Trotsky leadership

• Trotsky's Leadership

  • Focused on professionalism over revolutionary rhetoric in building the Soviet military machine
• Officer Appointments

  Officers appointed from above rather than elected by their men, as was common in 1917
• Employment of Former Tsarist Officers

  • Utilized former tsarist officers, such as Mikhail Tukhachevsky, for ideological conversion, to serve Russia's interest, or for professional reasons
• Political Commissars


  Developed the system of political commissars; each military unit had a Party representative to countersign orders and oversee political education
• At Svyazhsk, Trotsky blamed the political apparatus for Red Army's failure

  Ordered the shooting of 26 Party workers for insubordination
• In cases of mass desertion or disobedience

  The commissar would be shot first
• At the Eighth Party Congress (March 1919)


  Faced opposition from the military opposition group, which wanted to curtail former tsarist officers' functions and prerogatives
• Supported by Lenin's authority


  Trotsky defeated the military opposition despite their widespread support among rank-and-file Communists
• Around 50,000 former officers served Red Army during the Civil War