Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 14:25:43 +0000
From: Mark Jones <majones-AT-netcomuk.co.uk>
Subject: M-I: The Red Army


February 23rd marks the 79th anniversary of the founding of the 
Red Army. It is worth noting. The Red Army's 
record, in such stark contrast with the utter and ignominious 
collapse of the modern Russian army, shows what full-blooded 
socialist revolution is capable of. We have been discussing on this 
list what can be achieved if we are strong, stand together, and fight 
with passion and daring for our cause. There can be no finer 
example than this.
Alone, unaided, beset on all sides by its enemies, facing civil war as 
well as external attack, in a country whose economy had collapsed, 
where famine and epidemic stalked darkened cities, the Red Army, 
with no weapons or ammunition, no organisation, no professional 
training of any kind, with nothing to rely upon but the energy of its 
leadership and the fanaticism of the Russian working class, with its 
selfless devotion to the ideals of October, within three years had 
destroyed all enemies within and without.
The Red Army's true forerunner was the detachments of Red 
Guards set up by workers in St Petersburg and Moscow during the 
1905 Revolution. In 1917 the Red Guards once again rallied to the 
revolution. Their contingents formed the first units of the Red 
Army.
All of us in the Marxist and Leninist movement, whether our 
inspiration comes from one or another of the great tributaries 
flowing into the twentieth century's broad river of proletarian 
revolution, can take deep pride in the peerless heroism, sacrifice 
and will to win of the world's first Workers' and Peasants' Red 
Army. Under the inspired leadership of Leon Trotsky it defeated 
the forces of eleven Interventionist countries, including Britain, 
France, Japan, the USA and others. The Soviet Army's later 
achievement under the leadership of J.V.Stalin when, in Winston 
Churchill's words, it 'tore the guts from the Wehrmacht', is no less 
remarkable. 
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was established by a Decree 
adopted at the 47th  session of the Soviet of People's Commissars 
on 28 January 1918. The Decree had two main provisions:
1. "The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is formed from among 
the most conscious and organised elements of the working classes."
2. "Its ranks are open to all citizens of the Russian Republic. The 
Red Army may be joined by any person ready to give all his energy 
and his very life, to defend the gains of the October Revolution, the 
power of the Soviets and Socialism."
The infant Red Army had to face the Entente Powers as well as the 
Germans. After the collapse of the peace negotiations held in Brest-
Litovsk's White Palace, later scene of the events described in 'The 
War Diary of Political Instructor Yefim Fomin', the Germans 
continued their advance. On 21 February, with Petrograd in danger, 
the Soviet of Commissars adopted a Decree entitled: 'The Socialist 
Motherland Is In Danger!' Two days later, the Petrosoviet 
proclaimed February 23rd Defence Day of the Socialist 
Motherland. Tens of thousands of Petrograd workers rallied to the 
call. It was the start of the fight back. During the next three years 
the Red Army was blooded in fierce battles across the vast territory 
of the Soviet Union.
When Hitler attacked the USSR in 1941 the Red Army showed the 
same courage and bitter determination from the very first days of 
the war, as the true story of the siege of Brest fortress shows. 
Ordinary working class men and women, not just from the army's 
teeth arms, but auxiliaries, cooks, nurses and battalion wives, in a 
scratch force of four thousand, defended the fortress against thirty 
thousand elite Wehrmacht troops. They overcame fear and doubt 
and they stood till death, rejecting calls to surrender. They fought 
on without hope of relief when the German advance left them 
hundreds of miles in the rear. It was a harbinger of things to come 
and none of the reverses the Red Army was to suffer before finally 
vanquishing the Germans, can efface the memory of the heroic 
defenders of Brest. It is part of the common inheritance of all 
workers everywhere.

 'The War Diary of Political Instructor Yefim Fomin' is at:

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~majones/fomin.txt


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