same men were fighting alternately first on one side, then on the other. When Kolchak or Denikin advanced, their recruits were drawn almost entirely from Red prisoners; and whole divisions and corps went over to them when they got the chance. When the Whites retreated or had their communications threatened by traitors and Bolshevik emissaries in their rear, these same troops passed over again to the Reds.
So much for the rank and file, Red or White, it was all the same. Even the officers on both sides were to a great extent officers of the old Tzarist Armies. The Soviet Government learned (better than the other side) that to fight you must have an efficient army, and an efficient army needs trained officers and an iron discipline. Gradually the Red Armies became more efficient.
The methods by which they had secured the services of the old officer class, or rather the proportion that had survived massacre and execution, was simple but effective. Their wives and womenfolk are held hostages, at the first sign of infidelity, the extraordinary commission consigns these women to torture and death. The Communist Party—so-called "Convinced Communists"—is splendidly organized, in fact the only party in the country which is organized. Although an infinitessimal fraction of the population,[1] they have spies everywhere. The commissaries, mainly Jews, have perfected an organization by which the "convinced" communists are secretly distributed amongst the staffs and rank and file of the Army, and throughout the Soviet governmental and administrative machinery, on a plan analagous to secret masonic organizations. Every officer and every
- ↑ Only 600,000 people.
