Tsaritsyn would be saved—just barely—not by Trotsky but by Dmitry Zhloba, whose “Steel Division” of 15,000 men had left the Caucasus front, covered 500 miles in sixteen days, and surprised the Whites’ unguarded rear.137 On October 25, the Steel Division pushed the Cossacks back across the Don.138 Four days later, Stalin reported to a plenum of the Moscow soviet how dicey the situation had been.139 Indeed, had Tsaritsyn fallen that autumn of 1918, he might have faced a government inquiry and disciplinary action, as well as permanent reputational damage.
