isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

THE PROPHET ARMED
officers' corps of the Soviet Republic', telling them that in the
Russian Revolution as in the French, it was they who carried
the marshal's batons in their knapsacks. 1 By the end of the
civil war, the 'Tsarist' officers made up only one-third of
the commanding staffs-two-thirds had been promoted from the
ranks; and among those so promoted were many of the future
marshals of the Second World War. But in 1918 more than
three-quarters of the commanding and administrative staffs of
the Red Army consisted of officers of the old regime; and in
the highest commands the proportion was even greater. 2
Among the officers there were, of course, traitors and wouldbe
traitors. Some waited for an opportunity to join the White
Guards; others deployed their troops so as to expose them to
loss and defeat; still others passed important secrets to enemy
headquarters. Soon after he became Commissar of War, Trotsky
appeared as chief witness in the trial of Admiral Shchastny,
whom he charged with sabotage. The admiral was condemned
to death on the strength of Trotsky's deposition. The trial was
designed to implant in the mind of the nascent army the idea,
taken for granted in any established army, that certain actions
must be regarded and punished as treason; and it was meant to
intimidate the officers who were in sympathy with the White
Guards. In civil war any penalty milder than death rarely has
a deterrent effect. The fear of prison does not deter the would-be
traitor, because he hopes in any case for the victory of the other
side which will free him, honour him, and reward him; or he
may hope at least for an amnesty after the end of the civil war.
Trotsky's orders of the day bristled with dire threats to the
agents of the \Vhite Guards. But even the threat of capital
punishment was no grave deterrent to officers in the fighting
lines. Trotsky then ordered that a register of their families be
kept so that the would-be traitor should know that if he went
over to the enemy, his wife and children would stay behind as
hostages. This was a crud measure, and Trotsky employed all
his dramatic eloquence to make the threat as awe-inspiring as
possible. He justifi,·d it on thr grou11d that without it the
revolution would be ddcated and the classes that stood for the
1
Trotsky, Kak l'ooru?.ha!as Reio/11tsia. rnL i, pp. 174-8,,.
2
Trotsky, Stalin, p. 279. Sre also J'opro.ry lrtorii, no. 2, 1952; Yu. P. Petrov,
'Voen'!)'e Komissary.'