100 years ago, on January 28 and 29, 1918, the Red Army and the Red Fleet were created to protect Soviet Russia from external and internal enemies.
February 23, 1918 is considered to be the birthday of the Red Army. Then the registration of volunteers began and German troops moving deep into Russia were stopped near Pskov and Narva. However, the decrees defining the principle of formation and structure of the new Armed Forces were adopted in January. Having taken power in the country into their own hands, the Bolsheviks faced one of the fundamental problems - the country was defenseless in the face of external and internal enemies.
The destruction of the Armed Forces began in the last years of the Russian Empire - a drop in morale, moral and psychological fatigue from the war, hatred in the authorities, which dragged millions of ordinary people into a bloody massacre that was meaningless for them. This led to a fall in discipline, mass desertion, surrender, the appearance of detachments, a conspiracy among a part of the generals who supported the overthrow of the tsar, etc. The Provisional Government, the Februaryist revolutionaries finished off the imperial army through "democratization" and "liberalization". Russia no longer had an army as an integral, unified structure. And this is in the context of the Troubles and external aggression, intervention. Russia needed an army to defend the country, the people, to defend socialism and the Soviet project.
In December 1917, V. I. Lenin set the task: to create a new army in a month and a half. The Military Collegium was formed, money was allocated for the concept of organization and management of the workers 'and peasants' Armed Forces. The developments were approved at the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets in January 1918. Then a decree was signed. Initially, the Red Army, following the example of the White Guard formations, was volunteer, but this principle quickly proved to be ineffective. And soon they turned to the appeal - the general mobilization of men of certain ages.
Army
After coming to power in October 1917, the Bolsheviks initially saw the future army as being created on a voluntary basis, without mobilization, with elective commanders, etc. The Bolsheviks relied on Karl Marx's thesis about replacing the regular army with general armament of the working people. Thus, the fundamental work "State and Revolution", written by Lenin in 1917, defended, among other things, the principle of replacing the regular army with "universal arming of the people."
On December 16, 1917, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars issued decrees "On the Elective Beginning and Organization of Power in the Army" and "On Equalization in the Rights of All Servicemen." To defend the conquests of the revolution, detachments of the Red Guard began to form, headed by the military revolutionary committee. The Bolsheviks were also supported by detachments of "revolutionary" soldiers and sailors from the old army and navy. On November 26, 1917, instead of the old War Ministry, the Committee for Military and Naval Affairs was established under the leadership of V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, N. V. Krylenko and P. E. Dybenko. Then this Committee was transformed into the Council of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs. Since December 1917, it was renamed and became known as the Collegium of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs (People's Commissariat for Military Affairs), the head of the collegium was N. I. Podvoisky. The People's Commissariat for Military Affairs was the leading military body of Soviet power; at the first stages of its activity, the collegium relied on the old War Ministry and the old army.
At a meeting of the military organization under the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) on December 26, 1917, it was decided, according to V. I. Lenin to create in a month and a half a new army of 300 thousand people, the All-Russian Collegium for the organization and management of the Red Army was created. Lenin set before this collegium the task of developing, in the shortest possible time, the principles of organizing and building a new army. The fundamental principles of army building developed by the board were approved by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which met from January 10 to 18, 1918. To defend the gains of the revolution, it was decided to create an army of the Soviet state and call it the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.
As a result, on January 15 (28), 1918, a decree was issued on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, and on January 29 (February 11) - the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet on a voluntary basis. The definition of "workers and peasants" emphasized its class character - the army of the dictatorship of the working people and the fact that it should be recruited mainly from the working people of town and country. The "Red Army" said that it was a revolutionary army. For the formation of volunteer detachments of the Red Army, 10 million rubles were allocated. In mid-January 1918, 20 million rubles were allocated for the construction of the Red Army. As the leading apparatus of the Red Army was created, all departments of the old War Ministry were reorganized, reduced or abolished.
On February 18, 1918, Austro-German troops, more than 50 divisions, violating the armistice, launched an offensive in the entire strip from the Baltic to the Black Sea. On February 12, 1918, the offensive of the Turkish army began in Transcaucasia. The remnants of the completely demoralized and destroyed old army could not resist the enemy and left their positions without a fight. Of the old Russian army, the only military units that retained military discipline were the regiments of Latvian riflemen, who went over to the side of Soviet power. In connection with the offensive of enemy troops, some of the generals of the tsarist army proposed to form detachments from the old army. But the Bolsheviks, fearing the action of these detachments against the Soviet regime, abandoned such formations. However, some generals were brought in to recruit officers from the old imperial army. A group of generals, headed by M. D. Bonch-Bruevich, consisting of 12 people, arrived in Petrograd from Headquarters on February 20, 1918, formed the basis of the Supreme Military Council and began to attract officers to serve the Bolsheviks. From March to August, Bonch-Bruyevich will hold the post of military leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Republic, and in 1919 - chief of the Field Staff of the RVSR.
As a result, in the course of the Civil War, there will be many generals and regular officers of the tsarist army among the top command cadres of the Red Army. During the Civil War, 75 thousand former officers served in the Red Army, while about 35 thousand people served in the White Army. from the 150 thousandth officer corps of the Russian Empire. About 40 thousand former officers and generals did not take part in the Civil War, or fought for national formations.
By mid-February 1918, the First Corps of the Red Army was formed in Petrograd. The core of the corps was a special-purpose detachment, which consisted of Petrograd workers and soldiers in 3 companies of 200 people each. In the first two weeks of formation, the number of the corps was brought to 15 thousand people. Part of the corps, about 10 thousand people, was prepared and sent to the front near Pskov, Narva, Vitebsk and Orsha. By early March 1918, the corps consisted of 10 infantry battalions, a machine gun regiment, 2 cavalry regiments, an artillery brigade, a heavy artillery battalion, 2 armored divisions, 3 air squadrons, an aeronautical detachment, engineering, automobile, motorcycle units and a searchlight team. The corps was disbanded in May 1918; its personnel is directed to staffing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th rifle divisions, which were being formed in the Petrograd military district.
By the end of February, 20,000 volunteers had signed up in Moscow. The first test of the Red Army took place near Narva and Pskov, it entered into battle with the German troops and fought them back. Thus, February 23rd became the birthday of the young Red Army.
When the army was being formed, there were no approved staffs. From detachments of volunteers, combat units were formed based on the capabilities and needs of their area. The detachments consisted of several dozen people from 10 to 10 thousand and more people. The formed battalions, companies and regiments were of various types. The number of the company was from 60 to 1600 people. The tactics of the troops were determined by the legacy of the tactics of the Russian army, the political, geographical and economic conditions of the combat area, and also reflected the individual traits of their commanders, such as Frunze, Shchors, Budyonny, Chapaev, Kotovsky and others.
The course of hostilities showed the viciousness and weakness of the volunteer principle, the "democratic" principles in the army. This organization excluded the possibility of centralized command and control of troops. As a result, a gradual transition from the volunteer principle to the construction of a regular army on the basis of universal conscription began. The Supreme Military Council (Air Force) was established on March 3, 1918. The chairman of the Supreme Military Council was the People's Commissar for Military Affairs Lev Trotsky. The Council coordinated the activities of the military and naval departments, set them tasks for the defense of the state and the organization of the armed forces. In its structure, three directorates were created - operational, organizational and military communications. Trotsky created the institute of military commissars (since 1919 - the political administration of the republic, PUR). On March 25, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars approved the creation of new military districts. At a meeting in the Air Force in March 1918, a project was discussed for organizing a Soviet rifle division, which was adopted by the main combat unit of the Red Army. The division consisted of 2-3 brigades, each brigade consisted of 2-3 regiments. The main economic unit was a regiment consisting of 3 battalions, 3 companies in each.
The issue of the transition to universal military service was also resolved. On July 26, 1918, Trotsky submitted to the Council of People's Commissars a proposal on universal conscription of the working people and on the recruitment of conscripts from the bourgeois classes into the rear militia. Even earlier, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced the call for workers and peasants who do not exploit other people's labor in the 51st districts of the Volga, Ural and West Siberian military districts, as well as workers in Petrograd and Moscow. Over the next months, the conscription into the ranks of the Red Army was extended to the command staff. By a decree of July 29, the entire population of the country liable for military service between the ages of 18 and 40 was registered, and conscription was established. These decrees determined the significant growth of the armed forces of the Soviet Republic.
On September 2, 1918, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Supreme Military Council was abolished, with the transfer of functions to the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic (RVSR, RVS, Revolutionary Military Council). The RVS was headed by Trotsky. The Revolutionary Military Council combined administrative and operational functions to control the Armed Forces. On November 1, 1918, an executive operational body of the RVSR, the Field Headquarters, was formed. The members of the RVS were outlined by the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and approved by the Council of People's Commissars. The number of members of the RVSR was inconsistent and ranged, apart from the chairman, his deputies and the commander-in-chief, from 2 to 13 people. In addition, since the summer of 1918, the Revolutionary Military Councils have been formed by the associations of the Red Army and Navy (fronts, armies, fleets, flotillas and some groups of troops). The Revolutionary Military Council decided to create cavalry as part of the Red Army.
LD Trotsky in the Red Army. Sviyazhsk, August 1918
In view of the growing tension of the war, the question arose of uniting the efforts of the entire country and the Workers 'and Peasants' Defense Council (Defense Council, SRKO), formed by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 30, 1918, became the head of all bodies as the leading elite. Lenin was appointed chairman of the Defense Council. The Defense Council was the main emergency military-economic and planning center of the Republic during the war. The activities of the Revolutionary Military Council and other military bodies were placed under the control of the Council. As a result, the Defense Council had full power in mobilizing all the forces and means of the country for defense, united the work of all departments working for the defense of the country in the military-industrial, transport and food fields and became the completion of the system for organizing the command and control of the armed forces of Soviet Russia.
Upon admission to the army, the fighters took an oath, approved on April 22 at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. On September 16, 1918, the first Soviet order, the Red Banner of the RSFSR, was established. A tremendous amount of work has been done: on the basis of the three-year experience of the World War, new field manuals were written for all branches of the armed forces and their combat interaction; a new mobilization scheme was formed - the system of military commissariats. The Red Army was commanded by dozens of the best generals who had gone through two wars, and 100 thousand military officers, including former commanders of the imperial army.
Thus, by the end of 1918, the organizational structure of the Red Army and its administrative apparatus were created. The Red Army strengthened all decisive sectors of the fronts with communists, in October 1918 there were 35 thousand communists in the army, in 1919 - about 120 thousand, and in August 1920 - 300 thousand, half of all members of the RCP (b) of that time. In June 1919, all the republics that existed at that time - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - entered into a military alliance. A unified military command was created, unified management of finance, industry and transport. By order of the RVSR of January 16, 1919, insignia were introduced only for combat commanders - colored buttonholes, on collars, by type of service and commander's stripes on the left sleeve, above the cuff.
By the end of 1920, the Red Army numbered 5 million people, but due to the lack of weapons, uniforms and equipment, the combat strength of the army did not exceed 700 thousand people, 22 armies were formed, 174 divisions (of which 35 were cavalry), 61 air squadrons (300- 400 aircraft), artillery and armored units (subunits). During the war years, 6 military academies and more than 150 courses trained 60,000 commanders of all specialties from workers and peasants.
As a result, a powerful new army was formed in Soviet Russia, which won a victory in the Civil War, over the "armies" of nationalist separatists, Basmachi and ordinary bandits. The leading powers of the West and East were forced to withdraw their occupation troops from Russia, for a while, abandoning a direct invasion.
V. Lenin at the parade of universal education units in Moscow, May 1919
Fleet
On January 29 (February 11 in the new style), 1918, a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the RSFSR was held under the chairmanship of V. I. -Peasant Red Fleet (RKKF). The decree said: “The Russian fleet, like the army, has been brought into a state of great ruin by the crimes of the tsarist and bourgeois regimes and by a severe war. The transition to the arming of the people, which is required by the program of the socialist parties, is extremely complicated by this circumstance. To preserve the national wealth and oppose the organized force - the remnants of the mercenary army of the capitalists and the bourgeoisie, to support, if necessary, the idea of the world proletariat, it is necessary to resort, as a transitional measure, to organizing the fleet on the basis of recommending candidates by party, trade union and other mass organizations. In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides: The fleet, which exists on the basis of universal conscription of the tsarist laws, is declared disbanded and the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet is organized."
The next day, an order signed by P. Ye. Dybenko and members of the marine collegium S. E. Saks and F. F. Raskolnikov was sent to the fleets and flotillas, in which this decree was announced. The same order stated that the new fleet should be staffed on a voluntary basis. On January 31, a partial demobilization of the fleet was announced by an order for the fleet and the naval department, but already on February 15, in connection with the threat of a German offensive, Tsentrobalt addressed the sailors with an appeal, in which he wrote: “The Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet calls on you, comrades, sailors, to whom freedom and the Motherland are dear, until the impending threatening danger from the enemies of freedom is over. Somewhat later, on February 22, 1918, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the People's Commissariat for Maritime Affairs was established, and the Supreme Maritime Collegium was renamed the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Maritime Affairs. This decree laid the foundations of the Soviet naval apparatus.
Interestingly, from December 1917 to February 1918 there was no naval rank scale. Most often, naval servicemen were named according to their positions and (or) according to their previous positions with the addition and addition of the abbreviation "b", which meant "former". For example, b. captain of the 2nd rank. In the decree of January 29, 1918, the servicemen of the fleet were named "Red military sailors" (it was changed to "Krasvoenmore").
It is worth noting that the ships did not play a serious role in the outbreak of the Civil War. A significant part of the sailors and non-commissioned officers of the Baltic Fleet went to fight on land for the Red Army. Some of the officers died in the unrest that began, some went over to the side of the whites, some fled or remained on the ships, trying to save them for Russia. In the Black Sea Fleet, the picture was similar. But some of the ships fought on the side of the White Army, some went over to the side of the Reds.
After the end of the Troubles, Soviet Russia inherited only the pitiful remnants of the once powerful fleet on the Black Sea. The naval forces in the North and the Far East also practically ceased to exist. The Baltic Fleet was partially rescued - the line forces were retained, except for the battleship "Poltava" (it was badly damaged by fire and was scrapped). Also preserved submarine forces and a mine division, minelayers. Since 1924, the real restoration and creation of the Red Navy began.
