The call went out, to comrade soldiers and former officers alike, to come back to the colours. Well, the new colours. And the idealism of the Red Army died about a month into it existence. That call also went out at the higher levels and senior tsarist officers were brought in as specialists. They weren't particularly trusted, they were given minders in the form of political commissars who held the level of Command Authority as well. However, they did vaguely know what they were doing, and the Soviets were fairly desperate. So desperate indeed, that the idea of elected positions and an absence of ranks was abolished mid-1918 and anybody who didn't like it was a counter-revolutionary, and was then shot.