Primary source #3 are illustrations created in 1919 as propaganda by the White Army that depict an anti-Semitic caricature of Trotsky as the Red Devil - the brutal and totalitarian dictator of the Red Army. Trotsky was known for his unforgiving policies in war and these unforgiving depictions simply accentuate this perspective.
Source #3 is highly useful to historians attempting to understand the mentality of the White Army and their motivations during the Russian Civil War Period. The sheer severity of this comparison between Trotsky and the devil suggests that the White army was desperate to reduce Trotsky to an enemy of pure evil to evoke a religion-rooted reaction from its own soldiers. However, this source is limited by its format: any
Source #3 is highly useful to historians attempting to understand the mentality of the White Army and their motivations during the Russian Civil War Period. The sheer severity of this comparison between Trotsky and the devil suggests that the White army was desperate to reduce Trotsky to an enemy of pure evil to evoke a religion-rooted reaction from its own soldiers. However, this source is limited by its format: any