The Southern Front

The Fight Against Wrangel

Let This Be The Last!


Transcribed and HTML markup for the Trotsky Internet Archive by David Walters

* * *

Our train is again bound for the front. This is a hard front, where the fate of the Soviet Republic must be decided, and with it the fate of the Russian people. A hard front, a hard fight!

Many of the warriors of our train were before the walls of Kazan in those grave weeks of 1918 when we were fighting for the Volga. That fight ended long ago. The Eastern front has advanced far beyond Baikal. Chita is in the hands of the Siberian workers and peasants. The Soviet power is approaching the Pacific Ocean.

The warriors of our train fought gallantly before the walls of Petrograd, when the first capital of the workers’ revolution was threatened by Yudenich. Petrograd is intact, and has since been visited by many representatives of the world proletariat.

Our train went more than once to the Western front. A preliminary peace has now been signed with Poland. There can be no doubt that the Polish bourgeoisie could not renew the war even if they wanted to. The Polish army does not want that, and the working people of Poland would not allow it.

Many of the warriors of our train were in the Don steppes when Krasnov and, later, Denikin, advanced against Soviet Russia from the South. The days of Krasnov and Denikin are long since past. Nearly the whole of the South is in the hands of the Soviet power.

Nearly all the South, but nevertheless not the whole of it. There remains the Crimea, which the French Government has turned into its fortress. The White-Guard garrison of this French fortress is under the command of a hired German-Russian general, Baron Wrangel. The decisive days in the life of the Southern front are near. If we crush Wrangel we win peace for ourselves. Peace will mean for us harmonious and intense labour. Labour will mean for us all-round raising of living conditions, improvement of the economy, transport and food-supplies. The economic advance will entail improvement in the health situation, growth of educational work, development of schools, flourishing of science and art. Peace will mean labour, and labour will mean freedom and happiness.

The friendly family of our train is starting on a new campaign. Let this campaign be the last!

October 27, 1920
Moscow-Kharkov
En Route, No.135


1 1

Last updated on: 26.12.2006