Initially, the Soviet Red Army, the creation of which took place against the backdrop of the outbreak of civil war, had utopian features. The Bolsheviks believed that under a socialist system the army should be built on a voluntary basis. This project was in line with Marxist ideology. Such an army was opposed to the regular armies of Western countries. According to the theoretical doctrine, in society there could only be "universal arming of the people."
Creation of the Red Army
The first steps of the Bolsheviks said that they really wanted to abandon the former tsarist system. On December 16, 1917, a decree was passed on the abolition of officer ranks. Commanders were now elected by their own subordinates. According to the party, on the day of the creation of the Red Army, the new army was to become truly democratic. Time has shown that these designs could not survive the trials of a bloody era.
The Bolsheviks managed to seize power in Petrograd with the help of a few Red Guards and separate revolutionary detachments of sailors and soldiers. The interim government was paralyzed, which indecently eased the task of Lenin and his supporters. But outside the capital there was a huge country, most of which was not at all happy for the party of radicals, whose leaders arrived in Russia in a sealed train from enemy Germany.
By the beginning of the full-scale civil war, the Bolshevik armed forces were notable for their poor military training and the lack of centralized effective command. Those serving in the Red Guard were guided by revolutionary chaos and their own political convictions, which could change at any time. The situation of the newly proclaimed Soviet power was more than precarious. She needed a fundamentally new Red Army. The creation of the armed forces has become a matter of life and death for the people in Smolny.
What difficulties did the Bolsheviks face? The party could not form its own army on the former apparatus. The best cadres of the period of the monarchy and the Provisional Government hardly wanted to cooperate with the left radicals. The second problem was that Russia had been waging war on Germany and its allies for several years. The soldiers were tired - they were demoralized. In order to replenish the ranks of the Red Army, its founders needed to come up with a nationwide incentive that would become a good reason to once again take up arms.
The Bolsheviks did not need to go far for this. They made the principle of class struggle the main driving force of their troops. With the coming to power of the RSDLP (b) issued many decrees. According to slogans, peasants received land, and workers received factories. Now they had to defend these gains of the revolution. Hatred of the former system (landowners, capitalists, etc.) was the foundation on which the Red Army rested. The creation of the Red Army took place on January 28, 1918. On this day, the new government in the person of the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree.
First successes
Vsevobuch was also established. This system was intended for general military training for the inhabitants of the RSFSR, and then the USSR. Vsevobuch appeared on April 22, 1918, after in March a decision to create it was made at the VII Congress of the RCP (B.). The Bolsheviks hoped that the new system would help them quickly replenish the ranks of the Red Army.
The formation of armed detachments was directly carried out by councils at the local level. In addition, revolutionary committees (revolutionary committees) were established for this purpose . At first, they enjoyed considerable independence from the central government. What did the then Red Army consist of? The creation of this armed structure led to an influx of very different personnel. These were people who served in the old tsarist army, peasant militias, soldiers and sailors from among the Red Guards. The heterogeneity of the composition negatively affected the combat readiness of this army. In addition, the troops often acted inconsistently due to the election of commanders, collective and rally management.
Despite all the flaws, the Red Army in the first months of the civil war was able to achieve important successes, which became the key to its future unconditional victory. The Bolsheviks managed to keep Moscow and Ekaterinodar. Local uprisings were suppressed due to a noticeable numerical advantage, as well as broad popular support. The populist decrees of the Soviet government (especially in 1917-1918) did their job.
Trotsky at the head of the army
During the Civil War, the stages of the creation of the Red Army quickly succeeded each other. On April 22, 1918, the election of the command staff was canceled. Now the leaders of units, brigades and divisions were appointed to the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. The first head of this department in November 1917 was Nikolai Podvoisky. In March 1918, he was replaced by Leon Trotsky.
It was this man who stood at the origins of the October Revolution in Petrograd. The revolutionary led the seizure of city communications and the Winter Palace from Smolny, where the Bolsheviks headquarters were located. At the first stage of the Civil War, the figure of Trotsky in its scale and importance of decisions was not inferior to the figure of Vladimir Lenin. Therefore, it is not surprising that Lev Davidovich was elected People's Commissar for Military Affairs. His organizational talent in all its glory was manifested precisely in this post. The very first two People's Commissars stood at the origins of the creation of the Red Army.
Tsarist officers in the Red Army
Theoretically, the Bolsheviks saw their army meeting strict class requirements. However, the lack of experience among the majority of workers and peasants could cause the defeat of the party. Therefore, the history of the creation of the Red Army made another round when Trotsky offered to equip its ranks with former tsarist officers. These specialists had significant experience. They all went through the First World War, and some remembered the Russo-Japanese. Many of them were noblemen by origin.
On the day of the creation of the Red Army, the Bolsheviks proclaimed that it would be cleansed of the landowners and other enemies of the proletariat. However, practical necessity gradually corrected the course of Soviet power. In the face of danger, she was quite flexible in her decisions. Lenin was a pragmatist much more than a dogmatist. Therefore, he agreed to a compromise in the matter with the tsarist officers.
The presence of the “counter-revolutionary contingent” in the Red Army was for a long time a headache for the Bolsheviks. Former tsarist officers repeatedly revolted. One of these was the rebellion led by Mikhail Muravyov in July 1918. This left SR and former tsarist officer was appointed commander of the Eastern Front by the Bolsheviks, when the two parties still formed a single coalition. He tried to seize power in Simbirsk, which at that time was next to the theater of operations. The rebellion was crushed by Joseph Vareikis and Mikhail Tukhachevsky. The uprisings in the Red Army, as a rule, occurred due to severe repressive measures of command.
Commissars
Actually, the creation date of the Red Army is not the only important mark in the calendar for the history of the formation of Soviet power in the vast expanses of the former Russian Empire. As the composition of the armed forces gradually became more heterogeneous, and the propaganda of opponents grew stronger, the SNK decided to establish the position of military commissars. They were supposed to carry out party propaganda among soldiers and old specialists. The commissars made it possible to smooth out the contradictions in the ranks that were motley by political views. Having received significant authority, these party representatives not only enlightened and educated the Red Army, but also informed the top about the unreliability of individuals, discontent, etc.
Thus, the Bolsheviks planted dual power in the military units. On the one hand there were commanders, and on the other, commissars. The history of the Red Army would be completely different if not for their appearance. In an emergency, the commissioner could become the sole leader, leaving the commander in the background. Military councils were created to manage divisions and larger units. Each such body included one commander and two commissars. They became only the most ideologically seasoned Bolsheviks (as a rule, people who joined the party before the revolution). With the increase in the army, and hence the commissars, the authorities had to create a new educational infrastructure necessary for the operational training of propagandists and agitators.
Propaganda
In May 1918, the All-Russian General Staff was established, and in September the Revolutionary Military Council. These dates and the date of creation of the Red Army became key to the spread and strengthening of the power of the Bolsheviks. Immediately after the October Revolution, the party headed for the radicalization of the situation in the country. After unsuccessful elections for the Constituent Assembly for the RSDLP (b), this institute (necessary to determine the Russian future on an elective basis) was dispersed. Now the opponents of the Bolsheviks were left without legal tools to defend their position. The white movement quickly began in various regions of the country. It was possible to fight it only by military means - it was for this that the creation of the Red Army was needed.
Photos of the defenders of the communist future began to be printed in a huge pile of campaign newspapers. The Bolsheviks initially tried to ensure the influx of new recruits with the help of catchy slogans: "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" etc. These measures gave effect, but it was insufficient. By April, the size of the army increased to a mark of 200 thousand people, but this would not be enough to subordinate the entire territory of the former Russian Empire to the party. Do not forget that Lenin dreamed of a world revolution. Russia for him was only the initial springboard of the offensive of the international proletariat. To strengthen propaganda in the Red Army, a Political Office was established.
In the year of the creation of the Red Army, they entered it not only for ideological reasons. In a country exhausted by a long war with the Germans, a shortage of products has long been felt. The danger of hunger was especially acute in cities. In such hopeless conditions, the poor sought to be in the service at all costs (regular rations were guaranteed there).
The introduction of universal conscription
Although the creation of the Red Army began in accordance with a decree of the Council of People's Commissars back in January 1918, the accelerated pace of organization of the new armed forces began in May, when the Czechoslovak Corps rebelled. These soldiers, captured during the First World War, took the side of the white movement and opposed the Bolsheviks. In a paralyzed and fragmented country, the relatively small 40,000th corps became the most combat-ready and professional army.
The news of the uprising excited Lenin and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The Bolsheviks decided to be proactive. On May 29, 1918, a decree was issued, according to which forced recruitment was introduced into the army. He took the form of mobilization. In domestic politics, the Soviet government took the course of war communism. Peasants not only lost their crops, which went to the state, but also massively climbed into the troops. Party mobilization to the front became commonplace. By the end of the Civil War, half of the members of the RSDLP (b) ended up in the army. At the same time, almost all Bolsheviks became commissars and political workers.
In the summer, Trotsky initiated the introduction of universal military service. The history of the Red Army, in short, has overcome yet another important milestone. On July 29, 1918, all healthy men who were between 18 and 40 years old were registered. Even representatives of the enemy bourgeois class (former merchants, industrialists, etc.) were included in the rear militia. Such drastic measures have borne fruit. The creation of the Red Army by September 1918 made it possible to send more than 450 thousand people to the front (about 100 thousand remained in the rear troops).
Revolutionary Military Council
Trotsky, like Lenin, temporarily dismissed Marxist ideology in order to increase the combat effectiveness of the armed forces. It was he, as the people's commissar, who initiated the important reforms and transformations at the front. The death penalty for desertion and failure to comply with orders was restored to the army. The insignia, the uniform form, the sole authority of the leadership and many other signs of imperial time have returned. May 1, 1918 on the Khodynsky field in Moscow was the first parade of the Red Army. The Vsevobuch system started working at full capacity.
In September, Trotsky led the newly formed Revolutionary Military Council. This government agency became the pinnacle of the management pyramid that led the army. Trotsky's right hand was Joachim Wacetis. He was the first under the Soviet government to receive the post of commander in chief. In the same autumn, the fronts were formed - the South, East and North. Each of them had its own headquarters. The first month of the creation of the Red Army was a time of uncertainty - the Bolsheviks were torn between ideology and practice. Now the course on pragmatism has become the main, and the Red Army began to take those forms that turned out to be its foundation over the next decades.
War communism
Without a doubt, the reasons for the creation of the Red Army were to defend the Bolshevik government. At first, she controlled a very small part of European Russia. At the same time, the RSFSR was under pressure from opponents from all sides. After the Brest peace treaty was signed with Kaiser Germany, Entente forces invaded Russia. The intervention was insignificant (it covered only the north of the country). The European powers supported whites mainly with arms and money. For the Red Army, the attack of the French and British was only an additional reason for the consolidation and strengthening of propaganda in the ranks. Now the creation of the Red Army could be briefly and intelligibly explained by Russia's defense against foreign invasion. Such slogans allowed to increase the influx of recruits.
At the same time, throughout the Civil War, there was a problem of supplying the armed forces with all kinds of resources. The economy was paralyzed, strikes often broke out at enterprises, and hunger became the norm in the countryside. Against this background, the Soviet government began to pursue a policy of war communism.
Its essence was simple. The economy was becoming radically centralized. The state completely took control of the distribution of resources in the country. Industrial enterprises were nationalized immediately after the October Revolution. Now the Bolsheviks needed to squeeze all the juice from the village. The surplus-appraisal, crop taxes, the individual terror of the peasants who did not want to share their grain with the state — all this was used to feed and finance the Red Army.
Desertion Fighting
Trotsky personally went to the front in order to monitor the execution of his orders. On August 10, 1918, he arrived in Sviyazhsk when fights for Kazan were fought near him. In a stubborn battle, one of the Red Army regiments faltered and fled. Then Trotsky publicly shot every tenth soldier in this formation. Such a reprisal, more like a ritual, resembled an ancient Roman tradition - decimation.
According to the decision of the People's Commissar, not only deserters, but also the simulators, who were asked back from the front for an imaginary illness, began to be shot. The apogee of the fight against the fugitives was the creation of foreign detachments. During the offensive, specially selected military men stood behind the main army, who shot cowards directly during the battle. So with the help of draconian measures and incredible cruelty, the Red Army became exemplary disciplined. The Bolsheviks had the courage and pragmatic cynicism for what the commanders of the white armies did not dare to do . Trotsky, who did not disdain any methods to spread Soviet power, was soon called the "demon of revolution."
Unification of the Armed Forces
Gradually changed and the appearance of the Red Army. At first, the Red Army did not provide for a uniform uniform. Soldiers, as a rule, were wearing their old military uniforms or civilian clothes. Due to the huge influx of peasants shod in bast shoes, it became much more than shod in familiar boots. Such anarchy lasted until the end of the unification of the armed forces.
At the beginning of 1919, according to the decision of the Revolutionary Military Council, sleeve insignia were introduced. Then the Red Army received their own headdress, which became popularly known as Budenovka. Gymnasts and overcoats acquired colored valves. A recognizable symbol was a red star sewn onto a hat.
The introduction of some characteristic features of the former army in the Red Army led to the emergence of an opposition faction in the party. Its members advocated the rejection of an ideological compromise. Lenin and Trotsky, joining forces, in March 1919 at the VIII Congress were able to defend their course.
The fragmentation of the white movement, the powerful propaganda of the Bolsheviks, their determination to carry out repressions to rally their own ranks, and many other circumstances led to the fact that Soviet power was established on the territory of almost the entire former Russian Empire, except Poland and Finland. The Red Army won the Civil War. At the final stage of the conflict, its number was already 5.5 million people.