The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 13
the Southern Front, as the decisive front. This document alone crumbles to dust the Voroshilov
construction. But one could adduce scores of other proofs that Trotsky spent most of his time at the
Southern Front. For example, one need only examine the orders of Trotsky to the Red Army for the year
1919 in order to become convinced that the overwhelming majority of them not only apply to the
Southern Front but were issued at the very front itself (in connection with another question we shall later
deal more fully with this). In particular, the entire decisive preparatory stage which pre ceded the
advance against Denikin was spent by Trotsky at the Southern Front, with the exception of October and
the beginning of November when he directed the defense of Petrograd.
It seems to us that we have dealt amp!y with this question above. But what sloppiness and what
disrespect for the party are needed in order to put in circulation the Voroshilov twaddle!
The second"general" falsification. This time we have apparent!y an independent (and, indeed, for the
first time expressed) invention of the "refresher" himself. We have in mind the question of the two
strategic plans for the Southern Front. In accordance with the plan of the Chief Command the decisive
blow was to have been dealt to Denikin from the Balashov-Kamishin Front at Nizhni Don. This plan was
based on the idea of annihilating Denikin's Cossack base, even at the cost of our own retreat in the
direction of Moscow. Trotsky from the very beginning (July 1919) considered this plan erroneous and
fought against its confirmation by the Central Committee. He considered that this plan would only assist
in uniting two absolutely heterogeneous social formations, i. e., the Cossacks with the volunteer army.
On the contrary, by dealing a blow a!ong the line Voronezh-Kharkov-Donbass, the Red Army would
move in a socially friendly milieu (the Kharkov and Donetz proletariat and peasantry), the Cos sacks
would be cut off from Denikin, on whom would fall the entire force of the blow. Nevertheless, the plan
of the Chief Command was accepted, with the direct assistance of Stalin and against the sharp opposition
of Trotsky. (The episode of Trotsky's handing in his resignation is intimate!y linked up with the question
of the Southern strategic plan.) There followed serious failures at the front (all this can be easily checked
up chronologically). Trotsky characterized the situation in September 1919 (and not ten years later as
Voroshi lov is doing) in his letter to the Central Committee of the party as follows:
"The plan of operations on the Southern Front which was worked out a priori has proved false to the
core. The failures at the Southern Front are to be explained first and foremost by the falseness of the
basic plan. . . . Therefore the reasons for the failures must be sought entirely in the plan of operations."
And Trotsky goes on to explain how and why this erroneous plan came to originate:
"The erroneousness of this plan is now so self-evident, that the question arises: How could it have
originated at all? Its origin is to be explained historically. When Kolchak threat ened the Volga the chief
threat was in the junction between Denikin and Kolchak. In a letter to Kolchak, Denikin set Saratov as
the nieeting place. Hence the task as proposed even by the old command was the creation of a powerful
wedge in the Tsaritsin-Saratov area. . . ." (How the Revolution Armed Itself, Vol.2, Bk. 1, pp. 300f. This
document was published more than six years ago. Voroshilov, it is obvious, counts -- not without some
justification -- on the fact that all of Trotsky's books had been removed from circulation.)
Shortly prior to the writing of this document, comrade Trotsky had succeeded at the front in convincing
Lashevich and Serebriakov of the correctness of his plan. The result of this agreement was their joint
code telegram which we quote in full:
"Moscow. To the Chief Command; copy to the C.C.
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