Page 123 - The Chief Culprit

84 y e Chief Culprit

On the other hand, all these strategists would have been incapable of leading the people
into war. It is well known that an army that has sullied its uniforms with the blood of its own
people is incapable of fighting against outside enemies. e primary reason for the decay
of any army is its use against its own people. Everyone who has actively participated in this
could no longer be a troop leader.
Here is another pearl from the treasury of strategist Tukhachevski’s combat experience:

TO THE TROOPS’ CHIEF OF STAFF
For signature by Kakurin
By the Political Commission of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th districts
July 8, 1921
Defeated bandits are hiding in the forests and taking out their impotent rage on the
local population, burning bridges [and] damaging dams and other government prop-
erty. In the interest of securing the bridges, the Commission of the All-Russia Central
Executive Committee orders:
Immediately take from the population of villages located near important bridges
no less than five hostages, who in the event of damage done to the bridge are to be im-
mediately executed.
Under supervision of the Revolutionary Committees, the local residents are to
organize the defense of the bridges from bandit attacks; the local residents are also to
take on the responsibility of repairing the damaged bridges no later than within a 24-
hour deadline.
is order is to be widely distributed among all villages and towns.

Troop commander
Tukhachevski

e great strategist has strange logic: the bandits “are hiding in the forests and taking
out their impotent rage on the local population,” so Tukhachevski orders execution of hos-
tages taken out of this very same local population.
All of Tukhachevski’s experience can be narrowed down to two things: hostages and
executions. Meanwhile, the taking of hostages was forbidden by the Hague Convention of
1907. Hostage taking has always been considered the most serious war crime. A troop leader
who sullied his name with this sort of maneuver has always been despised. At Nuremberg and
all subsequent trials of German Nazis the practice of taking hostages was regarded as a war
crime and those guilty of it were sentenced to death by hanging.
So that would have been a proper place for Tukhachevski, Antonov-Ovseenko, and all
other war criminals—on the defendants’ bench at Nuremberg, in the company of Hermann
Goering, Wilhelm Keitell, Alfred Jodl, and others.
Tukhachevski encountered real enemy troops only once. e Western front of the Red
Army under Tukhachevski’s command headed to the West with the intention of breaking
through to Germany and unleashing a Communist revolution. But Tukhachevski did not
reach Germany. His hordes were defeated near Warsaw by the Polish army commanded by
Pilsudsky.
e defeat was shameful and total. Tukhachevski became enraged. We have been taught