Editing Red Army (section)

==Origins==
In September 1917, [[Vladimir Lenin]] wrote:<blockquote>"There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, and that is to create a people's militia and to fuse it with the army (the standing army to be replaced by the arming of the entire people)."<ref>{{Citation | last = Lenin | first = Vladmir Ilich | chapter-url = http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/TPOR17.html | chapter = Tasks of the Proletariat in our Revolution | title = Collected Works | volume = 24 | publisher = Marx 2 Mao | pages = 55–91 | access-date = 29 May 2010 | archive-date = 26 March 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170326191539/http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/TPOR17.html | url-status = live }}.</ref> </blockquote>At the time, the [[Imperial Russian Army]] had started to collapse. Approximately 23% (about 19&nbsp;million) of the male population of the [[Russian Empire]] were mobilized; however, most of them were not equipped with any weapons and had support roles such as maintaining the [[line of communication|lines of communication]] and the base areas. The Tsarist general [[Nikolay Dukhonin]] estimated that there had been 2&nbsp;million deserters, 1.8&nbsp;million dead, 5&nbsp;million wounded and 2&nbsp;million prisoners. He estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.marxistsfr.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1937/wollenberg-red-army/ch01.htm | title = The Red Army | first = Erich | last = Wollenberg | author-link = Erich Wollenberg | publisher = Marxists FR | access-date = 28 May 2010 | archive-date = 8 March 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308182138/http://www.marxistsfr.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1937/wollenberg-red-army/ch01.htm | url-status = dead }}.</ref>

While the Imperial Russian Army was being taken apart, "it became apparent that the rag-tag Red Guard units and elements of the imperial army who had gone over the side of the Bolsheviks were quite inadequate to the task of defending the new government against external foes." Therefore, the [[Council of People's Commissars]] decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918.{{Efn | 15 January 1918 ([[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|Old Style]]).}}  They envisioned a body "formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes." All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible. Its role being the defense "of the Soviet authority, the creation of a basis for the transformation of the standing army into a force deriving its strength from a nation in arms, and, furthermore, the creation of a basis for the support of the coming Socialist Revolution in Europe." Enlistment was conditional upon "guarantees being given by a military or civil committee functioning within the territory of the Soviet Power, or by party or trade union committees or, in extreme cases, by two persons belonging to one of the above organizations." In the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a "collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary."<ref name="marxistsfr.org">{{Citation | chapter-url = http://www.marxistsfr.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1937/wollenberg-red-army/append01.htm | title = The Red Army | chapter = Appendix 1 – The Scheme for a Socialist Army | type = decree | publisher = The Council of People's Commissars | date = 15 January 1918 | access-date = 28 May 2010 | archive-date = 21 July 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110721180213/http://www.marxistsfr.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1937/wollenberg-red-army/append01.htm | url-status = dead }}.</ref><ref name="Seventeen">{{Citation | url = http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917army&Year=1917 | title = Seventeen Moments | publisher = Soviet History | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131227183235/http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917army&Year=1917 | archive-date = 27 December 2013}}.</ref> Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations and assistance with farm work.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917army&Year=1917 |title = 1917: Red Guard into Army |last1 = Siegelbaum |first1 = Lewis |website = Seventeen Moments in Soviet History |access-date = 2014-01-21 |quote = The Red Army's soldiers, overwhelmingly peasant in origin, received pay but more importantly, their families were guaranteed rations and assistance with farm work. |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131227183235/http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917army&Year=1917 |archive-date = 27 December 2013}}</ref> Some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army; men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away, they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages. In some cases, the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Harvnb | Shaw | 1979 | pp = 86–87}}.</ref>

[[File:Red Guard Vulkan factory.jpg|thumb|left|[[Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guards]] unit of the Vulkan factory, [[Petrograd]]]]

The Council of People's Commissars appointed itself the supreme head of the Red Army, delegating command and administration of the army to the Commissariat for Military Affairs and the Special All-Russian College within this commissariat.<ref name="marxistsfr.org" /> [[Nikolai Krylenko]] was the supreme commander-in-chief, with [[Aleksandr Myasnikyan]] as deputy.<ref>{{Citation | title = From Tsarist General to Red Army Commander | first = Mikhail | last = Bonch-Bruyevich | others = Vezey, Vladimir transl | publisher = [[Progress Publishers]] | year = 1966 | page = 232}}.</ref> [[Nikolai Podvoisky]] became the [[commissar]] for war, [[Pavel Dybenko]], commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as people's commissars as well as [[Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich]] from the Bureau of Commissars. At a joint meeting of [[Bolsheviks]] and [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries]], held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked:<blockquote>"We have no army. The demoralized soldiers are fleeing, panic-stricken, as soon as they see a [[Stahlhelm|German helmet]] appear on the horizon, abandoning their artillery, convoys and all war material to the [[Operation Faustschlag|triumphantly advancing]] enemy. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies. We have no power to stay the enemy; only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction."<ref name="marxistsfr.org" /></blockquote>