Page:Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky - Third Anniversary of the Russian October Revolution (1921).djvu/13

 Rh stable, gave way easily, and fled in time of danger. The officers were treacherous, frequently going over to the enemy. Only conscious and revolutionary workers could strengthen and cement the peasant regiments and lead them to victory. Again, the Communist Party raised the cry, "To the Southern Front!" and again thousands of Communists took their stand in the first ranks and filled the posts of command in the army. Communist workers fresh from the factory or works were appointed commissars of regiments and divisions, got a grip over the machinery of supply, carried on political work, and_also took up the rifle in the lines of the Red Army. This new Communist infusion on the Southern front soon yielded its results. Krasnov was smashed, his Cossack divisions demoralised, whole regiments of them surrendering to the Red Army.

At the same time came the re-establishment of Soviet Government in the Ukraine. A wave of risings spread all over the country. Volunteers formed into Red regiments took one town after another. The demoralised parts of the Austrian and German armies were either neutral or helped to fight Skoropadsky. Petlura took the place of Skoropadsky, but close on the heels of the latter came the Red regiments, inflicting upon him defeat after defeat.

Equally successful was the fight for the re-establishment of the Soviet Government in Esthonia and Latvia. By the beginning of 1919 the territory of the Soviet Government had increased considerably in all directions. Meanwhile Kolchak, taking advantage of our difficulties on the Krasnov front, where we had