The army is an eternal problem of any power. How to maintain the combat capability of the armed forces and not be overthrown? This difficult question should be constantly asked by any ruler who has well learned the truth that the crown is a headdress that is removed exclusively with the head. Why did the old Bolsheviks hate Trotsky? What did the highest Bolshevik leadership of the Soviet state fear? What was the commander in chief guilty of? Why did Lenin give his savior to slaughter? How did the "leader of the Red Army" Trotsky react? What did Dzerzhinsky get? Moscow historian Sergei Voitikov answers these and other pressing questions.