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Book One, Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven: The October Revolution and the Russian Civil War

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Flag of Soviet Russia in 1917-1918.

Part I: The October Revolution.

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First Days of the October Revolution, painting by Georgy Konstantinovich Savitsky, 1949.

Night to the 25th of October, the Bolsheviks initiated the coup that would send shockwaves across the world, and would forever change history. From the headquarters in Smolny, a former convent school for aristocratic girls, the leaders left for the districts where they would occupy strategic chokepoints and hubs in the Metropol, all according to a detailed plan. "I remained back, all alone", Trotskij later said. "Later came Kamenev. He was against the uprising, but on this fateful night, he wanted to be with me. We were in that small corner room on the third floor, that during this fateful night was some sort of command bridge. In the big, empty side room stood a phone, that rung continuously midst of matters of urgency. The ringing emphasized the lurking quietly. Image of the nightly, desolate, poorly illuminated Petrograd in the autumn's wind drew itself clearly for us. The Bourgeois and civil servants laying huddled in their beds and attempting to guess what is going on out in those secret and dangerous streets. The workers' neighborhoods sleep lightly, they are like watchful field encampments. Members of the government's commissions and public committees, who are close to plunge out of exhaustion, negotiate and confers in the Tsar palaces, where the living ghosts of democracy interleaves with the monarchy's dying specter. In the space of time the halls' silk and gilding away off in deep darkness: the electricity fail, it is a lack of coal. Around the districts units of workers, sailors, and soldiers stand guard. The young proletarians carry rifles, and some have bandoleers to machine guns hurled over their shoulders. Street patrols warm themselves over small firepits. Within a score of phone calls, the entire spiritual life in this capital, that during the autumn's night go from one era to another ..."

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A unit of the "Women's Battalion", or the "Battalion of Death", was formed of dreamy volunteers that wanted to do their part in Holy Russia's War. October of 1917 it was under the command of the Petrograd Garrison and was supposed to defend the Kerenskij Cabinet that during the Bolshevik coup d'etat sought refuge in the Winter Palace, where also a class of War Academy cadets had taken position. The Winter Palace was during the night of the 25th bombarded by blanks from the cruiser Aurora in the Neva, and the Peter and Paul Fortress. When the Red Guards later stormed the palace they could disarm the defenders with almost no bloodshed.

The coup went according to plan and was met with almost no resistance. Bolshevik patrols occupied railroad stations, telephones and telegraphs, barracks, newspapers, departments, and other key positions. There was almost not necessary to fire a single shot, in the crack of dawn, the Bolsheviks held power in Russia's capital. Only in the Winter Palace did some ministers and civil servants hold their ground, defended by a few units of Cossacks, cadets, and the women's "Battalion of Death". The last stronghold of the old regime held out... for a nychthemeron. A few salvos from the cruiser, laying in the Neva, and guns from the Peter-Paul Fortress demoralized the defenders, that in advance lacked both a will to fight and belief in their cause. They gave up and routed, by the sound of blank shots. Night to October the 26th the assaulters entered the Winter Palace from multiple directions; they disarmed the defenders with almost no bloodshed and arrested the politicians they found. Kerenskij was nowhere to be seen. He left early in the morning of the 25th to the front, to try and rally reinforcements, but to no avail; later he fled abroad, to the life of an emigree the revolutionaries so often was confined to. Now, the upheaval was completed, and it is characteristic that the bourgeois-democratic government broke down almost as helpless and defenseless as the Tsardom, not so much due to the strength of the revolutionaries, but more due to its own inherent weakness and incompetence, lack of will and a lack of a plan. As a famous historian said, paraphrased: The Bolsheviks were not the Russian Revolution's originators; they simply realized collapse and anarchy would enter 12 o'clock, and proclaimed five minutes on 12 the Bolshevik insurrection - with that they made the impression of calling forth that mighty event.

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Lenin speaks to the Second All-Russian of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, on the 26th of October. Drawing by V.A. Serov. During this congress, Lenin was elected Chairman i.e Prime Minister. Stalin that can be seen behind him was made the People's Commissar for Nationalities.

Simultaneously with the Bolshevik coup, a congress of the representatives for workers' and soldiers' councils had convened. Here the Bolsheviks maintained a majority and it was the Soviet Congress Lenin leaned on to somewhat legalize the coup. Though it should be noted the Bolsheviks did not have a majority alone, of the 670 delegates 300 were Bolsheviks, thus Lenin was at the mercy of the 100 Left Social-Revolutionaries who also wanted to overthrow Kerenskij. "We shall now set to work to build the socialist society", he said to the congress that, among other things, decreed to extend a real olive branch to all the warring governments and make peace without annexation and reparations, and to redistribute the estate lands and church's lands among the peasantry without compensation. It was the same land politics the peasants and deserted soldiers had already by themselves started to execute across the countryside, and it was in reality in stark contrast to Bolshevik policy. It is in the character of Lenin to declare himself disagreeing with it - according to theory, all land would become state property - but let the new governance accept it. Only in this way could he bind the peasantry to the revolutionary cause, and the peasants were Russia. Over 90% of its population. So without support from them, they could wave and kiss goodbye to the revolution. Furthermore, under the reign of chaos, it would be practically impossible to implement any other form of agricultural production; it was catastrophically low. The Soviet Congress also elected a new government, and transferred all power to it, - to mark the complete break from the past - who got its name the Council of People's Commissars, Sovjet Narodnisj Kommisarov, abbreviated "Sovnakom". Lenin, who said the name "smells of revolution", was elected chairman, i.e premier, Trotskij the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, i.e foreign minister. Among the fifteen other members of the Aleksej Rykov, Anatolij Lunatsjarskij, Nikolaj Kryleno, and Stalin; the latter became commissar of nationalities; he made them his special field and he claimed in 1917 that he fully supported the principle of self-determination; if for an instance the Polish, Finnish, and Ukrainians wanted to secede from Russia and form independent states, they would be allowed to do so. Lenin, Trotskij, Sverdlov, and Stalin formed an informal foursome leading the government.

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Part II: Anti-Soviet Sentiment and Civil War.


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"Help Russia!" Drawing by Käthe Kollwitz, the famous German artist who primarily made motives based on the urban proletariat's life. This drawing was used on a poster during a fund-raiser for the starving Russia in 1921.

If the communist - violent - transfer of power went smoothly and the coup itself in the capital was achieved with down to no human losses, the new regime soon faced difficulties and hard resistance from several sources. In Moscow and many other places grim, bloody fighting erupted, which ended with Bolshevik victory only after hundreds of casualties. In many of the cities in central and northern Russia, the revolution was victorious, however, the Bolsheviks and their Left-SR allies only won it harsh combat and bitter resistance from rival revolutionary parties, counter-revolutionary generals, and public functionaries on strike, and others. In multiple areas in the country, the enemies of communism stood their ground and organized armed resistance against the Peoples' Commissars' regime. In Kyiv there was even made an own government, after all in theory in line with Bolshevik politics on nationalities, that wanted to make Ukraine independent, among the Don-Cossacks it was organized a counter-revolutionary under the leadership of Tsarist officers, among them the still unknown Pyotr Wrangel, and here and many other places the civil war ravaged the country and was between the "red" - i.e communists - and the "white" forces - a mix of anti-communists revolutionaries, liberal-democrats, to Tsarists and counter-revolutionaries. It became a prolonged and bloody war, where all parties displayed savage brutality, often even inhumane cruelty and atrocity.

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One of the initial anti-Bolshevik uprisings, the Kerenskij-Krasnov Uprising. Following the October Revolution Kerenskij tried to retake power from Pskov and appointed Pyotr Krasnov to command his army. Albeit being supported by a revolt by officer cadets in Petrograd, the uprising was brutally put down and Kerenskij left Russia, and thus headed into the dustbin of history.

However, the new government faced not only opposition externally but faced enormous difficulties internally. Doubt, wavering, and will inclination to compromise set in - even among the ranks of the old Bolshevik leaders, and Lenin and Trotskij had to manifest all their strength to maintain the irreconcilable line over the competing parties, primarily the Mensheviks and Social-Revolutionaries that did not follow the Bolsheviks. The Peace of Brest-Litovsk created huge ripples and shook society. Every day was a struggle against hunger, destitution, and disaster in the exhausted country that was on the brink of collapse.

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The Soviet peace delegation is received of German officers during their arrival to Brest-Litovsk, in the closing days of February 1918. Drawing by F. Matania after photography. Behind Lev Trotskij, who shake hands with a German, you can see the Soviet diplomat Adolf A. Joffe who led the delegation until Trotskij took leadership.

A small sidestep to Brest-Litovsk. When the Bolsheviks took power they could finally execute their radical peace program; at the beginning of December they initiated negotiations with the Central-Powers in Brest-Litovsk of a ceasefire, and around Christmas (war is over by Christmas!) they commenced negotiations of a separate peace. The Central Powers made far-reaching demands, and it was a hotly contested debate within the Soviet leadership if they were to accept the terms of not. Trotksij, who disagreed with the terms in the first place, tried to weasel his way out by declaring that Russia would have war without peace! Naturally, the Germans answered by initiating a renewed offensive that rapidly covered huge swaths of land, and on the 3rd of March 1918 the German dictated peace was signed in Brest-Litovsk; it was ratified by the Russians on the 16th of March. It was harsh, much harsher than the Entente negotiated peace over Germany, peace; Russland had to give up Finland, the Baltics, Polen, Ukraine, and the various areas the Central Powers' troops occupied in southern Russia, the Black Sea coast, and the Caucasus depriving the unstable Soviet government of grain, oil, and other vital raw materials from the area.

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The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. The Tauride Palace is locked and guarded by Trotskij, Sverdlov, Zinoviev, and Lashevich. Democracy was allowed as long as it suited the Soviets. Next on the chopping bloc were the Soviets themselves.

Away from Brest-Litovsk, and back to Petrograd. Another issue was the Russian Constituent Assembly that was elected on the 12th of November, that is after the communist coup. In the assembly the communists were in a clear minority with Left-SRs and the Bolsheviks having less than a fourth of the delegates, the moderate socialists - the Mensheviks and SRs - had nearly a 2/3 majority; the rest of the delegates was the various liberal and right-wing groups. Lenin quite easily solved the problem by letting his Red Guard of soldiers, workers, and deserted sailors led by Trotskij dissolve the Assembly on the 6th of January, the day after they met to discuss the democratic principles of the New Russia. Cheka was also formed a few days earlier. All power was transformed to the Congress of Soviets. But even the latter would not survive the test of time. The Soviets more or less became a dead letter from the start, ever since 1917 the Bolsheviks were just a part of a broader revolutionary left-wing. The Menshevik-Internationalists, who previously was 1/3rd of the Mensheviks joined Bolshevik forces, but the Left SRs remained the biggest component. The Left SRs also disagreed with the signing of Brest-Litovsk. Most wanted, and ironically Lenin, to keep waging a war in the hopes of turning it into a 'revolutionary war' in which the Soviet forces could occupy territory in Eastern Europe and install revolutionary governments on their own model. Since the SR's still held a majority presence in most Soviets, this meant that if the Bolsheviks had acceded to democracy in the Soviets, that they would lose power. So Lenin more or less usurped the Soviets and ignored the electoral majority of the SRs and started issuing orders to them. At that point, the Soviets became more or less rubber stamp institutions where results were decided in advance by the Party. In Trotsky's mind, this usurpation of the Soviets was supposed to be temporary expedience, that it was a necessary sacrifice to win the Civil War, and that eventually it should be undone, along with Lenin's infamous ban on party factions.

While many during the first period had almost apathetically accepted the new regime in the chaotic situation, in time a more conscious resistance emerged. The frontlines were drawn during the first half of 1918. The communists made peace with the Central Powers on terms many meant was harsher and more humiliating than what was needed to accept, and after a series of decrees from Sovnarkom contours drew clearer of the socialist society Lenin heralded. Hence aversion and resistance grew against Bolshevism, in Russia and abroad. Among the Entente there was now deep resentment when Russia pulled out of the war, and the shock and indignation did not subdue when the Peoples' Commissars with the stroke of a pen repudiated all foreign debt - colossal sums the British, and least but not last the French had put into Russian state bonds and Russian commerce and industry. Equally radical upheavals were made on the home front. The industry and control of factories were given to the soviets and after a while socialized, armed military and red guard units raided the countryside to confiscate grain for the cities, all banks were nationalized, private bank accounts were expropriated, all private property was nationalized and their rooms rationed out, and a shorter eight-hour working was introduced. During the summer of 1918, the antagonism became so irreversible, that civil war again flared up in full force, and the time to the summer of 1919 became the most critical the communist rule went through until the end of the '30s.

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Anton Ivanovitsj Denikin, that in February 1917 was made commander-in-chief for the Russian forces. When Kerenskij made his provisional government, Denikin reported for service and became a "white" general. He took the fight to the Bolsheviks, but in March of 1920, he had to give up. Denikin fled to Istanbul, later to France, before he ended up in in USA where he also ended his days in 1947, 75 years of age.

The Soviets had for a long time only grip on Central Russia - crucially this was also both the heartland of Russia and the communications hub - with Moscow as its center and new capital instead of Petrograd that the Germans had threatened in the winter of 1917-1918. Moreover moving the capital away from Petrograd also signaled a break with the old Russia, away from the Holy Tsars' City. The area was like a besieged fortress, cut off from the grain districts and the industrial centers, from the oil and the coal, threatened in the south from Cossack Generals such as Pyotr Wrangel, Pjotr Krasnov, and Anton Denikin, from the west by General Nikolaj Judenistsj whose troops were in the Baltic provinces, from the north a white rival government based in Arkhangelsk, from the east of counter-revolutionary forces in the Urals and Siberia under the leadership of Admiral Koltsjak. In addition to all this Ukraine declared independence, Polish and Romanian forces after the peace of November in 1918 sought to expand their territories at Russia's expense, and that Russia's former allies among the great powers intervened against the communist regime, propped up White generals and sent in expeditionary forces to the country. The British landed an expeditionary force in Arkhangelsk and sent warships to the Black Sea. Here there were also French forces. Japanese and American troops made landfall in Siberia, and Japan was the only serious contender and wanted to expand their influence in Manchuria, China, and Siberia, and the Americans' real purpose was to police the Japanese more than support Koltsjak.

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The Tsar and his children in Yekaterinburg photographed a summer's day of 1918. It was in the cellar of this house that they were shot on the 16th of July 1918. From the left Olga, Anastasia, Nikolai, Maria (standing), Aleksej, and Tatjana.

Content Warning, There will be controversial topics and some graphical content for some in this paragraph.

When the British and French governments intervened, it was primarily to force Russia to resume the war effort, but after the peace with Germany it was to strike against the world revolution the Bolsheviks proclaimed and now did whatever they could to ignite across in the Central Powers and the Western powers alike. It became clear that whatever was going on it in Russia, it was a social revolution, a complete upheaval of the old society and its very fabric, a revolution that not only attacked private property but also the democratic, parliamentary system, on religion that according to Marx was mere "opium for the masses", on the "bourgeois" moral norms, etc. The world had not witnessed anything like it since the Reign of Terror by the Jacobins during the great French Revolution. The abyss that now revealed itself, was just so horrible because this was the proletarian, the masses, not a middle-class revolution. Following the February Revolution the Tsar and his family were held captive in Tsarskoje Selo Castle close to Petrograd, in August of 1917 - while Kerenskij was still in power - they were exiled in Tobolsk, Siberia, and was further transferred to Yekaterinburg, today's Sverdlovsk, in the Urals in April 1918. When White forces during the summer advanced toward the city, the Tsar family was in the cruelest fashion gunned down in a cellar, ordered by Yekaterinburg Soviet, and most likely approved by Moscow - by Lenin and Trotskij, the latter would later argue why it was moral to execute the children. Both White and Red forces committed acts of terror, known as the White Terror and Red Terror respectively, and took horrible revenge over enemies when a city or rural region changed masters. How many who were executed is unknown, but estimates range from a "few" thousands (unlikely) to hundreds of thousands. The White Terror is estimated to have been between 20.000 and 100.000, while some fantastical claims make it to be even higher than 300.000. The Red Terror ranges from 50.00 to 140.000 and 200.000, while the most reliable estimates are at 100.000. Some even claim that with all repression and pacification campaigns the numbers can be up to 1.3 million. In any case, even as much a humane catastrophe it was, even these numbers are sadly enough small when compared to the millions that died during the civil war due to hunger and epidemics.

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Some pictures speak more than a thousand words.

It often looked like the Soviet government would break down under the dreadful and frightfully battle, against apparent dominating adversaries. That it did not happen, have many reasons. One of them was that the Soviets had one permanent, unified leadership and that this leadership was possessed by a fanatical will; they fought with their backs against the wall, and among the leadership and the commoners many fought with an unprecedented spirit of self-sacrifice, and desperately for the revolutionary cause. The counter-revolutionary forces were split, lacked a unifying idea and a constructive plan. Some fought for a non-Bolshevik socialist revolution, others a liberal democracy, many a renewed Tsarist regime, and others again a military dictatorship. Add in the mix the many national forces, green and black armies. Many of the leaders were shockingly incompetent and ignorant on matters of politics, it was internal struggle and rivalry between them, and they seldom understood how to win the population. That being said, the peasantry was at best apathetic to the Soviet regime, and after the Bolsheviks redistributed land, breaking up big estates and parceling out the land the peasantry had no real reason to support the Soviets. More on this another time, however, that being said the peasants had poor reasons to support many of the reactionary elements within the White Army.

More importantly one must take into consideration that it was comparatively primitive warfare, with relatively small, poorly equipped forces, spread over vast areas; hence not much was needed to turn the fortunes of war. Characteristically during the Polish-Soviet War, that interleaved with the last phase of the civil war and in a way became a part of it, the Polish took Kyiv in 1920, while the Soviets led by Trotskij and Tuchatjevskij threatened Warsaw in August that very same year - and were dealt with a decisive military defeat. The western powers' military interventions with regular forces could under these circumstances easily have become the decisive factor if it had been carried out with consistency and strength - but that is precisely what it was not. It was half-hearted and ineffective, partly because they were war exhausted, and in part, because the Workers' Movements in the west on political grounds opposed the support to the Whites and actions against the revolutionary soviet government. It was also doubt and dissension between the governments in question, and the result was that the various interventions got a very modest character - nonetheless it was sufficient enough that the Soviets could play on national strings within the populace, and in turn it led to a persistent suspicion to the West in the new Soviet state.


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Commissar of War Lev Trotskij inspects a unit with Mikhail Kalinin during the Polish-Soviet War. January 1925 Trotskij lost his position after Stalin undermined his position.

The great hero of the people on the Red side was above all Trotskij. He was made the People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs, or simply but Commissar of War, in March of 1918, and he was primarily responsible for creating the "Red Army", the regime had decreed to create in January that same year. In a few months, he had more and less pulled out an army of 800.000 men up from the soil. Tirelessly he was on the move in his armored train from one front to the other to enflame, organize and lead his troops from the front. He was even at one time during the initial phases of the war surrounded in a pocket and held out for days leading his troops personally. He was a revolutionary leader, minister of war, and field commander all at the same time. The tide of the war swung back and forth like a pendulum throughout 1918-19; soon the White forces advanced and threatened Moscow! Only for then to suffer surprising defeats at the hands of the Red Army, and not before long they were crippled by peasant uprisings in the rear echelons because they were afraid they would once more lose their lands. The war ground to 1919 and the counter-revolutionaries moved to Moscow from nearly every direction, and would just an extreme effort did the Red Army succeed to rout Koltsjak's forces to the east of the Urals again, meanwhile the Red Army barely managed to hold the frontlines in west and south. During autumn, in October of 1919, the tide of war turned in all seriousness; the White Army under Koltsjak received a decisive blow and was forced on a horrific winter retreat, east through the vast scapes of Siberia; it ended with the complete dissolution of the White Army and Koltsjak himself was executed by the Reds in February of 1920. During autumn of 1919, Judenitsj was also decisively beaten and Denikin repulsed, thus giving the Bolsheviks dominion over most of Ukraine and South Russia - the breadbasket and industrial heartland of Russia. By 1920 the White Army had practically speaking given up, and the communist regime in Russia stabilized; the fighting continued to rage on, however, until 1922.

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Stay tuned, the armored train will return in No Step Back!

Part III: From War Communism to the New Economic Policy.

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Famine, by Ivan Vladimirov.

The Communists' victory was a costly victory. To put it mildly. Production neared a total collapse, the transportation system likewise, famine and epidemics cost millions of people their lives. There had been little to no opportunity to "build the socialist society". Lenin had initial intention was to slowly and steadily embark upon his great work of socialization in the backward, faintly industrialized, half feudal country, to not expose the production apparatus for too severe shocks. This was in Trotskij who wanted rapid state industrialization. Nevertheless, the desperate conditions of the civil war led to the state taking control over more or less all production and distribution of goods, otherwise, it would all come crashing down in further disarray. It became a very primitive economic system, "War communism". In practice, they attempted to abolish money and establish a natural economy, where the state directed the production and distributed after some sort of a grand rationing and accounting system. In turn, this led to an awfully extensive bureaucracy, and effectivity plummeted massively. The centralized leadership naturally lost oversight in this clutter of paper and red tapes, and things were not made any better by the fact that many of the communists who were placed in leading roles< missed all professional prerequisites to attack their tasks at hand. It was accepted as long as the revolutionary regime was fighting for their very life, as long as war discipline and the revolutionary terror reigned supreme. However, once the civil war ebbed out, without any signs of improving living standards, the political discontentment once more rose and took form in violent uprisings against the Soviets. Even the Left SR betrayed their erstwhile Bolshevik allies when they called for a "Third Russian Revolution", assassinated the German ambassador, and intended to resume the war against Germany. This was but one of many uprisings from the left against the Bolsheviks - and this was in 1918 nonetheless at the onset of civil war.

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Anarchist sailors during the Kronstad rebellion.

Back to the end of the war. The situation dramatically came to a head when sailors of the military port of Kronstadt, the brave soldiers who had been the stormtroopers, nay vanguards, of the Bolshevik revolution, rebelled in March of 1921. This potentially new March Revolution, the Bolsheviks introduced the Georgian Calendar making the February Revolution happening in March, had its background in a deep dissatisfaction among industrial workers and peasants alike; they began to nourish some of the same feelings against the commissars as against their old masters. While the sailors' uprising was brutally repressed by Trotskij in a matter of weeks, Lenin nonetheless gave the immediate signal of political retreat. It was not difficult to retreat for him, as it meant a return back to his own moderate policy in the field of economics, rationalizing primitive rural Russia was not mature for the complete socialist revolution.

The New Economic Policy - NEP - signified a complete withdrawal. Lenin did not even try to hide that fact, but now as ever, he bent to necessity. Peasants got to, after paying a fair tax, sell the surplus of their production on the free market, and in a number of other fields private initiative once more got a free hand in production and turnover, to bring goods forward again, to stimulate individual drive, appealing to profit motive. It was also a success; hidden reserves emerged, new production was initiated, new roads were laid, simultaneously it laid the foundation for widespread speculation and partly direct fraudulence. NEP is concerned nevertheless, besides agriculture, primary production and turnover of consumer goods. The state kept the "economical command heights": Banking, heavy industry, transportation, and foreign trade. And more importantly: The communists tightened their political grip on the country. Not only was all political power, with the former Left SR and Mensheviks-Internationals purged or absorbed by the Bolsheviks, during the civil war and the NEP hoarded by the party, while every other direction was persecuted; even the inner-party democracy, the open debate, was relieved by a leader-dictatorship. As Lenin said: "When an army is in retreat a hundred times more discipline is required than when it is advancing". With the ban on factions, Lenin created what were called purge committees in which every member of the party had to appear before and argue that they were genuine revolutionaries who belonged in the party. Those that failed to convince the committee were expelled from the party. These purges happened regularly in the 20's and had no lethal consequences or connotations as they would later have in the 1930s.


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The first flag of the USSR. Notice its international focus.

It was not only NEP that heralded a new era for Soviet Russia in 1921. The regime's view and relation to the world abroad also changed. Originally the Soviets had viewed themselves as the avant-garde for the world-revolution, both in line with theories of Marx and Engels and the Permanent Revolution formulated by Trotskij, and believed the Soviet system in Russia could only survive if the revolution managed to ignite in other countries, primarily the West's great industrial nations. For a while, revolution seemed to lurk in the beaten, starved, and frozen Germany, where the Empire had collapsed just as totally like the Tsardom in Russia. Yet, during the first years in the wake of the revolution, it was clear Germany would follow a different path, and the same was true in other countries where the council's movement for a time appeared to have taken hold, like in Hungary. In the western powers the abiding society, despite a wave of radicalism in the scars of war, proved to be even more resilient. There, a communist revolution was simply not possible. The Russian communists realized it and accepted its consequence. Do not be fooled, they in no way or shape abandoned the dream of world revolution, but understood that it was not nigh, perhaps not even in the distant future. Consequently, it led to the Soviets primarily focusing on work that needed to be done on the home front, on the endeavor to consolidate the regime, and rebuild Russia in their image, to a new Russia, a modern and industrialized Russia. The new constitution that was admitted in 1923, and made the country to a federal state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the U.S.S.R., underlined simultaneously the political foundation at the expense of the national, the Russian: any state that accepted the Soviet system, could join the union.

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The 2nd World Congress of the Comintern. Several delegates in this picture, among them Lenin, Zinoviev, Radek, and Bukharin. Spot them if you can.

While this was more form than reality, Moscow maintained contact with the communist parties of the west and directed their affairs through the Communist International, also known as the Comintern or the Third International, its first secretary being Zinoviev; it was organized in Moscow in March 1919, with the aim to combat and relieve the so-called - social democratic - Second International, that the war had busted, but was reorganized come July 1920. After a short time a bitter and piercing confrontation emerged in the international workers' movement, with communists on one hand, and social-democrats on the other, in particular after the Comintern on its second congress in 1920 formed their guidelines and terms of admission in 21 Conditions, the "Moscow Thesis". The thesis' was under the impression of the expectance of impending revolutions and civil wars, and represented as such not only warlike rhetorics watchwords of armed insurrection, but demanded also strict discipline, and total compliance under the centralized leadership of the Comintern, i.e Moscow. Mirroring the internal discipline among the Soviets and even the party itself. Time, however, ran away from rhetorics, and the martial, power-hungry language they spoke. They contributed in the coming years to split the workers' movement in the West and most areas it only meant to reduce communist parties to a small, isolated political cult. In Moscow, her interests always superseded those of the Comintern.

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A lengthy update!

I wanted to go more in depth on the October Revolution, the Civil War, the NEP, the Comintern, everything!

The Civil War deserves an AAR of its own, there is so much to tell, the battles, the several sides, not to speak the many wars in the former Tsardom.

In any case we will revisit it all during the next Trotskij chapter, the last of this Book, and we will come back to many elements of the october revolution and the civil war during Book Two as we cover the many political groups of the USSR and the main characters. The controversy regarding NEP, World Revolution, Sovet democracy, internal party democracy, and the Comintern will become very important throughout Book Two and Three so that will be explored thorougly then. Hoped you enjoyed it!
 
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It does seem like he was in an impossible political position, so I don't entirely see it as an indictment of his character.
It was. I feel sorry for him. I wonder how it would all be if he had managed to keep his government together or started some of the promised social and political reforms. The Constituent Assembly, the one that the Bolsheviks just disregarded once they held it and lost, was just one of many promises they failed to hold. Looking on election results in the Provisional Government, Constituent Assembly, and the Soviets themselves it is clear the Bolshevik line was not shared with the majority of the population.
I suppose part of the Civil War was when the Soviets actually had to rule and alienated certain groups (i.e. Cossacks, small landowners, etc.). It's easy to be popular when you're in the opposition and the ruling party isn't doing well.

Quite so. They had several revolts against them. It is too much to cover in the update I just posted, however, I am thinking of making "special" chapters, where I go more in-depth on certain topics. Such as the internal politics of the Soviets during the revolution, the various factions of the civil war, the German revolution etc.

Well, the Stalinists won't be going down without a fight! I wonder what lane Trotsky will find to attempt his return to Russia. It seems like Stalin did a good job consolidating his power in the 30s, so I'll enjoy what you come up with.
A little hint is that those teasers may not always be what they seem, or be too obvious ;) But indeed, Stalin has consolidated his power. I am looking forward to sharing what I have cooked up with y'all!
 
It was the same land politics the peasants and deserted soldiers had already by themselves started to execute across the countryside, and it was in reality in stark contrast to Bolshevik policy.
That's very interesting to see because I guess Stalin's extensive collectivization was not so unprecedented, ideologically anyways. It makes the dekulakization a bit less surprising.

Cheka was also formed a few days earlier.
That is ominous.

The industry and control of factories were given to the soviets and after a while socialized, armed military and red guard units raided the countryside to confiscate grain for the cities, all banks were nationalized, private bank accounts were expropriated, all private property was nationalized and their rooms rationed out, and a shorter eight-hour working was introduced.
I didn't realize quite how quickly they decided to reshape society!

Only for then to suffer surprising defeats at the hands of the Red Army
That seems a bit generous ;) I'd personally place the blame on the Ukrainian anarchists that cut Denikin's supply lines and were promptly crushed by the Soviets. Whether the Whites could have taken Moscow is a different story, but the Ukrainians turned it into the decisive moment in the Civil War.

Stay tuned, the armored train will return in No Step Back!
I knew there was some benefit to adding railroads to HOI!

Lenin created what were called purge committees in which every member of the party had to appear before and argue that they were genuine revolutionaries who belonged in the party.
Were these a bit like Maoist struggle sessions, or was it truly just trying to clear out opportunists from true communists?

They contributed in the coming years to split the workers' movement in the West and most areas it only meant to reduce communist parties to a small, isolated political cult.
I think it's reasonable to say that the interwar communist parties were stooges of the Soviets.

It was. I feel sorry for him. I wonder how it would all be if he had managed to keep his government together or started some of the promised social and political reforms.
I honestly think he would have struggled because many of the reforms would have taken force to implement, and I'm not certain Kerensky's government had the backing to carry it out. Most of the power was concentrated in the Soviets and their radicalized followers or the right-wing generals, so Kerensky and the moderates seemed left without a true power base.

It is too much to cover in the update I just posted, however, I am thinking of making "special" chapters, where I go more in-depth on certain topics.
That would be a lot of fun to see! Feel free to write whatever catches your interest though. If you don't feel like covering a topic, I don't think anyone will complain.

A little hint is that those teasers may not always be what they seem, or be too obvious ;)
Well that's good to know. That always make the pieces falling together more interesting.

The Civil War deserves an AAR of its own, there is so much to tell, the battles, the several sides, not to speak the many wars in the former Tsardom.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on this. Even the Polish-Soviet War could be an interesting AAR. I've briefly considered doing something on it, but I'd have to finish my current AAR first. HOI3's WWI mod has a Polish-Soviet scenario, while I think there's a HOI4 mod with a 1919 start.
 
That's very interesting to see because I guess Stalin's extensive collectivization was not so unprecedented, ideologically anyways. It makes the dekulakization a bit less surprising.

Ah, you touch into several interesting subjects here! First of all, Trotsky recognized, and Lening affirmed just that, the workers and peasants being united was propaganda, Trotsky actually took it seriously, and was against Bukharin and the NEP prolonging, more on that later on! Moving down this road, the peasants really did not support the Bolsheviks, the Social Revolutionaires remained very popular as we have examined. Marxist thought heavily influenced the SRs, but also the other way around. Plekhanov, IIRC, even got Marx and Engels to recognize a communist revolution was possible in Russia. In short, most of Russia was peasants, and thus most of its politics revolved around agricultural politics.

But the actions against Kulaks, the collectivization, soon we will examine Trotsky's position and his position (spoiler) influenced Stalin's(spoiler)
I didn't realize quite how quickly they decided to reshape society!
Right away!
  • All private property was nationalized by the government.
  • All Russian banks were nationalized.
  • Private bank accounts were expropriated.
  • The properties of the Russian Orthodox Church (including bank accounts) were expropriated.
  • All foreign debts were repudiated.
  • Control of the factories was given to the soviets.
  • Wages were fixed at higher rates than during the war, and a shorter, eight-hour working day was introduced.
Along with ending the war, and promising a social revolution that was very radical. Perhaps even for today's standards

That seems a bit generous ;) I'd personally place the blame on the Ukrainian anarchists that cut Denikin's supply lines and were promptly crushed by the Soviets. Whether the Whites could have taken Moscow is a different story, but the Ukrainians turned it into the decisive moment in the Civil War.

Ah yes, again, I must contact an entire war into half a chapter. As said, I want to further elaborate on the Russian Civil War. As for now, I must keep the story going on, but I will visit the civil war again, and especially Russia, Poland, and Ukraine.

I knew there was some benefit to adding railroads to HOI!

I have my major issues with it, but having advocated adding fuel and railroads ever since release I am very pleased!

Were these a bit like Maoist struggle sessions, or was it truly just trying to clear out opportunists from true communists?

I must admit I am reading myself upon Mao's China right now. But basically, Lenin managed to gain a monopoly on what is true communism. Purges (though this only amounted to being expelled from the party) were something regular before Stalin.

I think it's reasonable to say that the interwar communist parties were stooges of the Soviets.
They were clearly indepedent!
I honestly think he would have struggled because many of the reforms would have taken force to implement, and I'm not certain Kerensky's government had the backing to carry it out. Most of the power was concentrated in the Soviets and their radicalized followers or the right-wing generals, so Kerensky and the moderates seemed left without a true power base.
Indeed. Hence, they were caught between a rock and a hard place. He might have been charismatic and even sincere, but time went by and he was too radical by the right and too conservative by the left. I also feel sorry for Krensky, once he was exiled, by the Russian diaspora he was met with only contempt. They blamed him from everything from the February Revolution to the Bolshevik takeover.

That would be a lot of fun to see! Feel free to write whatever catches your interest though. If you don't feel like covering a topic, I don't think anyone will complain.

Trust me, I would to write about it, and have already structured them somewhat in my mind, but first we need to visit Book Two!


I wholeheartedly agree with you on this. Even the Polish-Soviet War could be an interesting AAR. I've briefly considered doing something on it, but I'd have to finish my current AAR first. HOI3's WWI mod has a Polish-Soviet scenario, while I think there's a HOI4 mod with a 1919 start.
 
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Ah, you touch into several interesting subjects here! First of all, Trotsky recognized, and Lening affirmed just that, the workers and peasants being united was propaganda, Trotsky actually took it seriously, and was against Bukharin and the NEP prolonging, more on that later on! Moving down this road, the peasants really did not support the Bolsheviks, the Social Revolutionaires remained very popular as we have examined. Marxist thought heavily influenced the SRs, but also the other way around. Plekhanov, IIRC, even got Marx and Engels to recognize a communist revolution was possible in Russia. In short, most of Russia was peasants, and thus most of its politics revolved around agricultural politics.
I'm looking forward to future chapters on this! I'll admit my knowledge of the early Soviet Union is not great, so I've really learned a lot already. These sound quite interesting to me.

But the actions against Kulaks, the collectivization, soon we will examine Trotsky's position and his position (spoiler) influenced Stalin's(spoiler)
Well, add another layer of complexity to Trotsky. It's becoming clear that just because Stalin was authoritarian doesn't mean Trotsky was any better.

Perhaps even for today's standards
I would say nationalizing all private property and bank accounts is pretty shocking. I can see factory workers and peasants getting behind many of the reforms, but nationalizing private property hurts everyone, not just the rich.

Ah yes, again, I must contact an entire war into half a chapter.
No worries, just me being pedantic.

I must admit I am reading myself upon Mao's China right now. But basically, Lenin managed to gain a monopoly on what is true communism. Purges (though this only amounted to being expelled from the party) were something regular before Stalin.
Struggle sessions were pretty crazy. Basically, people were accused of not being good communists, brought before their peers, and berated until they confessed their sins. Many times, the sins were false and the berating became physical. It was basically the CCP eating itself as young radicals felt their elders weren't zealous enough.

A really excellent book on it is Ten Years of Madness. It contains various true stories of the Cultural Revolution, written by a survivor.

I also feel sorry for Krensky, once he was exiled, by the Russian diaspora he was met with only contempt.
I suppose most of the diaspora was White soldiers, so Kerensky was not that removed from the Bolsheviks in their eyes.
 
Well, add another layer of complexity to Trotsky. It's becoming clear that just because Stalin was authoritarian doesn't mean Trotsky was any better.

Quite so. I remember something that sparked my interest in writing about Trtoskyism in the first place was some American claiming she was a Trotskyist. When I inquired what she meant by that, she really didn't have answer and claimed it to be like the "socialism" in Scandinavia and said she was not a communist. I believe as Stalin have been the boogey man for so long, Trotsky is seen as a better alternative just because he is not Stalin. We will see, however, what happens and if Trotsky will become better. What I have mused about is that perhaps Stalinism in this universe will be seen as a "good" form of communism.

I would say nationalizing all private property and bank accounts is pretty shocking. I can see factory workers and peasants getting behind many of the reforms, but nationalizing private property hurts everyone, not just the rich.

Yes, taking away your apartment and renting it out to others is pretty extreme. Interestingly, the agricultural sector was only socialized and not nationalized, as the SRs pushed that through as the peasants did not want their land to be nationalized. But as you have noted, this will be more important once Stalin comes around and the NEP is ended.

Struggle sessions were pretty crazy. Basically, people were accused of not being good communists, brought before their peers, and berated until they confessed their sins. Many times, the sins were false and the berating became physical. It was basically the CCP eating itself as young radicals felt their elders weren't zealous enough.

Interesting. It is something similar in the Soviet Union too. It is almost as if the CCP was influenced by the USSR ;)

A really excellent book on it is Ten Years of Madness. It contains various true stories of the Cultural Revolution, written by a survivor.

Cool, I might check that out!

I suppose most of the diaspora was White soldiers, so Kerensky was not that removed from the Bolsheviks in their eyes.

Indeed, I remembered now that he was also denied an Orthodox burial in America, so he had to be buried in a protestant burial in England. There is also stories of him being spotted in the streets and Russians saying things like "here is the man that killed the Tsar's family"

As a note, we will not make it into book three before NSB release. That way I can familiarize myself with the game mechanics and try out the many new paths. Fret not, I will start playing on the save game that will be used for this AAR. And as promised, it will not only be the USSR that I will play. More on that later, it shall be revealed soon enough.

I intend the next Trotsky Chapter, and end of Book One, to be longer than first anticipated. But it should be out early next week, and it will not only be a, hopefully, neat summary of Book One, but it will also focus more on specific situations and flesh them out (such as the revolutions, civil war etc), but from Trotsky's pov, and make us get the main character better and it will moreover, again hopefully, we a neat jump point to book two.

Book Two, will start with either a short chapter and one long chapter (or both are made to one) detailing the USSR from where we left and until 1936. Then there will be shorter chapters on each faction in the USSR, what they stood for and a mini-bio on 1-2, and at most 3, main players in that faction that will again be major players during our AAR. Then we will round up with yet another Trotskij chapter before the game itself starts.

And if any one of you are interested, isorrowproductions have released a video on youtube doing a Trotskyist run. I have not yet seen it, but I can imagine his video will be right into the action and not having extensive backstories as you can see here!
 
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Teaser #10.

We are from the infantry, brother,
And summers are better than winters.
We've settled our score with the war,
Grab your trench coat, let’s go home!

The war has worn us down,
We’re like old men now,
Yet even the war has met its end.
For four years, your mother was without you,
Grab your trench coat, let’s go home!

Our streets were turned to embers and ashes,
Still again, again, my comrade,
The fallen starlings have come back to them.
Grab your trench coat, let’s go home!

Now, you're sleeping with closed eyes
Under a wooden star,
Stand up, stand up, brother,
Grab your trench coat, let’s go home!

What will I say to your nearest and dearest ones?
How could I face your widow?
You can't swear on yesterday.
Grab your trench coat, let’s go home!

We are all the insane children of war,
Generals and privates alike.
Again, the spring rises over the snow,
Grab your trench coat, let’s go home!


 
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Interesting. It is something similar in the Soviet Union too. It is almost as if the CCP was influenced by the USSR
What I found so creepy about the Cultural Revolution was it came from the grassroots rather than the state security agencies. Radicalized students would literally kidnap people, ransack their house, berate them, etc. and they even targeted party leaders. It's kind of terrifying what 'normal' people can be convinced to do...

There is also stories of him being spotted in the streets and Russians saying things like "here is the man that killed the Tsar's family"
That is pretty harsh. That makes me feel pretty bad for the guy, basically being scorned by everyone around him.


That sounds like a really good structure for the second book. I look forward to it!
 
What I found so creepy about the Cultural Revolution was it came from the grassroots rather than the state security agencies. Radicalized students would literally kidnap people, ransack their house, berate them, etc. and they even targeted party leaders. It's kind of terrifying what 'normal' people can be convinced to do...

It was very creepy! Can't imagine how it must be to live under such a paranoid society. Interestingly William Gaddis paraphased Lord Acton, saying it is not power that corrupts people, but people that corrupts power. A political scientist, Brian Klaas, have also released a book titled "Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us". People at large are very suspectible to become authorian and act under authorian figures. Also reminds me of tht experiment where participants would give (what they believed to be) electrical shock to students when told so by a teacher, even fatal amounts. It is a keen reminder that we can all not only be repressed by dictatorships, but also be the repressors. To put it in contex, it is easy for us to i.e say that we would never do what the radicalized students did, but if we were a student of China during that time we might as well have been those. Not saying you would do it, but it is creepy and important to reflect around imo.

That is pretty harsh. That makes me feel pretty bad for the guy, basically being scorned by everyone around him.

I suppose the saying when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing none is relevant here!

That sounds like a really good structure for the second book. I look forward to it!

Thank you :)

And after watching ISP's run on the Permanent Revolution, all I can say is that it will be a bloody and long road ahead of us!
 
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To put it in contex, it is easy for us to i.e say that we would never do what the radicalized students did, but if we were a student of China during that time we might as well have been those. Not saying you would do it, but it is creepy and important to reflect around imo.
I agree entirely with this. That book on people corrupting power sounds quite interesting, and I'll have to look into it.

And after watching ISP's run on the Permanent Revolution, all I can say is that it will be a bloody and long road ahead of us!
That sounds interesting for sure. I'm sure it will go well, but the challenge is half the fun!
 
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Quite so. I remember something that sparked my interest in writing about Trtoskyism in the first place was some American claiming she was a Trotskyist. When I inquired what she meant by that, she really didn't have answer and claimed it to be like the "socialism" in Scandinavia and said she was not a communist. I believe as Stalin have been the boogey man for so long, Trotsky is seen as a better alternative just because he is not Stalin. We will see, however, what happens and if Trotsky will become better. What I have mused about is that perhaps Stalinism in this universe will be seen as a "good" form of communism.

That's interesting! Trotskyism has always been pretty eclectic and Trotskyists have always been prone to massive infighting, going back to one of the world's oldest and largest Trotskyist organizations of the 1930's, the American Socialist Workers Party, formed by Trotskyist dissidents from the CPUSA. The first big issue among Trotskyists was whether the Soviet Union remained a 'workers' state' or whether it had become some new kind of society all together. Max Schachtman held that it was 'bureaucratic collectivist' and led the first major schism within Trotskyism. In the decades after the end of World War 2, a lot of Trotskyism organizations moved more towards social democracy, to the point where that would be a more accurate label than calling them revolutionary Marxist or communist(hence the reference to Scandinavia, a common invocation by American social democrats today). The United States' largest Trotskyist organization, the ISO, dissolved itself after the popularity of Bernie Sander's first presidential candidacy and most of the members joined the Democratic Socialists of America. There are a few 'orthodox Trotskyist' organizations that try to hold to a more 'genuine and authentic' version of Trotskyism, but they tend to be rather tiny, insular, and cultist; like the Spartacist League. It's a weird little universe.

I think that's a really funny reversal too. It's really not difficult to imagine an alternate timeline where people wistfully think, "If only Stalin had been able to keep the leadership of the Soviet Union, then we'd be living in a utopia right now."

Interesting. It is something similar in the Soviet Union too. It is almost as if the CCP was influenced by the USSR ;)
The connection between Soviet and Chinese policies is kind of an interesting one. I wish I knew more about it, but I've found that the state of English historiography on 20th century China is pretty pitiful compared to Soviet historiography. There are a few up-to-date books out there, but it is dwarfed by the amount on the Soviet Union.

Something like a Chinese style cultural revolution never happened in the Soviet Union. The party wouldn't have allowed such a semi-autonomous mass display of violence. From the very beginning, the Bolsheviks had always carried out terror, imprisonment, and executions in a highly centralized way planned with military discipline with the Cheka. There was some 'spontaneous' mass violence that was undirected by the state and party, but these tended to be pogroms.

In a way though, and this is kind of my own tenative hypothesis given I'm not too well read on Chinese history, the Cultural Revolution did serve a purpose somewhat similar to the Soviet Great Purge. Although, like I said, there was never such a groundswell of popular, spontaneous violence in the Soviet Union like with the Cultural Revolution, to some extent this was egged on by Mao and other top bureaucrats as a way of eliminating perceived rivals and obstacles in the government bureaucracy.

The bureaucratic angle is one that I don't think has been explored all that often. There's a Soviet historian, J. Getty who in his research came up with an interesting angle in interpreting the Great Purge. He emphasized the importance of informal patronage networks, where rather than things operating in a smooth, legalistic rule-of-law manner outlined by Weber, a la a modern western bureaucracy, the Soviet bureaucracy operated more along the lines of patronage networks. Bearing in mind that especially during the period of the Civil War, the state of infrastructure and communication across Russia outside the developed European areas was extremely tenuous and primitive. Regional party officials operated with semi-autonomy, and this continued right up into the Great Purge.

Getty argues that the Great Purge didn't so much eliminate the system of informal bureaucratic patronage so much as create new ones that were more directly tied to the central authority in Moscow. Whether this was a conscious or unconscious aim of the Purge, intentional or unintentional, is very debatable, but there's no denying that it is something that indeed happened. Two of his books that I have read have focused on this issue, Practicing Stalinism and then a biography he wrote about Yezhov. I highly recommend them to any Soviet history buffs.

Both the Great Purge and the Cultural Revolution illustrate a weird seeming-paradox: both Stalin and Mao posed, violently even, as the ultimate enemies of bureaucracy, yet the murderous anti-bureaucratism of both ended up being a pillar of the 20th century's(and possibly, of the entirety of human history) most bureaucratic societies ever.
Indeed, I remembered now that he was also denied an Orthodox burial in America, so he had to be buried in a protestant burial in England. There is also stories of him being spotted in the streets and Russians saying things like "here is the man that killed the Tsar's family"
This is very true. People who have primarily relied on pop history wouldn't necessarily know it, but Kerensky was probably the most hated Russian politician of the people. White or Red; Menshevik or Bolshevik; liberal, marxist, anarchist, conservative, or monarchist... they all agreed on one thing. They all hated Kerensky.

There's a really awesome Russian history book about Kerensky's period in power that was just translated into English last December: Boris Kolonitskii's Comrade Kerensky. Another recommendation to Russian/Soviet history nerds.

As a note, we will not make it into book three before NSB release. That way I can familiarize myself with the game mechanics and try out the many new paths. Fret not, I will start playing on the save game that will be used for this AAR. And as promised, it will not only be the USSR that I will play. More on that later, it shall be revealed soon enough.

I intend the next Trotsky Chapter, and end of Book One, to be longer than first anticipated. But it should be out early next week, and it will not only be a, hopefully, neat summary of Book One, but it will also focus more on specific situations and flesh them out (such as the revolutions, civil war etc), but from Trotsky's pov, and make us get the main character better and it will moreover, again hopefully, we a neat jump point to book two.

Book Two, will start with either a short chapter and one long chapter (or both are made to one) detailing the USSR from where we left and until 1936. Then there will be shorter chapters on each faction in the USSR, what they stood for and a mini-bio on 1-2, and at most 3, main players in that faction that will again be major players during our AAR. Then we will round up with yet another Trotskij chapter before the game itself starts.

And if any one of you are interested, isorrowproductions have released a video on youtube doing a Trotskyist run. I have not yet seen it, but I can imagine his video will be right into the action and not having extensive backstories as you can see here!

Can't wait to see things start to take shape more.

I took a look at some of those early videos including isorrow's yesterday. The Civil War looks like it's going be a lot of fun. There's an incredible amount of freedom to choose how you want your civil war to take shape. From what I've noticed, you will have to prioritize and move quickly. There's not enough time to take all the civil war prep focuses you have available. You're fighting a clock against time. Any generals Stalin secures the loyalty of will be unavailable for you after the Civil War it seems, so the longer you wait, the less you'll have, unless you took some of the decisions from the army support focus. Seemed like isorrow only had like a dozen generals left after triggering the Civil War in the spring of '37, but it's almost certainly the case that playing at high speed without carefully weighing your options and planning things is going to give you a worse outcome.

Of course isorrow choose one of the most obvious cheese ways of doing it: he selected to begin with occupation of all the Ural states so that Stalin's territory would be cut in half. Almost all of his forces were out of supply though, as expected! I'm curious to see how effective it will be trying to build up your base in Ukraine, which seems to be costlier than starting in Siberia or the Urals, but puts you much closer to the prize... Moscow! Kind of surprised to see how fleshed out the Civil War is, both the inter-bolshevik civil war and the White Guard one. For the Red civil war, capturing important urban centers seems to trigger events that damage some of Stalin's factories and lower his surrender limit.

The White Guard civil war looked especially fun. There was one video I found on it and it took the person(forget who it was) over three and a half years to win, and took about a million casualties. The Whites don't get any of the events that reduce the surrender limit, but the Bolsheviks do suffer sporadic natioanlist uprisings in various tags both old(like Ukraine) and new(the Mountain Republic). Definitely expect to see the forum flooded with complaints that the White civil war is too hard. Calling it right now. It looks great to me, though! I'm sure a skilled player can do it without cheese in a 1-1.5 years, if even that long. That'll be my first playthrough.

Overall, it looks even more fleshed out and detailed than the Spanish Civil War. A pleasant surprise. We've only got about 36 more hours to go. Definitely take your time and give it a few run throughs so you can familiarize yourself with it and craft us a great civil war for the AAR.
 
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That's interesting! Trotskyism has always been pretty eclectic and Trotskyists have always been prone to massive infighting, going back to one of the world's oldest and largest Trotskyist organizations of the 1930's, the American Socialist Workers Party, formed by Trotskyist dissidents from the CPUSA. The first big issue among Trotskyists was whether the Soviet Union remained a 'workers' state' or whether it had become some new kind of society all together. Max Schachtman held that it was 'bureaucratic collectivist' and led the first major schism within Trotskyism. In the decades after the end of World War 2, a lot of Trotskyism organizations moved more towards social democracy, to the point where that would be a more accurate label than calling them revolutionary Marxist or communist(hence the reference to Scandinavia, a common invocation by American social democrats today). The United States' largest Trotskyist organization, the ISO, dissolved itself after the popularity of Bernie Sander's first presidential candidacy and most of the members joined the Democratic Socialists of America. There are a few 'orthodox Trotskyist' organizations that try to hold to a more 'genuine and authentic' version of Trotskyism, but they tend to be rather tiny, insular, and cultist; like the Spartacist League. It's a weird little universe.

I think that's a really funny reversal too. It's really not difficult to imagine an alternate timeline where people wistfully think, "If only Stalin had been able to keep the leadership of the Soviet Union, then we'd be living in a utopia right now."


It is very interesting. From my research I quickly realized Trotksyism meant different things during different periods. When he was in the USSR, his own form of plitics. In his exile, being anti-Stalin along with somewhat advocating for his ideology. But lready there cracks formed, as you said, and after his deth and WW2 it evolved generally to a more anti-Stalin approach and toward democratic socialism. Fringe elements, both on the left and right, usually tend to split and form new groups, unite, again, go into new directions and be their own worst enemies.

And indeed, depending on what Trotsky do, and what he manages to accomplish, he might very well be the boogeyman of the west and some sort of example among communists of "not a true communist", that would be very interesting.

The connection between Soviet and Chinese policies is kind of an interesting one. I wish I knew more about it, but I've found that the state of English historiography on 20th century China is pretty pitiful compared to Soviet historiography. There are a few up-to-date books out there, but it is dwarfed by the amount on the Soviet Union.

Something like a Chinese style cultural revolution never happened in the Soviet Union. The party wouldn't have allowed such a semi-autonomous mass display of violence. From the very beginning, the Bolsheviks had always carried out terror, imprisonment, and executions in a highly centralized way planned with military discipline with the Cheka. There was some 'spontaneous' mass violence that was undirected by the state and party, but these tended to be pogroms.

In a way though, and this is kind of my own tenative hypothesis given I'm not too well read on Chinese history, the Cultural Revolution did serve a purpose somewhat similar to the Soviet Great Purge. Although, like I said, there was never such a groundswell of popular, spontaneous violence in the Soviet Union like with the Cultural Revolution, to some extent this was egged on by Mao and other top bureaucrats as a way of eliminating perceived rivals and obstacles in the government bureaucracy.

The bureaucratic angle is one that I don't think has been explored all that often. There's a Soviet historian, J. Getty who in his research came up with an interesting angle in interpreting the Great Purge. He emphasized the importance of informal patronage networks, where rather than things operating in a smooth, legalistic rule-of-law manner outlined by Weber, a la a modern western bureaucracy, the Soviet bureaucracy operated more along the lines of patronage networks. Bearing in mind that especially during the period of the Civil War, the state of infrastructure and communication across Russia outside the developed European areas was extremely tenuous and primitive. Regional party officials operated with semi-autonomy, and this continued right up into the Great Purge.

Getty argues that the Great Purge didn't so much eliminate the system of informal bureaucratic patronage so much as create new ones that were more directly tied to the central authority in Moscow. Whether this was a conscious or unconscious aim of the Purge, intentional or unintentional, is very debatable, but there's no denying that it is something that indeed happened. Two of his books that I have read have focused on this issue, Practicing Stalinism and then a biography he wrote about Yezhov. I highly recommend them to any Soviet history buffs.

Both the Great Purge and the Cultural Revolution illustrate a weird seeming-paradox: both Stalin and Mao posed, violently even, as the ultimate enemies of bureaucracy, yet the murderous anti-bureaucratism of both ended up being a pillar of the 20th century's(and possibly, of the entirety of human history) most bureaucratic societies ever.

That was interesting observations. Trotsky, and his supports, as I am certain you know, and that we will examine in the future, is also anti-buecratic at game's start. Perhaps when they return to Russia, they will just continue the buecracy. It is a common theme through history, and not limited to Russia, though. In opposition you say something and want to improve things, and once in position realize it is very different, and might keep or even expand, in this the buecracy, that you were supposed to get rid off.

This is very true. People who have primarily relied on pop history wouldn't necessarily know it, but Kerensky was probably the most hated Russian politician of the people. White or Red; Menshevik or Bolshevik; liberal, marxist, anarchist, conservative, or monarchist... they all agreed on one thing. They all hated Kerensky.

There's a really awesome Russian history book about Kerensky's period in power that was just translated into English last December: Boris Kolonitskii's Comrade Kerensky. Another recommendation to Russian/Soviet history nerds.


In that respect he was a unifying figure ;)

Can't wait to see things start to take shape more.

I took a look at some of those early videos including isorrow's yesterday. The Civil War looks like it's going be a lot of fun. There's an incredible amount of freedom to choose how you want your civil war to take shape. From what I've noticed, you will have to prioritize and move quickly. There's not enough time to take all the civil war prep focuses you have available. You're fighting a clock against time. Any generals Stalin secures the loyalty of will be unavailable for you after the Civil War it seems, so the longer you wait, the less you'll have, unless you took some of the decisions from the army support focus. Seemed like isorrow only had like a dozen generals left after triggering the Civil War in the spring of '37, but it's almost certainly the case that playing at high speed without carefully weighing your options and planning things is going to give you a worse outcome.

Of course isorrow choose one of the most obvious cheese ways of doing it: he selected to begin with occupation of all the Ural states so that Stalin's territory would be cut in half. Almost all of his forces were out of supply though, as expected! I'm curious to see how effective it will be trying to build up your base in Ukraine, which seems to be costlier than starting in Siberia or the Urals, but puts you much closer to the prize... Moscow! Kind of surprised to see how fleshed out the Civil War is, both the inter-bolshevik civil war and the White Guard one. For the Red civil war, capturing important urban centers seems to trigger events that damage some of Stalin's factories and lower his surrender limit.

The White Guard civil war looked especially fun. There was one video I found on it and it took the person(forget who it was) over three and a half years to win, and took about a million casualties. The Whites don't get any of the events that reduce the surrender limit, but the Bolsheviks do suffer sporadic natioanlist uprisings in various tags both old(like Ukraine) and new(the Mountain Republic). Definitely expect to see the forum flooded with complaints that the White civil war is too hard. Calling it right now. It looks great to me, though! I'm sure a skilled player can do it without cheese in a 1-1.5 years, if even that long. That'll be my first playthrough.

Overall, it looks even more fleshed out and detailed than the Spanish Civil War. A pleasant surprise. We've only got about 36 more hours to go. Definitely take your time and give it a few run throughs so you can familiarize yourself with it and craft us a great civil war for the AAR.

Yes I was very impressed by how they did it. You really need to strategize now, and must plan ahead. I look very much forward to try the vrious paths! And the White Russia run is linked to ISP's video on the Permanent Revolution, he did a collab with the other dude in his video. And it looked very interesting indeed, IIRC the Second Russian Civil War was not ended before Germany invaded Poland (ISP played them), can't wait to play the game tommorow!

Speaking of tommorow, I am fleshing out the last chapter in book one, it should come out tommorow. Then first chapter of book two is scheduled to come out on saturday, but I can't promise anything due to work in general, and Christmas Feast/Julebord on friday, with work and lutefisk (it is horrible) feast on Sunday.
 
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That was interesting observations. Trotsky, and his supports, as I am certain you know, and that we will examine in the future, is also anti-buecratic at game's start. Perhaps when they return to Russia, they will just continue the buecracy. It is a common theme through history, and not limited to Russia, though. In opposition you say something and want to improve things, and once in position realize it is very different, and might keep or even expand, in this the buecracy, that you were supposed to get rid off.
One of the things Getty talks about in his work is that one of the reasons Trotsky lost out in the power struggle in the 20's is because he adhered to this more western, Weberian conception of bureaucracy where you are supposed to do things by the book and in accordance with the rule of law. He spurned the kind of patronage networks that everyone else cultivated and was more about consistent, one might even say idealistic principals. That was at least part of it. There were a lot of reasons Trotsky was overall unpopular in the party: his past Menshevism and criticism of Lenin, his arrogance and domineering personality, his coming from a Jewish background(although Trotsky himself always disavowed any religious or cultural connection to Judaism), and of course, his relatively more 'principaled' politics that emphasized policy over achieving power. All the other power players in the post-Lenin vacuum constantly flip flopped their positions on various issues(and none more so than Stalin, whom Bordiga called "the weathervane of politics"), but Trotsky's positions mostly remained the same.

Will Trotsky stay true to those principals and restructure the bureaucracy, or will he give in and basically mimic the cronyism of Stalin? An interesting question! One of the things I like about speculative fiction is that it makes us confront the dilemma of history, why things happened the way they were. It really does seem to be the case, in part, that for Trotsky to actually BE Trotsky, he had to lose. If he had won, maybe he would have been more like Stalin than he could have imagined, or maybe not. Who knows?

Yes I was very impressed by how they did it. You really need to strategize now, and must plan ahead. I look very much forward to try the vrious paths! And the White Russia run is linked to ISP's video on the Permanent Revolution, he did a collab with the other dude in his video. And it looked very interesting indeed, IIRC the Second Russian Civil War was not ended before Germany invaded Poland (ISP played them), can't wait to play the game tommorow!

Speaking of tommorow, I am fleshing out the last chapter in book one, it should come out tommorow. Then first chapter of book two is scheduled to come out on saturday, but I can't promise anything due to work in general, and Christmas Feast/Julebord on friday, with work and lutefisk (it is horrible) feast on Sunday.

Sounds like you have something similar to the American Thanksgiving. I had to look up what lutefisk was. Dried and pickled cod, huh? I'm a fan of cod, but I'm not sure how I like the idea of it being pickled. Cod has a pretty neutral flavor on its own and usually has to be fried, marinated, or something for it to be good.

Cheers, and happy holidays!
 
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Teaser #11:

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"Reintroduce Political Commissars. Loyalty of officers; unknown. Many have been former White Officers, others handpicked by the snake. Further investigation into the Military Conspiracy must be conducted ... Reports from Manchuria; Japanese build-up. Among their ranks, Whites and military conspirators. Action may be required, rumors of the Bloc and subversive elements of the Army promising Japan parts of our sacred motherland in return for support ... for now, divert attention to the Red Army, no dissent will be allowed, maintain a presence in China".

"Evidence of the Bloc of Rights and Trotskyists infiltrating Barcelona ... revisionists expected to leave the popular front, if not, they must be purged ... pressure Madrid, crackdown, arrest, invade, and occupy the terrorist center. Purge the anti-soviets, execute them. It is of utmost imperative this is done ... Make it clear to Madrid all support will be withdrawn if they fail to comply ... "


"The head of the snake resides in the capital, covertly and overtly rallying counter-revolutionary forces. Becoming a pilgrimage center and magnet, this is the base of operations of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center. It cannot be allowed to continue to exist, his revisionist ideology and counter-revolutionary ideology cannot be allowed to persist and spread further, cancer must be removed ... if Trotskij is finished the threat will be eliminated ... Trotskij must be eliminated within a year ... establish communications with the Painter to raid the palace ... If all else fails, brief the Spaniard. I reiterate Trotksij must be eliminated within a year."

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My grandfather was very proud of his Swedish heritage and liked(!) lutefisk. I suspect it was more of a pride thing.
 
One of the things Getty talks about in his work is that one of the reasons Trotsky lost out in the power struggle in the 20's is because he adhered to this more western, Weberian conception of bureaucracy where you are supposed to do things by the book and in accordance with the rule of law. He spurned the kind of patronage networks that everyone else cultivated and was more about consistent, one might even say idealistic principals. That was at least part of it. There were a lot of reasons Trotsky was overall unpopular in the party: his past Menshevism and criticism of Lenin, his arrogance and domineering personality, his coming from a Jewish background(although Trotsky himself always disavowed any religious or cultural connection to Judaism), and of course, his relatively more 'principaled' politics that emphasized policy over achieving power. All the other power players in the post-Lenin vacuum constantly flip flopped their positions on various issues(and none more so than Stalin, whom Bordiga called "the weathervane of politics"), but Trotsky's positions mostly remained the same.

Will Trotsky stay true to those principals and restructure the bureaucracy, or will he give in and basically mimic the cronyism of Stalin? An interesting question! One of the things I like about speculative fiction is that it makes us confront the dilemma of history, why things happened the way they were. It really does seem to be the case, in part, that for Trotsky to actually BE Trotsky, he had to lose. If he had won, maybe he would have been more like Stalin than he could have imagined, or maybe not. Who knows?

That is very interesting about bureaucracy. And yes, I do think he was too principled and not much of a pragmatist and power player, in addition, to be a very strong-headed character, he did not make many friends. History do not happen out of a vacuum, and perhaps his years in exile have also taught him that he must be more like Stalin to gain power and/or hold unto it. And naturally, of course, once he gets to power, it might be so that the other players have allied himself with have ideas of his own, and are pushed to either concede on some points (such as purging bureaucracy), or that he needs to adopt Stalinist methods in order to solidify his position to better execute his own principles. But then again, he has already gone against his principles, but the end may justify the means, as long as there is something that justifies the end?

Sounds like you have something similar to the American Thanksgiving. I had to look up what lutefisk was. Dried and pickled cod, huh? I'm a fan of cod, but I'm not sure how I like the idea of it being pickled. Cod has a pretty neutral flavor on its own and usually has to be fried, marinated, or something for it to be good.

Cheers, and happy holidays!
My grandfather was very proud of his Swedish heritage and liked(!) lutefisk. I suspect it was more of a pride thing.

Yes we don't have Thanksgiving, Christmas is much more important, and celebrations usually start around November and end around the new year.

And yes, I do not like it either. Many say they like it, but it is indeed more of a pride thing. It is telling that no one eats it as just the fish anymore, but dunks it in mustard, bacon, syrup, and so on to quell the taste. I usually only take one, or half a portion to be polite and then eat everything else hehe.

But cheers, and happy holidays to you two as well ;)
 
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Chapter Eight: The Professional Revolutionary

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Eight year old Lev Bronstein.

Lev Trotskij was born on the 7th of November 1879, in the small city of Yanovka, in the Russian Empire, he was not born by the name he would be known as in history, but was actually called Lev Davidovich Bronstein. His father was David Leontyevich Bronstein, a Jewish-Ukrainian farmer, built himself up from nothing to become a relatively prosperous farmer, the family lived in a quite isolated part of Ukraine, which was over 20 kilometers from even the closest post office. His mother was Anna Lvovna, Lev was their fifth child, and although the family was Jewish, they were not particularly religious, and Surzhyk, a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, was spoken at home rather than Yiddish, the language typically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. During his first years, he was kept at the farm and schooled by his parents, but when Lev turned eight he was sent to a private Jewish-Ukrainian school in Odessa, a major port city, situated in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea, here was placed in an environment, in which a historically multicultural city was becoming increasingly Russified, in line with Imperial policy. Early on his rebellious streak was evident, while at Odessa he organized a strike against an unpopular teacher. While he at first had difficulties understanding Yiddish, and as a consequence struggled during the first years in school, he soon improved, became a capable student, and in time learned Russian and fell in love with the flourishing Russian literature. However, after two years the young Lev was transferred to the state-run St. Paul's High School, and while he proved to be one of the top students, he continued to have his run-ins with his teachers and expressed his independent thinking; manifested and spurned on by his love of the literature of the Russian renaissance, intellectual giants such as Tolstoj and Dostojevskij, gave him the knowledge and arguments to challenge the established order. After graduating from St. Paul's, the young Lev would move to another Ukrainian port city of the Black Sea, Nikolayev, and there he started to mingle with radical crowds during his formative years.

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Odessa, while Lev lived there, a very multicultural city. Likely giving him his Internationalist aptitude.

The Russia of where Lev was growing up, was one in upheaval. In comparison to her neighbors in central and western Europe, the motherland had been culturally, politically, and socially, underdeveloped for centuries - this, however, began to change during the 19th century; her population doubled between 1850 and 1900; coal production increased twelvefold, while iron and steel production doubled during this period. Sweeping technological advances in communications, such as the train, telephones, and telegraphs, also brought Russia and her subjects, not only into the modern-day and age, but into much closer engagement with European ideas, politics, inventions, and philosophy. Accordingly, a large movement began from mid-century to both reform Russia and end the characteristics of the rule of Russian Tsars: their autocracy and inequality. In 1861, Russia became the very last major European power to abolish serfdom, meanwhile, the USA was yet to abolish slavery, setting them on a destructive path, back to the topic. Because of serfdom, around 40% of Russians were effectively under the control of landowners, on whose massive estates they lived and toiled their soil. Reforms under the Tsar-Liberator did not end there, however, as the press' censorship was relaxed allowing for new political ideas to be debated, and new political groups to emerge, such as when Mikhail Bukhanin founded modern collectivist-anarchism, which advocated the complete abolishment of central state authority - as a response to the centralized and autocratic Tsar's regime. During the 1870s and 1880s, Narodniks, and other agrarian socialist groups, with or without terrorist activities, advocating for socialism, with Russian characteristics, sprung up as Russian was being exposed to ideas from Germany, and more importantly that of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. However, their ideas began to gain much more traction from 1891, with the introduction of non-terrorist socialist groups, and more importantly, following a catastrophic famine (that Lenin welcomed) that year, which claimed the lives of perhaps up to half a million Russians. The unrest that followed the famine, and the suspicion against the ruling class, although they might not have been to blame, might indeed be one of the major underlying causes of the revolution of 1917, without the famine of 1891 and following discontent, it might not have happened.

1920px-%D0%92%D1%81%D0%B5_%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5_%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%83%D1%8E%D1%82_%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D0%A0%D0%A1%D0%94%D0%A0%D0%9F_%281917%29.jpg

Banner of the RSDLP.
These events were ultimately also formative for the young Lev, in a later attempted autobiography, he would write "1891 marked the official date of the political breaking point of this country". Naturally, in this increasingly conscious and radical political life of Russia, Lev was not alone in his thinking, and the reactionary rule of Alexander III., propelled further by the struggles of the famine of 1891, led to the rising popularity of socialist movements in the 1890s, in addition to the renewal of the Narodniks and various Russian agro-socialist terrorist movements that established the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, other Marxist groups often led by non-violent intellectuals, coalesced into Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). A revolutionary socialist party. The teenage Lev was soon, through his radical crowd mingling, and remember he had moved to the Ukrainian city of Nikolayev, where he became involved with the Narodniks. Within a few months after arriving in Nikolayev, Lev met a young woman by the name of Aleksandra Sokolovskaya. She was six years his senior and well-versed in revolutionary leftist politics. Lev later recalled he was attracted to Sokolovskaya as she was the only person who was able to defeat him in debate. The subject at issue was that of Marxism and whether or not that would be the best thing for Russian society. Lev argued against it, but every argument he made was deftly destroyed by the wit and wisdom of Sokolovskaya. Back to the Narodniks, and with them, a segway to the South Russian Workers' Union, which he helped establish in the town. This led to his first imprisonment, in January of 1898, as he partook in a demonstration of said union's members. Not long after he met Sokolovskaya, he was sent to prison. Still, the future Trotskij was undeterred, and later in 1898, he joined the RSDLP.

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Lev Bronstein, to the right, with his first wife in the center.

Young Lev Bronstein would continue to be arrested over the next two years and exiled to hard labor in a penal colony in Siberia, as a result of public demonstrations and organizing revolutionary groups in south Russia and Ukraine, but he was soon accompanied by Aleksandra, they married in 1899. Aleksandra Sokolovskaya would also, due to activities of her own and with Lev, be exiled to Siberia for four years. But the Tsar's regime was more overbearing than the later Soviet regime, and the two were allowed to live together. They ended up in the Siberian village of Ust Kut. Over the next two years, as they eked out a living in this cold, harsh terrain, the couple had two children, the girls named Zenaida and Nina. No doubt living together with his wife and children made the harsh reality of Siberia After two years in Siberia, Lev had enough - he was ready to make his escape. By now is wife had fully converted him to Marxism, and thus, he was determined to get out of this purgatory and become active in the revolutionary cause. It was resolved that Aleksandra would remain in exile with the two young children. It should be noted that Aleksandra was the one who convinced him, not only to Marxism, but also to escape.

It was then he assumed his new name, scribbling it on the pages of his fake passport, that he had obtained from one of his former jailors in Odessa - Trotskij and Bronstein readily adopted and embraced his new name. A name that he would know for in the rest of history. Then he finally made it out of the natural prison that was Siberia, hidden in a hay wagon, and left for London eager to learn at the feet of the founder of Russian Marxism and the so-called Social-Democratic movement in Russia; Georgij Plekhanov. In addition a leading editor of the socialist newspaper Iskra; the Spark, the official organ of the RSDLP. Trotskij, who is generally regarded as being a highly accomplished writer and brilliant polemicist, was soon putting his own literary abilities to work in the newspaper. In London, he established contact with other leading members of the RDSLP, who had gone into hiding in England, after Nikolai II. had cracked down on socialist movements in Russia. Here, Trotskij, also came into contact with Vladimir Iljitsj Uljanon, or Lenin as he became known, a figure of some controversy within the party. The men developed an immediate bond, and Lenin was also more than helpful, in securing Trotskij his new job in Iskra. In Iskra, Trotskij would also become a close associate of Julius Martov, a bond that would continue through his career. In Iskra, however, Trotskij would have a falling out with Plekhanov after the scheming of Lenin.

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Martov, early ally of Lenin, then Trotskij, and a Menshevik.
Within a couple of months after his arrival, Lenin sent him on a fundraising and publicity campaign of Europe to promote the Iskra and the RSDLP among Russian exiles and European revolutionaries. On the Paris leg of the tour, he met a young woman by the name of Natalia Sedova. Trotskij divorced Aleksandra that was left behind in exile, and Trotskij and Sedova soon became man and wife. She returned with him to London and set up a household there. And soon thereafter Troskij, attended to the Second Congress of the RSDLP, back to London, we will come back to Lenin and explain why he was a divisive figure: In 1902 Lenin had written a pamphlet: What is to be done? Consequently, it ripped open a divisive debate within the RDSLP, over the future of the party, on one side was self-titled purists, such as Lenin, believing the party should build its support exclusively among the industrial masses against the Tsar, the landholders, and the Bourgeois, meanwhile a separate faction of the party argued they should seek the support of the middle-class against the Autocratic Tsar, the aristocrats, and the upper class. These divisions in the party came to a head at the Second Congress of the Party, held first in Brüssel, before being chased off to London, in 1903. The main topic of the congress became the direction of the party, the more, comparatively speaking, moderate of the two factions who envisioned gradual transition to communism, a stagist approach. Lenin's bloc, however, was far more radical. They intended to overthrow and dismantle the current system and replace it with a social revolution. They were fully prepared to stage a violent uprising in order to achieve their means. During this congress, the party split into two opposing factions, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, which you already know what means. Yet again, while the names reflected, barely, the votes at the congress, it did not reflect the actual support of the factions, as the Bolshevik, led by Lenin, had only the support of the minority of the members, and the Menshevik, led by Lenin's former friend, Martov, was the more popular and powerful of the two factions which resulted from the split. At the Congress, Lenin explained that the Bolsheviks needed to create a centralized power structure from which they could control and direct the workers. His idea was very troubling to Trotskij, who saw it as a replacement of the type of capitalist control of the masses that they were trying to get rid of. Trotskij, initially affiliated himself with the Mensheviks, and he and the majority of the editors of Iskra supported the Mensheviks and Martov, but come 1904 and he was disillusioned with his faction's courting with liberals and the middle class, in consequence, he distanced himself from both the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, and would spend the next ten years as a non-aligned ((not a monarchist!)), but nevertheless remained a prominent figure within the Russian socialist movement, owing to his involvement in the Iskra, his intellectual capacity, and that he for many years thereafter he tried to bridge the divide between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

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Barricades and heavy street fighting in Moscow in 1905.

Unbeknownst to Trotskij, his time of departure of the Mensheviks, occurred simultaneously as the cause of reform was to undergo the greatest spurs to action that had been since the famine of 1891, yet another root to 1917, or rather the dress rehearsal of 1917. In 1905 Russia suffered humiliating defeats against the Japanese in an unpopular war, on top of this was an economic and financial crisis, in a country not yet recovered from famine, and on the brink of yet another one, with social upheaval across all of southern Russia and the Caucasus. The Russian economy was in ruins, and the social order collapsed under violent strikes.. On the 22nd of January, Father Gapon, led a large demonstration of unarmed protestors to the Winter Palace in order to gain an audience with Nikolai, to protest against the firing of several workers from an ironwork. Nikolai was, however, not present, instead, the peaceful protestors, that numbered in the thousands were greeted by cavalry and line infantry - also in the thousands. Thousands of demonstrators facing down thousands of troops, led to gunshots later that morning, with several aimed salvoes in the presence of the Imperial Residence, and later gunshots all over the capital as the Russin troops locked down the city, routing the demonstrators. Several hours later of battle, or rather slaughter, when the gunpowder smoke settled, and the blood still ran in the gutters, one thousand protestors were slain, or up to 4000 according to some anti-government sources, with many more injured. Although he had not ordered the attacks, public opinion was enraged and directed against Tsar Nikolai, and strikes rapidly broke out in most cities and all over Russia.

Forced by the escalating unrest, and the clairvoyant liberal Witte, the Tsar grudgingly established the State Duma or parliament. This olive branch, however, failed to stem the tide and calm down the population that entered into a phase of increasingly radicalized politics - especially in the industrialized urban centers of the nation, such as St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Moscow, and Riga. The people were outraged. In the Bolshevik ranks, however, celebrations were occurring. They saw this as the spark, or Iskra, that would bring on the fabled social revolution. Over the following months, demonstrations, uprisings, and massacres across the vast Empire grew larger and more frequent and morphed into the October General Strike. Over that period of time, the Bolsheviks were busy trying to organize resistance. In the turmoil in the wake of Bloody Sunday, Trotskij, and Lenin alike, returned to Russia, and was in St. Petersburg in the thaw of 1905, and began to write for several underground newspapers associated with the Mensheviks, naturally his activities put him in danger of arrest of the Tsarist regime, whos head, merely waited for an opportunity to depose of Witte and wrest control back from the Duma to his own person. And within weeks of returning to Russia, he had to flee to the Grand-Duchy of Finland, an autonomous region of Russia undergoing turmoil and revolution of her own. From here he spent the remainder of 1905 traveling back and forth between the capital and the Grand Duchy. Trotskij, during this time, became highly influential, as he not only took leadership of the Gazette, increasing its circulation's readership to some 500.000, creating with Martov and the Mensheviks a new circulation named "Nachalo" ("The Beginning"), also proving to be highly successful and popular among the working class of Petrograd. Trotskij, Martov, and the Mensheviks began to organize special workers' assemblies. These groups were intended to seize control over regions that in turn were to be governed by a workers' council -a Soviet. Trotskij set up the first Soviet in St. Petersburg, the spiritual predecessor to the Petrograd Soviet, with he serving as its chairman, under his leadership the Soviet was in operation and in opposition to the Tsar and his government. Despite the initial opposition, Bolshevik critics would soon join the St. Petersburg Soviet. It was this role, as leader, writer, and agitator that led to Trotskij's arrest in the wake of the brutal crackdown and the Revolution's coup de grace by Stolypin. Trotskij, along with many senior leaders was arrested, and the St. Petersburg Soviet ceased its functions, fearful of further crackdowns, failing to inspire the formation of other soviets, and continued revolutionary activity. There he was held in prison for nearly a year before being put on trial. Defending the charge of leading an armed insurrection, Trotksij showed his oratory skills with an impressive speech in which he laid out the, perceived, benefits of Marxism. All this was in vain, however, as he was convicted and exiled to good old reliable Siberia, sentenced to hard labor.

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Trotskij awaiting trial in 1906.
However, this time he never made it to Siberia. Trotskij determined he would under no circumstance return to the wilderness of Siberia. Consequently, in either late 1906 or early 1907, he escaped while being transported to his supposed exile. Once more, he set course for London. Only this time around he would not remain idle for long, instead of relocating after a few months to Wien, the capital of the great, and equally reactionary, Habsburgs. It was here in the capital of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire, he would conduct much of his work for the next decade, and it was here he would, from 1908 and forward, become involved with Russian Marxist and psychoanalyst Adolf Ioffe, and became subsequently the editor in the circulation of the underground propaganda paper that was smuggled into Russia: Pravda; Truth. Trotskij introduced a tabloid format and distanced itself from the intra-party struggles of the RSDLP. This was not to last for long, however. Financing the ongoing publication of Pravda was a constant challenge, and in 1909, Trotskij requested the Bolshevik dominant Central Committee of the RSDLP, to inject funds to keep the paper going. Lenin, now the head of the Bolsheviks, agreed, but only on the condition that a Bolshevik is put in place as assistant editor. Effectively meaning that the, relatively, moderate views of which Trotskij managed to infuse into the paper, were no longer acceptable. From 1910 Pravda became the mouthpiece of Bolshevik politics, with Kamenev, Trotskij's brother in law becoming a co-editor. Tensions between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks continued to cause great fissures within the RSDLP, in 1912 Lenin instigated a purge, expelling all Mensheviks from the RSDLP. Trotskij, nonetheless, remained in opposition to the more radical actions of the Bolsheviks, such as armed robberies of banks to finance the party. He organized a unification conference in Vienna, the "August Bloc", in 1912, and attempted to reconcile and reunite the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. He was inspired by Lenin, that is good old-fashioned divide and conquer tactics, following the purge, hosted a congress in Praha, Bohemia, that resulted in some Mensheviks rejoining the ranks of the RSDLP. Trotkij's attempt, however, ended in failure.

Other than his involvement in the Russian Marxist movement from his base in exile, it was in Vienna that Trotskij would start on his sole contribution to Marxist theory, that of the Permanent Revolution. This was first expressed, in its initial forms, in the 1908 rather lengthy essay which built around theoretical ideas he had written and conceived in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday. The essay was titled Results and Prospects. So what was this Permanent Revolution, that was starting to be conceived? In this theory, he further developed the idea promulgated by Marx, that parts of the middle-class would be essential in carrying out and implementing a revolution to establish political democracy, along with the redistribution of land and wealth. As a first step towards achieving, first socialist society, and then the ever mythical communist society. Trotksij, however, argued that the middle-class could no longer be trusted, capitalism had ceased to be progressive, there could be no cooperation between the proletariat and the bourgeoise. The stages of marxism the Mensheviks adhered to were outdated, dead. It befell to the lower classes alone to carry out the revolution, and since the bourgeoisie could no longer be trusted, their revolution had to be permanent. Moreover, instead of viewing the development of capitalism at a national level, they could instead look at the development on an international level. Fully supporting socialist revolutions, in poor, underdeveloped countries, not yet being under capitalism in Orthodox Marxist sense, while not believing they could create socialist countries of their own, they would inspire a revolution in the industrial, western nations, among their industrial masses. This would go on to have a substantial effect outside of Russia, in the 20th century - especially in Latin America and China. These thoughts, combined with Russian Marxism, and traditions in Russian socialism, would form the sub-ideology of Marxism called Trotskyism, at this early age a distinct form of Marxism, in stressing the needs of permanent revolution. With the working class being in constant opposition to the middle and upper classes, who could no longer be trusted, and that developed and underdeveloped countries alike had to rise up in a social revolution. This was in contradiction to Marx, who envisioned a stagist approach. Yet, Trotskyism was still in its early days and was then, as of now, a very fluid concept and would be further developed with first-hand revolutionary experiences later in Russia...

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Reading Pravda in Vienna.

Throughout 1912, Trotskij wrote for a number of radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers. In September of that year, he was sent on an assignment to cover the Balkan War, that wracked the country. He also covered with great interest the class and ethnic conflicts in the region. When the Great War broke out he shuffled between Austria, as a Russian emigree, he was forced to flee the country, to Switzerland where Lenin also moved to after imprisonment in Austria, and finally to Paris. From his base of operations there he wrote anti-war diatribes in which he described the injustices of the workers of the world being forced to kill each other at the beckoning of their rulers - to the thunderous applause of the parties of the Second International, supposed to stand in solidarity and unite workers of the world. In Switzerland he worked with the Swiss Socialist Party, and wrote "The War and the International", where he criticized said International. In the RSDLP, two factions formed, the "defeatists", and the "defencists" - the former, including, Trotskij, Lenin, and Martov advocated internationalism, the latter, including Plekhanov, but also Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, supported Russia in her war. Pervus, was even so against Russia, that he became a defencist supporting Germany in their war against Russia. The French government was, unsurprisingly, not impressed with the nomad's anti-war stance during their hour of need, and in what is by now a recurring theme, and will continue to be so, deported Trotskij on the 31st of March 1916. Trotskij headed south for Spain, only for his writing to once stir trouble, and was promptly led to his deportation - once more. He finally wound up in the United States. He arrived in New York, on January 13th, 1917. He settled into a small room in the Bronx and resumed his writing for several Russian newspapers. And then, about a little more than a month after his arrival, Trotskij received the news that Tsar Nikolai had been overthrown. He decided to return, after all, political criminals were pardoned, and play his part in the history that was unfolding. On March 27th or March 14th back home in Russia, embarked on the Norwegian liner SS Kristianiafjord, crossing the Atlantic. To his detriment, the ship was intercepted by the Royal Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Trotskij was interned for a month. Through the intervention of Russian Foreign Minister Pavel Miljukov, who begrudgingly did so, but was under pressure from the Soviets, he was released and continued on to Russia.

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Let us backtrack a little. Early February 1917, throughout the city demonstrations and strikes of disaffected workers, took place. Prior to this, the war, just like in 1905, had seriously destabilized Russian society, after grueling stalemate, and humiliating defeats, Tsar Nikolai had taken personal control of the Russian Army in 1915, and already unpopular figure, was seen as personally responsible for the coming mlitary reverses on the Eastern Front. More importantly, however, comparatively, with 1905, the printing of money and heavy borrowing, had seen massive inflation, resulting in basic foodstuffs, in the already impoverished country prone to famine, increasing in price: fourfold. Pushing to poor even further to destitution, this was in combination with increasing, resulted in radical political movements in the country to once more gain a foothold. Safely from his exile, Lenin called for the World War, to be turned into a Revolutionary Civil War against the Tsar, by the proletariat. This disaffection was not aided by the Tsar's family, the Tsarina was originally German, and came under scrutiny from the population, the Duma, and Imperial Government alike, as Russia began to suffer a string of defeats at the hands of the Germans. In addition, the Romanovs began to increasingly rely upon their faith of the abilities of a certain Rasputin, a mystic who befriended the family, and whose eccentric lifestyle led to the population and nobility slowly turning against him, with popular opinion seeing the "monk" as the true power behind the throne. Despite his assassination, he nevertheless had already significantly tarnished the reputation of the Imperial family - among all strata of society. These many factors coalesced, with underlying issues, in 1917 into severe unrest in Petrograd, the capital that had doubled its population, from one million in 1890, to two in 1917; many of them disaffected and disillusioned industrial workers.

February: over 100.000 workers were protesting throughout the capital. The Russian Revolution had begun. Not by Lenin and the exiles, but by spontaneous strikes, in response to factories negating to pay their starving workers, answering their demonstrations with lockdowns. With the Tsar absent from the capital, but playing soldier on the eastern front, events rapidly escalated: The Tsar ordered his army to move to the capital and suppress the revolt as in 1905, this backfired, however, as many of the soldiers either refused to shoot on the protestors, deserted, or outright joined the protestors; the Duma now established a committee to establish a new establishment, and re-establish law and order; a Soviet was formed by the industrial workers, soldiers, and sailors of Petrograd. Meanwhile, Nikolai faced increasing pressure to abdicate in the wake of the situation who spiraled out of control. Nikolai, nonetheless was unrepulsed, and instead headed for the capital to reassume control. He never made it there though, from sabotage of railway workers, and senior members of the Imperial Government, and the Imperial Army, alike, pressured him to abdicate. And so he did in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail, who in turn realizing he lacked the support, refused to accept the title of Tsar, effectively ending Tsarist rule and the Russian Empire.

A Provisional Government was now established, headed by the liberal Georgij Lvov, however, power in Petrograd itself was in effect at the mercy of the Petrograd Soviet. Naturally, this led to a power struggle playing out between these two contenders, vying for power over the course of the next eight months. Between the conciliatory aristocratic and middle-class Provisional Government, and the populist and working class-based Petrograd Soviet.


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Trotskij arriving by train in Petrograd.

Back to Nova Scotia, here Trotskij was, again, imprisoned where he organized workers' groups, held mass meetings,s and agitated for a socialist revolution and end to the war, but as we know he was soon released by the Provisional Government and returned to Russia in May. In the materializing great struggle, he became a leading and major player: Lenin had returned to Petrograd in April, and the Bolsheviks quickly became one of the major players as the most radical groups in the divided Russian politics. Despite being non-aligned in the conflict between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks that had gone on for the years in his exile, Trotskij soon sympathized with the Bolsheviks, drifting towards Lenin's position, which sought to overthrow the Provisional Government and be done with the old order once and for all. The social revolution would take precedence over cooperation with the old upper class and the bourgeoisie. He quickly became a popular speaker at town halls and factories, as the various political elements vied for power. His catchphrase embodied the 3 key tenets of his revolutionary vision "Distrust the Bourgeoisie; Control our own leaders; Have confidence in our own revolutionary forces. The Bolsheviks, meanwhile, struggled for more radical changes than the Provisional Government, or the Duma, envisioned. Trotskij soon aligned himself with the Bolsheviks, he was arrested in August the 7th, for his involvement in Bolshevik demonstrations, and as part of the crackdowns in the aftermath of the July Days, he was sentenced to 40 days in prison. Come October 8th Trotskij, with Bolshevik ascendancy gaining support, was elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. By the end of the year the Provisional Government had failed, it was superseded by the Bolsheviks with Lenin at the helm, the second powerful man in the Bolshevik Party was Lev Trotskij. Government crackdowns on several radical groups had seen Trotskij arrested, and Lenin fleeing to Finland, however, a failed military putsch headed by General Lavr Kornilov, saw Trotskij released from prison, leading the defense against the counter-revolutionaries and Lenin return to the capital. Upon his return, the Bolshevik Central Committee voted for a revolt and seizure of power, not only in response to the failed coup but also further military reverses on the Eastern Front, seeing German forces invading Russia herself after marching through Poland and Lithuania. Trotskij's role in inciting the revolution, which followed Lenin's return to Petrograd, cannot be overstated: It was he who authored the resolution in the Petrograd Soviet which called for a "military revolutionary center ... to facilitate for the revolutionary defense of Petrograd, and the safety of the people from the attacks being openly prepared by the military and the civil Kornilovites". It was men as Trotskij, Lenin, Smilga, who allied and defeated Kamenev, Zinoviev, and Rykov, and made the revolution reality. Trotskij would then overshadow the other Bolsheviks, and surpass Zinoviev, becoming Lenin's right hand man.

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Lenin in a propaganda poster decipting the October Revolution.

The resulting revolt on the night came to the known as the October Revolution. The military committee had appointed Trotskij as its chairman, and he was instrumental in couping power in Petrograd through the October Revolution, by bringing the garrison in the city over to the Bolshevik cause, along with the many Red Guards armed by Kerenskij. Less than 24 hours, most of the government buildings, and central communications hubs were occupied, and the following night the Winter Palace, the seat of Kerenskij and the Provisional Government, fell to Trotskij and Lenin, their Party, and the Petrograd Soviet. Thus began the world's first socialist state: the Russian Soviet Republic.

In 1918 Pravda wrote: "All practical work in connection with the organization of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organized." The author: Iosif Stalin.

Within days the new Soviet regime tightened its grip upon the nation - Moscow declared its support for the government, sweeping policy changes were implemented to create a social revolution: all private property was nationalized, so were the banks and the vast properties of the Church, with factories being put under workers' control, the members which saw their working days shortened to eight hours, and their pay increased - crucially for the foreign powers, all foreign debt defaulted. Trotskij's star was rising in the first weeks of the new Soviet regime, following the role he played in the October Revolution, in these early days of the new revolution, none, other than Lenin, in the government, party, and soviets were more powerful than Trotskij. He was appointed foreign minister, reflecting his role as number two in the new state, and his first task was the war effort, which Russia was horribly losing. A war that was largely the downfall of the Empire and Provisional Government alike His first act, much to the chagrin and embarrassment of the Entente, was to publish the terms of secret protocols, which sought to redistribute the European lands of the Central Powers, along with their African, Asian, and Middle-Eastern lands. This isolated Russia, and put the motherland on her own against the German juggernaut.

Simultaneously, Trotskij began negotiating for peace in December, signing a cease-fire that month, from its very inception it was clear that the German demands would be harsh, punitive, and drove a hard bargain. They demanded that the Russians would evacuate and give up any claim to Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, as well as parts of Latvia and Belorussia. Trotskij was taken aback by these demands and related the demands to Lenin, the latter who felt they had no choice but to agree on the demands. Trotskij, however, wanted to stall the negotiations to facilitate a workers' revolution in Germany.

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Trotskij and Kamenev during the peace negotiations.


The government situated in Petrograd was highly opposed to such terms, when the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Soviets were informed, they were infuriated. So-called Left Communists under Bukharin, and allied with the Left SRs, the majority within the Soviets, who wanted to transition the war into a revolutionary war, managed to convince Lenin and Trotskij alike to not sign the treaty. In the end, Trotskij decided to simply pull out of the hostilities without the benefit of an armistice agreement. "We declare we end the war, but will not sign a peace. They will be unable to make an offensive against us. If they attack us, our position will be no worse than now", he announced. He gambled on that once the war resumed, the soldiers of the German Army and their workers at home, would follow the path of Russia, refuse to take up arms, desert, and revolt at home. It was a gamble Trotskij would immediately regret. On February the 18th, Austrian and German forces, in response, launched a full-scale invasion of the battered and chaos-ridden Russia. They found the borders completely undefended and simply waltzed in. On hearing this grave news, Trotsij was dumbfounded. He sent a note to the German ambassador saying: "We request clarification of this misunderstanding", however, naturally, there was no misunderstanding. The very next day, Trotskij was instructed by Lenin, to accept the original German conditions.

Early 1918 it was facing increasing opposition from within Russia to the establishment new socialist state, with a major civil war brewing, with the army in no state to undertake a resumption of the eastern front, with the failings of Kerenskij fresh in mind, the regime reluctantly agreed to most of Germany's terms, in 1918. Trotskij, who was to personally loathe the territorial concessions to a capitalist and monarchist regime, refrained from casting a vote in the decision to accept the German demands, which he had overseen the negotiations of. He clung to a hope that while the negotiations were underway, the German proletariat would rise up in revolution, but his faith in his fellow revolutionaries proved misplaced. The terms of the treaty of Brest-Litovks were harsh for the infant state: Russia ceded all of its territories in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, in addition to some territories in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to the Ottomans. Finland, Ukraine, and Georgia were also made independent. The total losses amounted to over one million square miles, 55 million people, as well as huge proportions of Soviet Russia's heavy industries. Lenin was clear that this was nothing short of complete humiliation, at the same time, and importantly, the armistice provided Russia with a breather, gaining precious time to prepare itself for the impending civil war...

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Trotskij dancing Kalinka, speaking to his troops as minister of war.


With, the once-proud, Russia, victor over Napoleon and master of Europe, out of the war, Trotskij was made commander-in-chief of the Soviet Russian Armed Forces and Peoples' Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. A crisis occurred when the Czechoslovak Legion returning home from the war revolted against the Soviet Government. The resistance, with the aid of Cossacks and other elements and generals of Russia, grew into what would become known as the White Army. When he heard that the outpost of Kazan had fallen to this opposition, Trotskij hopped on an armored train and headed for the area to assess the situation himself. His train only made it to Sviyazhsk, where it was forced to turn back. To his detriment, and putting him in great personal danger, before he could get out of town the White Army had encircled Trotskij's contingent. For 25 days they were forced to fend off the assault before they were finally able to break out and return to Petrograd.

However, the Legion was not the only enemies of the Soviet state, which was multiplying as the Civil War spread out all over Russia - as far as to the Pacific Ocean. Their enemies were a broad coalition of aristocrats, monarchists, Cossacks, army officers, the Orthodox Church, liberals, centrists, moderates and even socialists and leftists who were opposed to the Bolsheviks. Less significiantly there was other groups such as the "Black Army", and the "Green Army", arose to fight for regional rights, against the centralized Soviet regime. It was against these factions, Trotskij was put in charge, to lead the Red Army and the Soviet war effort against.

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Polish poster named "Bolshevik Freedom".

The initial problems facing him were the small size of the Red Army, and the severe lack of professionalism. His first act was an enormous and energetic recruitment drive, the number of the Red Army swelled from 300.000 to one million troops within six months of Trotskij taking charge, and when new fronts opened, particularly in Poland in 1919, it was increased to a further three million men. The Polish Second Republic, that it was to later be named, was backed by France and Britain, and the Polish-Soviet War had begun, ending in the Miracle of the Vistula, and rivalry between Trotskij and Stalin. Trotskij's methods as Commissar for Military Affairs could be brutal. In order to instill greater discipline among the rank and file, he created the infamous blocking units. He also reintroduced many Tsarist, or "White", officers and specialists into the Red Army, to increase its professionalism and increase its manpower in the face of 16 opposing armies. Political Commissars was also introduced to maintain loyalty among the new officers and specialists, and the rank and file alike. Stalin would continue to harbor suspicion against the Red Army, both because of its Trotskyist origins, and the introduction of White Officers. Trotskij's thoughts on this, after receiving criticism from fellow party members, who saw this as a violation of the communist revolution, were that this was indeed a proper Army of the October Revolution, and as he would later write "An army cannot be built without reprisals. Masses of men cannot be led to death unless the army command has the death penalty in its arsenal. So long as those malicious tailless apes that are so proud of their technical achievements—the animals that we call men—will build armies and wage wars, the command will always be obliged to place the soldiers between the possible death in the front and the inevitable one in the rear. And yet armies are not built on fear. The Tsar's army fell to pieces not because of any lack of reprisals. In his attempt to save it by restoring the death-penalty, Kerensky only finished it. Upon the ashes of the great war, the Bolsheviks created a new army. These facts demand no explanation for anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of the language of history. The strongest cement in the new army was the ideas of the October revolution, and the train supplied the front with this cement." It should be stated, on the other hand, that he could be more lenient, and instead directly intervening in rallying deserters: "In the provinces of Kaluga, Voronezh, and Ryazan, tens of thousands of young peasants had failed to answer the first recruiting summons by the Soviets ... The war commissariat of Ryazan succeeded in gathering in some fifteen thousand of such deserters. While passing through Ryazan, I decided to take a look at them. Some of our men tried to dissuade me. "Something might happen," they warned me. But everything went off beautifully. The men were called out of their barracks. "Comrade-deserters—come to the meeting. Comrade Trotsky has come to speak to you." They ran out excited, boisterous, as curious as schoolboys. I had imagined them much worse, and they had imagined me as more terrible. In a few minutes, I was surrounded by a huge crowd of unbridled, utterly undisciplined, but not at all hostile men. The "comrade-deserters" were looking at me with such curiosity that it seemed as if their eyes would pop out of their heads. I climbed on a table there in the yard and spoke to them for about an hour and a half. It was a most responsive audience. I tried to raise them in their own eyes; concluding, I asked them to lift their hands in token of their loyalty to the revolution. The new ideas infected them before my very eyes. They were genuinely enthusiastic; they followed me to the automobile, devoured me with their eyes, not fearfully, as before, but rapturously, and shouted at the tops of their voices. They would hardly let me go. I learned afterward, with some pride, that one of the best ways to educate them was to remind them: "What did you promise Comrade Trotsky?" Later on, regiments of Ryazan "deserters" fought well at the fronts."

Trotskij, remained, nonetheless an ideological zealot who firmly believed in the Red Terror, especially following the assassination attempt on Lenin, insofar it would lead to the destruction of the propertied classes, and initiate a new socialist world order. "The bourgeoisie today is a falling class... We are forced to tear it off, to chop it away. The Red Terror is a weapon utilized against a class, doomed to destruction, which does not wish to perish. If the White Terror can only retard the historical rise of the proletariat, the Red Terror hastens the destruction of the bourgeoisie."

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Lenin, Trotskij, and Kamenev motivating troops.

Anyway. With the White Army challenging them from the east, and Cossacks in the south, the Bolsheviks also faced pressure from the north, as the Finnish group known as the White Guard sought to rescue the Romanovs from captivity. The group was on the verge of taking control of the town of Yekaterinburg, which is where the Imperial Family was being held captive. Then the order came through to execute the entire family. With this terrible deed done the White Guard was ousted from the capital, however, the White Guard was too late to save the Tsar and his family. As the civil war dragged on, and it turned to 1919, Russia was in a deep state of crisis. Civil War had racked the country, and now disease, famine, and poverty decimated the population. Meanwhile European powers, and Japan, hovered around the great bear, ready to devour its corpse. By October the White Army had almost total control and were pressing at the gates of Petrograd, with the support of Polish, Finnish and Estonia backed with foreign support. The Soviet Government ordered a full-scale retreat from the city, but Trotskij, vehemently disagreed. He rallied his supporters to make a final stand, and fight to the very last man. Trotskij's bravery, strong personality, and persistence turned the tide. The Red Army dug in and managed to repulse the White Army. Petrograd was secured, and the Red Army turned to the offensive in the winter of 1919/1920 and the tide of the Civil War began to turn in favor of the Soviets. The Polish-Soviet War came to an end, foreign forces evacuated Russia. By the end of 1920, the White Army was concentrated in Siberia, and in 1920-1921 the Red Army made rapid progress. The Russian Civil War ended in 1922 when the last hold of the White Army, Vladivostok fell to Trotskij's Red Army. When the dust settled, the new Soviet state had lost Poland, Finland and the Baltic States, but managed to regain control over Belorussia, the Ukraine, Central Asia and the Caucaus - the latter after brutal invasion and repression by Stalin and Berija. The Soviet leadership had survived to see off their enemies and cement their leadership.

Despite their success, their leader visionary, Vladimir Lenin, had in May 1922 a massive stroke. Trotskij, for all, seemed to be the natural successor. However, crucially, there was one other member of the Bolshevik power structure who had other ideas - his name was Iosif Stalin.

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Lenin, Trotskij, and Voroshilov with Red Army soldiers.

- End of Book One -
 
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There it is, the last chapter of book one. Rather lengthy, and going into detail of many topics and events we have already touched on. Seeing them in the perspective of Trotsky. Next up will be Book Two, and it will focus more on the internal politics of the early USSR, leading up to the exile of Trotsky and setting up his eventual, or rather hopeful, return.