ABSTRACT
The motives of various characters in any historical drama are always difficult. The problem is particularly acute with regard to the behaviour of Russian Imperial Army officers during the turbulent events of 1917–20. Within the Bolshevik ranks, on the other hand, the role of the old officers, or 'military specialists', has been overshadowed by that of the Communist Party and its commissars. During that year some 22,315 former officers enlisted in the Red forces. The Commissar for War, Leon Trotsky, later admitted that 76" of the command and administrative staffs of the Red forces were composed of such specialists by December 1918. Since the importance of the officers' participation in the civil war has received such wide recognition, it is surprising that so little is known about their attitudes to this struggle. Historians have tended to accept a simple Red-White dichotomy and to treat all officers as either pro- or anti-Bolshevik from the October Revolution onwards.
