During the [Xth conference of the Soviets, which took place in Moscow in December, 1921, Trotzky made a report on the red army. The gist is contained in the following figures: According to the decision of the VIIIth conference of the Soviets held early in 1921, the army, which was originally 5,300,000 men strong, had been reduced to half that number and soon after, more men were demobilized, leaving in the ranks a nominal namber of 1,595,000 men, but in reality there were only 1,370,000 men. Only the youngest recruits and all Communists, _irrespective of age, were retained.
OF all commissioned officers in the red army 43.4 per cent. had not had any special military training, 13 per cent. were ex-non-commissioned officers, 10 per-cent. had passed through special communistic; military schools, 22 per cent. were commissioned during the war, 5 per cent, were regular officers of the old army, and 6 per cent. are former officials who had served in military institutions. Among officers of the red army there are 20 per cent. of Communists, whereas there are only 10 per cent. of them in the ranks.
Another member of the sate conference pointed out that the figure of 14 million was the least the Soviet Republic ought to maintain and a further -reduction should not be made owing to the international position.
Apart from the regular army the Soviet government maintains other forces, called "The detachments of the All-Russian Commission for fighting Anti-Rovolutionaries," which are composed exclusively of Communists,. These units enjoy special privileges and are issued rations far in excess of what other troops receive. The purpose of these troops is to keep the red army under control and to subdue every attempt at insubordination. There is also an insignia ficeant number of Hungarian and Polish Communists and also a few detachments of Galicians stationed in western Ukraine.
To increase the army in the event of mobilization and also for the forming of new units, the Soviet Government has an almost inexhaustible supply of men, who received a thorough military training during the Great War. "Also. Whenever circumstances allowed it the Communists have introduced universal compulsory military training and according to recent data, already over five million men had passed such concise courses.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.