to its ranks is open to all citizens Russian Republic not younger than 18 years old. Anyone who is ready to give his strength, his life to defend the gains enters the Red Army. October revolution and Soviet power. To join the ranks of the Red Army, recommendations are required: from the Army Committees or Public Democratic Organizations standing on the platform of Soviet power, party or professional organizations or at least two members of these organizations. When joining in whole parts, a mutual guarantee of all and a roll-call vote are required.
II.
I / The soldiers of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army are fully supported by the State and, in addition, receive 50 rubles. per month.
2 / Disabled members of the families of soldiers of the Red Army, who were previously dependent on them, are provided with everything necessary from the Soviet authorities
III.
Supreme governing body The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army is the Council of People's Commissars. The direct leadership and management of the army is concentrated in the Commissariat for Military Affairs in the All-Russian Collegium created under it.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
People's Commissar for Military Affairs
V. Ovseenko I. Krylenko N. Podvoisky
Managing Director of the Council of People's Commissars
Vlad.Bonch-Bruevich
Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars
Gorbunov
A.Pronin
V.Zaitsev
I. Steinberg
And on February 21, 1918, the famous Decree-calling "The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!", written by Trotsky, was issued, by the way:
In order to save the exhausted, tormented country from new military trials, we made the greatest sacrifice and announced to the Germans our agreement to sign their terms of peace. On February 20 (7) our parliamentarians left Rezhitsa for Dvinsk in the evening, and there is still no answer. The German government is obviously slow to respond. It clearly does not want peace. Fulfilling the instructions of the capitalists of all countries, German militarism wants to strangle the Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants, to return the land to the landlords, the factories and factories to the bankers, and the power to the monarchy. The German generals want to establish their own "order" in Petrograd and Kiev. The Socialist Republic of Soviets is in the greatest danger. Until the moment when the proletariat of Germany rises and triumphs, the sacred duty of the workers and peasants of Russia is the selfless defense of the Republic of Soviets against the hordes of bourgeois-imperialist Germany. The Council of People's Commissars decides: 1) All forces and means of the country are wholly devoted to the cause of revolutionary defense. 2) All Soviets and revolutionary organizations are obliged to defend every position to the last drop of blood. 3) Railway organizations and the Soviets associated with them are obliged by all means to prevent the enemy from using the communications apparatus; when retreating, destroy tracks, blow up and burn railway buildings; all rolling stock - wagons and steam locomotives - should immediately be directed east into the interior of the country. 4) All grain and food stocks in general, as well as any valuable property that is in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, must be subjected to unconditional destruction; the supervision of this is entrusted to the local Soviets under the personal responsibility of their chairmen. 5) The workers and peasants of Petrograd, Kiev and all cities, towns, villages and villages along the line of the new front must mobilize battalions to dig trenches under the guidance of military specialists. 6) All able-bodied members of the bourgeois class, men and women, must be included in these battalions, under the supervision of the Red Guards; those who resist are shot. 7) All publications that oppose the cause of revolutionary defense and take the side of the German bourgeoisie, as well as those seeking to use the invasion of the imperialist hordes in order to overthrow the Soviet power, are closed; able-bodied editors and employees of these publications are mobilized for digging trenches and other defensive work. 8) Enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot at the crime scene.
The socialist fatherland is in danger! Long live the socialist fatherland! Long live the international socialist revolution!
Council of People's Commissars
Contrary to the later statements of the Bolsheviks, the day of February 23, 1918 (hereinafter - NS) was not marked by anything heroic for them. On the contrary, on this day, the Red Guard detachments cowardly fled from the Germans, who almost without a fight approached Pskov and could easily move on Petrograd, which was the last argument in Lenin's acceptance of the conditions of the Brest peace signed soon, that is, the surrender of Russia in the Great War. Justifying the need for this shameful world, Lenin wrote in Pravda on February 25: “The week of February 18–24, 1918, the week of the German military offensive, was a bitter, insulting, difficult, but necessary lesson ... Painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to comply with the order to destroy everything and everything when retreating; not to mention flight, chaos, handlessness, helplessness, slovenliness... There is no army in the Soviet Republic” (PSS, vol. 35).
However, there were no special "battles" between the Red detachments and the Germans then, since the Bolsheviks were German henchmen: Germany helped them come to power precisely in order to end the war on the eastern front. The "fights", that is, skirmishes during the wholesale flight of the Reds, occurred due to the fact that these days there were fierce disputes in the Bolshevik leadership: to accept or not the German "predatory conditions" of the world. And to convince the dissenters, the Germans needed a military argument.
Lenin was for peace: after all, the Germans financed him, transported his group from Switzerland in extraterritorial wagons through Germany to Petrograd, helped (including military instructors) to carry out a coup on October 25 and seize power - all this had to be paid for.
But Lenin's main opponent on the issue of peace - Trotsky - was more indebted to his money-giver from Wall Street, who brought him to deepen the revolution in Russia on the famous steamship, with an American passport (see the book published by E. Sutton "Wall Street and the Bolshevik revolution"). After the successful anti-monarchist revolution in Russia, the Entente sought the same revolution in Germany and was interested in the continuation of hostilities against it by Russian troops. It was Trotsky who headed the Soviet delegation at the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, which began in December 1917, dragging them out in every possible way and explaining this to his comrades-in-arms by the fact that a revolution was about to break out in Germany. In an effort to disrupt the negotiations, Trotsky defiantly addressed the German people over the head of their government, openly conducting anti-war propaganda among the German troops. At the same time, he told the German delegation that he considered the state of war to be over, and left for Petrograd.
On February 18, the Germans went on the offensive, and the Entente demanded that Trotsky continue the war against Germany along with the Allied forces and even offered help for this. Otherwise, the capitulation of Russia would mean a sharp strengthening of Germany at the expense of Russian supplies - and this delayed the victory of the Masonic-democratic powers. And therefore, Trotsky urged the Red detachments to resist the Germans (after all, it was Trotsky who was instructed to create the Red Army and command it, and it was he who had studied Freemasonry a whole year earlier chose the Masonic pentagram as the symbol of the Red Army).
And so, having easily thrown back the detachments of the Red "Trotskyists" (then, of course, this word did not yet exist), on February 23, the Germans presented their proteges-Bolsheviks with a new ultimatum with even more difficult peace conditions. Therefore, Lenin was also forced to issue an ultimatum to his own party, threatening, if his position was not accepted, to leave it (as well as from the government) and start fighting against it. Under such pressure from Lenin, on February 24, the Central Committee decided to conclude an immediate peace (7 in favor, 4 against, 4 abstained). On March 3, 1918, this even more predatory (due to skirmishes near Pskov) peace was concluded in Brest-Litovsk, which marked Russia's inglorious exit from the World War (we will tell about its conditions in the calendar for this date).
So the explanation for the "Day of the Red Army" on February 23 should not be sought at all in military area, but probably in another. What was so pleasant for the Jewish Bolsheviks that happened on that day? On February 23 (according to the Old Style) in 1917, on the Jewish holiday of hatred for anti-Semites Purim, the February Revolution began in Petrograd with rallies, women's demonstrations and strikes. Since the Bolsheviks did not participate in it and did not even foresee it (it was the work of the Jewish committee called the "Politburo", the Menshevik Soviets, the Masonic conspirators in the Duma and the Parvus underground organization - the coordination of all these forces took place in the Masonic lodges; see in the book " Leader of the Third Rome", ch. II-6), it was difficult to declare it a Bolshevik holiday. Nevertheless, I really wanted to celebrate this day of the "popular uprising against the hated tsarism." Apparently, this is precisely why the Bolsheviks decided not to miss this February 23 day, sunk in the visual memory, from their "saints", later coming up with a different name for it. According to the new style, on this day, March 8 (Esther's Day in 1917), was designated international women's day, and its visual imprinting in the date of the old style, transferred to the new one - perhaps that's why it became "men's day" the day of the Red Army? (This assumption was put forward by Deacon Kuraev.)
According to the official explanation of the Soviet era, the day of February 23, 1918 "was marked by the mass entry of volunteers into the Red Army" after the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on its creation (TSB, Vol. 8). Only since 1922 it began to be celebrated as a festive "birthday of the Red Army" with military parades. In 1923, in honor of the "Day of the Red Army" and the Navy, the corresponding order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic was issued for the first time. Since then, February 23 has been celebrated annually as Red Army Day. Even later, the Red Army was even credited with "victory over the Germans" in the first battle that day near Narva and Pskov.
Of course, one can speak here of the "mass character of volunteers" only in relation to members of the Bolshevik Party who joined the Red Army detachments. The people did not perceive the Reds for power and did not want to fight for them.
The shock backbone of the Red Army, especially in the first period, was the mobile punitive detachments of the internationalists, ruthless towards the Russian population alien to them. They numbered about 300,000 fighters (Hungarians, Austrians, Poles, Czechs, Finns, Balts, Chinese, etc.). The researcher of this issue, M. Bernshtam, writes that “it was a denationalized and declassed human stratum, ... organized from prisoners of war and from the lumpen proletariat different countries, who was in Russia on earnings, "as well as from the" international socialist intelligentsia, who ended up in Russia or gathered there immediately after the revolution. According to Soviet data, in 1918 internationalists made up 19% of the Red Army, in 1920 after general mobilization population - 7.6% ("Bulletin of the RHD". Paris, 1979. No. 128).
The regular Red Army was created by Trotsky only by forced mobilization: in the countryside - with demonstrative executions of "deserters" in front of their fellow villagers; in the city - with the widespread use of the hostage system. The main reason that forced even about 20% of the officers of the General Staff to become "military experts" in the service of the Bolsheviks was the taking of their families as hostages. So, under the threat of execution of relatives, it was possible to “force those who are its opponents to build communism,” Lenin explained. effective method Trotsky (Trotsky L. "Stalin"). Each military specialist was assigned a commissar, without whose approval the orders of the commander were not carried out. The commissar had the right to arrest the commander. For the surrender of Kazan to the whites, both the commander and the commissar of the 5th Army were shot ...
Commander-in-Chief I.I. Vatsetis (who is also the commander of the Latvian division) wrote to Lenin: “Discipline in the Red Army is based on harsh punishments, especially on executions ... With merciless punishments and executions, we imposed terror on everyone, on Red Army soldiers, on commanders, on commissars ... death execution ... is practiced at the fronts so often and on all sorts of occasions and occasions that our discipline in the Red Army can be called, in the full sense of the word, bloody discipline ”(“ Memory ”, Paris, 1979, issue 2).
This, of course, gave a huge percentage of deserters: in 1919, 1 million 761 thousand deserters and 917 thousand evaders were detained (Olikov S. Desertion in the Red Army and the fight against it. M., 1926) - this was half the size of the entire Red Army ! But the rest were forced to fight. Whites, as a rule, could not ensure the implementation of their orders for mobilization and did not dare to use such punishments.
Moreover, they could not resort to the methods that Lenin advised Trotsky for the defense of Petrograd: “If the offensive has begun, is it possible to mobilize another 20 thousand St. Petersburg workers plus 10 thousand bourgeois, put machine guns behind them, shoot several hundred and achieve a real mass pressure on Yudenich ? (Latyshev A.G. Declassified Lenin. M., 1996).
The Red Army fought not only against the White armies, but also against the Russian civilian population, suppressing thousands of uprisings throughout the country. It is in this connection that Bernshtam notes that the above-mentioned high percentage of foreign punishers is unique in civil wars. “For a war in which the main operations are not strategic front-line operations, but the suppression of the insurgency and the resistance of the indigenous population, the role of the 8-19% strike backbone, focused precisely on suppression, is ... key in the victory of the regime over the population” (“Bulletin of the RHD ". Paris, 1979. No. 128).
Since 1946, February 23 was celebrated in the USSR with a slightly changed name as "The Day of the Soviet Army and navy"; in the post-communist Russian Federation, in the name of the holiday, the word "Soviet" was only replaced by "Russian" and in 1995 this day was legally approved by the State Duma and Yeltsin's holiday with a ritual salute. Today it is a festive "Defender of the Fatherland Day".
Not wanting to give up this date, now even some "neo-White Guards" are calling for a rethinking of the holiday without canceling it: they point out that it was on the night of February 22-23 that the famous ice hike the first germ of the Volunteer White Army, and therefore, they say, the same day of the "Defender of the Fatherland" can be associated with it. It seems to us that this proposal is unsuccessful, since this holiday arose precisely in the red tradition, and the current authorities still associate it with it. This, together with the mirror-parallel "holiday" of March 8, is actually a disguised celebration of the anti-monarchist revolution.
The real day of memory of the Russian army, established in 1769, was celebrated in Russia on August 29 (old style). See also November 26 (old style) - the day of the Knights of St. George.
M.V. Nazarov
(according to the book "To the Leader of the Third Rome", ch. III)
On February 23, 1918, a new military force- Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). The members of the young military organization received their baptism of fire in clashes with the White Guards, as well as German and Polish troops. Despite the lack of professional personnel and proper combat training, the soldiers of the Red Army were able to turn the tide of world history by winning the Great Patriotic War. Despite the political upheavals of the last hundred years domestic army remained faithful to military traditions. About the main stages of the creation and development of the Red Army - in the material RT.
- Cavalry of the Red Army during civil war
- RIA News
The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) originated on the territory of the former Russian Empire. From November 1917, the nominal leadership of the state was carried out by the Bolsheviks (RSDLP (b), the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party).
In opposition to them was most of"old-mode" generals. It was he, along with the Cossacks, who formed the backbone of the White Guard movement. In addition, the main external opponents of the new political structure of Russia were Kaiser's Germany (until November 1918), Poland, Great Britain, France and the USA.
A powerful military group was supposed to protect the young socialist republic from political opponents and foreign troops. The Bolsheviks took the first steps in this direction in the winter of 1917-1918.
The Soviet authorities abolished the recruitment system tsarist army, canceling all ranks and titles. On January 28, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a Decree on the creation of the Red Army, and on February 11, on the creation of a fleet. Nevertheless, February 23 is considered the founding day of the Red Army - the date of publication of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) "The socialist fatherland is in danger!".
The document spoke of the expansionist plans of "German militarism". In this regard, the citizens of the RSFSR were called upon to throw all their efforts and means into the "cause revolutionary struggle". military personnel in western regions had to defend "every position to the last drop of blood."
From workers, peasants and "able-bodied members of the bourgeois class" battalions were created to dig trenches under the guidance of military specialists. Speculators, hooligans, agents and spies of the enemy, as well as counter-revolutionaries, were to be shot at the scene of the crime.
- German troops in Kyiv, March 1918
- RIA News
At the stage of formation
The Red Army was formed in the most difficult military-political and economic conditions. Before coming to power, the Bolsheviks sought to demoralize the tsarist military by calling the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary "imperialist". The leader of the RSDLP (b), Vladimir Lenin, demanded a separate peace with the Germans and predicted an imminent regime change in Berlin.
After the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks refused to fight against Kaiser's Germany, but they failed to agree on peace. Taking advantage of Russia's weakness, German troops occupied Ukraine and became a real threat to the Bolshevik government.
At the same time, "counter-revolutionary" forces were growing in the former Russian Empire. In the south of Russia, in the Volga region and in the Urals, White Guard formations were formed. The opposition of the RSDLP (b) was supported by Western countries, which in 1918-1919 occupied part of the coastal territories of the country.
The Bolsheviks needed to create a combat-ready army, and in the shortest possible time. For some time this was hindered by the excessively democratic views of the ideologists of Bolshevism.
However, from such a view of the destination armed forces The Council of People's Commissars, which was headed by Lenin, had to be abandoned. In January 1918, the Bolsheviks actually headed for the construction of a typical regular army, which is based on the principles of unity of command, the "vertical of power" and the inevitability of punishment for non-execution of orders.
- Vladimir Lenin on Sverdlov Square in front of the troops, Moscow, May 5, 1920
- RIA News
- G. Goldstein
The paper approves the conscription system for recruiting troops. Citizens under the age of 18 could serve in the Red Army. Red Army soldiers were assigned a monthly salary of 50 rubles. The Red Army was proclaimed an instrument for protecting the rights of workers and was supposed to consist of "exploited classes."
The Red Army announced worst enemy capitalism”, and therefore was completed according to the class principle. The commanding staff were to include only workers and peasants. The term of service in the infantry of the Red Army was set at one and a half years, in the cavalry - two and a half years. At the same time, the Bolsheviks convinced the citizens that the regular character of the Red Army would gradually change to a "militia" one.
In their achievements, the Bolsheviks recorded a significant reduction in the number of troops compared with the tsarist period - from 5 million to 600 thousand people. However, by 1920, about 5.5 million soldiers and officers were already serving in the ranks of the Red Army.
Young army
A huge contribution to the formation of the Red Army was made by the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the RSFSR (since March 17, 1918) Lev Trotsky. He eliminated any indulgence, restoring the authority of commanders and the practice of executions for desertion.
Iron discipline, combined with active propaganda of revolutionary ideas and the fight against the invaders, became the key to the success of the Red Army in the eastern, southern and western fronts. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had won back the rich natural resources regions, which made it possible to provide troops with food and ammunition.
Changes for the better have also taken place in relations with Western countries. In 1919, German troops left Ukraine, and in 1920 the interventionists left the previously occupied Russian territories. However, bloody battles in 1919-1921 unfolded with the recreated Polish state.
The Soviet-Polish war ended with the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty on March 18, 1921. Warsaw, which had previously been part of the Russian Empire, received the vast lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.
At the end of 1920, when the threat of Bolshevik power had passed, Lenin announced a mass demobilization. The size of the army fell to half a million people, and the citizens who served were recorded in the reserve. In the mid-1920s, the Red Army was recruited according to the territorial-militia principle.
About 80% of the Armed Forces (AF) were citizens who were called up for military training. This approach was generally consistent with the concept of Lenin, set out in the book "State and Revolution", but in practice only exacerbated the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel.
Cardinal changes took place in the mid-1930s, when the territorial principle was abolished, and a profound reform was carried out in the command and control bodies of the Armed Forces. The size of the army began to grow, by 1941 reaching about 5 million people.
“In 1918, the country had a young army, into which many specialists from the tsarist army joined. The command staff was represented mainly by red commanders, who were trained from former non-commissioned officers and officers of the tsarist army. However, the problem of the lack of new command personnel was extremely acute. In the future, it was solved by creating new military schools and academies, ”Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), told RT.
Rising power
The achievements of the pre-war period include an unprecedented increase in production in the defense industry. The Soviet government almost completely eliminated dependence on the import of weapons technology and military products.
The Red Army won its first war after the reorganization at the cost of monstrous losses. In 1939, Moscow was unable to agree with Helsinki on the transfer of the border from Leningrad and threw troops against the Finns. On March 12, 1940, the territorial claims of the USSR were satisfied.
- Soviet troops in the area of Fort Ino on the Karelian Isthmus, 1939-1940
- RIA News
However, in three-month battles, the Red Army lost more than 120 thousand military personnel against 26 thousand from Finland. The war with Helsinki showed serious problems in logistics (lack of warm clothes) and a lack of experience among the commanding staff.
Historians most often explain the major defeats that the Soviet Armed Forces suffered in the first months of 1941 with such shortcomings in the planning of military operations. Despite the superiority in tanks, aircraft and artillery before the war with Germany, the Red Army experienced a shortage of fuel, spare parts, and most importantly, a shortage of personnel.
In November - December 1941, the Soviet troops managed to win the first and most important victory at that time: to stop the Nazis near Moscow. 1942 was a turning point for the army. Despite the loss of key industrial areas in the west of the country, Soviet Union set up the production of weapons and ammunition and improved the training system for soldiers and junior commanding officers.
In the incredible Red Army gained experience and knowledge, which was lacking in the fateful 1941. A vivid proof of the increased power of the Soviet Armed Forces was (February 2, 1943). Six months later on Kursk Bulge Germany suffered the largest tank defeat, and in 1944 the Red Army liberated the entire territory of the USSR.
The Red Army gained immortal worldwide fame thanks to the mission to liberate Central and of Eastern Europe. Soviet troops drove the Nazis out of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, East Germany and Austria. The symbol of victory over Nazism was assault flag 150th rifle division, which was hoisted over the Reichstag building on May 1, 1945.
- Soviet soldiers at the Reichstag in Berlin, May 1945
- RIA News
After the end of the Second World War, the leadership of the USSR disbanded all fronts, established military districts and began large-scale demobilization, reducing the strength of the Armed Forces from 11 to 2.5 million people. On February 25, 1946, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army. Instead of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the Ministry of the Armed Forces appeared. However, the "Red Army" did not leave the lexicon of the military.
With the growing tension in relations with the West, the number and role of the Soviet Armed Forces increased again. Since the 1950s, Moscow began to prepare for the prospect of a large-scale land war with NATO. By the end of the 1960s, the USSR had an arsenal of tens of thousands of armored vehicles and artillery.
The Soviet war machine reached its peak in the mid-1980s. With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev (1985), the confrontation with the United States has noticeably decreased. The Soviet army (in parallel with the US Armed Forces) entered a period of disarmament, which continued until the end of the 1990s.
The Soviet army ceased to exist with the paperwork on the collapse of the USSR in December 1991. However, some researchers believe that de facto the Soviet Armed Forces continued to exist until 1993, that is, until the withdrawal of the group of troops from East Germany.
- Group Soviet troops in Germany on tactical exercises
- RIA News
Return of traditions
In an interview with RT, Vladimir Afanasyev, chief researcher at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, noted that the Red Army, despite radical political changes, absorbed many traditions of the tsarist army.
“Former traditions were restored from the first months of the existence of the Red Army. The personal military ranks. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War general ranks were reintroduced, and during the war years, many traditions found a second life: shoulder straps, honorary names of units and formations, salutes in honor of the liberation of cities returned, ”said Afanasyev.
The bearers of traditions were not only personnel of the tsarist period, but also military establishments. According to the expert, the Soviet authorities created Suvorov schools in the likeness cadet corps. Their formation was initiated by the tsarist general Alexei Alekseevich Ignatiev. The tradition has also returned to enlist distinguished soldiers in the lists of units forever.
- Soldiers at the Victory Parade
- RIA News
- Alexander Wilf
“A significant part of the military schools that functioned in tsarist times continued to work after the revolution. This is the Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy, and the Academy General Staff. Therefore, we can say that almost all Soviet military leaders were students of the tsarist military minds, ”said Afanasiev.
Myagkov believes that the most intensive stage of the return of pre-revolutionary traditions occurred during the Great Patriotic War.
“In 1943, shoulder straps were introduced. Many World War I veterans who fought in the 1940s wore royal decorations. These were symbolic examples of continuity. Also during the Great Patriotic War, the Order of Glory was introduced, which, in its statute and in its colors, resembled St. George awards", - said the expert in an interview with RT.
Historians are sure that they are the successors of the Soviet troops. They simultaneously inherited the traditions of the Red Army and pre-revolutionary imperial army: patriotism, devotion to the people, loyalty to the banner and his military unit.
May 6 was a holiday in pre-revolutionary Russia, when it was customary to honor the military
February 23 is not related to the Red Army
For the first time the celebration of the Red Day, and later Soviet army February 23 was established in 1922 by a special resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) of the RSFSR, which stated: “The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee draws the attention of the executive committees to the upcoming anniversary of the creation of the Red Army (February 23).” However, in fact, this date has nothing to do with the formation of the Red Army. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars signed by V.I. Lenin on the creation of Red Army detachments was signed not on January 23, but on January 28 (15th according to the old style) January 1918. Other versions of the choice of this particular date, cited in different years, do not stand up to criticism either. It is no coincidence that in the Soviet calendars of the 80s of the XX century, under this date, it was said evasively: “The formation of the Red Army detachments began these days ...”
In fact, the day of February 23 has absolutely nothing to do with the Red Army. On the contrary, by “appointing” a holiday on this day, the Soviet authorities of the 20s sought to erase the memory of the people about two other events that occurred on this day: February Revolution 1917 (took place on February 23) and the German Ultimatum put forward by Soviet side February 23, 1918, as a result of which the shameful for Russia “Brest Peace” was signed.
About the transformation of the day of the greatest national humiliation into a holiday “invincible and legendary. Inconvenient date...
Of all the public holidays for the Russian military, the main ones remain Victory Day and Soviet Army Day (now celebrated as Defender of the Fatherland Day). Moreover, the latter has been celebrated in our country for almost 100 years, and therefore, for most Russians, this holiday is strongly associated with the day the Red Army was created.
However, few people remember that, in fact, no decrees related to the creation of the Red Army were ever adopted on February 23, and many historical facts, which were later associated with this date, turned out to be either fictitious, or received a link to the holiday quite artificially, often retroactively.
The reason is simple - it was painfully "uncomfortable" on February 23 for the young Soviet power. Therefore, for this date it was necessary to create a “correct” myth. What Soviet propaganda successfully coped with, turning the day of the greatest national humiliation into a holiday of the “invincible and legendary” ...
Look for the roots of this celebration in Russian Empire of course not worth it. Before the Bolsheviks came to power, Russian soldiers were traditionally honored on May 6 according to the old style - on the Day of St. George the Victorious. However, it was on February 23, 1917 (also according to the old style) that the February Revolution began, which ultimately led to the fall of the Russian Empire, and, consequently, canceled all old holidays and celebrations.
However, in that crucial year for our country, none of the Social Democrats, Socialist-Revolutionaries or representatives of other political forces and it would not have occurred to fix February 23 as public holiday. What is there! Those troubled times at the state itself, the names changed every couple of months.
Judge for yourself: from March to September 1917, our country was simply called by default Russian state, from September to November it was called the Russian Republic, then the Russian Democratic federal republic, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, and only since 1922 - the USSR.
But even when the Soviet government had already consolidated its positions, the Bolsheviks tried to talk only about the achievements of the October Socialist Revolution, and not the February bourgeois-democratic. This is quite understandable: in the February-March coup d'état of 1917, the Social Democrats, led by Lenin, did not play key role(Ilyich was then generally abroad).
Nevertheless, the date of February 23 remained in the memory of many. Therefore, she urgently needed to find some new application. And this application was soon found.
Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army
The following year, on January 15 (28), 1918, the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), under the chairmanship of Lenin, issued a Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (then it was customary to write all the words in the name of this body with capital letters). This measure was more than relevant: officially, the tsarist army had been gone for almost a year, and the First world war no one canceled - this campaign, we recall, ended only on November 11, 1918. And if at least some semblance of order within the country was provided by the consolidated detachments of the Red Guard of revolutionary soldiers and sailors, then for the protection Soviet state from external enemies (the same Kaiser's Germany, for example) the new government did not yet have regular armed forces. So the Decree on the creation of the Red Army, in view of its exceptional importance, Ilyich personally signed. Let us briefly quote this historical document:
The old army served as an instrument of class oppression of the working people by the bourgeoisie. With the transfer of power to the working and exploited classes, it became necessary to create a new army, which will be the bulwark of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing the people's army with the all-people armament of the proletariat in the future, and will serve as support for the coming Socialist revolution in Europe. In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides to organize a new army under the name "Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army" on the following grounds:
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is being created from the most conscious and organized representatives of the working masses. Access to its ranks is open to all citizens of the Russian Republic at least 18 years old. Anyone who is ready to give his strength, his life to defend the gains of the October Revolution and the power of the Soviets enters the Red Army. To join the ranks of the Red Army, recommendations are required: from the Army Committees or Public Democratic Organizations standing on the platform of Soviet power, party or professional organizations, or at least two members of these organizations. When joining in whole parts, a mutual guarantee of all and a roll-call vote are required.
The soldiers of the Red Army are on full state support and, moreover, receive 50 rubles a month. Disabled members of the families of soldiers who were previously dependent on them are provided with everything necessary from the organs of Soviet power.
After the publication of the decree, the registration of conscious workers and peasants in the Red Army began, from which they formed Red Army companies, which were barely reduced to regiments - there were a catastrophic lack of volunteers. The first detachment of the Red Army was formed in Petrograd. In the last days of January 1918, the Petrograd Red Army men marched demonstratively through the city, trying with their enthusiasm to hide that the powerful Red Army still exists only on paper.
A show of force was vital: on February 18, 1918, Germany violated the truce of December 2, 1917 and began the occupation of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, advancing along the entire Eastern Front. The Kaiser's troops almost daily moved deep into Russia for fifty kilometers. Moreover, in some cities the Germans did not even meet resistance - for example, Pskov and Dvinsk were taken by them almost without a single shot. Advancing from the Pinsk-Dvinsk-Riga line, German troops occupied Minsk, Polotsk and Revel during the first week of the offensive.
In order to somehow mobilize forces to fight the enemy, on February 22, the Soviet newspapers published an appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "The socialist fatherland is in danger." For many years it was believed that this document was compiled by Lenin, but modern experts attribute authorship to Leon Trotsky.
The appeal demanded that the Soviets and revolutionary organizations "defend every position to the last drop of blood", destroy food supplies that could fall into the hands of the enemy. Railway workers were ordered to withdraw the rolling stock to the east, to blow up the tracks and buildings during the retreat. The document also announced the mobilization of workers and peasants to dig trenches. The editors and employees of newspapers and magazines, closed due to opposition to the cause of revolutionary defense and sided with the German bourgeoisie, were to be sent to the same work. From here, according to many researchers, the practice of forced labor began, which was subsequently applied by the Soviet authorities to millions of their citizens.
But the most odious is the eighth point of the appeal, which can be considered a harbinger of the Bolshevik Decree "On the Red Terror."
This paragraph proclaimed the following: "Enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot at the scene of the crime."
So for the first time the Bolsheviks legalized mass executions on the spot without trial or investigation. By the way, this item was carried out on the ground with special zeal: literally the next day, again on February 23, 1918, revolutionary sailors Black Sea Fleet began a large-scale action to destroy officers, "counter-revolutionary agitators" and other "bourgeois" of Sevastopol.
2,000 "activists" took part in the massacre. Already on February 26, at a meeting of the Sevastopol Soviet, the results were summed up: more than 250 people were killed. Some white emigrants wrote about 800 dead. A wave of red terror swept across the Crimea, and soon swept over the whole country.
On the same day, February 22, 1918, simultaneously with Lenin’s call, the “Appeal of the Military Commander-in-Chief” was published, which has never been presented to anyone before. famous Nicholas Krylenko (later he will become one of the organizers of the repressions, introduce the practice of denunciations in the justice system, but soon he himself will fall a victim of the system: he will be arrested and shot in 1938). The appeal ended with the words: “All to arms. All in defense of the revolution. The general mobilization for digging trenches is entrusted to the soviets with the appointment of responsible commissars with unlimited powers. And on February 23, mass rallies were organized in Petrograd, Moscow and other cities of the country, where the proletariat was called to rise to defend the Fatherland.
According to the Soviet interpretation, it was on this day that the mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army began.
First Red Army Volunteers First Red Army Volunteers
Today it is difficult to say to what extent this entry into the ranks of the Red Army was really massive. It is officially considered that by May 10, 1918, i.e. 4 months after the start of recruitment, there were 300 thousand fighters in the Red Army. According to other sources, by April 1918 the army actually consisted of only 2,000 people.
One way or another, there were fewer volunteers than needed, and on May 29 of the same 1918, a decision was made on the mandatory mobilization of workers and peasants of military age, and on July 10, the V Congress of the RSDLP legislated the transition to recruiting the army and navy on the basis of universal military service .
This measure made it possible to sharply increase the size of the Red Army: in the autumn of 1918, half a million were already in its ranks, and by the end of the year - a million Red Army men. However, the Red Army still had enough problems: the troops did not have a single uniform, the same type of weapons, there was not even a professional command. In addition, the level of discipline and combat training of the newly-minted Red Army was very low. It is not surprising that Lenin at that time demanded "to force the command, higher and lower staff to carry out military orders at the cost of any means." The fulfillment of this task was entrusted to the people's commissar for military and naval affairs, Lev Trotsky - which is why his name is associated with the large-scale use of repressions against violators of military discipline. Recall that in the summer and autumn of 1918, decimation was resorted to at the fronts - the execution of every tenth Red Army soldier who retreated without an order.
To improve the professionalism of the Red Army, the Soviet government dared to take an extreme step - they drafted former officers and generals of the tsarist regime into the army. And so that the latter would not even think about returning to the previous system, the party control over them was carried out by military commissars and political instructors, without whose signature the orders of the commanders were not valid.
However, many officers sincerely accepted the new government and cooperated with it consciously. In general, during the years of the Civil War, 75 thousand former tsarist generals and officers fought on the side of the Soviets - this is about half of the top command staff and administrative apparatus of the Red Army. At the same time, graduates of the first military courses and schools accounted for only 37% of the red commanders. However, having called the former imperial officers into the leadership of the Red Army, the new government completely rejected the officers as a phenomenon, declaring it a "remnant of tsarism." Even the very word "officer" was replaced by "commander". At the same time, shoulder straps, old military ranks, were canceled, instead of which the titles of positions were now used - for example, “commander” (division commander - the most famous of them Vasily Chapaev) or “corps commander” (corps commander - the future marshal was also awarded this title at one time Georgy Zhukov).
The military leadership of the Red Army and Navy was carried out by the Revolutionary Military Council (RVS), headed by the same Leon Trotsky.
The economic issues of the Red Army were in charge of another body - the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense, which was led by Vladimir Lenin himself. Its members discussed the problems that arose in the army, took measures to solve them, declared certain regions of the country under a state of siege, and transferred full power in the localities to the revolutionary committees. A whole system of military and repressive-terrorist bodies, including the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), the police, the Internal Security Troops (VOHR), the Special Purpose Units (CHON), the Internal Service Troops (VUNUS), and the food army, kept order in the rear.
By the end of 1920, there were already about 5.5 million people in the ranks of the Red Army. The Bolsheviks assigned a large role in the mobilization of workers and peasants to agitation and propaganda work, which was established on a nationwide scale. Leaflets, posters, brochures, newspapers were published in gigantic editions, propaganda trains and steamboats plied around the country.
To do this, we will have to debunk several Soviet myths.
I must say that this myth was born gradually. In early January 1919, the country's leadership remembered the approaching anniversary of the adoption of the Decree on the Creation of the Red Army (recall, published on January 15, 1918 or January 28, according to the new style). So, on January 10, 1919, the chairman of the Higher Military Inspectorate of the Red Army, Nikolai Podvoisky, sent a proposal to the presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to solemnly celebrate this event, as they say, on the same day - January 28. However, due to the late application, the decision to celebrate was never made. Nevertheless, the holiday took place: on January 24, 1919, the Presidium of the Moscow Council, which at that time was headed by Lev Kamenev, decided to coincide with the celebrations on the occasion of the anniversary of the Red Army on the Day of the Red Gift (arranged to help the fighting Red Army soldiers). But due to further delays, the Moscow City Council did not manage to hold the Red Gift Day on time - February 16 - again, and therefore they decided to move both holidays to the next Sunday, which fell exactly on February 23. On this occasion, Pravda wrote on February 5, 1919: “The organization of the Red Gift Day throughout Russia has been postponed to February 23. On this day, the celebration of the anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, which was celebrated on January 28, will be organized in the cities and at the front. In subsequent years, neither Lenin, nor Trotsky, nor Stalin will ever remember this note. And just for some reason, the Soviet leaders do not remember the birthday of the Red Army in 1920 and 1921.
The next step in creating the myth was the assertion that on February 23, the Decree on the creation of the Red Army was allegedly published.
First, in January 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issues a special decree on the approaching anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, which supposedly is coming on February 23. Then, directly on February 23, 1922, the first military parade was held on Red Square, led by the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Lev Trotsky, who falsely announced from the podium that the parade was taking place in honor of the fourth anniversary of Lenin's Decree on the creation of the Red Army. And in 1923, the decision of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee already firmly stated: “On February 23, 1923, the Red Army will celebrate the 5th anniversary of its existence. On this day, five years ago, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars was published, which laid the foundation for the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, the stronghold of the proletarian dictatorship. A year later, in 1924, after the death of Ilyich, a photo of the Decree of January 28, 1918 was published in the Military Bulletin magazine. The picture will be fuzzy, blurred, as a result of which the date and Lenin's signature will be indistinguishable. But in the article itself it will be reported that this document was made public on February 23, 1918. So this date was finally falsified.
Artist A. Savinov. The painting "Adoption of the decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army."
However, the discrepancy between the facts was so obvious that it often baffled even the most distinguished Bolsheviks. So, in 1933, Klim Voroshilov, at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Red Army, openly admits: “The timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is rather random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates.” The Soviet government will not allow itself any more such reservations.
For the next anniversary of the Red Army in 1938, Stalin prepared in advance and approved the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, in which he outlined new version the appearance of the date of the holiday, no longer associated with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars: “The young detachments of the new army - the army of the revolutionary people - heroically repelled the onslaught of the German predator armed to the teeth. Near Narva and Pskov, the German invaders were given a decisive rebuff. Their advance on Petrograd was suspended.
The day of rebuffing the troops of German imperialism - February 23, 1918 - became the birthday of the young Red Army. It was a completely new interpretation of the appearance of the holiday. No one in those years, of course, dared to be surprised by this discovery, so the new myth began to live. independent life and even reached the Second World War. So, in 1942, Stalin's new order already says: "The young detachments of the Red Army, which entered the war for the first time, utterly defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva ... That is why the day of February 23, 1918 was declared the birthday of the Red Army."
Oddly enough, the Soviet people will take this myth born by Stalin on faith even after the Victory: it will be rewritten letter for letter from textbook to textbook until 1988. And certainly not worth it Soviet books in history, look for references to Lenin's article "A Difficult But Necessary Lesson." It was published in Pravda on February 25, 1918, i.e. two days after the Red Army, according to the Stalinist version of events, "defeated" the Germans near Narva. Here is an excerpt from this material: “Painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to comply with the order to destroy everything and everyone during the retreat; we are not talking about flight, chaos, armlessness, helplessness, slovenliness. There is obviously no army in the Soviet Republic.”
Why did Stalin need to envelop February 23 with a veil of secrecy even more? The fact is that, in fact, on that winter day at 10.30 am, Kaiser Germany presented Soviet Russia ultimatum. Toward night, the members of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), who gathered in Smolny, taking into account the complete incapacity of the just emerging Red Army, agreed with the conditions of the Germans. Lenin, contrary to the opinion of the majority, persuaded the party members to sign an "obscene peace", threatening to resign otherwise. The leader of the proletariat in those days was concerned not with the world proletarian revolution, but with the preservation of at least a small island of the already existing worker-peasant dictatorship.
For those who have forgotten what Russia paid for Ilyich's stubbornness, we recall that, according to the terms of the Brest Peace, our country had to recognize the independence of Courland, Livonia, Estonia, Finland and Ukraine, withdraw its troops from their territory, transfer the Anatolian provinces to Turkey, demobilize the army , disarm the fleet in the Baltic, Black Seas and the Arctic Ocean, recognize the Russian-German trade agreement of 1904, which is unfavorable for Russia, grant Germany the right of most favored nation in trade until 1925, allow duty-free export of ore and other raw materials to Germany, stop agitation and propaganda against the powers of the Quadruple Alliance.
As for the "heroic defeat" of the Germans near Narva by the soldiers of the Red Army, which, according to Stalin's " short course History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, fell on February 23, 1918, then there is not a word of truth here either.
No battles on this winter day were recorded either in the German or in the Soviet archives. It is known that Lenin personally sent the revolutionary sailor Pavel Dybenko, appointed people's commissar for maritime affairs, to defend Narva. The latter led his Flying Detachment of Baltic sailors towards the enemy, who had proven themselves excellently in dispersing (read - shooting) a peaceful demonstration of the inhabitants of Petrograd on the opening day of the Constituent Assembly. Dybenko reached Narva just in time for February 23rd. Taking with them three confiscated kegs of alcohol, the revolutionary sailors broke into the city frozen in frost and fear. Having announced his personal decrees on universal labor conscription and the Red Terror, the people's commissar sat down at the headquarters and began to redistribute alcohol, and his subordinates - the unaccountable executions of compatriots.
However, the confiscated alcohol quickly ran out. The sobered-up Baltics, seeing regular German troops approaching the city, loaded into the train and left Narva. Their retreat was stopped only a day later. Having intercepted the fleeing Dybenko in Yamburg, the former tsarist general Dmitry Parsky, who arrived from Petrograd, tried to persuade the people's commissar to return to the ingloriously abandoned city, but he replied that his "sailors were tired" and departed for Gatchina. And in the early morning of March 4, a small German detachment occupied Narva without a fight and not without slight surprise. No one began to recapture the city from the Germans, since on March 3 a peace treaty was signed in Brest-Litovsk. For desertion in May 1918, Dybenko was summoned to see Lenin in the Kremlin, after a short trial they were put on trial and expelled from the party (however, they were reinstated in 1922). And in 1938, the former People's Commissar was already accused of spying for America. His trial lasted 17 minutes. The verdict is standard: execution without delay. By the way, in the same 1938, the medal "20 Years of the Red Army" was established, but the disgraced Dybenko, of course, did not receive the award.
All these facts partly shed light on the true reasons that prompted the Soviet leadership to replace two "inconvenient" historical dates with a new far-fetched holiday - the anniversary of the February Revolution of 1917 and the German ultimatum of 1918. The myth was a glorious success - in best traditions Soviet propaganda. In fairness, it should be noted that after 1945, Victory Day became a much more significant holiday for everyone related to the Red, and then the Soviet army. Well, February 23 gradually turned into a "gender" holiday, as it is commonly called today, on which the entire male population of the country was congratulated, regardless of age and occupation - by analogy with Women's Day on March 8. However, in last years Soviet authorities officially issued reference books and calendars already tried to avoid outright lies. And those of the readers who were attentive to the signatures in such publications could pay attention to the somewhat strange "streamlined" formulations given.
Like on a tear-off sheet of this calendar, from which it is quite difficult to understand what exactly happened on this day, February 23, 1918.
Dmitry ZHVANIA
On January 15, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR issued a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army
95 years ago began the history of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). On January 15, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR issued a decree establishing it.
According to Bakunin
The system of organization, the growth and development of the armed forces of the Soviet Republic were in close connection not only with the requirements of the historical moment, but also with the ideological guidelines of the ruling Bolshevik Party. At the beginning of 1918, the revolutionary authorities were in an intense search for new forms of organization of the army. This work coincides in time with the beginning of the Civil War and the intensification of the intervention of Kaiser Germany. Therefore, all the experiments of the Soviet government in the field of military construction were immediately tested by combat. “Due to the latter circumstance, organizational work is constantly being amended due to combat experience, and its productivity is measured by the forces that the republic managed to gather, organize, supply and put on its borders by the end of the same 1918,” notes military historian Nikolai Evgenievich Kakurin ( Kakurin N.E. How the revolution fought. T.1. 1917-1918. Moscow: Politizdat, 1990).
“Anger, bragging, thirst for revenge, cruelty, inexorability, a penchant for “gold” and jewelry, for moonshine and reckless drivers, for “Maruskas” and “Katkas fat-faced” ... The first days of the Bolsheviks’ power in Kiev were full of horror and blood, Poletika recalled . “…It was restless at night. Gangs of robbers robbed passers-by on the streets and attacked houses and apartments. The townsfolk formed self-defense units. Weapons were obtained in the destroyed warehouses in Pechersk. Real battles took place near individual houses with robbers. For the first time in the entrances of houses and in the yards, night shifts of residents were organized. The duty officers had to shoot at the robbers (at that time it was not difficult to buy weapons from the soldiers) and call for help. On one of the last nights before the departure of Muravyov's troops from Kyiv, 176 attacks on the apartments of Kiev residents were recorded. ... Muravyov's three-week raid on Kyiv in February 1918 was a direct and vivid manifestation of the violent youth of Bolshevism.
Historian Richard Pipes concluded that "until the summer of 1918, the Red Army existed for the most part on paper", since the principles of voluntary recruitment and election of commanders led to its small number, weak control, low combat readiness
The Bolshevik government of the People's Secretariat of Ukraine, which moved from Kharkov, demanded the removal of Muravyov from the city, calling him the "leader of bandits."
Muravyov himself, while in Odessa, described his “exploits” in Kyiv as follows: “We are going to establish Soviet power with fire and sword. I occupied the city, beat on palaces and churches ... beat, giving no quarter to anyone! January 28 Duma (Kyiv) asked for a truce. In response, I ordered them to be gassed. Hundreds of generals, and maybe thousands, were mercilessly killed ... So we took revenge. We could stop the wrath of revenge, however we did not, because our slogan is to be merciless!”
According to the chairman of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who arrested Muravyov in Moscow in April 1918 (he was soon released): “The worst enemy could not bring us as much harm as he did with his nightmarish reprisals, executions, granting soldiers the right to plunder cities and villages. He did all this in the name of our Soviet government, turning the entire population against us. Robbery and violence - it was a conscious military tactics which, while giving us fleeting success, brought defeat and disgrace as a result. On July 11, 1918, shortly after the rebellion of the Left Social Revolutionaries in Moscow, Muravyov was killed by security officers during his arrest (according to another version, he shot himself).
Regular construction
In March 1918, the reins of the Red Army were handed over to Leon Trotsky. On March 28, he became chairman of the Supreme Military Council, formed on March 1; and in April - people's commissar for maritime affairs. On July 26, 1918, Trotsky submitted for discussion by the Council of People's Commissars a resolution "On the establishment of universal conscription of the working people and on the involvement of the corresponding ages of the bourgeois classes in the rear militia." But even before the execution of this act, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced the call of all workers and peasants who did not exploit the labor of others in the 51st district of the Volga, Ural and West Siberian military districts, and, in addition, it was recognized as necessary to call on workers in Petrograd and Moscow. Soon, conscription into the ranks of the Red Army was extended to the command staff. Finally, by a decree of July 29, the entire population of the country liable for military service aged 18 to 40 was registered and horse service was established. “These decrees,” notes Nikolai Kakurin, “determined a significant increase in the armed forces of the Republic, pouring into the framework already ready for them.” By September 15, 1918, the size of the Red Army had increased to 452,509 people.
The real Red Army arose in the summer of 1918 during the battles for Kazan. It was created by Leon Trotsky in spite of all ideological chimeras about volunteering
The real Red Army arose in the summer of 1918 during the battles for Kazan. It was created by Leon Trotsky in spite of all ideological chimeras about volunteerism. “You cannot build an army without repression. You can't lead masses of people to their death without having the command of the death penalty in their arsenal. As long as the evil tailless monkeys called humans, proud of their technology, build armies and fight, the command will put the soldiers between possible death ahead and inevitable death behind,” he later wrote. The criterion of truth is practice. And the practice of military construction in the Soviet Republic has shown that the principle of volunteerism does not work in the matter of creating a large combat-ready army. And yet this principle is constantly found in the programs of leftist organizations. On the other hand, okay. After all, they, these programs, will never be implemented, and the paper endures everything. On the other hand, the army does not tolerate self-activity and democracy, especially in war time. An army is always a hierarchy. Serving in the army, one must perceive the "poetry of the order."
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