In this fifth and final volume of the Military Writings, Trotsky deepens his analysis both of the international situation facing the Russian Revolution, and of the experience of building the Red Army. In the discussions on Marxism and military affairs, he draws important theoretical conclusions concerning the relationship between the Revolution and the forces such as the military specialists with which it had to work. These writings, now complete in the first English edition ever, represent an imperishable record of the struggles of the Bolshevik leaders, and enrich present-day knowledge of the Russian Revolution. Suppressed for decades in the Soviet Union, they are now available to the international audience for which Trotsky first intended them.

Written: 1921-23
First Published: First published in 1924 as Book Two of Volume III of Kak Vooruzhalas 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 V: The Years 1921-23, 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 for New Park Publications
Orignal Footnotes (Endnotes): The original explanatory footnotes & endnotes 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. Trotsky”)
Transcription/HTML Markup: David Walters
Online Version: Leon Trotsky Internet Archive, 2003-2004

Contents

Editorial Note

Foreword

The Fifth Anniversary of the Red Army

Order by the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, February 5, 1923, No.279: ‘Towards the Fifth Anniversary of the Red Army’

Before the Second Five Years of the Red Army

Once More on the Tasks in Building the Army

The International Situation and the Red Army

I. The International Situation in the Autumn of 1921

Speech at the 4th All-Russia Congress of the Russian Young Communist League, September 21, 1921

From Speech at the Parade in Honour of the Red General Staff officers, September 26, 1921

II. Genoa and the Hague

Speech at the ceremonial meeting of the Moscow Soviet, January 16, 1922

Speech at the Celebration of the Fourth Anniversary of the Red Army at the Military-Academy Courses for Senior Commanders of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, February 18, 1922

Listen and Get Ready, Red Army! Speech at the Ceremonial Meeting of the Moscow Soviet Devoted to the Fourth Anniversary of the Red Army, February 23, 1922

Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, February 28, 1922, No.268a

Japan at Genoa and Vladivostok

Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, April 13, 1922, No.271

Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic, April 14, 1922, No.272. Keep your powder dry!

Speech at the Parade on Red Square, May 1, 1922

From Talks with Representatives of the Foreign Press about the Genoa and Hague Conferences

Interview Given to a Representative of the British Press

Speech at the Ceremonial Meeting at the Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army Devoted to the 4th Anniversary of the Academy, December 7, 1922

III. The Curzon Ultimatum

Speech at the Parade on Red Square, May 1, 1923

Speech at the Emergency Plenary Meeting of the Moscow Soviet, May 12, 1923

To the Kikvidze Division

From Report to the Conference of Metal Workers of Moscow Province, June 5, 1923

Report to the 6th All-Russia Congress of Metal-Workers, June 16, 1923

From Speech at the Meeting of the Krasnaya Presnya District Committee of the Russian Communist Party, June 25, 1923

IV. The Events in Germany in the Autumn of 1923

From an Interview with the American Senator King

Reply to Greeting from the Artillery Units of the West-Siberian Military District

Letter to the Editorial Board of Rote Fahne

Report to the 3rd Moscow Provincial Congress of the All-Russia Union of Metal-Workers, October 19, 1923

Report to the 8th All-Russia Congress of the Transport Workers’ Union, October 20, 1923

The Present Situation and Our Tasks in Building the Army, Report to the 3rd All-Union Conference of Political Workers in the Red Army and the Red Navy, October 21, 1923

Speech at the Celebration of the 5th Anniversary of the Russian Young Communist League, October 29, 1923

Order by the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the USSR, October 30, 1923, No.282

V. Building the Air Fleet

The Air Fleet is on the Order of the Day

Speech at the Ceremonial Meeting of the Society of Friends of the Air Fleet, April 26, 1923

Letter to the Editorial Board of the Newspaper Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn

The Weapon of the Future

Aviation and the Metal-Workers (From report to the Moscow Provincial Conference of Metal-Workers, June 5, 1923)

Order by the Revolutionary War Council of the USSR, November 23, 1923, No.2545

Questions of Military Theory

Opening and Closing speeches in the Discussion on Military Doctrine Held by the Military Science Society Attached to the Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, November 1, 1921

Military Doctrine or Pseudo-Military Doctrinairism

From Talk with a Representative of the American Press

Report and Concluding Remarks at the Meeting of Military Delegates to the Eleventh Congress of the Russian Communist Party, April 1, 1922

Military Knowledge and Marxism, Speech at the Meeting of the Military Science Society Attached to the Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, May 8, 1922

Editorial Note

Presentation of the documents in these volumes follows as closely as possible the style of the original Russian publication. Notes by the Soviet editors follow the main text. The author’s footnotes have been retained; footnotes not attributed to the author are explanatory points added to the present edition.

In the original Moscow edition the present volume is bound together with the preceding one to form Volume III of that edition. Since each of the five books in the work is bound separately in this English edition, they are numbered here from one to five. This volume contains the chronology of events in the period covered by both Volumes Four and Five; for the maps relating to this period, see Volume Four.

Last updated on: 29.12.2006