From the memoirs of A.I. Cherepanova
Many years later, I learned that on February 18, 47 enemy infantry and 5.5 cavalry divisions with a total number of about 700,000 people went on the offensive on a huge front from the Gulf of Riga to the mouth of the Danube River. About 10 divisions were advancing on one of the main directions - Petrograd. enemy. Four divisions were advancing on a 40-kilometer sector of our 2nd Red Army Regiment. Against a thousand fighters - four divisions!
From headquarters to Straupe it is a two hour drive. He rode out on a sleigh along a road lined with linden trees. Snow-covered fields, copses and scattered manors here and there - everything looked surprisingly peaceful.
Soon the manor appeared, where I expected to intercept the 3rd battalion. Ordering to drive more quietly, he looked warily into the distance. What if ours retreated and I went straight to the enemy as a prisoner? But then I saw several Red Army soldiers. Our!
Immediately gathered people.
Where are you going, comrades? Is it possible to abandon the front? Is this why we signed up for the Red Army? After all, we were entrusted with defending the approaches to revolutionary Petrograd. Some kind of reconnaissance appeared against you, a whole battalion, and you ran.
Well, they didn’t run, they just beat up, as they say in Ukraine,” another interrupted him.
Laughter was heard from the ranks of the soldiers.
Comrade regiment commander,” one of the Red Army soldiers spoke up, “this is not reconnaissance.” I sat in secret and saw the chains of soldiers. And it was so obvious that I even noticed their shoulder straps.
It was necessary not to retreat, but to open fire.
“And we opened it, he walked around us,” someone said.
This means weak fire, since the enemy has passed. The first battalion is on your right; you retreated without orders and exposed its flank. Return to your previous positions.
The soldiers turned back, and I went with them.
February 23, 1918 - the day of the most intense fighting in the Petrograd direction, the day of the mass entry of workers and peasants into the Red Army and the mobilization of all the forces and resources of the country to repel the enemies of the revolution began to be considered the birthday of the Red Army and since then has been celebrated annually as the Day of the Soviet Armed Forces Strength, as a national holiday of love and respect of our people for their defenders.
PSKOV CHRONICLES
1918
February 20- In connection with the offensive of German troops, Pskov and the surrounding area for 5 versts in a circle were declared under a state of siege.
February 23- The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet declared this day the Day of Defense of the Socialist Fatherland. A massive campaign for volunteers to join the Red Army took place everywhere, including in Pskov and the districts of the province. In Pskov, recording took place in the Omsk barracks and the building of the former cadet corps. The day of mobilization of the country's forces to defend the gains of the revolution subsequently began to be celebrated as the Birthday of the Red Army (first celebrated in 1919).
February 24-25- The first battles of the Red Army detachments with the Kaiser’s troops on the approaches to Pskov and on the streets of the city.
Evening of February 24- Explosion by Pskov Red Guards of a pyroxylin warehouse near the station. Pskov-2. The explosion destroyed a German detachment: 30 officers, 34 non-commissioned officers and 206 soldiers, buried in the German cemetery in Pskov.
February 25- Occupation of Pskov by the troops of the Kaiser's Germany. Provincial institutions were evacuated to the station. Bottom, and then to Velikiye Luki.
ORIGIN OF THE HOLIDAY
There was no document establishing February 23 as an official Soviet holiday, although this day was celebrated annually in the USSR by all the people. Soviet historiography connected the timing of the honoring of the military on February 23 with the events of 1918. On January 1 (28), 1918, V. I. Lenin signed the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and on January 29 (February 11) - Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF). On February 22, the decree-appeal of the Council of People’s Commissars “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!” was published, and on February 23, mass rallies took place in Petrograd, Moscow and other cities of the country, at which workers were called upon to stand up for the defense of their Fatherland. This day was marked by the massive entry of volunteers into the Red Army and the beginning of the widespread formation of its detachments and units, which soon stopped the advance of German troops near Pskov and Narva.
On February 23, 1919, the Pravda newspaper published an editorial about the celebration of the birthday of the Red Army. In 1922, on this day, a parade of troops of the Moscow garrison took place on Red Square in Moscow. In 1923, the first order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic was issued in honor of the Day of the Red Army and Navy. Since then, congratulatory orders to commemorate this holiday have become traditional.
After the Great Patriotic War In Moscow, the capitals of the union republics, hero cities and the hero-fortress of Brest, ceremonial artillery salutes began to be fired on February 23. On March 13, 1995, President Yeltsin signed the Federal Law “On the Days of Military Glory (Victory Days) of Russia.” February 23 was also included in the list of such days as the Day of Victory of the Red Army over the Kaiser's troops of Germany (1918) - Day of Defenders of the Fatherland.
DECREE
Council of People's Commissars on the Organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
The old army served as an instrument of class oppression of the working people by the bourgeoisie. With the transfer of power to the working and exploited classes, the need arose to create a new army, which would be the stronghold of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing the standing army with all-people's weapons in the near future and would serve as support for the coming socialist revolution in Europe.
In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides: to organize a new army called the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", on the following grounds:
1) The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is created from the most conscious and organized elements of the working masses.
2) Access to its ranks is open to all citizens of the Russian Republic at least 18 years of age. Anyone who is ready to give his strength, his life to defend the gains of the October Revolution, the power of the Soviets and socialism, joins the Red Army. To join the Red Army, recommendations are required: from military committees or public democratic organizations standing on the platform of Soviet power, party or professional organizations, or at least two members of these organizations. When joining in whole parts, mutual responsibility of everyone and a roll-call vote are required.
1) Warriors of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army are on full state pay and on top of this receive 50 rubles. per month.
2) Disabled members of the families of Red Army soldiers, who were previously their dependents, are provided with everything necessary according to local consumer standards, in accordance with the decrees of local bodies of Soviet power.
The supreme governing body of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is the Council of People's Commissars. Direct leadership and management of the army is concentrated in the Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Collegium created under it.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin). Supreme Commander-in-Chief N. Krylenko. People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs:Dybenko and Podvoisky. People's Commissars: Proshyan, Zatonsky and Steinberg. Manager of the Council of People's Commissars Vlad. Bonch-Bruevich.
STALIN'S ORDER
ORDER OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONER OF DEFENSE
Comrades, Red Army and Red Navy men, commanders and political workers, partisans and partisans!
The peoples of our country celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Red Army in the harsh days of the Patriotic War against Nazi Germany, which brazenly and vilely encroached on the life and freedom of our homeland. Along a huge front from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, soldiers of the Red Army and Navy are waging fierce battles to drive out the Nazi invaders from our country and defend the honor and independence of our fatherland.
This is not the first time that the Red Army has had to defend our homeland from enemy attacks. The Red Army was created 24 years ago to fight the troops of foreign invaders who sought to dismember our country and destroy its independence. The young detachments of the Red Army, which entered the war for the first time, completely defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23, 1918 was declared the birthday of the Red Army. Since then, the Red Army has grown and strengthened in the fight against foreign invaders...
CONCRETE AND BRONZE
The monument commemorating the first battles of the Red Army in 1918 is located near the M20 St. Petersburg-Kyiv highway, at the exit from Pskov (city district of Kresty). The monument was built on the site where the first battles of the young Red Army took place near Pskov with the Kaiser’s troops on February 23-24, 1918 in accordance with Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR R No. 58 of January 21. 1967 It is a 47-meter obelisk in the form of a triangular bayonet, resting on a granite base (size 42x4 m). The composition of the monument includes a high relief made of forged copper, depicting the history of the Soviet Army since 1918. before the Great Patriotic War. It depicts figures of Red Army soldiers, partisans, and sailors. Authors of the monument: architect I.D. Bilibin, sculptor G.I. Motovilov. Material: bronze, concrete. On February 23, 1918, the 2nd Red Army Regiment, stationed in the Cherekha-Lopatino area, received reinforcements from detachments of Pskov volunteers and entered into battle with enemy units. To perpetuate this event, which marked the birth of the regular Red Army, it was decided to build a monument. The opening took place on February 23, 1968. Marshal Grechko was present.
At the end of November 1917, a new type of army was created in the shortest possible time to defend the socialist revolution. At the end of November-December 1917, the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs instructed the Main Directorate of the General Staff to develop a project for the creation of a military police. On December 8, the General Staff’s note was discussed at a meeting of the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs.
The meeting adopted the idea of organizing the army on a territorial-militia basis. The first legislative act in the formation of a new army was the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People,” approved by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets on January 12 (25), 1918, which spoke about arming the working people.
Late in the evening of January 28, 1918, members of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Republic gathered, as usual, in the Red Room of Smolny. V.I. Lenin opened the 47th meeting of the Council of People's Commissars and announced the agenda. The seventh point in it was formulated as follows: “Decree on the Red Army.”
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Trotsky L.D. was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.
As subsequent events showed, this was perhaps the most successful personnel appointment of Soviet times. It is clear that the construction of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) was not carried out by Trotsky alone, but by a whole galaxy of major military figures and Bolshevik politicians. The Red Army has many parents, however, the main one, according to military historians, was without a doubt Trotsky. It was he who, having confused all the cards of the whites, and the West, tipped the scales civil war in favor of the Bolsheviks. Trotsky's leading role in the creation of the Red Army was also recognized by his direct opponents in the civil war - the generals of the White Army.
The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History, which, with rare exceptions, is distinguished by great objectivity, states: “The disunity of the White command, on the one hand, and the administrative and strategic talent of Trotsky, on the other, decided the outcome of the matter. Both opposing armies were born from a mass of peasant partisans and non-professional militias. Through trial and error, Trotsky forged from his masses a professional and combat-ready army.”
Finally, the Red Army played an important role not only as a defender of the fatherland or as an instrument of Bolshevik policy outside the USSR. The army created by Trotsky became perhaps the main forge and educator of Soviet personnel. It was in the army that the large peasant mass of Russia underwent the first, albeit primitive, but effective socialist treatment. The peasant was taught, not only military, but also general literacy, fed, treated, and ideologically prepared. The army gave a start in life not only to major Soviet commanders, but also to scientists, “red directors,” artists, and writers.
Trotsky had much of what a true military man should have, in particular, the character of a leader, an iron will, personal courage and organizational talent. As for special knowledge, given Trotsky’s hard work and generally high general educational level, all this was a gain. Quite soon after his appointment, the People's Commissar could already appreciate the advice of military experts and make professionally competent decisions.
Perhaps the main enemy of the People's Commissar at the first stage of creating a regular army was anarchy, to which he opposed the most severe discipline.
If the question of the birthday of the Red Army had been decided not by propagandists, but by military experts and historians, they would most likely have shifted the date of its birth from spring to autumn 1918. On February 23, the Red Army existed only in a draft, being in fact that unorganized and therefore unpredictable Red Guard, capable of both a heroic attack and a stampede. By mid-September, thanks to the talents and incredible efforts of a number of “military builders” and, above all, thanks, of course, to Trotsky, the Red Army began to acquire the features of a regular, controlled and effective military force. That's when she was born. Of the three armies that arose in the vastness of revolutionary Russia after October 1917, White, Green and Red, the last one turned out to be the most effective. The Reds managed to defeat both the Whites, despite the support of this movement from the West, and the Greens, although they relied on the largest class in Russia - the peasantry.
Lev Davidovich laid three principles as the basis for military development. Universal military training of workers, which was supposed to ensure a constant influx of more or less trained reserves into the army. Widespread involvement of military specialists from the tsarist army, which made it possible to build truly professional armed forces. And the widespread installation in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of ideological overseers - commissars, which guaranteed the protection of the interests of the revolution and the Bolshevik Party.
An equally important component of the Trotskyist “cement” was the use of former officers and generals of the tsarist army in military construction. If ideologically the Red Army was built on a fundamentally new foundation, then professionally, whether it wanted it or not, it inherited the traditions of the old Russian army.
The formation of military regiments and divisions of the Red Army proceeded at an accelerated pace, including the first Red Army Corps in the Petrograd region. In total, about 60 thousand people were mobilized in the capital to repel the enemy during February 22-23, of which 20 thousand immediately went to the front.
In Moscow, about 20 thousand people signed up for the Red Army. At the same time, on February 22 and 23, 1918, near Pskov and Narva, in Belarus and Ukraine, counter battles between the newly formed units of the Red Army and the Kaiser’s occupiers took place. The following fought near Pskov: First Red Army Regiment (commander Alexander Nikolaevich Paradelov, former battalion commander, lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army), Second Red Army Regiment (commander Alexander Ivanovich Cherepanov, former company commander, staff captain of the tsarist army), First Revel Red Estonian Regiment, formed by Victor Eduardovich Kingisepp (one of the active figures in the revolutionary movement of Russia and Estonia, a member of the Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Estonian region), the Sixth Tukumsky, Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Latvian regiments, the Moscow and Third Rifle Reserve Revolutionary Regiments, a detachment of Pskov Red Guards and soldiers of the railway troops.
In the central direction, resistance to the German troops was provided by the Vitebsk, Orsha and Mogilev detachments, led by Alexander Fedorovich Myasnikov (real name Myasnikyan), a lawyer and writer, a participant in the First World War, who was elected commander of the front in November 1917 at the congress of deputies of the armies of the Western Front.
Units fought there under the command of Yan Karlovich Berzin, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and a former private in the tsarist army. In the area between Bobruisk and Zhlobin, fighters of the 3rd brigade of Latvian riflemen fought, whose commander was Joachim Ioakimovich Vatsetis, a former colonel and regiment commander of the tsarist army. In Ukraine, detachments under the command of P.V. Egorov, R.F. Sivers, V.I. Kikvidze, G.I. Chudnovsky, A.I. Ivanov, Yu.M. Kotsyubinsky, V. M.Primakova.
In commemoration of the massive rise of workers to defend the Soviet Fatherland, the courageous resistance of the first regiments and detachments of the Red Army, the revolutionary Baltic Fleet to the German invaders on land and at sea, February 23 annually, starting in 1919, was celebrated as the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy.
Then it was celebrated annually as a national holiday - the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy. After it collapsed, the holiday continues to be celebrated in a number of CIS countries.
Unofficially celebrated as Men's Day
The history of the holiday dates back to January 28 (January 15, old style) 1918. On this day, against the backdrop of the First World War ongoing in Europe, the Council of People's Commissars (the de facto government of Soviet Russia), led by its chairman Vladimir Lenin, adopted a Decree on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA).
In the first days of January 1919, the Soviet authorities remembered the approaching anniversary of the Council of People's Commissars decree on the organization of the Red Army. On January 10, the Chairman of the Higher Military Inspectorate of the Red Army, Nikolai Podvoisky, sent to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee a proposal to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, timing the celebration to the nearest Sunday before or after January 28. However, due to the late submission of the application, no decision was made.
Then the Moscow Soviet took the initiative to celebrate the first anniversary of the Red Army. On January 24, 1919, its presidium, which at that time was headed by Lev Kamenev, decided to coincide these celebrations with Red Gift Day. This day was organized by the relevant commission under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with the aim of providing assistance to the fighting Red Army soldiers. Red Gift Day was scheduled for February 16, but the commission did not have time to hold it on time. Therefore, Red Gift Day and Red Army Day, dedicated to it, were decided to be celebrated on the Sunday following February 16, i.e. February 23.
In 1920-1921 Red Army Day was not celebrated.
On January 27, 1922, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee published a resolution on the 4th anniversary of the Red Army, which stated: “In accordance with the resolution of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the Red Army, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee draws the attention of the executive committees to the upcoming anniversary of the creation of the Red Army (February 23).”
In 1923, the resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, adopted on January 18, stated: “On February 23, 1923, the Red Army will celebrate the 5th anniversary of its existence. On this day, five years ago, the Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of January 28 of the same year was published, which laid the foundation for the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, the stronghold of the proletarian dictatorship.” However, this statement was not true, because the mentioned decree was published in central newspapers almost immediately after its adoption.
The 10th anniversary of the Red Army in 1928, like all previous ones, was celebrated as the anniversary of the Council of People's Commissars decree on the organization of the Red Army of January 28 (15 old style) January 1918, but the very date of publication, contrary to the truth, was directly linked to February 23.
In 1938, in the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” the fundamental new version origin of the date of the holiday, not related to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars. The book stated that in 1918, near Narva and Pskov, “the German occupiers were given a decisive rebuff. Their advance to Petrograd was stopped. The day of repulse to the troops of German imperialism - February 23rd became the birthday of the young Red Army.”
Later, in the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated February 23, 1942, the wording was changed: “The young detachments of the Red Army, which entered the war for the first time, completely defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23 was declared a day birth of the Red Army."
In 1951, the latest interpretation of the holiday appeared. In the “History of the Civil War in the USSR” it was stated that in 1919 the first anniversary of the Red Army was celebrated “on the memorable day of the mobilization of workers for the defense of the socialist Fatherland, the mass entry of workers into the Red Army, the widespread formation of the first detachments and units of the new army.”
In the Federal Law of March 13, 1995 N32-FZ “On the Days of Military Glory of Russia,” February 23 bears the official name “Victory Day of the Red Army over the Kaiser’s troops of Germany in 1918 - Day of Defenders of the Fatherland.”
In accordance with the amendments made to the Federal Law “On the Days of Military Glory of Russia” by the Federal Law of April 15, 2006, the words “Victory Day of the Red Army over the Kaiser’s troops of Germany (1918)” were excluded from the official description of the holiday, and also stated in the only including the concept of “defender”.
Since 2002, by decision of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, February 23 is a non-working day in Russia.
We praise those who did not cry
From my pain,
But I didn’t hide my tears
On the graves of friends
Those who were men
Not in words
I didn't celebrate the coward
Sitting in the bushes
Those best
Sons of humanity
Those who guard the Fatherland!
There is one quality in people,
Whether it is given to us or not,
When a machine gun fires in a fever,
And so in everything, and everywhere, and always,
When trouble falls on your shoulders,
When life grabs you by the throat,
One is lying down, the other is running forward.
Well, what can you do, apparently it’s like this:
Let's pour some wine into glasses.
My first toast and my last toast
For those who rose to their full height!
We wish you to love your Motherland
And be a real man
Become the best among the wonderful,
Defender and citizen!
We wish you health and joy,
Good luck, prosperity and happiness,
Good, reliable comrades,
Real friends and girlfriends!
This holiday has gone beyond borders,
It is not just a holiday for soldiers,
It is not only for people in uniform,
That they stand in the service of the Motherland.
This holiday is a man's holiday
We can rightfully name.
In honor of men today, congratulations
They will sound from their life partners.
February 23 is Defender of the Fatherland Day, which until 1993 was called the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy. Until 1946, the Soviet Army was called the Red Army. Why is February 23rd considered the birthday of the Red Army?
The III All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted on January 12 (January 24, new style) 1918 the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, paragraph 5 of which read: “In the interests of ensuring full power for the working masses and eliminating any possibility of restoring the power of the exploiters, the armament of the working people is decreed, the formation of a socialist Red Army of workers and peasants and the complete disarmament of the propertied classes.”
January 15 (28), 1918 Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin signed the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), January 29 (February 11) - the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF).
In February 1918, peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and Germany in Brest-Litovsk were disrupted by the head of the Soviet delegation, Leon Trotsky, who refused to accept the German ultimatum, put forward the absurd slogan “no war, no peace,” and announced to the Germans that Russia was ending the war without signing peace treaty.
Immediately after the breakdown of negotiations at Brest-Litovsk on February 18, 1918, Germany and Austria-Hungary went on the offensive along the entire front. The main blow was directed at Petrograd. The size and organization of the Red Army, which had just begun to form (based on the old Russian army and Red Guard workers), did not allow them to provide a sufficiently effective rebuff to the enemy. On February 19, the Germans captured Dvinsk (now Daugavpils) and Polotsk, on February 20 - Minsk, on February 25 - Pskov and Revel (Tallinn). February 24 V.I. Lenin wrote: “In fact, we cannot fight right now, because the army is against war, the army cannot fight. The week of war with the Germans, before whom our troops simply fled, from February 18 to 24, 1918, fully proved this.” On February 25, Lenin writes: “... painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to comply with the order to destroy everything and everyone during the retreat; not to mention flight, chaos, lack of hands, helplessness, sloppiness.”
It was necessary, on the one hand, to organize resistance to German troops, on the other hand, to agree to the enslaving Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany, so as not to lose everything. Soviet Russia needed a respite to strengthen its army.
The Russian leadership began to explore both of these areas.
On February 21, the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) addressed the people with a message written by V.I. Lenin’s decree-appeal “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!”:
THE SOCIALIST FATHERLAND IS IN DANGER!
In order to save an exhausted, tormented country from new military trials, we made the greatest sacrifice and announced to the Germans our agreement to sign their peace terms.On the evening of February 20 (7), our envoys left Rezhitsa for Dvinsk, and there is still no answer.
The German government is apparently slow to respond. It clearly does not want peace. Fulfilling the instructions of the capitalists of all countries, German militarism wants to strangle Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants, return the lands to the landowners, factories to the bankers, and the authorities to the monarchy.
German generals want to establish their “order” in Petrograd and Kyiv.
The Socialist Republic of Soviets is in the greatest danger.
Until the moment when the German proletariat rises and wins, the sacred duty of the workers and peasants of Russia is the selfless defense of the Soviet Republic against the hordes of bourgeois-imperialist Germany.
The Council of People's Commissars decides:
- All the forces and means of the country are entirely devoted to the cause of revolutionary defense.
- All Soviets and revolutionary organizations are charged with the duty of defending every position to the last drop of blood.
- Railway organizations and the Soviets associated with them are obliged to do their best to prevent the enemy from using the communications apparatus; during retreat, destroy tracks, blow up and burn railway buildings; all rolling stock - carriages and locomotives - should be immediately sent east into the interior of the country.
- All grain and food supplies in general, as well as any valuable property that is in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, must be subject to unconditional destruction; supervision of this is entrusted to local Councils under the personal responsibility of their chairmen.
- The workers and peasants of Petrograd, Kyiv and all cities, towns, villages and villages along the new front must mobilize battalions to dig trenches under the leadership of military specialists.
- These battalions should include all able-bodied members of the bourgeois class, men and women, under the supervision of the Red Guards; those who resist are to be shot.
- All publications that oppose the cause of revolutionary defense and take the side of the German bourgeoisie, as well as those seeking to use the invasion of the imperialist hordes for the purpose of overthrowing Soviet power, are closed; able-bodied editors and staff of these publications are mobilized to dig trenches and other defensive work.
- Enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot at the scene of the crime.
The socialist fatherland is in danger! Long live the socialist fatherland! Long live the international socialist revolution!
Council of People's Commissars
In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, Supreme Commander-in-Chief N.V. Krylenko signed an order on February 21 declaring revolutionary mobilization.
On February 23, 1918, rallies were held in Petrograd, Moscow and other cities under the slogan: “Defense of the Socialist Fatherland.” This day marked the beginning of the mass mobilization of revolutionary forces throughout the country and became the birthday of the Red Army and Navy.
On the same day, February 23, 1918, the first clash of the Red Army with advanced German units took place in the area of the villages of Bolshoye and Maloye Lopatino near Pskov. Poorly trained and demoralized revolutionary units, which did not have a unified command and were deprived of officers, were unable to provide significant resistance to the regular units of the German army.
However, now the Germans could not count on unhindered advance deep into Russia and the capture of Petrograd became problematic for them. This pushed them to sign the peace so necessary for Soviet Russia.
On February 24, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree accepting German peace terms. In early March, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. German troops stopped fighting. By the way, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was annulled by the Soviet government at the end of the year after Germany’s defeat in the First World War.
Meanwhile, Soviet Russia continued to form the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet, which already in the fall of 1918 turned into a massive army and navy.
At the end of the Civil War on November 1, 1920, the strength of the army and navy was 5,427,273.
Russia, the importance of which is difficult to overestimate. It was on this day, exactly a hundred years ago, that invincible and legendary Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army appeared in young Soviet Russia. A truly unique case in the history of the country, when the army was created virtually from scratch - created in fact in a “fire” mode, soon, against the backdrop of a civil war that broke out and foreign intervention that struck the country from Brest to Kamchatka. Numerous “friends” tried to tear away the fatter pieces from the country, which was plunging into the chaos of civil strife, and the list of such “friends” is very extensive: Germany, Britain, USA, Poland, Finland, Greece, Italy, France, Canada, British India, Japan, China and a number of others. After this, who says something about “attempts by Russian interference in foreign affairs.” Read the story, bad gentlemen, who broke into whom with dirty boots?..
The uniqueness of the birth of the Red Army also lies in the fact that at the initial stage the troops were formed without centralized mobilization. We were talking about volunteer formations that experienced great difficulties not only with supplies and ammunition, but also with uniforms and food. The arsenals and warehouses of the army of the Russian Empire had their say here, but this word would not have been said without the drive and determination of both those who created the Red Army and those who volunteered truly in the hope of that very bright future.
Postcard on the topic:
The very date of February 23 as the date of birth of the Red Army does not claim 100th historical accuracy (for example, for the reason that the Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was adopted on January 28, 1918), however, it is this date that has taken root in the collective consciousness of several generations as a holiday.
Typewritten text of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the creation of the Red Army signed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) with his personal notes:
For people of the older and middle generations, February 23 is associated with the name of the holiday, which for almost half a century was “Day of the Soviet Army and Navy.” For many, it still rings true now, as it is history and life. It is under this name that the holiday has been celebrated since 1946. It is noteworthy that the Soviet Army and Navy The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics celebrated their main (single) holiday in those years when the USSR itself ceased to exist - until 1993.
Initially, the holiday was established 4 years after the formation of the Red Army - on the basis of a resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR dated January 27, 1922. From that document:
In accordance with the resolution of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the Red Army, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee draws the attention of the executive committees to the upcoming anniversary of the creation of the Red Army (February 23).
By the way, it is from this document that history actually begins, in which February 23 is considered the birthday of the army of Soviet Russia, and with it its successors - the army and navy of the USSR, army and navy Russian Federation.
By the way, February 23 as one of the main public holidays It is also observed in other countries of the post-Soviet space. Among such countries are the Republic of Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, as well as the LPR and DPR.
Today, February 23, is officially Defender of the Fatherland Day, a day when congratulations are received at the state and at the everyday level by people who, by their profession and by their calling, stand guard over the borders of the Motherland. It may sound pretentious, but today the defender of the Fatherland is every patriot who is not indifferent to the fate of the country, and whose soul worries about everything that happens to the country and around it.
Defender of the Fatherland Day is the day of each of those who sacrificed their health and lives so that our children would never know what war is. And on such a day let us allow ourselves to remember the names of those who recent years laid down his head far from the borders of the Fatherland - making an invaluable contribution to the security of the country in which we live. Here are some of the names: Oleg Peshkov, Alexander Pozynich, Ryafyagat Khabibulin, Alexander Prokhorenko, Anton Erygin, Evgeny Dolgin, Nadezhda Durachenko, Galina Mikhailova, Ruslan Galitsky, Valery Asapov, Roman Filipov. And other sergeants, foremen, officers. Eternal memory to the dead. And success in battle to those who continue the irreconcilable fight against international terrorism!
And, of course, on this day we congratulate all defenders of the Fatherland without exception on the holiday! With a glass of tea, three times “hurray!” – on such a day you can allow it to be loud and booming!
