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Autographs/T: Leon Trotsky As Commander In Chief Of The Red Army

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Autographs/T: Leon Trotsky As Commander In Chief Of The Red Army
LEON TROTSKY, Russian Revolutionary. Typed Document Signed, "L. Trotsky" in Russian, as People's Commissar for Military and naval Affairs, August 14, 1918, no place, 9" x 6.75", Fine. One year after the overthrow of of Czar Nicholas II, Trotsky signs this document outlining regulations intended to conserve rail cars by preventing their unnecessary use by officials. The cars were badly needed for the Red military effort, and were in extremely short supply. The number of rail cars of various types to be provided for Army headquarters and division headquarters is restricted; department chiefs are limited to regular train service for business trips and their use of other rail cars for trips within the front line is regulated. The document states that deviations from these regulations will be subject to severe penalties by Trotsky. A complete English translation accompanies the document. These regulations date from a critical period in the Russian Revolution (1917-1921). After years as a revolutionary in exile, Trotsky returned to Russia, following the first revolution of March 1917, and allied his own revolutionary group with Lenin's Bolsheviks. Trotsky quickly became powerful, first serving as Commissar for Foreign Affairs, then as Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs (in effect, commander in chief). In that position, he developed the Red Army and was largely responsible for the Bolsheviks' eventual victory in the Russian Civil War. After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky was defeated by Stalin in a contest for control of the Communist party. He was expelled from the party in 1927, banished from Russia in 1929, and murdered in Mexico in 1937. Virtually all of the few Trotsky items which come on the market are of the period after his exile from Russia. A document signed by Trotsky as military commander in chief, participating in this early stage in the birth of the Soviet Union, is very rare.