I was initially a supporter of the Menshevik Internationalists faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. I joined the Bolsheviks immediately prior to the 1917 October Revolution, and eventually became a leader within the Party. During the early days of the Soviet Union, I served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army as People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. I was a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918–23). I was also among the first members of the Politburo.