Editing Labor army (section)

==History==
The first labor army (1я Трудармия, 1-я армия труда) was created after the defeat of [[Aleksandr Kolchak|Kolchak]] on the base of the 3rd Army located in the [[Urals]] region by the initiative of the army commander  [[Mikhail Matiyasevich]] (командарм Михаил Степанович Матиясевич).<ref>[http://www.book-chel.ru/ind.php?what=card&id=2110 "Первая революционная армия труда РСФСР"]</ref>

[[Leon Trotsky]], acting as [[People's Commissar]] of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the [[Revolutionary Military Council]] of the Republic at this time, developed this idea further. He argued that the economic situation in the country required introduction of the '''universal labor duty'''. In the case of workers, this could be done with the help of [[trade union]]s, while in the case of peasantry, Trotsky argued, it was possible only through [[mobilization]].<ref name= trot>Leon Trotsky, [http://www.magister.msk.ru/library/trotsky/trotl536.htm ЗАДАЧИ ТРУДОВОЙ МОБИЛИЗАЦИИ]</ref>

He argued further that ''"army-type organization is in fact inherently Soviet type of organization"''.<ref name= trot/>

His critics argued that this idea was leading back to the times of [[tsarism]] and [[slavery]]. Trotsky retorted that unlike old times, workers were supposed to work not for exploiters, but for their own good, for their own state, i.e., labor duty is the fulfillment of the obligations of the liberated working class with respect to their "worker-peasant state" in the cases of emergency.<ref name= trot/>

By the end of the [[Russian Civil War]] and the introduction of [[New Economic Policy]]  the idea of the labor army ended, especially after [[Joseph Stalin]]'s assumption of power and the implementation of his policies of [[History of the Soviet Union (1927-1953)#Industrialization in practice|industrialization]] and [[Collectivisation in the USSR|collectivization]], which effectively solved the problem of [[workforce]] mobilization both in industry and agriculture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/ch01.htm|title = Leon Trotsky: The Revolution Betrayed (1. What Has Been Achieved)}}</ref>

Later Trotskyists such as [[Isaac Deutscher]] and [[Tony Cliff]] have been critics of this policy but [[Ernest Mandel]] asserted that a myth had been constructed around the role of Trotsky in the [[trade-union debate (Russia)|trade-union debate]]. Mandel argued this controversy had been used by [[liberalism|liberal]] circles in Russia to claim that Trotsky’s proposals on the “militarization of labour” had provided the groundwork for more repressive and [[authoritarian]] policies which were later adopted by Stalin against workers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |pages=132–133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVmcEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+as+alternative+mandel&pg=PT80 |language=en}}</ref> Mandel believed this view overlooked historical ascertainable facts such as the extensive [[unemployment]], [[lumpenproletariat|lumpenization]] of workers and the fact there were no examples of repressive actions taken against workers in factories during the period of labour armies. Mandel further re-iterated that Trotsky's attitudes was driven by his concern about the need to prepare workers for key positions in factory management and he had proposed replacing [[war communism]] with the [[New Economic Policy|NEP]] a year ahead of the party leadership.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |pages=132–133 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVmcEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+as+alternative+mandel&pg=PT80 |language=en}}</ref>