Trotsky's Military Writings and Speeches, Volume 3 (1920)

1920 – year of the war with Poland. In the early months, the Red Army’s victories against the White Guards won a breathing-space in which it turned to assist in the reconstruction of the war-torn economy. The first Labour Armies were formed under Trotsky’s direction. Then came the Polish offensive. The Soviet Republic replied by swelling the ranks of the Red Army to five million and launching the contentious march on Warsaw. Beaten back outside the Polish capital, the Soviet forces nonetheless regained lost territories, enabled the Bolsheviks to conclude a peace, and proceeded in the South to sweep the counter-revolutionary Wrangel into the sea. The third in a five-volume series, this book is part of an imperishable record of the struggle to defend the Soviet state in the years following the Russian Revolution. Long suppressed in the Soviet Union, these writings and speeches of the leader of the Red Army are here published in English for the first time.

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Written: 1920.
First Published: 1924 as Book Two of Volume II of Kak Vooruzhala Revolyutsiya, by the Supreme Council for Military Publications, Moscow.
Source: Materials and Documents on the History of the Red Army, The Military Writings and Speeches of Leon Trotsky: How the Revolution Armed, Volume III: The Year 1920, New Park Publications, London, permission for publication on the Trotsky Internet Archive given by holders of the copyright, Index Books, London.
Translated (and edited) and Annotated: Brian Pearce.
Original Footnotes (Endnotes): The original explanatory footnotes and other appendices were compiled by S.I. Ventsov. All contemporary references by the translator, Brian Pearce. All footnotes and endotes are combined herein. Notes by Leon Trotsky are indicated thusly: “– L.T.”)
Transcription/HTML Markup: David Walters.
Online Version: Leon Trotsky Internet Archive, 2002.

Foreword

The General Situation at the Beginning of 1920

1. Our Work at Building the Army and Our Fronts (Report to the 7th All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’, Red Army Men’s and Working Cossacks’ Deputies, December 7, 1919

The Labour Armies

2. The Transition to Universal Labour Service in Connection with the Militia System, December 16, 1919

3. To The Revolutionary War Council Of The Third Army, January 11, 1920

4. Order-Memorandum, January 15, 1920

5. To the Working People, February 4, 1920

6. On Mobilising the Industrial Proletariat, on Labour Service, on Militarising the Economy, and on the Utilisation of Army Units for Economic Needs (Theses of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party) February 4, 1920

7. Bread for the Hungary! Fuel for the Cold!

8. Who is Ruining Transport? Who is Destroying the Railways? Who is Condemning the Population to Hunger and Every Other Form of Hardship?

9. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the First Labour Army, February 24, 1920, No. 194, Yekaterinberg

10. Telegram No. 205

11. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, February 26, 1920, No. 195, Yekaterinberg

12. Basic Propositions of a Report to a Meeting of Members of the Yekaterinberg Organization of the Russian Communist Party, February 25, 1920

13. Theses of a Report to a Meeting of Communist Red Army Men in Yekaterinberg, February 26, 1920

14. Order by the Revolutionary War Council of the First Labour Army, March 3, 1920, No. 7, Yekaterinburg

15. Order by the Revolutionary War Council of the First Labour Army March 4, 1920, No. 198, Yekaterinberg

16. On the Labour Army (Talk with a Representative of the Soviet Press)

17. About the Organisation of Labour

22. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Western Front and the 12th Army, May 1, 1920, No. 309 [The order number in the orignal book states 209, corrected here to read 309]

23. The Polish Front, A Talk with Representatives of the Soviet Press

24. The War with Poland (Report to the Joint Session of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the Moscow Soivet of Workers’s and Red Army Men’s Deputies, and the Leadership of the Trade Unions and Factory Committees, May 5, 1920)

25. The Polish Front: On the Occasion of the Creation of a Special Advisory Board Under the Commander-In-Chief

26. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Forces of the Western Front, May 8, 1920, No. 210, Smolensk

27. Kiev is in the Hands of the Polish Gentry!

28. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Commissars and Commanders of the Western Front, May 9, 1920, No. 213

29. What Do They Want?

30. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the 16th Army, May 10, 1920, No. 214

31. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Transport to the Province of Gomel. May, 10, 1920, No. 215, Gomel

32. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Troops of the Western and South-Western Fronts, May 10, 1920, No. 217, Gomel

36. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Transport, May 15, 1920, No. 220, Mogilev

40. Speech at a Meeting in the Murom Railway Workshops

41. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, June 30, 1920, No. 230, Moscow

42. A Necessary Correction

43. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Forces of the Western and South-Western Fronts , July 17, 1920, No. 231, Moscow

44. To The Workers, Peasants And All Honourable Citizens of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Ukraine

45. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, July 31, 1920, No. 232, Moscow

46. Theses – On the Military-Political Campaign in Connection with the Conclusion of Peace with Poland

47. Order – By the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Red Forces Fighting Against White-Guard Poland, August 14, 1920, No. 233, Moscow

48. A Refutation

49. Order – By the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Forces of the Western Front, September 3, 1920, No. 239, Moscow

50. Order – By the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Forces of the Western Front, September 3, 1920, No. 240, Moscow

51. Is a Second Lesson Needed?

52. Order – By the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Western Front and the Zone Adjoining the Front, September 9, 1920, No. 241, Minsk

53. We Are Stronger Than We Were

54. The Polish Gentry Do Not Want Peace

55. Order – By the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Red Army and the Red Navy, September 24, 1920, No. 242, Moscow

56. Peace With Poland Has Been Achieved!

The Southern Front and
the Fight Against Wrangel

57. Woe to Those Who do not Carry Matters to a Finish!

58. On the Front Against Wrangel (Report to the Moscow Soviet of Workers’, Peasants’of Red Army Men’s and Cossacks’ Deputies, August 17, 1920)

59. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, August 18, 1920, No. 234

60. We Need a Southern Frontier

61. The Last-Born

62. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the 9th Army, August 26, 1920, No. 236, Yekaterinodar

63. The Kuban Has Not Risen

64. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the 13th Army and the 2nd Mounted Army, August 30, 1920, No. 239, Aleksandrovsk

65. A Splendid Blow

66. Comrade Railwaymen!

67. Wrangel’s Landing (Talk with a representative of the Soviet press)

68. Memorandum of the Red Army Man on the Southern Front

69. What is the Meaning of Makhno’s Coming Over to the Side of the Soviet Power?

70. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Armies of the Southern Front, October 13, 1920, No. 246, Kharkov

71. Makhno and Wrangel (From the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs)

72. Order to the War Department and the People’s Commissariat for Transport, October 14, 1920, No. 247, Kharkov

73. How is Makhno’s Troop Organised?

74. The Southern Front and a Winter Campaign

75. Let This be the Last!

76. Don’t Let Them Get Away!

On Various Subjects
(Articles, Notes, Orders, Appeals)

77. A Memorandum for Certain Newly-Fledged Anglophils

78. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Red Army and the Red Navy, January 9, 1919, No. 74, Valuiki

79. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Nikolayev Division, January 27, 1919, Pokrovsk, Saratov Province

80. To the Cossacks

81. A Letter to the Middle Peasants, from the People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs

82. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Red Army, March 2, 1919, No. 81, Moscow

83. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Red Army and the Red Navy, March 9, 1919, No. 83, Moscow

84. Ya.M. Sverdlov (Obituary)

85. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Railway Workers, March 18, 1919, No. 84, Ruzayevka station

86. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Peasants, March 18, 1919, No. 85, Ruzayevka station

87. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Red Army, March 18, 1919, No. 86, Inza station

88. The Counter-Revolution at Its Last Gasp

89. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Red Army and the Red Navy, April 3, 1919, No. 88, Moscow

90. Which Government is the More Stable?

91. To the Foreign Soldiers in North Russia

92. A Creeping Revolution

93. To the Comrade Printers, From the Front

94. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic and People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs to the Troops of the Northern Front, April 20, 1919, No. 89, Vologda

95. The First of May

96. The Red Army

97. Order to the Red Army, August 7, 1919, No. 140, Konotop

98. The Supply Apparatus Needs Refreshing (To the Revolutionary War Councils)

99. Firing, or Making a Noise?

100. Draft of a Letter to Party Members in the Revolutionary War Councils of the Armies and Fronts and Heads of Political Departments

101. Order to the Revolutionary War Councils and Political Departments of the Armies and Fronts, October 14, 1919, No. 1692

102. Concerning Two Documents (To Revolutionary War Councils of Armies and Fronts)

103. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Red Army and the Red Navy, December 17, 1919, No. 183, Moscow

104. Cossacks, Form Up in a Soviet Column! (In connection with the forthcoming Cossack congress)

108. Labour, the Basis of Life

109. Labour and War

110. Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Red Army and the Red Navy, June 15, 1920, No. 229, Moscow

111. Interview Given to the British Correspondent Mr Farbman

112. Interview Given to the American Correspondent Comrade Reed

113. Speech at a Parade in Honour of the Red Commanders, in Red Square, October 2, 1920

114. Our Task in the Fourth Year

115. Communication to Representatives of the Soviet Press, November 29, 1920

116. Take Care of the Wounded and Sick Soldiers!

117. More Concern for the Red Soldier

118. The Day of the Wounded

119. To the Aid of the Sick and Wounded Red Army Man (Letter to the Committee for Aid to the Sick and Wounded Red Army Men)