Comrade Stalin began his military work with the Tsaritsin Front, and quite by accident. In early June 1918, Comrade Stalin, with a detachment of Red Army men and two car brigades, was sent to Tsaritsyn as head of the entire food business in the south of Russia.
In Tsaritsyn he finds incredible chaos not only in the Soviet, professional and party organizations, but even greater confusion and confusion in the military command. At every step, Comrade Stalin encounters obstacles of a general nature that prevent him from carrying out his direct task. These obstacles were primarily due to the rapidly growing Cossack counterrevolution, which at that time received abundant support from the German invaders who occupied Ukraine. Cossack counterrevolutionary gangs soon seize a number of nearby points from Tsaritsyn and thereby not only frustrate the possibility of systematic harvesting of bread for starving Moscow and Leningrad, but also create an extreme danger for Tsaritsyn.
It is no better situation at this time and in other places. In Moscow, a Left-Socialist-Revolutionary uprising takes place, in the east Muravyov is changing, the Czechoslovak counter-revolution is developing and strengthening in the Urals, and in the extreme south, the English are heading towards Baku. Everything burns in a ring of fire. The revolution is going through its greatest trials. Telegram after telegram flies along the wires to Comrade Stalin in Tsaritsyn from Lenin and back. Lenin warns of dangers, encourages, demands decisive measures. The position of Tsaritsyn assumes enormous importance. With the uprising on the Don and the loss of Tsaritsyn, we risk losing all that produces the rich grain-producing North Caucasus. And Comrade Stalin clearly understands this. As an experienced revolutionary, he soon comes to the conviction; that his work will have some meaning only if he can influence the military command, whose role in these conditions becomes decisive.
"The line to the south of Tsaritsyn has not yet been restored," he wrote to Lenin in a note dated July 7, transmitted with the characteristic inscription: "I'm hurrying to the front, I'm writing only on the case."
"I drive and scold everyone I need, I hope, will soon be restored. You can be sure that we will not spare anyone - neither ourselves, nor others, but we will give bread.
If our military "specialists" (shoemakers!) Did not sleep and did not mess around, the line would not be interrupted; and if the line is restored, it is not thanks to the military, but in spite of them. "
And further, answering Lenin's concern about the possible performance of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Tsaritsyn, he writes briefly, but firmly and clearly:
"As for the hysterical, rest assured, our hand will not falter, we will act with enemies in an enemy manner."
As he looks more and more at the military apparatus, Comrade Stalin is convinced of his complete helplessness, and in some his part, of a direct reluctance to organize a rebuff of the impudent counter-revolution.
And already on July 11, 1918 Comrade Stalin telegraphed Lenin:
"The matter is complicated by the fact that the headquarters of the North Caucasus District was completely unsuited to the conditions of the struggle against the counter-revolution. It's not just that our "experts" are psychologically incapable of a decisive war against the counter-revolution, but also that they are "staff" workers who can only "draw blueprints" and give plans for reorganization, are absolutely indifferent to operational actions ... and generally feel like outsiders, guests. The military commissions failed to fill the gap ... "
Comrade Stalin is not limited to this annihilating characteristic; in the same note he makes for himself an effective conclusion:
"To look at this indifferently, when the front of Kalnina is divorced from the supply point, and the north from the grain district, I consider myself not in the right. I will correct these and many other shortcomings on the ground, I take a number of measures and will take up to the dismissal of the corrupt officials and commanders, despite the formal difficulties that I will, if necessary, break. At the same time it is clear that I take full responsibility for all higher institutions."
The situation became more and more tense. Comrade Stalin is developing tremendous energy and in a very short time from the emergency commissioner for food turns into the actual leader of all the red forces of the Tsaritsyn Front. This situation is getting formalized in Moscow, and Comrade Stalin is entrusted with the tasks: "to bring order, to unite the detachments into regular units, to establish the proper command, expelling all defiant" (from the telegram of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic with the inscription: "This telegram is sent in agreement with Lenin").
By this time, the remains of Ukrainian revolutionary armies, retreating under the onslaught of German troops through the Don steppes, approached Tsaritsyn.
Comrade Stalin is lead this together with the creation of a Revolutionary Military Council, which begins the organization of a regular army. The furious nature of Comrade Stalin, his energy and will made possible what seemed impossible yesterday. Within a very short time, divisions, brigades and regiments are created. The staff, supply agencies and the whole rear are radically cleaned of counter-revolutionary and hostile elements. The Soviet and Party apparatus is improving and tightening up. A group of old Bolsheviks and revolutionary workers unites around Comrade Stalin, and instead of a helpless staff, a red Bolshevik fortress grows in the south, at the gates of the counter-revolutionary Don ...
From the article K.E. Voroshilov "Stalin and the Red Army", 1929.
