The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 13
This is the worst type of commander. They remain ever ignorant, but they ever refuse to learn. For their
fail ures-how could they possibly gain successes ? -- they always seek explanations in somebody else's
betrayal... . Tenaciously hanging on to their posts, they react with hatred to the very mention of military
science. For them, the latter is synonymous with treason and betrayal." (L. Trotsky, How the Revolution
Armed Itself , Vol. I, pp. 172f.)
Later on in his article, Voroshilov, with undisguised approbation, almost in ecstacy, quotes the following
from the White Guard turncoat, Nossovich:
"What particularly characterized this breach was the attitude taken by Stalin to the telegrams with
instruction from the center. When Trotsky, in alarm at the disruption of the regions he had with such
great difficulty organized, sent a telegram pointing out the necessity of leaving the Staff and
Commissariat as they were, and of giving them an oppor tunity to function, Stalin would make a
categorical and very significant notation on the telegram: 'Disregard this.'
"So the telegram was disregarded, and the entire artillery staff, together with a part of the leading staff,
would remain sitting on a barge in Tsaritsin."
Voroshilov puts his signature to these words; he adopts them, as it were. Until now, we must confess, it
would have never even entered our mind to give any credence to Nosso vich. But we are compelled to
take the word of both Voroshi lov and Nossovich. "What particularly characterized" Stalin's attitude
toward telegrams with instructions from the center was: "disregard." Stalin's worst enemy could not have
caused him greater injury than did Voroshilov by appending his seal of approval to the characterization
of the White Guard, Nossovich.
It is not difficult to judge what sort of discipline prevailed in the Tenth Army under these conditions. The
orders of the Military Revolutionary Council were being violated in a deliberately demonstrative manner.
Stalin's "resolution" was made common knowledge to Nossovich, to the army itself, while the center
alone was kept in ignorance. Observe, gentle men, here is an example for you of how to "cover up." If
the instructions of the center were incorrect from the standpoint of local conditions, there was always the
opportunity of revoking or changing them through the normal channels. The Military Council maintained
a practical discipline and not an officious one. Especially characteristic of Stalin is his manner of not
fulfilling orders, without the knowledge of the Military Council, behind the latter's hack, and with a
special display of "independence." It must be stated candidly that had one-fifth or even one-tenth of the
responsible leaders of the army displayed the above-mentioned "characteristic trait" of Stalin, the Red
Army would have never gained its victories, and the revolution would have been massacred. And it was
precisely owing to this "characteristic trait," and for no other reason, that first Stalin and then Voroshilov
were removed from Tsaritsin by the decision of the Political Bureau.
Stalin's indiscipline and disloyalty were likewise clearly made evident in his direct relations with the
Military Council itself. It was of course impossible in this case to reply "I disregard this," but there were
other methods of expressing the notorious "characteristic trait." We shall give a few such examples,
together with Lenin's attitude to them.
In transmitting to Trotsky one of Stalin's telegrams (No. 02588, May 29, 1920), Lenin, who was well
aware of Stalin's disloyalty, appended the following note in his own hand writing:
"Comrade Trotsky: If you have not received this telegram as well as all decoded telegrams to the
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