“Voroshilov is completely unable to command the army”: Trotsky's pyrrhic victory over Stalin, or how Trotsky ousted Voroshilov from Tsaritsyn to Ukraine (1918-1919)

The article examines a little-known episode in the confrontation between L.D. Trotsky, a People's Commissar for Military Affairs, on the one hand, and I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov and their cohort, on the other, at the Southern Front. From autumn 1918 through winter 1919 the latter were opposed to Trotsky, his principles and methods of the Red Army formation. In the course of this standoff Trotsky among other things resorted to military and bureaucratic intrigues against Voroshilov with the aim to oust him from his position of the commander of the 10-th Army defending Tsaritsyn against the Don Army and to send him and his closest associates off Tsaritsyn in other capacities. On the face of it Trotsky seemed to have won, with Stalin, Voroshilov and their associates finding themselves in Soviet Ukraine. However, finally Trotsky's military and bureaucratic scheme as well as his other steps against Stalin and Voroshilov's cohort turned out a Pyrrhic victory for him. In the spring of 1919 Voroshilov and some members of the group joined the “Military Opposition” at the VIII Bolsheviks' Party Congress criticizing sharply the military policy of the Party's leadership and Trotsky's activities.