Did the Military purge by Stalin in 1939 has something to do with his deep animosity against Trotski?

Nov 25, 2007 by Tim | Posted in History

I read that he was very much against the recruitment of the Former Imperial army officers by Trotski.

Did Trotski has any military experience prior becoming the People's Commissar of Military Affairs. And how successful was him in this position?

BTW why was the Bolsheviks very much anti-Trotski?

There are four related parts to this Question. I will respond to them in the same order as they were asked: -

[1] “Did the Military purge by Stalin have something to do with his deep animosity against Trotsky?”

Yes (on paper) ... and ... No (in reality).

Stalin used supposed conspiracies involving Trotsky as one of the excuses for all of his Purges, at least until he managed to have Trotsky murdered in 1940. But that was merely one of Stalin’s standard excuses for the purges. Stalin did not believe it himself.

Stalin’s aim in purging the Red Army was the same as for his previous purges: to eliminate every element in the USSR around which a strong opposition against him MIGHT be able to form.

The arrests, trials and executions of senior officers actually commenced in June 1937. The choice of initial victims was partly based on animosity within the top ranks: the generals selected for elimination were mostly the brightest and best, whose performance outshone that of the incompetent and over-promoted military cronies that Stalin had retained from his own less-than-brilliant Civil War performance.

However, the scale of the Purge quickly expanded, resulting in the eventual execution of 30,000 members of the armed forces, including over 50% of all Red Army officers. Stalin could rest easy in the knowledge that the Red Army would now never dare to try to overthrow him.
-----

[2] “Was Stalin against the recruitment of former Imperial Army officers by Trotsky?”

None of the Bolshevik leaders were happy about recruiting thousands of former Imperial Army officers as “military specialists” for the newly formed Red Army. Their loyalties were highly suspect, and only secured by holding their families hostage and having them watched by political commissars.

But Trotsky persuaded Lenin that, for the Bolsheviks to win the Civil War, there was no alternative. The existing Red Guards units were little more militarily effective than disorganized mobs. Nevertheless, there was intense opposition from within the Communist Party to the recruitment of Imperial officers; and to the imposition of traditional military discipline.

Stalin was one of those who continued to oppose imposition of Imperial officers as “military specialists” to provide strategic and tactical guidance. From May to October 1918, Stalin was the top Commissar in South Russia. Backed by his First Cavalry Army cronies, Budyonny and Voroshilov, Stalin refused to accept the appointments of two succcessive former Tsarist generals (Snesarev and Sytin), who had been sent by Trotsky to command the Southern Front.

These incidents in fact marked the first outbreak of the lasting feud between Trotsky (who was at that time the senior of the pair) and Stalin.
-----

[3] “Did Trotsky have any military experience prior becoming the People's Commissar of Military Affairs. And how successful was he in this position?”

Trotsky had no military experience at all prior to his appointment to organize and direct the Red Army. His success in the position was mainly excellent, but much more as an organizer than as a military commander.

Trotsky’s outstanding achievement was to recruit and organize a huge army (growing from 300,000 to 5 million strong) that gradually became sufficiently efficient and dependable to win the Civil War. His political Commissars, and holding their families hostage for their good behavior, worked to ensure the loyalty of former Imperial officers. His insistence on a return to traditional military discipline restored order in the ranks.

Trotsky’s personal lack of any military background meant that he did not always fully understand the technicalities of the operations undertaken by the Red Army. But he excelled when it came to organizing and inspiring the troops in a crisis: for example, his organization of the defense of Petrograd against Yudenich’s White Army in October 1919.
-----

[4] “Were the Bolsheviks very much anti-Trotsky?”

Like any other political party, the Bolshevik leadership before and during the Revolution consisted of ambitious, egotistic people; with differences of opinion on ideology and strategy; and with bitter personal rivalries and jealousies. Until Lenin’s final illness and death, he was able to keep these feuds largely suppressed. But they were always present under the surface.

Trotsky’s successes in the Civil War earned him many more jealous enemies than admiring friends in the top ranks of the Party. He became an obvious target for character assassination when he emerged from the war as Lenin’s #2 and probable successor.

Shared jealousy of Trotsky enabled Stalin to persuade Kamenev and Zinoviev to join him in a “Troika”, to prevent Trotsky taking over as leader of the Party and the country when Lenin was incapacitated by his first stroke in 1922.

Gradually, the rest of the Politburo (Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky) sided with the Troika against Trotsky. During his brief periods of recuperation from illness, Lenin tried to heal the feuding amongst his subordinates, and to give genuine support to Trotsky as his Deputy. Before his third stroke (March 1923), Lenin realized how great a threat Stalin had become, but he was too ill to carry through his intention to have Stalin removed from office.

There were still pro-Trotsky elements within the Party leadership. But with Lenin permanently incapacitated, Stalin was able to manipulate campaigns to further isolate Trotsky. To the world at large, it still seemed that Trotsky was the most prominent of the Bolshevik leaders. But, behind the scenes, Stalin and his allies were dictating policy.

By late 1924, it became obvious to most top Bolsheviks that it would be suicidal for them to continue supporting Trotsky versus Stalin.