The dull-witted muzhik in uniform : why did he smash the revolution ?

The question is a paraphrase of Trotsky’s answer : « The first wave of the Révolution was smashed by the dull-wittedness of the muzhik, who, at home in his village, hoping to seize a bit of land, fought the squire, but who, having donned a soldier’s uniform, fïred upon the worker. » In plainer language, soldiers suppressed the révolution because they were by origin peasants, who submitted unthinkingly to military discipline. Trotsky’s dictum on the peasant roots of the soldiers’ eounterrevolu..