The Red Army faced the problem of creating a competent and reliable officers' corps, leading Trotsky to mobilize former officers of the imperial army. In the years of the Civil War, up to 50,000 ...

Trotsky’s legacy in power is defined by his leadership of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War (1918-1921). As Commissar of War, he transformed the Red Army from a disorganized rabble into ...

At the age of 26 Trotsky had been the undisputed leader ... the forces of the counter-revolution in Russia's three year Civil War. A brilliant orator and military strategist, as well as an ...

The Bolsheviks were extremely fortunate in the quality of their leadership, particularly in Lenin and Trotsky. Throughout the Civil War, Lenin provided the energy and drive needed to inspire ...

As Trotsky explained, the Soviet state that emerged from revolution and civil war was a highly contradictory phenomenon. As the product of a genuine working class revolution, the new state rested ...

However, as the Civil War developed, the White Armies began to ... This made communication between the various battlefronts much easier. Trotsky was able to move troops and supplies quickly ...