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LEON TROTSKY: (1879 - 1940) Russian Communist leader who with Lenin organized the Bolshevik Octob...

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LEON TROTSKY: (1879 - 1940) Russian Communist leader who with Lenin organized the Bolshevik Octob...
LEON TROTSKY: (1879 - 1940) Russian Communist leader who with Lenin organized the Bolshevik October Revolution, defeated by Stalin in their struggle for control of the government, banished and later assassinated in Mexico. Historically important D.S. 1p. folio, [Moscow}, Dec. 25, 1921, the decree of the Revolutionary Military Council establishing the brutal state political surveillance group, the G.P.U. and imposing the Soviet credo upon all soldiers in the armed forces! This document, dating from the days of the very formation of the Soviet Union, lists those attending this crucial meeting of the Revolutionary Military Council, and decrees: "...A policy against thinking that differs from the official position of the Soviet Union. The view of all must be the same. It is logical and useful to send new delegations to far away regions...to achieve, step by step, readiness of the Red Army. This decision was adopted by the Council unanimously and without discussion...[It is further ordered to] establish a State political surveillance agency, G.P.U. and a tribunal to maintain control of all regions of Russia, in order to support Soviet power in every possible way everywhere...the head of the G.P.U. and the tribunal will be Assembly Member Spectorov...At the next meeting of the Revolutionary Council this committee will evaluate the political sentiment of the soldiers. We will allow anyone from low rank to top generals to criticize each other...". The end of the Civil War and the demobilization of the Red Army brought about a changed atmosphere that seemed incompatible with the existing terrorist political police. Lenin himself spoke of the need for a reform of the political police, and in early 1922 the Vecheka was abolished and its functions transferred to the G.P.U. When the Soviet Union was formed in December 1922, the GPU was raised to the level of a federal agency, and it appeared that the powers of the political police had been reduced significantly. However, within a few years, the G.P.U. was drawn into the intraparty struggles that ensued between Stalin and his opponents and was also enlisted in the drive to collectivize the peasantry by force, beginning in late 1929, an operation that resulted in the death of upwards of 5 million people. Boldly signed with a large, blue indelible pencil at bottom. Text has lightened only very slightly, some toning, file holes at blank left margin. $3,000-5,000