ABSTRACT
Local soviets conceived grandiose plans for organising their own armed units, formidable paper armies, or else they relapsed into muddle or dilatoriness. In January 1918 a Prisoner of War Congress held in Samara petitioned that it might be allowed to form Red Army units. From this point forth the Soviet command did not neglect the possibilities for winning recruits to their army from this man-power pool. The term 'specialist', whether military or naval, has a major significance for the early history of the Soviet command at all levels, which the euphemism was designed to hide. In the two months of April and May 1918 a stream of decrees set in motion the first machinery which was to transform the Red Army into a substantial, cohesive and regular military force. To remedy the administrative chaos the decree of 8th April, 1918, set up standardised Military Commissariats, organised at the various administrative levels throughout the territory under Soviet control.
