Courtesy of the Army Medical Department Center of History ... She covered her eyes and ears against the deafening roar and “blood red flare.” About a half hour later, finally realizing she ...

The Red Army faced the problem of creating a competent and reliable officers' corps, leading Trotsky to mobilize former officers of the imperial army. In the years of the Civil War, up to 50,000 ...

Trotsky became Commissar for War in the Bolshevik government in March 1918. A brilliant organiser and improviser, Trotsky created the Red Army out of the Red Guards and from the remnants of the ...