Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-05-12
RED ARMY IS
NEAR COLLAPSE
Former Head of Russian Navy
Says Dissolution Is
Certain.
GRAND|OSE WAR PLANS FAIL

GRANDIOSE WAR PLANS FAIL
Trotzky Disguised With the Spirit Of
Soldiers Forced Into the Service
Despite Military Successes BoIshe-
Wiki Cannot Stop Dissolution-Soviet
Compelled to Abandon Its Original
Plan for a Purely Class Army-Sit-
uation at Front.
Col. Vladimir L. Lebedeff, former
secretary of the navy in the Russian
Provisional government and member
Of the All-Russian constituent assem-
bly,, declares that the Red army is in
a process of disintegration and that
this is admitted by Trotzky, Bolsheyik
minister of war, and other high Boil
,shevik military officials.
Colonel Lebedeff, who is now in
Paris, terms the dissolution Of the Red
army ian inevitable process" and in
a lengthy analysis shows that despite
their military successes the Bolsheviki
are helpless to stop it. He supports
his argument with quotations from he
highst Bolshevik sources.
Colonel Lebedeff, who is a member
of the party Of Socialist evolutionists,
visited this country some time ago. In
the summer Of 1918 he was at the
head of the Russian troops who fought
for months on the Volga front, to-
gether with the Czecho-Slovaks, hold
ing the line against the Bolsheviki.
In June, 1918, eight months after
the downfall of the provisional gov
eminent, Colonel Lebedeff entered a
new ministry organized on the Volga
by the committee of the constituent
assembly. 1t was as a member of this
ministry that he organized detach-
ments known as the Russian peoples
army, which dealt the Bolsheviki many
severe vlows and drove them. from q
large part Of the volga territory.
Purely Class Army Plan Abandoned.
In his cabled statement Colonel
Lebedef says:
"The Bolsheviki government having
launched from the very beginning a
%grandiOse civil war, and seeking to
carry this war beyond the bounds Of
Russia and supplement the conflict
with a series Of foreign conflicts, was
compelled to abandon it's original idea
of a purely class army. The Bolshe-
wiki soon realized that they required
armies of millions. The military move
ments in the Caucasus, Asia Minor,
Chiva, Buchara and on the borders Of
India, the concentration Of troops
along the Polish, Roumanian, Es-
thonian, Latvian and Georgian Dor
ders, the great contingents of troops
required for the p%acifcation of the
Don, Kuban, northern Caucasus, the
Ukraine, Serbia, Turkestan, the Upper
Volga, the Urals, etc., compelled the
Bolsheviki to adopt compulsory mill
tary service, the principle of which
they had hitherto opposed.
::The forcible mobilization of the
population for the realization of their
plans for foreign and domestic wars in
the name Of the unconcealed dictator
ship of a single party c%ontradicts in Its
very fundamentals the idea Of univer-
sal military service.
Universal military service, on the
other hand, is in direct contradiction
to the idea of the Bolshevik dictator
ship.
"The Bolsheviki realized this very
we'll from the very beginning of their
domination.
From this point flow the hopeless
attempts of the Bolsheviki to create,
in the face of this contradiction an
army along purely class, Communist
party lines.
Army Like R%adishes.
THE wars provoked by the Bolshe-
Wiki proved to be stronger than. their
theories. The result has been continu-
u mobilization of armies-huge, non
class armies and, in the words of Trotz-
ky, like radishes-red outside but
white inside
THE Bolsheviki have recently been
compelled to introduce the system of
full responsibility of one soldier for
another. In a special order to all
provincial and regional army commit.
tees and to all political divisions of
the army the centla al committee of the
Communist party sets before them the
following tasks:
I'm granting leave of absence to Red
army men you must do so only after
subjecting them to the effects of thor
ough political propaganda by supplying
them with the greatest possible num-
Der of leaflets, pamphlets, newspapers
and gifts. You must follow the same
policy while the men are en- route, sup
plying the eschelons with the latest
newspapers and literature and devot-
ing the greatest attention you can to
the needs Of the Red Army men-hold-
ing meetings, conferences and tri-
umphal receptions, with the participa-
ton of workmen's organizations. Do
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