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Fred, not totally true, although I get your point. The proposal to the All-Union Soviet for establishing the Red Army was passed in January or February of 1918. It was forming up with the former all-Bolshevik Red Guards as their corp groups. Trotsky went from Comm. of Foreign Affairs almost immediately to Comm. of War and head of Red Army. The Red Army wasn't "much of a player" until 1919, that is 'winning' but it took time to organize. Trotsky actually used the existing British and French military attaches in Moscow to learn war-craft of which he previously had little knowledge, either practically or intellectually. He was, obviously, a quick learner. What gave a boost to the Red Army was actually a set of *defeats* in the summer of 1918 which galvanized the Russian working class and peasantry to support..that is join...the Red Army. But there was a Red Army in 1918, just not much of one. On the 'role' of Trotsky. It seems only people with a political axe to grind would down play Trotsky's role during any of this period. The capitalist press...a review of the foreign workers press (the CP of America's own press during this period, for example) shows the actual truth in this regard, not to mention Stalin's *own* words at Trotsky's role. It's not even really worth dredging up again and does border on the kind of thing Louis doesn't want to see here. David ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
