1 who was the creator of the red army. View from the white camp

On February 23, 1918, a new military force appeared in Russia - the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). Baptism of fire young participants military organization received 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 change the course of world history by winning the Great Patriotic War. Despite the political upheavals of the last hundred years, the Russian army has remained faithful to military traditions. About the main stages of the creation and development of the Red Army - in the RT material.

Cavalry of the Red Army during the Civil War
RIA News

The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) was born on the territory of the former Russian Empire. Since November 1917, the nominal leadership of the state was exercised by the Bolsheviks (RSDLP (b), the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party).

Most of the “old regime” generals were in opposition to them. It was he, together with the Cossacks, who formed the backbone of the White Guard movement. In addition, the main external opponents of Russia's new political system were the 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 eliminated 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, the founding day of the Red Army is considered to be February 23 - the date of publication of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!”

The document spoke about the expansionist plans of “German militarism.” In this regard, citizens of the RSFSR were called upon to devote all their strength and resources to the “cause of revolutionary struggle.” Military personnel in the western regions were required to defend “every position until last straw blood."

From workers, peasants and "able-bodied members bourgeois class“battalions were created to dig trenches under the leadership of military specialists. Speculators, hooligans, agents and spies of the enemy, as well as counter-revolutionaries were subject to execution 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 a quick regime change in Berlin.

After seizing power, the Bolsheviks refused to fight with the 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 strengthening in the former Russian Empire. White Guard formations were formed in the south of Russia, in the Volga region and the Urals. The opposition to the RSDLP (b) was supported by Western countries, which in 1918-1919 occupied part of the country’s coastal territories.

The Bolsheviks needed to create a combat-ready army, and in the shortest possible time. This was hampered for some time by the overly democratic views of the ideologists of Bolshevism.

However, such a view of the purpose of the armed forces of the SNK, which was headed by Lenin, had to be abandoned. In January 1918, the Bolsheviks actually set a course for the construction of a typical regular army, which was based on the principles of unity of command, the “vertical of power” and the inevitability of punishment for failure to comply with 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 no younger than 18 years old could serve in the Red Army. Red Army soldiers were given a monthly salary of 50 rubles. The Red Army was proclaimed as an instrument for the protection of workers' rights and was supposed to consist of “exploited classes.”

The Red Army was declared “the worst enemy of capitalism”, and therefore was recruited according to the class principle. The command staff should have included only workers and peasants. The service life in the Red Army infantry was set at around one and a half years, in the cavalry - two and a half years. At the same time, the Bolsheviks convinced citizens that the regular nature of the Red Army would gradually change to a “militia” one.

The Bolsheviks recorded a significant reduction in the number of troops compared to 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) Leon Trotsky. He eliminated any concessions, 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 occupiers, became the key to the success of the Red Army in the eastern, southern and western fronts. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had recaptured the rich natural resources regions, which made it possible to provide troops with food and ammunition.

Changes for the better have also occurred in relations with Western countries. In 1919, German troops left Ukraine, and in 1920, the interventionists abandoned 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 vast lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

At the end of 1920, when the threat to Bolshevik power had passed, Lenin announced mass demobilization. The size of the army fell to half a million people, and 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 Lenin’s concept outlined in the book “State and Revolution,” but in practice only aggravated the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel.

Fundamental changes occurred in the mid-1930s, when the territorial principle was abolished, and a profound reform was carried out in the governing bodies of the Armed Forces. The size of the army began to grow, reaching about 5 million people by 1941.

“In 1918, the country had a young army, which included many specialists from the tsarist army. 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. Subsequently, it was solved by creating new military schools and academies,” Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), told RT.

Growing 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 imports of weapons technologies and military products.

The Red Army won its first war after the reorganization at the cost of terrible losses. In 1939, Moscow was unable to agree with Helsinki on moving the border from Leningrad and sent 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 the three-month battles, the Red Army lost more than 120 thousand troops against 26 thousand from Finland. The war with Helsinki demonstrated serious problems in logistics (lack of warm clothes) and lack of experience among the command 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 its 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, Soviet troops managed to win their first and most important victory at that time: stopping 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 established the production of weapons and ammunition and improved the training system for soldiers and junior commanders.

Incredibly, the Red Army gained experience and knowledge that it lacked in the fateful 1941. A clear proof of the increased power of the Soviet Armed Forces was (February 2, 1943). Six months later 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 its 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 the assault flag of the 150th Infantry 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 USSR leadership disbanded all fronts, established military districts and began large-scale demobilization, reducing the number of 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 vocabulary of military personnel.

With increasing tensions in relations with the West, the size 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 military machine reached its peak in the mid-1980s. With Mikhail Gorbachev coming to power (1985), confrontation with the United States noticeably decreased. The Soviet army (in parallel with the American armed forces) entered a period of disarmament, which lasted until the end of the 1990s.

The Soviet army ceased to exist with the registration of documents on the collapse of the USSR in December 1991. However, some researchers believe that the de facto Soviet Armed Forces continued to exist until 1993, that is, until the withdrawal of a group of troops from East Germany.

A group of Soviet troops in Germany during tactical exercises
RIA News

Return of traditions

In a conversation with RT, chief researcher Central Museum Armed Forces RF Vladimir Afanasyev 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. Personal information has been returned 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, fireworks in honor of the liberation of cities returned,” said Afanasyev.

The bearers of traditions were not only personnel from the tsarist period, but also military institutions. According to the expert, the Soviet authorities created Suvorov schools in the image and likeness cadet corps. Their formation was initiated by the tsarist general Alexey Alekseevich Ignatiev. The tradition of including distinguished soldiers in the lists of units forever has also returned.

Military personnel at the Victory Parade
RIA News
Alexander Vilf

“A significant part of the military schools that functioned during tsarist times continued to operate after the revolution. These are the Mikhailovsk Military Artillery Academy and the Academy of the General Staff. Therefore, we can say that almost all Soviet military leaders were students of the tsarist military minds,” Afanasyev said.

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 colors resembled the St. George’s awards,” the expert said in an interview with RT.

Historians are sure that they are the successors of the Soviet troops. They inherited both the traditions of the Red Army and the pre-revolutionary imperial army: patriotism, devotion to the people, loyalty to the banner and one’s military unit.

On February 23, 1918, a new military force appeared in Russia - the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). 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 change the course of world history by winning the Great Patriotic War. Despite the political upheavals of the last hundred years, the Russian army has remained faithful to military traditions. About the main stages of the creation and development of the Red Army - in the RT material.

Red Army cavalry during civil war RIA News

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) originated on the territory of the former Russian Empire. Since November 1917, the nominal leadership of the state was exercised by the Bolsheviks (RSDLP (b), the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party).

The Soviet authorities liquidated the recruitment system of the tsarist army, abolishing 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, the founding day of the Red Army is considered to be February 23 - the date of publication of the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!”

The document spoke about the expansionist plans of “German militarism.” In this regard, citizens of the RSFSR were called upon to devote all their strength and resources to the “cause of revolutionary struggle.” Military personnel in the western regions had to defend “every position to the last drop of blood.”

Battalions were created from workers, peasants and “able-bodied members of the bourgeois class” to dig trenches under the leadership of military specialists. Speculators, hooligans, agents and spies of the enemy, as well as counter-revolutionaries were subject to execution at the scene of the crime.

German troops in Kyiv, March 1918
RIA News

At the stage of formation

The Bolsheviks needed to create a combat-ready army, and in the shortest possible time. This was hampered for some time by the overly democratic views of the ideologists of Bolshevism.

Vladimir Lenin on Sverdlov Square in front of the troops, Moscow, May 5, 1920
RIA News
G. Goldstein

Young army

Iron discipline, combined with active propaganda of revolutionary ideas and the fight against the occupiers, became the key to the success of the Red Army on the eastern, southern and western fronts. By 1920, the Bolsheviks had conquered regions rich in natural resources, which made it possible to provide troops with food and ammunition.

Changes for the better have also occurred in relations with Western countries. In 1919, German troops left Ukraine, and in 1920, the interventionists abandoned the previously occupied Russian territories. However, bloody battles in 1919-1921 unfolded with the recreated Polish state.

Growing Power

Soviet troops in the area of Fort Ino on the Karelian Isthmus, 1939-1940
RIA News

In November - December 1941, Soviet troops managed to win their first and most important victory at that time: stopping 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, the Soviet Union established the production of weapons and ammunition and improved the training system for soldiers and junior commanders.

In incredibly bloody battles, the Red Army gained experience and knowledge that was missing in the fateful 1941. A clear proof of the increased power of the Soviet Armed Forces was the defeat of the Wehrmacht in Battle of Stalingrad(February 2, 1943). Six months later, Germany suffered its largest tank defeat at the Kursk Bulge, and in 1944 the Red Army liberated the entire territory of the USSR.

The Red Army gained immortal worldwide fame thanks to its mission to liberate Central and Eastern Europe from the Nazis. Soviet troops drove the Nazis out of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, East Germany and Austria. The symbol of Victory over Nazism was the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division, which was hoisted over the Reichstag building on May 1, 1945.

Soviet soldiers at the Reichstag in Berlin, May 1945
RIA News

A group of Soviet troops in Germany during tactical exercises
RIA News

Return of traditions

In a conversation 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, had absorbed many traditions of the tsarist army.

“Former traditions were restored from the first months of the existence of the Red Army. Personal military ranks were returned. 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, fireworks in honor of the liberation of cities returned,” said Afanasyev.

The bearers of traditions were not only personnel from the tsarist period, but also military institutions. According to the expert, the Soviet authorities created Suvorov schools in the image and likeness of the cadet corps. Their formation was initiated by the tsarist general Alexey Alekseevich Ignatiev. The tradition of including distinguished soldiers in the lists of units forever has also returned.

Military personnel at the Victory Parade
RIA News
Alexander Vilf

Myagkov believes that the most intensive stage of the return of pre-revolutionary traditions occurred during the Great Patriotic War.

Historians are confident that the modern Russian armed forces are the successors of the Soviet troops. They inherited both the traditions of the Red Army and the pre-revolutionary imperial army: patriotism, devotion to the people, loyalty to the banner and their military unit.

Military pressure on Soviet Russia Already in the spring of 1918, it set the stage for the creation of a large, combat-ready Red Army, but it was not easy to do this quickly. Until mid-January 1918, the task of democratizing the old army was mainly solved. January 15, 1918 Lenin signed a decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) on a volunteer basis.

During this period, it was staffed from among class-conscious workers and poor peasants. At the same time, the popular myth that the Red Army was founded on February 23 and this holiday in honor of its organization has no basis. By May 10, 1918, 306 thousand people served in units of the Red Army (250 thousand Red Army soldiers and 34 thousand Red Guards), of which more than 70% were communists and sympathizers. On May 29, a decision was made on the mandatory mobilization of workers and peasants of a number of conscription ages, and on July 10, 1918, the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets legislated the transition to recruiting the army and navy on the basis of a universal conscription.

When creating the Red Army, the new government had to overcome a number of difficulties. In the spring of 1918, the troops did not have uniform personnel, uniforms, or the same type of weapons. The management of military units was carried out by elected commanders and collegial bodies. The level of discipline and combat training of the Red Army soldiers and “commanders” was low. The authorities remained suspicious of the officer corps and the hostility of many officers towards the Bolsheviks. All this had to be overcome decisively and in a short time.

The transition to universal conscription made it possible to sharply increase the size of the Red Army: in the fall of 1918 it exceeded half a million, and by the end of the year - 1 million soldiers. Measures were taken to restore discipline: V.I. Lenin demanded “to force the command staff, higher and lower, to carry out combat orders at the cost of any means necessary.” The name of the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs L. D. Trotsky is associated with the widespread and deliberate use of repression against violators of military discipline. In addition to the one restored back in February death penalty, in the summer and autumn of 1918, at the fronts they resorted to decimation - the execution of every tenth soldier of a unit that yielded without an order.

To increase professionalism, it was decided to recruit officers and generals from the previous regime into the new army. Lenin also considered the use of military specialists as a form of class struggle. To exercise party control over them, the institution of military commissars was created, who were “assigned” to military experts. Without the signature of the commissars, the orders of the commanders were not valid. The families of former officers were placed under the control of the Cheka and were actually in the position of hostages. At the same time, many officers sincerely accepted the new government and consciously collaborated with it. In general, during the Civil War, 75 thousand former tsarist generals and officers fought on the side of the Soviets. Former military specialists made up 48% of the senior command staff and administrative apparatus, 15% were former non-commissioned officers. Graduates of the first Soviet courses and schools made up only 37% of the Red commanders. By the end of 1920, there were about 5.5 million people in the ranks of the Red Army.

Militarization of control and concentration of resources. Since the beginning of the Civil War, the Soviet leadership took vigorous measures to mobilize all available resources for victory. On September 2, 1918, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RMR) was created. He exercised direct leadership of the army and navy, as well as all institutions of the military and naval departments. L. D. Trotsky, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, was appointed chairman. The main working bodies of the RVSR were the Field Headquarters, which was in charge of military operations, and the All-Russian Main Staff, which was involved in organizing the rear, recruiting and training troops.

On November 30, 1918, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense was formed. The new emergency body was headed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, V. I. Lenin. The activities of the Defense Council covered primarily economic issues, the solution of which was necessary to ensure the unity of the front and rear. Meeting, as a rule, regularly - twice a week, the Council discussed emerging problems and took prompt measures to overcome difficulties. He also made decisions to declare certain areas of the country under a state of war (siege) and transfer all power in them to the revolutionary committees.

In the difficult conditions of the Civil War, maintaining order in the rear acquired particular importance. For this purpose it was created special system military and repressive-terrorist bodies are defending the revolution. It included the Cheka, the police, the Internal Security Troops (VOKhR), the Special Purpose Units (CHON), the Internal Service Troops (VUNUS), the food army and some other military formations that were outside the subordination of the command of the Red Army and operated mainly in the rear. Special role among them belonged to the Cheka. From mid-1918, there was an accelerated creation of local (provincial, district, volost, rural) emergency commissions. In accordance with the decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of October 28, 1918, all of them received the right to create armed detachments, the number of which by March 1919 reached 30 thousand people. In dangerous moments in some territories, local Chekas took over the functions of bodies of Soviet power.

Already in the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks began to brutally suppress all opposition political forces, trying to suppress even the possibility of their consolidation. Since then, BCQ has used the word “terror” more frequently. Explaining its meaning at the end of June 1918, Chairman of the Cheka F.E. Dzerzhinsky said: “Society and the press do not correctly understand the tasks and nature of our commission. They understand the fight against counter-revolution in the sense of normal state policy and scream hollowly about guarantees, courts, investigations, etc. We have nothing in common with military revolutionary tribunals, we represent organized terror. This needs to be said openly.” No less characteristic is the August statement of the head of the Petrograd organization of the RCP (b) G. E. Zinoviev: “We now calmly read that somewhere there 200-300 people were shot. The other day I read a note that, it seems, several thousand White Guards were shot in Livny, Oryol province. If we go at this pace, we will quickly reduce the bourgeois population of Russia.”

After the attempt on Lenin's life and the murder of the main Petrograd security officer M. S. Uritsky, on September 5, 1918, a Decree of the Council of People's Commissars was issued, which ordered that all persons associated with White Guard conspiracies be shot on the spot. Hostage-taking has become a mass phenomenon. According to experts, in September - October 1918 alone, about 15 thousand people were shot on the territory of Soviet Russia. The main victims were representatives of the officers, nobility, bourgeoisie, intelligentsia, and sometimes members of their families. At the same time, the creation of a network was launched across the country concentration camps, whose contingent numbered in the tens of thousands.

During the war years, the Bolsheviks managed to create a strict system of confiscating food from peasants to supply soldiers and partly the urban population, primarily the proletariat. The work of enterprises providing the production of weapons, ammunition, and uniforms for the active army was also established. And although the organization of economic life was built to a large extent using coercion, and the quantity produced was far from optimal needs, it still made it possible to create the necessary conditions for the survival of the Soviet Republic.

Big role In mobilizing workers and peasants to repel the enemy, the Bolsheviks devoted agitation and propaganda work, which was organized on a national scale. Both political workers and cultural figures took part in this activity. Leaflets, posters, brochures, and newspapers were published in large quantities, and propaganda trains and propaganda steamboats traveled throughout the country. The monumental propaganda plan envisaged the creation of a series of monuments to revolutionaries and progressive figures of “all times and eras.” Public buildings, institutions, as well as holidays and others public events were decorated with banners, posters, banners, the content of which promoted the goals of the new government, the greatness of labor, the union of workers and peasants (“What the revolution brings to the working people”; “Peace of the peoples will be concluded on the ruins of bourgeois rule”; “Factory - to the working people”; “Land to the peasants”) " and so on.). The intervention of the Entente countries, foreign support for the White movement, Poland's war against Soviet Russia gave the Bolsheviks the opportunity to intercept from their enemies the slogans of defending the freedom and independence of the Fatherland.

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creation of the red army briefly

On January 15, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was published
About the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
In short, it was created by Trotsky...
Military pressure on Soviet Russia already in the spring of 1918 paved the way for the creation of a large, combat-ready Red Army, but it was not easy to do this quickly. Until mid-January 1918, the task of democratizing the old army was mainly solved. January 15, 1918 Lenin signed a decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) on a volunteer basis. During this period, it was staffed from among class-conscious workers and poor peasants. By May 10, 1918, 306 thousand people served in the Red Army units (250 thousand Red Army soldiers and 34 thousand Red Guards), of which more than 70% were communists and sympathizers. On May 29, a decision was made on the mandatory mobilization of workers and peasants of a number of conscription ages, and on July 10, 1918, the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets legislated the transition to recruiting the army and navy on the basis of general military service.
When creating the Red Army, the new government had to overcome a number of difficulties. In the spring of 1918, the troops did not have uniform personnel, uniforms, or the same type of weapons. The management of military units was carried out by elected commanders and collegial bodies. The level of discipline and combat training of the Red Army soldiers and command personnel was low. The authorities remained suspicious of the officer corps and the hostility of many officers towards the Bolsheviks. All this had to be overcome decisively and in a short time.
The transition to universal conscription made it possible to sharply increase the size of the Red Army: in the fall of 1918 it exceeded half a million, and by the end of the year there were 1 million soldiers. Measures were taken to restore discipline: V.I. Lenin demanded that the command staff, higher and lower, be forced to carry out combat orders at the cost of any means necessary. The name of the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs L. D. Trotsky is associated with the widespread and deliberate use of repression against violators of military discipline. In addition to the death penalty restored back in February, in the summer and autumn of 1918, at the fronts they resorted to decimation of the execution of every tenth soldier who surrendered without an order.
To increase professionalism, it was decided to recruit officers and generals from the previous regime into the new army. Lenin also considered the use of military specialists as a form of class struggle. To exercise party control over them, the institution of military commissars was created, who were assigned to military experts. Without the signature of the commissars, the orders of the commanders were not valid. The families of former officers were placed under the control of the Cheka and were actually in the position of hostages. At the same time, many officers sincerely accepted the new government and consciously collaborated with it. In general, during the Civil War, 75 thousand former tsarist generals and officers fought on the side of the Soviets. Former military specialists made up 48% of the senior command staff and administrative apparatus, 15% were former non-commissioned officers. Graduates of the first Soviet courses and schools made up only 37% of the Red commanders. By the end of 1920, there were about 5.5 million people in the ranks of the Red Army.
Militarization of control and concentration of resources. Since the beginning of the Civil War, the Soviet leadership took vigorous measures to mobilize all available resources for victory. On September 2, 1918, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) was created. He exercised direct leadership of the army and navy, as well as all institutions of the military and naval departments. L. D. Trotsky, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, was appointed chairman. The main working bodies of the RVSR were the Field Headquarters, which was in charge of military operations, and the All-Russian Main Staff, which was involved in organizing the rear, recruiting and training troops.
On November 30, 1918, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense was formed. The new emergency body was headed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, V. I. Lenin. The activities of the Defense Council covered primarily economic issues, the solution of which was necessary to ensure the unity of the front and rear. Meeting, as a rule, regularly twice a week
Briefly? HURRAY!

On January 15 (28), 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a Decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) on a voluntary basis. On January 29 (February 11), the Decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF) was signed. Direct management of the formation of the Red Army was carried out by the All-Russian Collegium, created under the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs.

In connection with the violation of the truce concluded with Germany and its troops going on the offensive, on February 22, 1918, the government turned to the people with a decree-appeal signed by V.I. Lenin, “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!” The next day, mass enrollment of volunteers into the Red Army and the formation of many of its units began. In February 1918, Red Army detachments offered decisive resistance to German troops near Pskov and Narva. In honor of these events, on February 23, a national holiday began to be celebrated annually - the Day of the Red (Soviet) Army and Navy(later Defender of the Fatherland Day).

DECREE ON THE FORMATION OF THE VOLUNTARY WORKERS' AND PEASANTS' RED ARMY JANUARY 15(28), 1918

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, the need arose to create a new army, which will be the stronghold of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing the standing army with all-people's weapons in the near future and will serve as support for the coming socialist

revolutions in Europe.

In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides:

organize a new army called the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", on the following grounds:

1) The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is created from the most conscious and organized elements of the working masses.

2) Access to its ranks is open to all citizens of the Russian Republic at least 18 years of age. Anyone who is ready to give their strength, their life to defend their conquests joins the Red Army. October revolution, the power of the Soviets and socialism. To join the Red Army, the following recommendations are required:

military 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, mutual responsibility of everyone and a roll-call vote are required.

1) Warriors of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army are on full state pay and on top of this receive 50 rubles. per month.

2) Disabled members of the families of Red Army soldiers, who were previously their dependents, are provided with everything necessary according to local consumer standards, in accordance with the decrees of local bodies of Soviet power.

The supreme governing body of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is the Council of People's Commissars. Direct leadership and management of the army is concentrated in the Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Collegium created under it.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars

V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

Supreme Commander-in-Chief N. Krylenko.

People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs:

Dybenko and Podvoisky.

People's Commissars: Proshyan, Zatonsky and Steinberg.

Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars

Vlad.Bonch-Bruevich.

Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars N. Gorbunov.

Decrees of the Soviet government. T. 1. M., State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1957.

APPEAL OF THE BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT

In order to save an exhausted, tormented country from new military trials, we made the greatest sacrifice and announced to the Germans our agreement to sign their peace terms. On the evening of February 20 (7), our envoys left Rezhitsa for Dvinsk, and there is still no answer. The German government is apparently 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, return the lands to the landowners, factories and factories to the bankers, and the authorities to the monarchy. German generals want to establish their “order” in Petrograd and Kyiv. The Socialist Republic of Soviets is in the greatest danger. Until the moment when the German proletariat rises and wins, the sacred duty of the workers and peasants of Russia is the selfless defense of the Soviet Republic against the hordes of bourgeois-imperialist Germany. The Council of People's Commissars decides: 1) All forces and means of the country are entirely allocated to the cause of revolutionary defense. 2) All Soviets and revolutionary organizations are charged with the duty of defending every position to the last drop of blood. 3) Railway organizations and the Soviets associated with them are obliged to do their best to prevent the enemy from using the communications apparatus; during retreat, destroy tracks, blow up and burn railway buildings; all rolling stock - carriages and locomotives - should be immediately sent east into the interior of the country. 4) All grain and food supplies in general, as well as any valuable property that is in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, must be subject to unconditional destruction; supervision of this is entrusted to local Councils under the personal responsibility of their chairmen. 5) The workers and peasants of Petrograd, Kyiv and all cities, towns, villages and hamlets along the new front must mobilize battalions to dig trenches under the leadership of military specialists. 6) These battalions must include all able-bodied members of the bourgeois class, men and women, 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 for the purpose of overthrowing Soviet power, are closed; able-bodied editors and staff of these publications are mobilized to dig trenches and other defensive work. 8) Enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot at the scene of the crime.

The socialist fatherland is in danger! Long live the socialist fatherland! Long live the international socialist revolution!

Decree “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!”

DECISION OF THE ALL-Russian Central Executive Committee ON FORCED RECRUITMENT INTO THE WORKERS' AND PEASANTS' ARMY

The Central Executive Committee believes that the transition from a volunteer army to a general mobilization of workers and poor peasants is imperatively dictated by the entire situation of the country, both for the struggle for bread and for repelling the insolent counter-revolution, both internal and external, due to hunger.

It is necessary to move immediately to forced recruitment of one or more ages. In view of the complexity of the matter and the difficulty of carrying it out simultaneously over the entire territory of the country, it seems necessary to begin, on the one hand, with the most threatened areas, and on the other hand, with the main centers of the labor movement.

Based on the above, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decides to order the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs to develop within a week for Moscow, Petrograd, the Don and Kuban regions a plan for implementing forced recruitment within such limits and forms that would least disrupt the course of production and public life designated regions and cities.

The corresponding Soviet institutions are ordered to take the most energetic and active part in the work of the Military Commissariat to fulfill the tasks assigned to it.

VIEW FROM THE WHITE CAMP

Back in mid-January, the Soviet government promulgated a decree on organizing a “workers’ and peasants’ army” from “the most conscious and organized elements of the working class.” But the formation of a new class army was unsuccessful, and the council had to turn to old organizations: units from the front and from reserve battalions were allocated. respectively, screened out and processed, Latvian, sailor detachments and the Red Guard, formed by factory committees. They all went against Ukraine and the Don. What force moved these people, mortally tired of the war, to new cruel sacrifices and hardships? Least of all is devotion. Soviet power and her ideals. Hunger, unemployment, prospects for an idle, well-fed life and enrichment through robbery, the inability to get back to their native places in any other way, the habit of many people during the four years of war to soldiering as a craft (“declassed”), and finally, to a greater or lesser extent, a sense of class malice and hatred, nurtured over centuries and fueled by the strongest propaganda.

A.I. Denikin. Essays on Russian Troubles.

DEFENDER OF THE FATHERLAND DAY - HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAY

The holiday originated in the USSR, then February 23 was celebrated annually as a national holiday - Day Soviet army and the Navy.

There was no document establishing February 23 as an official Soviet holiday. Soviet historiography linked the commemoration of the military to this date with the events of 1918: on January 28 (15 old style) January 1918, the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), headed by Chairman Vladimir Lenin, adopted a Decree on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and February 11 (January 29, old style) - Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF).

On February 22, the decree-appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!" was published, and on February 23, mass rallies took place in Petrograd, Moscow and other cities of the country, at which workers were called upon to stand up for the defense of their Fatherland. This day was marked by the massive entry of volunteers into the Red Army and the beginning of the formation of its detachments and units.

On January 10, 1919, the Chairman of the Higher Military Inspectorate of the Red Army, Nikolai Podvoisky, sent to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee a proposal to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, timing the celebration to the nearest Sunday before or after January 28. However, due to the late submission of the application, no decision was made.

Then the Moscow Soviet took the initiative to celebrate the first anniversary of the Red Army. On January 24, 1919, its presidium, which at that time was headed by Lev Kamenev, decided to coincide these celebrations with the day of the Red Gift, held with the aim of collecting material and monetary resources for the Red Army.

A Central Committee was created under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) to organize the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army and Red Gift Day, which took place on Sunday, February 23.

On February 5, Pravda and other newspapers published the following information: “The organization of the Red Gift Day throughout Russia has been postponed to February 23. On this day, celebrations of the anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, which was celebrated on January 28, will be organized in cities and at the front.”

On February 23, 1919, Russian citizens celebrated the anniversary of the Red Army for the first time, but this day was not celebrated either in 1920 or 1921.

On January 27, 1922, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee published a resolution on the fourth anniversary of the Red Army, which stated: “In accordance with the resolution of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the Red Army, 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).”

The Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Leon Trotsky, organized a military parade on Red Square on this day, thereby establishing the tradition of an annual national celebration.

In 1923, the five-year anniversary of the Red Army was widely celebrated. The resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, adopted on January 18, 1923, 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 of January 28 of the same year, which marked the beginning of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the stronghold of the proletarian dictatorship."

The tenth anniversary of the Red Army in 1928, like all previous ones, was celebrated as the anniversary of the Council of People's Commissars decree on the organization of the Red Army of January 28, 1918, but the date of publication itself was directly linked to February 23.

In 1938, in the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” the fundamental a new version origin of the date of the holiday, not related to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars. The book stated that in 1918, near Narva and Pskov, “the German occupiers were given a decisive rebuff. Their advance to Petrograd was suspended. The day of repulse to the troops of German imperialism - February 23 - became the birthday of the young Red Army.” Later, in the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated February 23, 1942, the wording was slightly changed: “The young detachments of the Red Army, which entered the war for the first time, completely defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23 was declared a day birth of the Red Army."

In 1951, another interpretation of the holiday appeared. In the “History of the Civil War in the USSR” it was stated that in 1919 the first anniversary of the Red Army was celebrated “on the memorable day of the mobilization of workers for the defense of the socialist Fatherland, the mass entry of workers into the Red Army, the widespread formation of the first detachments and units of the new army.”

In the Federal Law of March 13, 1995 “On the Days military glory Russia", the day of February 23 was officially called "Victory Day of the Red Army over the Kaiser's troops of Germany (1918) - Day of Defenders of the Fatherland."

In accordance with the amendments made to the Federal Law "On the Days of Military Glory of Russia" Federal law dated April 15, 2006, the words “Victory Day of the Red Army over the Kaiser’s troops of Germany (1918)” were excluded from the official description of the holiday, and the concept of “defender” was also stated in the singular.

In December 2001, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation supported the proposal to make February 23 - Defender of the Fatherland Day - a non-working holiday.

On Defender of the Fatherland Day, Russians honor those who served or are currently serving in the ranks of the country's Armed Forces.