Nor was Denekin in the first line conquered by the Red Arm\ but by the peasants themselves, who would not stand for his rule, and, principally under Ataman Batkno Machno, they made rebellion against Denekin. If the peasants had been for Denekin am not against him, then the Red Army would have never succeedec in conquering Denekin. But at the same time we must not forgel that the peasants in no manner voluntarily formed the Red Army. The peasants got into the Red Army when compelled to, thei being a compulsory military service, just as formerly for th( czar's army. The peasants rather organized their own armies, o1 which the strongest one was Machno's, in order to fight against reaction. And as it went ivith Denikin, so it went with Kaledin, Petljura and others.
In regard to Ukraine the bolsheviks admit this, more or less,
as facts cannot very well be denied. They seek to support their contention with the statement that Koltschak and the Czechoslovaks have been conquered by the Red Army. The commandant of the later Red Armies against the Czecko-Slovaks, an anarchist by the name of Gebenjeff^ also called Alexa, has told me how the thing happened. When in May, 1918, the Czecko-Slovaks began their advance from Siberia, the workers, anarchists, left socialrevolutionaries and bolsheviks, arming themselves, united against the Czecko-Slovaks. They elected Gebenjeff their commander, and they were the shock troops of the reds against the whites. Now the bolsheviks call this the "red army." But attention should be called to the fact that these troops did not yet in any way have the characteristics of the Red Army, namely, compulsory mobilization, unified centralist command under Trotzky, subordination and blind discipline. Nothing of this nature was to be found among the armed peasants. They had met voluntarily to fight against the reactionaries, and it is this that is the most striking difference between them and the Red Army. And, of course, I have later heard these soldiers of the revolution referred to by bolsheviks as the "Red Army." If this is done, then we can call everything by the name of the Red Army which has the slightest resemblance to armed insurrection. But that would mean gross confusion of expressions.
In the struggle against Koltschak it was not the Red Army that should have the credit for his annihilation. And here I must take a stand with the revolutionary groups which are opposed to the Red Army, because the facts related to me by high Soviet officials themselves speak for it. The brother of the deceased president of the Russian Soviet Republic, Sverdloy, the second in command after Trotzky in the Commissariat, having charge of the whole defense, told me during a trip on the Volga, which we made together, that even before the Red Army advanced, the peasants and the workers rose in rebellion in all places against Koltschak and in many cases conquered his troops. The Red Army entered Tomsk on Dec. 26, 1919. But long before this the peasants had rebelled against Koltschak's rule. Many of Koltschak's soldiers joined them, and the city of Tomsk was in the hands of the rebels for a long time before the Red Army entered. As early as the summer of 1918 the peasants had formed guerilla bands against the Czecko-Slovaks and Koltschak. -This was in the provinces Atscheisk and Jenniseisk and in the Altei gouvernement.