Question:
How important was Trotsky to the Bolshevik victory in
the Civil War? |
You
would need to weigh up this contribution against other
factors. |
Trotsky addressing troops during the civil war.
|
He was very important. In fact, it is unlikely that the Bolsheviks
would have won so convincingly without Trotsky's leadership. He
was appointed Commissar for War in March 1918 and built up the
army from nothing, introducing conscription for men over 18 years.
By 1920 he had organised the Red Army into an efficient fighting
force of five million troops. He also recruited 50,000 ex-Tsarist
officers to lead the new army and appointed Political Commissars
who were attached to each army unit to ensure the loyalty of the
officers and maintain the discipline of the ordinary troops. Trotsky
travelled all over Bolshevik controlled territory in his own armoured
train raising the morale of the Red Army soldiers wherever fighting
was hardest. This train contained a printing shop for propaganda,
specialists in engineering, provisioning and street fighting.
Trotsky was also an effective leader because his used terror tactics.
He handed out punishment to deserters or people suspected of supporting
the opposition, and threatened to detain a soldier’s family
if he betrayed the cause. Trotsky’s leadership role was
doubly significant because the White Armies had problems with
their leadership and failed to co-ordinate their attacks on the
Bolsheviks. This meant that Trotsky was able to defeat each of
the White Armies one by one e.g. Kolchak was captured by the Red
Army in 1920 when different groups within his forces failed to
cooperate with each other. The only major setback experienced
by the Red Army was its defeat at the hands of the Poles in 1920. |
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