Was Leon Trotsky a good military commander?

He was not. He was, however, phenomenal at running a revolutionary war, above anyone I can think of. His wepon was his train. It did have an armored carriage with machine guns, but that was not the key thing. read more

Leon Trotsky, leader and founder of the victorious Red Army, was an obvious choice. Too obvious, perhaps, for his own good. His competition, most notably Stalin, worked to defame his name, drawing on alleged conflicts with Lenin and attempts to credit himself more than the Bolsheviks. read more

Leon Trotsky, On Military Commissars and Members of Military Councils. April 6, 1918 . Central to the performance of the Red Army was the institution of military commissars. read more