Trotsky's Barrier Troops
During the Great War, the army of the Russian Empire held a dubious lead in the number of those who surrendered, as well as deserters. To stop the degradation, Tsarat formed barrage detachments from the Cossacks, as well as the so-called "death battalions", which, among other things, performed barrage functions. After the October Revolution, the tactics were adopted by the Bolsheviks. In the Red Army of the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union the concept of barrier troops first arose in August 1918 with the formation of the Zagraditelnye Otriady, translated as "blocking troops" or "anti-retreat detachments". The barrier troops comprised personnel drawn from Cheka punitive detachments or from regular Red Army infantry regiments.
During the years of the Civil War ( 1918 - 1922 ), barrage detachments (or posts ) were called special formations protecting food and other procurements, combating bagging and speculation. The detachments were exhibited in cities, at railway stations, marinas, highways . The creation of detachments took place in conditions of crisis, devastation and famine, especially in the industrial centers of the country. In addition to barrage and requisitioning, barrage requisition detachments raged across the Russian provinces., combining the functions of the two previous ones, and in addition to preventing the export of grain by peasants from the village, they were simultaneously engaged in searches and confiscation of grain, livestock and other resources from peasants.
On January 14 , 1918 (January 27, according to a new style), the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopts a resolution "On measures to improve the food situation" written by V. I. Lenin, which proposes the creation of armed detachments for "the most revolutionary measures to promote goods, collect and bread, etc., as well as for a ruthless struggle against speculators. On the basis of these detachments, created by the food and local authorities, posts were created that performed the function of detachments.
The practice of using barrage detachments was officially legalized after the adoption of the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the emergency powers of the People's Commissar for Food" (May 9, 1918) and the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the creation of food detachments (May 27, 1918).
Due to the lack of a clear organization, and the inability to establish control in the context of an escalating crisis, the activities of detachments often took on an arbitrary nature that violated the provisions of the central authorities.
A certain order in the activities of the detachments was introduced by the provision of the Council of People's Commissars “On barrage requisitioning food detachments operating on the railway. and waterways" (August 4, 1918). According to it, the right to set up food detachments on the railway and waterways was granted only to the People's Commissariat for Food and provincial food departments. The head of the detachment had to have with him a written order from the People's Commissariat for Food, confirming his authority. The detachments could inspect all passenger and service cars (with the exception of the cars of the State Bank and mail cars).
The first use of the barrier troops by the Red Army occurred in the late summer and fall of 1918 in the Eastern front during the Russian Civil War, when People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs (War Commissar) Leon Trotsky of the Communist Bolshevik government authorized Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the commander of the 1st Army, to station blocking detachments behind unreliable Red Army infantry regiments in the 1st Red Army, with orders to shoot if front-line troops either deserted or retreated without permission.
Trotsky himself writes about the barrage detachments on the fronts of the civil war in the book Around October. On his initiative, a guard service (also referred to as "barrage") was created in the Red Army, the elements of which were formations such as guard posts, guard companies and detachments, an ordinary soldier of such formations was called a guard detachment.
In December 1918 Trotsky ordered that detachments of additional barrier troops be raised for attachment to each infantry formation in the Red Army. Trotsky wrote: ''Blocking units ...must be deployed closely behind our lines and when necessary give a shove to stragglers and the hesitant." Elesewhere he wrote "Evidently in many cases blocking units are doing no more than holding individual deserters. In fact the role of the blocking units during an attack must be more active. They must be deployed closely behind our lines and when necessary give a shove to stragglers and the hesitant. As far as possible, blocking units must have at their disposal either a truck with a machine-gun or a light vehicle with a machine-gun, or, finally, some cavalry with machine-guns."
There were occasions when blocking units were used to restore order in the rear following a panic retreat. On 19 May 1919 Sklyansky reported to Trotsky: "Stalin reports: the front is being brought to order, three punitive companies have been sent to Luga, Gatchina and Krasnoe Selo. Zinoviev is going to Luga, Stalin to Staraya Rusa, the scattered 6th Division has been brought together and order is being restored, the divisional commander, who showed cowardice, has been removed."
Deserters were to be treated in various ways, according to their behavior. Trotsky ordered that: "Every deserter who turns up at divisional or regimental HQ and declares, "I am a deserter but I swear I shall fight honourably from now on," is to be forgiven and allowed to fulfil the high duties of a warrior in the Workers' and Peasants' Army. A deserter who offers resistance to arrest shall be executed on the spot."
Trotsky used every means available to him to strengthen morale: threats, arrests, encouragement, rewards, appeals to class instinct, political education. Once, on reading a routine report on desertions, he dictated a cable to the War Commissariat: "'I suggest as a punishment for the Army and Navy that black collars be worn by deserters who have been returned to their unit, by soldiers who refuse an order or have committed pillage and so on. Anyone wearing a black collar who is caught committing a second crime shall be doubly punished. Black collars shall be removed only in the event of exemplary behaviour or military valour." This idea was not adopted by the leadership. Generally, however, Trotsky's harsh line on discipline was supported.
Typical of the sort of communication he sent to Lenin on this subject was the following: "The cause of the shameful failures on the Voronezh front is the total collapse of 8th Army. The chief blame falls on the commissars who have not brought themselves to use tough measures. Six weeks ago I demanded stern punishment for deserters from the Voronezh front. Nothing was done. Regiments wander from place to place, leaving their positions at will and at the first sign of danger... The field tribunals then went to work. The first executions of deserters took place. The order was announced placing responsibility for harbouring deserters on Soviet deputies, Committees of the Poor and heads of households. The first executions had their effect. I hope a breakthrough will be achieved in a short time. More tough Communists are needed. I'm staying at the Voronezh front until things are in order."
The tribunals were at work throughout the civil war. An especially large number of executions took place in 1918-19, although 1920 and 1921 were not far behind. According to a participant: "The new courts were called tribunals (as in the time of the Great French Revolution). The sentences of these courts could not be appealed. Sentences were not ratified and had to be carried out within twenty-four hours." Of course, many of the victims were genuine enemies of the Soviet Republic, but the overwhelming majority were simple peasants who either had no idea of what was happening or no wish to die for the 'Commune'.
The total number of those sentenced to death by the military tribunals is not known, but a figure for Russian and Ukrainian executions in 1921 has been compiled from the evidence of cables formulated and signed by the Deputy Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Tribunal, V. Sorokin, and its director of statistics, M. Strogovich. The figure is 4337, but 1921 was a less 'fruitful' year than its predecessors.
On December 18 he cabled: "How do things stand with the blocking units? As far as I am aware they have not been included in our establishment and it appears they have no personnel. It is absolutely essential that we have at least an embryonic network of blocking units and that we work out a procedure for bringing them up to strength and deploying them."
The barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population. Organizationally, detachments and other barrier formations of that period belonged to special purpose units (CHON), closely interacted with the Cheka. And such groups were formed from former prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarians, Latvians, Chinese, and other "internationalist warriors." These "international detachments" were subordinated not to unit commanders, but to political commissars. Since 1921, the unscattered "international detachments" were operationally subordinate to the military command.
Although Trotsky was better informed than most about desertion and other shameful events taking place in the army, he reacted with anger when the press wrote about it. For the first time, detachments of the Civil War period were briefly mentioned in the encyclopedia "Civil War and Military Intervention in the USSR" (Moscow, 1987) where they were called " Leninist ". The famous Chapaev division had detachments, but this became known only after the collapse of the Soviet system, and in those years, even after the end of the civil war, these barrier formations and their role in “strengthening the Red Army” the Soviet press was silent.
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