Admittedly, Trotsky concludes the article by pointing out that street-fighting would cause ‘accidental victims and the destruction of cultural treasures. That is one of the reasons the commanders should not let the enemy into Petrograd.’89
Trotsky’s military thoughts reveal quite graphically his super-revolutionary views. He belonged to that category of people who believe that the end justifies everything. How lightly he admits that his plan might mean destroying a ‘certain number of inhabitants, women and children’, as if this were a mere trifle. For such people human life—if it is another’s—is as nothing when set against the goal, the ideal, the dream. Despite their attractive features and personal qualities, the minds of such people are often very dangerous.
Trotsky’s Special Train
The myths about Trotsky’s train were numerous. Red Army men came to expect that it would bring them long-awaited reinforcements, artillery and ammunition, as well as the legendary leader of the army himself, whose personal example would create a breakthrough on the front. Commanders and commissars, on the other hand, awaited Trotsky’s peremptory orders with trepidation. Everyone, however, believed that Trotsky’s arrival meant that ‘things would get going’. More was said than written about the train, but the archives hold much information about this unique symbol of Trotsky’s operational revolutionary leadership of the fronts in the civil war.
In the summer of 1922 the chief of the Central Board of Military Communications, M.M. Arzhanov, proposed that the train be shown at the jubilee exhibition of the Red Army and Navy. Trotsky deputed Ya.G. Blyumkin to draft plans. In December 1922 Blyumkin reported:
There is to be a section at the exhibition on ‘The train used by PredRVSR [Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Soviet Republic] Trotsky’. A vast plan will show all of the train’s journeys over four years and the places where it stopped, was in battle and derailed. Publications printed on the train will be displayed on special boards, notably files of the newspaper V puti, copies of orders, pamphlets. Lists of train personnel will be displayed, and a memorial board of train-niks [Blyumkin’s term, poezdniks] who fell in battle. Battle honours bestowed on the train will be exhibited with a guard of honour. Before the exhibition opens there will be a ‘History of the Train Week’, during which memories of the crew will be gathered on special questionnaires.90
What was the ‘special rôle’ played by Trotsky’s train, on which Blyumkin laid such stress in his memorandum? Years later, in exile on the island of Prinkipo, Trotsky wrote:
My train was hurriedly organized in Moscow on the night of 7 August 1918. In the morning I left in it for Sviyazhsk, bound for the Czechoslovak front. The train was continually being reorganized and improved upon, and extended in its functions. As early as 1918, it had already become a flying apparatus of administration. Its sections included a secretariat, a printing-press, a telegraph station, a radio station, an electric-power station, a library, a garage, and a bath. The train was so heavy that it needed two engines; later it was divided into two trains. When we had to stop for some time at a section of the front, one of the engines would do service as courier, and the other was always under steam. The front was shifting constantly, and one could take no chances.91
At first the train consisted of twelve carriages and carried about 250 people, including a bodyguard of Latvian Riflemen, a machine-gun unit, a group of agitators, a communications crew, a team of drivers, a unit of track repairmen and other specialized personnel. The first chief of the train was S.V. Ciccolini, and among the long-standing staffers were two old Bolsheviks, S.I. Gusev and P.G. Smidovich. When the train was divided into two, an aviation unit of two aeroplanes was added, as well as several automobiles and even a band.92
Always concerned for his creature comforts, Trotsky provided the train with cooks, secretaries and bodyguards, as well as adequate supplies. He also saw that his staff was well paid by putting the train chief and his own secretary on the same scale as a divisional commander.93 He expected to be greeted by senior officials at stopping-places, with a guard of honour and due protocol. Instructions issued by the chief of the train ordered that ‘People should not crowd around People’s War Commissar Comrade Trotsky’s carriage,’ and that ‘When People’s War Commissar Comrade Trotsky leaves his carriage he should not be accompanied by an indiscriminate heap of comrades who just happen to turn up, but only by people appointed for this purpose.’94 Already the young republic was creating its own rituals for the worship of its leaders. The revolution, whose purpose had been to install people’s power, quickly created a cohort who spoke and acted in the name of the people. Trotsky’s train, although it performed a necessary function, acquired the attributes that would become characteristic of one-man rule.
Trotsky liked his train to go fast, and anyone found guilty of holding it up for any reason was likely to be penalized. His secretary, M. Glazman, once cabled Lenin from Astrakhan: ‘Comrade Trotsky’s special train arrived at Baskunchak at 9 o’clock on the seventh and hence took ten hours to cover 230 versts [about 150 miles]. In accordance with Trotsky’s orders I request that the reasons for such a slow movement of the special train be discovered and that the guilty answer for it. Inform us urgently when the order has been carried out.’95
Trotsky spent more time on his special train than he did working in the Commissariat. According to some estimates, he travelled more than 200,000 kilometres during the civil war, many of his trips being to the southern front, which he regarded as the most difficult and most dangerous.
Besides the trusted bodyguards Trotsky selected for his entourage—most of them young workers, sailors and intellectuals—there were always several dozen Communists. Trotsky often appointed new commissars and commanders from among this group. The train was highly protected: the carriages were all armoured, machine-guns were placed on the footplates and the crew itself was armed to the teeth. ‘They all wore leather uniforms, which always make men look heavily imposing,’ Trotsky later recalled:
On the left arm, just below the shoulder, each wore a large metal badge, carefully cast at the mint, which had acquired great popularity in the army … To keep the men on the alert while we were travelling, there were frequent alarms, both by day and by night. Armed detachments would be put off the trains as ‘landing parties’. The appearance of a leather-coated detachment in a dangerous place invariably had an overwhelming effect. When they were aware of the train just a few kilometres behind the firing-line, even the most nervous units, their commanding officers especially, would summon up all their strength.96
The train had its own internal order, some aspects of which testify not only to its rapid evolution as a new organ of military administration, but also to the significance Trotsky imparted to the train as such. The activities of its numerous personnel were circumscribed by a host of instructions. In the event of an emergency, train-chief Voldemar Ukhenberg laid down that ‘the alarm signal would consist of three shots or three alarm whistles from the locomotive … Duty telephonists must under no circumstances leave their telephones … Anyone who disobeys these instructions will be arrested at once and handed over to a Military-revolutionary court.’97 Apart from the train’s security guards, Trotsky had his own personal bodyguards, twelve in all at the end of 1918.98 Among his other duties the chief of Trotsky’s own guards, Nikolai Sharapov, had a special licence ‘to acquire food products for [Trotsky] for cash at the stopping-places’.99 In Nezhin, for instance, Sharapov presented the following order to the city food committee: ‘I request the urgent release of the following items for the personal consumption of Comrade Trotsky: fresh game—ten pieces, butter—five lbs, greens (asparagus, spinach, green cucumbers) …’100 The date on the order was 6 May 1920, when the entire Volga region and much of Russia was suffering an appalling famine.
Every day, circumstances permitting, Ukhenberg submitted a written report on the train’s affairs to Trotsky. On 7 November 1918, the first anniversary of the revolution, he wrote:
2. The chairman of the Saratov Provincial Executive Committee, Comrade Vasiliev, has asked me to request that you speak today at their celebrations of the October revolution … 3.1 petition you to amnesty the offenders on your train on the occasion of the October revolution: a) Fedor Gorin, for drunkenness and attempting while under the influence to shoot the train’s head of security; b) Martin Burkan, in connection with Petrovsky’s escape from arrest. 4.1 request your instructions as to the distribution of the 3,500,000 papirosy [cigarettes] sent from Moscow as gifts for the front. 5. Many personnel are carrying flour that they have bought with their own money … May train personnel engage in trade and on what scale? 6. In view of the loss of a large quantity of various uniforms from the train, I request clarification as to whether personnel are to be released on arrival in Moscow.101
The train had special compartments for telegraphic and radio communication, and Trotsky remained in constant contact with Moscow. On 3 April 1919, for instance, he sent a long report on the condition of four armies. In 4th Army, he wrote,
the 22nd Sharpshooters Division is committing looting, rape and anti-Communist agitation in the Muslim language [sic, presumably Tatar]. In Orlov-Kurilov regiments the Communists have to work semi-legally; casual recruits want to be released. In 1st and 5th companies of the Penza regiment, kulak elements are carrying on agitation, the Communists play cards … In the Penza division of 1st Army almost all the units have disintegrated, they do not carry out battle orders, the mood is one of panic, especially in the Petrograd regiment where a battalion has dispersed. Nothing is known of 2nd Army. In 3rd Army, Orenburg regiment of 30th Division is exhausted; they are poorly clothed … Bogoyavlensk regiment lacks underwear. Putilov artillery regiment is running a commune. Lesno-Vyborg regiment lacks uniforms. The morale of Petrograd regiment is good. Red Eagles regiment lacks weapons, medicines, boots, and the men are tired.102
Trotsky later recalled that, after ascertaining the needs of a division on the spot, he would hold a conference in the staff-car or dining-car, ‘inviting as many representatives as possible, including those from the lower commanding force and from the ranks, as well as from the local party organizations, the Soviet administration, and the trade unions … These conferences always had immediate practical results. No matter how poor the organs of the local administration might be, they always managed to squeeze a little tighter and cut down on some of their own needs to contribute something to the army … A new group of Communists would be drawn from the institutions and put immediately into an unreliable regiment. Stuff would be found for shirts and for wrappings for the feet, leather for new soles, and an extra hundredweight of fat. But of course the local sources were not enough.’103 Trotsky would then wire Lenin or Sklyansky with requests for the extra supplies.
On arriving at a station close to a headquarters or a front, two or three trucks and Trotsky’s personal automobile would be unloaded from the train. Usually twenty or thirty soldiers armed with machine-guns would accompany him to the units. There was always the risk of an ambush, and Trotsky took great care to protect himself. He was invariably surrounded by his bodyguards, his ‘lads’ in their creaking, tight leather tunics. Nadezhda Alexandrovna Marennikova, who worked in Trotsky’s secretariat and was extremely close to his entourage, told me: ‘Almost every day he seems to have had his health checked by doctors. But the main thing was he was always being guarded. Well guarded. Always several bodyguards. Frunze,* for whom I also worked, only had one. Trotsky was an exceptional man, outstanding even, but he was something of a coward.’ Certainly, the train served above all as a mobile administrative organ, but the greater part of it was devoted to accommodating Trotsky and his security personnel.
Trotsky’s visits to the front were motivated partly by his need to know the position, but also, perhaps chiefly, to raise morale. It was his suggestion that the Order of the Red Banner be created in September 1918. When he received his first batch of the decorations in January 1919, however, he was disappointed, and cabled Sverdlov: ‘The Red Banner medal is impossible, it’s too crude and the fixing device is so cumbersome that it’s practically impossible to wear. I’m not going to distribute any, as it would cause general disappointment. I insist no more be made or issued to the military administration. We waited several months for the medal, but what we’ve got is a porter’s name-plate, except that it’s not as convenient. The medal should be three or four times smaller and made of better material.’104 Feeling, perhaps, that this was not enough, he also cabled Yenukidze, Sverdlov’s chief secretary: ‘The negligence shown in making the medals for the Red Banner is quite unacceptable … Everyone’s waiting, yet we’re incapable of producing the medal. To debate how much cheaper it would be in silver is ludicrous. We’re talking about pennies. The medal needs to be three times smaller. The rim should be gilded. The work should be of higher quality.’105
When the decoration began being issued in massive numbers to the troops as an incentive, it started to lose its value. In January 1920 Trotsky received a cable from Voroshilov, Budenny and Shchadenko: ‘The Revolutionary-Military Council of the Cavalry Army requests the release of 300 Red Banner medals for decorating the troops.’ Trotsky’s reaction was instant: ‘Too many! 50 to 75 can be sent.’106 Sensing that this form of morale-boosting had got out of hand, he cabled Moscow: ‘Decorations issued by the Revolutionary Military Council without ratification of the TsIK should be resubmitted for such ratification.’107 Sometimes he objected to the decoration of a particular individual. He cabled Sklyansky: ‘I regard the decoration of Tukhachevsky with the Red Banner on the army’s anniversary as quite inappropriate. It’s a purely monarchical way of giving awards … Tukhachevsky doesn’t personify the army, he should be rewarded in accordance with his war service, not because it’s the army’s anniversary.’108 In the long term, Trotsky lost the argument, and it was precisely ‘the monarchical way’ that came to be applied in the Soviet Union.
As soon as the military councils started awarding medals, the question arose of what to do when a soldier, commander or commissar distinguished himself further. Trotsky’s solution was simple: ‘Many Red Army men, especially pilots, have the order of the Red Banner and difficulties arise over decorating them again when they perform further brave feats. The only way out is to decorate them a second and third time, not with a new medal, but by fixing to the original medal small numbers—two, three, four, and so on. I propose this be done as soon as possible by the presidium of TsIK.’109
Trotsky was not yet aware that on 22 November 1919 he would himself be decorated with the Red Banner. The order read: ‘Comrade Lev Davidovich Trotsky, having accepted the VTsIK’s commission to organize the Red Army, has displayed indefatigability and indestructible energy in his appointed task. His huge efforts have been crowned with brilliant results … In the days when Red Petrograd came under direct threat, Comrade Trotsky, in setting off for the Petrograd front, took the closest part in the organization of the brilliantly executed defence of Petrograd, inspiring with his personal bravery the Red Army units under fire at the front.’110 In September 1920, along with Sklyansky, S.S. Kamenev and Lebedev, Trotsky was also awarded a ‘sword of honour of native design’.111
The greater part of what Trotsky wrote on the train was collected and published between 1922 and 1924 in five volumes. He recognized that he could not have accomplished so much without help:
All my work in the train, literary and otherwise, would have been impossible without my assisting stenographers, Glazman and Sermuks, and the younger assistant, Nechaev. They worked all day and all night in the moving train, which, disregarding all rules of safety in the fever of war, would rush over shaken ties at a speed of seventy or more kilometres an hour … I would watch in wondering gratitude the movements of the hand that, despite the incessant jerking and shaking, could inscribe the finely shaped symbols so clearly. When I was handed the typed script half an hour later, no corrections were necessary. This was not ordinary work; it
took on a character of heroic sacrifice.’112
Glazman and Sermuks were rather more than ‘stenographers’, and Trotsky did not name all of his immediate staff who, amounting to more than twenty, probably outnumbered the entourage of any other revolutionary leader.113 He was perhaps more aware than his colleagues of the need for highly educated staff who were capable of grasping ideas rapidly and composing the appropriate document or collecting data, organizing the execution of an order, and so on.
That he would set up a printing-press and publish a newspaper on his train was perhaps inevitable, given the fact that all his life he had in effect been a journalist. The message he most frequently conveyed was that the entire course of the civil war now depended on the success of the particular front and forces located at the place where he happened to have stopped. He would alight from the train, followed not only by his team of assistants but also by bales of his newspaper V Puti and pamphlets and addresses which would be distributed at once among the Red Army men and the local population. They would be despatched to the regiments, pinned up on garrison bulletin boards, read aloud by company literates, with the result that many fighters became convinced that the war really did depend on them: the thing would be settled here—after all, Trotsky himself had arrived.
Trotsky Page 24
