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Section III (Personalities): Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary and Theorist of Permanent Revolution
Quick questions on Trotsky and the Red Army: HSC Modern History Personality
8short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is appointment as War Commissar?Show answer
Trotsky was appointed People's Commissar for War on 13 March 1918, immediately after Brest-Litovsk. The military situation was desperate. The Red Guard of October 1917 was a workers' militia of perhaps 30,000 men, suited to a coup in a capital city but not to a continental civil war. The old imperial army had melted away.
What is the political commissar system?Show answer
Each military specialist was paired with a political commissar of proven Bolshevik loyalty. The commissar countersigned operational orders, monitored the specialist's reliability, and managed the political education of the troops. The commissar had the legal authority to shoot the specialist if he defected.
What is the armoured train?Show answer
From August 1918 Trotsky spent two and a half years on the front in a special armoured train ("Train of the Predrevvoensoviet"). The train had a printing press (publishing the daily V Puti, "En Route"), a telegraph, a garage with cars and motorcycles, a library, a small radio station, and a personal guard of 250 Latvian riflemen. Trotsky travelled some 105,000 kilometres in the Civil War years.
What is the Polish War, 1920?Show answer
The Polish War of 1920 was the Red Army's only major foreign-offensive operation of the Civil War period. The Soviet Western Front, under Mikhail Tukhachevsky, advanced on Warsaw between June and August 1920. The Battle of the Vistula (15-25 August 1920, known in Poland as "the Miracle on the Vistula") routed the Soviet forces. Tukhachevsky lost 25,000 dead, 65,000 captured, and 30,000 interned in East Prussia.
What is kronstadt, March 1921?Show answer
The Kronstadt revolt of 28 February to 18 March 1921 was the most serious challenge to Bolshevik power from inside the revolutionary camp. The sailors of the Baltic Fleet, who had been a Bolshevik bastion in 1917, demanded soviet democracy, free trade, and the end of grain requisitioning. The revolt was suppressed by Red Army forces under Tukhachevsky on Trotsky's orders, with heavy casualties on both sides.
What is q1?Show answer
Source A is an extract from Trotsky's October 1919 telegram from Petrograd. Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain Trotsky's role in the Civil War. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Evaluate the extent to which the Red Army victory in the Civil War depended on Trotsky's leadership. [25 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare the views of Evan Mawdsley and Robert Service on Trotsky as military commander. [10 marks]