FRANK McLynn describes War Commissar Leon Trotsky in the following terms: ``executing or severely punishing anyone who caused the slightest delay or hold-up'', and ``a man who could order mass executions without batting an eyelid'' (Weekend Extra, April 20).
The truth of Trotsky's military leadership is somewhat less dramatic and certainly less gory. In the desperately acute stage of the civil war between the Reds and the Whites (1918) at Sviyazhsk, on the Kazan front, Trotsky issued the following order:-
``I give warning that if any unit retreats without orders, the first to be shot down will be the commissary of the unit and next the commander. Brave and gallant soldiers will be appointed in their places. Cowards, dastards, and traitors will not escape the bullet. This I solemnly promise in the presence of the entire Red Army.''
Subsequently, following the capture of a critical group of deserters, he said: ``I appointed a field tribunal which passed death sentences on the commander, the commissary, and several privates - to a gangrenous wound a red-hot iron was applied. I explained the situation to the regiment without hiding or softening anything. A number of Communists were injected into the regiment, which returned to the battle front with new commanding officers and a new spirit.'' (Leon Trotsky, My Life, Grossets Universal Library.)
This incident along with such other revolutionary expedients as the assault on the Kronstadt fortress and the dispersal of the irregular forces of the Ukrainian nationalist leader Nestor Machno provide the material for the usual calumnies against War Commissar Trotsky.
Compared to the execution of thousands of young men in France (1914-18), sufferers from shell shock, etc, such brief episodes of revolutionary necessity may be viewed in a more objective perspective.
Jimmy Johnston,
2 Balmore Place,
Glasgow.
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