Trotsky builds the Red Army from scratch
A revolutionary militia becomes a disciplined national army, built partly on the backs of the officers it just overthrew.
Quick facts
- Founding decree
- 28 January 1918
- War commissar
- Leon Trotsky, from March 1918
- Former imperial officers absorbed
- About 48,000
What happened
The Council of People's Commissars decreed the creation of a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army on a volunteer basis on 28 January 1918. As the civil war escalated, Leon Trotsky was appointed war commissar in March 1918 and set about turning the volunteer militia into a professional national army. World History Encyclopedia credits Trotsky with incorporating around 48,000 officers and more than 200,000 non-commissioned officers from the old imperial Russian army into the new force, reintroducing conventional military discipline and hierarchy that many Bolsheviks had originally opposed as relics of the old regime. Compulsory military training and conscription followed by April 1918.
Why it matters
Trotsky's willingness to use former tsarist officers, over the objections of party members who saw it as a betrayal of revolutionary principle, gave the Red Army the professional command structure it needed to eventually defeat the more fragmented White armies. The Red Army Trotsky built in 1918 became the institution that decided the civil war and, decades later, fought World War II under a different name.
How we know
World History Encyclopedia's account of the Red Army documents the January 1918 founding decree, Trotsky's appointment, and the specific numbers of former imperial officers absorbed into the new force.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. The Red Army in WWII · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Russian Civil War: The Failed Fightback Against Bolshevism · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineThe Russian Revolution29 events · How three centuries of Romanov rule collapsed in a single year, and how the party that caught power in the wreckage never let go.View all →