ilitary Affairs and entrusted with the creation of a new Red Army to replace the old Russian army which had dissolved during the revolution. Many Communists wanted to new military force to be built up on strictly revolutionary principles, with guerrilla tactics, the election of officers, and the abolition of traditional discipline. Trotsky set himself emphatically against this attitude and demanded an army organized in the conventional way and employing military specialists -- experienced officers from the old army. Hostilities between the Communists and the Whites, who were the groups opposed to the Bolsheviks, reached a decisive climax in 1919. Intervention by the allied powers on the side of the Whites almost brought them victory. Facing the most serious White threat led by General Denikin in Southern Russia, Lenin appealed to his followers for a supreme effort, and threatened ruthless repression of any opposition behind the lines. By early 1920 the principal White forces were defeated (Wren, 151). For three years the rivalry went on with the Whites capturing areas and killing anyone suspected of Communist practices. Even though the Whites had more soldiers in their army, they were not nearly as organized nor as efficient as the Reds, and therefore were unable to rise up (Farah, 582). Police action by the Bolsheviks to combat political opposition commenced with the creation of the Cheka. Under the direction of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Cheka became the prototype of totalitarian secret police systems, enjoying at critical times the right the right of unlimited arrest and summary execution of suspects and hostages. The principle of such police surveillance over the political leanings of the Soviet population has remained in effect ever since, despite the varying intensity of repression and the organizational changes of the police -- from Cheka to GPU (The State Political Administration) to NKVD (...
