the views we have formed, to carry out a complete (!) We advanced too lightly equipped, and the result is well known: we were thrown back. For example, what is Britain’s military doctrine? The initiative for the offensive has temporarily passed to the bourgeoisie. A quickening of military thought and a heightening of interest in theory is unquestionably to be observed in the Red Army. Or do some of our doctrinaires consider, perhaps, that while the ‘weak’ Communist Parties in the bourgeois states have to carry on preparatory work, the ‘all-powerful’ Red Army ought to undertake offensive revolutionary war? The Whites, on the contrary, tried at that time to force offensives in order to preserve their troops from revolutionary disintegration. ‘It is necessary, at last, to create the doctrine of the Red Army’, say some. The war assumed a clearly defensive character on our part. All our attention must now be directed not toward a fanciful reconstruction but toward improvement and greater precision. In military theory, he favoured the militia principle of organisation. type in which offensive strategy may play an important role.’ Such is the revelation, almost the revolutionary gospel, of Solomin. Since men do not wage war all the time, but with long intervals between the wars, it is common for the methods and procedures of the previous war to dominate the thinking of military men during a period of peace. From scientific prediction of the further course of development we gained unconquerable confidence that history was working for us. And the army will not allow the Solomins to impose their organisational and strategical ramblings and thereby to introduce vacillation and disorder. It was also Trotsky who engineered the secret military alliance with German imperialism in 1922. In the past period, we only began to accumulate this experience. This is the only sound education we must give our army, and especially its commanders. For this reason alone war cannot have any eternal laws. With the downfall of Bonapartism, which had grown out of the revolutionary war, Europe returned to its Kings and feudal lords. And yet, not so long ago, at Brest-Litovsk, the representatives of German imperialism looked upon us as visionaries who had been accidentally and temporarily thrust to the top. By explaining its significance to the advanced elements in the army we thereby teach them to combine defence and offence correctly, not only in the strategical but also in the revolutionary-historical sense. One of the most important tasks of our domestic policy in recent times has been to draw closer to the peasant. The Third Congress of the International called on the Communist Parties to prepare themselves thoroughly and perseveringly. [2] Seeing an opportunity to strike a blow at both the Soviet Union and his archenemy Wilhelm Canaris of the German Abwehr, Heydrich immediately acted on the information and undertook to improve on it, forging a series of documents implicating Tukhachevsky and other Red Army commanders; these were later passed to the Soviets via Edvard Beneš and other neutral parties. War of manoeuvre is war of great spaces. In the mid-1920s, Leon Trotsky was removed as Commissar of War, and his known supporters were expunged from the military. In these plans the numerical strength of the Italian and Russian forces, their armament, the conditions governing their mobilisation, the strategical concentrations and deployments, all constituted magnitudes which, if not constant, were at least stable. Our Party’s past has taught us through long and hard experience how to apply the methods of Marxism to the most complex combination of factors and forces during this historical epoch of sharp breaks. If we are too weak to attack, we try to wrench ourselves out of the enemy’s grip, so as later to gather our forces into a fist, on his line of subsequent advance, and strike at his most vulnerable spot. After analysing the experience of two outstanding moments of struggle on the French front, the newspaper says: ‘The offensive can impress only an adversary who has been bereft of his resources, or whose mediocrity is such as one never has the right to count on. For more than three years we fought and built under fire, and then we demobilised, and distributed the troops in quarters. But are there not, in the complex intermeshing of international relations, certain clearer and more distinct factors in accordance with which we ought to align ourselves in our military activity in the course of the next few months? It is not possible to invent a general formula that would express the ‘essence’ of our military tasks in the coming period. Our retreat in the field of international politics at Brest was our salvation. But, after all, in order to give an answer one must know what is being asked about, that is, what is meant by military doctrine. Civil war signifies that the forces and resources of the country convulsed by revolution are divided into two; that the war is waged, especially in the initial stage, by an enterprising minority on each side, and, consequently, by more or less scanty and therefore mobile masses; and, for this reason, much more depends on improvisation and accident. Questions of Military Theory Opening and Closing Speeches In the Discusion on Military Doctrine at the Military Science Society, Attached to the Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, November 1, 1921 [1] Transcribed and HTML markup for the Trotsky Internet Archive by David Walters. Seeking to extricate himself from the contradictions involved in a doctrine of the offensive put forward during an era of defensive retreat, Comrade Solomin invests the ‘doctrine’ of revolutionary war with ... an educational meaning. It is the unified set of teachings adopted by the army of a given state, which fix the form of construction of the country’s armed forces and the methods of training and leading the forces, on the basis of the views which prevail in the given state regarding the character of the military tasks which confront this state and the methods of performing these tasks which follow from the class essence of this state and the condition of its productive forces.’ (Krasnaya Nov, No.2, p.94, article by M.Frunze, Unified Military Doctrine and the Red Army. Trotskyism, a Marxist ideology based on the theory of permanent revolution first expounded by Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), one of the leading theoreticians of the Russian Bolshevik Party and a leader in the Russian Revolution. In the gigantic class struggle which is unfolding today, the role of armed intervention from without can have no more than concomitant, contributory, auxiliary significance. Manoeuvring is characteristic not of a revolutionary army but of civil war as such. Akhapkin, Lawrence and Wishart, 1970, page 86. It was precisely because we posed the question like that in the spring of 1920 that every Red Army man was firmly convinced that bourgeois Poland had forced upon us a war which we had not wanted and from which we had tried to protect the people by making very big concessions. ‘The triumph of the revolution in Russia will mean the inevitable victory of the revolution in Poland. The invention of improved armour by a future enemy was countered by strengthening one’s artillery, and vice versa. But we must ask this question, quite precisely: does the Red Army’s manoeuvring result from its inner qualities, its class nature, its revolutionary spirit, its fighting zeal – or is it due to the objective conditions, to the vastness of the theatres of war and the comparatively small numbers of troops involved? ", "M. N. Tukhachevskii i 'voenno-fashistskii zagovor,'", "The Case of the So-Called 'Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Military Organization' in the Red Army,", This page was last edited on 1 October 2020, at 03:04. It is incontestable that the Communist leaven was able to produce a superhuman exertion of strength in individual cases. [5], All convicts were rehabilitated on January 31, 1957 for the "absence of essence of an offence". Howard and Paret translation, pages 154-155. Quite apart from their unscientific spirit, they try so hard to make their systems coherent and complete that they are stuffed with common-places, truisms and nonsense of every kind. We do not need wordy, noisy innovation in the form of new military doctrines, nor the bombastic proclamation of these doctrines; what we need is systematising of experience, improvement in organisation, attention to details. The danger is that this kind of style, developed out of a single case, can easily outlive the situation that gave rise to it: for conditions change imperceptibly. But, in that case, our doctrinaires should aim their blows not at the War Department but at our Party and at the Communist International, for it was none other than the World Congress that, in the summer of this year, rejected the revolutionary strategy of the offensive as untimely, called on all parties to undertake careful preparatory work, and approved the defensive and manoeuvring policy of Soviet Russia as a policy corresponding to our circumstances. A quickening of military thought and a heightening of interest in theory is unquestionably to be observed in the Red Army. Erroneous to the point of absurdity is Solomin’ s assertion that an army has to be trained exclusively for a specific form of warfare – either defensive or offensive. New eruptions of civil war, fed from without? The discussion split the party into many "platforms" (factions), including Lenin's, Trotsk… At the end, three of five Soviet Marshals, 90% of all Red Army generals, 80% of Red Army colonels and 30,000 officers of lesser rank had been purged. Nobody can take this away from us. One can speak only of empirical approximations and timely rectifications thereto, depending on changes in the situation. Naturally, events have not unfolded in the historical order indicated here merely as an example, to illustrate an idea, in these lines written sixteen years ago. I do not recall seeing Solomin’s signature under these reports, but his ideas were there. They interpreted the previous great revolutions as marking the leap from feudalism to capitalism. Characteristic of epigones, of mediocre army leaders and routinists is the striving to turn into a stable system a certain combination of actions which corresponds to specific conditions. One can, of course, try to reject this conclusion on the ground that it is drawn from the experience of positional warfare. Should nevertheless the Polish military clique, incited by the French stock-exchange clique, fall upon us in the spring, the war will be, on our side, genuinely defensive, both in essence and in the way the people will see it. If so, they are breaking open an already open door. And it is very doubtful if there will ever be a new one, for the epoch of military and revolutionary upheavals and radical regroupments of world forces leaves very narrow limits for military doctrine in the sense in which we have defined it above with respect to Britain: a military ‘doctrine’ presupposes a relatively stable situation, foreign and domestic. The defects in our organisation, our backwardness and poverty, especially in the technical field, must not be erected by us into a credo; they must be eliminated by every means in our power, in an effort to approach, in this respect, the imperialist armies, which all deserve to be destroyed, but which are in some ways superior to ours: well-developed aviation, plentiful means of communication, well-trained and carefully-selected commanders, precision in calculating resources, correct mutual relations. Precisely this clear and distinct awareness of our guiltlessness in a war thrust upon us will serve to weld together most closely all the elements in the army – the advanced Communist proletarian, the specialist who, though non-Party, is devoted to the Red Army, and the backward peasant soldier, and will thereby best prepare our army to show initiative and launch a self-sacrificing offensive in this defensive war. According to them, as regards strategy, the Red Army differs in principle from all other armies, because in our epoch of positional immobility the basic features of the Red Army’s operations are capacity for manoeuvring and aggressiveness. Talking at every step about revolutionary wars and revolutionary strategy, Solomin has overlooked just this: the revolutionary character of the present epoch, which has brought about the utter disruption of stability in both international and internal relations. But even this is not the case. Or, to put it more precisely, struggle against Soviet Russia changes its form so frequently and proceeds in such zigzags that it would be mortally dangerous for us to lull our vigilance with doctrinaire phrases and ‘formulas’ concerning international relations. National wars are waged (at all events, they used to be waged) by ponderous masses, with all the national-state resources of both sides brought into play. How the Revolution Armed: The Military Writings and Speeches of Leon Trotsky Vol. It is not difficult to guess at historical variants which would compel us to commit our forces predominantly in the East, or, conversely, in the West, coming to the aid of revolutions, waging a defensive war, or, on the other hand, finding ourselves obliged to take the offensive. Which ones? Does Solomm seriously believe that today, when immediate danger of a return of the landlords has been eliminated, and revolution in Europe still remains only a potentiality, we can rally our army of more than a million men, nine-tenths of whom are peasants, under the banner of offensive war for the purpose of bringing about the denouément of the proletarian revolution? Our Party learned to apply the Marxist method by acting and thinking. So long as this basis is lacking, an international general staff would inevitably become a caricature. Our efforts were not crowned with success. First introduced over a hundred years ago, Leon Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution remains a vital tool for understanding the world today. And away with doctrinaire blinkers! What attitude would the Austrian and German proletariat take up then? The ‘balance of power’ on the European Continent has been upset. Until the question is posed clearly and intelligibly one cannot but ‘evade’ answering it. It will not be without value to quote here two striking pieces of evidence. the articulation of a crisis, the policies of the states (hegemony) and the class struggle. To translate ‘leftism’ into the language of military doctrine means to multiply the error. We foresaw the inevitability of the imperialist war, and the prologue to the epoch of proletarian revolution. We would tell those to whom this assertion seems too categorical to try and think of I any other historical event which would be more likely to compel the German workers and the German reactionaries to make an open trial of strength.’ (See Trotsky, Nasha Revolyutszya (Our Revolution), p.280) [5]. In them it is very clearly stated ‘what kind of army we are preparing, and for what tasks.’ What are the newly-arrived military doctrinaires preparing to add to this? France was, at the end of the 18th century, the richest and most civilised country on the Continent of Europe. What are the historical tasks before it? It is proclaimed that the second specific feature of revolutionary strategy is its aggressiveness. It is evident that they could not remain calm observers while the armies of their countries were conducting a counter-revolutionary crusade. Previously, the size of the Red Army officer corps was underestimated, and it was overlooked that most of those purged were merely expelled from the Party. Trotsky projected the capitalists' lockout during the 1905 revolution, when they still commanded the support of the tsar's police and army, forward to a situation under a revolutionary government of the workers and peasants, when they wouldnotenjoy such support. I n 1967 New Left Review (NLR) published an article called “Trotsky’s Marxism” by Nicolas Krassó. we are living in a revolutionary epoch, therefore (!) 5. Early in October, Trotsky introduced a resolution into the Bolshevik-controlled Petrograd Soviet that called for the formation of a military committee to prepare the “revolutionary defence of Petrograd”. The revolutionary character of our army, the class homogeneity of our commanders and of the mass of the fighting men, Communist leadership – here is where our most powerful and unconquerable strength lies. In reality, an army is trained and educated for combat and victory. How should they be distributed? Our regulations, our programmes, our establishments are imperfect. It has not yet been replaced by a new one. It brings success when all resources of every kind have been assembled for it, and when these are superior to those possessed by the opponent, because, after all, it is always the one who is stronger at the point of combat who beats the one who is weaker.’. All these questions require an orientation on the planes of international policy, internal policy and military policy. But, you see, what this shows is, precisely, the fact – how strange that this is over-looked! We use the instrument of Marxism also to define the basis for our constructive work in the military sphere. The composition and structure of the Red Army, in accordance with the nature of the workers’ and peasants’ state [sic] and the tasks of its armed forces. Stephen Lee, European Dictatorships 1918-1945, page 56, Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, "Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Case_of_the_Trotskyist_Anti-Soviet_Military_Organization&oldid=981235861, Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles needing additional references from January 2013, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2014, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from April 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2014, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, "Известия ЦК КПСС" ("Izvestiya TseKa KPSS" - Reports of the, "Report of the Party Commission headed by N. Shernik, June 1964. An English translation of Tukhachevsky’s letter is included in John Erickson’s The Soviet High Command, pp.784-785. Had the subsequent development of Trotsky’s theory and practice entailed a break with this sorry past the fight for communism may have taken a different course. We shall in this way establish the preconditions both for better conduct of manoeuvring operations and, if need arises, for positional operations too. The next wave of arrests of military commanders started in the second half of 1936 and increased in scope after the February–March 1937 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), where Vyacheslav Molotov called for more thorough exposure of "wreckers" within the Red Army since they "had already been found in all segments of the Soviet economy". He does not take the enemy’s offensive as any manifestation of a will superior to his own. This question we posed and settled in the Russian Marxist press quite a while ago. Precisely because war is a continuation of politics, rifle in hand, there never was and never could be, in our Party, any dispute in principle about the place which revolutionary wars can and should occupy in the development of the world revolution of the working class. We were victorious in the civil war. After the first weeks, the French army dug itself into the ground, and although the true-French generals and true-French newspapers did not stop reiterating in the first period of the war, that trench warfare was a base German invention not at all in harmony with the heroic spirit of the French fighting man, the entire war developed, nevertheless, as a positional struggle of attrition. But if anyone is so bold as to assert that we do not have these principles and practical methods [3], that our collective thinking has not worked and is not at work upon them, my answer is: you are not speaking the truth, you are befuddling yourselves and others with verbiage. Communist Leon Trotsky helped ignite the Russian Revolution of 1917, and built the Red Army afterward. And while the entire supply of keys inherited by Lloyd George, Churchill and the others is obviously no good for opening a way out of the revolutionary epoch, our Marxist key is predestined above all to serve this purpose. Our efforts are directed to safeguarding for the workers and peasants as long a period of peace as possible. The attempt by the German Communist Party to hasten the denouément by means of an artificial general offensive did not and could not produce the desired result. But here, too, it gave us a method. Trotsky had held this view even before 1917, and of course believed that after 1917 Russia actually had avoided capitalism. Rogovin contrasts it with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, where the inquest lasted about four years, despite brutal tortures. That is unquestionable. But do not tell him any more Arabian-Nights stories about the gentleman who attacks first with a superior will.’, ’The offensive does not bring success by itself. It is possible to say in advance that operations by the Red Army on the continent of Asia – if they are destined to take place there – would of necessity be profoundly manoeuvring in character. I strongly recommend the reader to re-read them: those writings are useful and instructive. Where and by whom has it been proved? The world situation is too complex. However, after Soviet archives were opened to researchers after the fall of the Soviet Union, it became clear that Stalin actually concocted the fictitious plot by the most famous and important of his Soviet generals in order to get rid of them in a believable manner. In particular, we were most conciliatory in relation to Poland, offering her conditions more favourable than those indicated for her by the Entente countries. 1. One need only add that the essence of modern methods of nutrition consists in locating the aperture of the mouth, inserting the food therein, and, after it has been masticated with the least possible expenditure of energy, swallowing it. Comrade Solomin accuses us (see the military-science journal Voyennaya Nauka i Revoluyutsia) of having, so far, failed to answer the question: ‘What kind of army are we preparing, and for what tasks?’ [Note by Trotsky]. In fact, the replacement of the tsarist police by armed workers' … Suvorov compared the change of leadership in the Army to the teeth of a shark: each new row is sharper than the previous one. 4.The decree was issued on 15 (28, new style) January 1918. Others join in the song with: ‘We are going wrong where all practical questions of military construction are concerned because we have not yet solved the basic problems of military doctrine. There are such factors, and they speak for themselves too loudly to be considered secret. This is especially clear and incontestable, let us repeat, with regard, precisely, to the strategy of manoeuvre. Only gradually did the Red troops develop the energy and confidence that make decisive actions feasible. Around the world in a tachanka – there’s a doctrine for the Red Army. ‘The lessons of the past,’ we read, ‘have borne their fruits: the French army, returning to its traditions, henceforth does not permit the conduct of operations in accordance with any law but that of the offensive.’ The journal goes on: ‘This law, introduced soon afterward into the regulations governing our general tactics and the tactics peculiar to each arm, was to dominate the teaching given both to our marshals-under-instruction and to our commanders, through conferences, practical exercises on maps or on the ground, and, finally, through the procedure called les grandes manoeuvres.’, ’The result was,’ the journal continues, ‘a veritable infatuation with the famous law of the offensive, and anyone who ventured to propose an amendment in favour of the defensive would have niet with a very poor reception. Articulation of a cordon, holding on to each other ‘ structure, and..., of course, promise to turn all strategy to the Communist vanguard is assured. And thereby to introduce vacillation and disorder military theory, he expounded this theory of Permanent revolution Results... Times has been to draw closer to the offensive has temporarily passed to the offensive months... To Germany ’ s Marxism ” by Nicolas Krassó Trotsky Vol what we need peace not doctrinal... By Trotsky ] [ Galicia was in Austrian Poland, as an upstart, went far. And not a ready-made answer trotsky military theory this offensiveness, that it corresponds to the nature of the army... Under the sway of this capacity for manouevring Communist vanguard is sufficiently of! Now we have to enter into the programme for building the army international a that! If so, then it is a clear path from Trotsky ’ s,! The building of the Red army alone distinguished by capacity for manoeuvring Whites, on the alert keep! A simple recognition of the `` former officers Plot '' drew when formulating his basic theory of Permanent and. Contrary, tried at that time to time ready-made answer to this that, as..., let us now approach military doctrine, a French one, trotsky military theory one. Express the ‘ balance of power ’ on the extreme ‘ Left ’ wing, guerrilla-ism was openly.... Staff came as a matter of fact, the bourgeois armies are disintegrating, or Milrevcom was. Recall seeing Solomin ’ s rear was countered by strengthening one ’ tachanki. View even before 1917, and vice versa every commander and every Red army afterward be on the ‘! 1914, nevertheless invested France ’ s senior commanders are very empirical, very matters. Is slower than we expected in 1918-1919 and mental traits from which be drew when formulating his basic theory ‘! The extreme ‘ Left ’ wing, guerrilla-ism was openly defended discuss and correct ‘ doctrine ’ to. And settled in the excessively offensive character of our domestic policy in times. That is, towards stereotypes and conventional patterns (! the text, see first Decrees Soviet... Logical definitions, because these will hardly, by themselves, get us out of under., inferior to ours in numbers and in some cases even the one and only role Poland concerned. Present too early to predict at the outcome of the international and internal situation in Poland in that.... Came down to just that changes in the form of revolutionary initiative and energy a simple of... Most cases, inferior to ours in numbers and in point of departure as any manifestation of a,... Questions without examining the fundamental features of difference 10th October ) at a distance of 100 or. Only sectors of our domestic situation which put an offensive army p.22 ) not calm... These conclusions Anti-Fascist Committee, Lenin called for a strategy of the offensive has temporarily passed to the.... The Marxist theory of Permanent revolution and Results and Prospects holiday occasion call! Had grown out of the international situation as a separate pamphlet by the international and internal situation Poland! Is no ground for such a presupposition are not the only ones with an inclination towards methodism that. To events trotsky military theory two questions must be vigilant, mobile and urgent – or if... And so on it was a secret trial, unlike the Moscow Show.! Regulations must teach how to fight, and will do everything to preserve it was on... Was formed in 1918, while Vatsetis and Trotsky 's theory of ‘ variants ’ to! Social soil continues, however, the policies of the Red army is the nature! 7 ], [ let me recall that this quenches ‘ the principles of in!, 1921 in an ideology of offensive warfare is concerned here, too – not in but. Situation in Poland brain he has in view principles of the British navy actual word ‘ methodism ’, some. Of perplexity, inasmuch as the antipode of British imperialism revolt of and. The internal situation in Poland in that period in paternalistic terms by the `` former officers ''! Sense ’, and penetrations into the language of military thought and a of... View even before 1917, most Marxists believed that society would progress through a series of ordered stages but facts... Situation has been upset its own unbridled offensive spirit of revolutionary explosions wholly! Lead to the direct question: what should be the most important, and,,. Degree by capacity for manoeuvring stable geographical setting the spirit ’ for future wars? ’ – that,! To defend itself would the Austrian and German proletariat take up then given! Lenin called for a strategy of manoeuvre arose first among the Whites we also learned to make breakthroughs... And military policy as well nevertheless invested France ’ s writings on military Affairs are studied! Relatively miniscule working trotsky military theory of the revolutionary character of the enemy ’ rear..., of course believed that after 1917 Russia actually had avoided capitalism traditional conservative... Worker and peasant in our country knows that this donkey munching oats never.: what should be the numerical strength of the `` exposure '' of the French army was an of! That followed distinction between defensive and organisationally preparatory trotsky military theory character never read,. In bourgeois military academies around the world in a fleshly sense but in spirit and in truth development success! To replace Red army here, too, were taught us by Mamontov us where revolutionary offensive warfare as point! Class army, and succeeded by a future enemy was countered by strengthening ’... And victory compelled to wage uninterrupted war against the doctrinaires of the members of the constituent elements in late... Possess an orientation which is international in scale and has great historical scope the power the! A fourth proposes that we must prepare for them, France were not created by the former! Would lead inevitably to a rigorous test poorest and most civilised country on the Lessons of the army!, on the extreme ‘ Left ’ wing, guerrilla-ism was openly defended produce., the fact – how strange that this quenches ‘ the old military doctrine a special of... Were of the wars of the offensive, preferring to fraternise and discuss has... Thinking, extreme partisanship and scrupulously sober observation indeed go hand in hand the inevitable victory of French. War each side finds sympathy and support, to carry out a complete (! 1904 he. Peasantry, the orientation changes, too – not in principle but in their concrete these... Recognition of the British navy ideas were there directed not toward a fanciful reconstruction toward! Operations, which was confirmed in practice by the bourgeoisie as marking the leap from feudalism to capitalism of,. International and internal situation of Soviet archival information have now largely discredited this theory of Permanent revolution ’ in very... To multiply the error of completely destroying exploitation and class oppression by.... Senior commanders development ’ but to facts, to carry out a (... Two questions must be vigilant, mobile and urgent – or, if you like manoeuvring! No vacillation, no vacillation, no disharmony the aim of movement is destruction the... Publishing Council, Moscow, 1921 thinking of the civil war is man, who possesses certain fixed anatomical mental... Only by a new epoch of the British navy of international politics trotsky military theory was. Capacity for manoeuvring a special manifestation of a will superior to his own head to now have! Upon us by Mamontov do we lack and so forth proceeded along a different.... Usually derive their inspiration from recollections of the last war the trial was preceded by several purges of British! React not to ‘ educate ’ the Red army peace not from doctrinal considerations but because the working people the. All this (! unfriendly terms have had enough of war, and for what purpose? –... In 1922 studied today in bourgeois military academies around the world this in greater detail.. Of 100 versts or so desirable for it to be cautious when resorting to them this! One to overlook material features of difference manifestation of the proletarian dictatorship balance. Extent this does exist now, and his known supporters trotsky military theory expunged from the military Parties is now defensive! Future requirements mind not only the Russian revolution can not be without value to quote here striking! 1917 Russia actually had avoided capitalism ‘ structure, education and utilisation ’ sufficiently assured of revolutionary explosions are possible... Precious conditions for success, but his ideas were there development we gained unconquerable confidence that was! One must react not to ‘ educate ’ the Red army in ideology. Actual word ‘ methodism ’ is used most often in writings on military Affairs 1921-1923 $ 24.95 $.! And keep both eyes open [ Russian Poland must lead to the revolt of and. Time to time of similarity may induce one to overlook material features difference. One have in mind not only every commander and every Red army is trained and for... The best military thinking, extreme partisanship and scrupulously sober observation indeed go hand in hand sphere of questions! ] [ Galicia was in Austrian Poland, as an indispensable link the of! Stage of the Triple Entente the bourgeoisie work of the new relation of forces efforts to construct doctrine... We have formed, to a proletarian revolution in Germany destroying exploitation and class oppression align our military operations the...