BOLSHEVIK ARMY.

Auckland Star, Issue 123, 24 May 1919, Page 14

BOLSHEVIK ARMY.

ITS ORGANISATION. Some interesting details concerning the Composition and onrauisation of the "Red Army"' and the conditions in Kussia under the Soviet rule have been supplied by two Russians who have got away from Petrograd, via the Ukraine and Poland. According to their statements, the Bolshevik army is ruled by the Supreme Military Council, of which Trotsky is the chairman and d" facto dictator. 'Without Trotsky the army could not have been organised, and his death, it is declared, would mean the downfall pf the Bolshevik regime. In furtherance of his plan to conquer Poland and the Ukraine and to spread revolutions westwards by force of arms, Trotsky published a decree mobilising all peasants able to carry arms between the of lt> and s<>. Up to December 1, 101?. this had been partly carried out, the 1597 and IS9S classes having been mobilised for service at the front irrespective of class distinctions, the general principle being the proletariat to the front, the bourgeoisie for fatigue work in the rear. The figures officially quoted by Trotsky that his Red Army is already one million strong is not an over-esti-mate, and his statement that by the ■ spring of IDIH he will have mobilised about three million men is also "probable, But an army of this colossal number is quite impossible owing to lack of guns, rilies. munitions, and equipment. In addition, the percentage of deserters mainly from the educated and peasant classes is very high. As a typical instance the case may be quoted of a Soviet regiment ordered to the Finnish front. It left its barracks 1.200 strong: at the Petrograd-Finnish station it was 700 strong; on arrival at the front it was 500 strong. When the Bolsheviks started, after fciany hesitations, to mobilise the pesants, there were no big mutinies, the prevailing attitude of the peasants being "We are unarmed and our villages are therefore defenceless: once we have the arms we will give the Bolsheviks hell." Consequently there then sprang up numerous revolts in all parts of Soviet Russia, the largest of these taking place at V- roslavl. in the Governments of Pskoti and Ryazan, along the Volga, and in Esthonia." The peasants offered a desperate resistance to the Bolsheviks, but their lack of material and of organisation finally enabled Bolsheviks, with preut difficulty, to master the situation as usual, by systematic and fearful butcheries. After this failure the peasants refused to rise until Petrograd,"the town that started this hell," should give the i signal for a revolt, in which caso only the peasants promised to help. The Red Army, which is now being recruited by conscription, comprises the Red Army proper, the Red Guard, technical units, railway guards, Chinese and j Lett regiments. The original Red•β-jard", which tonus the cadres of the present array, consists mainly of genuine Bolsheviks and a few professional soldiers, "who joined to gain a living. Recruits were enrolled on a six months' contract, and only on the presentation cf party recommendations. This system failed to produce enough.men. As a first step towards conscription the Red Guard was abolished, men being transferred to the Red Army. Shortly afterwards the formation of technical units was begun, and recruits became numerous since there ■was no other work available. Finally, railway guards were organised, originally solely for guarding the railways: these units are the most unreliable in the Bolshevik army, the percentage of former officers in it being , very high. The sole mainstay of the Bolshevik Government are the Chinese and Lett regiments. The former were recruited from Chinese coolies by the late Imperial Government during the war for labour purposes. Their position became worse and worse during 1017 and IMS, when public works practically ceased, and the return of the soldiers from the front deprived them of work. The Bolsheviks took advantage of this, and offered them high pay ar.d large rations if they would enter the International regiments and fight for the Bolshevik cause. There ] vrg.s a. large number of entries, and ir December, 191S, there were four regiments at Petrograd and four at Moscow guarding the Kremlin. Nearly all the officers of these regiments are Chinese Bolsheviks. To sum up the Red Army, despite Trotsky's efforts to make it efficient, has not yet emerged from the stage of organisation. It is still scarcely deserving of the name of an army, and would be more fitly described as consisting of guerilla bands. In the infantry the lack of rilles, munition, and clothing is very acute. In the cavalry preat numbers of horses have died from ■ lack of fodder, and this problem is most ! serious. Further, most of the cavalry- j men are old soldiers of the regular army, f and their loyalty to the Bolsheviks is j very doubtful. The artillery is very | ■weak. There are practically "no heavy j pins, -while the field guns are speedily I deteriorating owing to careless use and j the impossibility of replacement. There are stil! about SOO.ot.K) Russian I prisoners of war in Germany. The Soviet Government refused to 'assist them unless they joined the Red Army and ' liave aoolished all the old institutions for looking after Russian prisoners of war ! so that the prisoners remain homele~= ! and helpless when they return Kv«n now, though in a pitiable condition I many of them are asking for rifles so ! that they can have a "smack -? at the 1 Bolshe-lks. The Bolsheviks are quite' a≤ unpopular as the Germans, because ! the BoUherik Government has done ab ; solutely nothing to lighten the sufferings oi the Russian prisoners. The BolshevIks fully realise the danger from the prisoners in Germany, and have organised on a large scale, and with noticeable success propaganda among them, the agitators mostly pretending to be Red Cro« Bisters, doctors, or assistants. The prisoners who formerly belonged to the repular army are tilled with a deep hate against the Germans, since they realise to the lull that it was the Germans who ; started the Bolshevik regime in Russia.