The adoption of the decree on the creation of the Red Army. Red Army: creation

The decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) on a voluntary basis was adopted at a time when Soviet Russia and Germany were negotiating a peace treaty. On May 29, 1918, in the context of the outbreak of the Civil War, by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, forced recruitment into the Red Army was introduced

« 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:

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 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.

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

The Council of People's Commissars is the supreme governing body of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. 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»

Taken from: http://rkka.ru/idocs.htm.

Document No. 108. Historiographic tradition in covering the history of the Civil War in Russia.

“For a long time, the civil war in Russia was interpreted in accordance with "A short course in the history of the CPSU (b)" , according to which civil war was a form of struggle between the dictatorship of the proletariat and counter-revolutionary forces. At the same time, the opponents of the dictatorship of the proletariat were presented as "foreign military intervention against the Soviet power, supported by counter-revolutionary rebellions of the enemies of Soviet power inside the country." There was another characteristic interpretation of the civil war from the position of the "Short Course" as "a war of workers and peasants, the peoples of Russia against external and internal enemies of Soviet power." This reflected the schematization of the path of the external course of events, reducing them to a clash between the exploiters and the exploited. Other approaches and assessments were cut off.

Back in the second half of the 20s. a lot of relatively independent studies on the civil war have been published. One of the authors - S.A. Alekseev, on the basis of a large amount of factual material, divided the class in the civil war into three groups: two actively opposing each other - the urban and rural bourgeoisie - on the one hand, the proletariat and the rural poor - on the other; as the third, quantitatively the largest, he represented the petty bourgeoisie.

Such views were not developed in the Short Course. On the contrary, the methodology that appeared in the literature immediately after the civil war, in which any facts were evaluated in favor of the winners, was picked up and used to the maximum. Ideas about the civil war were reduced to the crushing defeat of the three campaigns of the Entente, to the exploits S. Budyonny and K. Voroshilova. In essence, a legend was created about the civil war, where the greatest tragedy of the people's trials were replaced by popular print victories over the whites. AT fiction realism in the description of the civil war, which manifested itself in the 20s. in prose M. Sholokhova , M. Bulgakova , Al. Tolstoy , I. Babel, in the subsequent time was also supplanted by the literary and political conjuncture.

The authors who wrote about the civil war, while in exile, revealed completely different approaches. Rejecting the thesis of the Marxists about the inevitability and regularity of civil war as a manifestation of social progress, they presented the events of 1917-1920. as rampant anarchy, a "new edition" of Russian unrest. In this vein, they wrote V.V. Shulgin, P.N. Milyukov etc. General A.N. Denikin he directly called his descriptions "Essays on Russian Troubles."

Another general, P. Krasnov, turned out to be a prolific author in exile. His view of the events of 1917 and subsequent events was the view of an Orthodox believer, for whom the root of the problems was "Russia's loss of God", i.e. oblivion of Christian values ​​and sinful temptations.

On the whole, when determining the causes of the civil war, the emigrants almost did not disperse, laying the main blame for it on the Bolsheviks. A huge number of studies came from the pen of the historian S.P. Melgunov. In one of them - "Red Terror in Russia 1918-1923." - he cites numerous facts designed to confirm the main role of the Bolsheviks in unleashing civil strife in Russia.

It is significant that the emigration of the civil war, its meaning and lessons are analyzed in a more thorough manner. Multi-volume editions were published: in Berlin - "Archive of the Civil War", "White Case", in Paris - "White Archive", in Prague - "Free Siberia" and "On the Foreign Side", etc.

Since the mid 50s. in Soviet historiography and literature, a process of gradual expansion of topics and plots relating to the events of 1917-1921 began. The understanding of the special role of the peasantry in the war returned. Most of the authors practiced the guidelines of the "Short Course", but remained - largely due to ideological censorship - one-sidedness of assessments and conclusions. Written A. Solzhenitsyn

in the 60s. "Gulag Archipelago" is an exception that general position. In this book, Solzhenitsyn largely repeated Melgunov's tone and method of selecting facts.
Intensive research efforts related to the civil war prepared the way for its new conceptual vision. In the second half of the 80s. there is a change in quality in the concepts and assessments on the part of many historians - specialists in the civil war. For example, Doctor of Historical Sciences G. Ioffe openly admitted the change in his views on many problems. P. Volobuev spoke about his movement from the apologetics of the "Reds" to the description of the civil war as a national tragedy. A noticeable evolution of views on the civil war is evidenced by the works of quite a few authors.

Modern historiography and journalism include a wide range of approaches and concepts on the problems of the civil war. G. Ioffe expressed the opinion that "the fatal inevitability of a civil war did not exist. The choice was in the hands of political parties, primarily their leaders." In his opinion, the Bolsheviks themselves contributed to the emergence of the foundation "on which a powerful anti-Bolshevik movement unfolded." Positions similar or close are held by historians V.A. Alekseev, S.I. Konstantinov, S.M. Smagina, T. Osipova, Yu. Simchenko, and others. Yu. Felshtinsky, a researcher working in the United States, explains the essence of the civil war as the adventurism of the Bolsheviks by their unceremoniousness in choosing political means. He calls their policy "madness in the name of an idea."

... Writers A. Znamensky, V. Soloukhin, publicists G. Nazarov, V. Mikhailov, E. Losev, V. Kozhinov, M. Miroshnichenko consider the civil war the result of a sharp activation of anti-state, anti-patriotic forces, among which they single out Jews who held leading positions in the Bolshevik party and state apparatus.

Such researchers as A. Kozlov, P. Golub, V. Miller, Yu. Polyakov, Yu. Geller, N. Efimov, V. Polikarpov, V. Kozlov, G. Bordyugov, V. Ustinov and others do not agree with all such positions. A. Kozlov claims: " civil war as a sharp aggravation of class contradictions in specific historical conditions, hardly anyone could have prevented then. " Yu. Polyakov adds to this: "... the roots of hatred are in injustice, in huge property inequality, rooted psychological confrontation between the poor and the rich, the dominant and the subordinate. An explosion was objectively inevitable, class hatred must spill out sooner or later.

The difference in views on the civil war makes itself felt at the level of mass consciousness, i.e. echoes of the events of 1917-1921. still to some extent split society. Many historians and writers today, realizing the perniciousness of such a split, speak out from the standpoint of national reconciliation. Historian V. Bortnevsky spoke as follows: "I consider it logical to say that the civil war in Russia was both a feat and a tragedy for both the winners and the vanquished." They agreed with his thesis and. Ushakov. B. Starkov and others. The writer Yu. Vlasov presented his vision of the civil war in such turns: “The Russian people rushed, fortunately, to life without masters, ... to life in justice - and hurt themselves. This is a sacrifice in the name of humanity. At the cost of this sacrifice humanity has gained invaluable experience... The experience is paid for by the unearthly suffering of a large and bright people...". The writer B. Vasiliev calls "to understand that the civil war is an incomparable national tragedy, in which there have never been winners ... and to comprehend that the brothers, who shed each other's blood so generously and for a long time, fought for Russia. For her tomorrow, which each side saw and understood in its own way... Let Russia raise a wreath of sorrow and respect over the red and white obelisks. Then repentance will come. And only then will the civil war end."

Taken from: Course of lectures. Ch. I1. / Ed. academician Lichman B.V. Ural State those. un - t, Yekaterinburg, 1995. S. 103 -107

Soviet society in the 1920s-1930s. Historical experiment of socialist construction and its consequences.

After the end of the Civil War and the refusal of the Bolshevik Party from the policy of war communism, on the basis of a new economic policy, which combined market mechanisms with state regulation, the national economy was restored in the USSR in a short time. In the mid-1920s, when the question of choosing the paths for further development arose, the path of accelerated construction of socialism was chosen on the basis of the socialist industrialization of industry and the mass collectivization of agriculture. During the years of the first five-year plans (1928-1932 and 1933-1937) a "big leap" was made in creating the material and technical base of socialism in the USSR.

Document No. According to the report of the Central Committee. From the resolution of the XIV Congress of the CPSU / b /

At the XIV Congress of the CPSU / b / (December 18-31, 1925), a course was taken for industrialization as main task economic construction.

(See Reader on the history of the USSR 1917-1945, p. 277)

Taken from: CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee.M.1984.T.3.S.428-430.

Document No. Materials for the report of V.V. Kuibyshev at the VIII All-Union Congress of Trade Unions on the first five-year plan for the development of industry. No later than December 10, 1928 (Extracts)

1. The five-year plan for the national economy in general and industry in particular, being a segment of the general general plan for the socialist reorganization of the national economy, should ensure, as was indicated in the "Guidelines for the preparation of a five-year plan for the national economy", adopted at the XV Congress of the CPSU (b), expanded reproduction of socialist industry on the basis of expanded reproduction in the national economy in general; further pursuing a course towards the industrialization of the national economy and raising the material and technical level of its development; increased defense capability Soviet Union and further liberation from capitalist dependence, both in terms of raw materials and, in particular, means of production; raising the material and cultural standard of living of the working people and strengthening the alliance between the working class and the peasantry and, on the basis of the general development of the national economy and its material and technical reconstruction, strengthening and increasing the share of the socialist sector in town and countryside.

The drafting of a five-year economic development plan must also be carried out from the point of view of resolving these basic tasks. In particular, and in particular, the five-year plans must be verified from the point of view of correct relations with the peasantry, strengthening the leading and transforming role of socialist industry in relation to agriculture, ensuring the rise of the industrial poor-middle peasant economy and the intensive growth of the socialist sector of the countryside (kolkhozes and state farms).

2. The building of socialism in a technically backward country, in a situation of hostile capitalist encirclement, predetermines and conditions the pace of our economic and, in particular, industrial development. The directive in the shortest historical period to catch up and then surpass the level of industrial development of the advanced capitalist countries turns into a categorical imperative, into the main condition and basic prerequisite for solving the problem. socialist transformation our farm...

Determining the rate of development of agriculture (the supply of agriculture with chemical fertilizers, agricultural machines, etc.), industry at the same time, in the pace of its development, is determined by agriculture as a consumer of industrial products, a producer of raw materials of agricultural origin processed by industry, as a producer of those export funds on which industry builds its plans for the means of production and scarce raw materials and materials, and, finally, as a source of additional resources for pursuing the policy of industrialization of the national economy.

Taken from : http://history.doc/en;Source In: Industrialization of the USSR. 1926-1928 - M., 1969. S. 309-313.

Note

Kuibyshev V. V. (1888-1935) - Soviet statesman. Since 1926 he headed the Supreme Council National economy(VSNKh of the USSR), who led industrial enterprises of allied significance.

Document No. Industrial production in the first five-year plan (1928-1932)

(See Reader on the history of the USSR 1917-1945, p. 289)

Taken from: Kommunist. 1987. No. 18. P. 83

Document No. I. Stalin. On grain procurements and prospects for the development of agriculture. From performances in various regions of Siberia in January 1928. Short note. (Excerpt)

“... I have been instructed ... to discuss with you the question of the prospects for the development of agriculture, the plan for the deployment of the construction of collective farms and state farms in your region.

You should be aware that in our country's grain balance this year we have a shortage of more than 100 million poods of grain. In connection with this, the Government and the Central Committee had to press on grain procurements in all regions and territories in order to fill this gap in our grain balance. The deficit will have to be covered primarily at the expense of high-yielding regions and territories, so that they not only meet, but also exceed the grain procurement plan.

... The shortage, if it is not eliminated, will lead to the fact that our cities and industrial centers, as well as our Red Army, will be put in plight, they will be poorly supplied, they will be threatened with starvation. It is clear that we cannot allow this.

... You say that the plan for grain procurements is tense, that it cannot be fulfilled. Why not, where did you get that from? Isn't it a fact that you really have an unprecedented harvest this year? Isn't it a fact that this year's grain procurement plan for Siberia is almost the same as last year? Why do you think the plan is impossible? Look at the kulak farms: there the barns and sheds are full of grain, the grain lies under sheds due to the lack of storage places, the kulak farms have grain surpluses of 50-60 thousand poods for each farm, not counting the reserves for seeds, you say that the grain procurement plan is unfulfillable. Where do you get such pessimism from?

You say that the kulaks do not want to hand over their grain, that they are waiting for a rise in prices and prefer to carry on unbridled speculation. It's right. But the kulaks are not just waiting for a price increase, but are demanding a threefold increase in prices compared to state prices. Do you think it is possible to satisfy the kulaks? The poor and a considerable part of the middle peasants have already handed over grain to the state at state prices. Can it be allowed that the state pays three times more for bread to the kulaks than to the poor and middle peasants? One has only to pose this question in order to realize how impermissible it is to satisfy kulak demands.

If the kulaks are engaged in unbridled speculation on grain prices, why don't you enlist them for speculation? Don't you know that there is a law against speculation - article 107 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, by virtue of which those guilty of speculation are brought to justice, and the goods are confiscated in favor of the state? Why don't you enforce this law against grain speculators? Are you really afraid of disturbing the peace of the kulak gentlemen?!

... You say that your prosecutorial and judicial authorities are not ready for this case. But why in other territories and regions the prosecutorial and judicial authorities turned out to be ready and are acting quite successfully, while in your country they are not ready to apply Article 107 to speculators? Who is to blame for this? It is obvious that your party organizations are to blame, which, apparently, do not work well and do not ensure that the laws of our country are implemented in good faith. I saw several dozen representatives of your prosecutorial and judicial authorities. Almost all of them live among the kulaks, are freeloaders among the kulaks, and, of course, try to live in peace with the kulaks. To my question, they answered that the kulaks had a cleaner apartment and better food. It is clear that from such representatives of the prosecutorial and judicial authorities one cannot expect anything worthwhile and useful for Soviet state. It is only incomprehensible why these gentlemen have not yet been purged and replaced by other, honest workers. I suggest:

a) demand from the kulaks the immediate surrender of all surplus grain at state prices;

b) if the kulaks refuse to obey the law, bring them to justice under Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and confiscate their grain surpluses in favor of the state so that 25 percent of the confiscated grain is distributed among the poor and low-powered middle peasants at low state prices, or as a long-term loan.

As for the representatives of your prosecutorial and judicial authorities, remove all the unfit from their posts and replace them with honest, conscientious Soviet people.

You will soon see that these measures will yield excellent results and that you will be able not only to fulfill, but also to exceed the grain procurement plan.

But this is not the end of the matter. These measures will be enough to rectify the situation this year. But there is no guarantee that the sabotage of grain procurement by the kulaks will not be repeated next year. Moreover, it can be said with certainty that as long as there are kulaks, there will be sabotage of grain procurements. Other measures are needed to place grain procurements on a more or less satisfactory basis. What exactly are the measures? I have in mind the expansion of the construction of collective farms and state farms.

The collective farms and state farms are, as you know, large farms capable of using tractors and machines. They are more commercial farms than the landlord and kulak farms. It must be borne in mind that our cities and our industry are growing and will grow every year. This is necessary for the industrialization of the country. Consequently, the demand for bread will grow every year, which means that plans for grain procurements will also grow. We cannot make our industry dependent on kulak whims. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that within the next three or four years the collective farms and state farms, as deliverers of grain, will be able to give the state at least a third of the required grain. This would push the kulaks into the background and provide the basis for a more or less correct supply of grain to the workers and the Red Army. But in order to achieve this, it is necessary to deploy with might and main, sparing no effort and means, the construction of collective farms and state farms. It can be done and we must do it. ... "

Taken from: http://zavtra.ru/

near Narva on February 23, 1918

With the coming to power of the Communist Party of the Bolsheviks in November 1917, the country's leadership, relying on the thesis of Karl Marx about replacing the regular army with the general armament of the working people, began to actively liquidate the imperial army of Russia. On December 16, 1917, the Bolsheviks issued decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars "On the elective beginning and organization of power in the army" and "On the equalization of the rights of all military personnel." To protect the gains of the revolution, under the leadership of professional revolutionaries, Red Guard detachments began to form, headed by a military revolutionary committee, which directly led the October armed uprising, led by L.D. Trotsky.

On November 26, 1917, the "Committee for Military and Naval Affairs" was created, instead of the old military ministry, under the leadership of V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko, N.V. Krylenko and P.E. Dybenko.

V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko N.V. Krylenko

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko

The "Committee on Military and Naval Affairs" was intended to form armed detachments and lead them. The committee was expanded to 9 people on November 9 and transformed into the "Council of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs", and from December 1917 it was renamed and became known as the Collegium of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs (Narkomvoen), the head of the collegium was N. AND. Podvoisky.

Nikolai Ilyich Podvoisky

The collegium of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs was the leading military body of the Soviet power; at the first stages of its activity, the collegium relied on the old military ministry and the old army. By order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs, at the end of December 1917, in Petrograd, the Central Council for the Management of Armored Units of the RSFSR, Tsentrabron, was formed. He supervised the armored units and armored trains of the Red Army. By July 1, 1918, Tsentrobron formed 12 armored trains and 26 armored detachments. The old Russian army could not provide the defense of the Soviet state. There was a need to demobilize the old army and create a new Soviet army.

At a meeting of the military organization under the Central Committee. RSDLP (b) December 26, 1917, it was decided, according to the installation of V.I. Lenin to create a new army of 300,000 people in a month and a half, the All-Russian Collegium for the organization and management of the Red Army was created. IN AND. Lenin set before this collegium the task of developing, in the shortest possible time, the principles of organizing and building a new army. The fundamental principles of army building developed by the collegium were approved by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which met from January 10 to 18, 1918. To protect the gains of the revolution, it was decided to create an army of the Soviet state and call it the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

On January 15, 1918, a decree was issued on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, and on February 11 - the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet on a voluntary basis. The definition of "workers' and peasants'" emphasized its class character - the army of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the fact that it should be completed only from the working people of the city and countryside. The "Red Army" said that it was a revolutionary army.

10 million rubles were allocated for the formation of volunteer detachments of the Red Army. In mid-January 1918, 20 million rubles were allocated for the construction of the Red Army. As the leading apparatus of the Red Army was created, all departments of the old military ministry were reorganized, reduced or abolished.

In February 1918, the Council of People's Commissars appointed the leading five of the All-Russian Collegium, which issued its first organizational order on the appointment of responsible department commissars. German and Austrian troops, more than 50 divisions, violating the truce, February 18, 1918 launched an offensive in the entire strip from the Baltic to the Black Sea. On February 12, 1918, the offensive of Turkish troops began in Transcaucasia. The demoralized old army could not resist the advancing and left their positions without a fight. From the old Russian army, the only military units that retained military discipline were the regiments of the Latvian riflemen, who went over to the side of Soviet power.

In connection with the offensive of the German and Austrian troops, some of the generals of the tsarist army proposed to form detachments from the old army. But the Bolsheviks, fearing the performance of these detachments against the Soviet regime, abandoned such formations. To recruit officers of the tsarist army, a new form of organization called the "veil" was created. A group of generals, led by M.D. Bonch-Bruevich, consisting of 12 people on February 20, 1918, who arrived in Petrograd from Headquarters and formed the basis of the Supreme Military Council, began to recruit officers to serve the Bolsheviks.

Mikhail Dmitrievich Bonch-Bruevich

By mid-February 1918, the "First Corps of the Red Army" was created in Petrograd. The basis of the corps was a special-purpose detachment, consisting of Petrograd workers and soldiers, consisting of 3 companies of 200 people each. During the first two weeks of formation, the number of corps was increased to 15,000 people.

Part of the corps, about 10,000 people, was trained and sent to the front near Pskov, Narva, Vitebsk and Orsha. By the beginning of March 1918, the corps had 10 infantry battalions, a machine gun regiment, 2 cavalry regiments, an artillery brigade, a heavy artillery battalion, 2 armored divisions, 3 air squadrons, an aeronautic squadron, engineering, automotive, motorcycle units and a searchlight team. In May 1918 the corps was disbanded; its personnel were sent to staff the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th rifle divisions, which were being formed in the Petrograd military district.

By the end of February, 20,000 volunteers had signed up in Moscow. Near Narva and Pskov, the first test of the Red Army took place, it entered into battle with the German troops and rebuffed them. February 23 was the birthday of the young Red Army.

When forming the army, there were no approved states. Combat units were formed from detachments of volunteers based on the capabilities and needs of their area. The detachments consisted of several dozen people from 10 to 10,000 and more people, the created battalions, companies and regiments were of various types. The size of the company consisted of 60 to 1600 people. The tactics of the troops were determined by the legacy of the tactics of the Russian army, the geographical, political and economic conditions of the combat area, and also reflected the individual traits of their leaders, such as Frunze, Shchors, Chapaev, Kotovsky, Budyonny and others. This organization ruled out the possibility of centralized command and control of troops. A gradual transition began from the volunteer principle to the construction of a regular army on the basis of universal military service.

The Defense Committee was disbanded on March 4, 1918 and the Supreme Military Council (VVS) was formed. One of the main creators of the Red Army was Commissar of War L.D. Trotsky, who on March 14, 1918 became head of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs and chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. As a psychologist, he was engaged in the selection of personnel in order to know the state of affairs in the army, Trotsky created on March 24 .

commissioner's death

The Revolutionary Military Council decided to create cavalry as part of the Red Army. On March 25, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars approved the creation of new military districts. At a meeting in the Air Force on March 22, 1918, a project was discussed for organizing a Soviet rifle division, which was adopted as the main combat unit of the Red Army.

Upon admission to the army, the fighters took an oath, approved on April 22 at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the oath was taken and signed by each fighter.

Solemn promise formula

approved at the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies on April 22, 1918

1. I, the son of the working people, a citizen of the Soviet Republic, accept the title of soldier of the workers' and peasants' army.

2. In the face of the working classes of Russia and the whole world, I undertake to bear this title with honor, conscientiously study military affairs and, like the apple of my eye, protect people's and military property from damage and plunder.

3. I undertake to strictly and unswervingly observe revolutionary discipline and unquestioningly carry out all orders of commanders appointed by the authorities of the Workers' and Peasants' Government.

4. I undertake to refrain myself and refrain my comrades from any acts that discredit and degrade the dignity of a citizen of the Soviet Republic, and to direct all my actions and thoughts towards the great goal of the liberation of all working people.

5. I undertake, at the first call of the Workers' and Peasants' Government, to defend the Soviet Republic from all dangers and attempts from all its enemies, and in the struggle for the Russian Soviet Republic, for the cause of socialism and the brotherhood of peoples, to spare neither my strength nor life itself .

6. If, through malicious intent, I deviate from this my solemn promise, then let universal contempt be my lot and let the harsh hand of the revolutionary law punish me.

Chairman of the CEC Ya. Sverdlov;

The first knight of the order was Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher.

VC. Blucher

The command staff consisted of former officers and non-commissioned officers who went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and commanders from the Bolsheviks, so in 1919 1,500,000 people were called up, of which about 29,000 were former officers, but the combat strength of the army did not exceed 450,000 people. The bulk of the former officers who served in the Red Army were wartime officers, mainly ensigns. The Bolsheviks had very few cavalry officers.

From March to May 1918, a lot of work was done. Based on the experience of three years of the First World War, new field regulations were written for all branches of the armed forces and their combat interaction. A new mobilization scheme was created - the system of military commissariats. The Red Army was commanded by dozens of the best generals who had gone through two wars, and 100,000 excellent military officers.

By the end of 1918, the organizational structure of the Red Army and its administrative apparatus were created. The Red Army reinforced all decisive sectors of the fronts with communists, in October 1918 there were 35,000 communists in the army, in 1919 - about 120,000, and in August 1920 - 300,000, half of all members of the RCP (b) of that time. In June 1919, all the republics that existed at that time - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - entered into a military alliance. A unified military command, a unified management of finance, industry, and transport was created.

By order of the RVSR 116 of January 16, 1919, insignia were introduced only for combat commanders - colored buttonholes, on collars, according to the types of troops and commander's stripes on the left sleeve, above the cuff.

By the end of 1920, the Red Army numbered 5,000,000 people, but due to the lack of uniforms, weapons and equipment, the combat strength of the army did not exceed 700,000 people, 22 armies, 174 divisions (of which 35 were cavalry), 61 air squadron (300-400 aircraft) , artillery and armored units (subdivisions). During the war years, 6 military academies and more than 150 courses trained 60,000 commanders of all specialties from workers and peasants.

During the Civil War, about 20,000 officers died in the Red Army. 45,000 - 48,000 officers remained in the service. Losses during the Civil War amounted to 800,000 killed, wounded and missing, 1,400,000 dead from serious illnesses.

red army badge

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. The direct leadership 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 armistice concluded with Germany and the transition of its troops to the offensive, on February 22, 1918, the government addressed the people with a decree-appeal signed by V.I. Lenin "The socialist fatherland is in danger!". The next day, the mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army and the formation of many of its units began. In February 1918, the Red Army detachments offered decisive resistance to the 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, it became necessary to create a new army, which will be the bulwark of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing the standing army with nationwide 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 being 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 old. Everyone enters the Red Army who is ready to give his strength, his life to defend the gains of the October Revolution, the power of the Soviets and socialism. To join the Red Army, 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, a mutual guarantee of all and a roll-call vote are required.

1) The soldiers of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army are on full state allowance 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 according to local consumer standards, in accordance with the decisions of local Soviet authorities.

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

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars

V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

Supreme Commander N. Krylenko.

People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs:

Dybenko and Podvoisky.

People's Commissars: Proshyan, Zatonsky and Steinberg.

Managing Director of the Council of People's Commissars

Vlad. Bonch-Bruevich.

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

Decrees of the Soviet power. T. 1. M., State publishing house of political literature, 1957.

THE APPEAL OF THE BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT

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. Our parliamentarians left Rezhitsa in the evening for Dvinsk on February 20 (7), 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 plants to the bankers, and the power to the monarchy. The German generals want to establish their own "order" in Petrograd and Kyiv. 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, Kyiv 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 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 VTsIK ON FORCED RECRUITMENT TO THE WORKERS AND PEASANTS ARMY

The Central Executive Committee considers that the transition from a volunteer army to a general mobilization of the workers and the poorest peasants is imperatively dictated by the entire situation of the country, both for the struggle for bread and for repulsing the counter-revolution, both internal and external, which has become impudent on the basis of famine.

It is necessary to urgently move to the forced recruitment of one or more ages. In view of the complexity of the matter and the difficulty of carrying it out simultaneously throughout 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 foregoing, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decides to instruct the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs to develop, within a week, for Moscow, Petrograd, the Don and Kuban regions, a plan for the implementation of forced recruitment within such limits and forms that would least disturb the course of production and social life of the aforementioned regions and cities.

The relevant Soviet institutions are instructed to take the most energetic and active part in the work of the Military Commissariat in carrying out the tasks assigned to it.

VIEW FROM THE WHITE CAMP

As early as mid-January, the Soviet government promulgated a decree on the organization of 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 not successful, and the council had to turn to the old organizations: units were allocated from the front and from reserve battalions. respectively sifted and processed, Latvian, sailor detachments and the Red Guard, formed by factory committees. All of them 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 - devotion to the Soviet government and its ideals. Hunger, unemployment, the prospects of an idle, well-fed life and enrichment by robbery, the impossibility of getting back to their native places in a different way, the habit of many people during the four years of the war to soldiering as a craft (“declassed”), and finally, to a greater or lesser extent, a sense of class malice and hatred, brought up over the centuries and kindled by the strongest propaganda.

A.I. Denikin. Essays on Russian Troubles.

DEFENDER OF THE HOMELAND DAY - HOLIDAY HISTORY

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

There was no document establishing February 23 as an official Soviet holiday. Soviet historiography associated the timing of the honoring 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 were held in Petrograd, Moscow and other cities of the country, at which workers were urged to defend their Fatherland. This day was marked by the mass 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 a proposal to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 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 with these celebrations on the day of the Red Gift, held to collect material and Money for the Red Army.

Under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), a Central Committee was created 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, the celebration of the anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, which will be celebrated on January 28, will be organized in cities and at the front."

On February 23, 1919, the citizens of Russia celebrated the anniversary of the Red Army for the first time, but this day was not celebrated either in 1920 or in 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, Lev Trotsky, arranged a military parade on Red Square that day, thus laying the foundation for the tradition of an annual nationwide celebration.

In 1923, the fifth anniversary of the Red Army was widely celebrated. The decision 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 laid the foundation for 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 decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the organization of the Red Army of January 28, 1918, but the publication date itself was directly linked to February 23.

In 1938, in the "Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks" a fundamentally new version of the origin of the date of the holiday was presented, 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 on Petrograd was suspended. The day of the rebuff 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, who entered the war for the first time, utterly defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23 was declared the 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 indicated that in 1919 the first anniversary of the Red Army was celebrated "on the memorable day of the mobilization of the working people for the defense of the socialist Fatherland, the mass entry of workers into the Red Army, the broad formation of the first detachments and units of the new army."

In the Federal Law of March 13, 1995 "On the Days of Military Glory of Russia", the day of February 23 was officially called "The Day of the Red Army's Victory over the Kaiser's troops of Germany (1918) - the 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 "Day of the victory of the Red Army over the Kaiser 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 serving in the ranks of the country's Armed Forces.

Initially, the Soviet Red Army, the creation of which took place against the backdrop of the beginning civil war, had utopian features. The Bolsheviks believed that under the 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 armament of the people."

Creation of the Red Army

The first steps of the Bolsheviks showed that they really wanted to abandon the former tsarist system. On December 16, 1917, a decree was adopted abolishing officer ranks. Commanders were now elected by their own subordinates. According to the party's plan, on the day of the creation of the Red Army, the new army was to become truly democratic. Time has shown that these plans could not survive the trials of a bloody era.

The Bolsheviks managed to seize power in Petrograd with the help of a small Red Guard and separate revolutionary detachments of sailors and soldiers. The provisional government was paralyzed, which obscenely made the task easier for Lenin and his supporters. But outside the capital there was a huge country, most of which was not at all happy with the party of radicals, whose leaders arrived in Russia in a sealed wagon from enemy Germany.

By the beginning of a full-scale civil war, the Bolshevik armed forces were distinguished by poor military training and the absence of centralized effective control. Those who served in the Red Guard were guided by revolutionary chaos and their own political convictions, which could change at any moment. The position of the newly proclaimed Soviet power was more than precarious. She needed a fundamentally new Red Army. The creation of the armed forces became a matter of life and death for the people who were in Smolny.

What difficulties faced the Bolsheviks? The party could not form its own army on the old apparatus. The best cadres of the period of the monarchy and the Provisional Government hardly wanted to cooperate with the radical left. The second problem was that Russia had been waging war against 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 had to come up with a public incentive that would be a good reason to take up arms again.

The Bolsheviks did not have 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 the slogans, the peasants received land, and the workers - factories. Now they had to defend these gains of the revolution. Hatred for the old system (landlords, capitalists, etc.) was the foundation on which the Red Army was held. The creation of the Red Army took place on January 28, 1918. On this day, the new government, represented by the Council of People's Commissars, adopted a corresponding decree.

First successes

Vsevobuch was also established. This system was intended for universal military training of the inhabitants of the RSFSR, and then the USSR. Vsevobuch appeared on April 22, 1918, after in March the decision to create it was made at 7th congress RCP(b). The Bolsheviks hoped that the new system would help them quickly replenish the ranks of the Red Army.

The soviets at the local level were directly involved in the formation of armed detachments. In addition, for this purpose were established. At first, they enjoyed considerable independence from the central government. Who was the then Red Army? The creation of this armed structure led to an influx of various 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 had a negative effect on the combat readiness of this army. In addition, the detachments often acted inconsistently due to the election of commanders, collective and rally management.

Despite all the shortcomings, the Red Army in the first months of the civil war was able to achieve important successes that became the key to its future unconditional victory. The Bolsheviks managed to keep Moscow and Yekaterinodar. Local uprisings were suppressed due to a noticeable numerical advantage, as well as wide popular support. The populist decrees of the Soviet government (especially in 1917-1918) did their job.

Trotsky at the head of the army

It was this man who stood at the origins of the October Revolution in Petrograd. The revolutionary led the capture of city communications and the Winter Palace from Smolny, where the headquarters of the Bolsheviks was located. At the first stage of the Civil War, the figure of Trotsky in terms of scale and importance of the decisions made was in no way 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 manifested itself in this post. At the origins of the creation of the Red Army were the very first two people's commissars.

Tsarist officers in the Red Army

Theoretically, the Bolsheviks saw their army as meeting strict class requirements. However, the lack of experience among the majority of workers and peasants could be the reason for the defeat of the party. Therefore, the history of the creation of the Red Army took another turn when Trotsky proposed to staff its ranks with former tsarist officers. These professionals have considerable experience. They all passed the first world war, and some remembered the Russian-Japanese. Many of them were nobles by origin.

On the day the Red Army was created, the Bolsheviks proclaimed that it would be purged of landlords and other enemies of the proletariat. However, practical necessity gradually corrected the course of the Soviet government. In times of danger, she was quite flexible in her decisions. Lenin was a pragmatist much more than a dogmatist. Therefore, he agreed to a compromise on the issue with the royal officers.

The presence of a "counter-revolutionary contingent" in the Red Army has long been a headache for the Bolsheviks. Former tsarist officers raised uprisings more than once. One of these was the rebellion led by Mikhail Muravyov in July 1918. This Left Socialist-Revolutionary 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 located near the theater of operations. The rebellion was suppressed by Joseph Vareikis and Mikhail Tukhachevsky. The uprisings in the Red Army, as a rule, took place due to the harsh repressive measures of the command.

The emergence of commissioners

Actually, the date of the creation of the Red Army is not the only important mark on the calendar for the history of the formation of Soviet power in the expanses of the former Russian Empire. Since the composition of the armed forces gradually became more and more heterogeneous, and the propaganda of opponents became stronger, the Council of People's Commissars decided to establish the position of military commissars. They were supposed to carry out party propaganda among the soldiers and old specialists. The commissars made it possible to smooth out contradictions in the rank and file, which was diverse in terms of political views. Having received significant powers, these representatives of the party not only enlightened and educated the Red Army soldiers, but also reported to the top about the unreliability of individuals, discontent, etc.

Thus, the Bolsheviks planted dual power in the military units. On one side were the commanders, and on the other, the commissars. The history of the creation of the Red Army would have been completely different if not for their appearance. In an emergency, the commissar could become the sole leader, leaving the commander in the background. Military councils were created to manage divisions and larger formations. Each such body included one commander and two commissars. Only the most ideologically hardened Bolsheviks became them (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 the 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 the unsuccessful elections for the RSDLP(b), this institution (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 sprang up in different regions of the country. It was possible to fight him 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 published in a huge pile of propaganda newspapers. The Bolsheviks at first tried to secure an influx of recruits with catchy slogans: "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" etc. These measures had an effect, but it was not enough. By April, the size of the army had risen to 200,000, but that would not have been enough to subjugate the entire territory of the former Russian Empire to the party. We should not forget that Lenin dreamed of a world revolution. Russia for him was only the initial springboard for the offensive of the international proletariat. To strengthen propaganda in the Red Army, the Political Directorate was established.

In the year of the creation of the Red Army, they joined it not only for ideological reasons. In the country, exhausted by a long war with the Germans, there was a shortage of food for a long time. The danger of starvation was especially acute in the cities. In such bleak conditions, the poor sought to be in the service at any cost (regular rations were guaranteed there).

Introduction of universal conscription

Although the creation of the Red Army began in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars as early as January 1918, the accelerated pace of organizing new armed forces came in May, when Czechoslovak Corps. 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, a relatively small 40,000-strong 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 go ahead of the curve. On May 29, 1918, a decree was issued, according to which forced recruitment into the army was introduced. It took the form of mobilization. In domestic policy, the Soviet government adopted the course of war communism. The peasants not only lost their crops, which went to the state, but also massively climbed into the troops. Party mobilizations 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 became the initiator The history of the creation of the Red Army, in short, overcame another important milestone. On July 29, 1918, all eligible 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 more remained in the rear troops).

Trotsky, like Lenin, temporarily brushed aside Marxist ideology in order to increase the combat effectiveness of the armed forces. It was he, as People's Commissar, who initiated important reforms and transformations at the front. The army reinstated the death penalty for desertion and failure to follow orders. The insignia, the single uniform, the sole authority of the leadership, and many other signs of the tsarist era returned. On May 1, 1918, the first parade of the Red Army took place on the Khodynka field in Moscow. The Vsevobuch system has been operating at full capacity.

In September, Trotsky headed the newly formed Revolutionary Military Council. This state body became the top of the administrative pyramid that led the army. Right hand Trotsky was Joachim Vatsetis. He was the first under Soviet rule to receive the post of commander in chief. In the same autumn, the fronts were formed - the Southern, Eastern and Northern. 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 towards pragmatism has become the main one, and the Red Army began to take the 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 protect the Bolshevik power. 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 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed with Imperial Germany, the Entente forces invaded Russia. The intervention was insignificant (it covered only the north of the country). The European powers supported the whites mainly with the supply of weapons and money. For the Red Army, the attack by the French and British was only an additional reason for consolidating and strengthening propaganda among the rank and file. Now the creation of the Red Army could be briefly and intelligibly explained by the defense of Russia from foreign invasion. Such slogans allowed to increase the influx of recruits.

At the same time, throughout the Civil War, there was the problem of supplying the armed forces with all sorts of resources. The economy was paralyzed, strikes broke out frequently at factories, and famine became the norm in the countryside. It was against this background that the Soviet government began to pursue a policy of war communism.

Its essence was simple. The economy became radically centralized. The state took full control of the distribution of resources in the country. Industrial enterprises were nationalized immediately after the October Revolution. Now the Bolsheviks had to squeeze all the juice out of the countryside. Requisitioning, harvest taxes, individual terror of the peasants who did not want to share their grain with the state - all this was used in order to feed and finance the Red Army.

The fight against desertion

Trotsky personally went to the front in order to control the execution of his orders. On August 10, 1918, he arrived in Sviyazhsk, when battles for Kazan were going on not far from 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 massacre, more like a ritual, resembled the ancient Roman tradition - decimation.

By decision of the People's Commissar, they began to shoot not only deserters, but also simulators who asked for leave from the front due to an imaginary illness. The apogee of the fight against the fugitives was the creation of foreign detachments. During the offensive, specially selected military men stood up behind the main army, who shot the cowards right in the course of the battle. Thus, with the help of draconian measures and incredible cruelty, the Red Army became exemplarily disciplined. The Bolsheviks had the courage and pragmatic cynicism to do something that the commanders of Trotsky did not dare to do, who did not disdain any methods to spread Soviet power, they soon began to call the "demon of the revolution."

Unification of the armed forces

Gradually, the appearance of the Red Army also changed. At first, the Red Army did not provide for a uniform uniform. Soldiers, as a rule, wore out their old military uniforms or civilian clothes. Due to the huge influx of peasants shod in bast shoes, there were much more than those 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. At the same time, the Red Army soldiers received their own headdress, which became known among the people as Budyonovka. Tunics and overcoats got colored flaps. A recognizable symbol was a red star sewn onto a headdress.

The introduction of certain characteristic features of the former army into the Red Army led to the emergence of an opposition faction in the party. Its members advocated the rejection of ideological compromise. Lenin and Trotsky, having joined 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 for 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.

How did February 23 become a holiday of the Soviet army. To do this, we will have to debunk several Soviet myths. Let's start with the statement that February 23 is allegedly the day of the founding of the Red Army. 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).
The painting "Adoption of the decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army." Artist A. Savinov

One of the drafts of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars. January 1918 "on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Army". With edits by Lenin (Blanca)


Another draft of the Decree on the organization of the Red Army

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:

1. 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.


2. 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 Soviet authorities ....

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 to red gift day(arranged to assist the fighting Red Army soldiers).

Poster “You shed blood for the workers' and peasants' revolution. The workers and peasants deprive themselves of what they need, they give you clothes and shoes from the last of their resources. Take care! / thin. [D.S. Moore]. M.: Literary and Publishing Department of the Political Administration of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic,

But due to delays Red Gift Day The Moscow Council did not manage to hold it 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 of February 5, 1919 wrote:

“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 also for some reason they don't remember Soviet leaders about 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 decree 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. G Sometime later, in 1924, after the death of Ilyich, a photo of the Decree of January 28, 1918 will be 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.

KLIMENT VOROSHILOV BELIEVED THAT THE TIME OF THE RED ARMY HOLIDAY TO FEBRUARY 23 IS "HARD TO EXPLAIN"

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 repulsed 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 an 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, of course, one should not look for references to Lenin's article in Soviet history books. "A hard 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 article: “Painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain their 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. AT Soviet Republic obviously there is no army.

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 in the morning, Kaiser Germany presented an ultimatum to Soviet Russia. 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.

See more - "Undoubtedly, the peace that we are forced to conclude now is an obscene peace..."https://sergeytsvetkov.livejournal.com/685206.html

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. So, if anyone had something to celebrate on February 23, then it was not the Red Army at all.

As for the “heroic defeat” of the Germans near Narva by the soldiers of the Red Army, which, according to Stalin’s “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, fell on February 23, 1918, 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 service 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 February Revolution 1917 and the German ultimatum of 1918. The myth was a glorious success - in the best traditions of Soviet propaganda. In fairness, it should be noted that after 1945, much more significant holiday for everyone related to the Red, and then the Soviet army, became the Victory Day. Well, February 23 gradually turned into a "gender" holiday, as it is commonly called today, with 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.