Smaller Army

At a plenary session of the Red War Council in Moscow, M. Frounze, who appears to have superseded Leon Trotzky as War Lord of the Red

Army, stated that all forces of the Red Army and Navy had been reduced from 610,000 to 562,000 men. These figures show that Russia has an Army and Navy numerically inferior to the Army alone of France, which amounts to 690,500 men (figure for 1923).

Another major decision of the Council was to abolish dual commandership in the Army. Hitherto, each com-mander had attached to him a political commissar, or "archangel," as Comrade Krylenko, onetime Chief Com-mander of the Russian forces, called them. An order of a commander was invalid until countersigned by the commissar ; but such is the state of things in Russia that the Moscow autocrats can now trust their officers and are, incidently, enabled to raise their pay.