Evening star., 1922-10-03

Star and the Chicago Daily News in Rus
sia. describing the development. condition
and strength OF til" present red army. In
a letter. accompanying the articles Mr.:
Mackenzie wrote: ITO insure accuracy
He | rapea @ Expressing M % 'es his SURPRISE s0'shs slst
IA foreigner could grasp as had done the
principles and methods of the new Rus
sian army. and requesting permission to
reprint the articles throughout the Rus
sim press. The only two corrections made
vn.e, were In the spelling OF the the name Of one
by me that Kannev. present commander
in-chief. was once chief Of staff
| BY F. A. MACKENZIE.
! Especial Correspondence of The Star and Chi
cago Daily News Foreign Service.)
MOSCOW, Russia. August 24.-On
May 1. 1922. Trotsky. commissar for
military affairs, or in other words
minister of war for soviet Russia.
held an inspection of about 100000
troops on the Red Square in Moscow.
Those who recalled the red guards of
', less than five years before. who
formed the basis of this new force.
might have been excused had they re-
garded the change as incredible.
! Here was Il soldierlike, well uni
formed, highly trained army. The
troops marched with the swing. the
strafghtness and the exact forma-
tions which only iron discipline can
give. The officers. mostly young,
were clearly keen and fully qualified.
From the staff in their well fitting
dark gray to the cavalry in their
scarlet brecches, the infantry in their
| khaki coats slashed with brilliant
braid. and the auxiliary corps In
blouses, there was evident smart
ness, cohesion and a real soldier
|spirit At the crownng moment of
the review flock of fighting air.
planes mancuvered overhead. while
the guns. of the kremlin Numbered
| their message. AS the regiments
| marched away with their crimson
banners. their officers saluted the
cheering crowds in ancient style.
The Russian red army has repeated
in the twentieth century the military
miracle of the reds of the French
| revolution. Workmen and peasants.
fired with enthusiasm. were trans
| formed, in the course of few
months, into armies that have with
stood sustained attacks from the
| combined troops of many great ma
tionS.
| Some Defeats; More Victories.
| The men of the red army today be-
!, lieve themselves invincible and say
so. 1t is true they were driven back
in Poland and suffered reverse from
| the Baltic states. Against those de-
] feats they have many victories to
show. They put Yudenitch's army
| to flight in its hour of victory at the
gates of Petrograd. They inflicted
! crushing disaster on the allied armies
at Archahgel, the reds making one
of the most remarkable winter ad-
vances known in the history of war.
They shattered the armies of Denikin
and Wrangel. the pick of the old
| Russian army. The attack Of the
reds across the ice on Wrangeis care
| fully intrenched and defended posi-
tion in the Crimea in November. 1920.
when they finally broke the military
power of the whites, was an accom-
plishment that deserves to rank
| among the great deeds of the tWen
! tieth century war. kolchak's armies
in Siberia and southeastern Russia
| thousands being captured and scores
Of thousands more perishing in flight.
Territory Won Back.
! seemed almost finished. She was
| hemmed in, by land and sea, from
| the north, from the northeast, from
| the south and west, by hostile forces
| and fleets, Russian. British, American,
French and Italian One army threat
| ened Petrograd, another had Mos
| COW as its aim. Siberia, the Crimea,
the Black sea coast. Odessa and Kiev,
! the Volga up to sixty miles from
| Kazan, Ukrainia. the Don and the
Kuban, were all in hostile hands.
| Today all these territories, save a
strip of eastern Siberia. have been
recovered. The white Russian armies
| then holding them are no more.
! The essential secret of the success
of the reds is that they were fired
| with tremendous enthusiasm. They
fought as evangelists fighting for
new faith. Their leaders devoted
| even more time to firing the minds
ing them physically and technically.
| They cultivated the intelligence and
! the initiative Of the men in the ranks.
Under czarism, the private soldier
! was taught to be an automaton. de-
| pending solely on the directions Of
! soldiers obey" officers Of the old
| czarist regime boasted to me. The
bolshevists encourage the man in the
ranks to think and to act for him
self.
Men Behind Machine.
First among the leaders Of the red
army comes Trotsky, minister of war.
Every one who knows anything of the
Russian army today admits that he
made II Wnat IL Is. ITOtSky Is the luOi
| of the army and its greatest inspiring
force. He is one of the outstanding
military figures of the world.
Brussilov, the old dkarist commander
in chief whose name was once frequent
ly mentioned in the west IS the head of
the army. is a picturesque figure, hon
! ored for his former great work and not
an active military leader.
The ommander-in-chief is S. S. Ka-
minev. a member of the general staff of
the o,d army. When soviet Russia was
attacked and invaded by foreign pow
ers Kaminev offered his services.
>'I am not communist he said,
ebut am for my fatherland.'
1t was he who planned and carried
out the advance against Kolchak, which
smashed the hopes of the whites in
Siberia, and who broke and defeated
Denikin.
Frunze, the commander-in- -chief of
the Ukrainian army. was once de-
scribed by Trotsky himself. "All his
previous military training consisted in
having shot, if I am not much mis-
taken, at the local chief of police who
shot at workers. am not sure whether
he hit the chief of police or not, but he
was sent to the front as one who had
| worked as military commissary under
arms His promotion was rapid. By
IES00gI9E9E011300gWs0EWl0WR0
l|A NIL Dls1Is