Workers and Peasants Red Army ‘General Staff Personalities’ Defecting to the Enemy Side in 1918–1921

Abstract

The history of the Red Army in the Civil War of 1918–1922, in its significant part, was a history of mass treason and desertion of thousands of former officers (military specialists). Among them there were hundreds of General Staff specialists, the real representatives of Soviet military elite, whose treason was extremely dangerous for the fate of Soviet Russia. The treasons were both individual and group when the whole Soviet staffs fled to the Whites. Among the defectors there were representatives of almost all staff and command levels including several army commanders. These specialists of high qualification with academic background were aware of Soviet war plans, mobilization questions, and other classified data and could issue harmful orders before their defection to the enemy and influence the situation on the front. This article describes the reasons, history, circumstances, and results of this process that remained widespread until the decisive victories of the Reds in 1920. According to the calculations by Andrey Ganin, based on the vast, previously unknown data from Russian archives, almost every third General Staff specialist deserted the Red Army during that war. In spite of this, Bolsheviks managed to unite the experience of the military professionals with the new administrative methods and ‘with iron and blood’ organized powerful and effective military force which finally gained victory in the Civil War.