Evening star., 1924-08-18
RUSSIA SINCE LENIN
The truth about thar today, series % uncensored
articles observer cho months Russa studying condons
BY SEYMOUR B. CONCER.

since then by the reform in tho period
| OF army service, which requires the
infantry. by far tho most numerous
branch. to serve two years instead
of the eighteen months formerly
| specified.
| The two-year period IL general ex-
| cept for the air service. three years.
| and the navy, four years. Incident
ally, there Ii q lot Of dissension In
the fleet over the fact that the 1901
class there are still being held after
four and a half years service. while
| their brothers In the army have been
dismissed to the reserve. All came
from the same contingent, the sailors
| being the unfortunates who were
trans fer red from land to sea service
to MI up the feet after the great
kronstadt mutiny.
Weakness OF New Army.
| There are points OF weakness about
this new Red army. In the first place,
it Is no longer Trotsky's army, the
bolshevlst machine having taken ad-
vantage of Trotsky's illness and long
absence in the Caucasus to root out
every vestige OF Trotsky influence
and control. They say this means
nothing. that tho new hands to which
the army is intrusted are quite as
capable and qualified as the old.
Probably they are-in peace time, but
venture to assert that the Trotsky
energy and punch, the undoubted
prestige. personal popularity and
magnetic influence which he exer-
cises, would be sadly missed In
grave emergency.
Under the reorganization, the min
| lister Of war. the post which Trotsky
still holds. has been deprived of all
personal power over the army, which
has been put under a Revolutionary
Military Council of five. four of them
Trotsky opponents. The command
| ing general OF the army, kamenev,
Trotsky man, has been relieved Of
these functions and made inspector
Of the army, while Trotsky's deputy
and rival, Comrade Frunze, has as
sumed command as chief of staff un-
der the council. He was also made
chief of the War Academy, where all
the higher officers are trained.
| A general shift Of military COM
| manders also took place, under which
the Trotsky men were removed from
all places Of influence in the higher
command and in the staff. Gen.
Muralov. Trotsky man, was. for IN
stance, removed as commander OF the
troops in the Moscow district and
transferred to post of little au-
thority in the North Caucasus. being
replaced by Gen. Voroshilov, all
anti-Trotskyite The post Of COM
and Crmea, second in Importance
only to the Moscow post on account
of the concentration of troops on the
| Rumanian and Polish frontiers. was
| intrustcd to Gen. Egorofr, another
| FrunZe selection.
| A reform which was calculated to
strengthen the Red army as str:k-
! .as
| the exclusion from service with the
armed forces of all but children Of
the proletariat, the sons of the
bourgeoisie being conscripted for
service only in labor battalions and
not intrusted with arms. The army
of workmcn and peasants. however,
| is not entirely satisfactory to the
| Farmer-Labor government, even un-
der this reform, since the percentage
of Communists in 1t is small and
! growing less.
BOIshevi.ts in Army Dwindle.
According TO figures which ] was
! able to secure. 1t included the firsf
| OF the year about 90 per cent pea
SAINTS and 1Si: per cent workmen.
but. after bringing in the new class
of 1902, the percentages changed to
IS per cent peasants and - per cent
workmen. About the only reliable
workmen. The Bolshevist Central
! Committee. after listening to the re-
! port of the Revolutionary Military
Council on the army reorganization,
1 expressed its alarm over the dwin-
ding number Of active Communists
and instructed it's organization bu-
reau to study measures to increase
| the proportion of Communists. At
present Communist party members
i ~ io1
mobilizat tion and may be required to
serve a longer term in order to attain
| the desired result.
Another point of weakness is the
unpopularity of army service. The
! bolshevist speakers and orators make
a great point Of the difference in
this respect compared with the old
| imperial army of "conscript slaves"
-, but all my evidence, derived in part
| from bolshevist sources, is that the
| farm boys are no happier today than
they were under the Cars to leave
home and submit themselves to mil
itary discipline. The deSertions
among peasant recruits and the dis
cussions in the military organs of
ways and mans of checking them fur
nish corroborative evidence.
| The army is also weak in aviation,
despite all gratuitous advertising
|
| chemical warfare, tank and other
| special services are almost nonex-
| istent. Seventeen airplaneS were
added to the army this spring. with
a promise of twenty more, as gifts
from the class-conscious workmen.
The fuss made over them by the en-
tire bolshevist party showed what
an important addition to the air
forces these seventeen planes consti-
tuted.
Russia maintains second army in
addition to the Red army-that Of the
G.. P. T., or Political Police Depart
ment, the successor to the Cheka- 1t
embraces infantry, artillery and cav
airy formations, also tank and air
plane sections, but it is devoted ex-
slusively to domestic service. MAIN
tanning the power of the bolshevist
| dictatorship in Russia, and is not
available for service against an ex-
ternal foe.
| Copyright. 1924 by Public Ledger Company
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