World War II Looms... In 1937 a drastic purge crippled the Red Army, reducing its morale and efficiency just before the world war. In June, Marshall Tukhachevsky, first deputy commissar of war ...

Lenin negotiated peace with Germany and therefore an end to Russia's role in World ... War in the Bolshevik government in March 1918. A brilliant organiser and improviser, Trotsky created the Red ...

where the Red Army seized the initiative, then rolled back the Nazi armour. The wider Battle of Kursk - from 5 July to 23 August 1943 - was indeed a turning-point in World War Two. Soviet forces ...