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A Note from History
Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky: Russia's "Red Napoleon"

The remnants of the defeated rebel gangs and a few isolated bandits are still hiding in the forests...the forests where the bandits are hiding are to be cleared by the use of poison gas. This must be carefully calculated, so that the layer of gas penetrates the forests and kills everyone hiding there. The artillery inspector is to provide the necessary amounts of gas immediately, and find staff qualified to carry out this sort of operation.

It is not known if gas was actually used during this campaign.

During the 1920s and early 1930s, when Stalin and Germany formed a marriage of convenience, Tukhachevsky enhanced his own prestige and effectiveness through the exchange of technical and military information with German Wehrmacht officers. Some of this interaction included chemical weapons technology and tactics. His talents as a soldier and innovator in terms of military technology won him the respect of German military officers who referred to him as that "Red Napoleon." But his professional success and past experience with Germany (although sanctioned by the Soviet state) would lead to Tukhachevsky being labeled a traitor. In 1937, two years after being promoted to Marshal, Tukhachevsky became afoul of Stalin and his cronies. After being tortured by the Soviet NKVD, Tukhachevsky "confessed" to his crimes; his confession was apparently signed in his own blood. After a four-hour "trial" he was subsequently executed.

Tukhachevsky was one of those highly competent military officers that insecure tyrants like Stalin found intimidating. Finally, Stalin could not accept such a forceful personality, and like many other Red Army military officers, Tukhachevsky was suddenly deemed politically unreliable. A military mind such as Tukhachevsky would of course have been helpful in fighting Nazi Germany later. In fact, Tukhachevsky spent much of his later years warning the Soviet Union about the approaching storm from the West. (Would the competent use of chemical weapons have stopped Hitler's Blitzkrieg?)

In contemplating one of history's many "what-ifs," one can look at the life and career of Soviet Red Army Marshal M. N. Tukhachevsky-both cut short by Stalin's purges-and wonder what might have happened had he survived. With regard to the experience of the Russian people in the 20th century, it is hard to say if the outcome would have been any more or less tragic.