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

434 THE PROPHET ARMED
the southern front. Vatzetis, however, vetoed Kamenev's plan.
He supposed that Kolchak had strong reserves in Siberia, and,
considering the risk of a deep pursuit to be too great, he ordered
Kamenev to stop at the Urals. Trotsky backed the Commanderin-Chief.
He, too, feared that the eastern armies might march
into a trap set for them by Kolchak. 1 At the moment Trotsky
was also more eager to clear European Russia of the \Vhite
Guards than to extend Soviet rule to Siberia. New commitments
also appeared: Hungary and Bavaria had just been proclaimed
Soviet republics, and Lenin urged the Red Army to
establish liaison with Soviet Hungary, even though Polish troops
in eastern Galicia barred access to Hungary. 2 For all these
reasons Trotsky was anxious to reduce the commitments on the
eastern front. As Kamenev would not give up his plan to pursue
Kolchak, Trotsky removed him from the command. But now
the commissars of the eastern front, Lashevich, Smilga, and
Gusev, declared their solidarity with the removed commander
and asked that he should be reinstated and given a free hand.
The commissars had Stalin's car, then Lenin's; and they
achieved a reversal of Trotsky's and Vatzetis's decision. Kamenev
pressed the pursuit beyond the Crals and presently crushed
Kolchak, who, it turned out, had no strategic reserve in Siberia.
Thus Trotsky's opponents scored a notable advantage.
Trotsky had in the meantime- gone to the southern front, and
there he spent most of the summer.Just as Kolchak's retreat was
beginning, Denikin had advanced into the Ukraine, meeting only
negligible resistance. The Ukraine, having only recently and
superficially come under Soviet control, had no regular army.
Red Guards and partisan bands roamed the country, looting and
spreading anarchy. Makhno's anarchist detachments held part
of the country under their sway. The Left Communists, defeated
in Russia, had found refuge on the Ukrainian front which, being
in an early phase of revolutionary ferment, was congenial
ground to them. Trotsky himselfhad placed Antonov-Ovseenko,
Podvoysky, and Bubnov in charge of military affairs in the
l)krainc: but Bubnov was one of the leaders of the Left Communists
and Antonov-Ovseenko was also inclined to give free
· 1 Trotsky, Sochinenya, vol. xvii, l>ook 2, p. 587.
• See mt"ssagcs exchanged between Vatzctis and Lenin on 21, 22 April 1919.
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