Chp6.4Civil War- Red strengths/Trotsky

Question 1

Which part of Russia did the Reds control?

Answer 1

western Russia

Question 2

How did the Reds defend Western Russia?

Answer 2

through maintaining their inner communication and supply lines

Question 3

Why was it important that the Reds controlled Moscow and Petrograd?

Answer 3

These were the administrative centres of Russia

Question 4

Why was it significant that the Reds had their strongest hold in industrial centres of Russia? (2)

Answer 4

this gave them

• access to munitions
• resources denied to the Whites

Question 5

How did the Reds use the Whites dependance on foreign aid to their advantage?

Answer 5

This proved Red accusations that they were in league with foreign interventionists

Question 6

How did the Reds gain new recruits?

Answer 6

They offered defeated enemy troops and neutral civilians the stark choice of enlistment or execution

Question 7

How did the Reds use peasant land to turn the masses against the Whites?

Answer 7

Reds pointed out that all the land seized in the Revolution of 1917 would be forfeit if the Whites were to win the war

Question 8

How were the Reds united more so than the Whites ?

Answer 8

They were ideologically committed, White generals operated independently while the Reds had a unified command structure

Question 9

Why was the leadership of the Reds important?

Answer 9

The Red Army became a well disciplined fighting force under Trotsky’s leadership

Question 10

Why did the Reds get the peasants popular support?

Answer 10

Red land policies were more popular than Whites association with traditional tsarist policies

Question 11

How many men did Lenin give Trotsky a free hand to mould into an affective Red Army?

Answer 11

3 million men

Question 12

Trotsky had a personal train which covered how many miles in order for him to direct the war?

Answer 12

65,000 miles

Question 13

Who did Trotsky travel with ?What did they wear?

Answer 13

• His own elite force

- kitted out in black leather uniforms

Question 14

What were 2 simple things Trotsky ensured for the Red Army?

Answer 14

that they were

• well fed
• well armed

Question 15

What did Russian Historian Dmitri Volkogonov who was a Red Army general say about Trotsky?

Answer 15

That he was not a great general and made few important strategic decisions

Question 16

Which Russian historian who was a Red Army general said that Trotsky was not a great general and made few important strategic decisions?

Answer 16

Dmitri Volkogonov

Question 17

What did Trotsky do in order to train new recruits?

Answer 17

He recruited 50,000 former tsarist army officers for their experience and used them to train the new recruits

Question 18

How many former tsarist army officers were recruited to train new recruits?

Answer 18

50,000

Question 19

How did Trotsky use political commissars to his advantage?

Answer 19

He appointed political commissars to army units

Question 20

why did Trotsky appoint political commissars to army units?

Answer 20

because they were party loyalists who could be relied upon to obey their political masters

Question 21

What did the political commissars sent to army units do?

2

Answer 21

The commissars had to countersign all army officers orders
and
instil ideological principles into troops

Question 22

How did Trotsky make discipline harsh?

Answer 22

He made any sign of disloyalty punishable by death

Question 23

How did Trotsky discourage any waverers in the ranks?

Answer 23

Summary executions were carried out in order to discourage waverers in the ranks

Question 24

How was the Cheka used against deserters?

Answer 24

the Cheka were used behind the lines to shoot deserters

Question 25

How did Trotsky make the army a professional force?

Answer 25

-reintroduced traditional ranks and practises

Question 26

When it was necessary to build up numbers, what were conscription recruits used for ? (2)

Answer 26

• labour battalions

- fighting units

Question 27

What were labour battalions?

Answer 27

used on the front line to clean up debris an remove bodies and the wounded.

Question 28

Who were the labour battalions often made up of?

Answer 28

the bourgeoises

Question 29

Why were civilians in occupied areas often badly treated?

Answer 29

to encourage the population to keep in line

Question 30

Trotsky had 3 main strategies, what were these?

Answer 30

1) To defend the Reds Army’s internal lines of communication
2) To deny the Whites the opportunity to concentrate large forces in any one location
3) To prevent the Whites maintaining regular supplies

Question 31

What was Trotsky’s civil war title?

Answer 31

War Commisar

Question 32

What was Trotsky’s slogan to enforce conscription?

Answer 32

‘Everything for the Front’

Question 33

How often did peasants react in the Red Army?

Answer 33

Reluctant to fight, regarded as unreliable in a crisis

Question 34

Which units were the most and only dependable ones?

Answer 34

those drawn predominantly from among the workforce

Question 35

What did the units of dependable work force men become?

Answer 35

elite corps of the Red Army

Question 36

What did the idealists among the troops believe in?

Answer 36

They sincerely believed in the Communist mission to create a new proletarian world

Question 37

Which political commissar in the Caucasus during the Civil war challenged Trotsky’s tactics ?

Answer 37

Joseph Stalin

Question 38

in 1920 how were workers controlled ?

Answer 38

workers were brought under the same military disciple as the soldiers

Question 39

How were workers controlled while under the same military discipline as soldiers?
(4)

Answer 39

• forbidden to question orders
• couldn’t negotiate rates of pay
• couldn’t negotiate conditions
• severely punished for poor workmanship

Question 40

What did Trotsky describe Trade unions as?

Answer 40

“unnecessary chatterboxes”

Question 41

at the beginning of the first 2 years of Civil war who did Trotsky transform into an army of 3 million formidable men? (2 described)

Answer 41

• tired Red Guard veterans

- raw recruits

Question 42

How did Trotsky place a precaution when enlisting 50,000 ex-tsarist officers to train the rank-and-file into efficient members ?

Answer 42

Trotsky attached political commissars to the army who were loyal and had to countersign all army officer orders

Question 43

What was the most severe punishment Trotsky imposed for desertion or disloyalty ?

Answer 43

death penalty

Question 44

What were the traditional forms of army discipline that were all dropped as being regarded as the reactionary past
(4+)

Answer 44

• Graded ranks
• special uniforms
• deferential titles
• saluting

Question 45

What was the only way in which the Red Army differed from the traditional army?

Answer 45

‘Commander’ replaced the term ‘officer’

Question 46

What 2 things that had been granted in favour of the democratic atmosphere, were abandoned under Trotsky?

Answer 46

• soldiers committees

- election of officers

Question 47

Why did Moscow replace Petrograd as Russia’s capital?

Answer 47

Petrograd was closer to Russia’s western frontier and more vulnerable to attack than Moscow