Red Army

The Bolshevik military force organized during the Russian Civil War and led by Leon Trotsky. It became the Soviet Union’s armed forces.

Leon Trotsky: A Bolshevik revolutionary who organized and led the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. As war commissar, he built its command structure and enforced discipline.
October Revolution: The Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917. The new government needed an armed force to secure its rule.
Battle of Tsaritsyn: A series of battles for control of Tsaritsyn, fought during the Russian Civil War. The city’s defense became an early test of Bolshevik military power.
Soviet Union: A socialist federal state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The Red Army became the armed forces of the state founded after the civil war.
Conscription: Compulsory enrollment of people into a state’s armed forces. Mass conscription supplied the manpower for the Red Army’s expansion.
Russian Civil War: The conflict fought in the former Russian Empire from 1917 to 1923 among rival political and national forces. The Red Army was organized to defeat the Bolsheviks’ armed opponents.
Polish–Soviet War: The war fought between Poland and Soviet Russia and Ukraine from 1919 to 1921. The Red Army’s defeat near Warsaw halted its westward advance.
Red Army invasion of Georgia: The 1921 Soviet military campaign that overthrew the Democratic Republic of Georgia. It demonstrated the army’s role in extending Soviet control beyond Russia.
Military commissar: A political official assigned to oversee military units and ensure political loyalty. Commissars monitored commanders and upheld Bolshevik authority within the army.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: The 1918 treaty that ended Russia’s war with the Central Powers at a heavy territorial cost. Its signing intensified opposition to the Bolsheviks and helped widen armed conflict.

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