Bodyguard III.

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Bodyguard - - conclusion.

Strelniki. Red Latvian Riflemen.

Here with a modern version of the Praetorian Guard or the Varangians - - the Red Latvian Riflemen.

Latvian soldiers, many veterans of the Great War [WW1],  renowned for their fightitng ability, devoted Bolsheviks, REDS, vital to the cause of Lenin and the ruling communist elite, shock troops on the offensive in furtherance of revolution, trusted and relied upon without qualification.

"Latvian troops had a fearsome reputation at the front—even something of a mystique"

A military unit of unquestioned loyalty, guards of the Kremlin, the seat of power for an imperiled and often threatened provisional communist government - - guarding both inwardly [the mob in Moscow] and outwardly from groups of armed insurgents and disaffected and disgruntled former allies.

Red Latvian Riflemen devoted and loyal to a fault almost!!

"As the leaders of the Soviet Union had moved from Petrograd to the Moscow Kremlin in the early 1918, their protection was entrusted to the Red Latvian Riflemen, under the command of the Commandant's of the Kremlin"

"In 1917, a large number of Latvian riflemen sided with the Bolsheviks. They became known as Red Latvian Riflemen . . . and actively participated in the Russian Civil War. The Riflemen took an active part in the suppression of anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Moscow and Yaroslavl in 1918 . . .

 "Other former Riflemen remained in Soviet Russia and rose to leadership positions in the Red Army, Bolshevik party, and Cheka [secret police]"

So highly thought of and reliable to the communist cause were the Latvians that their one-time commander"

"Jukums Vācietis, formerly a colonel in the Latvian Rifles became the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army."
"the Latvian Strelniki, now re-named the Red Latvian Rifles, continued to remain the only truly reliable troops available to the Bolsheviks, and eventually became the original nucleus of Trotsky's RKKA, the Workers and Peasants Red Army.  They were deployed wherever Soviet power was challenged"

"unbeatable at the crucial early moments of the birth of the Soviet Union. The force was small, but even a small force can prevail in a power vacuum."

Looked upon to an  extent as FOREIGN MERCENARIES whose reliability to the ruling elite was total - - and very useful for suppressing elements with Russian society who found the Bolsheviks rule to be intolerable. Woe to those that get on the bad side of the Latvians!

coolbert.