diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:26 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:26 -0700 |
| commit | dd77139dd2d86481869bf589268d99ea6894f241 (patch) | |
| tree | fd947f662000f15580b19daca23afcdcd941c75c /3076-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '3076-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 3076-h/3076-h.htm | 20955 |
1 files changed, 20955 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/3076-h/3076-h.htm b/3076-h/3076-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..878ef84 --- /dev/null +++ b/3076-h/3076-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,20955 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ten Days That Shook the World, by John Reed</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ten Days That Shook the World, by John Reed</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Ten Days That Shook the World</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John Reed</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: December 16, 2000 [eBook #3076]<br /> +[Most recently updated: March 3, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Norman Wolcott, with corrections by Andrew Sly and Stefan Malte Schumacher</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ***</div> + +<p class="letter"> +[Redactor’s Note: The book is composed of text, footnotes, and appendices. The +footnotes are included at the end of each chapter, while the Appendix No. and +Section are referred to in the text in parentheses, the Appendices following +the book text. There are 17 graphic figures in the text. These are indicated by +a reference to the page number in the original book.] +</p> + +<h1>Ten Days That Shook the World</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by John Reed</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#pref01">Preface</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#pref02">Notes and Explanations</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">Chapter 1. Background</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">Chapter 2. The Coming Storm</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">Chapter 3. On the Eve</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">Chapter 4. The Fall of the Provisional Government</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">Chapter 5. Plunging Ahead</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">Chapter 6. The Committee for Salvation</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">Chapter 7. The Revolutionary Front</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">Chapter 8. Counter-Revolution</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">Chapter 9. Victory</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">Chapter 10. Moscow</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">Chapter 11. The Conquest of Power</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">Chapter 12. The Peasants’ Congress</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">Appendices I - XII</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="pref01"></a>Preface</h2> + +<p> +This book is a slice of intensified history—history as I saw it. It does +not pretend to be anything but a detailed account of the November Revolution, +when the Bolsheviki, at the head of the workers and soldiers, seized the state +power of Russia and placed it in the hands of the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +Naturally most of it deals with “Red Petrograd,” the capital and +heart of the insurrection. But the reader must realize that what took place in +Petrograd was almost exactly duplicated, with greater or lesser intensity, at +different intervals of time, all over Russia. +</p> + +<p> +In this book, the first of several which I am writing, I must confine myself to +a chronicle of those events which I myself observed and experienced, and those +supported by reliable evidence; preceded by two chapters briefly outlining the +background and causes of the November Revolution. I am aware that these two +chapters make difficult reading, but they are essential to an understanding of +what follows. +</p> + +<p> +Many questions will suggest themselves to the mind of the reader. What is +Bolshevism? What kind of a governmental structure did the Bolsheviki set up? If +the Bolsheviki championed the Constituent Assembly before the November +Revolution, why did they disperse it by force of arms afterward? And if the +bourgeoisie opposed the Constituent Assembly until the danger of Bolshevism +became apparent, why did they champion it afterward? +</p> + +<p> +These and many other questions cannot be answered here. In another volume, +“Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk,” I trace the course of the Revolution +up to and including the German peace. There I explain the origin and functions +of the Revolutionary organisations, the evolution of popular sentiment, the +dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the structure of the Soviet state, and +the course and outcome of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations…. +</p> + +<p> +In considering the rise of the Bolsheviki it is necessary to understand that +Russian economic life and the Russian army were not disorganised on November +7th, 1917, but many months before, as the logical result of a process which +began as far back as 1915. The corrupt reactionaries in control of the +Tsar’s Court deliberately undertook to wreck Russia in order to make a +separate peace with Germany. The lack of arms on the front, which had caused +the great retreat of the summer of 1915, the lack of food in the army and in +the great cities, the break-down of manufactures and transportation in +1916—all these we know now were part of a gigantic campaign of sabotage. +This was halted just in time by the March Revolution. +</p> + +<p> +For the first few months of the new régime, in spite of the confusion incident +upon a great Revolution, when one hundred and sixty millions of the +world’s most oppressed peoples suddenly achieved liberty, both the +internal situation and the combative power of the army actually improved. +</p> + +<p> +But the “honeymoon” was short. The propertied classes wanted merely +a political revolution, which would take the power from the Tsar and give it to +them. They wanted Russia to be a constitutional Republic, like France or the +United States; or a constitutional Monarchy, like England. On the other hand, +the masses of the people wanted real industrial and agrarian democracy. +</p> + +<p> +William English Walling, in his book, “Russia’s Message,” an +account of the Revolution of 1905, describes very well the state of mind of the +Russian workers, who were later to support Bolshevism almost unanimously: +</p> + +<p> +They (the working people) saw it was possible that even under a free +Government, if it fell into the hands of other social classes, they might still +continue to starve…. +</p> + +<p> +The Russian workman is revolutionary, but he is neither violent, dogmatic, nor +unintelligent. He is ready for barricades, but he has studied them, and alone +of the workers of the world he has learned about them from actual experience. +He is ready and willing to fight his oppressor, the capitalist class, to a +finish. But he does not ignore the existence of other classes. He merely asks +that the other classes take one side or the other in the bitter conflict that +draws near…. +</p> + +<p> +They (the workers) were all agreed that our (American) political institutions +were preferable to their own, but they were not very anxious to exchange one +despot for another (i.e., the capitalist class)…. +</p> + +<p> +The workingmen of Russia did not have themselves shot down, executed by +hundreds in Moscow, Riga and Odessa, imprisoned by thousands in every Russian +jail, and exiled to the deserts and the arctic regions, in exchange for the +doubtful privileges of the workingmen of Goldfields and Cripple Creek…. +</p> + +<p> +And so developed in Russia, in the midst of a foreign war, the Social +Revolution on top of the Political Revolution, culminating in the triumph of +Bolshevism. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. A. J. Sack, director in this country of the Russian Information Bureau, +which opposes the Soviet Government, has this to say in his book, “The +Birth of the Russian Democracy”: The Bolsheviks organised their own +cabinet, with Nicholas Lenine as Premier and Leon Trotsky—Minister of +Foreign Affairs. The inevitability of their coming into power became evident +almost immediately after the March Revolution. The history of the Bolsheviki, +after the Revolution, is a history of their steady growth…. +</p> + +<p> +Foreigners, and Americans especially, frequently emphasise the +“ignorance” of the Russian workers. It is true they lacked the +political experience of the peoples of the West, but they were very well +trained in voluntary organisation. In 1917 there were more than twelve million +members of the Russian consumers’ Cooperative societies; and the Soviets +themselves are a wonderful demonstration of their organising genius. Moreover, +there is probably not a people in the world so well educated in Socialist +theory and its practical application. +</p> + +<p> +William English Walling thus characterises them: +</p> + +<p> +The Russian working people are for the most part able to read and write. For +many years the country has been in such a disturbed condition that they have +had the advantage of leadership not only of intelligent individuals in their +midst, but of a large part of the equally revolutionary educated class, who +have turned to the working people with their ideas for the political and social +regeneration of Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +Many writers explain their hostility to the Soviet Government by arguing that +the last phase of the Russian Revolution was simply a struggle of the +“respectable” elements against the brutal attacks of Bolshevism. +However, it was the propertied classes, who, when they realised the growth in +power of the popular revolutionary organisations, undertook to destroy them and +to halt the Revolution. To this end the propertied classes finally resorted to +desperate measures. In order to wreck the Kerensky Ministry and the Soviets, +transportation was disorganised and internal troubles provoked; to crush the +Factory-Shop Committees, plants were shut down, and fuel and raw materials +diverted; to break the Army Committees at the front, capital punishment was +restored and military defeat connived at. +</p> + +<p> +This was all excellent fuel for the Bolshevik fire. The Bolsheviki retorted by +preaching the class war, and by asserting the supremacy of the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +Between these two extremes, with the other factions which whole-heartedly or +half-heartedly supported them, were the so-called “moderate” +Socialists, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and several smaller +parties. These groups were also attacked by the propertied classes, but their +power of resistance was crippled by their theories. +</p> + +<p> +Roughly, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries believed that Russia was +not economically ripe for a social revolution—that only a +<i>political</i> revolution was possible. According to their interpretation, +the Russian masses were not educated enough to take over the power; any attempt +to do so would inevitably bring on a reaction, by means of which some ruthless +opportunist might restore the old régime. And so it followed that when the +“moderate” Socialists were forced to assume the power, they were +afraid to use it. +</p> + +<p> +They believed that Russia must pass through the stages of political and +economic development known to Western Europe, and emerge at last, with the rest +of the world, into full-fledged Socialism. Naturally, therefore, they agreed +with the propertied classes that Russia must first be a parliamentary +state—though with some improvements on the Western democracies. As a +consequence, they insisted upon the collaboration of the propertied classes in +the Government. +</p> + +<p> +From this it was an easy step to supporting them. The “moderate” +Socialists needed the bourgeoisie. But the bourgeoisie did not need the +“moderate” Socialists. So it resulted in the Socialist Ministers +being obliged to give way, little by little, on their entire program, while the +propertied classes grew more and more insistent. +</p> + +<p> +And at the end, when the Bolsheviki upset the whole hollow compromise, the +Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries found themselves fighting on the side +of the propertied classes…. In almost every country in the world to-day the +same phenomenon is visible. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were +the only party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it +on the country. If they had not succeeded to the Government when they did, +there is little doubt in my mind that the armies of Imperial Germany would have +been in Petrograd and Moscow in December, and Russia would again be ridden by a +Tsar…. +</p> + +<p> +It is still fashionable, after a whole year of the Soviet Government, to speak +of the Bolshevik insurrection as an “adventure.” Adventure it was, +and one of the most marvellous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into +history at the head of the toiling masses, and staking everything on their vast +and simple desires. Already the machinery had been set up by which the land of +the great estates could be distributed among the peasants. The Factory-Shop +Committees and the Trade Unions were there to put into operation workers’ +control of industry. In every village, town, city, district and province there +were Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, +prepared to assume the task of local administration. +</p> + +<p> +No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable that the Russian +Revolution is one of the great events of human history, and the rise of the +Bolsheviki a phenomenon of world-wide importance. Just as historians search the +records for the minutest details of the story of the Paris Commune, so they +will want to know what happened in Petrograd in November, 1917, the spirit +which animated the people, and how the leaders looked, talked and acted. It is +with this in view that I have written this book. +</p> + +<p> +In the struggle my sympathies were not neutral. But in telling the story of +those great days I have tried to see events with the eye of a conscientious +reporter, interested in setting down the truth. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +J. R. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +New York, January 1st 1919. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="pref02"></a>Notes and Explanations</h2> + +<p> +To the average reader the multiplicity of Russian organisations—political +groups, Committees and Central Committees, Soviets, Dumas and Unions—will +prove extremely confusing. For this reason I am giving here a few brief +definitions and explanations. +</p> + +<h3>Political Parties</h3> + +<p> +In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, there were seventeen tickets in +Petrograd, and in some of the provincial towns as many as forty; but the +following summary of the aims and composition of political parties is limited +to the groups and factions mentioned in this book. Only the essence of their +programmes and the general character of their constituencies can be noticed…. +</p> + +<p> +1. <i>Monarchists,</i> of various shades, <i>Octobrists,</i> etc. These +once-powerful factions no longer existed openly; they either worked +underground, or their members joined the <i>Cadets,</i> as the <i>Cadets</i> +came by degrees to stand for their political programme. Representatives in this +book, Rodzianko, Shulgin. +</p> + +<p> +2. <i>Cadets.</i> So-called from the initials of its name, Constitutional +Democrats. Its official name is “Party of the People’s +Freedom.” Under the Tsar composed of Liberals from the propertied +classes, the <i>Cadets</i> were the great party of <i>political</i> reform, +roughly corresponding to the Progressive Party in America. When the Revolution +broke out in March, 1917, the <i>Cadets</i> formed the first Provisional +Government. The <i>Cadet</i> Ministry was overthrown in April because it +declared itself in favour of Allied imperialistic aims, including the +imperialistic aims of the Tsar’s Government. As the Revolution became +more and more a <i>social economic</i> Revolution, the <i>Cadets</i> grew more +and more conservative. Its representatives in this book are: Miliukov, Vinaver, +Shatsky. +</p> + +<p> +2a. <i>Group of Public Men.</i> After the <i>Cadets</i> had become unpopular +through their relations with the Kornilov counter-revolution, the <i>Group of +Public Men</i> was formed in Moscow. Delegates from the <i>Group of Public +Men</i> were given portfolios in the last Kerensky Cabinet. The <i>Group</i> +declared itself non-partisan, although its intellectual leaders were men like +Rodzianko and Shulgin. It was composed of the more “modern” +bankers, merchants and manufacturers, who were intelligent enough to realise +that the Soviets must be fought by their own weapon—economic +organisation. Typical of the <i>Group:</i> Lianozov, Konovalov. +</p> + +<p> +3. <i>Populist Socialists,</i> or <i>Trudoviki</i> (Labour Group). Numerically +a small party, composed of cautious intellectuals, the leaders of the +Cooperative societies, and conservative peasants. Professing to be Socialists, +the <i>Populists</i> really supported the interests of the petty +bourgeoisie—clerks, shopkeepers, etc. By direct descent, inheritors of +the compromising tradition of the Labour Group in the Fourth Imperial Duma, +which was composed largely of peasant representatives. Kerensky was the leader +of the <i>Trudoviki</i> in the Imperial Duma when the Revolution of March, +1917, broke out. The <i>Populist Socialists</i> are a nationalistic party. +Their representatives in this book are: Peshekhanov, Tchaikovsky. +</p> + +<p> +4. <i>Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.</i> Originally Marxian +Socialists. At a party congress held in 1903, the party split, on the question +of tactics, into two factions—the Majority (Bolshinstvo), and the +Minority (Menshinstvo). From this sprang the names “Bolsheviki” and +“Mensheviki”—“members of the majority” and +“members of the minority.” These two wings became two separate +parties, both calling themselves “Russian Social Democratic Labour +Party,” and both professing to be Marxians. Since the Revolution of 1905 +the Bolsheviki were really the minority, becoming again the majority in +September, 1917. +</p> + +<p> +a. <i>Mensheviki.</i> This party includes all shades of Socialists who believe +that society must progress by natural evolution toward Socialism, and that the +working-class must conquer political power first. Also a nationalistic party. +This was the party of the Socialist intellectuals, which means: all the means +of education having been in the hands of the propertied classes, the +intellectuals instinctively reacted to their training, and took the side of the +propertied classes. Among their representatives in this book are: Dan, Lieber, +Tseretelli. +</p> + +<p> +b. <i>Mensheviki Internationalists.</i> The radical wing of the +<i>Mensheviki,</i> internationalists and opposed to all coalition with the +propertied classes; yet unwilling to break loose from the conservative +Mensheviki, and opposed to the dictatorship of the working-class advocated by +the Bolsheviki. Trotzky was long a member of this group. Among their leaders: +Martov, Martinov. +</p> + +<p> +c. <i>Bolsheviki.</i> Now call themselves the <i>Communist Party,</i> in order +to emphasise their complete separation from the tradition of +“moderate” or “parliamentary” Socialism, which +dominates the Mensheviki and the so-called Majority Socialists in all +countries. The <i>Bolsheviki</i> proposed immediate proletarian insurrection, +and seizure of the reins of Government, in order to hasten the coming of +Socialism by forcibly taking over industry, land, natural resources and +financial institutions. This party expresses the desires chiefly of the factory +workers, but also of a large section of the poor peasants. The name +“Bolshevik” can <i>not</i> be translated by +“Maximalist.” The Maximalists are a separate group. (See paragraph +5b). Among the leaders: Lenin, Trotzky, Lunatcharsky. +</p> + +<p> +d. <i>United Social Democrats Internationalists.</i> Also called the <i>Novaya +Zhizn</i> (New Life) group, from the name of the very influential newspaper +which was its organ. A little group of intellectuals with a very small +following among the working-class, except the personal following of Maxim +Gorky, its leader. Intellectuals, with almost the same programme as the +<i>Mensheviki Internationalists,</i> except that the <i>Novaya Zhizn</i> group +refused to be tied to either of the two great factions. Opposed the Bolshevik +tactics, but remained in the Soviet Government. Other representatives in this +book: Avilov, Kramarov. +</p> + +<p> +e. <i>Yedinstvo.</i> A very small and dwindling group, composed almost entirely +of the personal following of Plekhanov, one of the pioneers of the Russian +Social Democratic movement in the 80’s, and its greatest theoretician. +Now an old man, Plekhanov was extremely patriotic, too conservative even for +the Mensheviki. After the Bolshevik <i>coup d’etat, Yedinstvo</i> +disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +5. <i>Socialist Revolutionary party.</i> Called <i>Essaires</i> from the +initials of their name. Originally the revolutionary party of the peasants, the +party of the Fighting Organisations—the Terrorists. After the March +Revolution, it was joined by many who had never been Socialists. At that time +it stood for the abolition of private property in land only, the owners to be +compensated in some fashion. Finally the increasing revolutionary feeling of +peasants forced the <i>Essaires</i> to abandon the “compensation” +clause, and led to the younger and more fiery intellectuals breaking off from +the main party in the fall of 1917 and forming a new party, the <i>Left +Socialist Revolutionary party.</i> The <i>Essaires,</i> who were afterward +always called by the radical groups <i>“Right Socialist +Revolutionaries,”</i> adopted the political attitude of the Mensheviki, +and worked together with them. They finally came to represent the wealthier +peasants, the intellectuals, and the politically uneducated populations of +remote rural districts. Among them there was, however, a wider difference of +shades of political and economic opinion than among the Mensheviki. Among their +leaders mentioned in these pages: Avksentiev, Gotz, Kerensky, Tchernov, +“Babuschka” Breshkovskaya. +</p> + +<p> +a. <i>Left Socialist Revolutionaries.</i> Although theoretically sharing the +Bolshevik programme of dictatorship of the working-class, at first were +reluctant to follow the ruthless Bolshevik tactics. However, the <i>Left +Socialist Revolutionaries</i> remained in the Soviet Government, sharing the +Cabinet portfolios, especially that of Agriculture. They withdrew from the +Government several times, but always returned. As the peasants left the ranks +of the <i>Essaires</i> in increasing numbers, they joined the <i>Left Socialist +Revolutionary party,</i> which became the great peasant party supporting the +Soviet Government, standing for confiscation without compensation of the great +landed estates, and their disposition by the peasants themselves. Among the +leaders: Spiridonova, Karelin, Kamkov, Kalagayev. +</p> + +<p> +b. <i>Maximalists.</i> An off-shoot of the <i>Socialist Revolutionary party</i> +in the Revolution of 1905, when it was a powerful peasant movement, demanding +the immediate application of the maximum Socialist programme. Now an +insignificant group of peasant anarchists. +</p> + +<h3>Parliamentary Procedure</h3> + +<p> +Russian meetings and conventions are organised after the continental model +rather than our own. The first action is usually the election of officers and +the <i>presidium.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The <i>presidium</i> is a presiding committee, composed of representatives of +the groups and political factions represented in the assembly, in proportion to +their numbers. The <i>presidium</i> arranges the Order of Business, and its +members can be called upon by the President to take the chair <i>pro tem.</i> +</p> + +<p> +Each question (<i>vopros</i>) is stated in a general way and then debated, and +at the close of the debate resolutions are submitted by the different factions, +and each one voted on separately. The Order of Business can be, and usually is, +smashed to pieces in the first half hour. On the plea of +“emergency,” which the crowd almost always grants, anybody from the +floor can get up and say anything on any subject. The crowd controls the +meeting, practically the only functions of the speaker being to keep order by +ringing a little bell, and to recognise speakers. Almost all the real work of +the session is done in caucuses of the different groups and political factions, +which almost always cast their votes in a body and are represented by +floor-leaders. The result is, however, that at every important new point, or +vote, the session takes a recess to enable the different groups and political +factions to hold a caucus. +</p> + +<p> +The crowd is extremely noisy, cheering or heckling speakers, over-riding the +plans of the <i>presidium.</i> Among the customary cries are: +<i>“Prosim!</i> Please! Go on!” <i>“Pravilno!”</i> or +<i>“Eto vierno!</i> That’s true! Right!” <i>“Do +volno!</i> Enough!” <i>“Doloi!</i> Down with him!” +<i>“Posor!</i> Shame!” and <i>“Teesche!</i> Silence! Not so +noisy!” +</p> + +<h3>Popular Organisations</h3> + +<p> +1. <i>Soviet.</i> The word <i>soviet</i> means “council.” Under the +Tsar the Imperial Council of State was called <i>Gosudarstvennyi Soviet.</i> +Since the Revolution, however, the term <i>Soviet</i> has come to be associated +with a certain type of parliament elected by members of working-class economic +organisations—the Soviet of Workers’, of Soldiers’, or of +Peasants’ Deputies. I have therefore limited the word to these bodies, +and wherever else it occurs I have translated it “Council.” +</p> + +<p> +Besides the local <i>Soviets,</i> elected in every city, town and village of +Russia—and in large cities, also Ward <i>(Raionny) +Soviets</i>—there are also the <i>oblastne</i> or <i>gubiernsky</i> +(district or provincial) <i>Soviets,</i> and the Central Executive Committee of +the All-Russian <i>Soviets</i> in the capital, called from its initials +<i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> (See below, “Central Committees”). +</p> + +<p> +Almost everywhere the <i>Soviets</i> of Workers’ and of Soldiers’ +Deputies combined very soon after the March Revolution. In special matters +concerning their peculiar interests, however, the Workers’ and the +Soldiers’ Sections continued to meet separately. The <i>Soviets</i> of +Peasants’ Deputies did not join the other two until after the Bolshevik +<i>coup d’etat.</i> They, too, were organised like the workers and +soldiers, with an Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peasants’ +<i>Soviets</i> in the capital. +</p> + +<p> +2. <i>Trade Unions.</i> Although mostly industrial in form, the Russian labour +unions were still called Trade Unions, and at the time of the Bolshevik +Revolution had from three to four million members. These Unions were also +organised in an All-Russian body, a sort of Russian Federation of Labour, which +had its Central Executive Committee in the capital. +</p> + +<p> +3. <i>Factory-Shop Committees.</i> These were spontaneous organisations created +in the factories by the workers in their attempt to control industry, taking +advantage of the administrative break-down incident upon the Revolution. Their +function was by revolutionary action to take over and run the factories. The +<i>Factory-Shop Committees</i> also had their All-Russian organisation, with a +Central Committee at Petrograd, which co-operated with the Trade Unions. +</p> + +<p> +4. <i>Dumas.</i> The word <i>duma</i> means roughly “deliberative +body.” The old Imperial Duma, which persisted six months after the +Revolution, in a democratised form, died a natural death in September, 1917. +The <i>City Duma</i> referred to in this book was the reorganised Municipal +Council, often called “Municipal Self-Government.” It was elected +by direct and secret ballot, and its only reason for failure to hold the masses +during the Bolshevik Revolution was the general decline in influence of all +purely <i>political</i> representation in the fact of the growing power of +organisations based on <i>economic</i> groups. +</p> + +<p> +5. <i>Zemstvos.</i> May be roughly translated “county councils.” +Under the Tsar semi-political, semi-social bodies with very little +administrative power, developed and controlled largely by intellectual Liberals +among the land-owning classes. Their most important function was education and +social service among the peasants. During the war the <i>Zemstvos</i> gradually +took over the entire feeding and clothing of the Russian Army, as well as the +buying from foreign countries, and work among the soldiers generally +corresponding to the work of the American Y. M. C. A. at the Front. After the +March Revolution the <i>Zemstvos</i> were democratized, with a view to making +them the organs of local government in the rural districts. But like the +<i>City Dumas,</i> they could not compete with the <i>Soviets.</i> +</p> + +<p> +6. <i>Cooperatives.</i> These were the workers’ and peasants’ +Consumers’ Cooperative societies, which had several million members all +over Russia before the Revolution. Founded by Liberals and +“moderate” Socialists, the Cooperative movement was not supported +by the revolutionary Socialist groups, because it was a substitute for the +complete transference of means of production and distribution into the hands of +the workers. After the March Revolution the <i>Cooperatives</i> spread rapidly, +and were dominated by Populist Socialists, Mensheviki and Socialist +Revolutionaries, and acted as a conservative political force until the +Bolshevik Revolution. However, it was the <i>Cooperatives</i> which fed Russia +when the old structure of commerce and transportation collapsed. +</p> + +<p> +7. <i>Army Committees.</i> The <i>Army Committees</i> were formed by the +soldiers at the front to combat the reactionary influence of the old regime +officers. Every company, regiment, brigade, division and corps had its +committee, over all of which was elected the <i>Army Committee.</i> The +<i>Central Army Committee</i> cooperated with the General Staff. The +administrative break-down in the army incident upon the Revolution threw upon +the shoulders of the <i>Army Committees</i> most of the work of the +Quartermaster’s Department, and in some cases, even the command of +troops. +</p> + +<p> +8. <i>Fleet Committees.</i> The corresponding organisations in the Navy. +</p> + +<h3>Central Committees</h3> + +<p> +In the spring and summer of 1917, All-Russian conventions of every sort of +organisation were held at Petrograd. There were national congresses of +Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Soviets, Trade Unions, +Factory-Shop Committees, Army and Fleet Committees—besides every branch +of the military and naval service, Cooperatives, Nationalities, etc. Each of +these conventions elected a Central Committee, or a Central Executive +Committee, to guard its particular interests at the seat of Government. As the +Provisional Government grew weaker, these Central Committees were forced to +assume more and more administrative powers. +</p> + +<p> +The most important Central Committees mentioned in this book are: +</p> + +<p> +<i>Union of Unions.</i> During the Revolution of 1905, Professor Miliukov and +other Liberals established unions of professional men—doctors, lawyers, +physicians, etc. These were united under one central organisation, the <i>Union +of Unions.</i> In 1905 the <i>Union of Unions</i> acted with the revolutionary +democracy; in 1917, however, the <i>Union of Unions</i> opposed the Bolshevik +uprising, and united the Government employees who went on strike against the +authority of the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. So called from the initials of its +name. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Tsentroflot.</i> “Centre-Fleet”—the Central Fleet +Committee. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Vikzhel.</i> All-Russian Central Committee of the Railway Workers’ +Union. So called from the initials of its name. +</p> + +<h3>Other Organisations</h3> + +<p> +<i>Red Guards.</i> The armed factory workers of Russia. The <i>Red Guards</i> +were first formed during the Revolution of 1905, and sprang into existence +again in the days of March, 1917, when a force was needed to keep order in the +city. At that time they were armed, and all efforts of the Provisional +Government to disarm them were more or less unsuccessful. At every great crisis +in the Revolution the <i>Red Guards</i> appeared on the streets, untrained and +undisciplined, but full of Revolutionary zeal. +</p> + +<p> +<i>White Guards.</i> Bourgeois volunteers, who emerged in the last stages of +the Revolution, to defend private property from the Bolshevik attempt to +abolish it. A great many of them were University students. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Tekhintsi.</i> The so-called “Savage Division” in the army, made +up of Mohametan tribesmen from Central Asia, and personally devoted to General +Kornilov. The <i>Tekhintsi</i> were noted for their blind obedience and their +savage cruelty in warfare. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Death Battalions.</i> Or <i>Shock Battalions.</i> The Women’s +Battalion is known to the world as the <i>Death Battalion,</i> but there were +many <i>Death Battalions</i> composed of men. These were formed in the summer +of 1917 by Kerensky, for the purpose of strengthening the discipline and +combative fire of the army by heroic example. The <i>Death Battalions</i> were +composed mostly of intense young patriots. These came for the most part from +among the sons of the propertied classes. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Union of Officers.</i> An organisation formed among the reactionary officers +in the army to combat politically the growing power of the Army Committees. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Knights of St. George.</i> The Cross of St. George was awarded for +distinguished action in battle. Its holder automatically became a +<i>“Knight of St. George.”</i> The predominant influence in the +organisation was that of the supporters of the military idea. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Peasants’ Union.</i> In 1905, the <i>Peasants’ Union</i> was a +revolutionary peasants’ organisation. In 1917, however, it had become the +political expression of the more prosperous peasants, to fight the growing +power and revolutionary aims of the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies. +</p> + +<h3>Chronology and Spelling</h3> + +<p> +I have adopted in this book our Calendar throughout, instead of the former +Russian Calendar, which was thirteen days earlier. +</p> + +<p> +In the spelling of Russian names and words, I have made no attempt to follow +any scientific rules for transliteration, but have tried to give the spelling +which would lead the English-speaking reader to the simplest approximation of +their pronunciation. +</p> + +<h3>Sources</h3> + +<p> +Much of the material in this book is from my own notes. I have also relied, +however, upon a heterogeneous file of several hundred assorted Russian +newspapers, covering almost every day of the time described, of files of the +English paper, the <i>Russian Daily News,</i> and of the two French papers, +<i>Journal de Russie</i> and <i>Entente.</i> But far more valuable than these +is the <i>Bulletin de la Presse</i> issued daily by the French Information +Bureau in Petrograd, which reports all important happenings, speeches and the +comment of the Russian press. Of this I have an almost complete file from the +spring of 1917 to the end of January, 1918. +</p> + +<p> +Besides the foregoing, I have in my possession almost every proclamation, +decree and announcement posted on the walls of Petrograd from the middle of +September, 1917, to the end of January, 1918. Also the official publication of +all Government decrees and orders, and the official Government publication of +the secret treaties and other documents discovered in the Ministry of Foreign +Affairs when the Bolsheviki took it over. +</p> + +<p> +Ten Days That Shook The World +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>Chapter I<br /> +Background</h2> + +<p> +Toward the end of September, 1917, an alien Professor of Sociology visiting +Russia came to see me in Petrograd. He had been informed by business men and +intellectuals that the Revolution was slowing down. The Professor wrote an +article about it, and then travelled around the country, visiting factory towns +and peasant communities—where, to his astonishment, the Revolution seemed +to be speeding up. Among the wage-earners and the land-working people it was +common to hear talk of “all land to the peasants, all factories to the +workers.” If the Professor had visited the front, he would have heard the +whole Army talking Peace…. +</p> + +<p> +The Professor was puzzled, but he need not have been; both observations were +correct. The property-owning classes were becoming more conservative, the +masses of the people more radical. +</p> + +<p> +There was a feeling among business men and the <i>intelligentzia</i> generally +that the Revolution had gone quite far enough, and lasted too long; that things +should settle down. This sentiment was shared by the dominant +“moderate” Socialist groups, the <i>oborontsi</i> (See App. I, +Sect. 1) Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, who supported the +Provisional Government of Kerensky. +</p> + +<p> +On October 14th the official organ of the “moderate” Socialists +said: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +The drama of Revolution has two acts; the destruction of the old régime and the +creation of the new one. The first act has lasted long enough. Now it is time +to go on to the second, and to play it as rapidly as possible. As a great +revolutionist put it, “Let us hasten, friends, to terminate the +Revolution. He who makes it last too long will not gather the fruits….” +</p> + +<p> +Among the worker, soldier and peasant masses, however, there was a stubborn +feeling that the “first act” was not yet played out. On the front +the Army Committees were always running foul of officers who could not get used +to treating their men like human beings; in the rear the Land Committees +elected by the peasants were being jailed for trying to carry out Government +regulations concerning the land; and the workmen (See App. I, Sect. 2) in the +factories were fighting black-lists and lockouts. Nay, furthermore, returning +political exiles were being excluded from the country as +“undesirable” citizens; and in some cases, men who returned from +abroad to their villages were prosecuted and imprisoned for revolutionary acts +committed in 1905. +</p> + +<p> +To the multiform discontent of the people the “moderate” Socialists +had one answer: Wait for the Constituent Assembly, which is to meet in +December. But the masses were not satisfied with that. The Constituent Assembly +was all well and good; but there were certain definite things for which the +Russian Revolution had been made, and for which the revolutionary martyrs +rotted in their stark Brotherhood Grave on Mars Field, that must be achieved +Constituent Assembly or no Constituent Assembly: Peace, Land, and +Workers’ Control of Industry. The Constituent Assembly had been postponed +and postponed—would probably be postponed again, until the people were +calm enough—perhaps to modify their demands! At any rate, here were eight +months of the Revolution gone, and little enough to show for it…. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the soldiers began to solve the peace question by simply deserting, +the peasants burned manor-houses and took over the great estates, the workers +sabotaged and struck…. Of course, as was natural, the manufacturers, +land-owners and army officers exerted all their influence against any +democratic compromise…. +</p> + +<p> +The policy of the Provisional Government alternated between ineffective reforms +and stern repressive measures. An edict from the Socialist Minister of Labour +ordered all the Workers’ Committees henceforth to meet only after working +hours. Among the troops at the front, “agitators” of opposition +political parties were arrested, radical newspapers closed down, and capital +punishment applied—to revolutionary propagandists. Attempts were made to +disarm the Red Guard. Cossacks were sent to keep order in the provinces…. +</p> + +<p> +These measures were supported by the “moderate” Socialists and +their leaders in the Ministry, who considered it necessary to cooperate with +the propertied classes. The people rapidly deserted them, and went over to the +Bolsheviki, who stood for Peace, Land, and Workers’ Control of Industry, +and a Government of the working-class. In September, 1917, matters reached a +crisis. Against the overwhelming sentiment of the country, Kerensky and the +“moderate” Socialists succeeded in establishing a Government of +Coalition with the propertied classes; and as a result, the Mensheviki and +Socialist Revolutionaries lost the confidence of the people forever. +</p> + +<p> +An article in <i>Rabotchi Put</i> (Workers’ Way) about the middle of +October, entitled “The Socialist Ministers,” expressed the feeling +of the masses of the people against the “moderate” Socialists: +</p> + +<p> +Here is a list of their services.(See App. I, Sect. 3) +</p> + +<p> +Tseretelli: disarmed the workmen with the assistance of General Polovtsev, +checkmated the revolutionary soldiers, and approved of capital punishment in +the army. +</p> + +<p> +Skobeliev: commenced by trying to tax the capitalists 100% of their profits, +and finished—and finished by an attempt to dissolve the Workers’ +Committees in the shops and factories. +</p> + +<p> +Avksentiev: put several hundred peasants in prison, members of the Land +Committees, and suppressed dozens of workers’ and soldiers’ +newspapers. +</p> + +<p> +Tchernov: signed the “Imperial” manifest, ordering the dissolution +of the Finnish Diet. +</p> + +<p> +Savinkov: concluded an open alliance with General Kornilov. If this saviour of +the country was not able to betray Petrograd, it was due to reasons over which +he had no control. +</p> + +<p> +Zarudny: with the sanction of Alexinsky and Kerensky, put some of the best +workers of the Revolution, soldiers and sailors, in prison. +</p> + +<p> +Nikitin: acted as a vulgar policeman against the Railway Workers. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky: it is better not to say anything about him. The list of his services +is too long…. +</p> + +<p> +A Congress of delegates of the Baltic Fleet, at Helsingfors, passed a +resolution which began as follows: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +We demand the immediate removal from the ranks of the Provisional Government of +the “Socialist,” the political adventurer—Kerensky, as one +who is scandalising and ruining the great Revolution, and with it the +revolutionary masses, by his shameless political blackmail on behalf of the +bourgeoisie…. +</p> + +<p> +The direct result of all this was the rise of the Bolsheviki…. +</p> + +<p> +Since March, 1917, when the roaring torrents of workmen and soldiers beating +upon the Tauride Palace compelled the reluctant Imperial Duma to assume the +supreme power in Russia, it was the masses of the people, workers, soldiers and +peasants, which forced every change in the course of the Revolution. They +hurled the Miliukov Ministry down; it was their Soviet which proclaimed to the +world the Russian peace terms—“No annexations, no indemnities, and +the right of self-determination of peoples”; and again, in July, it was +the spontaneous rising of the unorganised proletariat which once more stormed +the Tauride Palace, to demand that the Soviets take over the Government of +Russia. +</p> + +<p> +The Bolsheviki, then a small political sect, put themselves at the head of the +movement. As a result of the disastrous failure of the rising, public opinion +turned against them, and their leaderless hordes slunk back into the Viborg +Quarter, which is Petrograd’s <i>St. Antoine.</i> Then followed a savage +hunt of the Bolsheviki; hundreds were imprisoned, among them Trotzky, Madame +Kollontai and Kameniev; Lenin and Zinoviev went into hiding, fugitives from +justice; the Bolshevik papers were suppressed. Provocators and reactionaries +raised the cry that the Bolsheviki were German agents, until people all over +the world believed it. +</p> + +<p> +But the Provisional Government found itself unable to substantiate its +accusations; the documents proving pro-German conspiracy were discovered to be +forgeries;[1] and one by one the Bolsheviki were released from prison without +trial, on nominal or no bail-until only six remained. The impotence and +indecision of the ever-changing Provisional Government was an argument nobody +could refute. The Bolsheviki raised again the slogan so dear to the masses, +“All Power to the Soviets!”—and they were not merely +self-seeking, for at that time the majority of the Soviets was +“moderate” Socialist, their bitter enemy. +</p> + +<p> +[1] Part of the famous “Sisson Documents”. +</p> + +<p> +But more potent still, they took the crude, simple desires of the workers, +soldiers and peasants, and from them built their immediate programme. And so, +while the <i>oborontsi</i> Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries involved +themselves in compromise with the bourgeoisie, the Bolsheviki rapidly captured +the Russian masses. In July they were hunted and despised; by September the +metropolitan workmen, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, and the soldiers, had +been won almost entirely to their cause. The September municipal elections in +the large cities (See App. I, Sect. 4) were significant; only 18 per cent of +the returns were Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary, against more than 70 +per cent in June…. +</p> + +<p> +There remains a phenomenon which puzzled foreign observers: the fact that the +Central Executive Committees of the Soviets, the Central Army and Fleet +Committees,[2] and the Central Committees of some of the Unions—notably, +the Post and Telegraph Workers and the Railway Workers—opposed the +Bolsheviki with the utmost violence. These Central Committees had all been +elected in the middle of the summer, or even before, when the Mensheviki and +Socialist Revolutionaries had an enormous following; and they delayed or +prevented any new elections. Thus, according to the constitution of the Soviets +of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the All-Russian Congress +<i>should have been called in September;</i> but the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i>[2] +would not call the meeting, on the ground that the Constituent Assembly was +only two months away, at which time, they hinted, the Soviets would abdicate. +Meanwhile, one by one, the Bolsheviki were winning in the local Soviets all +over the country, in the Union branches and the ranks of the soldiers and +sailors. The Peasants’ Soviets remained still conservative, because in +the sluggish rural districts political consciousness developed slowly, and the +Socialist Revolutionary party had been for a generation the party which had +agitated among the peasants…. But even among the peasants a revolutionary wing +was forming. It showed itself clearly in October, when the left wing of the +Socialist Revolutionaries split off, and formed a new political faction, the +Left Socialist Revolutionaries. +</p> + +<p> +[2] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +At the same time there were signs everywhere that the forces of reaction were +gaining confidence.(See App. I, Sect. 5) At the Troitsky Farce theatre in +Petrograd, for example, a burlesque called <i>Sins of the Tsar</i> was +interrupted by a group of Monarchists, who threatened to lynch the actors for +“insulting the Emperor.” Certain newspapers began to sigh for a +“Russian Napoleon.” It was the usual thing among bourgeois +<i>intelligentzia</i> to refer to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies +(Rabotchikh Deputatov) as <i>Sabatchikh</i> Deputatov—Dogs’ +Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +On October 15th I had a conversation with a great Russian capitalist, Stepan +Georgevitch Lianozov, known as the “Russian Rockefeller”—a +Cadet by political faith. +</p> + +<p> +“Revolution,” he said, “is a sickness. Sooner or later the +foreign powers must intervene here—as one would intervene to cure a sick +child, and teach it how to walk. Of course it would be more or less improper, +but the nations must realise the danger of Bolshevism in their own +countries—such contagious ideas as ‘proletarian +dictatorship,’ and ‘world social revolution’… There is a +chance that this intervention may not be necessary. Transportation is +demoralised, the factories are closing down, and the Germans are advancing. +Starvation and defeat may bring the Russian people to their senses….” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Lianozov was emphatic in his opinion that whatever happened, it would be +impossible for merchants and manufacturers to permit the existence of the +workers’ Shop Committees, or to allow the workers any share in the +management of industry. +</p> + +<p> +“As for the Bolsheviki, they will be done away with by one of two +methods. The Government can evacuate Petrograd, then a state of siege declared, +and the military commander of the district can deal with these gentlemen +without legal formalities…. <i>Or if, for example, the Constituent Assembly +manifests any Utopian tendencies, it can be dispersed by force of +arms….”</i> +</p> + +<p> +Winter was coming on—the terrible Russian winter. I heard business men +speak of it so: “Winter was always Russia’s best friend. Perhaps +now it will rid us of Revolution.” On the freezing front miserable armies +continued to starve and die, without enthusiasm. The railways were breaking +down, food lessening, factories closing. The desperate masses cried out that +the bourgeoisie was sabotaging the life of the people, causing defeat on the +Front. Riga had been surrendered just after General Kornilov said publicly, +“Must we pay with Riga the price of bringing the country to a sense of +its duty?”[3] +</p> + +<p> +[3] See “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk” by John Reed. Boni and +Liveright N.Y., 1919. +</p> + +<p> +To Americans it is incredible that the class war should develop to such a +pitch. But I have personally met officers on the Northern Front who frankly +preferred military disaster to cooperation with the Soldiers’ Committees. +The secretary of the Petrograd branch of the Cadet party told me that the +break-down of the country’s economic life was part of a campaign to +discredit the Revolution. An Allied diplomat, whose name I promised not to +mention, confirmed this from his own knowledge. I know of certain coal-mines +near Kharkov which were fired and flooded by their owners, of textile factories +at Moscow whose engineers put the machinery out of order when they left, of +railroad officials caught by the workers in the act of crippling locomotives…. +</p> + +<p> +A large section of the propertied classes preferred the Germans to the +Revolution—even to the Provisional Government—and didn’t +hesitate to say so. In the Russian household where I lived, the subject of +conversation at the dinner table was almost invariably the coming of the +Germans, bringing “law and order.”… One evening I spent at the +house of a Moscow merchant; during tea we asked the eleven people at the table +whether they preferred “Wilhelm or the Bolsheviki.” The vote was +ten to one for Wilhelm… +</p> + +<p> +The speculators took advantage of the universal disorganisation to pile up +fortunes, and to spend them in fantastic revelry or the corruption of +Government officials. Foodstuffs and fuel were hoarded, or secretly sent out of +the country to Sweden. In the first four months of the Revolution, for example, +the reserve food-supplies were almost openly looted from the great Municipal +warehouses of Petrograd, until the two-years’ provision of grain had +fallen to less than enough to feed the city for one month…. According to the +official report of the last Minister of Supplies in the Provisional Government, +coffee was bought wholesale in Vladivostok for two rubles a pound, and the +consumer in Petrograd paid thirteen. In all the stores of the large cities were +tons of food and clothing; but only the rich could buy them. +</p> + +<p> +In a provincial town I knew a merchant family turned +speculator—<i>maradior</i> (bandit, ghoul) the Russians call it. The +three sons had bribed their way out of military service. One gambled in +foodstuffs. Another sold illegal gold from the Lena mines to mysterious parties +in Finland. The third owned a controlling interest in a chocolate factory, +which supplied the local Cooperative societies—on condition that the +Cooperatives furnished him everything he needed. And so, while the masses of +the people got a quarter pound of black bread on their bread cards, he had an +abundance of white bread, sugar, tea, candy, cake and butter…. Yet when the +soldiers at the front could no longer fight from cold, hunger and exhaustion, +how indignantly did this family scream “Cowards!”—how +“ashamed” they were “to be Russians”… When finally the +Bolsheviki found and requisitioned vast hoarded stores of provisions, what +“Robbers” they were. +</p> + +<p> +Beneath all this external rottenness moved the old-time Dark Forces, unchanged +since the fall of Nicholas the Second, secret still and very active. The agents +of the notorious <i>Okhrana</i> still functioned, for and against the Tsar, for +and against Kerensky—whoever would pay…. In the darkness, underground +organisations of all sorts, such as the Black Hundreds, were busy attempting to +restore reaction in some form or other. +</p> + +<p> +In this atmosphere of corruption, of monstrous half-truths, one clear note +sounded day after day, the deepening chorus of the Bolsheviki, “All Power +to the Soviets! All power to the direct representatives of millions on millions +of common workers, soldiers, peasants. Land, bread, an end to the senseless +war, an end to secret diplomacy, speculation, treachery…. The Revolution is in +danger, and with it the cause of the people all over the world!” +</p> + +<p> +The struggle between the proletariat and the middle class, between the Soviets +and the Government, which had begun in the first March days, was about to +culminate. Having at one bound leaped from the Middle Ages into the twentieth +century, Russia showed the startled world two systems of Revolution—the +political and the social—in mortal combat. +</p> + +<p> +What a revelation of the vitality of the Russian Revolution, after all these +months of starvation and disillusionment! The bourgeoisie should have better +known its Russia. Not for a long time in Russia will the “sickness” +of Revolution have run its course…. +</p> + +<p> +Looking back, Russia before the November insurrection seems of another age, +almost incredibly conservative. So quickly did we adapt ourselves to the newer, +swifter life; just as Russian politics swung bodily to the Left—until the +Cadets were outlawed as “enemies of the people,” Kerensky became a +“counter-revolutionist,” the “middle” Socialist +leaders, Tseretelli, Dan, Lieber, Gotz and Avksentiev, were too reactionary for +their following, and men like Victor Tchernov, and even Maxim Gorky, belonged +to the Right Wing…. +</p> + +<p> +About the middle of December, 1917, a group of Socialist Revolutionary leaders +paid a private visit to Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador, and +implored him not to mention the fact that they had been there, because they +were “considered too far Right.” +</p> + +<p> +“And to think,” said Sir George. “One year ago my Government +instructed me not to receive Miliukov, because he was so dangerously +Left!” +</p> + +<p> +September and October are the worst months of the Russian year—especially +the Petrograd year. Under dull grey skies, in the shortening days, the rain +fell drenching, incessant. The mud underfoot was deep, slippery and clinging, +tracked everywhere by heavy boots, and worse than usual because of the complete +break-down of the Municipal administration. Bitter damp winds rushed in from +the Gulf of Finland, and the chill fog rolled through the streets. At night, +for motives of economy as well as fear of Zeppelins, the street-lights were few +and far between; in private dwellings and apartment-houses the electricity was +turned on from six o’clock until midnight, with candles forty cents +apiece and little kerosene to be had. It was dark from three in the afternoon +to ten in the morning. Robberies and housebreakings increased. In apartment +houses the men took turns at all-night guard duty, armed with loaded rifles. +This was under the Provisional Government. +</p> + +<p> +Week by week food became scarcer. The daily allowance of bread fell from a +pound and a half to a pound, then three quarters, half, and a quarter-pound. +Toward the end there was a week without any bread at all. Sugar one was +entitled to at the rate of two pounds a month—if one could get it at all, +which was seldom. A bar of chocolate or a pound of tasteless candy cost +anywhere from seven to ten rubles—at least a dollar. There was milk for +about half the babies in the city; most hotels and private houses never saw it +for months. In the fruit season apples and pears sold for a little less than a +ruble apiece on the street-corner…. +</p> + +<p> +For milk and bread and sugar and tobacco one had to stand in <i>queue</i> long +hours in the chill rain. Coming home from an all-night meeting I have seen the +<i>kvost</i> (tail) beginning to form before dawn, mostly women, some with +babies in their arms…. Carlyle, in his <i>French Revolution,</i> has described +the French people as distinguished above all others by their faculty of +standing in <i>queue.</i> Russia had accustomed herself to the practice, begun +in the reign of Nicholas the Blessed as long ago as 1915, and from then +continued intermittently until the summer of 1917, when it settled down as the +regular order of things. Think of the poorly-clad people standing on the +iron-white streets of Petrograd whole days in the Russian winter! I have +listened in the bread-lines, hearing the bitter, acrid note of discontent which +from time to time burst up through the miraculous goodnature of the Russian +crowd…. +</p> + +<p> +Of course all the theatres were going every night, including Sundays. Karsavina +appeared in a new Ballet at the Marinsky, all dance-loving Russia coming to see +her. Shaliapin was singing. At the Alexandrinsky they were reviving +Meyerhold’s production of Tolstoy’s “Death of Ivan the +Terrible”; and at that performance I remember noticing a student of the +Imperial School of Pages, in his dress uniform, who stood up correctly between +the acts and faced the empty Imperial box, with its eagles all erased…. The +<i>Krivoye Zerkalo</i> staged a sumptuous version of Schnitzler’s +“Reigen.” +</p> + +<p> +Although the Hermitage and other picture galleries had been evacuated to +Moscow, there were weekly exhibitions of paintings. Hordes of the female +<i>intelligentzia</i> went to hear lectures on Art, Literature and the Easy +Philosophies. It was a particularly active season for Theosophists. And the +Salvation Army, admitted to Russia for the first time in history, plastered the +walls with announcements of gospel meetings, which amused and astounded Russian +audiences…. +</p> + +<p> +As in all such times, the petty conventional life of the city went on, ignoring +the Revolution as much as possible. The poets made verses—but not about +the Revolution. The realistic painters painted scenes from mediæval Russian +history—anything but the Revolution. Young ladies from the provinces came +up to the capital to learn French and cultivate their voices, and the gay young +beautiful officers wore their gold-trimmed crimson <i>bashliki</i> and their +elaborate Caucasian swords around the hotel lobbies. The ladies of the minor +bureaucratic set took tea with each other in the afternoon, carrying each her +little gold or silver or jewelled sugar-box, and half a loaf of bread in her +muff, and wished that the Tsar were back, or that the Germans would come, or +anything that would solve the servant problem…. The daughter of a friend of +mine came home one afternoon in hysterics because the woman street-car +conductor had called her “Comrade!” +</p> + +<p> +All around them great Russia was in travail, bearing a new world. The servants +one used to treat like animals and pay next to nothing, were getting +independent. A pair of shoes cost more than a hundred rubles, and as wages +averaged about thirty-five rubles a month the servants refused to stand in +<i>queue</i> and wear out their shoes. But more than that. In the new Russia +every man and woman could vote; there were working-class newspapers, saying new +and startling things; there were the Soviets; and there were the Unions. The +<i>izvoshtchiki</i> (cab-drivers) had a Union; they were also represented in +the Petrograd Soviet. The waiters and hotel servants were organised, and +refused tips. On the walls of restaurants they put up signs which read, +“No tips taken here—” or, “Just because a man has to +make his living waiting on table is no reason to insult him by offering him a +tip!” +</p> + +<p> +At the Front the soldiers fought out their fight with the officers, and learned +self-government through their committees. In the factories those unique Russian +organisations, the Factory-Shop Committees,[4] gained experience and strength +and a realisation of their historical mission by combat with the old order. All +Russia was learning to read, and <i>reading</i>—politics, economics, +history—because the people wanted to <i>know….</i> In every city, in most +towns, along the Front, each political faction had its +newspaper—sometimes several. Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets were +distributed by thousands of organisations, and poured into the armies, the +villages, the factories, the streets. The thirst for education, so long +thwarted, burst with the Revolution into a frenzy of expression. From Smolny +Institute alone, the first six months, went out every day tons, car-loads, +train-loads of literature, saturating the land. Russia absorbed reading matter +like hot sand drinks water, insatiable. And it was not fables, falsified +history, diluted religion, and the cheap fiction that corrupts—but social +and economic theories, philosophy, the works of Tolstoy, Gogol, and Gorky…. +</p> + +<p> +[4] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +Then the Talk, beside which Carlyle’s “flood of French +speech” was a mere trickle. Lectures, debates, speeches—in +theatres, circuses, school-houses, clubs, Soviet meeting-rooms, Union +headquarters, barracks…. Meetings in the trenches at the Front, in village +squares, factories…. What a marvellous sight to see Putilovsky Zavod (the +Putilov factory) pour out its forty thousand to listen to Social Democrats, +Socialist Revolutionaries, Anarchists, anybody, whatever they had to say, as +long as they would talk! For months in Petrograd, and all over Russia, every +street-corner was a public tribune. In railway trains, street-cars, always the +spurting up of impromptu debate, everywhere…. +</p> + +<p> +And the All-Russian Conferences and Congresses, drawing together the men of two +continents—conventions of Soviets, of Cooperatives, Zemstvos,[5] +nationalities, priests, peasants, political parties; the Democratic Conference, +the Moscow Conference, the Council of the Russian Republic. There were always +three or four conventions going on in Petrograd. At every meeting, attempts to +limit the time of speakers voted down, and every man free to express the +thought that was in him…. +</p> + +<p> +[5] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +We came down to the front of the Twelfth Army, back of Riga, where gaunt and +bootless men sickened in the mud of desperate trenches; and when they saw us +they started up, with their pinched faces and the flesh showing blue through +their torn clothing, demanding eagerly, “Did you bring anything to +<i>read?”</i> +</p> + +<p> +What though the outward and visible signs of change were many, what though the +statue of Catharine the Great before the Alexandrinsky Theatre bore a little +red flag in its hand, and others—somewhat faded—floated from all +public buildings; and the Imperial monograms and eagles were either torn down +or covered up; and in place of the fierce <i>gorodovoye</i> (city police) a +mild-mannered and unarmed citizen militia patrolled the streets—still, +there were many quaint anachronisms. +</p> + +<p> +For example, Peter the Great’s _Tabel o Rangov—_Table of +Ranks—which he rivetted upon Russia with an iron hand, still held sway. +Almost everybody from the school-boy up wore his prescribed uniform, with the +insignia of the Emperor on button and shoulder-strap. Along about five +o’clock in the afternoon the streets were full of subdued old gentlemen +in uniform, with portfolios, going home from work in the huge, barrack-like +Ministries or Government institutions, calculating perhaps how great a +mortality among their superiors would advance them to the coveted <i>tchin</i> +(rank) of Collegiate Assessor, or Privy Councillor, with the prospect of +retirement on a comfortable pension, and possibly the Cross of St. Anne…. +</p> + +<p> +There is the story of Senator Sokolov, who in full tide of Revolution came to a +meeting of the Senate one day in civilian clothes, and was not admitted because +he did not wear the prescribed livery of the Tsar’s service! +</p> + +<p> +It was against this background of a whole nation in ferment and disintegration +that the pageant of the Rising of the Russian Masses unrolled…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>Chapter II<br /> +The Coming Storm</h2> + +<p> +In September General Kornilov marched on Petrograd to make himself military +dictator of Russia. Behind him was suddenly revealed the mailed fist of the +bourgeoisie, boldly attempting to crush the Revolution. Some of the Socialist +Ministers were implicated; even Kerensky was under suspicion. (See App. II, +Sect. 1) Savinkov, summoned to explain to the Central Committee of his party, +the Socialist Revolutionaries, refused and was expelled. Kornilov was arrested +by the Soldiers’ Committees. Generals were dismissed, Ministers suspended +from their functions, and the Cabinet fell. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky tried to form a new Government, including the Cadets, party of the +bourgeoisie. His party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, ordered him to exclude +the Cadets. Kerensky declined to obey, and threatened to resign from the +Cabinet if the Socialists insisted. However, popular feeling ran so high that +for the moment he did not dare oppose it, and a temporary Directorate of Five +of the old Ministers, with Kerensky at the head, assumed the power until the +question should be settled. +</p> + +<p> +The Kornilov affair drew together all the Socialist +groups—“moderates” as well as revolutionists—in a +passionate impulse of self-defence. There must be no more Kornilovs. A new +Government must be created, responsible to the elements supporting the +Revolution. So the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> invited the popular organisations to send +delegates to a Democratic Conference, which should meet at Petrograd in +September. +</p> + +<p> +In the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> three factions immediately appeared. The Bolsheviki +demanded that the All-Russian Congress of Soviets be summoned, and that they +take over the power. The “centre” Socialist Revolutionaries, led by +Tchernov, joined with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, led by Kamkov and +Spiridonova, the Mensheviki Internationalists under Martov, and the +“centre” Mensheviki,[6] represented by Bogdanov and Skobeliev, in +demanding a purely Socialist Government. Tseretelli, Dan and Lieber, at the +head of the right wing Mensheviki, and the right Socialist Revolutionaries +under Avksentiev and Gotz, insisted that the propertied classes must be +represented in the new Government. +</p> + +<p> +[6] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +Almost immediately the Bolsheviki won a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, and +the Soviets of Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and other cities followed suit. +</p> + +<p> +Alarmed, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries in control of the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> decided that after all they feared the danger of Kornilov +less than the danger of Lenin. They revised the plan of representation in the +Democratic Conference, (See App. II, Sect. 2) admitting more delegates from the +Cooperative Societies and other conservative bodies. Even this packed assembly +at first voted for a <i>Coalition Government without the Cadets.</i> Only +Kerensky’s open threat of resignation, and the alarming cries of the +“moderate” Socialists that “the Republic is in danger” +persuaded the Conference, by a small majority, to declare in favour of the +principle of coalition with the bourgeoisie, and to sanction the establishment +of a sort of consultative Parliament, without any legislative power, called the +Provisional Council of the Russian Republic. In the new Ministry the propertied +classes practically controlled, and in the Council of the Russian Republic they +occupied a disproportionate number of seats. +</p> + +<p> +The fact is that the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> no longer represented the rank and file +of the Soviets, and had illegally refused to call another All-Russian Congress +of Soviets, due in September. It had no intention of calling this Congress or +of allowing it to be called. Its official organ, <i>Izviestia</i> (News), began +to hint that the function of the Soviets was nearly at an end, (See App. II, +Sect. 3) and that they might soon be dissolved… At this time, too, the new +Government announced as part of its policy the liquidation of +“irresponsible organisations”—i.e. the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +The Bolsheviki responded by summoning the All-Russian Soviets to meet at +Petrograd on November 2, and take over the Government of Russia. At the same +time they withdrew from the Council of the Russian Republic, stating that they +would not participate in a “Government of Treason to the People.” +(See App. II, Sect. 4) +</p> + +<p> +The withdrawal of the Bolsheviki, however, did not bring tranquillity to the +ill-fated Council. The propertied classes, now in a position of power, became +arrogant. The Cadets declared that the Government had no legal right to declare +Russia a republic. They demanded stern measures in the Army and Navy to destroy +the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Committees, and denounced the Soviets. +On the other side of the chamber the Mensheviki Internationalists and the Left +Socialist Revolutionaries advocated immediate peace, land to the peasants, and +workers’ control of industry—practically the Bolshevik programme. +</p> + +<p> +I heard Martov’s speech in answer to the Cadets. Stooped over the desk of +the tribune like the mortally sick man he was, and speaking in a voice so +hoarse it could hardly be heard, he shook his finger toward the right benches: +</p> + +<p> +“You call us defeatists; but the real defeatists are those who wait for a +more propitious moment to conclude peace, insist upon postponing peace until +later, until nothing is left of the Russian army, until Russia becomes the +subject of bargaining between the different imperialist groups…. You are trying +to impose upon the Russian people a policy dictated by the interests of the +bourgeoisie. The question of peace should be raised without delay…. You will +see then that not in vain has been the work of those whom you call German +agents, of those Zimmerwaldists[7] who in all the lands have prepared the +awakening of the conscience of the democratic masses….” +</p> + +<p> +[7] Members of the revoloutionary internationalist wing of the Socialists of +Europe, so-called because of their participation in the International +Conference held at Zimmerwald, Switzerland, in 1915. +</p> + +<p> +Between these two groups the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries wavered, +irresistibly forced to the left by the pressure of the rising dissatisfaction +of the masses. Deep hostility divided the chamber into irreconcilable groups. +</p> + +<p> +This was the situation when the long-awaited announcement of the Allied +Conference in Paris brought up the burning question of foreign policy…. +</p> + +<p> +Theoretically all Socialist parties in Russia were in favour of the earliest +possible peace on democratic terms. As long ago as May, 1917, the Petrograd +Soviet, then under control of the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, had +proclaimed the famous Russian peace-conditions. They had demanded that the +Allies hold a conference to discuss war-aims. This conference had been promised +for August; then postponed until September; then until October; and now it was +fixed for November 10th. +</p> + +<p> +The Provisional Government suggested two representatives—General +Alexeyev, reactionary military man, and Terestchenko, Minister of Foreign +Affairs. The Soviets chose Skobeliev to speak for them and drew up a manifesto, +the famous <i>nakaz</i>—(See App. II, Sect. 5) instructions. The +Provisional Government objected to Skobeliev and his <i>nakaz;</i> the Allied +ambassadors protested and finally Bonar Law in the British House of Commons, in +answer to a question, responded coldly, “As far as I know the Paris +Conference will not discuss the aims of the war at all, but only the methods of +conducting it….” +</p> + +<p> +At this the conservative Russian press was jubilant, and the Bolsheviki cried, +“See where the compromising tactics of the Mensheviki and Socialist +Revolutionaries have led them!” +</p> + +<p> +Along a thousand miles of front the millions of men in Russia’s armies +stirred like the sea rising, pouring into the capital their hundreds upon +hundreds of delegations, crying “Peace! Peace!” +</p> + +<p> +I went across the river to the Cirque Moderne, to one of the great popular +meetings which occurred all over the city, more numerous night after night. The +bare, gloomy amphitheatre, lit by five tiny lights hanging from a thin wire, +was packed from the ring up the steep sweep of grimy benches to the very +roof—soldiers, sailors, workmen, women, all listening as if their lives +depended upon it. A soldier was speaking—from the Five Hundred and +Forty-eight Division, wherever and whatever that was: +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades,” he cried, and there was real anguish in his drawn face +and despairing gestures. “The people at the top are always calling upon +us to sacrifice more, sacrifice more, while those who have everything are left +unmolested. +</p> + +<p> +“We are at war with Germany. Would we invite German generals to serve on +our Staff? Well we’re at war with the capitalists too, and yet we invite +them into our Government…. +</p> + +<p> +“The soldier says, ‘Show me what I am fighting for. Is it +Constantinople, or is it free Russia? Is it the democracy, or is it the +capitalist plunderers? If you can prove to me that I am defending the +Revolution then I’ll go out and fight without capital punishment to force +me.’ +</p> + +<p> +“When the land belongs to the peasants, and the factories to the workers, +and the power to the Soviets, then we’ll know we have something to fight +for, and we’ll fight for it!” +</p> + +<p> +In the barracks, the factories, on the street-corners, end less soldier +speakers, all clamouring for an end to the war, declaring that if the +Government did not make an energetic effort to get peace, the army would leave +the trenches and go home. +</p> + +<p> +The spokesman for the Eighth Army: +</p> + +<p> +“We are weak, we have only a few men left in each company. They must give +us food and boots and reinforcements, or soon there will be left only empty +trenches. Peace or supplies… either let the Government end the war or support +the Army….” +</p> + +<p> +For the Forty-sixth Siberian Artillery: +</p> + +<p> +“The officers will not work with our Committees, they betray us to the +enemy, they apply the death penalty to our agitators; and the +counter-revolutionary Government supports them. We thought that the Revolution +would bring peace. But now the Government forbids us even to talk of such +things, and at the same time doesn’t give us enough food to live on, or +enough ammunition to fight with….” +</p> + +<p> +From Europe came rumours of peace at the expense of Russia. (See App. II, Sect. +6)… +</p> + +<p> +News of the treatment of Russian troops in France added to the discontent. The +First Brigade had tried to replace its officers with Soldiers’ +Committees, like their comrades at home, and had refused an order to go to +Salonika, demanding to be sent to Russia. They had been surrounded and starved, +and then fired on by artillery, and many killed. (See App. II, Sect. 7)… +</p> + +<p> +On October 29th I went to the white-marble and crimson hall of the Marinsky +palace, where the Council of the Republic sat, to hear Terestchenko’s +declaration of the Government’s foreign policy, awaited with such +terrible anxiety by all the peace-thirsty and exhausted land. +</p> + +<p> +A tall, impeccably-dressed young man with a smooth face and high cheek-bones, +suavely reading his careful, non-committal speech. (See App. II, Sect. 8) +Nothing…. Only the same platitudes about crushing German militarism with the +help of the Allies—about the “state interests” of Russia, +about the “embarrassment” caused by Skobeliev’s <i>nakaz.</i> +He ended with the key-note: +</p> + +<p> +“Russia is a great power. Russia will remain a great power, whatever +happens. We must all defend her, we must show that we are defenders of a great +ideal, and children of a great power.” +</p> + +<p> +Nobody was satisfied. The reactionaries wanted a “strong” +imperialist policy; the democratic parties wanted an assurance that the +Government would press for peace…. I reproduce an editorial in <i>Rabotchi i +Soldat</i> (Worker and Soldier), organ of the Bolshevik Petrograd Soviet: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +THE GOVERNMENT’S ANSWER TO THE TRENCHES +</p> + +<p> +The most taciturn of our Ministers, Mr. Terestchenko, has actually told the +trenches the following: +</p> + +<p> +1. We are closely united with our Allies. (Not with the peoples, but with the +Governments.) +</p> + +<p> +2. There is no use for the democracy to discuss the possibility or +impossibility of a winter campaign. That will be decided by the Governments of +our Allies. +</p> + +<p> +3. The 1st of July offensive was beneficial and a very happy affair. (He did +not mention the consequences.) +</p> + +<p> +4. It is not true that our Allies do not care about us. The Minister has in his +possession very important declarations. (Declarations? What about deeds? What +about the behaviour of the British fleet? (See App. II, Sect. 9) The parleying +of the British king with exiled counter-revolutionary General Gurko? The +Minister did not mention all this.) +</p> + +<p> +5. The <i>nakaz</i> to Skobeliev is bad; the Allies don’t like it and the +Russian diplomats don’t like it. In the Allied Conference we must all +‘speak one language.’ +</p> + +<p> +And is that all? That is all. What is the way out? The solution is, faith in +the Allies and in Terestchenko. When will peace come? When the Allies permit. +</p> + +<p> +That is how the Government replied to the trenches about peace! +</p> + +<p> +Now in the background of Russian politics began to form the vague outlines of a +sinister power—the Cossacks. <i>Novaya Zhizn</i> (New Life), +Gorky’s paper, called attention to their activities: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +At the beginning of the Revolution the Cossacks refused to shoot down the +people. When Kornilov marched on Petrograd they refused to follow him. From +passive loyalty to the Revolution the Cossacks have passed to an active +political offensive (against it). From the back-ground of the Revolution they +have suddenly advanced to the front of the stage…. +</p> + +<p> +Kaledin, <i>ataman</i> of the Don Cossacks, had been dismissed by the +Provisional Government for his complicity in the Kornilov affair. He flatly +refused to resign, and surrounded by three immense Cossack armies lay at +Novotcherkask, plotting and menacing. So great was his power that the +Government was forced to ignore his insubordination. More than that, it was +compelled formally to recognise the Council of the Union of Cossack Armies, and +to declare illegal the newly-formed Cossack Section of the Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +In the first part of October a Cossack delegation called upon Kerensky, +arrogantly insisting that the charges against Kaledin be dropped, and +reproaching the Minister-President for yielding to the Soviets. Kerensky agreed +to let Kaledin alone, and then is reported to have said, “In the eyes of +the Soviet leaders I am a despot and a tyrant…. As for the Provisional +Government, not only does it not depend upon the Soviets, but it considers it +regrettable that they exist at all.” +</p> + +<p> +At the same time another Cossack mission called upon the British ambassador, +treating with him boldly as representatives of “the free Cossack +people.” +</p> + +<p> +In the Don something very like a Cossack Republic had been established. The +Kuban declared itself an independent Cossack State. The Soviets of +Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg were dispersed by armed Cossacks, and the +headquarters of the Coal Miners’ Union at Kharkov raided. In all its +manifestations the Cossack movement was anti-Socialist and militaristic. Its +leaders were nobles and great land-owners, like Kaledin, Kornilov, Generals +Dutov, Karaulov and Bardizhe, and it was backed by the powerful merchants and +bankers of Moscow…. +</p> + +<p> +Old Russia was rapidly breaking up. In Ukraine, in Finland, Poland, White +Russia, the nationalist movements gathered strength and became bolder. The +local Governments, controlled by the propertied classes, claimed autonomy, +refusing to obey orders from Petrograd. At Helsingfors the Finnish Senate +declined to loan money to the Provisional Government, declared Finland +autonomous, and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops. The bourgeois Rada +at Kiev extended the boundaries of Ukraine until they included all the richest +agricultural lands of South Russia, as far east as the Urals, and began the +formation of a national army. Premier Vinnitchenko hinted at a separate peace +with Germany—and the Provisional Government was helpless. Siberia, the +Caucasus, demanded separate Constituent Assemblies. And in all these countries +there was the beginning of a bitter struggle between the authorities and the +local Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies…. +</p> + +<p> +Conditions were daily more chaotic. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were +deserting the front and beginning to move in vast, aimless tides over the face +of the land. The peasants of Tambov and Tver Governments, tired of waiting for +the land, exasperated by the repressive measures of the Government, were +burning manor-houses and massacring land-owners. Immense strikes and lock-outs +convulsed Moscow, Odessa and the coal-mines of the Don. Transportation was +paralysed; the army was starving and in the big cities there was no bread. +</p> + +<p> +The Government, torn between the democratic and reactionary factions, could do +nothing: when forced to act it always supported the interests of the propertied +classes. Cossacks were sent to restore order among the peasants, to break the +strikes. In Tashkent, Government authorities suppressed the Soviet. In +Petrograd the Economic Council, established to rebuild the shattered economic +life of the country, came to a deadlock between the opposing forces of capital +and labour, and was dissolved by Kerensky. The old régime military men, backed +by Cadets, demanded that harsh measures be adopted to restore discipline in the +Army and the Navy. In vain Admiral Verderevsky, the venerable Minister of +Marine, and General Verkhovsky, Minister of War, insisted that only a new, +voluntary, democratic discipline, based on cooperation with the soldiers’ +and sailors’ Committees, could save the army and navy. Their +recommendations were ignored. +</p> + +<p> +The reactionaries seemed determined to provoke popular anger. The trial of +Kornilov was coming on. More and more openly the bourgeois press defended him, +speaking of him as “the great Russian patriot.” Burtzev’s +paper, <i>Obshtchee Dielo</i> (Common Cause), called for a dictatorship of +Kornilov, Kaledin and Kerensky! +</p> + +<p> +I had a talk with Burtzev one day in the press gallery of the Council of the +Republic. A small, stooped figure with a wrinkled face, eyes near-sighted +behind thick glasses, untidy hair and beard streaked with grey. +</p> + +<p> +“Mark my words, young man! What Russia needs is a Strong Man. We should +get our minds off the Revolution now and concentrate on the Germans. Bunglers, +bunglers, to defeat Kornilov; and back of the bunglers are the German agents. +Kornilov should have won….” +</p> + +<p> +On the extreme right the organs of the scarcely-veiled Monarchists, +Purishkevitch’s <i>Narodny Tribun</i> (People’s Tribune), <i>Novaya +Rus</i> (New Russia), and <i>Zhivoye Slovo</i> (Living Word), openly advocated +the extermination of the revolutionary democracy…. +</p> + +<p> +On the 23rd of October occurred the naval battle with a German squadron in the +Gulf of Riga. On the pretext that Petrograd was in danger, the Provisional +Government drew up plans for evacuating the capital. First the great munitions +works were to go, distributed widely throughout Russia; and then the Government +itself was to move to Moscow. Instantly the Bolsheviki began to cry out that +the Government was abandoning the Red Capital in order to weaken the +Revolution. Riga had been sold to the Germans; now Petrograd was being +betrayed! +</p> + +<p> +The bourgeois press was joyful. “At Moscow,” said the Cadet paper +<i>Ryetch</i> (Speech), “the Government can pursue its work in a tranquil +atmosphere, without being interfered with by anarchists.” Rodzianko, +leader of the right wing of the Cadet party, declared in <i>Utro Rossii</i> +(The Morning of Russia) that the taking of Petrograd by the Germans would be a +blessing, because it would destroy the Soviets and get rid of the revolutionary +Baltic Fleet: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Petrograd is in danger (he wrote). I say to myself, “Let God take care of +Petrograd.” They fear that if Petrograd is lost the central revolutionary +organisations will be destroyed. To that I answer that I rejoice if all these +organisations are destroyed; for they will bring nothing but disaster upon +Russia….<br /> + With the taking of Petrograd the Baltic Fleet will also be destroyed…. But +there will be nothing to regret; most of the battleships are completely +demoralised…. +</p> + +<p> +In the face of a storm of popular disapproval the plan of evacuation was +repudiated. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the Congress of Soviets loomed over Russia like a thunder-cloud, shot +through with lightnings. It was opposed, not only by the Government but by all +the “moderate” Socialists. The Central Army and Fleet Committees, +the Central Committees of some of the Trade Unions, the Peasants’ +Soviets, but most of all the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> itself, spared no pains to +prevent the meeting. <i>Izviestia</i> and <i>Golos Soldata</i> (Voice of the +Soldier), newspapers founded by the Petrograd Soviet but now in the hands of +the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> fiercely assailed it, as did the entire artillery of +the Socialist Revolutionary party press, <i>Dielo Naroda</i> (People’s +Cause) and <i>Volia Naroda</i> (People’s Will). +</p> + +<p> +Delegates were sent through the country, messages flashed by wire to committees +in charge of local Soviets, to Army Committees, instructing them to halt or +delay elections to the Congress. Solemn public resolutions against the +Congress, declarations that the democracy was opposed to the meeting so near +the date of the Constituent Assembly, representatives from the Front, from the +Union of Zemstvos, the Peasants’ Union, Union of Cossack Armies, Union of +Officers, Knights of St. George, Death Battalions,[8] protesting…. The Council +of the Russian Republic was one chorus of disapproval. The entire machinery set +up by the Russian Revolution of March functioned to block the Congress of +Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +[8] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand was the shapeless will of the proletariat—the workmen, +common soldiers and poor peasants. Many local Soviets were already Bolshevik; +then there were the organisations of the industrial workers, the +<i>Fabritchno-Zavodskiye Comitieti</i>—Factory-Shop Committees; and the +insurgent Army and Fleet organisations. In some places the people, prevented +from electing their regular Soviet delegates, held rump meetings and chose one +of their number to go to Petrograd. In others they smashed the old +obstructionist committees and formed new ones. A ground-swell of revolt heaved +and cracked the crust which had been slowly hardening on the surface of +revolutionary fires dormant all those months. Only an spontaneous mass-movement +could bring about the All-Russian Congress of Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +Day after day the Bolshevik orators toured the barracks and factories, +violently denouncing “this Government of civil war.” One Sunday we +went, on a top-heavy steam tram that lumbered through oceans of mud, between +stark factories and immense churches, to <i>Obukhovsky Zavod,</i> a Government +munitions-plant out on the Schlüsselburg Prospekt. +</p> + +<p> +The meeting took place between the gaunt brick walls of a huge unfinished +building, ten thousand black-clothed men and women packed around a scaffolding +draped in red, people heaped on piles of lumber and bricks, perched high upon +shadowy girders, intent and thunder-voiced. Through the dull, heavy sky now and +again burst the sun, flooding reddish light through the skeleton windows upon +the mass of simple faces upturned to us. +</p> + +<p> +Lunatcharsky, a slight, student-like figure with the sensitive face of an +artist, was telling why the power must be taken by the Soviets. Nothing else +could guarantee the Revolution against its enemies, who were deliberately +ruining the country, ruining the army, creating opportunities for a new +Konilov. +</p> + +<p> +A soldier from the Rumanian front, thin, tragical and fierce, cried, +“Comrades! We are starving at the front, we are stiff with cold. We are +dying for no reason. I ask the American comrades to carry word to America, that +the Russians will never give up their Revolution until they die. We will hold +the fort with all our strength until the peoples of the world rise and help us! +Tell the American workers to rise and fight for the Social Revolution!” +</p> + +<p> +Then came Petrovsky, slight, slow-voiced, implacable: “Now is the time +for deeds, not words. The economic situation is bad, but we must get used to +it. They are trying to starve us and freeze us. They are trying to provoke us. +But let them know that they can go too far—that if they dare to lay their +hands upon the organisations of the proletariat we will sweep them away like +scum from the face of the earth!” +</p> + +<p> +The Bolshevik press suddenly expanded. Besides the two party papers, +<i>Rabotchi Put</i> and <i>Soldat</i> (Soldier), there appeared a new paper for +the peasants, <i>Derevenskaya Byednota</i> (Village Poorest), poured out in a +daily half-million edition; and on October 17th, <i>Rabotchi i Soldat.</i> Its +leading article summed up the Bolshevik point of view: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +The fourth year’s campaign will mean the annihilation of the army and the +country…. There is danger for the safety of Petrograd…. Counter-revolutionists +rejoice in the people’s misfortunes…. The peasants brought to desperation +come out in open rebellion; the landlords and Government authorities massacre +them with punitive expeditions; factories and mines are closing down, workmen +are threatened with starvation…. The bourgeoisie and its Generals want to +restore a blind discipline in the army…. Supported by the bourgeoisie, the +Kornilovtsi are openly getting ready to break up the meeting of the Constituent +Assembly…. +</p> + +<p> +The Kerensky Government is against the people. He will destroy the country…. +This paper stands for the people and by the people—the poor classes, +workers, soldiers and peasants. The people can only be saved by the completion +of the Revolution… and for this purpose the full power must be in the hands of +the Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +This paper advocates the following: All power to the Soviets—both in the +capital and in the provinces. +</p> + +<p> +Immediate truce on all fronts. An honest peace between peoples. +</p> + +<p> +Landlord estates—without compensation—to the peasants. +</p> + +<p> +Workers’ control over industrial production. +</p> + +<p> +A faithfully and honestly elected Constituent Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +It is interesting to reproduce here a passage from that same paper—the +organ of those Bolsheviki so well known to the world as German agents: +</p> + +<p> +The German kaiser, covered with the blood of millions of dead people, wants to +push his army against Petrograd. Let us call to the German workmen, soldiers +and peasants, who want peace not less than we do, to… stand up against this +damned war! +</p> + +<p> +This can be done only by a revolutionary Government, which would speak really +for the workmen, soldiers and peasants of Russia, and would appeal over the +heads of the diplomats directly to the German troops, fill the German trenches +with proclamations in the German language…. Our airmen would spread these +proclamations all over Germany…. +</p> + +<p> +In the Council of the Republic the gulf between the two sides of the chamber +deepened day by day. +</p> + +<p> +“The propertied classes,” cried Karelin, for the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries, “want to exploit the revolutionary machine of the State +to bind Russia to the war-chariot of the Allies! The revolutionary parties are +absolutely against this policy….” +</p> + +<p> +Old Nicholas Tchaikovsky, representing the Populist Socialists, spoke against +giving the land to the peasants, and took the side of the Cadets: “We +must have immediately strong discipline in the army…. Since the beginning of +the war I have not ceased to insist that it is a crime to undertake social and +economic reforms in war-time. We are committing that crime, and yet I am not +the enemy of these reforms, because I am a Socialist.” +</p> + +<p> +Cries from the Left, “We don’t believe you!” Mighty applause +from the Right…. +</p> + +<p> +Adzhemov, for the Cadets, declared that there was no necessity to tell the army +what it was fighting for, since every soldier ought to realise that the first +task was to drive the enemy from Russian territory. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky himself came twice, to plead passionately for national unity, once +bursting into tears at the end. The assembly heard him coldly, interrupting +with ironical remarks. +</p> + +<p> +Smolny Institute, headquarters of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> and of the Petrograd +Soviet, lay miles out on the edge of the city, beside the wide Neva. I went +there on a street-car, moving snail-like with a groaning noise through the +cobbled, muddy streets, and jammed with people. At the end of the line rose the +graceful smoke-blue cupolas of Smolny Convent outlined in dull gold, beautiful; +and beside it the great barracks like façade of Smolny Institute, two hundred +yards long and three lofty stories high, the Imperial arms carved hugely in +stone still insolent over the entrance…. +</p> + +<p> +Under the old régime a famous convent-school for the daughters of the Russian +nobility, patronised by the Tsarina herself, the Institute had been taken over +by the revolutionary organisations of workers and soldiers. Within were more +than a hundred huge rooms, white and bare, on their doors enamelled plaques +still informing the passerby that within was “Ladies’ Class-room +Number 4” or “Teachers’ Bureau”; but over these hung +crudely-lettered signs, evidence of the vitality of the new order: +“Central Committee of the Petrograd Soviet” and +<i>“Tsay-ee-kah”</i> and “Bureau of Foreign Affairs”; +“Union of Socialist Soldiers,” “Central Committee of the +All-Russian Trade Unions,” “Factory-Shop Committees,” +“Central Army Committee”; and the central offices and caucus-rooms +of the political parties…. +</p> + +<p> +The long, vaulted corridors, lit by rare electric lights, were thronged with +hurrying shapes of soldiers and workmen, some bent under the weight of huge +bundles of newspapers, proclamations, printed propaganda of all sorts. The +sound of their heavy boots made a deep and incessant thunder on the wooden +floor…. Signs were posted up everywhere: “Comrades! For the sake of your +health, preserve cleanliness!” Long tables stood at the head of the +stairs on every floor, and on the landings, heaped with pamphlets and the +literature of the different political parties, for sale…. +</p> + +<p> +The spacious, low-ceilinged refectory downstairs was still a dining-room. For +two rubles I bought a ticket entitling me to dinner, and stood in line with a +thousand others, waiting to get to the long serving-tables, where twenty men +and women were ladling from immense cauldrons cabbage soup, hunks of meat and +piles of <i>kasha,</i> slabs of black bread. Five kopeks paid for tea in a tin +cup. From a basket one grabbed a greasy wooden spoon…. The benches along the +wooden tables were packed with hungry proletarians, wolfing their food, +plotting, shouting rough jokes across the room…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 33: text of placard in russian, translation follows] +</p> + +<h5>COMRADES FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR HEALTH, PRESERVE CLEANLINESS.</h5> + +<p> +Upstairs was another eating-place, reserved for the <i>Tsay-ee-kah—</i> +though every one went there. Here could be had bread thickly buttered and +endless glasses of tea…. +</p> + +<p> +In the south wing on the second floor was the great hall of meetings, the +former ball-room of the Institute. A lofty white room lighted by glazed-white +chandeliers holding hundreds of ornate electric bulbs, and divided by two rows +of massive columns; at one end a dais, flanked with two tall many-branched +light standards, and a gold frame behind, from which the Imperial portrait had +been cut. Here on festal occasions had been banked brilliant military and +ecclesiastical uniforms, a setting for Grand Duchesses…. +</p> + +<p> +Just across the hall outside was the office of the Credentials Committee for +the Congress of Soviets. I stood there watching the new delegates come +in—burly, bearded soldiers, workmen in black blouses, a few long-haired +peasants. The girl in charge—a member of Plekhanov’s +<i>Yedinstvo</i>[9] group—smiled contemptuously. “These are very +different people from the delegates to the first <i>Siezd</i> +(Congress),” she remarked. “See how rough and ignorant they look! +The Dark People….” It was true; the depths of Russia had been stirred, +and it was the bottom which came uppermost now. The Credentials Committee, +appointed by the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> was challenging delegate after +delegate, on the ground that they had been illegally elected. Karakhan, member +of the Bolshevik Central Committee, simply grinned. “Never mind,” +he said, “When the time comes we’ll see that you get your +seats….” +</p> + +<p> +[9] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Rabotchi i Soldat</i> said: +</p> + +<p> +The attention of delegates to the new All-Russian Congress is called to +attempts of certain members of the Organising Committee to break up the +Congress, by asserting that it will not take place, and that delegates had +better leave Petrograd…. Pay no attention to these lies…. Great days are +coming…. +</p> + +<p> +It was evident that a quorum would not come together by November 2, so the +opening of the Congress was postponed to the 7th. But the whole country was now +aroused; and the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, realising that they +were defeated, suddenly changed their tactics and began to wire frantically to +their provincial organisations to elect as many “moderate” +Socialist delegates as possible. At the same time the Executive Committee of +the Peasants’ Soviets issued an emergency call for a Peasants’ +Congress, to meet December 13th and offset whatever action the workers and +soldiers might take… +</p> + +<p> +What would the Bolsheviki do? Rumours ran through the city that there would be +an armed “demonstration,” a <i>vystuplennie</i>—“coming +out” of the workers and soldiers. The bourgeois and reactionary press +prophesied insurrection, and urged the Government to arrest the Petrograd +Soviet, or at least to prevent the meeting of the Congress. Such sheets as +<i>Novaya Rus</i> advocated a general Bolshevik massacre. +</p> + +<p> +Gorky’s paper, <i>Novaya Zhizn,</i> agreed with the Bolsheviki that the +reactionaries were attempting to destroy the Revolution, and that if necessary +they must be resisted by force of arms; but all the parties of the +revolutionary democracy must present a united front. +</p> + +<p> +As long as the democracy has not organised its principal forces, so long as the +resistance to its influence is still strong, there is no advantage in passing +to the attack. But if the hostile elements appeal to force, then the +revolutionary democracy should enter the battle to seize the power, and it will +be sustained by the most profound strata of the people…. +</p> + +<p> +Gorky pointed out that both reactionary and Government newspapers were inciting +the Bolsheviki to violence. An insurrection, however, would prepare the way for +a new Kornilov. He urged the Bolsheviki to deny the rumours. Potressov, in the +Menshevik <i>Dien</i> (Day), published a sensational story, accompanied by a +map, which professed to reveal the secret Bolshevik plan of campaign. +</p> + +<p> +As if by magic, the walls were covered with warnings, (See App. II, Sect. 10) +proclamations, appeals, from the Central Committees of the +“moderate” and conservative factions and the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> +denouncing any “demonstrations,” imploring the workers and soldiers +not to listen to agitators. For instance, this from the Military Section of the +Socialist Revolutionary party: +</p> + +<p> +Again rumours are spreading around the town of an intended <i>vystuplennie.</i> +What is the source of these rumours? What organisation authorises these +agitators who preach insurrection? The Bolsheviki, to a question addressed to +them in the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> denied that they have anything to do with it…. +But these rumours themselves carry with them a great danger. It may easily +happen that, not taking into consideration the state of mind of the majority of +the workers, soldiers and peasants, individual hot-heads will call out part of +the workers and soldiers on the streets, inciting them to an uprising…. In this +fearful time through which revolutionary Russia is passing, any insurrection +can easily turn into civil war, and there can result from it the destruction of +all organisations of the proletariat, built up with so much labour…. The +counter-revolutionary plotters are planning to take advantage of this +insurrection to destroy the Revolution, open the front to Wilhelm, and wreck +the Constituent Assembly…. Stick stubbornly to your posts! Do not come out! +</p> + +<p> +On October 28th, in the corridors of Smolny, I spoke with Kameniev, a little +man with a reddish pointed beard and Gallic gestures. He was not at all sure +that enough delegates would come. “If there <i>is</i> a Congress,” +he said, “it will represent the overwhelming sentiment of the people. If +the majority is Bolshevik, as I think it will be, we shall demand that the +power be given to the Soviets, and the Provisional Government must +resign….” +</p> + +<p> +Volodarsky, a tall, pale youth with glasses and a bad complexion, was more +definite. “The ‘Lieber-Dans’ and the other compromisers are +sabotaging the Congress. If they succeed in preventing its meeting,—well, +then we are realists enough not to depend on <i>that!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +Under date of October 29th I find entered in my notebook the following items +culled from the newspapers of the day: +</p> + +<p> +Moghilev (General Staff Headquarters). Concentration here of loyal Guard +Regiments, the Savage Division, Cossacks and Death Battalions. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>yunkers</i> of the Officers’ Schools of Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo +and Peterhof ordered by the Government to be ready to come to Petrograd. +Oranienbaum <i>yunkers</i> arrive in the city. +</p> + +<h5>Part of the Armoured Car Division of the Petrograd garrism stationed in the +Winter Palace.</h5> + +<p> +Upon orders signed by Trotzky, several thousand rifles delivered by the +Government Arms Factory at Sestroretzk to delegates of the Petrograd workmen. +</p> + +<p> +At a meeting of the City Militia of the Lower Liteiny Quarter, a resolution +demanding that all power be given to the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +This is just a sample of the confused events of those feverish days, when +everybody knew that something was going to happen, but nobody knew just what. +</p> + +<p> +At a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet in Smolny, the night of October 30th, +Trotzky branded the assertions of the bourgeois press that the Soviet +contemplated armed insurention as “an attempt of the reactionaries to +discredit and wreck the Congress of Soviets…. The Petrograd Soviet,” he +declared, “had not ordered any <i>uystuplennie.</i> If it is necessary we +shall do so, and we will be supported by the Petrogruad garrison…. They (the +Government) are preparing a counter-revolution; and we shall answer with an +offensive which will be merciless and decisive.” +</p> + +<p> +It is true that the Petrograd Soviet had not ordered a demonstration, but the +Central Committee of the Bolshevik party was considering the question of +insurrection. All night long the 23d they met. There were present all the party +intellectuals, the leaders—and delegates of the Petrograd workers and +garrison. Alone of the intellectuals Lenin and Trotzky stood for insurrection. +Even the military men opposed it. A vote was taken. Insurrection was defeated! +</p> + +<p> +Then arose a rough workman, his face convulsed with rage. “I speak for +the Petrograd proletariat,” he said, harshly. “We are in favour of +insurrection. Have it your own way, but I tell you now that if you allow the +Soviets to be destroyed, <i>we’re through with you!</i>” Some +soldiers joined him…. And after that they voted again—insurrection won…. +</p> + +<p> +However, the right wing of the Bolsheviki, led by Riazanov, Kameniev and +Zinoviev, continued to campaign against an armed rising. On the morning of +October 31st appeared in <i>Rabotchi Put</i> the first instalment of +Lenin’s “Letter to the Comrades,” (See App. II, Sect. 11) one +of the most audacious pieces of political propaganda the world has ever seen. +In it Lenin seriously presented the arguments in favour of insurrection, taking +as text the objections of Kameniev and Riazonov. +</p> + +<p> +“Either we must abandon our slogan, ‘All Power to the +Soviets,’” he wrote, “or else we must make an insurrection. +There is no middle course….” +</p> + +<p> +That same afternoon Paul Miliukov, leader of the Cadets, made a brilliant, +bitter speech (See App. II, Sect. 12) in the Council of the Republic, branding +the Skobeliev <i>nakaz</i> as pro-German, declaring that the +“revolutionary democracy” was destroying Russia, sneering at +Terestchenko, and openly declaring that he preferred German diplomacy to +Russian…. The Left benches were one roaring tumult all through…. +</p> + +<p> +On its part the Government could not ignore the significance of the success of +the Bolshevik propaganda. On the 29th joint commission of the Government and +the Council of the Republic hastily drew up two laws, one for giving the land +temporarily to the peasants, and the other for pushing an energetic foreign +policy of peace. The next day Kerensky suspended capital punishment in the +army. That same afternoon was opened with great ceremony the first session of +the new “Commission for Strengthening the Republican Régime and Fighting +Against Anarchy and Counter-Revolution”—of which history shows not +the slightest further trace…. The following morning with two other +correspondents I interviewed Kerensky (See App. II, Sect. 13)—the last +time he received journalists. +</p> + +<p> +“The Russian people,” he said, bitterly, “are suffering from +economic fatigue—and from disillusionment with the Allies! The world +thinks that the Russian Revolution is at an end. Do not be mistaken. The +Russian Revolution is just beginning….” Words more prophetic, perhaps, +than he knew. +</p> + +<p> +Stormy was the all-night meeting of the Petrograd Soviet the 30th of October, +at which I was present. The “moderate” Socialist intellectuals, +officers, members of Army Committees, the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> were there in +force. Against them rose up workmen, peasants and common soldiers, passionate +and simple. +</p> + +<p> +A peasant told of the disorders in Tver, which he said were caused by the +arrest of the Land Committees. “This Kerensky is nothing but a shield to +the <i>pomieshtchiki</i> (landowners),” he cried. “They know that +at the Constituent Assembly we will take the land anyway, so they are trying to +destroy the Constituent Assembly!” +</p> + +<p> +A machinist from the Putilov works described how the superintendents were +closing down the departments one by one on the pretext that there was no fuel +or raw materials. The Factory-Shop Committee, he declared, had discovered huge +hidden supplies. +</p> + +<p> +“It is a <i>provocatzia,”</i> said he. “They want to starve +us—or drive us to violence!” +</p> + +<p> +Among the soldiers one began, “Comrades! I bring you greetings from the +place where men are digging their graves and call them trenches!” +</p> + +<p> +Then arose a tall, gaunt young soldier, with flashing eyes, met with a roar of +welcome. It was Tchudnovsky, reported killed in the July fighting, and now +risen from the dead. +</p> + +<p> +“The soldier masses no longer trust their officers. Even the Army +Committees, who refused to call a meeting of our Soviet, betrayed us…. The +masses of the soldiers want the Constituent Assembly to be held exactly when it +was called for, and those who dare to postpone it will be cursed—and not +only platonic curses either, for the Army has guns too….” +</p> + +<p> +He told of the electoral campaign for the Constituent now raging in the Fifth +Army. “The officers, and especially the Mensheviki and the Socialist +Revolutionaries, are trying deliberately to cripple the Bolsheviki. Our papers +are not allowed to circulate in the trenches. Our speakers are +arrested—” +</p> + +<p> +“Why don’t you speak about the lack of bread?” shouted +another soldier. +</p> + +<p> +“Man shall not live by bread alone,” answered Tchudnovsky, +sternly…. +</p> + +<p> +Followed him an officer, delegate from the Vitebsk Soviet, a Menshevik +<i>oboronetz.</i> “It isn’t the question of who has the power. The +trouble is not with the Government, but with the war…. and the war must be won +before any change—” At this, hoots and ironical cheers. +“These Bolshevik agitators are demagogues!” The hall rocked with +laughter. “Let us for a moment forget the class struggle—” +But he got no farther. A voice yelled, “Don’t you wish we +would!” +</p> + +<p> +Petrograd presented a curious spectacle in those days. In the factories the +committee-rooms were filled with stacks of rifles, couriers came and went, the +Red Guard[10] drilled…. In all the barracks meetings every night, and all day +long interminable hot arguments. On the streets the crowds thickened toward +gloomy evening, pouring in slow voluble tides up and down the Nevsky, fighting +for the newspapers…. Hold-ups increased to such an extent that it was dangerous +to walk down side streets…. On the Sadovaya one afternoon I saw a crowd of +several hundred people beat and trample to death a soldier caught stealing…. +Mysterious individuals circulated around the shivering women who waited in +<i>queue</i> long cold hours for bread and milk, whispering that the Jews had +cornered the food supply—and that while the people starved, the Soviet +members lived luxuriously…. +</p> + +<p> +[10] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +At Smolny there were strict guards at the door and the outer gates, demanding +everybody’s pass. The committee-rooms buzzed and hummed all day and all +night, hundreds of soldiers and workmen slept on the floor, wherever they could +find room. Upstairs in the great hall a thousand people crowded to the +uproarious sessions of the Petrograd Soviet…. +</p> + +<p> +Gambling clubs functioned hectically from dusk to dawn, with champagne flowing +and stakes of twenty thousand rubles. In the centre of the city at night +prostitutes in jewels and expensive furs walked up and down, crowded the +cafés…. +</p> + +<p> +Monarchist plots, German spies, smugglers hatching schemes…. +</p> + +<p> +And in the rain, the bitter chill, the great throbbing city under grey skies +rushing faster and faster toward—what? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>Chapter III<br /> +On the Eve</h2> + +<p> +In the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious people there comes a +time when every act of the authorities exasperates the masses, and every +refusal to act excites their contempt…. +</p> + +<p> +The proposal to abandon Petrograd raised a hurricane; Kerensky’s public +denial that the Government had any such intention was met with hoots of +derision. +</p> + +<p> +Pinned to the wall by the pressure of the Revolution (cried <i>Rabotchi +Put),</i> the Government of “provisional” bourgeois tries to get +free by giving out lying assurances that it never thought of fleeing from +Petrograd, and that it didn’t wish to surrender the capital…. +</p> + +<p> +In Kharkov thirty thousand coal miners organised, adopting the preamble of the +I. W. W. constitution: “The working class and the employing class have +nothing in common.” Dispersed by Cossacks, some were locked out by the +mine-owners, and the rest declared a general strike. Minister of Commerce and +Industry Konovalov appointed his assistant, Orlov, with plenary powers, to +settle the trouble. Orlov was hated by the miners. But the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> +not only supported his appointment, but refused to demand that the Cossacks be +recalled from the Don Basin…. +</p> + +<p> +This was followed by the dispersal of the Soviet at Kaluga. The Bolsheviki, +having secured a majority in the Soviet, set free some political prisoners. +With the sanction of the Government Commissar the Municipal Duma called in +troops from Minsk, and bombarded the Soviet headquarters with artillery. The +Bolsheviki yielded, but as they left the building Cossacks attacked them, +crying, “This is what we’ll do to all the other Bolshevik Soviets, +including those of Moscow and Petrograd!” This incident sent a wave of +panic rage throughout Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +In Petrograd was ending a regional Congress of Soviets of the North, presided +over by the Bolshevik Krylenko. By an immense majority it resolved that all +power should be assumed by the All-Russian Congress; and concluded by greeting +the Bolsheviki in prison, bidding them rejoice, for the hour of their +liberation was at hand. At the same time the first All-Russian Conference of +Factory-Shop Committees (See App. III, Sect. 1) declared emphatically for the +Soviets, and continued significantly, +</p> + +<p> +After liberating themselves politically from Tsardom, the working-class wants +to see the democratic régime triumphant in the sphere of its productive +activity. This is best expressed by Workers’ Control over industrial +production, which naturally arose in the atmosphere of economic decomposition +created by the criminal policy of the dominating classes…. +</p> + +<p> +The Union of Railwaymen was demanding the resignation of Liverovsky, Minister +of Ways and Communications…. +</p> + +<p> +In the name of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> Skobeliev insisted that the <i>nakaz</i> +be presented at the Allied Conference, and formally protested against the +sending of Terestchenko to Paris. Terestchenko offered to resign…. +</p> + +<p> +General Verkhovsky, unable to accomplish his reorganisation of the army, only +came to Cabinet meetings at long intervals…. +</p> + +<p> +On November 3d Burtzev’s <i>Obshtchee Dielo</i> came out with great +headlines: +</p> + +<p> +Citizens! Save the fatherland! +</p> + +<p> +I have just learned that yesterday, at a meeting of the Commission for National +Defence, Minister of War General Verkhovsky, one of the principal persons +responsible for the fall of Kornilov, proposed to sign a separate peace, +independently of the Allies. +</p> + +<p> +That is treason to Russia! +</p> + +<p> +Terestchenko declared that the Provisional Government had not even examined +Verkhovsky’s proposition. +</p> + +<p> +“You might think,” said Terestchenko, “that we were in a +madhouse!” +</p> + +<p> +The members of the Commission were astounded at the General’s words. +</p> + +<p> +General Alexeyev wept. +</p> + +<p> +No! It is not madness! It is worse. It is direct treason to Russia! +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky, Terestchenko and Nekrassov must immediately answer us concerning the +words of Verkhovsky. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens, arise! +</p> + +<p> +Russia is being sold! +</p> + +<p> +Save her! +</p> + +<p> +What Verkhovsky really said was that the Allies must be pressed to offer peace, +because the Russian army could fight no longer…. +</p> + +<p> +Both in Russia and abroad the sensation was tremendous. Verkhovsky was given +“indefinite leave of absence for ill-health,” and left the +Government. <i>Obshtchee Dielo</i> was suppressed…. +</p> + +<p> +Sunday, November 4th, was designated as the Day of the Petrograd Soviet, with +immense meetings planned all over the city, ostensibly to raise money for the +organisation and the press; really, to make a demonstration of strength. +Suddenly it was announced that on the same day the Cossacks would hold a +<i>Krestny Khod</i>—Procession of the Cross—in honour of the Ikon +of 1612, through whose miraculous intervention Napoleon had been driven from +Moscow. The atmosphere was electric; a spark might kindle civil war. The +Petrograd Soviet issued a manifesto, headed +“Brothers—Cossacks!” +</p> + +<p> +You, Cossacks, are being incited against us, workers and soldiers. This plan of +Cain is being put into operation by our common enemies, the oppressors, the +privileged classes—generals, bankers, landlords, former officials, former +servants of the Tsar…. We are hated by all grafters, rich men, princes, nobles, +generals, including your Cossack generals. They are ready at any moment to +destroy the Petrograd Soviet and crush the Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +On the 4th of November somebody is organising a Cossack religious procession. +It is a question of the free consciousness of every individual whether he will +or will not take part in this procession. We do not interfere in this matter, +nor do we obstruct anybody…. However, we warn you, Cossacks! Look out and see +to it that under the pretext of a <i>Krestni Khod,</i> your Kaledins do not +instigate you against workmen, against soldiers…. +</p> + +<p> +The procession was hastily called off…. +</p> + +<p> +In the barracks and the working-class quarters of the town the Bolsheviki were +preaching, “All Power to the Soviets!” and agents of the Dark +Forces were urging the people to rise and slaughter the Jews, shop-keepers, +Socialist leaders…. +</p> + +<p> +On one side the Monarchist press, inciting to bloody repression—on the +other Lenin’s great voice roaring, “Insurrection!…. We cannot wait +any longer!” +</p> + +<p> +Even the bourgeois press was uneasy. (See App. III, Sect. 2) <i>Birjevya +Viedomosti</i> (Exchange Gazette) called the Bolshevik propaganda an attack on +“the most elementary principles of society—personal security and +the respect for private property.” +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 46: Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet] +</p> + +<p> +Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet to the Cosacks to call off their <i>Krestny +Khod</i>—the religious procession planned for November 4th (our +calendar). “Brothers—Cossacks!” it begins. “The +Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies addresses +you.” +</p> + +<p> +But it was the “moderate” Socialist journals which were the most +hostile. (See App. III, Sect. 3) “The Bolsheviki are the most dangerous +enemies of the Revolution,” declared <i>Dielo Naroda.</i> Said the +Menshevik <i>Dien,</i> “The Government ought to defend itself and defend +us.” Plekhanov’s paper, <i>Yedinstvo</i> (Unity) (See App. III, +Sect. 4), called the attention of the Government to the fact that the Petrograd +workers were being armed, and demanded stern measures against the Bolsheviki. +</p> + +<p> +Daily the Government seemed to become more helpless. Even the Municipal +administration broke down. The columns of the morning papers were filled with +accounts of the most audacious robberies and murders, and the criminals were +unmolested. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand armed workers patrolled the streets at night, doing battle +with marauders and requisitioning arms wherever they found them. +</p> + +<p> +On the first of November Colonel Polkovnikov, Military Commander of Petrograd, +issued a proclamation: +</p> + +<p> +Despite the difficult days through which the country is passing, irresponsible +appeals to armed demonstrations and massacres are still being spread around +Petrograd, and from day to day robbery and disorder increase. +</p> + +<p> +This state of things is disorganising the life of the citizens, and hinders the +systematic work of the Government and the Municipal Institutions. +</p> + +<p> +In full consciousness of my responsibility and my duty before my country, I +command: +</p> + +<p> +1. Every military unit, in accordance with special instructions and within the +territory of its garrison, to afford every assistance to the Municipality, to +the Commissars, and to the militia, in the guarding of Government institutions. +</p> + +<p> +2. The organisation of patrols, in co-operation with the District Commander and +the representatives of the city militia, and the taking of measures for the +arrest of criminals and deserters. +</p> + +<p> +3. The arrest of all persons entering barracks and inciting to armed +demonstrations and massacres, and their delivery to the headquarters of the +Second Commander of the city. +</p> + +<p> +4. To suppress any armed demonstration or riot at its start, with all armed +forces at hand. +</p> + +<p> +5. To afford assistance to the Commissars in preventing unwarranted searches in +houses and unwarranted arrests. +</p> + +<p> +6. To report immediately all that happens in the district under charge to the +Staff of the Petrograd Military District. +</p> + +<p> +I call upon all Army Committees and organisations to afford their help to the +commanders in fulfilment of the duties with which they are charged. +</p> + +<p> +In the Council of the Republic Kerensky declared that the Government was fully +aware of the Bolshevik preparations, and had sufficient force to cope with any +demonstration. (See App. III, Sect. 5) He accused <i>Novaya Rus</i> and +<i>Robotchi Put</i> of both doing the same kind of subversive work. “But +owing to the absolute freedom of the press,” he added, “the +Government is not in a position to combat printed lies.[11]….” Declaring +that these were two aspects of the same propaganda, which had for its object +the counter-revolution, so ardently desired by the Dark Forces, he went on: +</p> + +<p> +“I am a doomed man, it doesn’t matter what happens to me, and I +have the audacity to say that the other enigmatic part is that of the +unbelievable provocation created in the city by the Bolsheviki!” +</p> + +<p> +[11] This was not quite candid. The Provisional Government had suppressed +Bolshevik papers before, in July, and was planning to do so again. +</p> + +<p> +On November 2d only fifteen delegates to the Congress of Soviets had arrived. +Next day there were a hundred, and the morning after that a hundred and +seventy-five, of whom one hundred and three were Bolsheviki…. Four hundred +constituted a quorum, and the Congress was only three days off…. +</p> + +<p> +I spent a great deal of time at Smolny. It was no longer easy to get in. Double +rows of sentries guarded the outer gates, and once inside the front door there +was a long line of people waiting to be let in, four at a time, to be +questioned as to their identity and their business. Passes were given out, and +the pass system was changed every few hours; for spies continually sneaked +through…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 49: Russian Pass to Reed, translation follows] +</p> + +<p> +Pass to Smolny Institute, issued by the Military Revolutionary Committee, +giving me the right of entry at any time. (Translation) +</p> + +<p> + Military Revolutionary Committee<br /> + attached to the<br /> + Petrograd Soviet of W. & S. D.<br /> + Commandant’s office<br /> + 16th November, 1917<br /> + No. 955<br /> + Smolny Institute +</p> + +<h5>PASS</h5> + +<p> +Is given by the present to John Reed, correspondent of the American Socialist +press, until December 1, the right of free entry into Smolny Institute. +Commandant Adjutant +</p> + +<p> +One day as I came up to the outer gate I saw Trotzky and his wife just ahead of +me. They were halted by a soldier. Trotzky searched through his pockets, but +could find no pass. +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind,” he said finally. “You know me. My name is +Trotzky.” +</p> + +<p> +“You haven’t got a pass,” answered the soldier stubbornly. +</p> + +<p> +“You cannot go in. Names don’t mean anything to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I am the president of the Petrograd Soviet.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” replied the soldier, “if you’re as important a +fellow as that you must at least have one little paper.” +</p> + +<p> +Trotzky was very patient. “Let me see the Commandant,” he said. The +soldier hesitated, grumbling something about not wanting to disturb the +Commandant for every devil that came along. He beckoned finally to the soldier +in command of the guard. Trotzky explained matters to him. “My name is +Trotzky,” he repeated. +</p> + +<p> +“Trotzky?” The other soldier scratched his head. “I’ve +heard the name somewhere,” he said at length. “I guess it’s +all right. You can go on in, comrade….” +</p> + +<p> +In the corridor I met Karakhan, member of the Bolshevik Central Committee, who +explained to me what the new Government would be like. +</p> + +<p> +“A loose organisation, sensitive to the popular will as expressed through +the Soviets, allowing local forces full play. At present the Provisional +Government obstructs the action of the local democratic will, just as the +Tsar’s Government did. The initiative of the new society shall come from +below…. The form of the Government will be modelled on the Constitution of the +Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The new <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> responsible +to frequent meetings of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, will be the +parliament; the various Ministries will be headed by +<i>collegia</i>—committees—instead of by Ministers, and will be +directly responsible to the Soviets….” +</p> + +<p> +On October 30th, by appointment, I went up to a small, bare room in the attic +of Smolny, to talk with Trotzky. In the middle of the room he sat on a rough +chair at a bare table. Few questions from me were necessary; he talked rapidly +and steadily, for more than an hour. The substance of his talk, in his own +words, I give here: +</p> + +<p> +“The Provisional Government is absolutely powerless. The bourgeoisie is +in control, but this control is masked by a fictitious coalition with the +<i>oborontsi</i> parties. Now, during the Revolution, one sees revolts of +peasants who are tired of waiting for their promised land; and all over the +country, in all the toiling classes, the same disgust is evident. This +domination by the bourgeoisie is only possible by means of civil war. The +Kornilov method is the only way by which the bourgeoisie can control. But it is +force which the bourgeoisie lacks…. The Army is with us. The conciliators and +pacifists, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviki, have lost all +authority—because the struggle between the peasants and the landlords, +between the workers and the employers, between the soldiers and the officers, +has become more bitter, more irreconcilable than ever. Only by the concerted +action of the popular mass, only by the victory of proletarian dictatorship, +can the Revolution be achieved and the people saved…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Soviets are the most perfect representatives of the +people—perfect in their revolutionary experience, in their ideas and +objects. Based directly upon the army in the trenches, the workers in the +factories, and the peasants in the fields, they are the backbone of the +Revolution. +</p> + +<p> +“There has been an attempt to create a power without the +Soviets—and only powerlessness has been created. Counter-revolutionary +schemes of all sorts are now being hatched in the corridors of the Council of +the Russian Republic. The Cadet party represents the counter-revolution +militant. On the other side, the Soviets represent the cause of the people. +Between the two camps there are no groups of serious importance…. It is the +<i>lutte finale.</i> The bourgeois counter-revolution organises all its forces +and waits for the moment to attack us. Our answer will be decisive. We will +complete the work scarcely begun in March, and advanced during the Kornilov +affair….” +</p> + +<p> +He went on to speak of the new Government’s foreign policy: +</p> + +<p> +“Our first act will be to call for an immediate armistice on all fronts, +and a conference of peoples to discuss democratic peace terms. The quantity of +democracy we get in the peace settlement depends on the quantity of +revolutionary response there is in Europe. If we create here a Government of +the Soviets, that will be a powerful factor for immediate peace in Europe; for +this Government will address itself directly and immediately to all peoples, +over the heads of their Governments, proposing an armistice. At the moment of +the conclusion of peace the pressure of the Russian Revolution will be in the +direction of ‘no annexations, no indemnities, the right of +self-determination of peoples,’ and a <i>Federated Republic of +Europe.</i>… +</p> + +<p> +“At the end of this war I see Europe recreated, not by the diplomats, but +by the proletariat. The Federated Republic of Europe—the United States of +Europe—that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. +Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to +remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. +Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world.” He +smiled—that fine, faintly ironical smile of his. “But without the +action of the European masses, these ends cannot be realised—now….” +</p> + +<p> +Now while everybody was waiting for the Bolsheviki to appear suddenly on the +streets one morning and begin to shoot down people with white collars on, the +real insurrection took its way quite naturally and openly. +</p> + +<p> +The Provisional Government planned to send the Petrograd garrison to the front. +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd garrison numbered about sixty thousand men, who had taken a +prominent part in the Revolution. It was they who had turned the tide in the +great days of March, created the Soviets of Soldiers’ Deputies, and +hurled back Kornilov from the gates of Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +Now a large part of them were Bolsheviki. When the Provisional Government +talked of evacuating the city, it was the Petrograd garrison which answered, +“If you are not capable of defending the capital, conclude peace; if you +cannot conclude peace, go away and make room for a People’s Government +which can do both….” +</p> + +<p> +It was evident that any attempt at insurrection depended upon the attitude of +the Petrograd garrison. The Government’s plan was to replace the garrison +regiments with “dependable” troops—Cossacks, Death +Battalions. The Army Committees, the “moderate” Socialists and the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> supported the Government. A wide-spread agitation was +carried on at the Front and in Petrograd, emphasizing the fact that for eight +months the Petrograd garrison had been leading an easy life in the barracks of +the capital, while their exhausted comrades in the trenches starved and died. +</p> + +<p> +Naturally there was some truth in the accusation that the garrison regiments +were reluctant to exchange their comparative comfort for the hardships of a +winter campaign. But there were other reasons why they refused to go. The +Petrograd Soviet feared the Government’s intentions, and from the Front +came hundreds of delegates, chosen by the common soldiers, crying, “It is +true we need reinforcements, but more important, we must know that Petrograd +and the Revolution are well-guarded…. Do you hold the rear, comrades, and we +will hold the front!” +</p> + +<p> +On October 25th, behind closed doors, the Central Committee of the Petrograd +Soviet discussed the formation of a special Military Committee to decide the +whole question. The next day a meeting of the Soldiers’ Section of the +Petrograd Soviet elected a Committee, which immediately proclaimed a boycott of +the bourgeois newspapers, and condemned the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> for opposing the +Congress of Soviets. On the 29th, in open session of the Petrograd Soviet, +Trotzky proposed that the Soviet formally sanction the Military Revolutionary +Committee. “We ought,” he said, “to create our special +organisation to march to battle, and if necessary to die….” It was +decided to send to the front two delegations, one from the Soviet and one from +the garrison, to confer with the Soldiers’ Committees and the General +Staff. +</p> + +<p> +At Pskov, the Soviet delegates were met by General Tcheremissov, commander of +the Northern Front, with the curt declaration that he had ordered the Petrograd +garrison to the trenches, and that was all. The garrison committee was not +allowed to leave Petrograd…. +</p> + +<p> +A delegation of the Soldiers’ Section of the Petrograd Soviet asked that +a representative be admitted to the Staff of the Petrograd District. Refused. +The Petrograd Soviet demanded that no orders be issued without the approval of +the Soldiers’ Section. Refused. The delegates were roughly told, +“We only recognise the <i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> We do not recognise you; if +you break any laws, we shall arrest you.” +</p> + +<p> +On the 30th a meeting of representatives of all the Petrograd regiments passed +a resolution: <i>“The Petrograd garrison no longer recognises the +Provisional Government. The Petrograd Soviet is our Government. We will obey +only the orders of the Petrograd Soviet, through the Military Revolutionary +Committee.”</i> The local military units were ordered to wait for +instructions from the Soldiers’ Section of the Petrograd Soviet. +</p> + +<p> +Next day the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> summoned its own meeting, composed largely of +officers, formed a Committee to cooperate with the Staff, and detailed +Commissars in all quarters of the city. +</p> + +<p> +A great soldier meeting at Smolny on the 3d resolved: +</p> + +<p> +Saluting the creation of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Petrograd +garrison promises it complete support in all its actions, to unite more closely +the front and the rear in the interests of the Revolution. +</p> + +<p> +The garrison moreover declares that with the revolutionary proletariat it +assures the maintenance of revolutionary order in Petrograd. Every attempt at +provocation on the part of the Kornilovtsi or the bourgeoisie will be met with +merciless resistance. +</p> + +<p> +Now conscious of its power, the Military Revolutionary Committee peremptorily +summoned the Petrograd Staff to submit to its control. To all printing plants +it gave orders not to publish any appeals or proclamations without the +Committee’s authorisation. Armed Commissars visited the Kronversk arsenal +and seized great quantities of arms and ammunition, halting a shipment of ten +thousand bayonets which was being sent to Novotcherkask, headquarters of +Kaledin…. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly awake to the danger, the Government offered immunity if the Committee +would disband. Too late. At midnight November 5th Kerensky himself sent +Malevsky to offer the Petrograd Soviet representation on the Staff. The +Military Revolutionary Committee accepted. An hour later General Manikovsky, +acting Minister of war, countermanded the offer…. +</p> + +<p> +Tuesday morning, November 6th, the city was thrown into excitement by the +appearance of a placard signed, “Military Revolutionary Committee +attached to the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies.” +</p> + +<p> +To the Population of Petrograd. Citizens! +</p> + +<p> +Counter-revolution has raised its criminal head. The Kornilovtsi are mobilising +their forces in order to crush the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and break +the Constituent Assembly. At the same time the <i>pogromists</i> may attempt to +call upon the people of Petrograd for trouble and bloodshed. The Petrograd +Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies takes upon itself the +guarding of revolutionary order in the city against counter-revolutionary and +<i>pogrom</i> attempts. +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd garrison will not allow any violence or disorders. The population +is invited to arrest hooligans and Black Hundred agitators and take them to the +Soviet Commissars at the nearest barracks. At the first attempt of the Dark +Forces to make trouble on the streets of Petrograd, whether robbery or +fighting, the criminals will be wiped off the face of the earth! +</p> + +<p> +Citizens! We call upon you to maintain complete quiet and self-possession. The +cause of order and Revolution is in strong hands. +</p> + +<p> +List of regiments where there are Commissars of the Military Revolutionary +Committee…. +</p> + +<p> +On the 3rd the leaders of the Bolsheviki had another historic meeting behind +closed doors. Notified by Zalkind, I waited in the corridor outside the door; +and Volodarsky as he came out told me what was going on. +</p> + +<p> +Lenin spoke: “November 6th will be too early. We must have an all-Russian +basis for the rising; and on the 6th all the delegates to the Congress will not +have arrived…. On the other hand, November 8th will be too late. By that time +the Congress will be organised, and it is difficult for a large organised body +of people to take swift, decisive action. We must act on the 7th, the day the +Congress meets, so that we may say to it, ‘Here is the power! What are +you going to do with it?’” +</p> + +<p> +In a certain upstairs room sat a thin-faced, long-haired individual, once an +officer in the armies of the Tsar, then revolutionist and exile, a certain +Avseenko, called Antonov, mathematician and chess-player; he was drawing +careful plans for the seizure of the capital. +</p> + +<p> +On its side the Government was preparing. Inconspicuously certain of the most +loyal regiments, from widely-separated divisions, were ordered to Petrograd. +The <i>yunker</i> artillery was drawn into the Winter Palace. Patrols of +Cossacks made their appearance in the streets, for the first time since the +July days. Polkovnikov issued order after order, threatening to repress all +insubordination with the “utmost energy.” Kishkin, Minister of +Public Instruction, the worst-hated member of the Cabinet, was appointed +Special Commissar to keep order in Petrograd; he named as assistants two men no +less unpopular, Rutenburg and Paltchinsky. Petrograd, Cronstadt and Finland +were declared in a state of siege—upon which the bourgeois <i>Novoye +Vremya</i> (New Times) remarked ironically: +</p> + +<p> +Why the state of siege? The Government is no longer a power. It has no moral +authority and it does not possess the necessary apparatus to use force…. In the +most favourable circumstances it can only negotiate with any one who consents +to parley. Its authority goes no farther…. +</p> + +<p> +Monday morning, the 5th, I dropped in at the Marinsky Palace, to see what was +happening in the Council of the Russian Republic. Bitter debate on +Terestchenko’s foreign policy. Echoes of the Burtzev-Verkhovski affair. +All the diplomats present except the Italian ambassador, who everybody said was +prostrated by the Carso disaster…. +</p> + +<p> +As I came in, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Karelin was reading aloud an +editorial from the London <i>Times</i> which said, “The remedy for +Bolshevism is bullets!” Turning to the Cadets he cried, +“That’s what <i>you</i> think, too!” +</p> + +<p> +Voices from the Right, “Yes! Yes!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know you think so,” answered Karelin, hotly. “But you +haven’t the courage to try it!” +</p> + +<p> +Then Skobeliev, looking like a matinée idol with his soft blond beard and wavy +yellow hair, rather apologetically defending the Soviet <i>nakaz.</i> +Terestchenko followed, assailed from the Left by cries of “Resignation! +Resignation!” He insisted that the delegates of the Government and of the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> to Paris should have a common point of view—his own. A +few words about the restoration of discipline in the army, about war to +victory…. Tumult, and over the stubborn opposition of the truculent Left, the +Council of the Republic passed to the simple order of the day. +</p> + +<p> +There stretched the rows of Bolshevik seats—empty since that first day +when they left the Council, carrying with them so much life. As I went down the +stairs it seemed to me that in spite of the bitter wrangling, no real voice +from the rough world outside could penetrate this high, cold hall, and that the +Provisional Government was wrecked—on the same rock of War and Peace that +had wrecked the Miliukov Ministry…. The doorman grumbled as he put on my coat, +“I don’t know what is becoming of poor Russia. All these Mensheviki +and Bolsheviki and Trudoviki…. This Ukraine and this Finland and the German +imperialists and the English imperialists. I am forty-five years old, and in +all my life I never heard so many words as in this place….” +</p> + +<p> +In the corridor I met Professor Shatsky, a rat-faced individual in a dapper +frock-coat, very influential in the councils of the Cadet party. I asked him +what he thought of the much-talked-of Bolshevik <i>vystuplennie.</i> He +shrugged, sneering. +</p> + +<p> +“They are cattle—<i>canaille,”</i> he answered. “They +will not dare, or if they dare they will soon be sent flying. From our point of +view it will not be bad, for then they will ruin themselves and have no power +in the Constituent Assembly…. +</p> + +<p> +“But, my dear sir, allow me to outline to you my plan for a form of +Government to be submitted to the Constituent Assembly. You see, I am chairman +of a commission appointed from this body, in conjunction with the Provisional +Government, to work out a constitutional project…. We will have a legislative +assembly of two chambers, such as you have in the United States. In the lower +chamber will be territorial representatives; in the upper, representatives of +the liberal professions, zemstvos, Cooperatives—and Trade Unions….” +</p> + +<p> +Outside a chill, damp wind came from the west, and the cold mud underfoot +soaked through my shoes. Two companies of <i>yunkers</i> passed swinging up the +Morskaya, tramping stiffly in their long coats and singing an oldtime crashing +chorus, such as the soldiers used to sing under the Tsar…. At the first +cross-street I noticed that the City Militiamen were mounted, and armed with +revolvers in bright new holsters; a little group of people stood silently +staring at them. At the corner of the Nevsky I bought a pamphlet by Lenin, +“Will the Bolsheviki be Able to Hold the Power?” paying for it with +one of the stamps which did duty for small change. The usual street-cars +crawled past, citizens and soldiers clinging to the outside in a way to make +Theodore P. Shonts green with envy…. Along the sidewalk a row of deserters in +uniform sold cigarettes and sunflower seeds…. +</p> + +<p> +Up the Nevsky in the sour twilight crowds were battling for the latest papers, +and knots of people were trying to make out the multitudes of appeals (See App. +III, Sect. 6) and proclamations pasted in every flat place; from the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> the Peasants’ Soviets, the “moderate” +Socialist parties, the Army Committees—threatening, cursing, beseeching +the workers and soldiers to stay home, to support the Government…. +</p> + +<p> +An armoured automobile went slowly up and down, siren screaming. On every +corner, in every open space, thick groups were clustered; arguing soldiers and +students. Night came swiftly down, the wide-spaced street-lights flickered on, +the tides of people flowed endlessly…. It is always like that in Petrograd just +before trouble…. +</p> + +<p> +The city was nervous, starting at every sharp sound. But still no sign from the +Bolsheviki; the soldiers stayed in the barracks, the workmen in the factories…. +We went to a moving picture show near the Kazan Cathedral—a bloody +Italian film of passion and intrigue. Down front were some soldiers and +sailors, staring at the screen in childlike wonder, totally unable to +comprehend why there should be so much violent running about, and so much +homicide…. +</p> + +<p> +From there I hurried to Smolny. In room 10 on the top floor, the Military +Revolutionary Committee sat in continuous session, under the chairmanship of a +tow-headed, eighteen-year-old boy named Lazimir. He stopped, as he passed, to +shake hands rather bashfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Peter-Paul Fortress has just come over to us,” said he, with a +pleased grin. “A minute ago we got word from a regiment that was ordered +by the Government to come to Petrograd. The men were suspicious, so they +stopped the train at Gatchina and sent a delegation to us. ‘What’s +the matter?’ they asked. ‘What have you got to say? We have just +passed a resolution, “All Power to the Soviets.”’… The +Military Revolutionary Committee sent back word, ‘Brothers! We greet you +in the name of the Revolution. Stay where you are until further +instructions!’” +</p> + +<p> +All telephones, he said, were cut off: but communication with the factories and +barracks was established by means of military telephonograph apparatus…. +</p> + +<p> +A steady stream of couriers and Commissars came and went. Outside the door +waited a dozen volunteers, ready to carry word to the farthest quarters of the +city. One of them, a gypsy-faced man in the uniform of a lieutenant, said in +French, “Everything is ready to move at the push of a button….” +</p> + +<p> +There passed Podvoisky, the thin, bearded civillian whose brain conceived the +strategy of insurrection; Antonov, unshaven, his collar filthy, drunk with loss +of sleep; Krylenko, the squat, wide-faced soldier, always smiling, with his +violent gestures and tumbling speech; and Dybenko, the giant bearded sailor +with the placid face. These were the men of the hour—and of other hours +to come. +</p> + +<p> +Downstairs in the office of the Factory-Shop Committees sat Seratov, signing +orders on the Government Arsenal for arms—one hundred and fifty rifles +for each factory…. Delegates waited in line, forty of them…. +</p> + +<p> +In the hall I ran into some of the minor Bolshevik leaders. One showed me a +revolver. “The game is on,” he said, and his face was pale. +“Whether we move or not the other side knows it must finish us or be +finished….” +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd Soviet was meeting day and night. As I came into the great hall +Trotzky was just finishing. +</p> + +<p> +“We are asked,” he said, “if we intend to have a +<i>vystuplennie.</i> I can give a clear answer to that question. The Petrograd +Soviet feels that at last the moment has arrived when the power must fall into +the hands of the Soviets. This transfer of government will be accomplished by +the All-Russian Congress. Whether an armed demonstration is necessary will +depend on… those who wish to interfere with the All-Russian Congress…. +</p> + +<p> +“We feel that our Government, entrusted to the personnel of the +Provisional Cabinet, is a pitiful and helpless Government, which only awaits +the sweep of the broom of History to give way to a really popular Government. +But we are trying to avoid a conflict, even now, to-day. We hope that the +All-Russian Congress will take… into its hands that power and authority which +rests upon the organised freedom of the people. If, however, the Government +wants to utilise the short period it is expected to live—twenty-four, +forty-eight, or seventy-two hours—to attack us, then we shall answer with +counter-attacks, blow for blow, steel for iron!” +</p> + +<p> +Amid cheers he announced that the Left Socialist Revolutionaries had agreed to +send representatives into the Military Revolutionary Committee…. +</p> + +<p> +As I left Smolny, at three o’clock in the morning, I noticed that two +rapid-firing guns had been mounted, one on each side of the door, and that +strong patrols of soldiers guarded the gates and the near-by street-corners. +Bill Shatov[12] came bounding up the steps. “Well,” he cried, +“We’re off! Kerensky sent the <i>yunkers</i> to close down our +papers, <i>Soldat</i> and <i>Rabotchi Put.</i> But our troops went down and +smashed the Government seals, and now we’re sending detachments to seize +the bourgeois newspaper offices!” Exultantly he slapped me on the +shoulder, and ran in…. +</p> + +<p> +[12] Well known in the American labor movement. +</p> + +<p> +On the morning of the 6th I had business with the censor, whose office was in +the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Everywhere, on all the walls, hysterical +appeals to the people to remain “calm.” Polkovnikov emitted +<i>prikaz</i> after <i>prikaz:</i> +</p> + +<p> +I order all military units and detachments to remain in their barracks until +further orders from the Staff of the Military District…. All officers who act +without orders from their superiors will be court-martialled for mutiny. I +forbid absolutely any execution by soldiers of instructions from other +organisations…. +</p> + +<p> +The morning papers announced that the Government had suppressed the papers +<i>Novaya Rus, Zhivoye Slovo, Rabotchi Put</i> and <i>Soldat,</i> and decreed +the arrest of the leaders of the Petrograd Soviet and the members of the +Military Revolutionary Committee…. +</p> + +<p> +As I crossed the Palace Square several batteries of <i>yunker</i> artillery +came through the Red Arch at a jingling trot, and drew up before the Palace. +The great red building of the General Staff was unusually animated, several +armoured automobiles ranked before the door, and motors full of officers were +coming and going…. The censor was very much excited, like a small boy at a +circus. Kerensky, he said, had just gone to the Council of the Republic to +offer his resignation. I hurried down to the Marinsky Palace, arriving at the +end of that passionate and almost incoherent speech of Kerensky’s, full +of self-justification and bitter denunciation of his enemies. +</p> + +<p> +“I will cite here the most characteristic passage from a whole series of +articles published in <i>Rabotchi Put</i> by Ulianov-Lenin, a state criminal +who is in hiding and whom we are trying to find…. This state criminal has +invited the proletariat and the Petrograd garrison to repeat the experience of +the 16th-18th of July, and insists upon the immediate necessity for an armed +rising…. Moreover, other Bolshevik leaders have taken the floor in a series of +meetings, and also made an appeal to immediate insurrection. Particularly +should be noticed the activity of the present president of the Petrograd +Soviet, Bronstein-Trotzky…. +</p> + +<p> +“I ought to bring to your notice… that the expressions and the style of a +whole series of articles in <i>Rabotchi Put</i> and <i>Soldat</i> resemble +absolutely those of <i>Novaya Rus….</i> We have to do not so much with the +movement of such and such political party, as with the exploitation of the +political ignorance and criminal instincts of a part of the population, a sort +of organisation whose object it is to provoke in Russia, cost what it may, an +inconscient movement of destruction and pillage; for given the state of mind of +the masses, any movement at Petrograd will be followed by the most terrible +massacres, which will cover with eternal shame the name of free Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +“… By the admission of Ulianov-Lenin himself, the situation of the +extreme left wing of the Social Democrats in Russia is very favourable.” +(Here Kerensky read the following quotation from Lenin’s article.): +</p> + +<p> +Think of it!… The German comrades have only one Liebknecht, without newspapers, +without freedom of meeting, without a Soviet…. They are opposed by the +incredible hostility of all classes of society—and yet the German +comrades try to act; while we, having dozens of newspapers, freedom of meeting, +the majority of the Soviets, we, the best-placed international proletarians of +the entire world, can we refuse to support the German revolutionists and +insurrectionary organisations?… +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky then continued: +</p> + +<p> +“The organisers of rebellion recognise thus implicitly that the most +perfect conditions for the free action of a political party obtain now in +Russia, administered by a Provisional Government at the head of which is, in +the eyes of this party, ‘a usurper and a man who has sold himself to the +bourgeoisie, the Minister-President Kerensky….’ +</p> + +<p> +“… The organisers of the insurrection do not come to the aid of the +German proletariat, but of the German governing classes, and they open the +Russian front to the iron fists of Wilhelm and his friends…. Little matter to +the Provisional Government the motives of these people, little matter if they +act consciously or unconsciously; but in any case, from this tribune, in full +consciousness of my responsibility, I quality such acts of a Russian political +party as acts of treason to Russia! +</p> + +<p> +“… I place myself at the point of view of the Right, and I propose +immediately to proceed to an investigation and make the necessary +arrests.” (Uproar from the Left.) “Listen to me!” he cried in +a powerful voice. “At the moment when the state is in danger, because of +conscious or unconscious treason, the Provisional Government, and myself among +others, prefer to be killed rather than betray the life, the honour and the +independence of Russia….” +</p> + +<p> +At this moment a paper was handed to Kerensky. +</p> + +<p> +“I have just received the proclamation which they are distributing to the +regiments. Here is the contents.” Reading: <i>“‘The Petrograd +Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies is menaced. We order +immediately the regiments to mobilise on a war footing and to await new orders. +All delay or non-execution of this order will be considered as an act of +treason to the Revolution. The Military Revolutionary Committee. For the +President, Podvoisky. The Secretary, Antonov.’</i> +</p> + +<p> +“In reality, this is an attempt to raise the populace against the +existing order of things, to break the Constituent and to open the front to the +regiments of the iron fist of Wilhelm…. +</p> + +<p> +“I say ‘populace’ intentionally, because the conscious +democracy and its <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> all the Army organisations, all that free +Russia glorifies, the good sense, the honour and the conscience of the great +Russian democracy, protests against these things…. +</p> + +<p> +“I have not come here with a prayer, but to state my firm conviction that +the Provisional Government, which defends at this moment our new +liberty—that the new Russian state, destined to a brilliant future, will +find unanimous support except among those who have never dared to face the +truth…. +</p> + +<p> +“… The Provisional Government has never violated the liberty of all +citizens of the State to use their political rights…. But now the Provisional +Government…. declares: in this moment those elements of the Russian nation, +those groups and parties who have dared to lift their hands against the free +will of the Russian people, at the same time threatening to open the front to +Germany, must be liquidated with decision!… +</p> + +<p> +“Let the population of Petrograd understand that it will encounter a firm +power, and perhaps at the last moment good sense, conscience and honour will +triumph in the hearts of those who still possess them….” +</p> + +<p> +All through this speech, the hall rang with deafening clamour. When the +Minister-President had stepped down, pale-faced and wet with perspiration, and +strode out with his suite of officers, speaker after speaker from the Left and +Centre attacked the Right, all one angry roaring. Even the Socialist +Revolutionaries, through Gotz: +</p> + +<p> +“The policy of the Bolsheviki is demagogic and criminal, in their +exploitation of the popular discontent. But there is a whole series of popular +demands which have received no satisfaction up to now…. The questions of peace, +land and the democratization of the army ought to be stated in such a fashion +that no soldier, peasant or worker would have the least doubt that our +Government is attempting, firmly and infallibly, to solve them…. +</p> + +<p> +“We Mensheviki do not wish to provoke a Cabinet crisis, and we are ready +to defend the Provisional Government with all our energy, to the last drop of +our blood—if only the Provisional Government, on all these burning +questions, will speak the clear and precise words awaited by the people with +such impatience….” +</p> + +<p> +Then Martov, furious: +</p> + +<p> +“The words of the Minister-President, who allowed himself to speak of +‘populace’ when it is question of the movement of important +sections of the proletariat and the army—although led in the wrong +direction—are nothing but an incitement to civil war.” +</p> + +<p> +The order of the day proposed by the Left was voted. It amounted practically to +a vote of lack of confidence. +</p> + +<p> +1. The armed demonstration which has been preparing for some days past has for +its object a <i>coup d’etat,</i> threatens to provoke civil war, creates +conditions favourable to <i>pogroms</i> and counterrevolution, the mobilization +of counter-revolutionary forces, such as the Black Hundreds, which will +inevitably bring about the impossibility of convoking the Constituent, will +cause a military catastrophe, the death of the Revolution, paralyse the +economic life of the country and destroy Russia; +</p> + +<p> +2. The conditions favourable to this agitation have been created by delay in +passing urgent measures, as well as objective conditions caused by the war and +the general disorder. It is necessary before everything to promulgate at once a +decree transmitting the land to the peasants’ Land Committees, and to +adopt an energetic course of action abroad in proposing to the Allies to +proclaim their peace terms and to begin peace-parleys; +</p> + +<p> +3. To cope with Monarchist manifestations and <i>pogromist</i> movements, it is +indispensable to take immediate measures to suppress these movements, and for +this purpose to create at Petrograd a Committee of Public Safety, composed of +representatives of the Municipality and the organs of the revolutionary +democracy, acting in contact with the Provisional Government…. +</p> + +<p> +It is interesting to note that the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries all +rallied to this resolution…. When Kerensky saw it, however, he summoned +Avksentiev to the Winter Palace to explain. If it expressed a lack of +confidence in the Provisional Government, he begged Avksentiev to form a new +Cabinet. Dan, Gotz and Avksentiev, the leaders of the +“compromisers,” performed their last compromise…. They explained to +Kerensky that it was not meant as a criticism of the Government! +</p> + +<p> +At the corner of the Morskaya and the Nevsky, squads of soldiers with fixed +bayonets were stopping all private automobiles, turning out the occupants, and +ordering them toward the Winter Palace. A large crowd had gathered to watch +them. Nobody knew whether the soldiers belonged to the Government or the +Military Revolutionary Committee. Up in front of the Kazan Cathedral the same +thing was happening, machines being directed back up the Nevsky. Five or six +sailors with rifles came along, laughing excitedly, and fell into conversation +with two of the soldiers. On the sailors’ hat bands were <i>Avrora</i> +and <i>Zaria Svobody,</i>—the names of the leading Bolshevik cruisers of +the Baltic Fleet. One of them said, “Cronstadt is coming!”… It was +as if, in 1792, on the streets of Paris, some one had said: “The +Marseillais are coming!” For at Cronstadt were twenty-five thousand +sailors, convinced Bolsheviki and not afraid to die…. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Rabotchi i Soldat</i> was just out, all its front page one huge +proclamation: SOLDIERS! WORKERS! CITIZENS! +</p> + +<p> +The enemies of the people passed last night to the offensive. The Kornilovists +of the Staff are trying to draw in from the suburbs <i>yunkers</i> and +volunteer battalions. The Oranienbaum <i>yunkers</i> and the Tsarskoye Selo +volunteers refused to come out. A stroke of high treason is being contemplated +against the Petrograd Soviet…. The campaign of the counter-revolutionists is +being directed against the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the eve of its +opening, against the Constituent Assembly, against the people. The Petrograd +Soviet is guarding the Revolution. The Military Revolutionary Committee is +directing the repulse of the conspirators’ attack. The entire garrison +and proletariat of Petrograd are ready to deal the enemy of the people a +crushing blow. +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee decrees: +</p> + +<p> +1. All regimental, division and battle-ship Committees, together with the +Soviet Commissars, and all revolutionary organisations, shall meet in +continuous session, concentrating in their hands all information about the +plans of the conspirators. +</p> + +<p> +2. Not one soldier shall leave his division without permission of the +Committee. +</p> + +<p> +3. To send to Smolny at once two delegates from each military unit and five +from each Ward Soviet. +</p> + +<p> +4. All members of the Petrograd Soviet and all delegates to the All-Russian +Congress are invited immediately to Smolny for an extraordinary meeting. +</p> + +<p> +Counter-revolution has raised its criminal head. +</p> + +<p> +A great danger threatens all the conquests and hopes of the soldiers and +workers. +</p> + +<p> +But the forces of the Revolution by far exceed those of its enemies. +</p> + +<p> +The cause of the People is in strong hands. The conspirators will be crushed. +</p> + +<p> +No hesitation or doubts! Firmness, steadfastness, discipline, determination! +</p> + +<p> +Long live the Revolution! +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Military Revolutionary Committee.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd Soviet was meeting continuously at Smolny, a centre of storm, +delegates falling down asleep on the floor and rising again to take part in the +debate, Trotzky, Kameniev, Volodarsky speaking six, eight, twelve hours a day…. +</p> + +<p> +I went down to room 18 on the first floor where the Bolshevik delegates were +holding caucus, a harsh voice steadily booming, the speaker hidden by the +crowd: “The compromisers say that we are isolated. Pay no attention to +them. Once it begins they must be dragged along with us, or else lose their +following….” +</p> + +<p> +Here he held up a piece of paper. “We are dragging them! A message has +just come from the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries! They say that they +condemn our action, but that if the Government attacks us they will not oppose +the cause of the proletariat!” Exultant shouting…. +</p> + +<p> +As night fell the great hall filled with soldiers and workmen, a monstrous dun +mass, deep-humming in a blue haze of smoke. The old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> had +finally decided to welcome the delegates to that new Congress which would mean +its own ruin—and perhaps the ruin of the revolutionary order it had +built. At this meeting, however, only members of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> could +vote…. +</p> + +<p> +It was after midnight when Gotz took the chair and Dan rose to speak, in a +tense silence, which seemed to me almost menacing. +</p> + +<p> +“The hours in which we live appear in the most tragic colours,” he +said. “The enemy is at the gates of Petrograd, the forces of the +democracy are trying to organise to resist him, and yet we await bloodshed in +the streets of the capital, and famine threatens to destroy, not only our +homogeneous Government, but the Revolution itself…. +</p> + +<p> +“The masses are sick and exhausted. They have no interest in the +Revolution. If the Bolsheviki start anything, that will be the end of the +Revolution…” (Cries, “That’s a lie!)” “The +counter-revolutionists are waiting with the Bolsheviki to begin riots and +massacres…. If there is any <i>vystuplennie,</i> there will be no Constituent +Assembly….” (Cries, “Lie! Shame!”) +</p> + +<p> +“It is inadmissible that in the zone of military operations the Petrograd +garrison shall not submit to the orders of the Staff…. You must obey the orders +of the Staff and of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> elected by you. All Power to the +Soviets—that means death! Robbers and thieves are waiting for the moment +to loot and burn…. When you have such slogans put before you, ‘Enter the +houses, take away the shoes and clothes from the +bourgeoisie—’” (Tumult. Cries, “No such slogan! A lie! +A lie!”) “Well, it may start differently, but it will end that way! +</p> + +<p> +“The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> has full power to act, and must be obeyed…. We +are not afraid of bayonets…. The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> will defend the Revolution +with its body….” (Cries, “It was a dead body long ago!”) +</p> + +<p> +Immense continued uproar, in which his voice could be heard screaming, as he +pounded the desk, “Those who are urging this are committing a +crime!” +</p> + +<p> +Voice: “You committed a crime long ago, when you captured the power and +turned it over to the bourgeoisie!” +</p> + +<p> +Gotz, ringing the chairman’s bell: “Silence, or I’ll have you +put out!” +</p> + +<p> +Voice: “Try it!” (Cheers and whistling.) +</p> + +<p> +“Now concerning our policy about peace.” (Laughter.) +“Unfortunately Russia can no longer support the continuation of the war. +There is going to be peace, but not permanent peace—not a democratic +peace…. To-day, at the Council of the Republic, in order to avoid bloodshed, we +passed an order of the day demanding the surrender of the land to the Land +Committees and immediate peace negotiations….” (Laughter, and cries, +“Too late!”) +</p> + +<p> +Then for the Bolsheviki, Trotzky mounted the tribune, borne on a wave of +roaring applause that burst into cheers and a rising house, thunderous. His +thin, pointed face was positively Mephistophelian in its expression of +malicious irony. +</p> + +<p> +“Dan’s tactics prove that the masses—the great, dull, +indifferent masses—are absolutely with him!” (Titantic mirth.) He +turned toward the chairman, dramatically. “When we spoke of giving the +land to the peasants, you were against it. We told the peasants, ‘If they +don’t give it to you, take it yourselves!’ and the peasants +followed our advice. And now you advocate what we did six months ago…. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think Kerensky’s order to suspend the death penalty +in the army was dictated by his ideals. I think Kerensky was persuaded by the +Petrograd garrison, which refused to obey him…. +</p> + +<p> +“To-day Dan is accused of having made a speech in the Council of the +Republic which proves him to be a secret Bolshevik…. The time may come when Dan +will say that the flower of the Revolution participated in the rising of July +16th and 18th…. In Dan’s resolution to-day at the Council of the Republic +there was no mention of enforcing discipline in the army, although that is +urged in the propaganda of his party…. +</p> + +<p> +“No. The history of the last seven months shows that the masses have left +the Mensheviki. The Mensheviki and the Socialist Revolutionaries conquered the +Cadets, and then when they got the power, they gave it to the Cadets…. +</p> + +<p> +“Dan tells you that you have no right to make an insurrection. +Insurrection is the right of all revolutionists! When the down-trodden masses +revolt, it is their right….” +</p> + +<p> +Then the long-faced, cruel-tongued Lieber, greeted with groans and laughter. +</p> + +<p> +“Engels and Marx said that the proletariat had no right to take power +until it was ready for it. In a bourgeois revolution like this…. the seizure of +power by the masses means the tragic end of the Revolution…. Trotzky, as a +Social Democratic theorist, is himself opposed to what he is now +advocating….” (Cries, “Enough! Down with him!”) +</p> + +<p> +Martov, constantly interrupted: “The Internationalists are not opposed to +the transmission of power to the democracy, but they disapprove of the methods +of the Bolsheviki. This is not the moment to seize the power….” +</p> + +<p> +Again Dan took the floor, violently protesting against the action of the +Military Revolutionary Committee, which had sent a Commissar to seize the +office of <i>Izviestia</i> and censor the paper. The wildest uproar followed. +Martov tried to speak, but could not be heard. Delegates of the Army and the +Baltic Fleet stood up all over the hall, shouting that the Soviet was +<i>their</i> Government…. +</p> + +<p> +Amid the wildest confusion Ehrlich offered a resolution, appealing to the +workers and soldiers to remain calm and not to respond to provocations to +demonstrate, recognising the necessity of immediately creating a Committee of +Public Safety, and asking the Provisional Government at once to pass decrees +transferring the land to the peasants and beginning peace negotiations…. +</p> + +<p> +Then up leaped Volodarsky, shouting harshly that the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> on the +eve of the Congress, had no right to assume the functions of the Congress. The +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> was practically dead, he said, and the resolution was simply +a trick to bolster up its waning power…. +</p> + +<p> +“As for us, Bolsheviki, we will not vote on this resolution!” +Whereupon all the Bolsheviki left the hall and the resolution was passed…. +</p> + +<p> +Toward four in the morning I met Zorin in the outer hall, a rifle slung from +his shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +“We’re moving!” (See App. III, Sect. 7) said he, calmly but +with satisfaction. “We pinched the Assistant Minister of Justice and the +Minister of Religions. They’re down cellar now. One regiment is on the +march to capture the Telephone Exchange, another the Telegraph Agency, another +the State Bank. The Red Guard is out….” +</p> + +<p> +On the steps of Smolny, in the chill dark, we first saw the Red Guard—a +huddled group of boys in workmen’s clothes, carrying guns with bayonets, +talking nervously together. +</p> + +<p> +Far over the still roofs westward came the sound of scattered rifle fire, where +the <i>yunkers</i> were trying to open the bridges over the Neva, to prevent +the factory workers and soldiers of the Viborg quarter from joining the Soviet +forces in the centre of the city; and the Cronstadt sailors were closing them +again…. +</p> + +<p> +Behind us great Smolny, bright with lights, hummed like a gigantic hive…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>Chapter IV<br /> +The Fall of the Provisional Government</h2> + +<p> +Wednesday, November 7th, I rose very late. The noon cannon boomed from +Peter-Paul as I went down the Nevsky. It was a raw, chill day. In front of the +State Bank some soldiers with fixed bayonets were standing at the closed gates. +</p> + +<p> +“What side do you belong to?” I asked. “The +Government?” +</p> + +<p> +“No more Government,” one answered with a grin, “<i>Slava +Bogu!</i> Glory to God!” That was all I could get out of him…. +</p> + +<p> +The street-cars were running on the Nevsky, men, women and small boys hanging +on every projection. Shops were open, and there seemed even less uneasiness +among the street crowds than there had been the day before. A whole crop of new +appeals against insurrection had blossomed out on the walls during the +night—to the peasants, to the soldiers at the front, to the workmen of +Petrograd. One read: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +FROM THE PETROGRAD MUNICIPAL DUMA: +</p> + +<p> +The Municipal Duma informs the citizens that in the extraordinary meeting of +November 6th the Duma formed a Committee of Public Safety, composed of members +of the Central and Ward Dumas, and representatives of the following +revolutionary democratic organizations: The <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> the All-Russian +Executive Committee of Peasant Deputies, the Army organisations, the +<i>Tsentroflot,</i> the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies (!), the Council of Trade Unions, and others. +</p> + +<p> +Members of the Committee of Public Safety will be on duty in the building of +the Municipal Duma. Telephones No. 15-40, 223-77, 138-36. +</p> + +<p> +November 7th, 1917. +</p> + +<p> +Though I didn’t realize it then, this was the Duma’s declaration of +war against the Bolsheviki. +</p> + +<p> +I bought a copy of <i>Rabotchi Put,</i> the only newspaper which seemed on +sale, and a little later paid a soldier fifty kopeks for a second-hand copy of +<i>Dien.</i> The Bolshevik paper, printed on large-sized sheets in the +conquered office of the <i>Russkaya Volia,</i> had huge headlines: “ALL +POWER—TO THE SOVIETS OF WORKERS, SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS! PEACE! BREAD! +LAND!” The leading article was signed +“Zinoviev,”—Lenin’s companion in hiding. It began: +</p> + +<p> +Every soldier, every worker, every real Socialist, every honest democrat +realises that there are only two alternatives to the present situation. +</p> + +<p> +Either—the power will remain in the hands of the bourgeois-landlord crew, +and this will mean every kind of repression for the workers, soldiers and +peasants, continuation of the war, inevitable hunger and death…. +</p> + +<p> +Or—the power will be transferred to the hands of the revolutionary +workers, soldiers and peasants; and in that case it will mean a complete +abolition of landlord tyranny, immediate check of the capitalists, immediate +proposal of a just peace. Then the land is assured to the peasants, then +control of industry is assured to the workers, then bread is assured to the +hungry, then the end of this nonsensical war!… +</p> + +<p> +<i>Dien</i> contained fragmentary news of the agitated night. Bolsheviki +capture of the Telephone Exchange, the Baltic station, the Telegraph Agency; +the Peterhof <i>yunkers</i> unable to reach Petrograd; the Cossacks undecided; +arrest of some of the Ministers; shooting of Chief of the City Militia Meyer; +arrests, counter-arrests, skirmishes between clashing patrols of soldiers, +<i>yunkers</i> and Red Guards. (See App. IV, Sect. 1) +</p> + +<p> +On the corner of the Morskaya I ran into Captain Gomberg, Menshevik +<i>oboronetz,</i> secretary of the Military Section of his party. When I asked +him if the insurrection had really happened he shrugged his shoulders in a +tired manner and replied, “<i>Tchort znayet!</i> The devil knows! Well, +perhaps the Bolsheviki can seize the power, but they won’t be able to +hold it more than three days. They haven’t the men to run a government. +Perhaps it’s a good thing to let them try—that will furnish +them….” +</p> + +<p> +The Military Hotel at the corner of St. Isaac’s Square was picketed by +armed sailors. In the lobby were many of the smart young officers, walking up +and down or muttering together; the sailors wouldn’t let them leave…. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly came the sharp crack of a rifle outside, followed by a scattered burst +of firing. I ran out. Something unusual was going on around the Marinsky +Palace, where the Council of the Russian Republic met. Diagonally across the +wide square was drawn a line of soldiers, rifles ready, staring at the hotel +roof. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Provacatzia!</i> Shot at us!” snapped one, while another went +running toward the door. +</p> + +<p> +At the western corner of the Palace lay a big armoured car with a red flag +flying from it, newly lettered in red paint: “S.R.S.D.” (<i>Soviet +Rabotchikh Soldatskikh Deputatov</i>); all the guns trained toward St. +Isaac’s. A barricade had been heaped up across the mouth of Novaya +Ulitza—boxes, barrels, an old bed-spring, a wagon. A pile of lumber +barred the end of the Moika quay. Short logs from a neighbouring wood-pile were +being built up along the front of the building to form breastworks…. +</p> + +<p> +“Is there going to be any fighting?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Soon, soon,” answered a soldier, nervously. “Go away, +comrade, you’ll get hurt. They will come from that direction,” +pointing toward the Admiralty. +</p> + +<p> +“Who will?” +</p> + +<p> +“That I couldn’t tell you, brother,” he answered, and spat. +</p> + +<p> +Before the door of the Palace was a crowd of soldiers and sailors. A sailor was +telling of the end of the Council of the Russian Republic. “We walked in +there,” he said, “and filled all the doors with comrades. I went up +to the counter-revolutionist Kornilovitz who sat in the president’s +chair. ‘No more Council,’ I says. ‘Run along home +now!’” +</p> + +<p> +There was laughter. By waving assorted papers I managed to get around to the +door of the press gallery. There an enormous smiling sailor stopped me, and +when I showed my pass, just said, “If you were Saint Michael himself, +comrade, you couldn’t pass here!” Through the glass of the door I +made out the distorted face and gesticulating arms of a French correspondent, +locked in…. +</p> + +<p> +Around in front stood a little, grey-moustached man in the uniform of a +general, the centre of a knot of soldiers. He was very red in the face. +</p> + +<p> +“I am General Alexeyev,” he cried. “As your superior officer +and as a member of the Council of the Republic I demand to be allowed to +pass!” The guard scratched his head, looking uneasily out of the corner +of his eye; he beckoned to an approaching officer, who grew very agitated when +he saw who it was and saluted before he realised what he was doing. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Vashe Vuisokoprevoskhoditelstvo</i>—your High +Excellency—” he stammered, in the manner of the old régime, +“Access to the Palace is strictly forbidden—I have no +right—” +</p> + +<p> +An automobile came by, and I saw Gotz sitting inside, laughing apparently with +great amusement. A few minutes later another, with armed soldiers on the front +seat, full of arrested members of the Provisional Government. Peters, Lettish +member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, came hurrying across the +Square. +</p> + +<p> +“I thought you bagged all those gentlemen last night,” said I, +pointing to them. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh,” he answered, with the expression of a disappointed small boy. +“The damn fools let most of them go again before we made up our +minds….” +</p> + +<p> +Down the Voskressensky Prospect a great mass of sailors were drawn up, and +behind them came marching soldiers, as far as the eye could reach. +</p> + +<p> +We went toward the Winter Palace by way of the Admiralteisky. All the entrances +to the Palace Square were closed by sentries, and a cordon of troops stretched +clear across the western end, besieged by an uneasy throng of citizens. Except +for far-away soldiers who seemed to be carrying wood out of the Palace +courtyard and piling it in front of the main gateway, everything was quiet. +</p> + +<p> +We couldn’t make out whether the sentries were pro-Government or +pro-Soviet. Our papers from Smolny had no effect, however, so we approached +another part of the line with an important air and showed our American +passports, saying “Official business!” and shouldered through. At +the door of the Palace the same old <i>shveitzari,</i> in their brass-buttoned +blue uniforms with the red-and-gold collars, politely took our coats and hats, +and we went up-stairs. In the dark, gloomy corridor, stripped of its +tapestries, a few old attendants were lounging about, and in front of +Kerensky’s door a young officer paced up and down, gnawing his moustache. +We asked if we could interview the Minister-president. He bowed and clicked his +heels. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I am sorry,” he replied in French. “Alexander +Feodorvitch is extremely occupied just now….” He looked at us for a +moment. “In fact, he is not here….” +</p> + +<p> +“Where is he?” +</p> + +<p> +“He has gone to the Front. (See App. IV, Sect. 2) And do you know, there +wasn’t enough gasoline for his automobile. We had to send to the English +Hospital and borrow some.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are the Ministers here?” +</p> + +<p> +“They are meeting in some room—I don’t know where.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Are the Bolsheviki coming?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. Certainly, they are coming. I expect a telephone call every +minute to say that they are coming. But we are ready. We have <i>yunkers</i> in +the front of the Palace. Through that door there.” +</p> + +<p> +“Can we go in there?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. Certainly not. It is not permitted.” Abruptly he shook hands +all around and walked away. We turned to the forbidden door, set in a temporary +partition dividing the hall and locked on the outside. On the other side were +voices, and somebody laughing. Except for that the vast spaces of the old +Palace were silent as the grave. An old <i>shveitzar</i> ran up. “No, +<i>barin,</i> you must not go in there.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why is the door locked?” +</p> + +<p> +“To keep the soldiers in,” he answered. After a few minutes he said +something about having a glass of tea and went back up the hall. We unlocked +the door. +</p> + +<p> +Just inside a couple of soldiers stood on guard, but they said nothing. At the +end of the corridor was a large, ornate room with gilded cornices and enormous +crystal lustres, and beyond it several smaller ones, wainscoted with dark wood. +On both sides of the parquetted floor lay rows of dirty mattresses and +blankets, upon which occasional soldiers were stretched out; everywhere was a +litter of cigarette-butts, bits of bread, cloth, and empty bottles with +expensive French labels. More and more soldiers, with the red shoulder-straps +of the <i>yunker</i>-schools, moved about in a stale atmosphere of +tobacco-smoke and unwashed humanity. One had a bottle of white Burgundy, +evidently filched from the cellars of the Palace. They looked at us with +astonishment as we marched past, through room after room, until at last we came +out into a series of great state-salons, fronting their long and dirty windows +on the Square. The walls were covered with huge canvases in massive gilt +frames—historical battle-scenes…. “12 October 1812” and +“6 November 1812” and “16/28 August 1813.” … One had a +gash across the upper right hand corner. +</p> + +<p> +The place was all a huge barrack, and evidently had been for weeks, from the +look of the floor and walls. Machine guns were mounted on window-sills, rifles +stacked between the mattresses. +</p> + +<p> +As we were looking at the pictures an alcoholic breath assailed me from the +region of my left ear, and a voice said in thick but fluent French, “I +see, by the way you admire the paintings, that you are foreigners.” He +was a short, puffy man with a baldish head as he removed his cap. +</p> + +<p> +“Americans? Enchanted. I am Stabs—Capitan Vladimir Artzibashev, +absolutely at your service.” It did not seem to occur to him that there +was anything unusual in four strangers, one a woman, wandering through the +defences of an army awaiting attack. He began to complain of the state of +Russia. +</p> + +<p> +“Not only these Bolsheviki,” he said, “but the fine +traditions of the Russian army are broken down. Look around you. These are all +students in the officers’ training schools. But are they gentlemen? +Kerensky opened the officers’ schools to the ranks, to any soldier who +could pass an examination. Naturally there are many, many who are contaminated +by the Revolution….” +</p> + +<p> +Without consequence he changed the subject. “I am very anxious to go away +from Russia. I have made up my mind to join the American army. Will you please +go to your Consul and make arrangements? I will give you my address.” In +spite of our protestations he wrote it on a piece of paper, and seemed to feel +better at once. I have it still—“<i>Oranien-baumskaya Shkola +Praporshtchikov 2nd, Staraya Peterhof.</i>” +</p> + +<p> +“We had a review this morning early,” he went on, as he guided us +through the rooms and explained everything. “The Women’s Battalion +decided to remain loyal to the Government.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are the women soldiers in the Palace?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, they are in the back rooms, where they won’t be hurt if any +trouble comes.” He sighed. “It is a great responsibility,” +said he. +</p> + +<p> +For a while we stood at the window, looking down on the Square before the +Palace, where three companies of long-coated <i>yunkers</i> were drawn up under +arms, being harangued by a tall, energetic-looking officer I recognised as +Stankievitch, chief Military Commissar of the Provisional Government. After a +few minutes two of the companies shouldered arms with a clash, barked three +sharp shouts, and went swinging off across the Square, disappearing through the +Red Arch into the quiet city. +</p> + +<p> +“They are going to capture the Telephone Exchange,” said some one. +Three cadets stood by us, and we fell into conversation. They said they had +entered the schools from the ranks, and gave their names—Robert Olev, +Alexei Vasilienko and Erni Sachs, an Esthonian. But now they didn’t want +to be officers any more, because officers were very unpopular. They +didn’t seem to know what to do, as a matter of fact, and it was plain +that they were not happy. +</p> + +<p> +But soon they began to boast. “If the Bolsheviki come we shall show them +how to fight. They do not dare to fight, they are cowards. But if we should be +overpowered, well, every man keeps one bullet for himself….” +</p> + +<p> +At this point there was a burst of rifle-fire not far off. Out on the Square +all the people began to run, falling flat on their faces, and the +<i>izvoshtchiki,</i> standing on the corners, galloped in every direction. +Inside all was uproar, soldiers running here and there, grabbing up guns, +rifle-belts and shouting, “Here they come! Here they come!” … But +in a few minutes it quieted down again. The <i>izvoshtchiki</i> came back, the +people lying down stood up. Through the Red Arch appeared the <i>yunkers,</i> +marching a little out of step, one of them supported by two comrades. +</p> + +<p> +It was getting late when we left the Palace. The sentries in the Square had all +disappeared. The great semi-circle of Government buildings seemed deserted. We +went into the Hotel France for dinner, and right in the middle of soup the +waiter, very pale in the face, came up and insisted that we move to the main +dining-room at the back of the house, because they were going to put out the +lights in the café. “There will be much shooting,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +When we came out on the Morskaya again it was quite dark, except for one +flickering street-light on the corner of the Nevsky. Under this stood a big +armored automobile, with racing engine and oil-smoke pouring out of it. A small +boy had climbed up the side of the thing and was looking down the barrel of a +machine gun. Soldiers and sailors stood around, evidently waiting for +something. We walked back up to the Red Arch, where a knot of soldiers was +gathered staring at the brightly-lighted Winter Palace and talking in loud +tones. +</p> + +<p> +“No, comrades,” one was saying. “How can we shoot at them? +The Women’s Battalion is in there—they will say we have fired on +Russian women.” +</p> + +<p> +As we reached the Nevsky again another armoured car came around the corner, and +a man poked his head out of the turret-top. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on!” he yelled. “Let’s go on through and +attack!” +</p> + +<p> +The driver of the other car came over, and shouted so as to be heard above the +roaring engine. “The Committee says to wait. They have got artillery +behind the wood-piles in there….” +</p> + +<p> +Here the street-cars had stopped running, few people passed, and there were no +lights; but a few blocks away we could see the trams, the crowds, the lighted +shop-windows and the electric signs of the moving-picture shows—life +going on as usual. We had tickets to the Ballet at the Marinsky +Theatre—all theatres were open—but it was too exciting out of +doors…. +</p> + +<p> +In the darkness we stumbled over lumber-piles barricading the Police Bridge, +and before the Stroganov Palace made out some soldiers wheeling into position a +three-inch field-gun. Men in various uniforms were coming and going in an +aimless way, and doing a great deal of talking…. +</p> + +<p> +Up the Nevsky the whole city seemed to be out promenading. On every corner +immense crowds were massed around a core of hot discussion. Pickets of a dozen +soldiers with fixed bayonets lounged at the street-crossings, red-faced old men +in rich fur coats shook their fists at them, smartly-dressed women screamed +epithets; the soldiers argued feebly, with embarrassed grins…. Armoured cars +went up and down the street, named after the first Tsars—Oleg, Rurik, +Svietoslav—and daubed with huge red letters, “R. S. D. R. P.” +<i>(Rossiskaya Partia</i>)[13]. At the Mikhailovsky a man appeared with an +armful of newspapers, and was immediately stormed by frantic people, offering a +rouble, five roubles, ten roubles, tearing at each other like animals. It was +<i>Rabotchi i Soldat,</i> announcing the victory of the Proletarian Revolution, +the liberation of the Bolsheviki still in prison, calling upon the Army front +and rear for support… a feverish little sheet of four pages, running to +enormous type, containing no news…. +</p> + +<p> +[13] (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party). +</p> + +<p> +On the corner of the Sadovaya about two thousand citizens had gathered, staring +up at the roof of a tall building, where a tiny red spark glowed and waned. +</p> + +<p> +“See!” said a tall peasant, pointing to it. “It is a +provocator. Presently he will fire on the people….” Apparently no one +thought of going to investigate. +</p> + +<p> +The massive façade of Smolny blazed with lights as we drove up, and from every +street converged upon it streams of hurrying shapes dim in the gloom. +Automobiles and motorcycles came and went; an enormous elephant-coloured +armoured automobile, with two red flags flying from the turret, lumbered out +with screaming siren. It was cold, and at the outer gate the Red Guards had +built themselves a bon-fire. At the inner gate, too, there was a blaze, by the +light of which the sentries slowly spelled out our passes and looked us up and +down. The canvas covers had been taken off the four rapid-fire guns on each +side of the doorway, and the ammunition-belts hung snakelike from their +breeches. A dun herd of armoured cars stood under the trees in the court-yard, +engines going. The long, bare, dimly-illuminated halls roared with the thunder +of feet, calling, shouting…. There was an atmosphere of recklessness. A crowd +came pouring down the staircase, workers in black blouses and round black fur +hats, many of them with guns slung over their shoulders, soldiers in rough +dirt-coloured coats and grey fur <i>shapki</i> pinched flat, a leader or +so—Lunatcharsky, Kameniev—hurrying along in the centre of a group +all talking at once, with harassed anxious faces, and bulging portfolios under +their arms. The extraordinary meeting of the Petrograd Soviet was over. I +stopped Kameniev—a quick moving little man, with a wide, vivacious face +set close to his shoulders. Without preface he read in rapid French a copy of +the resolution just passed: +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, saluting +the victorious Revolution of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison, +particularly emphasises the unity, organisation, discipline, and complete +cooperation shown by the masses in this rising; rarely has less blood been +spilled, and rarely has an insurrection succeeded so well. +</p> + +<p> +The Soviet expresses its firm conviction that the Workers’ and +Peasants’ Government which, as the government of the Soviets, will be +created by the Revolution, and which will assure the industrial proletariat of +the support of the entire mass of poor peasants, will march firmly toward +Socialism, the only means by which the country can be spared the miseries and +unheard-of horrors of war. +</p> + +<p> +The new Workers’ and Peasants’ Government will propose immediately +a just and democratic peace to all the belligerent countries. +</p> + +<p> +It will suppress immediately the great landed property, and transfer the land +to the peasants. It will establish workmen’s control over production and +distribution of manufactured products, and will set up a general control over +the banks, which it will transform into a state monopoly. +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies calls upon +the workers and the peasants of Russia to support with all their energy and all +their devotion the Proletarian Revolution. The Soviet expresses its conviction +that the city workers, allies of the poor peasants, will assure complete +revolutionary order, indispensable to the victory of Socialism. The Soviet is +convinced that the proletariat of the countries of Western Europe will aid us +in conducting the cause of Socialism to a real and lasting victory. +</p> + +<p> +“You consider it won then?” +</p> + +<p> +He lifted his shoulders. “There is much to do. Horribly much. It is just +beginning….” +</p> + +<p> +On the landing I met Riazanov, vice-president of the Trade Unions, looking +black and biting his grey beard. “It’s insane! Insane!” he +shouted. “The European working-class won’t move! All +Russia—” He waved his hand distractedly and ran off. Riazanov and +Kameniev had both opposed the insurrection, and felt the lash of Lenin’s +terrible tongue…. +</p> + +<p> +It had been a momentous session. In the name of the Military Revolutionary +Committee Trotzky had declared that the Provisional Government no longer +existed. +</p> + +<p> +“The characteristic of bourgeois governments,” he said, “is +to deceive the people. We, the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and +Peasants’ Deputies, are going to try an experiment unique in history; we +are going to found a power which will have no other aim but to satisfy the +needs of the soldiers, workers, and peasants.” +</p> + +<p> +Lenin had appeared, welcomed with a mighty ovation, prophesying world-wide +Social Revolution…. And Zinoviev, crying, “This day we have paid our debt +to the international proletariat, and struck a terrible blow at the war, a +terrible body-blow at all the imperialists and particularly at Wilhelm the +Executioner….” +</p> + +<p> +Then Trotzky, that telegrams had been sent to the front announcing the +victorious insurrection, but no reply had come. Troops were said to be marching +against Petrograd—a delegation must be sent to tell them the truth. +</p> + +<p> +Cries, “You are anticipating the will of the All-Russian Congress of +Soviets!” +</p> + +<p> +Trotzky, coldly, “The will of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets has +been anticipated by the rising of the Petrograd workers and soldiers!” +</p> + +<p> +So we came into the great meeting-hall, pushing through the clamorous mob at +the door. In the rows of seats, under the white chandeliers, packed immovably +in the aisles and on the sides, perched on every window-sill, and even the edge +of the platform, the representatives of the workers and soldiers of all Russia +waited in anxious silence or wild exultation the ringing of the +chairman’s bell. There was no heat in the hall but the stifling heat of +unwashed human bodies. A foul blue cloud of cigarette smoke rose from the mass +and hung in the thick air. Occasionally some one in authority mounted the +tribune and asked the comrades not to smoke; then everybody, smokers and all, +took up the cry “Don’t smoke, comrades!” and went on smoking. +Petrovsky, Anarchist delegate from the Obukhov factory, made a seat for me +beside him. Unshaven and filthy, he was reeling from three nights’ +sleepless work on the Military Revolutionary Committee. +</p> + +<p> +On the platform sat the leaders of the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i>—for the +last time dominating the turbulent Soviets, which they had ruled from the first +days, and which were now risen against them. It was the end of the first period +of the Russian revolution, which these men had attempted to guide in careful +ways…. The three greatest of them were not there: Kerensky, flying to the front +through country towns all doubtfully heaving up; Tcheidze, the old eagle, who +had contemptuously retired to his own Georgian mountains, there to sicken with +consumption; and the high-souled Tseretelli, also mortally stricken, who, +nevertheless, would return and pour out his beautiful eloquence for a lost +cause. Gotz sat there, Dan, Lieber, Bogdanov, Broido, +Fillipovsky,—white-faced, hollow-eyed and indignant. Below them the +second <i>siezd</i> of the All-Russian Soviets boiled and swirled, and over +their heads the Military Revolutionary Committee functioned white-hot, holding +in its hands the threads of insurrection and striking with a long arm…. It was +10.40 P. M. +</p> + +<p> +Dan, a mild-faced, baldish figure in a shapeless military surgeon’s +uniform, was ringing the bell. Silence fell sharply, intense, broken by the +scuffling and disputing of the people at the door…. +</p> + +<p> +“We have the power in our hands,” he began sadly, stopped for a +moment, and then went on in a low voice. “Comrades! The Congress of +Soviets in meeting in such unusual circumstances and in such an extraordinary +moment that you will understand why the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> considers it +unnecessary to address you with a political speech. This will become much +clearer to you if you will recollect that I am a member of the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> and that at this very moment our party comrades are in the +Winter Palace under bombardment, sacrificing themselves to execute the duty put +on them by the <i>Tsay-ee-kah.”</i> (Confused uproar.) +</p> + +<p> +“I declare the first session of the Second Congress of Soviets of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies open!” +</p> + +<p> +The election of the presidium took place amid stir and moving about. Avanessov +announced that by agreement of the Bolsheviki, Left Socialist Revolutionaries +and Mensheviki Internationalists, it was decided to base the presidium upon +proportionality. Several Mensheviki leaped to their feet protesting. A bearded +soldier shouted at them, “Remember what you did to us Bolsheviki when +<i>we</i> were the minority!” Result—14 Bolsheviki, 7 Socialist +Revolutionaries, 3 Mensheviki and 1 Internationalist (Gorky’s group). +Hendelmann, for the right and centre Socialist Revolutionaries, said that they +refused to take part in the presidium; the same from Kintchuk, for the +Mensheviki; and from the Mensheviki Internationalists, that until the +verification of certain circumstances, they too could not enter the presidium. +Scattering applause and hoots. One voice, “Renegades, you call yourselves +Socialists!” A representative of the Ukrainean delegates demanded, and +received, a place. Then the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> stepped down, and in their +places appeared Trotzky, Kameniev, Lunatcharsky, Madame Kollentai, Nogin…. The +hall rose, thundering. How far they had soared, these Bolsheviki, from a +despised and hunted sect less than four months ago, to this supreme place, the +helm of great Russia in full tide of insurrection! +</p> + +<p> +The order of the day, said Kameniev, was first, Organisation of Power; second, +War and Peace; and third, the Constituent Assembly. Lozovsky, rising, announced +that upon agreement of the bureau of all factions, it was proposed to hear and +discuss the report of the Petrograd Soviet, then to give the floor to members +of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> and the different parties, and finally to pass to the +order of the day. +</p> + +<p> +But suddenly a new sound made itself heard, deeper than the tumult of the +crowd, persistent, disquieting,—the dull shock of guns. People looked +anxiously toward the clouded windows, and a sort of fever came over them. +Martov, demanding the floor, croaked hoarsely, “The civil war is +beginning, comrades! The first question must be a peaceful settlement of the +crisis. On principle and from a political standpoint we must urgently discuss a +means of averting civil war. Our brothers are being shot down in the streets! +At this moment, when before the opening of the Congress of Soviets the question +of Power is being settled by means of a military plot organised by one of the +revolutionary parties—” for a moment he could not make himself +heard above the noise, “All of the revolutionary parties must face the +fact! The first <i>vopros</i> (question) before the Congress is the question of +Power, and this question is already being settled by force of arms in the +streets!… We must create a power which will be recognised by the whole +democracy. If the Congress wishes to be the voice of the revolutionary +democracy it must not sit with folded hands before the developing civil war, +the result of which may be a dangerous outburst of counter-revolution…. The +possibility of a peaceful outcome lies in the formation of a united democratic +authority…. We must elect a delegation to negotiate with the other Socialist +parties and organisation….” +</p> + +<p> +Always the methodical muffled boom of cannon through the windows, and the +delegates, screaming at each other…. So, with the crash of artillery, in the +dark, with hatred, and fear, and reckless daring, new Russia was being born. +</p> + +<p> +The Left Socialist Revolutionaries and the United Social Democrats supported +Martov’s proposition. It was accepted. A soldier announced that the +All-Russian Peasants’ Soviets had refused to send delegates to the +Congress; he proposed that a committee be sent with a formal invitation. +“Some delegates are present,” he said. “I move that they be +given votes.” Accepted. +</p> + +<p> +Kharash, wearing the epaulets of a captain, passionately demanded the floor. +“The political hypocrites who control this Congress,” he shouted, +“told us we were to settle the question of Power—and it is being +settled behind our backs, before the Congress opens! Blows are being struck +against the Winter Palace, and it is by such blows that the nails are being +driven into the coffin of the political party which has risked such an +adventure!” Uproar. Followed him Gharra: “While we are here +discussing propositions of peace, there is a battle on in the streets…. The +Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviki refuse to be involved in what is +happening, and call upon all public forces to resist the attempt to capture the +power….” Kutchin, delegate of the 12th Army and representative of the +Troudoviki: “I was sent here only for information, and I am returning at +once to the Front, where all the Army Committees consider that the taking of +power by the Soviets, only three weeks before the Constituent Assembly, is a +stab in the back of the Army and a crime against the people—!” +Shouts of “Lie! You lie!”… When he could be heard again, +“Let’s make an end of this adventure in Petrograd! I call upon all +delegates to leave this hall in order to save the country and the +Revolution!” As he went down the aisle in the midst of a deafening noise, +people surged in upon him, threatening…. Then Khintchuk, an officer with a long +brown goatee, speaking suavely and persuasively: “I speak for the +delegates from the Front. The Army is imperfectly represented in this Congress, +and furthermore, the Army does not consider the Congress of Soviets necessary +at this time, only three weeks before the opening of the +Constituent—” shouts and stamping, always growing more violent. +“The Army does not consider that the Congress of Soviets has the +necessary authority—” Soldiers began to stand up all over the hall. +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you speaking for? What do you represent?” they cried. +</p> + +<p> +“The Central Executive Committee of the Soviet of the Fifth Army, the +Second F— regiment, the First N— Regiment, the Third S— +Rifles….” +</p> + +<p> +“When were you elected? You represent the officers, not the soldiers! +What do the soldiers say about it?” Jeers and hoots. +</p> + +<p> +“We, the Front group, disclaim all responsibility for what has happened +and is happening, and we consider it necessary to mobilise all self-conscious +revolutionary forces for the salvation of the Revolution! The Front group will +leave the Congress…. The place to fight is out on the streets!” +</p> + +<p> +Immense bawling outcry. “You speak for the Staff—not for the +Army!” +</p> + +<p> +“I appeal to all reasonable soldiers to leave this Congress!” +</p> + +<p> +“Kornilovitz! Counter-revolutionist! Provocator!” were hurled at +him. +</p> + +<p> +On behalf of the Mensheviki, Khintchuk then announced that the only possibility +of a peaceful solution was to begin negotiations with the Provisional +Government for the formation of a new Cabinet, which would find support in all +strata of society. He could not proceed for several minutes. Raising his voice +to a shout he read the Menshevik declaration: +</p> + +<p> +“Because the Bolsheviki have made a military conspiracy with the aid of +the Petrograd Soviet, without consulting the other factions and parties, we +find it impossible to remain in the Congress, and therefore withdraw, inviting +the other groups to follow us and to meet for discussion of the +situation!” +</p> + +<p> +“Deserter!” At intervals in the almost continuous disturbance +Hendelman, for the Socialist Revolutionaries, could be heard protesting against +the bombardment of the Winter Palace…. “We are opposed to this kind of +anarchy….” +</p> + +<p> +Scarcely had he stepped down than a young, lean-faced soldier, with flashing +eyes, leaped to the platform, and dramatically lifted his hand: +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades!” he cried and there was a hush. “My <i>familia</i> +(name) is Peterson—I speak for the Second Lettish Rifles. You have heard +the statements of two representatives of the Army committees; these statements +would have some value <i>if their authors had been representatives of the +Army</i>—” Wild applause. <i>“But they do not represent the +soldiers!”</i> Shaking his fist. “The Twelfth Army has been +insisting for a long time upon the re-election of the Great Soviet and the Army +Committee, but just as your own <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> our Committee refused to +call a meeting of the representatives of the masses until the end of September, +so that the reactionaries could elect their own false delegates to this +Congress. I tell you now, the Lettish soldiers have many times said, ‘No +more resolutions! No more talk! We want deeds—the Power must be in our +hands!’ Let these impostor delegates leave the Congress! The Army is not +with them!” +</p> + +<p> +The hall rocked with cheering. In the first moments of the session, stunned by +the rapidity of events, startled by the sound of cannon, the delegates had +hesitated. For an hour hammer-blow after hammer-blow had fallen from that +tribune, welding them together but beating them down. Did they stand then +alone? Was Russia rising against them? Was it true that the Army was marching +on Petrograd? Then this clear-eyed young soldier had spoken, and in a flash +they knew it for the truth…. <i>This</i> was the voice of the +soldiers—the stirring millions of uniformed workers and peasants were men +like them, and their thoughts and feelings were the same… +</p> + +<p> +More soldiers … Gzhelshakh; for the Front delegates, announcing that they had +only decided to leave the Congress by a small majority, and that <i>the +Bolshevik members had not even taken part in the vote,</i> as they stood for +division according to political parties, and not groups. “Hundreds of +delegates from the Front,” he said, “are being elected without the +participation of the soldiers because the Army Committees are no longer the +real representatives of the rank and file….” Lukianov, crying that +officers like Kharash and Khintchuk could not represent the Army in this +congress,—but only the high command. “The real inhabitants of the +trenches want with all their hearts the transfer of Power into the hands of the +Soviets, and they expect very much from it!”… The tide was turning. +</p> + +<p> +Then came Abramovitch, for the <i>Bund,</i> the organ of the Jewish Social +Democrats—his eyes snapping behind thick glasses, trembling with rage. +</p> + +<p> +“What is taking place now in Petrograd is a monstrous calamity! The +<i>Bund</i> group joins with the declaration of the Mensheviki and Socialist +Revolutionaries and will leave the Congress!” He raised his voice and +hand. “Our duty to the Russian proletariat doesn’t permit us to +remain here and be responsible for these crimes. Because the firing on the +Winter Palace doesn’t cease, the Municipal Duma together with the +Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and the Executive Committee of the +Peasants’ Soviet, has decided to perish with the Provisional Government, +and we are going with them! Unarmed we will expose our breasts to the machine +guns of the Terrorists…. We invite all delegates to this Congress—” +The rest was lost in a storm of hoots, menaces and curses which rose to a +hellish pitch as fifty delegates got up and pushed their way out…. +</p> + +<p> +Kameniev jangled the bell, shouting, “Keep your seats and we’ll go +on with our business!” And Trotzky, standing up with a pale, cruel face, +letting out his rich voice in cool contempt, “All these so-called +Socialist compromisers, these frightened Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries, +<i>Bund</i>—let them go! They are just so much refuse which will be swept +into the garbage-heap of history!” +</p> + +<p> +Riazanov, for the Bolsheviki, stated that at the request of the City Duma the +Military Revolutionary Committee had sent a delegation to offer negotiations to +the Winter Palace. “In this way we have done everything possible to avoid +blood-shed….” +</p> + +<p> +We hurried from the place, stopping for a moment at the room where the Military +Revolutionary Committee worked at furious speed, engulfing and spitting out +panting couriers, despatching Commissars armed with power of life and death to +all the corners of the city, amid the buzz of the telephonographs. The door +opened, a blast of stale air and cigarette smoke rushed out, we caught a +glimpse of dishevelled men bending over a map under the glare of a shaded +electric-light…. Comrade Josephov-Dukhvinski, a smiling youth with a mop of +pale yellow hair, made out passes for us. +</p> + +<p> +When we came into the chill night, all the front of Smolny was one huge park of +arriving and departing automobiles, above the sound of which could be heard the +far-off slow beat of the cannon. A great motor-truck stood there, shaking to +the roar of its engine. Men were tossing bundles into it, and others receiving +them, with guns beside them. +</p> + +<p> +“Where are you going?” I shouted. +</p> + +<p> +“Down-town—all over—everywhere!” answered a little +workman, grinning, with a large exultant gesture. +</p> + +<p> +We showed our passes. “Come along!” they invited. “But +there’ll probably be shooting—” We climbed in; the clutch +slid home with a raking jar, the great car jerked forward, we all toppled +backward on top of those who were climbing in; past the huge fire by the gate, +and then the fire by the outer gate, glowing red on the faces of the workmen +with rifles who squatted around it, and went bumping at top speed down the +Suvorovsky Prospect, swaying from side to side…. One man tore the wrapping from +a bundle and began to hurl handfuls of papers into the air. We imitated him, +plunging down through the dark street with a tail of white papers floating and +eddying out behind. The late passerby stooped to pick them up; the patrols +around bonfires on the corners ran out with uplifted arms to catch them. +Sometimes armed men loomed up ahead, crying “<i>Shtoi!</i>” and +raising their guns, but our chauffeur only yelled something unintelligible and +we hurtled on…. +</p> + +<p> +I picked up a copy of the paper, and under a fleeting street-light read: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +TO THE CITIZENS OF RUSSIA! +</p> + +<p> +The Provisional Government is deposed. The State Power has passed into the +hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Deputies, the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stands at +the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison. +</p> + +<p> +The cause for which the people were fighting: immediate proposal of a +democratic peace, abolition of landlord property-rights over the land, labor +control over production, creation of a Soviet Government—that cause is +securely achieved. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION OF WORKMEN, SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS! +</p> + +<p> +<i>Military Revolutionary Committee</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.</i> +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 96: Proclamation in Russian, title follows] +</p> + +<p> +Proclamation of the Fall of the Provisional Government issued by the Military +Revolutionary Committee on the night of November 7th (our calendar), which we +helped to distribute from a motor-truck just after the surrender of the Winter +Palace. +</p> + +<p> +A slant-eyed, Mongolian-faced man who sat beside me, dressed in a goat-skin +Caucasian cape, snapped, “Look out! Here the provocators always shoot +from the windows!” We turned into Znamensky Square, dark and almost +deserted, careened around Trubetskoy’s brutal statue and swung down the +wide Nevsky, three men standing up with rifles ready, peering at the windows. +Behind us the street was alive with people running and stooping. We could no +longer hear the cannon, and the nearer we drew to the Winter Palace end of the +city the quieter and more deserted were the streets. The City Duma was all +brightly lighted. Beyond that we made out a dark mass of people, and a line of +sailors, who yelled furiously at us to stop. The machine slowed down, and we +climbed out. +</p> + +<p> +It was an astonishing scene. Just at the corner of the Ekaterina Canal, under +an arc-light, a cordon of armed sailors was drawn across the Nevsky, blocking +the way to a crowd of people in column of fours. There were about three or four +hundred of them, men in frock coats, well-dressed women, officers—all +sorts and conditions of people. Among them we recognised many of the delegates +from the Congress, leaders of the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries; +Avksentiev, the lean, red-bearded president of the Peasants’ Soviets, +Sarokin, Kerensky’s spokesman, Khintchuk, Abramovitch; and at the head +white-bearded old Schreider, Mayor of Petrograd, and Prokopovitch, Minister of +Supplies in the Provisional Government, arrested that morning and released. I +caught sight of Malkin, reporter for the <i>Russian Daily News.</i> +“Going to die in the Winter Palace,” he shouted cheerfully. The +procession stood still, but from the front of it came loud argument. Schreider +and Prokopovitch were bellowing at the big sailor who seemed in command. +</p> + +<p> +“We demand to pass!” they cried. “See, these comrades come +from the Congress of Soviets! Look at their tickets! We are going to the Winter +Palace!” +</p> + +<p> +The sailor was plainly puzzled. He scratched his head with an enormous hand, +frowning. “I have orders from the Committee not to let anybody go to the +Winter Palace,” he grumbled. “But I will send a comrade to +telephone to Smolny….” +</p> + +<p> +“We Insist upon passing! We are unarmed! We will march on whether you +permit us or not!” cried old Schreider, very much excited. +</p> + +<p> +“I have orders—” repeated the sailor sullenly. +</p> + +<p> +“Shoot us if you want to! We will pass! Forward!” came from all +sides. “We are ready to die, if you have the heart to fire on Russians +and comrades! We bare our breasts to your guns!” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the sailor, looking stubborn, “I can’t allow +you to pass.” +</p> + +<p> +“What will you do if we go forward? Will you shoot?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I’m not going to shoot people who haven’t any guns. We +won’t shoot unarmed Russian people….” +</p> + +<p> +“We will go forward! What can you do?” +</p> + +<p> +“We will do something,” replied the sailor, evidently at a loss. +“We can’t let you pass. We will do something.” +</p> + +<p> +“What will you do? What will you do?” +</p> + +<p> +Another sailor came up, very much irritated. “We will spank you!” +he cried, energetically. “And if necessary we will shoot you too. Go home +now, and leave us in peace!” +</p> + +<p> +At this there was a great clamour of anger and resentment, Prokopovitch had +mounted some sort of box, and, waving his umbrella, he made a speech: +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades and citizens!” he said. “Force is being used +against us! We cannot have our innocent blood upon the hands of these ignorant +men! It is beneath our dignity to be shot down here in the street by +switchmen—” (What he meant by “switchmen” I never +discovered.) “Let us return to the Duma and discuss the best means of +saving the country and the Revolution!” +</p> + +<p> +Whereupon, in dignified silence, the procession marched around and back up the +Nevsky, always in column of fours. And taking advantage of the diversion we +slipped past the guards and set off in the direction of the Winter Palace. +</p> + +<p> +Here it was absolutely dark, and nothing moved but pickets of soldiers and Red +Guards grimly intent. In front of the Kazan Cathedral a three-inch field-gun +lay in the middle of the street, slewed sideways from the recoil of its last +shot over the roofs. Soldiers were standing in every doorway talking in low +tones and peering down toward the Police Bridge. I heard one voice saying: +“It is possible that we have done wrong….” At the corners patrols +stopped all passersby—and the composition of these patrols was +interesting, for in command of the regular troops was invariably a Red Guard…. +The shooting had ceased. +</p> + +<p> +Just as we came to the Morskaya somebody was shouting: “The +<i>yunkers</i> have sent word they want us to go and get them out!” +Voices began to give commands, and in the thick gloom we made out a dark mass +moving forward, silent but for the shuffle of feet and the clinking of arms. We +fell in with the first ranks. +</p> + +<p> +Like a black river, filling all the street, without song or cheer we poured +through the Red Arch, where the man just ahead of me said in a low voice: +“Look out, comrades! Don’t trust them. They will fire, +surely!” In the open we began to run, stooping low and bunching together, +and jammed up suddenly behind the pedestal of the Alexander Column. +</p> + +<p> +“How many of you did they kill?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know. About ten….” +</p> + +<p> +After a few minutes huddling there, some hundreds of men, the army seemed +reassured and without any orders suddenly began again to flow forward. By this +time, in the light that streamed out of all the Winter Palace windows, I could +see that the first two or three hundred men were Red Guards, with only a few +scattered soldiers. Over the barricade of firewood we clambered, and leaping +down inside gave a triumphant shout as we stumbled on a heap of rifles thrown +down by the <i>yunkers</i> who had stood there. On both sides of the main +gateway the doors stood wide open, light streamed out, and from the huge pile +came not the slightest sound. +</p> + +<p> +Carried along by the eager wave of men we were swept into the right hand +entrance, opening into a great bare vaulted room, the cellar of the East wing, +from which issued a maze of corridors and stair-cases. A number of huge packing +cases stood about, and upon these the Red Guards and soldiers fell furiously, +battering them open with the butts of their rifles, and pulling out carpets, +curtains, linen, porcelain plates, glassware…. One man went strutting around +with a bronze clock perched on his shoulder; another found a plume of ostrich +feathers, which he stuck in his hat. The looting was just beginning when +somebody cried, “Comrades! Don’t touch anything! Don’t take +anything! This is the property of the People!” Immediately twenty voices +were crying, “Stop! Put everything back! Don’t take anything! +Property of the People!” Many hands dragged the spoilers down. Damask and +tapestry were snatched from the arms of those who had them; two men took away +the bronze clock. Roughly and hastily the things were crammed back in their +cases, and self-appointed sentinels stood guard. It was all utterly +spontaneous. Through corridors and up stair-cases the cry could be heard +growing fainter and fainter in the distance, “Revolutionary discipline! +Property of the People….” +</p> + +<p> +We crossed back over to the left entrance, in the West wing. There order was +also being established. “Clear the Palace!” bawled a Red Guard, +sticking his head through an inner door. “Come, comrades, let’s +show that we’re not thieves and bandits. Everybody out of the Palace +except the Commissars, until we get sentries posted.” +</p> + +<p> +Two Red Guards, a soldier and an officer, stood with revolvers in their hands. +Another soldier sat at a table behind them, with pen and paper. Shouts of +“All out! All out!” were heard far and near within, and the Army +began to pour through the door, jostling, expostulating, arguing. As each man +appeared he was seized by the self-appointed committee, who went through his +pockets and looked under his coat. Everything that was plainly not his property +was taken away, the man at the table noted it on his paper, and it was carried +into a little room. The most amazing assortment of objects were thus +confiscated; statuettes, bottles of ink, bed-spreads worked with the Imperial +monogram, candles, a small oil-painting, desk blotters, gold-handled swords, +cakes of soap, clothes of every description, blankets. One Red Guard carried +three rifles, two of which he had taken away from <i>yunkers;</i> another had +four portfolios bulging with written documents. The culprits either sullenly +surrendered or pleaded like children. All talking at once the committee +explained that stealing was not worthy of the people’s champions; often +those who had been caught turned around and began to help go through the rest +of the comrades. (See App. IV, Sect. 3) +</p> + +<p> +<i>Yunkers</i> came out, in bunches of three or four. The committee seized upon +them with an excess of zeal, accompanying the search with remarks like, +“Ah, Provocators! Kornilovists! Counter-revolutionists! Murderers of the +People!” But there was no violence done, although the <i>yunkers</i> were +terrified. They too had their pockets full of small plunder. It was carefully +noted down by the scribe, and piled in the little room…. The <i>yunkers</i> +were disarmed. “Now, will you take up arms against the People any +more?” demanded clamouring voices. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” answered the <i>yunkers,</i> one by one. Whereupon they were +allowed to go free. +</p> + +<p> +We asked if we might go inside. The committee was doubtful, but the big Red +Guard answered firmly that it was forbidden. “Who are you anyway?” +he asked. “How do I know that you are not all Kerenskys? (There were five +of us, two women.) +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Pazhal’st’, touarishtchi!</i> Way, Comrades!” A +soldier and a Red Guard appeared in the door, waving the crowd aside, and other +guards with fixed bayonets. After them followed single file half a dozen men in +civilian dress—the members of the Provisional Government. First came +Kishkin, his face drawn and pale, then Rutenberg, looking sullenly at the +floor; Terestchenko was next, glancing sharply around; he stared at us with +cold fixity…. They passed in silence; the victorious insurrectionists crowded +to see, but there were only a few angry mutterings. It was only later that we +learned how the people in the street wanted to lynch them, and shots were +fired—but the sailors brought them safely to Peter-Paul…. +</p> + +<p> +In the meanwhile unrebuked we walked into the Palace. There was still a great +deal of coming and going, of exploring new-found apartments in the vast +edifice, of searching for hidden garrisons of <i>yunkers</i> which did not +exist. We went upstairs and wandered through room after room. This part of the +Palace had been entered also by other detachments from the side of the Neva. +The paintings, statues, tapestries and rugs of the great state apartments were +unharmed; in the offices, however, every desk and cabinet had been ransacked, +the papers scattered over the floor, and in the living rooms beds had been +stripped of their coverings and ward-robes wrenched open. The most highly +prized loot was clothing, which the working people needed. In a room where +furniture was stored we came upon two soldiers ripping the elaborate Spanish +leather upholstery from chairs. They explained it was to make boots with…. +</p> + +<p> +The old Palace servants in their blue and red and gold uniforms stood nervously +about, from force of habit repeating, “You can’t go in there, +<i>barin!</i> It is forbidden—” We penetrated at length to the gold +and malachite chamber with crimson brocade hangings where the Ministers had +been in session all that day and night, and where the <i>shveitzari</i> had +betrayed them to the Red Guards. The long table covered with green baize was +just as they had left it, under arrest. Before each empty seat was pen and ink +and paper; the papers were scribbled over with beginnings of plans of action, +rough drafts of proclamations and manifestos. Most of these were scratched out, +as their futility became evident, and the rest of the sheet covered with +absent-minded geometrical designs, as the writers sat despondently listening +while Minister after Minister proposed chimerical schemes. I took one of these +scribbled pages, in the hand writing of Konovalov, which read, “The +Provisional Government appeals to all classes to support the Provisional +Government—” +</p> + +<p> +All this time, it must be remembered, although the Winter Palace was +surrounded, the Government was in constant communication with the Front and +with provincial Russia. The Bolsheviki had captured the Ministry of War early +in the morning, but they did not know of the military telegraph office in the +attic, nor of the private telephone line connecting it with the Winter Palace. +In that attic a young officer sat all day, pouring out over the country a flood +of appeals and proclamations; and when he heard that the Palace had fallen, put +on his hat and walked calmly out of the building…. +</p> + +<p> +Interested as we were, for a considerable time we didn’t notice a change +in the attitude of the soldiers and Red Guards around us. As we strolled from +room to room a small group followed us, until by the time we reached the great +picture-gallery where we had spent the afternoon with the <i>yunkers,</i> about +a hundred men surged in after us. One giant of a soldier stood in our path, his +face dark with sullen suspicion. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 104: Doodling by Konavalov, title follows] +</p> + +<p> +Facsimile of the beginning of a proclamation, written in pencil by A.I. +Konovalov, Minister of Commerce and Industry in he Provisional Government, and +then scratched out as the hopelessness of the situation became more and more +evident. The geometrical figure beneath was probably idly drawn while the +Ministers were waiting for the end. +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you?” he growled. “What are you doing here?” +The others massed slowly around, staring and beginning to mutter. +<i>“Provocatori!”</i> I heard somebody say. “Looters!” +I produced our passes from the Military Revolutionary Committee. The soldier +took them gingerly, turned them upside down and looked at them without +comprehension. Evidently he could not read. He handed them back and spat on the +floor. <i>“Bumagi!</i> Papers!” said he with contempt. The mass +slowly began to close in, like wild cattle around a cowpuncher on foot. Over +their heads I caught sight of an officer, looking helpless, and shouted to him. +He made for us, shouldering his way through. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m the Commissar,” he said to me. “Who are you? What +is it?” The others held back, waiting. I produced the papers. +</p> + +<p> +“You are foreigners?” he rapidly asked in French. “It is very +dangerous….” Then he turned to the mob, holding up our documents. +“Comrades!” he cried. “These people are foreign +comrades—from America. They have come here to be able to tell their +countrymen about the bravery and the revolutionary discipline of the +proletarian army!” +</p> + +<p> +“How do you know that?” replied the big soldier. “I tell you +they are provocators! They say they came here to observe the revolutionary +discipline of the proletarian army, but they have been wandering freely through +the Palace, and how do we know they haven’t got their pockets full of +loot?” +</p> + +<p> +<i>“Pravilno!”</i> snarled the others, pressing forward. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! Comrades!” appealed the officer, sweat standing out on +his forehead. “I am Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee. Do +you trust me? Well, I tell you that these passes are signed with the same names +that are signed to my pass!” +</p> + +<p> +He led us down through the Palace and out through a door opening onto the Neva +quay, before which stood the usual committee going through pockets… “You +have narrowly escaped,” he kept muttering, wiping his face. +</p> + +<p> +“What happened to the Women’s Battalion?” we asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh—the women!” He laughed. “They were all huddled up +in a back room. We had a terrible time deciding what to do with them—many +were in hysterics, and so on. So finally we marched them up to the Finland +Station and put them on a train for Levashovo, where they have a camp. (See +App. IV, Sect. 4)….” +</p> + +<p> +We came out into the cold, nervous night, murmurous with obscure armies on the +move, electric with patrols. From across the river, where loomed the darker +mass of Peter-Paul, came a hoarse shout…. Underfoot the sidewalk was littered +with broken stucco, from the cornice of the Palace where two shells from the +battleship <i>Avrora</i> had struck; that was the only damage done by the +bombardment…. +</p> + +<p> +It was now after three in the morning. On the Nevsky all the street-lights were +again shining, the cannon gone, and the only signs of war were Red Guards and +soldiers squatting around fires. The city was quiet—probably never so +quiet in its history; on that night not a single hold-up occurred, not a single +robbery. +</p> + +<p> +But the City Duma Building was all illuminated. We mounted to the galleried +Alexander Hall, hung with its great, gold-framed, red-shrouded Imperial +portraits. About a hundred people were grouped around the platform, where +Skobeliev was speaking. He urged that the Committee of Public Safety be +expanded, so as to unite all the anti-Bolshevik elements in one huge +organisation, to be called the Committee for Salvation of Country and +Revolution. And as we looked on, the Committee for Salvation was +formed—that Committee which was to develop into the most powerful enemy +of the Bolsheviki, appearing, in the next week, sometimes under its own +partisan name, and sometimes as the strictly non-partisan Committee of Public +Safety…. +</p> + +<p> +Dan, Gotz, Avkesntiev were there, some of the insurgent Soviet delegates, +members of the Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets, old +Prokopovitch, and even members of the Council of the Republic—among whom +Vinaver and other Cadets. Lieber cried that the convention of Soviets was not a +legal convention, that the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> was still in office…. An +appeal to the country was drafted. +</p> + +<p> +We hailed a cab. “Where to?” But when we said “Smolny,” +the <i>izvoshtchik</i> shook his head. <i>“Niet!”</i> said he, +“there are devils….” It was only after weary wandering that we +found a driver willing to take us—and he wanted thirty rubles, and +stopped two blocks away. +</p> + +<p> +The windows of Smolny were still ablaze, motors came and went, and around the +still-leaping fires the sentries huddled close, eagerly asking everybody the +latest news. The corridors were full of hurrying men, hollow-eyed and dirty. In +some of the committee-rooms people lay sleeping on the floor, their guns beside +them. In spite of the seceding delegates, the hall of meetings was crowded with +people, roaring like the sea. As we came in, Kameniev was reading the list of +arrested Ministers. The name of Terestchenko was greeted with thunderous +applause, shouts of satisfaction, laughter; Rutenburg came in for less; and at +the mention of Paltchinsky, a storm of hoots, angry cries, cheers burst forth…. +It was announced that Tchudnovsky had been appointed Commissar of the Winter +Palace. +</p> + +<p> +Now occurred a dramatic interruption. A big peasant, his bearded face convulsed +with rage, mounted the platform and pounded with his fist on the presidium +table. +</p> + +<p> +“We, Socialist Revolutionaries, insist upon the immediate release of the +Socialist Ministers arrested in the Winter Palace! Comrades! Do you know that +four comrades who risked their lives and their freedom fighting against tyranny +of the Tsar, have been flung into Peter-Paul prison—the historical tomb +of Liberty?” In the uproar he pounded and yelled. Another delegate +climbed up beside him, and pointed at the presidium. +</p> + +<p> +“Are the representatives of the revolutionary masses going to sit quietly +here while the <i>Okhrana</i> of the Bolsheviki tortures their leaders?” +</p> + +<p> +Trotzky was gesturing for silence. “These ‘comrades’ who are +now caught plotting the crushing of the Soviets with the adventurer +Kerensky—is there any reason to handle them with gloves? After July 16th +and 18th they didn’t use much ceremony with us!” With a triumphant +ring in his voice he cried, “Now that the <i>oborontsi</i> and the +faint-hearted have gone, and the whole task of defending and saving the +Revolution rests on our shoulders, it is particularly necessary to +work—work—work! We have decided to die rather than give up!” +</p> + +<p> +Followed him a Commissar from Tsarskoye Selo, panting and covered with the mud +of his ride. “The garrison of Tsarskoye Selo is on guard at the gates of +Petrograd, ready to defend the Soviets and the Military Revolutionary +Committee!” Wild cheers. “The Cycle Corps sent from the front has +arrived at Tsarskoye, and the soldiers are now with us; they recognise the +power of the Soviets, the necessity of immediate transfer of land to the +peasants and industrial control to the workers. The Fifth Battalion of +Cyclists, stationed at Tsarskoye, is ours….” +</p> + +<p> +Then the delegate of the Third Cycle Battalion. In the midst of delirious +enthusiasm he told how the cycle corps had been ordered <i>three days +before</i> from the South-west front to the “defence of Petrograd.” +They suspected, however, the meaning of the order; and at the station of +Peredolsk were met by representatives of the Fifth Battalion from Tsarskoye. A +joint meeting was held, and it was discovered that “among the cyclists +not a single man was found willing to shed the blood of his brothers, or to +support a Government of bourgeois and land-owners!” +</p> + +<p> +Kapelinski, for the Mensheviki Internationalists, proposed to elect a special +committee to find a peaceful solution to the civil war. “There +isn’t any peaceful solution!” bellowed the crowed. “Victory +is the only solution!” The vote was overwhelmingly against, and the +Mensheviki Internationalists left the Congress in a Whirlwind of Jocular +insults. There was no longer any panic fear…. Kameniev from the platform +shouted after them, “The Mensheviki Internationalists claimed +‘emergency’ for the question of a ‘peaceful solution,’ +but they always voted for suspension of the order of the day in favour of +declarations of factions which wanted to leave the Congress. It is +evident,” finished Kameniev, “that the withdrawal of all these +renegades was decided upon beforehand!” +</p> + +<p> +The assembly decided to ignore the withdrawal of the factions, and proceed to +the appeal to the workers, soldiers and peasants of all Russia: +</p> + +<h5>TO WORKERS, SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS</h5> + +<p> +The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Deputies has opened. It represents the great majority of the +Soviets. There are also a number of Peasant deputies. Based upon the will of +the great majority of the workers’, soldiers and peasants, based upon the +triumphant uprising of the Petrograd workmen and soldiers, the Congress assumes +the Power. +</p> + +<p> +The Provisional Government is deposed. Most of the members of the Provisional +Government are already arrested. +</p> + +<p> +The Soviet authority will at once propose an immediate democratic peace to all +nations, and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will assure the free transfer +of landlord, crown and monastery lands to the Land Committees, defend the +soldiers rights, enforcing a complete democratisation of the Army, establish +workers’ control over production, ensure the convocation of the +Constituent Assembly at the proper date, take means to supply bread to the +cities and articles of first necessity to the villages, and secure to all +nationalities living in Russia a real right to independent existence. +</p> + +<p> +The Congress resolves: that all local power shall be transferred to the Soviets +of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, which must +enforce revolutionary order. +</p> + +<p> +The Congress calls upon the soldiers in the trenches to be watchful and +steadfast. The Congress of Soviets is sure that the revolutionary Army will +know how to defend the Revolution against all attacks of Imperialism, until the +new Government shall have brought about the conclusion of the democratic peace +which it will directly propose to all nations. The new Government will take all +necessary steps to secure everything needful to the revolutionary Army, by +means of a determined policy of requisition and taxation of the propertied +classes, and also to improve the situation of soldiers’ families. +</p> + +<p> +The Kornilovitz-Kerensky, Kaledin and others, are endeavouring to lead troops +against Petrograd. Several regiments, deceived by Kerensky, have sided with the +insurgent People. +</p> + +<p> +Soldiers! Make active resistance to the Kornilovitz-Kerensky! Be on guard! +</p> + +<p> +Railway men! Stop all troop-trains being sent by Kerensky against Petrograd! +</p> + +<p> +Soldiers, Workers, Clerical employees! The destiny of the Revolution and +democratic peace is in your hands! +</p> + +<p> +Long live the Revolution! +</p> + +<p> +<i>The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of</i> <i>Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Deputies.</i> <i>Delegates from the Peasants’ +Soviets.</i> +</p> + +<p> +It was exactly 5:17 A.M. when Krylenko, staggering with fatigue, climbed to the +tribune with a telegram in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! From the Northern Front. The Twelfth Army sends greetings to +the Congress of Soviets, announcing the formation of a Military Revolutionary +Committee which has taken over the command of the Northern Front!” +Pandemonium, men weeping, embracing each other. “General Tchermissov has +recognised the Committee-Commissar of the Provisional Government Voitinsky has +resigned!” +</p> + +<p> +So. Lenin and the Petrograd workers had decided on insurrection, the Petrograd +Soviet had overthrown the Provisional Government, and thrust the <i>coup +d’etat</i> upon the Congress of Soviets. Now there was all great Russia +to win—and then the world! Would Russia follow and rise? And the +world—what of it? Would the peoples answer and rise, a red world-tide? +</p> + +<p> +Although it was six in the morning, night was yet heavy and chill. There was +only a faint unearthly pallor stealing over the silent streets, dimming the +watch-fires, the shadow of a terrible dawn grey-rising over Russia…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>Chapter V<br /> +Plunging Ahead</h2> + +<p> +Thursday, November 8th. Day broke on a city in the wildest excitement and +confusion, a whole nation heaving up in long hissing swells of storm. +Superficially all was quiet; hundreds of thousands of people retired at a +prudent hour, got up early, and went to work. In Petrograd the street-cars were +running, the stores and restaurants open, theatres going, an exhibition of +paintings advertised…. All the complex routine of common life—humdrum +even in war-time—proceeded as usual. Nothing is so astounding as the +vitality of the social organism—how it persists, feeding itself, clothing +itself, amusing itself, in the face of the worst calamities…. +</p> + +<p> +The air was full of rumours about Kerensky, who was said to have raised the +Front, and to be leading a great army against the capital. <i>Volia Naroda</i> +published a <i>prikaz</i> launched by him at Pskov: +</p> + +<p> +The disorders caused by the insane attempt of the Bolsheviki place the country +on the verge of a precipice, and demand the effort of our entire will, our +courage and the devotion of every one of us, to win through the terrible trial +which the fatherland is undergoing…. +</p> + +<p> +Until the declaration of the composition of the new Government—if one is +formed—every one ought to remain at his post and fulfil his duty toward +bleeding Russia. It must be remembered that the least interference with +existing Army organisations can bring on irreparable misfortunes, by opening +the Front to the enemy. Therefore it is indispensable to preserve at any price +the morale of the troops, by assuring complete order and the preservation of +the Army from new shocks, and by maintaining absolute confidence between +officers and their subordinates. I order all the chiefs and Commissars, in the +name of the safety of the country, to stay at their posts, as I myself retain +the post of Supreme Commander, until the Provisional Government of the Republic +shall declare its will…. +</p> + +<p> +In answer, this placard on all the walls: +</p> + +<h5>FROM THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF SOVIETS</h5> + +<p> +“The ex-Ministers Konovalov, Kishkin, Terestchenko, Maliantovitch, +Nikitin and others have been arrested by the Military Revolutionary Committee. +Kerensky has fled. All Army organisations are ordered to take every measure for +the immediate arrest of Kerensky and his conveyance to Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +“All assistance given to Kerensky will be punished as a serious crime +against the state.” +</p> + +<p> +With brakes released the Military Revolutionary Committee whirled, throwing off +orders, appeals, decrees, like sparks. (See App. V, Sect. 1)… Kornilov was +ordered brought to Petrograd. Members of the Peasant Land Committees imprisoned +by the Provisional Government were declared free. Capital punishment in the +army was abolished. Government employees were ordered to continue their work, +and threatened with severe penalties if they refused. All pillage, disorder and +speculation were forbidden under pain of death. Temporary Commissars were +appointed to the various Ministries: Foreign Affairs, Vuritsky and Trotzky; +Interior and Justice, Rykov; Labor, Shliapnikov; Finance, Menzhinsky; Public +Welfare, Madame Kollontai; Commerce, Ways and Communications, Riazanov; Navy, +the sailor Korbir; Posts and Telegraphs, Spiro; Theatres, Muraviov; State +Printing Office, Gherbychev; for the City of Petrograd, Lieutenant Nesterov; +for the Northern Front, Pozern…. +</p> + +<p> +To the Army, appeal to set up Military Revolutionary Committees. To the railway +workers, to maintain order, especially not to delay the transport of food to +the cities and the front…. In return, they were promised representation in the +Ministry of Ways and Communications. +</p> + +<p> +Cossack brothers! (said one proclamation). You are being led against Petrograd. +They want to force you into battle with the revolutionary workers and soldiers +of the capital. Do not believe a word that is said by our common enemies, the +land-owners and the capitalists. +</p> + +<p> +At our Congress are represented all the conscious organisations of workers, +soldiers and peasants of Russia. The Congress wishes also to welcome into its +midst the worker-Cossacks. The Generals of the Black Band, henchmen of the +land-owners, of Nicolai the Cruel, are our enemies. +</p> + +<p> +They tell you that the Soviets wish to confiscate the lands of the Cossacks. +This is a lie. It is only from the great Cossack landlords that the Revolution +will confiscate the land to give it to the people. +</p> + +<p> +Organise Soviets of Cossacks’ Deputies! Join with the Soviets of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies! +</p> + +<p> +Show the Black Band that you are not traitors to the People, and that you do +not wish to be cursed by the whole of revolutionary Russia!… +</p> + +<p> +Cossack brothers, execute no orders of the enemies of the people. Send your +delegates to Petrograd to talk it over with us…. The Cossacks of the Petrograd +garrison, to their honour, have not justified the hope of the People’s +enemies…. +</p> + +<p> +Cossack brothers! The All-Russian Congress of Soviets extends to you a +fraternal hand. Long live the brotherhood of the Cossacks with the soldiers, +workers and peasants of all Russia! +</p> + +<p> +On the other side, what a storm of proclamations posted up, hand-bills +scattered everywhere, newspapers—screaming and cursing and prophesying +evil. Now raged the battle of the printing press—all other weapons being +in the hands of the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +First, the appeal of the Committee for Salvation of Country and Revolution, +flung broadcast over Russia and Europe: +</p> + +<h5>TO THE CITIZENS OF THE RUSSIAN REPUBLIC!</h5> + +<p> +Contrary to the will of the revolutionary masses, on November 7th the +Bolsheviki of Petrograd criminally arrested part of the Provisional Government, +dispersed the Council of the Republic, and proclaimed an illegal power. Such +violence committed against the Government of revolutionary Russia at the moment +of its greatest external danger, is an indescribable crime against the +fatherland. +</p> + +<p> +The insurrection of the Bolsheviki deals a mortal blow to the cause of national +defence, and postpones immeasurably the moment of peace so greatly desired. +</p> + +<p> +Civil war, begun by the Bolsheviki, threatens to deliver the country to the +horrors of anarchy and counter-revolution, and cause the failure of the +Constituent Assembly, which must affirm the republican régime and transmit to +the People forever their right to the land. +</p> + +<p> +Preserving the continuity of the only legal Governmental power, the Committee +for Salvation of Country and Revolution, established on the night of November +7th, takes the initiative in forming a new Provisional Government; which, +basing itself on the forces of democracy, will conduct the country to the +Constituent Assembly and save it from anarchy and counter-revolution. The +Committee for Salvation summons you, citizens, to refuse to recognise the power +of violence. Do not obey its orders! +</p> + +<p> +Rise for the defence of the country and Revolution! +</p> + +<p> +Support the Committee for Salvation! +</p> + +<p> +Signed by the Council of the Russian Republic, the Municipal Duma of Petrograd, +the <i>Tsay-ee-kah (First Congress),</i> the Executive Committee of the +Peasants’ Soviets, and from the Congress itself the Front group, the +factions of Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviki, Populist Socialists, Unified +Social Democrats, and the group “Yedinstvo.” +</p> + +<p> +Then posters from the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Mensheviki +<i>oborontsi,</i> Peasants’ Soviets again; from the Central Army +Committee, the <i>Tsentroflot</i>…. +</p> + +<p> +… Famine will crush Petrograd! (they cried). The German armies will trample on +our liberty. Black Hundred <i>pogroms</i> will spread over Russia, if we +all—conscious workers, soldiers, citizens—do not unite…. +</p> + +<p> +Do not trust the promises of the Bolsheviki! The promise of immediate +peace—is a lie! The promise of bread—a hoax! The promise of +land—a fairy tale!… +</p> + +<p> +They were all in this manner. +</p> + +<p> +Comrades! You have been basely and cruelly deceived! The seizure of power has +been accomplished by the Bolsheviki alone…. They concealed their plot from the +other Socialist parties composing the Soviet…. +</p> + +<p> +You have been promised land and freedom, but the counter-revolution will profit +by the anarchy called forth by the Bolsheviki, and will deprive you of land and +freedom…. +</p> + +<p> +The newspapers were as violent. +</p> + +<p> +Our duty (said the <i>Dielo Naroda</i>) is to unmask these traitors to the +working-class. Our duty is to mobilise all our forces and mount guard over the +cause of the Revolution!… +</p> + +<p> +<i>Izviestia,</i> for the last time speaking in the name of the old +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> threatened awful retribution. +</p> + +<p> +As for the Congress of Soviets, we affirm that there has been no Congress of +Soviets! We affirm that it was merely a private conference of the Bolshevik +faction! And in that case, they have no right to cancel the powers of the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i>…. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Novaya Zhizn,</i> while pleading for a new Government that should unite all +the Socialist parties, criticised severely the action of the Socialist +Revolutionaries and the Mensheviki in quitting the Congress, and pointed out +that the Bolshevik insurrection meant one thing very clearly: that all +illusions about coalition with the bourgeoisie were henceforth demonstrated +vain… +</p> + +<p> +<i>Rabotchi Put</i> blossomed out as <i>Pravda,</i> Lenin’s newspaper +which had been suppressed in July. It crowed, bristling: +</p> + +<p> +Workers, soldiers, peasants! In March you struck down the tyranny of the clique +of nobles. Yesterday you struck down the tyranny of the bourgeois gang…. +</p> + +<p> +The first task now is to guard the approaches to Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +The second is definitely to disarm the counter-revolutionary elements of +Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +The third is definitely to organise the revolutionary power and assure the +realisation of the popular programme… +</p> + +<p> +What few Cadet organs appeared, and the bourgeoisie generally, adopted a +detached, ironical attitude toward the whole business, a sort of contemptuous +“I—told—you—so” to the other parties. Influential +Cadets were to be seen hovering around the Municipal Duma, and on the outskirts +of the Committee for Salvation. Other than that, the bourgeoisie lay low, +biding its hour—which could not far off. That the Bolsheviki would remain +in power longer than three days never occurred to anybody—except perhaps +to Lenin, Trotzky, the Petrograd workers and the simpler soldiers…. +</p> + +<p> +In the high, amphitheatrical Nicolai Hall that afternoon I saw the Duma sitting +in <i>permanence,</i> tempestuous, grouping around it all the forces of +opposition. The old Mayer, Schreider, majestic with his white hair and beard, +was describing his visit to Smolny the night before, to protest in the name of +the Municipal Self-Government. “The Duma, being the only existing legal +Government in the city, elected by equal, direct and secret suffrage, would not +recognise the new power,” he had told Trotzky. And Trotzky had answered, +“There is a constitutional remedy for that. The Duma can be dissolved and +re-elected….” At this report there was a furious outcry. +</p> + +<p> +“If one recognises a Government by bayonet,” continued the old man, +addressing the Duma, “well, we have one; but I consider legitimate only a +Government recognised by the majority, and not one created by the usurpation of +a minority!” Wild applause on all benches except those of the Bolsheviki. +Amid renewed tumult the Mayor announced that the Bolsheviki already were +violating Municipal autonomy by appointing Commissars in many departments. +</p> + +<p> +The Bolshevik speaker shouted, trying to make himself heard, that the decision +of the Congress of Soviets meant that all Russia backed up the action of the +Bolsheviki. +</p> + +<p> +“You!” he cried. “You are not the real representative of the +people of Petrograd!” Shrieks of “Insult! Insult!” The old +Mayor, with dignity, reminded him that the Duma was elected by the freest +possible popular vote. “Yes,” he answered, “but that was a +long time ago—like the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i>—like the Army +Committee.” +</p> + +<p> +“There has been no new Congress of Soviets!” they yelled at him. +</p> + +<p> +“The Bolshevik faction refuses to remain any longer in this nest of +counter-revolution—” Uproar. “—and we demand a +re-election of the Duma….” Whereupon the Bolsheviki left the chamber, +followed by cries of “German agents! Down with the traitors!” +</p> + +<p> +Shingariov, Cadet, then demanded that all Municipal functionaries who had +consented to be Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee be +discharged from their position and indicted. Schreider was on his feet, putting +a motion to the effect that the Duma protested against the menace of the +Bolsheviki to dissolve it, and as the legal representative of the population, +it would refuse to leave its post. +</p> + +<p> +Outside, the Alexander Hall was crowded for the meeting of the Committee for +Salvation, and Skobeliev was again speaking. “Never yet,” he said, +“was the fate of the Revolution so acute, never yet did the question of +the existence of the Russian state excite so much anxiety, never yet did +history put so harshly and categorically the question—is Russia to be or +not to be! The great hour for the salvation of the Revolution has arrived, and +in consciousness thereof we observe the close union of the live forces of the +revolutionary democracy, by whose organised will a centre for the salvation of +the country and the Revolution has already been created….” And much of +the same sort. “We shall die sooner than surrender our post!” +</p> + +<p> +Amid violent applause it was announced that the Union of Railway Workers had +joined the Committee for Salvation. A few moments later the Post and Telegraph +Employees came in; then some Mensheviki Internationalists entered the hall, to +cheers. The Railway men said they did not recognise the Bolsheviki and had +taken the entire railroad apparatus into their own hands, refusing to entrust +it to any usurpatory power. The Telegraphers’ delegate declared that the +operators had flatly refused to work their instruments as long as the Bolshevik +Commissar was in the office. The Postmen would not deliver or accept mail at +Smolny…. All the Smolny telephones were cut off. With great glee it was +reported how Uritzky had gone to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand the +secret treaties, and how Neratov had put him out. The Government employees were +all stopping work…. +</p> + +<p> +It was war—war deliberately planned, Russian fashion; war by strike and +sabotage. As we sat there the chairman read a list of names and assignments; +so-and-so was to make the round of the Ministries; another was to visit the +banks; some ten or twelve were to work the barracks and persuade the soldiers +to remain neutral—“Russian soldiers, do not shed the blood of your +brothers!”; a committee was to go and confer with Kerensky; still others +were despatched to provincial cities, to form branches of the Committee for +Salvation, and link together the anti-Bolshevik elements. +</p> + +<p> +The crowd was in high spirits. “These Bolsheviki <i>will</i> try to +dictate to the <i>intelligentzia?</i> We’ll show them!”… Nothing +could be more striking than the contrast between this assemblage and the +Congress of Soviets. There, great masses of shabby soldiers, grimy workmen, +peasants—poor men, bent and scarred in the brute struggle for existence; +here the Menshevik and Social Revolutionary leaders—Avksentievs, Dans, +Liebers,—the former Socialist Ministers—Skobelievs, +Tchernovs,—rubbed shoulders with Cadets like oily Shatsky, sleek Vinaver; +with journalists, students, intellectuals of almost all camps. This Duma crowd +was well-fed, well-dressed; I did not see more than three proletarians among +them all…. +</p> + +<p> +News came. Kornilov’s faithful <i>Tekhintsi</i>[14] had slaughtered his +guards at Bykhov, and he had escaped. Kaledin was marching north…. The Soviet +of Moscow had set up a Military Revolutionary Committee, and was negotiating +with the commandant of the city for possession of the arsenal, so that the +workers might be armed. +</p> + +<p> +[14] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +With these facts was mixed an astounding jumble of rumours, distortions, and +plain lies. For instance, an intelligent young Cadet, formerly private +secretary to Miliukov and then to Terestchenko, drew us aside and told us all +about the taking of the Winter Palace. +</p> + +<p> +“The Bolsheviki were led by German and Austrian officers,” he +affirmed. +</p> + +<p> +“Is that so?” we replied, politely. “How do you know?” +</p> + +<p> +“A friend of mine was there and saw them.” +</p> + +<p> +“How could he tell they were German officers?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, because they wore German uniforms!” +</p> + +<p> +There were hundreds of such absurd tales, and they were not only solemnly +published by the anti-Bolshevik press, but believed by the most unlikely +persons—Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviki who had always been +distinguished by their sober devotion to facts…. +</p> + +<p> +But more serious were the stories of Bolshevik violence and terrorism. For +example, it was said printed that the Red Guards had not only thoroughly looted +the Winter Palace, but that they had massacred the <i>yunkers</i> after +disarming them, had killed some of the Ministers in cold blood; and as for the +woman soldiers, most of them had been violated, and many had committed suicide +because of the tortures they had gone through…. All these stories were +swallowed whole by the crowd in the Duma. And worse still, the mothers and +fathers of the students and of the women read these frightful details, <i>often +accompanied by lists of names,</i> and toward nightfall the Duma began to be +besieged by frantic citizens…. +</p> + +<p> +A typical case is that of Prince Tumanov, whose body, it was announced in many +newspapers, had been found floating in the Moika Canal. A few hours later this +was denied by the Prince’s family, who added that the Prince was under +arrest so the press identified the dead man as General Demissov. The General +having also come to life, we investigated, and could find no trace of any body +found whatever…. +</p> + +<p> +As we left the Duma building two boy scouts were distributing hand-bills (See +App. V, Sect. 2) to the enormous crowd which blocked the Nevsky in front of the +door—a crowd composed almost entirely of business men, shop-keepers, +<i>tchinouniki,</i> clerks. One read! +</p> + +<h5>FROM THE MUNICIPAL DUMA</h5> + +<p> +The Municipal Duma in its meeting of October 26th, in view of the events of the +day decrees: To announce the inviolability of private dwellings. Through the +House Committees it calls upon the population of the town of Petrograd to meet +with decisive repulse all attempts to enter by force private apartments, not +stopping at the use of arms, in the interests of the self-defence of citizens. +</p> + +<p> +Up on the corner of the Liteiny, five or six Red Guards and a couple of sailors +had surrounded a news-dealer and were demanding that he hand over his copies of +the Menshevik <i>Rabot-chaya Gazeta</i> (Workers’ Gazette). Angrily he +shouted at them, shaking his fist, as one of the sailors tore the papers from +his stand. An ugly crowd had gathered around, abusing the patrol. One little +workman kept explaining doggedly to the people and the news-dealer, over and +over again, “It has Kerensky’s proclamation in it. It says we +killed Russian people. It will make bloodshed….” +</p> + +<p> +Smolny was tenser than ever, if that were possible. The same running men in the +dark corridors, squads of workers with rifles, leaders with bulging portfolios +arguing, explaining, giving orders as they hurried anxiously along, surrounded +by friends and lieutenants. Men literally out of themselves, living prodigies +of sleeplessness and work-men unshaven, filthy, with burning eyes, who drove +upon their fixed purpose full speed on engines of exaltation. So much they had +to do, so much! Take over the Government, organise the City, keep the garrison +loyal, fight the Duma and the Committee for Salvation, keep out the Germans, +prepare to do battle with Kerensky, inform the provinces what had happened, +Propagandise from Archangel to Vladivostok…. Government and Municipal employees +refusing to obey their Commissars, post and telegraph refusing them +communication, railroads stonily ignoring their appeals for trains, Kerensky +coming, the garrison not altogether to be trusted, the Cossacks waiting to come +out…. Against them not only the organised bourgeoisie, but all the other +Socialist parties except the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, a few Mensheviki +Internationalists and the Social Democrat Internationalists, and even they +undecided whether to stand by or not. With them, it is true, the workers and +the soldier-masses—the peasants an unknown quantity—but after all +the Bolsheviki were a political faction not rich in trained and educated men…. +</p> + +<p> +Riazanov was coming up the front steps, explaining in a sort of humorous panic +that he, Commissar of Commerce, knew nothing whatever of business. In the +upstairs cafe sat a man all by himself in the corner, in a goat-skin cape and +clothes which had been—I was going to say “slept in,” but of +course he hadn’t slept—and a three days’ growth of beard. He +was anxiously figuring on a dirty envelope, and biting his pencil meanwhile. +This was Menzhinsky, Commissar of Finance, whose qualifications were that he +had once been clerk in a French bank…. And these four half-running down the +hall from the office of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and scribbling on +bits of paper as they run—these were Commissars despatched to the four +corners of Russia to carry the news, argue, or fight—with whatever +arguments or weapons came to hand…. +</p> + +<p> +The Congress was to meet at one o’clock, and long since the great +meeting-hall had filled, but by seven there was yet no sign of the presidium…. +The Bolshevik and Left Social Revolutionary factions were in session in their +own rooms. All the livelong afternoon Lenin and Trotzky had fought against +compromise. A considerable part of the Bolsheviki were in favour of giving way +so far as to create a joint all-Socialist government. “We can’t +hold on!” they cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Too much is against us. We haven’t got the men. We will be +isolated, and the whole thing will fall.” So Kameniev, Riazanov and +others. +</p> + +<p> +But Lenin, with Trotzky beside him, stood firm as a rock. “Let the +compromisers accept our programme and they can come in! We won’t give way +an inch. If there are comrades here who haven’t the courage and the will +to dare what we dare, let them leave with the rest of the cowards and +conciliators! Backed by the workers and soldiers we shall go on.” +</p> + +<p> +At five minutes past seven came word from the left Socialist Revolutionaries to +say that they would remain in the Military Revolutionary Committee. +</p> + +<p> +“See!” said Lenin. “They are following!” +</p> + +<p> +A little later, as we sat at the press table in the big hall, an Anarchist who +was writing for the bourgeois papers proposed to me that we go and find out +what had become of the presidium. There was nobody in the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> +office, nor in the bureau of the Petrograd Soviet. From room to room we +wandered, through vast Smolny. Nobody seemed to have the slightest idea where +to find the governing body of the Congress. As we went my companion described +his ancient revolutionary activities, his long and pleasant exile in France…. +As for the Bolsheviki, he confided to me that they were common, rude, ignorant +persons, without aesthetic sensibilities. He was a real specimen of the Russian +<i>intelligentzia</i>…. So he came at last to Room 17, office of the Military +Revolutionary Committee, and stood there in the midst of all the furious coming +and going. The door opened, and out shot a squat, flat-faced man in a uniform +without insignia, who seemed to be smiling—which smile, after a minute, +one saw to be the fixed grin of extreme fatigue. It was Krylenko. +</p> + +<p> +My friend, who was a dapper, civilized-looking young man, gave a cry of +pleasure and stepped forward. +</p> + +<p> +“Nicolai Vasilievitch!” he said, holding out his hand. +“Don’t you remember me, comrade? We were in prison together.” +</p> + +<p> +Krylenko made an effort and concentrated his mind and sight. “Why +yes,” he answered finally, looking the other up and down with an +expression of great friendliness. “You are S—. +<i>Zdra’stvuitye!</i>” They kissed. “What are you doing in +all this?” He waved his arm around. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’am just looking on…. You seem very successful.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” replied Krylenko, with a sort of doggedness, “The +proletarian Revolution is a great success.” He laughed. +“Perhaps—perhaps, however, we’ll meet in prison again!” +</p> + +<p> +When we got out into the corridor again my friend went on with his +explanations. “You see, I’m a follower of Kropotkin. To us the +Revolution is a great failure; it has not aroused the patriotism of the masses. +Of course that only proves that the people are not ready for +Revolution….” +</p> + +<p> +It was just 8.40 when a thundering wave of cheers announced the entrance of the +presidium, with Lenin—great Lenin—among them. A short, stocky +figure, with a big head set down in his shoulders, bald and bulging. Little +eyes, a snubbish nose, wide, generous mouth, and heavy chin; clean-shaven now, +but already beginning to bristle with the well-known beard of his past and +future. Dressed in shabby clothes, his trousers much too long for him. +Unimpressive, to be the idol of a mob, loved and revered as perhaps few leaders +in history have been. A strange popular leader—a leader purely by virtue +of intellect; colourless, humourless, uncompromising and detached, without +picturesque idiosyncrasies—but with the power of explaining profound +ideas in simple terms, of analysing a concrete situation. And combined with +shrewdness, the greatest intellectual audacity. +</p> + +<p> +Kameniev was reading the report of the actions of the Military Revolutionary +Committee; abolition of capital punishment in the Army, restoration of the free +right of propaganda, release of officers and soldiers arrested for political +crimes, orders to arrest Kerensky and confiscation of food supplies in private +store-houses…. Tremendous applause. +</p> + +<p> +Again the representative of the <i>Bund.</i> The uncompromising attitude of the +Bolsheviki would mean the crushing of the Revolution; therefore, the +<i>Bund</i> delegates must refuse any longer to sit in the Congress. Cries from +the audience, “We thought you walked out last night! How many times are +you going to walk out?” +</p> + +<p> +Then the representative of the Mensheviki Internationalists. Shouts, +“What! You here still?” The speaker explained that only part of the +Mensheviki Internationalists left the Congress; the rest were going + +to stay— +</p> + +<p> +“We consider it dangerous and perhaps even mortal for the Revolution to +transfer the power to the Soviets”—Interruptions—“but +we feel it our duty to remain in the Congress and vote against the transfer +here!” +</p> + +<p> +Other speakers followed, apparently without any order. A delegate of the +coal-miners of the Don Basin called upon the Congress to take measures against +Kaledin, who might cut off coal and food from the capital. Several soldiers +just arrived from the Front brought the enthusiastic greetings of their +regiments…. Now Lenin, gripping the edge of the reading stand, letting his +little winking eyes travel over the crowd as he stood there waiting, apparently +oblivious to the long-rolling ovation, which lasted several minutes. When it +finished, he said simply, “We shall now proceed to construct the +Socialist order!” Again that overwhelming human roar. +</p> + +<p> +“The first thing is the adoption of practical measures to realise peace…. +We shall offer peace to the peoples of all the belligerent countries upon the +basis of the Soviet terms—no annexations, no indemnities, and the right +of self-determination of peoples. At the same time, according to our promise, +we shall publish and repudiate the secret treaties…. The question of War and +Peace is so clear that I think that I may, without preamble, read the project +of a Proclamation to the Peoples of All the Belligerent Countries….” +</p> + +<p> +His great mouth, seeming to smile, opened wide as he spoke; his voice was +hoarse—not unpleasantly so, but as if it had hardened that way after +years and years of speaking—and went on monotonously, with the effect of +being able to go on forever…. For emphasis he bent forward slightly. No +gestures. And before him, a thousand simple faces looking up in intent +adoration. +</p> + +<h5>PROCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLES AND GOVERNMENTS OF ALL THE BELLIGERENT +NATIONS.</h5> + +<p> +The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, created by the revolution of +November 6th and 7th and based on the Soviets of Workers’, +Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, proposes to all the belligerent +peoples and to their Governments to begin immediately negotiations for a just +and democratic peace. +</p> + +<p> +The Government means by a just and democratic peace, which is desired by the +immense majority of the workers and the labouring classes, exhausted and +depleted by the war—that peace which the Russian workers and peasants, +after having struck down the Tsarist monarchy, have not ceased to demand +categorically—immediate peace without annexations (that is to say, +without conquest of foreign territory, without forcible annexation of other +nationalities), and without indemnities. +</p> + +<p> +The Government of Russia Proposes to all the belligerent peoples immediately to +conclude such a peace, by showing themselves willing to enter upon the decisive +steps of negotiations aiming at such a peace, at once, without the slightest +delay, before the definitive ratification of all the conditions of such a peace +by the authorised assemblies of the people of all countries and of all +nationalities. +</p> + +<p> +By annexation or conquest of foreign territory, the Government +means—conformably to the conception of democratic rights in general, and +the rights of the working-class in particular—all union to a great and +strong State of a small or weak nationality, without the voluntary, clear and +precise expression of its consent and desire; whatever be the moment when such +an annexation by force was accomplished, whatever be the degree civilisation of +the nation annexed by force or maintained outside the frontiers of another +State, no matter if that nation be in Europe or in the far countries across the +sea. +</p> + +<p> +If any nation is retained by force within the limits of another State; if, in +spite of the desire expressed by it, (it matters little if that desire be +expressed by the press, by popular meetings, decisions of political parties, or +by disorders and riots against national oppression), that nation is not given +the right of deciding by free vote—without the slightest constraint, +after the complete departure of the armed forces of the nation which has +annexed it or wishes to annex it or is stronger in general—the form of +its national and political organisation, such a union constitutes an +annexation—that is to say, conquest and an act of violence. +</p> + +<p> +To continue this war in order to permit the strong and rich nations to divide +among themselves the weak and conquered nationalities is considered by the +Government the greatest possible crime against humanity; and the Government +solemnly proclaims its decision to sign a treaty of peace which will put an end +to this war upon the above conditions, equally fair for all nationalities +without exception. +</p> + +<p> +The Government abolishes secret diplomacy, expressing before the whole country +its firm decision to conduct all the negotiations in the light of day before +the people, and will proceed immediately to the full publication of all secret +treaties confirmed or concluded by the Government of land-owners and +capitalists, from March until November 7th, 1917. All the clauses of the secret +treaties which, as occur in a majority of cases, have for their object to +procure advantages and privileges for Russian capitalists, to maintain or +augment the annexations of the Russian imperialists, are denounced by the +Government immediately and without discussion. +</p> + +<p> +In proposing to all Governments and all peoples to engage in public +negotiations for peace, the Government declares itself ready to carry on these +negotiations by telegraph, by post, or by pourparlers between the +representatives of the different countries, or at a conference of these +representatives. To facilitate these pourparlers, the Government appoints its +authorised representatives in the neutral countries. +</p> + +<p> +The Government proposes to all the governments and to the peoples of all the +belligerent countries to conclude an immediate armistice, at the same time +suggesting that the armistice ought to last three months, during which time it +is perfectly possible, not only to hold the necessary pourparlers between the +representatives of all the nations and nationalities without exception drawn +into the war or forced to take part in it, but also to convoke authorised +assemblies of representatives of the people of all countries, for the purpose +of the definite acceptance of the conditions of peace. +</p> + +<p> +In addressing this offer of peace to the Governments and to the peoples of all +the belligerent countries, the Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ +Government of Russia addresses equally and in particular the conscious workers +of the three nations most devoted to humanity and the three most important +nations among those taking part in the present war—England, France, and +Germany. The workers of these countries have rendered the greatest services to +the cause of progress and of Socialism. The splendid examples of the Chartist +movement in England, the series of revolutions, of world-wide historical +significance, accomplished by the French proletariat—and finally, in +Germany, the historic struggle against the Laws of Exception, an example for +the workers of the whole world of prolonged and stubborn action, and the +creation of the formidable organisations of German proletarians—all these +models of proletarian heroism, these monuments of history, are for us a sure +guarantee that the workers of these countries will understand the duty imposed +upon them to liberate humanity from the horrors and consequences of war; and +that these workers, by decisive, energetic and continued action, will help us +to bring to a successful conclusion the cause of peace—and at the same +time, the cause of the liberation of the exploited working masses from all +slavery and all exploitation. +</p> + +<p> +When the grave thunder of applause had died away, Lenin spoke again: +</p> + +<p> +“We propose to the Congress to ratify this declaration. We address +ourselves to the Governments as well as to the peoples, for a declaration which +would be addressed only to the peoples of the belligerent countries might delay +the conclusion of peace. The conditions of peace, drawn up during the +armistice, will be ratified by the Constituent Assembly. In fixing the duration +of the armistice at three months, we desire to give to the peoples as long a +rest as possible after this bloody extermination, and ample time for them to +elect their representatives. This proposal of peace will meet with resistance +on the part of the imperialist governments—we don’t fool ourselves +on that score. But we hope that revolution will soon break out in all the +belligerent countries; that is why we address ourselves especially to the +workers of France, England and Germany…. +</p> + +<p> +“The revolution of November 6th and 7th,” he ended, “has +opened the era of the Social Revolution…. The labour movement, in the name of +peace and Socialism, shall win, and fulfil its destiny….” +</p> + +<p> +There was something quiet and powerful in all this, which stirred the souls of +men. It was understandable why people believed when Lenin spoke…. +</p> + +<p> +By crowd vote it was quickly decided that only representatives of political +factions should be allowed to speak on the motion and that speakers should be +limited to fifteen minutes. +</p> + +<p> +First Karelin for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. “Our faction had no +opportunity to propose amendments to the text of the proclamation; it is a +private document of the Bolsheviki. But we will vote for it because we agree +with its spirit….” +</p> + +<p> +For the Social Democrats Internationalists Kramarov, long, stoop-shouldered and +near-sighted—destined to achieve some notoriety as the Clown of the +Opposition. Only a Government composed of all the Socialist parties, he said, +could possess the authority to take such important action. If a Socialist +coalition were formed, his faction would support the entire programme; if not, +only part of it. As for the proclamation, the Internationalists were in +thorough accord with its main points…. +</p> + +<p> +Then one after another, amid rising enthusiasm; Ukrainean Social Democracy, +support; Lithuanian Social Democracy, support; Populist Socialists, support; +Polish Social Democracy, support; Polish Socialists support—but would +prefer a Socialist coalition; Lettish Social Democracy, support…. Something was +kindled in these men. One spoke of the “coming World-Revolution, of which +we are the advance-guard”; another of “the new age of brotherhood, +when all the peoples will become one great family….” An individual member +claimed the floor. “There is contradiction here,” he said. +“First you offer peace without annexations and indemnities, and then you +say you will consider all peace offers. To consider means to accept….” +</p> + +<p> +Lenin was on his feet. “We want a just peace, but we are not afraid of a +revolutionary war…. Probably the imperialist Governments will not answer our +appeal—but we shall not issue an ultimatum to which it will be easy to +say no…. If the German proletariat realises that we are ready to consider all +offers of peace, that will perhaps be the last drop which overflows the +bowl—revolution will break out in Germany…. +</p> + +<p> +“We consent to examine all conditions of peace, but that doesn’t +mean that we shall accept them…. For some of our terms we shall fight to the +end—but possibly for others will find it impossible to continue the war…. +Above all, we want to finish the war….” +</p> + +<p> +It was exactly 10:35 when Kameniev asked all in favour of the proclamation to +hold up their cards. One delegate dared to raise his hand against, but the +sudden sharp outburst around him brought it swiftly down…. Unanimous. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly, by common impulse, we found ourselves on our feet, mumbling together +into the smooth lifting unison of the <i>Internationale.</i> A grizzled old +soldier was sobbing like a child. Alexandra Kollontai rapidly winked the tears +back. The immense sound rolled through the hall, burst windows and doors and +seared into the quiet sky. “The war is ended! The war is ended!” +said a young workman near me, his face shining. And when it was over, as we +stood there in a kind of awkward hush, some one in the back of the room +shouted, “Comrades! Let us remember those who have died for +liberty!” So we began to sing the Funeral March, that slow, melancholy +and yet triumphant chant, so Russian and so moving. The <i>Internationale</i> +is an alien air, after all. The Funeral March seemed the very soul of those +dark masses whose delegates sat in this hall, building from their obscure +visions a new Russia—and perhaps more. +</p> + +<p> +You fell in the fatal fight +</p> + +<p> +For the liberty of the people, for the honour of the people…. +</p> + +<p> +You gave up your lives and everything dear to you, +</p> + +<p> +You suffered in horrible prisons, +</p> + +<p> +You went to exile in chains…. +</p> + +<p> +Without a word you carried your chains because you could not ignore your +suffering brothers, +</p> + +<p> +Because you believed that justice is stronger than the sword…. +</p> + +<p> +The time will come when your surrendered life will count +</p> + +<p> +That time is near; when tyranny falls the people will rise, great and free! +</p> + +<p> +Farewell, brothers, you chose a noble path, +</p> + +<p> +You are followed by the new and fresh army ready to die and to suffer…. +</p> + +<p> +Farewell, brothers, you chose a noble path, +</p> + +<p> +At your grave we swear to fight, to work for freedom and the people’s +happiness…. +</p> + +<p> +For this did they lie there, the martyrs of March, in their cold Brotherhood +Grave on Mars Field; for this thousands and tens of thousands had died in the +prisons, in exile, in Siberian mines. It had not come as they expected it would +come, nor as the <i>intelligentzia</i> desired it; but it had come—rough, +strong, impatient of formulas, contemptuous of sentimentalism; real…. +</p> + +<p> +Lenin was reading the Decree on Land: +</p> + +<p> +(1.) All private ownership of land is abolished immediately without +compensation. +</p> + +<p> +(2.) All land-owners’ estates, and all lands belonging to the Crown, to +monasteries, church lands with all their live stock and inventoried property, +buildings and all appurtenances, are transferred to the disposition of the +township Land Committees and the district Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies +until the Constituent Assembly meets. +</p> + +<p> +(3.) Any damage whatever done to the confiscated property which from now on +belongs to the whole People, is regarded as a serious crime, punishable by the +revolutionary tribunals. The district Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies shall +take all necessary measures for the observance of the strictest order during +the taking over of the land-owners’ estates, for the determination of the +dimensions of the plots of land and which of them are subject to confiscation, +for the drawing up of an inventory of the entire confiscated property, and for +the strictest revolutionary protection of all the farming property on the land, +with all buildings, implements, cattle, supplies of products, etc., passing +into the hands of the People. +</p> + +<p> +(4.) For guidance during the realisation of the great land reforms until their +final resolution by the Constituent Assembly, shall serve the following peasant +<i>nakaz</i> (See App. V, Sect. 3) (instructions), drawn up on the basis of 242 +local peasant <i>nakazi</i> by the editorial board of the +“<i>Izviestia</i> of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants’ +Deputies,” and published in No.88 of said <i>“Izviestia”</i> +(Petrograd, No.88, August 19th, 1917). +</p> + +<p> +The lands of peasants and of Cossacks serving in the Army shall not be +confiscated. +</p> + +<p> +“This is not,” explained Lenin, “the project of former +Minister Tchernov, who spoke of ‘erecting a frame-work’ and tried +to realise reforms from above. From below, on the spot, will be decided the +questions of division of the land. The amount of land received by each peasant +will vary according to the locality…. +</p> + +<p> +“Under the Provisional Government, the <i>pomieshtchiki</i> flatly +refused to obey the orders of the Land Committees—those Land Committees +projected by Lvov, brought into existence by Shingariov, and administered by +Kerensky!” +</p> + +<p> +Before the debates could begin a man forced his way violently through the crowd +in the aisle and climbed upon the platform. It was Pianikh, member of the +Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets, and he was mad clean +through. +</p> + +<p> +“The Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviets of Peasants’ +Deputies protests against the arrest of our comrades, the Ministers Salazkin +and Mazlov!” he flung harshly in the faces of the crowd, “We demand +their instant release! They are now in Peter-Paul fortress. We must have +immediate action! There is not a moment to lose!” +</p> + +<p> +Another followed him, a soldier with disordered beard and flaming eyes. +“You sit here and talk about giving the land to the peasants, and you +commit an act of tyrants and usurpers against the peasants’ chosen +representatives! I tell you—” he raised his fist, “If one +hair of their heads is harmed, you’ll have a revolt on your hands!” +The crowd stirred confusedly. +</p> + +<p> +Then up rose Trotzky, calm and venomous, conscious of power, greeted with a +roar. “Yesterday the Military Revolutionary Committee decided to release +the Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik Ministers, Mazlov, Salazkin, Gvozdov +and Maliantovitch—on principle. That they are still in Peter-Paul is only +because we have had so much to do…. They will, however, be detained at their +homes under arrest until we have investigated their complicity in the +treacherous acts of Kerensky during the Kornilov affair!” +</p> + +<p> +“Never,” shouted Pianikh, “in any revolution have such things +been seen as go on here!” +</p> + +<p> +“You are mistaken,” responded Trotzky. “Such things have been +seen even in this revolution. Hundreds of our comrades were arrested in the +July days…. When Comrade Kollontai was released from prison by the +doctor’s orders, Avksentiev placed at her door two former agents of the +Tsar’s secret police!” The peasants withdrew, muttering, followed +by ironical hoots. +</p> + +<p> +The representative of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries spoke on the Land +Decree. While agreeing in principle, his faction could not vote on the question +until after discussion. The Peasants’ Soviets should be consulted…. +</p> + +<p> +The Mensheviki Internationalists, too, insisted on a party caucus. +</p> + +<p> +Then the leader of the Maximalists, the Anarchist wing of the peasants: +“We must do honour to a political party which puts such an act into +effect the first day, without jawing about it!” +</p> + +<p> +A typical peasant was in the tribune, long hair, boots and sheep-skin coat, +bowing to all corners of the hall. “I wish you well, comrades and +citizens,” he said. “There are some Cadets walking around outside. +You arrested our Socialist peasants—why not arrest them?” +</p> + +<p> +This was the signal for a debate of excited peasants. It was precisely like the +debate of soldiers of the night before. Here were the real proletarians of the +land…. +</p> + +<p> +“Those members of our Executive Committee, Avksentiev and the rest, whom +we thought were the peasants’ protectors—they are only Cadets too! +Arrest them! Arrest them!” +</p> + +<p> +Another, “Who are these Pianikhs, these Avksentievs? They are not +peasants at all! They only wag their tails!” +</p> + +<p> +How the crowd rose to them, recognising brothers! +</p> + +<p> +The Left Socialist Revolutionaries proposed a half-hour intermission. As the +delegates streamed out, Lenin stood up in his place. +</p> + +<p> +“We must not lose time, comrades! News all-important to Russia must be on +the press to-morrow morning. No delay!” +</p> + +<p> +And above the hot discussion, argument, shuffling of feet could be heard the +voice of an emissary of the Military Revolutionary Committee, crying, +“Fifteen agitators wanted in room 17 at once! To go to the Front!”… +</p> + +<p> +It was almost two hours and a half later that the delegates came straggling +back, the presidium mounted the platform, and the session recommenced by the +reading of telegrams from regiment after regiment, announcing their adhesion to +the Military Revolutionary Committee. +</p> + +<p> +In leisurely manner the meeting gathered momentum. A delegate from the Russian +troops on the Macedonian front spoke bitterly of their situation. “We +suffer there more from the friendship of our ‘Allies’ than from the +enemy,” he said. Representatives of the Tenth and Twelfth Armies, just +arrived in hot haste, reported, “We support you with all our +strength!” A peasant-soldier protested against the release of “the +traitor Socialists, Mazlov and Salazkin”; as for the Executive Committee +of the Peasants’ Soviets, it should be arrested _en masse!_Here was real +revolutionary talk…. A deputy from the Russian Army in Persia declared he was +instructed to demand all power to the Soviets…. A Ukrainean officer, speaking +in his native tongue: “There is no nationalism in this crisis…. <i>Da +zdravstvuyet</i> the proletarian dictatorship of all lands!” Such a +deluge of high and hot thoughts that surely Russia would never again be dumb! +</p> + +<p> +Kameniev remarked that the anti-Bolshevik forces were trying to stir up +disorders everywhere, and read an appeal of the Congress to all the Soviets of +Russia: +</p> + +<p> +The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies, including some Peasants’ Deputies, calls upon the local Soviets +to take immediate energetic measures to oppose all counter-revolutionary +anti-Jewish action and all <i>pogroms,</i> whatever they may be. The honour of +the Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Revolution demands that +no <i>pogrom</i> be tolerated. +</p> + +<p> +The Red Guard of Petrograd, the revolutionary garrison and the sailors have +maintained complete order in the capital. +</p> + +<p> +Workers, soldiers and peasants, you should follow everywhere the example of the +workers and soldiers of Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +Comrade soldiers and Cossacks, on us falls the duty of assuring real +revolutionary order. +</p> + +<p> +All revolutionary Russia and the entire world have their eyes on us…. +</p> + +<p> +At two o’clock the Land Decree was put to vote, with only one against and +the peasant delegates wild with joy…. So plunged the Bolsheviki ahead, +irresistible, over-riding hesitation and opposition—the only people in +Russia who had a definite programme of action while the others talked for eight +long months. +</p> + +<p> +Now arose a soldier, gaunt, ragged and eloquent, to protest against the clause +of the <i>nakaz</i> tending to deprive military deserters from a share in +village land allotments. Bawled at and hissed at first, his simple, moving +speech finally made silence. “Forced against his will into the butchery +of the trenches,” he cried, “which you yourselves, in the Peace +decree, have voted senseless as well as horrible, he greeted the Revolution +with hope of peace and freedom. Peace? The Government of Kerensky forced him +again to go forward into Galicia to slaughter and be slaughtered; to his pleas +for peace, Terestchenko simply laughed…. Freedom? Under Kerensky he found his +Committees suppressed, his newspapers cut off, his party speakers put in +prison…. At home in his village, the landlords were defying his Land +Committees, jailing his comrades…. In Petrograd the bourgeoisie, in alliance +with the Germans, were sabotaging the food and ammunition for the Army…. He was +without boots, or clothes…. Who forced him to desert? The Government of +Kerensky, which you have overthrown!” At the end there was applause. +</p> + +<p> +But another soldier hotly denounced it: “The Government of Kerensky is +not a screen behind which can be hidden dirty work like desertion! Deserters +are scoundrels, who run away home and leave their comrades to die in the +trenches alone! Every deserter is a traitor, and should be punished….” +Uproar, shouts of <i>“Do volno! Teesche!”</i> Kameniev hastily +proposed to leave the matter to the Government for decision. (See App. V, Sect. +4) +</p> + +<p> +At 2.30 A. M. fell a tense hush. Kameniev was reading the decree of the +Constitution of Power: +</p> + +<p> +Until the meeting of the Constituent Assembly, a provisional Workers’ and +Peasants’ Government is formed, which shall be named the Council of +People’s Commissars. (See App. V, Sect. 5) +</p> + +<p> +The administration of the different branches of state activity shall be +intrusted to commissions, whose composition shall be regulated to ensure the +carrying out of the programme of the Congress, in close union with the +mass-organisations of working-men, working-women, sailors, soldiers, peasants +and clerical employees. The governmental power is vested in a <i>collegium</i> +made up of the chairmen of these commissions, that is to say, the Council of +People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +Control over the activities of the People’s Commissars, and the right to +replace them, shall belong to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of +Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, and its Central +Executive Committee. +</p> + +<p> +Still silence; as he read the list of Commissars, bursts of applause after each +name, Lenin’s and Trotzky’s especially. +</p> + +<p> +<i>President of the Council:</i> Vladimir Ulianov <i>(Lenin)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Interior:</i> A. E. Rykov +</p> + +<p> +<i>Agriculture:</i> V. P. Miliutin +</p> + +<p> +<i>Labour:</i> A. G. Shliapnikov +</p> + +<p> +<i>Military and Naval Affairs</i>—a committee composed of V. A. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Avseenko (Antonov),</i> N. V. Krylenko, and F. M. Dybenko. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Commerce and Industry:</i> V. P. Nogin +</p> + +<p> +<i>Popular Education:</i> A. V. Lunatcharsky +</p> + +<p> +<i>Finance:</i> E. E. Skvortsov <i>(Stepanov)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Foreign Affairs:</i> L. D. Bronstein <i>(Trotzky)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Justice:</i> G. E. Oppokov <i>(Lomov)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Supplies:</i> E. A. Teodorovitch +</p> + +<p> +<i>Post and Telegraph:</i> N. P. Avilov <i>(Gliebov)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Chairman for Nationalities:</i> I. V. Djougashvili <i>(Stalin)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Railroads:</i> To be filled later. +</p> + +<p> +There were bayonets at the edges of the room, bayonets pricking up among the +delegates; the Military Revolutionary Committee was arming everybody, +Bolshevism was arming for the decisive battle with Kerensky, the sound of whose +trumpets came up the south-west wind…. In the meanwhile nobody went home; on +the contrary hundreds of newcomers filtered in, filling the great room solid +with stern-faced soldiers and workmen who stood for hours and hours, +indefatigably intent. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and human +breathing, and the smell of coarse clothes and sweat. +</p> + +<p> +Avilov of the staff of <i>Novaya Zhizn</i> was speaking in the name of the +Social Democrat Internationalists and the remnant of the Mensheviki +Internationalists; Avilov, with his young, intelligent face, looking out of +place in his smart frock-coat. +</p> + +<p> +“We must ask ourselves where we are going…. The ease with which the +Coalition Government was upset cannot be explained by the strength of the left +wing of the democracy, but only by the incapacity of the Government to give the +people peace and bread. And the left wing cannot maintain itself in power +unless it can solve these questions…. +</p> + +<p> +“Can it give bread to the people? Grain is scarce. The majority of the +peasants will not be with you, for you cannot give them the machinery they +need. Fuel and other primary necessities are almost impossible to procure…. +</p> + +<p> +“As for peace, that will be even more difficult. The allies refused to +talk with Skobeliev. They will never accept the proposition of a peace +conference from <i>you.</i> You will not be recognised either in London and +Paris, or in Berlin…. +</p> + +<p> +“You cannot count on the effective help of the proletariat of the Allied +countries, because in most countries it is very far from the revolutionary +struggle; remember, the Allied democracy was unable even to convoke the +Stockholm Conference. Concerning the German Social Democrats, I have just +talked with Comrade Goldenberg, one of our delegates to Stockholm; he was told +by the representatives of the Extreme Left that revolution in Germany was +impossible during the war….” Here interruptions began to come thick and +fast, but Avilov kept on. +</p> + +<p> +“The isolation of Russia will fatally result either in the defeat of the +Russian Army by the Germans, and the patching up of a peace between the +Austro-German coalition and the Franco-British coalition <i>at the expense of +Russia</i>—or in a separate peace with Germany. +</p> + +<p> +“I have just learned that the Allied ambassadors are preparing to leave, +and that Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolution are forming in all +the cities of Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +“No one party can conquer these enormous difficulties. The majority of +the people, supporting a government of Socialist coalition, can alone +accomplish the Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +“He then read the resolution of the two factions: +</p> + +<p> +Recognising that for the salvation of the conquests of the Revolution it is +indispensable immediately to constitute a government based on the revolutionary +democracy organised in the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and +Peasants’ Deputies, recognising moreover that the task of this government +is the quickest possible attainment of peace, the transfer of the land into the +hands of the agrarian committees, the organisation of control over industrial +production, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly on the date +decided, the Congress appoints an executive committee to constitute such a +government after an agreement with the groups of the democracy which are taking +part in the Congress. +</p> + +<p> +In spite of the revolutionary exaltation of the triumphant crowd, +Avilov’s cool tolerant reasoning had shaken them. Toward the end, the +cries and hisses died away, and when he finished there was even some clapping. +</p> + +<p> +Karelin followed him—also young, fearless, whose sincerity no one +doubted—for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, the party of Maria +Spiridonova, the party which almost alone followed the Bolsheviki, and which +represented the revolutionary peasants. +</p> + +<p> +“Our party has refused to enter the Council of People’s Commissars +because we do not wish forever to separate ourselves from the part of the +revolutionary army which left the Congress, a separation which would make it +impossible for us to serve as intermediaries between the Bolsheviki and the +other groups of the democracy…. And that is our principal duty at this moment. +We cannot sustain any government except a government of Socialist coalition…. +</p> + +<p> +“We protest, moreover, against the tyrannical conduct of the Bolsheviki. +Our Commissars have been driven from their posts. Our only organ, <i>Znamia +Truda</i> (Banner of Labour), was forbidden to appear yesterday…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Central Duma is forming a powerful Committee for Salvation of +Country and Revolution, to fight you. Already you are isolated, and your +Government is without the support of a single other democratic group…. +</p> + +<p> +And now Trotzky stood upon the raised tribune, confident and dominating, with +that sarcastic expression about his mouth which was almost a sneer. He spoke, +in a ringing voice, and the great crowd rose to him. +</p> + +<p> +“These considerations on the dangers of isolation of our party are not +new. On the eve of insurrection our fatal defeat was also predicted. Everybody +was against us; only a faction of the Socialist Revolutionaries of the left was +with us in the Military Revolutionary Committee. How is it that we were able to +overturn the Government almost without bloodshed?…. That fact is the most +striking proof that we <i>were not isolated.</i> In reality the Provisional +Government was isolated; the democratic parties which march against us were +isolated, are isolated, and forever cut off from the proletariat! +</p> + +<p> +“They speak of the necessity for a coalition. There is only one coalition +possible—the coalition of the workers, soldiers and poorest peasants; and +it is our party’s honour to have realised that coalition…. What sort of +coalition did Avilov mean? A coalition with those who supported the Government +of Treason to the People? Coalition doesn’t always add to strength. For +example, could we have organised the insurrection with Dan and Avksentiev in +our ranks?” Roars of laughter. +</p> + +<p> +“Avksentiev gave little bread. Will a coalition with the <i>oborontsi</i> +furnish more? Between the peasants and Avksentiev, who ordered the arrest of +the Land Committees, we choose the peasants! Our Revolution will remain the +classic revolution of history…. +</p> + +<p> +“They accuse us of repelling an agreement with the other democratic +parties. But is it we who are to blame? Or must we, as Karelin put it, blame it +on a ‘misunderstanding’? No, comrades. When a party in full tide of +revolution, still wreathed in powder-smoke, comes to say, ‘Here is the +Power—take it!’—and when those to whom it is offered go over +to the enemy, that is not a misunderstanding…. that is a declaration of +pitiless war. And it isn’t we who have declared war…. +</p> + +<p> +“Avilov menaces us with failure of our peace efforts—if we remain +‘isolated.’ I repeat, I don’t see how a coalition with +Skobeliev, or even Terestchenko, can help us to get peace! Avilov tries to +frighten us by the threat of a peace at our expense. And I answer that in any +case, if Europe continues to be ruled by the imperialist bourgeoisie, +revolutionary Russia will inevitably be lost…. +</p> + +<p> +“There are only two alternatives; either the Russian Revolution will +create a revolutionary movement in Europe, or the European powers will destroy +the Russian Revolution!” +</p> + +<p> +They greeted him with an immense crusading acclaim, kindling to the daring of +it, with the thought of championing mankind. And from that moment there was +something conscious and decided about the insurrectionary masses, in all their +actions, which never left them. +</p> + +<p> +But on the other side, too, battle was taking form. Kameniev recognised a +delegate from the Union of Railway Workers, a hardfaced, stocky man with an +attitude of implacable hostility. He threw a bombshell. +</p> + +<p> +“In the name of the strongest organisation in Russia I demand the right +to speak, and I say to you: the <i>Vikzhel</i> charges me to make known the +decision of the Union concerning the constitution of Power. The Central +Committee refuses absolutely to support the Bolsheviki if they persist in +isolating themselves from the whole democracy of Russia!” Immense tumult +all over the hall. +</p> + +<p> +“In 1905, and in the Kornilov days, the Railway Workers were the best +defenders of the Revolution. But you did not invite us to your +Congress—” Cries, “It was the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> which +did not invite you!” The orator paid no attention. “We do not +recognise the legality of this Congress; since the departure of the Mensheviki +and Socialist Revolutionaries there is not a legal quorum…. The Union supports +the old <i>Tsay-ee-Kah,</i> and declares that the Congress has no right to +elect a new Committee…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Power should be a Socialist and revolutionary Power, responsible +before the authorised organs of the entire revolutionary democracy. Until the +constitution of such a power, the Union of Railway Workers, which refuses to +transport counter-revolutionary troops to Petrograd, at the same time forbids +the execution of any order whatever without the consent of the <i>Vikzhel.</i> +The <i>Vikzhel</i> also takes into its hands the entire administration of the +railroads of Russia.” +</p> + +<p> +At the end he could hardly be heard for the furious storm of abuse which beat +upon him. But it was a heavy blow—that could be seen in the concern on +the faces of the presidium. Kameniev, however, merely answered that there could +be no doubt of the legality of the Congress, as even the quorum established by +the old <i>Tsay-ee-Kah</i> was exceeded—in spite of the secession of the +Mensheviki and Socialist Revolution arises…. +</p> + +<p> +Then came the vote on the Constitution of Power, which carried the Council of +People’s Commissars into office by an enormous majority…. +</p> + +<p> +The election of the new <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> the new parliament of the Russian +Republic, took barely fifteen minutes. Trotzky announced its composition: 100 +members, of which 70 Bolsheviki…. As for the peasants, and the seceding +factions, places were to be reserved for them. “We welcome into the +Government all parties and groups which will adopt our programme,” ended +Trotzky. +</p> + +<p> +And thereupon the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was dissolved, so that +the members might hurry to their homes in the four corners of Russia and tell +of the great happenings…. +</p> + +<p> +It was almost seven when we woke the sleeping conductors and motor-men of the +street-cars which the Street-Railway Workers’ Union always kept waiting +at Smolny to take the Soviet delegates to their homes. In the crowded car there +was less happy hilarity than the night before, I thought. Many looked anxious; +perhaps they were saying to themselves, “Now we are masters, how can we +do our will?” +</p> + +<p> +At our apartment-house we were held up in the dark by an armed patrol of +citizens and carefully examined. The Duma’s proclamation was doing its +work…. +</p> + +<p> +The landlady heard us come in, and stumbled out in a pink silk wrapper. +</p> + +<p> +The House Committee has again asked that you take your turn on guard-duty with +the rest of the men,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the reason for this guard-duty?” +</p> + +<p> +“To protect the house and the women and children.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who from?” +</p> + +<p> +“Robbers and murderers.” +</p> + +<p> +“But suppose there came a Commissar from the Military Revolutionary +Committee to search for arms?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, that’s what they’ll <i>say</i> they are…. And besides, +what’s the difference?” +</p> + +<p> +I solemnly affirmed that the Consul had forbidden all American citizens to +carry arms—especially in the neighbourhood of the Russian +<i>intelligentzia</i>…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>Chapter VI<br /> +The Committee for Salvation</h2> + +<p> +Friday, November 9th…. +</p> + +<p> +Novotcherkask, November 8th. +</p> + +<p> +In view of the revolt of the Bolsheviki, and their attempt to depose the +Provisional Government and to seize the power in Petrograd… the Cossack +Government declares that it considers these acts criminal and absolutely +inadmissible. In consequence, the Cossacks will lend all their support to the +Provisional Government, which is a government of coalition. Because of these +circumstances, and until the return of the Provisional Government to power, and +the restoration of order in Russia, I take upon myself, beginning November 7th, +all the power in that which concerns the region of the Don. +</p> + +<p> +Signed: ATAMAN KALEDIN +</p> + +<p> +<i>President of the Government of the Cossack Troops.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Prikaz</i> of the Minister-President Kerensky, dated at Gatchina: +</p> + +<p> +I, Minister-President of the Provisional Government, and Supreme Commander of +all the armed forces of the Russian Republic, declare that I am at the head of +regiments from the Front who have remained faithful to the fatherland. +</p> + +<p> +I order all the troops of the Military District of Petrograd, who through +mistake or folly have answered the appeal of the traitors to the country and +the Revolution, to return to their duty without delay. +</p> + +<p> +This order shall be read in all regiments, battalions and squadrons. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +Signed: <i>Minister-President of the Provisional</i><br /> +<i>Government and Supreme Commander</i><br /> +A. F. K<small>ERENSKY</small>. +</p> + +<p> +Telegram from Kerensky to the General in Command of the Northern Front: +</p> + +<p> +The town of Gatchina has been taken by the loyal regiments without bloodshed. +Detachments of Cronstadt sailors, and of the Semionovsky and Ismailovsky +regiments, gave up their arms without resistance and joined the Government +troops. +</p> + +<p> +I order all the designated units to advance as quickly as possible. The +Military Revolutionary Committee has ordered its troops to retreat…. +</p> + +<p> +Gatchina, about thirty kilometers south-west, had fallen during the night. +Detachments of the two regiments mentioned—not the sailors—while +wandering captainless in the neighbourhood, had indeed been surrounded by +Cossacks and given up their arms; but it was not true that they had joined the +Government troops. At this very moment crowds of them, bewildered and ashamed, +were up at Smolny trying to explain. They did not think the Cossacks were so +near…. They had tried to argue with the Cossacks…. +</p> + +<p> +Apparently the greatest confusion prevailed along the revolutionary front. The +garrisons of all the little towns southward had split hopelessly, bitterly into +two factions—or three: the high command being on the side of Kerensky, in +default of anything stronger, the majority of the rank and file with the +Soviets, and the rest unhappily wavering. +</p> + +<p> +Hastily the Military Revolutionary Committee appointed to command the defence +of Petrograd an ambitious regular Army Captain, Muraviov, the same Muraviov who +had organised the Death Battalions during the summer, and had once been heard +to advise the Government that “it was too lenient with the Bolsheviki; +they must be wiped out.” A man of military mind, who admired power and +audacity, perhaps sincerely…. +</p> + +<p> +Beside my door when I came down in the morning were posted two new orders of +the Military Revolutionary Committee, directing that all shops and stores +should open as usual, and that all empty rooms and apartments should be put at +the disposal of the Committee…. +</p> + +<p> +For thirty-six hours now the Bolsheviki had been cut off from provincial Russia +and the outside world. The railway men and telegraphers refused to transmit +their despatches, the postmen would not handle their mail. Only the Government +wireless at Tsarskoye Selo launched half-hourly bulletins and manifestoes to +the four corners of heaven; the Commissars of Smolny raced the Commissars of +the City Duma on speeding trains half across the earth; and two aeroplanes, +laden with propaganda, fled high up toward the Front…. +</p> + +<p> +But the eddies of insurrection were spreading through Russia with a swiftness +surpassing any human agency. Helsingfors Soviet passed resolutions of support; +Kiev Bolsheviki captured the arsenal and the telegraph station, only to be +driven out by delegates to the Congress of Cossacks, which happened to be +meeting there; in Kazan, a Military Revolutionary Committee arrested the local +garrison staff and the Commissar of the Provisional Government; from far +Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia, came news that the Soviets were in control of the +Municipal institutions; at Moscow, where the situation was aggravated by a +great strike of leather-workers on one side, and a threat of general lock-out +on the other, the Soviets had voted overwhelmingly to support the action of the +Bolsheviki in Petrograd…. Already a Military Revolutionary Committee was +functioning. +</p> + +<p> +Everywhere the same thing happened. The common soldiers and the industrial +workers supported the Soviets by a vast majority; the officers, <i>yunkers</i> +and middle class generally were on the side of the Government—as were the +bourgeois Cadets and the “moderate” Socialist parties. In all these +towns sprang up Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolution, arming for +civil war…. +</p> + +<p> +Vast Russia was in a state of solution. As long ago as 1905 the process had +begun; the March Revolution had merely hastened it, and giving birth to a sort +of forecast of the new order, had ended by merely perpetuating the hollow +structure of the old regime. Now, however, the Bolsheviki, in one night, had +dissipated it, as one blows away smoke. Old Russia was no more; human society +flowed molten in primal heat, and from the tossing sea of flame was emerging +the class struggle, stark and pitiless—and the fragile, slowly-cooling +crust of new planets…. +</p> + +<p> +In Petrograd sixteen Ministries were on strike, led by the Ministries of Labour +and of Supplies—the only two created by the all-Socialist Government of +August. +</p> + +<p> +If ever men stood alone the “handful of Bolsheviki” apparently +stood alone that grey chill morning, with all storms towering over them. (See +App. VI, Sect. 1) Back against the wall, the Military Revolutionary Committee +struck—for its life. “<i>De l’audace, encore de +l’audace, et toujours de l’audace</i>….” At five in the +morning the Red Guards entered the printing office of the City Government, +confiscated thousands of copies of the Appeal-Protest of the Duma, and +suppressed the official Municipal organ—the <i>Viestnik Gorodskovo +Samoupravleniya</i> (Bulletin of the Municipal Self-Government). All the +bourgeois newspapers were torn from the presses, even the <i>Golos Soldata,</i> +journal of the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i>—which, however, changing its name +to <i>Soldatski Golos,</i> appeared in an edition of a hundred thousand copies, +bellowing rage and defiance: +</p> + +<p> +The men who began their stroke of treachery in the night, who have suppressed +the newspapers, will not keep the country in ignorance long. The country will +know the truth! It will appreciate you, Messrs. the Bolsheviki! We shall see!… +</p> + +<p> +As we came down the Nevsky a little after midday the whole street before the +Duma building was crowded with people. Here and there stood Red Guards and +sailors, with bayonetted rifles, each one surrounded by about a hundred men and +women—clerks, students, shopkeepers, <i>tchinovniki</i>—shaking +their fists and bawling insults and menaces. On the steps stood boy-scouts and +officers, distributing copies of the <i>Soldatski Golos.</i> A workman with a +red band around his arm and a revolver in his hand stood trembling with rage +and nervousness in the middle of a hostile throng at the foot of the stairs, +demanding the surrender of the papers…. Nothing like this, I imagine, ever +occurred in history. On one side a handful of workmen and common soldiers, with +arms in their hands, representing a victorious insurrection—and perfectly +miserable; on the other a frantic mob made up of the kind of people that crowd +the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue at noon-time, sneering, abusing, shouting, +“Traitors! Provocators! <i>Opritchniki!</i>”[15] +</p> + +<p> +[15] Savage body-guards if Ivan the Terrible, 17th century. +</p> + +<p> +The doors were guarded by students and officers with white arm-bands lettered +in red, “Militia of the Committee of Public Safety,” and half a +dozen boy-scouts came and went. Upstairs the place was all commotion. Captain +Gomberg was coming down the stairs. “They’re going to dissolve the +Duma,” he said. “The Bolshevik Commissar is with the Mayor +now.” As we reached the top Riazanov came hurrying out. He had been to +demand that the Duma recognise the Council of peoples’ Commissars, and +the Mayor had given him a flat refusal. +</p> + +<p> +In the offices a great babbling crowd, hurrying, shouting, +gesticulating—Government officials, intellectuals, journalists, foreign +correspondents, French and British officers…. “The City Engineer pointed +to them triumphantly. “The Embassies recognise the Duma as the only power +now,” he explained. “For these Bolshevik murderers and robbers it +is only a question of hours. All Russia is rallying to us…. +</p> + +<p> +In the Alexander Hall a monster meeting of the Committee for Salvation. +Fillipovsky in the chair and Skobeliev again in the tribune, reporting, to +immense applause, new adhesions to the Committee; Executive Committee of +Peasants’ Soviets, old <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> Central Army Committee, +<i>Tsentroflot,</i> Menshevik, Socialist Revolutionary and Front group +delegates from the Congress of Soviets, Central Committees of the Menshevik, +Socialist Revolutionary, Populist Socialist parties. “Yedinstvo” +group, Peasants’ Union, Cooperatives, Zemstvos, Municipalities, Post and +Telegraph Unions, <i>Vikzhel,</i> Council of the Russian Republic, Union of +Unions,[16] Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association…. +</p> + +<p> +[16] See Notes and Explanations. +</p> + +<p> +“…. The power of the Soviets is not democratic power, but a +dictatorship—and not the dictatorship of the proletariat, but +<i>against</i> the proletariat. All those who have felt or know how to feel +revolutionary enthusiasm must join now for the defence of the Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +“The problem of the day is not only to render harmless irresponsible +demagogues, but to fight against the counter-revolution…. If rumours are true +that certain generals in the provinces are attempting to profit by events in +order to march on Petrograd with other designs, it is only one more proof that +we must establish a solid base of democratic government. Otherwise, troubles +with the Right will follow troubles from the Left…. +</p> + +<p> +“The garrison of Petrograd cannot remain indifferent when citizens buying +the <i>Golos Soldata</i> and newsboys selling the <i>Rabotchaya Gazeta</i> are +arrested in the streets…. +</p> + +<p> +“The hour of resolutions has passed…. Let those who have no longer faith +in the Revolution retire…. To establish a united power, we must again restore +the prestige of the Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us swear that either the Revolution shall be saved—or we shall +perish!” +</p> + +<p> +The hall rose, cheering, with kindling eyes. There was not a single proletarian +anywhere in sight…. +</p> + +<p> +Then Weinstein: +</p> + +<p> +“We must remain calm, and not act until public opinion is firmly grouped +in support of the Committee for Salvation—then we can pass from the +defensive to action!” +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Vikzhel</i> representative announced that his organisation was taking +the initiative in forming the new Government, and its delegates were now +discussing the matter with Smolny…. Followed a hot discussion: were the +Bolsheviki to be admitted to the new Government? Martov pleaded for their +admission; after all, he said, they represented an important political party. +Opinions were very much divided upon this, the right wing Mensheviki and +Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as the Populist Socialists, the Cooperatives +and the bourgeois elements being bitterly against…. +</p> + +<p> +“They have betrayed Russia,” one speaker said. “They have +started civil war and opened the front to the Germans. The Bolsheviki must be +mercilessly crushed….” +</p> + +<p> +Skobeliev was in favor of excluding both the Bolsheviki and the Cadets. +</p> + +<p> +We got into conversation with a young Socialist Revolutionary, who had walked +out of the Democratic Conference together with the Bolsheviki, that night when +Tseretelli and the “compromisers” forced Coalition upon the +democracy of Russia. +</p> + +<p> +“You here?” I asked him. +</p> + +<p> +His eyes flashed fire. “Yes!” he cried. “I left the Congress +with my party Wednesday night. I have not risked my life for twenty years and +more to submit now to the tyranny of the Dark People. Their methods are +intolerable. But they have not counted on the peasants…. When the peasants +begin to act, then it is a question of minutes before they are done for.” +</p> + +<p> +“But the peasants—will they act? Doesn’t the Land decree +settle the peasants? What more do they want?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, the Land decree!” he said furiously. “Yes, do you know +what that Land decree is? It is <i>our</i> decree—it is the Socialist +Revolutionary programme, intact! My party framed that policy, after the most +careful compilation of the wishes of the peasants themselves. It is an +outrage….” +</p> + +<p> +“But if it is your own policy, why do you object? If it is the +peasants’ wishes, why will they oppose it?” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t understand! Don’t you see that the peasants will +immediately realise that it is all a trick—that these usurpers have +stolen the Socialist Revolutionary programme?” +</p> + +<p> +I asked if it were true that Kaledin was marching north. +</p> + +<p> +He nodded, and rubbed his hands with a sort of bitter satisfaction. “Yes. +Now you see what these Bolsheviki have done. They have raised the +counter-revolution against us. The Revolution is lost. The Revolution is +lost.” +</p> + +<p> +“But won’t you defend the Revolution?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course we will defend it—to the last drop of our blood. But we +won’t cooperate with the Bolsheviki in any way….” +</p> + +<p> +“But if Kaledin comes to Petrograd, and the Bolsheviki defend the city. +Won’t you join with them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course not. We will defend the city also, but we won’t support +the Bolsheviki. Kaledin is the enemy of the Revolution, but the Bolsheviki are +equally enemies of the Revolution.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which do you prefer—Kaledin or the Bolsheviki?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is not a question to be discussed!” he burst out impatiently. +“I tell you, the Revolution is lost. And it is the Bolsheviki who are to +blame. But listen—why should we talk of such things? Kerensky is coming…. +Day after to-morrow we shall pass to the offensive…. Already Smolny has sent +delegates inviting us to form a new Government. But we have them now—they +are absolutely impotent…. We shall not cooperate….” +</p> + +<p> +Outside there was a shot. We ran to the windows. A Red Guard, finally +exasperated by the taunts of the crowd, had shot into it, wounding a young girl +in the arm. We could see her being lifted into a cab, surrounded by an excited +throng, the clamour of whose voices floated up to us. As we looked, suddenly an +armoured automobile appeared around the corner of the Mikhailovsky, its guns +sluing this way and that. Immediately the crowd began to run, as Petrograd +crowds do, falling down and lying still in the street, piled in the gutters, +heaped up behind telephone-poles. The car lumbered up to the steps of the Duma +and a man stuck his head out of the turret, demanding the surrender of the +<i>Soldatski Golos.</i> The boy-scouts jeered and scuttled into the building. +After a moment the automobile wheeled undecidedly around and went off up the +Nevsky, while some hundreds of men and women picked themselves up and began to +dust their clothes…. +</p> + +<p> +Inside was a prodigious running-about of people with armfuls of <i>Soldatski +Golos,</i> looking for places to hide them…. +</p> + +<p> +A journalist came running into the room, waving a paper. +</p> + +<p> +“Here’s a proclamation from Krasnov!” he cried. Everybody +crowded around. “Get it printed—get it printed quick, and around to +the barracks!” +</p> + +<p> +By the order of the Supreme Commander I am appointed commandant of the troops +concentrated under Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens, soldiers, valorous Cossacks of the Don, of the Kuban, of the +Transbaikal, of the Amur, of the Yenissei, to all you who have remained +faithful to your oath I appeal; to you who have sworn to guard inviolable your +oath of Cossack—I call upon you to save Petrograd from anarchy, from +famine, from tyranny, and to save Russia from the indelible shame to which a +handful of ignorant men, bought by the gold of Wilhelm, are trying to submit +her. +</p> + +<p> +The Provisional Government, to which you swore fidelity in the great days of +March, is not overthrown, but by violence expelled from the edifice in which it +held its meetings. However the Government, with the help of the Front armies, +faithful to their duty, with the help of the Council of Cossacks, which has +united under its command all the Cossacks and which, strong with the morale +which reigns in its ranks, and acting in accordance with the will of the +Russian people, has sworn to serve the country as its ancestors served it in +the Troublous Times of 1612, when the Cossacks of the Don delivered Moscow, +menaced by the Swedes, the Poles, and the Lithuanians. Your Government still +exists…. +</p> + +<p> +The active army considers these criminals with horror and contempt. Their acts +of vandalism and pillage, their crimes, the German mentality with which they +regard Russia—stricken down but not yet surrendered—have alienated +from them the entire people. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens, soldiers, valorous Cossacks of the garrison of Petrograd; send me +your delegates so that I may know who are traitors to their country and who are +not, that there may be avoided an effusion of innocent blood. +</p> + +<p> +Almost the same moment word ran from group to group that the building was +surrounded by Red Guards. An officer strode in, a red band around his arm, +demanding the Mayor. A few minutes later he left and old Schreider came out of +his office, red and pale by turns. +</p> + +<p> +“A special meeting of the Duma!” he cried. +“Immediately!” +</p> + +<p> +In the big hall proceedings were halted. “All members of the Duma for a +special meeting!” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the matter?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know—going to arrest us—going to dissolve the +Duma—arresting members at the door—” so ran the excited +comments. +</p> + +<p> +In the Nicolai Hall there was barely room to stand. The Mayor announced that +troops were stationed at all the doors, prohibiting all exit and entrance, and +that a Commissar had threatened arrest and the dispersal of the Municipal Duma. +A flood of impassioned speeches from members, and even from the galleries, +responded. The freely-elected City Government could not be dissolved by +<i>any</i> power; the Mayor’s person and that of all the members were +inviolable; the tyrants, the provocators, the German agents should never be +recognised; as for these threats to dissolve us, let them try—only over +our dead bodies shall they seize this chamber, where like the Roman senators of +old we await with dignity the coming of the Goths…. +</p> + +<p> +Resolution, to inform the Dumas and Zemstvos of all Russia by telegraph. +Resolution, that it was impossible for the Mayor or the Chairman of the Duma to +enter into any relations whatever with representatives of the Military +Revolutionary Committee or with the so-called Council of People’s +Commissars. Resolution, to address another appeal to the population of +Petrograd to stand up for the defence of their elected town government. +Resolution, to remain in permanent session…. +</p> + +<p> +In the meanwhile one member arrived with the information that he had telephoned +to Smolny, and that the Military Revolutionary Committee said that no orders +had been given to surround the Duma, that the troops would be withdrawn…. +</p> + +<p> +As we went downstairs Riazanov burst in through the front door, very agitated. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you going to dissolve the Duma?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“My God, no!” he answered. “It is all a mistake. I told the +Mayor this morning that the Duma would be left alone….” +</p> + +<p> +Out on the Nevsky, in the deepening dusk, a long double file of cyclists came +riding, guns slung on their shoulders. They halted, and the crowd pressed in +and deluged them with questions. +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you? Where do you come from?” asked a fat old man with a +cigar in his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +“Twelfth Army. From the front. We came to support the Soviets against the +damn’ bourgeoisie!” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” were furious cries. “Bolshevik gendarmes! Bolshevik +Cossacks!” +</p> + +<p> +A little officer in a leather coat came running down the steps. “The +garrison is turning!” he muttered in my ear. “It’s the +beginning of the end of the Bolsheviki. Do you want to see the turn of the +tide? Come on!” He started at a half-trot up the Mikhailovsky, and we +followed. +</p> + +<p> +“What regiment is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“The <i>brunnoviki</i>….” Here was indeed serious trouble. The +<i>brunnoviki</i> were the Armoured Car troops, the key to the situation; +whoever controlled the <i>brunnoviki</i> controlled the city. “The +Commissars of the Committee for Salvation and the Duma have been talking to +them. There’s a meeting on to decide…. +</p> + +<p> +“Decide what? Which side they’ll fight on?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no. That’s not the way to do it. They’ll never fight +against the Bolsheviki. They will vote to remain neutral—and then the +<i>yunkers</i> and Cossacks—” +</p> + +<p> +The door of the great Mikhailovsky Riding-School yawned blackly. Two sentinels +tried to stop us, but we brushed by hurriedly, deaf to their indignant +expostulations. Inside only a single arc-light burned dimly, high up near the +roof of the enormous hall, whose lofty pilasters and rows of windows vanished +in the gloom. Around dimly squatted the monstrous shapes of the armoured cars. +One stood alone in the centre of the place, under the light, and round it were +gathered some two thousand dun-colored soldiers, almost lost in the immensity +of that imperial building. A dozen men, officers, chairmen of the +Soldiers’ Committees and speakers, were perched on top of the car, and +from the central turret a soldier was speaking. This was Khanjunov, who had +been president of last summer’s all-Russian Congress of +<i>Brunnoviki.</i> A lithe, handsome figure in his leather coat with +lieutenant’s shoulder-straps, he stood pleading eloquently for +neutrality. +</p> + +<p> +“It is an awful thing,” he said, “for Russians to kill their +Russian brothers. There must not be civil war between soldiers who stood +shoulder to shoulder against the Tsar, and conquered the foreign enemy in +battles which will go down in history! What have we, soldiers, got to do with +these squabbles of political parties? I will not say to you that the +Provisional Government was a democratic Government; we want no coalition with +the bourgeoisie—no. But we must have a Government of the united +democracy, or Russia is lost! With such a Government there will be no need for +civil war, and the killing of brother by brother!” +</p> + +<p> +This sounded reasonable—the great hall echoed to the crash of hands and +voices. +</p> + +<p> +A soldier climbed up, his face white and strained, “Comrades!” he +cried, “I came from the Rumanian front, to urgently tell you all: there +must be peace! Peace at once! Whoever can give us peace, whether it be the +Bolsheviki or this new Government, we will follow. Peace! We at the front +cannot fight any longer. We cannot fight either Germans or +Russians—” With that he leaped down, and a sort of confused +agonised sound rose up from all that surging mass, which burst into something +like anger when the next speaker, a Menshevik <i>oboronetz,</i> tried to say +that the war must go on until the Allies were victorious. +</p> + +<p> +“You talk like Kerensky!” shouted a rough voice. +</p> + +<p> +A Duma delegate, pleading for neutrality. Him they listened to, muttering +uneasily, feeling him not one of them. Never have I seen men trying so hard to +understand, to decide. They never moved, stood staring with a sort of terrible +intentness at the speaker, their brows wrinkled with the effort of thought, +sweat standing out on their foreheads; great giants of men with the innocent +clear eyes of children and the faces of epic warriors…. +</p> + +<p> +Now a Bolshevik was speaking, one of their own men, violently, full of hate. +They liked him no more than the other. It was not their mood. For the moment +they were lifted out of the ordinary run of common thoughts, thinking in terms +of Russia, of Socialism, the world, as if it depended on them whether the +Revolution were to live or die…. +</p> + +<p> +Speaker succeeded speaker, debating amid tense silence, roars of approval, or +anger: should we come out or not? Khanjunov returned, persuasive and +sympathetic. But wasn’t he an officer, and an <i>oboronotz,</i> however +much he talked of peace? Then a workman from Vasili Ostrov, but him they +greeted with, “And are <i>you</i> going to give us peace, +working-man?” Near us some men, many of them officers, formed a sort of +<i>claque</i> to cheer the advocates of Neutrality. They kept shouting, +“Khanjunov! Khanjunov!” and whistled insultingly when the +Bolsheviki tried to speak. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the committeemen and officers on top of the automobile began to +discuss something with great heat and much gesticulation. The audience shouted +to know what was the matter, and all the great mass tossed and stirred. A +soldier, held back by one of the officers, wrenched himself loose and held up +his hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades!” he cried, “Comrade Krylenko is here and wants to +speak to us.” An outburst of cheers, whistlings, yells of +<i>“Prosim! Prosim! Dolby!</i> Go ahead! Go ahead! Down with him!” +in the midst of which the People’s Commissar for Military Affairs +clambered up the side of the car, helped by hands before and behind, pushed and +pulled from below and above. Rising he stood for a moment, and then walked out +on the radiator, put his hands on his hips and looked around smiling, a squat, +short-legged figure, bare-headed, without insignia on his uniform. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>claque</i> near me kept up a fearful shouting, “Khanjunov! We want +Khanjunov! Down with him! Shut up! Down with the traitor!” The whole +place seethed and roared. Then it began to move, like an avalanche bearing down +upon us, great black-browed men forcing their way through. +</p> + +<p> +“Who is breaking up our meeting?” they shouted. “Who is +whistling here?” The <i>claque,</i> rudely burst asunder, went +flying—nor did it gather again…. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrade soldiers!” began Krylenko, in a voice husky with fatigue. +“I cannot speak well to you; I am sorry; but I have not had any sleep for +four nights…. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t need to tell you that I am a soldier. I don’t need +to tell you that I want peace. What I must say is that the Bolshevik party, +successful in the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Revolution, by the help of +you and of all the rest of the brave comrades who have hurled down forever the +power of the blood-thirsty bourgeoisie, promised to offer peace to all the +peoples, and that has already been done—to-day!” Tumultuous +applause. +</p> + +<p> +“You are asked to remain neutral—to remain neutral while the +<i>yunkers</i> and the Death Battalions, who are <i>never</i> neutral, shoot us +down in the streets and bring back to Petrograd Kerensky—or perhaps some +other of the gang. Kaledin is marching from the Don. Kerensky is coming from +the front. Kornilov is raising the <i>Tekhintsi</i> to repeat his attempt of +August. All these Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries who call upon you +now to prevent civil war—how have they retained the power except by civil +war, that civil war which has endured ever since last July, and in which they +constantly stood on the side of the bourgeoisie, as they do now? +</p> + +<p> +“How can I persuade you, if you have made up your minds? The question is +very plain. On one side are Kerensky, Kaledin, Kornilov, the Mensheviki, +Socialist Revolutionaries, Cadets, Dumas, officers…. They tell us that their +objects are good. On the other side are the workers, the soldiers and sailors, +the poorest peasants. The Government is in your hands. You are the masters. +Great Russia belongs to you. Will you give it back?” +</p> + +<p> +While he spoke, he kept himself up by sheer evident effort of will, and as he +went on the deep sincere feeling back of his words broke through the tired +voice. At the end he totered, almost falling; a hundred hands reached up to +help him down, and the great dim spaces of the hall gave back the surf of sound +that beat upon him. +</p> + +<p> +Khanjunov tried to speak again, but “Vote! Vote! Vote!” they cried. +At length, giving in, he read the resolution: that the <i>brunnoviki</i> +withdraw their representative from the Military Revolutionary Committee, and +declare their neutrality in the present civil war. All those in favour should +go to the right; those opposed, to the left. There was a moment of hesitation, +a still expectancy, and then the crowd began to surge faster and faster, +stumbling over one another, to the left, hundreds of big soldiers in a solid +mass rushing across the dirt floor in the faint light…. Near us about fifty men +were left stranded, stubbornly in favour, and even as the high roof shook under +the shock of victorious roaring, they turned and rapidly walked out of the +building—and, some of them, out of the Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +Imagine this struggle being repeated in every barracks of the city, the +district, the whole front, all Russia. Imagine the sleepless Krylenkos, +watching the regiments, hurrying from place to place, arguing, threatening, +entreating. And then imaging the same in all the locals of every labour union, +in the factories, the villages, on the battle-ships of the far-flung Russian +fleets; think of the hundreds of thousands of Russian men staring up at +speakers all over the vast country, workmen, peasants, soldiers, sailors, +trying so hard to understand and to choose, thinking so intensely—and +deciding so unanimously at the end. So was the Russian Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +Up at Smolny the new Council of People’s Commissars was not idle. Already +the first decree was on the presses, to be circulated in thousands through the +city streets that night, and shipped in bales by every train southward and +east: +</p> + +<p> +In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic, chosen by the +All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies +with participation of peasant deputies, the Council of People’s +Commissars decrees: +</p> + +<p> +1. The elections for the Constituent Assembly shall take place at the date +determined upon—November 12. +</p> + +<p> +2. All electoral commissions, organs of local self-government, Soviets of +Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, and +soldiers’ organisations on the front should make every effort to assure +free and regular elections at the date determined upon. +</p> + +<p> +In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic, <i>The President of the +Council of People’s Commissars</i>, +</p> + +<h5>VLADIMIR ULIANOV-LENIN.</h5> + +<p> +In the Municipal building the Duma was in full blast. A member of the Council +of the Republic was talking as we came in. The Council, he said, did not +consider itself dissolved at all, but merely unable to continue its labours +until it secured a new meeting-place. In the meanwhile, its Committee of Elders +had determined to enter <i>en masse</i> the Committee for Salvation…. This, I +may remark parenthetically, is the last time history mentions the Council of +the Russian Republic…. +</p> + +<p> +Then followed the customary string of delegates from the Ministries, the +<i>Vikzhel,</i> the Union of Posts and Telegraphs, for the hundredth time +reiterating their determination not to work for the Bolshevik usurpers. A +<i>yunker</i> who had been in the Winter Palace told a highly-coloured tale of +the heroism of himself and his comrades, and disgraceful conduct of the Red +Guards—all of which was devoutly believed. Somebody read aloud an account +in the Socialist Revolutionary paper <i>Narod,</i> which stated that five +hundred million rubles’ worth of damage had been done in the Winter +Palace, and describing in great detail the loot and breakage. +</p> + +<p> +From time to time couriers came from the telephone with news. The four +Socialist Ministers had been released from prison. Krylenko had gone to +Peter-Paul to tell Admiral Verderevsky that the Ministry of Marine was +deserted, and to beg him, for the sake of Russia, to take charge under the +authority of the Council of People’s Commissars; and the old seaman had +consented…. Kerensky was advancing north from Gatchina, the Bolshevik garrisons +falling back before him. Smolny had issued another decree, enlarging the powers +of the City Dumas to deal with food supplies. +</p> + +<p> +This last piece of insolence caused an outburst of fury. He, Lenin, the +usurper, the tyrant, whose Commissars had seized the Municipal garage, entered +the Municipal ware houses, were interfering with the Supply Committees and the +distribution of food—he presumed to define the limits of power of the +free, independent, autonomous City Government! One member, shaking his fist, +moved to cut off the food of the city if the Bolsheviki dared to interfere with +the Supply Committees…. Another, representative of the Special Supply +Committee, reported that the food situation was very grave, and asked that +emissaries be sent out to hasten food trains. +</p> + +<p> +Diedonenko announced dramatically that the garrison was wavering. The +Semionovsky regiment had already decided to submit to the orders of the +Socialist Revolutionary party; the crews of the torpedo-boats on the Neva were +shaky. Seven members were at once appointed to continue the propaganda…. +</p> + +<p> +Then the old Mayor stepped into the tribune: “Comrades and citizens! I +have just learned that the prisoners in Peter Paul are in danger. Fourteen +<i>yunkers</i> of the Pavlovsk school have been stripped and tortured by the +Bolshevik guards. One has gone mad. They are threatening to lynch the +Ministers!” There was a whirlwind of indignation and horror, which only +grew more violent when a stocky little woman dressed in grey demanded the +floor, and lifted up her hard, metallic voice. This was Vera Slutskaya, veteran +revolutionist and Bolshevik member of the Duma. +</p> + +<p> +“That is a lie and a provocation!” she said, unmoved at the torrent +of abuse. “The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, which has +abolished the death penalty, cannot permit such deeds. We demand that this +story be investigated, at once; if there is any truth in it, the Government +will take energetic measures!” +</p> + +<p> +A commission composed of members of all parties was immediately appointed, and +with the Mayor, sent to Peter Paul to investigate. As we followed them out, the +Duma was appointing another commission to meet Kerensky—to try and avoid +bloodshed when he entered the capital…. +</p> + +<p> +It was midnight when we bluffed our past the guards at the gate of the +fortress, and went forward under the faint glimmer of rare electric lights +along the side of the church where lie the tombs of the Tsars, beneath the +slender golden spire and the chimes, which, for months, continued to play +<i>Bozhe Tsaria Khrani</i>[17] every day at noon…. The place was deserted; in +most of the windows there were not even lights. Occasionally we bumped into a +burly figure stumbling along in the dark, who answered questions with the +usual, <i>“Ya nieznayu.”</i> +</p> + +<p> +[17] “God Save the Tsar.” +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 166: Pass to Reed from Department of Prisons translation +follows] +</p> + +<p> +Pass from the Department of Prisons of the Soviet Government to visit freely +all prisons of Petrograd and Cronstadt. (Translation) +</p> + +<p> + Commissar<br /> + Chief Bureau of Prisons<br /> + 6th of November, 1917.<br /> + No. 213<br /> + Petrograd, Smolny<br /> + Institute, room No. 56— +</p> + +<p> +PASS To the representative of the American Socialist press, JOHN REED, to visit +all places of confinement in the cities of Petrograd and Cronstadt, for the +purpose of generally investigating the condition of the prisoners, and for +thorough social information for the purpose of stopping the flood of newspaper +lies against demorcracy. Chief Commissar Secretary +</p> + +<p> +On the left loomed the low dark outline of Trubetskoi Bastion, that living +grave in which so many martyrs of liberty had lost their lives or their reason +in the days of the Tsar, where the Provisional Government had in turn shut up +the Ministers of the Tsar, and now the Bolsheviki had shut up the Ministers of +the Provisional Government. +</p> + +<p> +A friendly sailor led us to the office of the commandant, in a little house +near the Mint. Half a dozen Red Guards, sailors and soldiers were sitting +around a hot room full of smoke, in which a samovar steamed cheerfully. They +welcomed us with great cordiality, offering tea. The commandant was not in; he +was escorting a commission of <i>“sabotazhniki”</i> (sabotageurs) +from the City Duma, who insisted that the <i>yunkers</i> were all being +murdered. This seemed to amuse them very much. At one side of the room sat a +bald-headed, dissipated-looking little man in a frock-coat and a rich fur coat, +biting his moustache and staring around him like a cornered rat. He had just +been arrested. Somebody said, glancing carelessly at him, that he was a +Minister or something…. The little man didn’t seem to hear it; he was +evidently terrified, although the occupants of the room showed no animosity +whatever toward him. +</p> + +<p> +I went across and spoke to him in French. “Count Tolstoy,” he +answered, bowing stiffly. “I do not understand why I was arrested. I was +crossing the Troitsky Bridge on my way home when two of these—of +these—persons held me up. I was a Commissar of the Provisional Government +attached to the General Staff, but in no sense a member of the +Government…” +</p> + +<p> +“Let him go,” said a sailor. “He’s harmless….” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” responded the soldier who had brought the prisoner. “We +must ask the commandant.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, the commandant!” sneered the sailor. “What did you make +a revolution for? To go on obeying officers?” +</p> + +<p> +A <i>praporshtchik</i> of the Pavlovsky regiment was telling us how the +insurrection started. “The <i>polk</i> (regiment) was on duty at the +General Staff the night of the 6th. Some of my comrades and I were standing +guard; Ivan Pavlovitch and another man—I don’t remember his +name—well, they hid behind the window-curtains in the room where the +Staff was having a meeting, and they heard a great many things. For example, +they heard orders to bring the Gatchina <i>yunkers</i> to Petrograd by night, +and an order for the Cossacks to be ready to march in the morning…. The +principal points in the city were to be occupied before dawn. Then there was +the business of opening the bridges. But when they began to talk about +surrounding Smolny, then Ivan Pavlovitch couldn’t stand it any longer. +That minute there was a good deal of coming and going, so he slipped out and +came down to the guard-room, leaving the other comrade to pick up what he +could. +</p> + +<p> +“I was already suspicious that something was going on. Automobiles full +of officers kept coming, and all the Ministers were there. Ivan Pavlovitch told +me what he had heard. It was half-past two in the morning. The secretary of the +regimental Committee was there, so we told him and asked what to do. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Arrest everybody coming and going!’ he says. So we began to +do it. In an hour we had some officers and a couple of Ministers, whom we sent +up to Smolny right away. But the Military Revolutionary Committee wasn’t +ready; they didn’t know what to do; and pretty soon back came the order +to let everybody go and not arrest anybody else. Well, we ran all the way to +Smolny, and I guess we talked for an hour before they finally saw that it was +war. It was five o’clock when we got back to the Staff, and by that time +most of them were gone. But we got a few, and the garrison was all on the +march….” +</p> + +<p> +A Red Guard from Vasili Ostrov described in great detail what had happened in +his district on the great day of the rising. “We didn’t have any +machine-guns over there,” he said, laughing, “and we couldn’t +get any from Smolny. Comrade Zalking, who was a member of the <i>Uprava</i> +(Central Bureau) of the Ward Duma, remembered all at once that there was lying +in the meeting-room of the <i>Uprava</i> a machinegun which had been captured +from the Germans. So he and I and another comrade went there. The Mensheviki +and Socialist Revolutionaries were having a meeting. Well, we opened the door +and walked right in on them, as they sat around the table—twelve or +fifteen of them, three of us. When they saw us they stopped talking and just +stared. We walked right across the room, uncoupled the machine-gun; Comrade +Zalkind picked up one part, I the other, we put them on our shoulders and +walked out—and not a single man said a word!” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know how the Winter Palace was captured?” asked a third +man, a sailor. “Along about eleven o’clock we found out there +weren’t any more <i>yunkers</i> on the Neva side. So we broke in the +doors and filtered up the different stairways one by one, or in little bunches. +When we got to the top of the stairs the <i>yunkers</i> held us up and took +away our guns. Still our fellows kept coming up, little by little, until we had +a majority. Then we turned around and took away the <i>yunkers’</i> +guns….” +</p> + +<p> +Just then the commandant entered—a merry-looking young non-commissioned +officer with his arm in a sling, and deep circles of sleeplessness under his +eyes. His eye fell first on the prisoner, who at once began to explain. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes,” interrupted the other. “You were one of the +committee who refused to surrender the Staff Wednesday afternoon. However, we +don’t want you, citizen. Apologies—” He opened the door and +waved his arm for Count Tolstoy to leave. Several of the others, especially the +Red Guards, grumbled protests, and the sailor remarked triumphantly, +<i>“Vot!</i> There! Didn’t I say so?” +</p> + +<p> +Two soldiers now engaged his attention. They had been elected a committee of +the fortress garrison to protest. The prisoners, they said, were getting the +same food as the guards, when there wasn’t even enough to keep a man from +being hungry. “Why should the counter-revolutionists be treated so +well?” +</p> + +<p> +“We are revolutionists, comrades, not bandits,” answered the +commandant. He turned to us. We explained that rumours were going about that +the <i>yunkers</i> were being tortured, and the lives of the Ministers +threatened. Could we perhaps see the prisoners, so as to be able to prove to +the world—?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the young soldier, irritably. “I am not going to +disturb the prisoners again. I have just been compelled to wake them +up—they were sure we were going to massacre them…. Most of the +<i>yunkers</i> have been released anyway, and the rest will go out +to-morrow.” He turned abruptly away. +</p> + +<p> +“Could we talk to the Duma commission, then?” +</p> + +<p> +The Commandant, who was pouring himself a glass of tea, nodded. “They are +still out in the hall,” he said carelessly. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed they stood there just outside the door, in the feeble light of an oil +lamp, grouped around the Mayor and talking excitedly. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Mayor,” I said, “we are American correspondents. Will +you please tell us officially the result of your investigations?” +</p> + +<p> +He turned to us his face of venerable dignity. +</p> + +<p> +“There is no truth in the reports,” he said slowly. “Except +for the incidents which occurred as the Ministers were being brought here, they +have been treated with every consideration. As for the <i>yunkers,</i> not one +has received the slightest injury….” +</p> + +<p> +Up the Nevsky, in the empty after-midnight gloom, an interminable column of +soldiers shuffled in silence—to battle with Kerensky. In dim back streets +automobiles without lights flitted to and fro, and there was furtive activity +in Fontanka 6, headquarters of the Peasants’ Soviet, in a certain +apartment of a huge building on the Nevsky, and in the <i>Injinierny Zamok</i> +(School of Engineers); the Duma was illuminated…. +</p> + +<p> +In Smolny Institute the Military Revolutionary Committee flashed baleful fire, +pounding like an over-loaded dynamo…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>Chapter VII<br /> +The Revolutionary Front</h2> + +<p> +Saturday, November 10th…. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens! +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee declares that it will not tolerate any +violation of revolutionary order…. +</p> + +<p> +Theft, brigandage, assaults and attempts at massacre will be severely +punished…. +</p> + +<p> +Following the example of the Paris Commune, the Committee will destroy without +mercy any looter or instigator of disorder…. +</p> + +<p> +Quiet lay the city. Not a hold-up, not a robbery, not even a drunken fight. By +night armed patrols went through the silent streets, and on the corners +soldiers and Red Guards squatted around little fires, laughing and singing. In +the daytime great crowds gathered on the sidewalks listening to interminable +hot debates between students and soldiers, business men and workmen. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens stopped each other on the street. +</p> + +<p> +“The Cossacks are coming?” +</p> + +<p> +“No….” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the latest?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know anything. Where’s Kerensky?” +</p> + +<p> +“They say only eight versts from Petrograd…. Is it true that the +Bolsheviki have fled to the battleship <i>Avrora?”</i> +</p> + +<p> +“They say so….” +</p> + +<p> +Only the walls screamed, and the few newspapers; denunciation, appeal, decree…. +</p> + +<p> +An enormous poster carried the hysterical manifesto of the Executive Committee +of the Peasants’ Soviets: +</p> + +<p> +….They (the Bolsheviki) dare to say that they are supported by the Soviets of +Peasants’ Deputies, and that they are speaking on behalf of the Soviets +of Peasants’ Deputies…. +</p> + +<p> +Let all working-class Russia know that this is a LIE, AND THAT ALL THE WORKING +PEASANTS—in the person of—the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE +ALL-RUSSIAN SOVIETS OF PEASANTS’ DEPUTIES—refutes with indignation +all participation of the organised peasantry in this criminal violation of the +will of the working-classes…. +</p> + +<p> +From the Soldier Section of the Socialist Revolutionary party: +</p> + +<p> +The insane attempt of the Bolsheviki is on the eve of collapse. The garrison is +divided…. The Ministries are on strike and bread is getting scarcer. All +factions except the few Bolsheviki have left the Congress. The Bolsheviki are +alone…. +</p> + +<p> +We call upon all sane elements to group themselves around the Committee for +Salvation of Country and Revolution, and to prepare themselves seriously to be +ready at the first call of the Central Committee…. +</p> + +<p> +In a hand-bill the Council of the Republic recited its wrongs: +</p> + +<p> +Ceding to the force of bayonets, the Council of the Republic has been obliged +to separate, and temporarily to interrupt its meetings. +</p> + +<p> +The usurpers, with the words “Liberty and Socialism” on their lips, +have set up a rule of arbitrary violence. They have arrested the members of the +Provisional Government, closed the newspapers, seized the printing-shops….This +power must be considered the enemy of the people and the Revolution; it is +necessary to do battle with it, and to pull it down…. +</p> + +<p> +The Council of the Republic, until the resumption of its labours, invites the +citizens of the Russian Republic to group themselves around the….local +Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolution, which are organising the +overthrow of the Bolsheviki and the creation of a Government capable of leading +the country to the Constituent Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Dielo Naroda</i> said: +</p> + +<p> +A revolution is a rising of all the people…. But here what have we? Nothing but +a handful of poor fools deceived by Lenin and Trotzky…. Their decrees and their +appeals will simply add to the museum of historical curiosities…. +</p> + +<p> +And <i>Narodnoye Slovo</i>(People’s Word-Populist Socialist): +</p> + +<p> +“Workers’ and Peasants’ Government?” That is only a +pipedream; nobody, either in Russia or in the countries of our Allies, will +recognise this “Government”—or even in the enemy countries…. +</p> + +<p> +The bourgeois press had temporarily disappeared….<i>Pravada</i> had an account +of the first meeting of the new <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> now the parliament of the +Russian Soviet Republic. Miliutin, Commissar of Agriculture, remarked that the +Peasants’ Executive Committee had called an All-Russian Peasant Congress +for December 13th. +</p> + +<p> +“But we cannot wait,” he said. “We must have the backing of +the peasants. I propose that <i>we</i> call the Congress of Peasants, and do it +immediately….” The Left Socialist Revolutionaries agreed. An Appeal to +the Peasants of Russia was hastily drafted, and a committee of five elected to +carry out the project. +</p> + +<p> +The question of detailed plans for distributing the land, and the question of +Workers’ Control of Industry, were postponed until the experts working on +them should submit a report. +</p> + +<p> +Three decrees (See App. VII, Sect. 1) were read and approved: first, +Lenin’s “General Rules For the Press,” ordering the +suppression of all newspapers inciting to resistance and disobedience to the +new Government, inciting to criminal acts, or deliberately perverting the news; +the Decree of Moratorium for House-rents; and the Decree Establishing a +Workers’ Militia. Also orders, one giving the Municipal Duma power to +requisition empty apartments and houses, the other directing the unloading of +freight cars in the railroad terminals, to hasten the distribution of +necessities and to free the badly-needed rolling-stock…. +</p> + +<p> +Two hours later the Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets was +sending broadcast over Russia the following telegram: +</p> + +<p> +The arbitrary organisation of the Bolsheviki, which is called “Bureau of +Organisation for the National Congress of Peasants,” is inviting all the +Peasants’ Soviets to send delegates to the Congress at Petrograd…. +</p> + +<p> +The Executive Committee of the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies declares +that it considers, now as well as before, that it would be dangerous to take +away from the provinces at this moment the forces necessary to prepare for +elections to the Constituent Assembly, which is the only salvation of the +working-class and the country. We confirm the date of the Congress of Peasants, +<i>December 13th.</i> +</p> + +<p> +At the Duma all was excitement, officers coming and going, the Mayor in +conference with the leaders of the Committee for Salvation. A Councillor ran in +with a copy of Kerensky’s proclamation, dropped by hundreds from an +aeroplane low flying down the Nevsky, which threatened terrible vengeance on +all who did not submit, and ordered soldiers to lay down their arms and +assemble immediately in Mars Field. +</p> + +<p> +The Minister-President had taken Tsarskoye Selo, we were told, and was already +in the Petrograd campagna, five miles away. He would enter the city +to-morrow—in a few hours. The Soviet troops in contact with his Cossacks +were said to be going over to the Provisional Government. Tchernov was +somewhere in between, trying to organise the “neutral” troops into +a force to halt the civil war. +</p> + +<p> +In the city the garrison regiments were leaving the Bolsheviki, they said. +Smolny was already abandoned…. All the Governmental machinery had stopped +functioning. The employees of the State Bank had refused to work under +Commissars from Smolny, refused to pay out money to them. All the private banks +were closed. The Ministries were on strike. Even now a committee from the Duma +was making the rounds of business houses, collecting a fund to pay the salaries +of the strikers…. +</p> + +<p> +Trotzky had gone to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ordered the clerks to +translate the Decree on Peace into foreign languages; six hundred functionaries +had hurled their resignations in his face…. Shliapnikov, Commissar of Labour, +had commanded all the employees of his Ministry to return to their places +within twenty-four hours, or lose their places and their pension-rights; only +the door-servants had responded…. Some of the branches of the Special Food +Supply Committee had suspended work rather than submit to the Bolsheviki…. In +spite of lavish promises of high wages and better conditions, the operators at +the Telephone Exchange would not connect Soviet headquarters…. +</p> + +<p> +The Socialist Revolutionary Party had voted to expel all members who had +remained in the Congress of Soviets, and all who were taking part in the +insurrection…. +</p> + +<p> +News from the provinces. Moghilev had declared against the Bolsheviki. At Kiev +the Cossacks had overthrown the Soviets and arrested all the insurrectionary +leaders. The Soviet and garrison of Luga, thirty thousand strong, affirmed its +loyalty to the Provisional Government, and appealed to all Russia to rally +around it. Kaledin had dispersed all Soviets and Unions in the Don Basin, and +his forces were moving north…. +</p> + +<p> +Said a representative of the Railway Workers: “Yesterday we sent a +telegram all over Russia demanding that war between the political parties cease +at once, and insisting on the formation of a coalition Socialist Government. +Otherwise we shall call a strike to-morrow night…. In the morning there will be +a meeting of all factions to consider the question. The Bolsheviki seem anxious +for an agreement….” +</p> + +<p> +“If they last that long!” laughed the City Engineer, a stout, ruddy +man…. +</p> + +<p> +As we came up to Smolny—not abandoned, but busier than ever, throngs of +workers and soldiers running in and out, and doubled guards everywhere—we +met the reporters for the bourgeois and “moderate” Socialist +papers. +</p> + +<p> +“Threw us out!” cried one, from <i>Volia Naroda.</i> +“Bonch-Bruevitch came down to the Press Bureau and told us to leave! Said +we were spies!” They all began to talk at once: “Insult! Outrage! +Freedom of the press!” +</p> + +<p> +In the lobby were great tables heaped with stacks of appeals, proclamations and +orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee. Workmen and soldiers staggered +past, carrying them to waiting automobiles. +</p> + +<p> +One began: +</p> + +<h5>TO THE PILLORY!</h5> + +<p> +In this tragic moment through which the Russian masses are living, the +Mensheviki and their followers and the Right Socialist Revolutionaries have +betrayed the working-class. They have enlisted on the side of Kornilov, +Kerensky and Savinkov…. +</p> + +<p> +They are printing orders of the traitor Kerensky and creating a panic in the +city, spreading the most ridiculous rumours of mythical victories by that +renegade…. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens! Don’t believe these false rumours. No power can defeat the +People’s Revolution…. Premier Kerensky and his followers await speedy and +well-deserved punishment…. +</p> + +<p> +We are putting them in the Pillory. We are abandoning them to the enmity of all +workers, soldiers, sailors and peasants, on whom they are trying to rivet the +ancient chains. They will never be able to wash from their bodies the stain of +the people’s hatred and contempt. +</p> + +<p> +Shame and curses to the traitors of the People!… +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee had moved into larger quarters, room 17 on +the top floor. Red Guards were at the door. Inside, the narrow space in front +of the railing was crowded with well-dressed persons, outwardly respectful but +inwardly full of murder—bourgeois who wanted permits for their +automobiles, or passports to leave the city, among them many foreigners…. Bill +Shatov and Peters were on duty. They suspended all other business to read us +the latest bulletins. +</p> + +<p> +The One Hundred Seventy-ninth Reserve Regiment offers its unanimous support. +Five thousand stevedores at the Putilov wharves greet the new Government. +Central Committee of the Trade Unions—enthusiastic support. The garrison +and squadron at Reval elect Military Revolutionary Committees to cooperate, and +despatch troops. Military Revolutionary Committees control in Pskov and Minsk. +Greetings from the Soviets of Tsaritzin, Rovensky-on-Don, Tchernogorsk, +Sevastopol…. The Finland Division, the new Committees of the Fifth and Twelfth +Armies, offer allegiance…. +</p> + +<p> +From Moscow the news is uncertain. Troops of the Military Revolutionary +Committee occupy the strategic points of the city; two companies on duty in the +Kremlin have gone over to the Soviets, but the Arsenal is in the hands of +Colonel Diabtsev and his <i>yunkers.</i> The Revolutionary Committee demanded +arms for the workers, and Riabtsev parleyed with them until this morning, when +suddenly he sent an ultimatum to the Committee, ordering Soviet troops to +surrender and the Committee to disband. Fighting has begun…. +</p> + +<p> +In Petrograd the Staff submitted to Smolny’s Commissars at once. The +<i>Tsentroflot,</i> refusing, was stormed by Dybenko and a company of Cronstadt +sailors, and a new <i>Tsentroflot</i> set up, supported by the Baltic and the +Black Sea battleships…. +</p> + +<p> +But beneath all the breezy assurance there was a chill premonition, a feeling +of uneasiness in the air. Kerensky’s Cossacks were coming fast; they had +artillery. Skripnik, Secretary of the Factory-Shop Committees, his face drawn +and yellow, assured me that there was a whole army corps of them, but he added, +fiercely, “They’ll never take us alive!” Petrovsky laughed +weariedly, “To-morrow maybe we’ll get a sleep—a long +one….” Lozovsky, with his emaciated, red-bearded face, said, “What +chance have we? All alone…. A mob against trained soldiers!” +</p> + +<p> +South and south-west the Soviets had fled before Kerensky, and the garrisons of +Gatchina, Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo were divided—half voting to remain +neutral, the rest, without officers, falling back on the capital in the wildest +disorder. +</p> + +<p> +In the halls they were pasting up bulletins: +</p> + +<h5>FROM KRASNOYE SELO, NOVEMBER 10TH, 8 A.M.</h5> + +<p> +<i>To be communicated to all Commanders of Staffs, Commanders in Chief, +Commanders, everywhere and to all, all, all.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The ex-Minister Kerensky has sent a deliberately false telegram to every one +everywhere to the effect that the troops of revolutionary Petrograd have +voluntarily surrendered their arms and joined the armies of the former +Government, the Government of Treason, and that the soldiers have been ordered +by the Military Revolutionary Committee to retreat. The troops of a free people +do not retreat nor do they surrender. +</p> + +<p> +Our troops have left Gatchina in order to avoid bloodshed between themselves +and their mistaken brother-Cossacks, and in order to take a more convenient +position, which is at present so strong that if Kerensky and his companions in +arms should even increase their forces ten times, still there would be no cause +for anxiety. The spirit of our troops is excellent. +</p> + +<p> +In Petrograd all is quiet. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Chief of the Defence of Petrograd and the Petrograd District,</i> +</p> + +<p> +Lieutenant-Colonel Muraviov. +</p> + +<p> +As we left the Military Revolutionary Committee Antonov entered, a paper in his +hand, looking like a corpse. +</p> + +<p> +“Send this,” said he. +</p> + +<h5>TO ALL DISTRICT SOVIETS OF WORKERS’ DEPUTIES AND FACTORYSHOP +COMMITTEES</h5> + +<p> +The Kornilovist bands of Kerensky are threatening the approaches to the +capital. All the necessary orders have been given to crush mercilessly the +counter-revolutionary attempt against the people and its conquests. +</p> + +<p> +The Army and the Red Guard of the Revolution are in need of the immediate +support of the workers. +</p> + +<h5>WE ORDER THE WARD SOVIETS AND FACTORY-SHOP COMMITTEES:</h5> + +<p> +1. To move out the greatest possible number of workers for the digging of +trenches, the erection of barricades and reinforcing of wire entanglements. +</p> + +<p> +2. Wherever it shall be necessary for this purpose to stop work at the +factories this shall be done immediately. +</p> + +<p> +3. All common and barbed wire available must be assembled, and also all +implements for the digging of trenches and the erection of barricades. +</p> + +<p> +4. All available arms must be taken. +</p> + +<h5>5. THE STRICTEST DISCIPLINE IS TO BE OBSERVED, AND EVERY ONE MUST BE READY +TO SUPPORT THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION BY ALL MEANS.</h5> + +<p> +<i>Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Worker’s and Soldiers’ +Deputies,</i> +</p> + +<p> +People’s Commissar LEON TROTZKY. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee,</i> +</p> + +<p> +Commander in Chief PODVOISKY. +</p> + +<p> +As we came out into the dark and gloomy day all around the grey horizon factory +whistles were blowing, a hoarse and nervous sound, full of foreboding. By tens +of thousands the working-people poured out, men and women; by tens of thousands +the humming slums belched out their dun and miserable hordes. Red Petrograd was +in danger! Cossacks! South and southwest they poured through the shabby streets +toward the Moskovsky Gate, men, women and children, with rifles, picks, spades, +rolls of wire, cartridge-belts over their working clothes…. Such an immense, +spontaneous outpouring of a city never was seen! They rolled along +torrent-like, companies of soldiers borne with them, guns, motor-trucks, +wagons—the revolutionary proletariat defending with its breast the +capital of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic! +</p> + +<p> +Before the door of Smolny was an automobile. A slight man with thick glasses +magnifying his red-rimmed eyes, his speech a painful effort, stood leaning +against a mud-guard with his hands in the pockets of a shabby raglan. A great +bearded sailor, with the clear eyes of youth, prowled restlessly about, +absently toying with an enormous blue-steel revolver, which never left his +hand. These were Antonov and Dybenko. +</p> + +<p> +Some soldiers were trying to fasten two military bicycles on the running-board. +The chauffeur violently protested; the enamel would get scratched, he said. +True, he was a Bolshevik, and the automobile was commandeered from a bourgeois; +true, the bicycles were for the use of orderlies. But the chauffeur’s +professional pride was revolted…. So the bicycles were abandoned…. +</p> + +<p> +The People’s Commissars for War and Marine were going to inspect the +revolutionary front—wherever that was. Could we go with them? Certainly +not. The automobile only held five—the two Commissars, two orderlies and +the chauffeur. However, a Russian acquaintance of mine, whom I will call +Trusishka, calmly got in and sat down, nor could any argument dislodge him…. +</p> + +<p> +I see no reason to doubt Trusishka’s story of the journey. As they went +down the Suvorovsky Prospect some one mentioned food. They might be out three +or four days, in a country indifferently well provisioned. They stopped the +car. Money? The Commissar of War looked through his pockets—he +hadn’t a kopek. The Commissar of Marine was broke. So was the chauffeur. +Trusishka bought the provisions…. +</p> + +<p> +Just as they turned into the Nevsky a tire blew out. +</p> + +<p> +“What shall we do?” asked Antonov. +</p> + +<p> +“Commandeer another machine!” suggested Dybenko, waving his +revolver. Antonov stood in the middle of the street and signalled a passing +machine, driven by a soldier. +</p> + +<p> +“I want that machine,” said Antonov. +</p> + +<p> +“You won’t get it,” responded the soldier. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know who I am?” Antonov produced a paper upon which was +written that he had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of all the armies of the +Russian Republic, and that every one should obey him without question. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t care if you’re the devil himself,” said the +soldier, hotly. “This machine belongs to the First Machine-Gun Regiment, +and we’re carrying ammunition in it, and you can’t have it….” +</p> + +<p> +The difficulty, however, was solved by the appearance of an old battered +taxi-cab, flying the Italian flag. (In time of trouble private cars were +registered in the name of foreign consulates, so as to be safe from +requisition.) From the interior of this was dislodged a fat citizen in an +expensive fur coat, and the party continued on its way. +</p> + +<p> +Arrived at Narvskaya Zastava, about ten miles out, Antonov called for the +commandant of the Red Guard. He was led to the edge of the town, where some few +hundred workmen had dug trenches and were waiting for the Cossacks. +</p> + +<p> +“Everything all right here, comrade?” asked Antonov. +</p> + +<p> +“Everything perfect, comrade,” answered the commandant. +</p> + +<p> +“The troops are in excellent spirits…. Only one thing—we have no +ammunition….” +</p> + +<p> +“In Smolny there are two billion rounds,” Antonov told him. +“I will give you an order.” He felt in his pockets. “Has any +one a piece of paper?” +</p> + +<p> +Dybenko had none—nor the couriers. Trusishka had to offer his note-book…. +</p> + +<p> +“Devil! I have no pencil!” cried Antonov. “Who’s got a +pencil?” Needless to say, Trusishka had the only pencil in the crowd…. +</p> + +<p> +We who were left behind made for the Tsarskoye Selo station. Up the Nevsky, as +we passed, Red Guards were marching, all armed, some with bayonets and some +without. The early twilight of winter was falling. Heads up they tramped in the +chill mud, irregular lines of four, without music, without drums. A red flag +crudely lettered in gold, “Peace! Land!” floated over them. They +were very young. The expression on their faces was that of who know they are +going to die…. Half-fearful, half-contemptuous, the crowds on the sidewalk +watched them pass, in hateful silence…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 184: Pass to the Northern Front] +</p> + +<p> +This pass was issued upon the recommendation of Trotzky three days after the +Bolshevik Revolution. It gives me the right of free travel to the Northern +front—and an added note on the back extends the permission to all fronts. +It will be noticed that the speaks of the <i>Petersburg</i>, instead of the +<i>Petrograd</i> Soviet; it was the fashion among thorough-going +internationalists to abolish all names which smacked of +“patriotism”; but at the same time, it would not do to restore the +“Saint.”…<br /> + (Translation)<br /> + Executive Committee<br /> + Petrograd Soviet of<br /> + Workers’ and Soldiers’<br /> + Deputies<br /> + Military Section<br /> + 28th October, 1917<br /> + No. 1435<br /> + CERTIFICATE +</p> + +<p> +The present certificate is given to the representative of the American Social +Democracy, the internationalist comrade JOHN REED. The Military Revolutionary +Committee of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies gives him the right of free travel through the entire Northern front, +for the purpose of reporting to our American comrades—internationalists +concerning events in Russia.<br /> + For the President<br /> + For the Secretary +</p> + +<p> +At the railroad station nobody knew just where Kerensky was, or where the front +lay. Trains went no further, however, than Tsarskoye…. +</p> + +<p> +Our car was full of commuters and country people going home, laden with bundles +and evening papers. The talk was all of the Bolshevik rising. Outside of that, +however, one would never have realised that civil war was rending mighty Russia +in two, and that the train was headed into the zone of battle. Through the +window we could see, in the swiftly-deepening darkness, masses of soldiers +going along the muddy road toward the city, flinging out their arms in +argument. A freight-train, swarming with troops and lit up by huge bonfires, +was halted on a siding. That was all. Back along the flat horizon the glow of +the city’s lights faded down the night. A street-car crawled distantly +along a far-flung suburb…. +</p> + +<p> +Tsarskoye Selo station was quiet, but knots of soldiers stood here and there +talking in low tones and looking uneasily down the empty track in the direction +of Gatchina. I asked some of them which side they were on. “Well,” +said one, “we don’t exactly know the rights of the matter…. There +is no doubt that Kerensky is a provocator, but we do not consider it right for +Russian men to be shooting Russian men.” +</p> + +<p> +In the station commandant’s office was a big, jovial, bearded common +soldier, wearing the red arm-band of a regimental committee. Our credentials +from Smolny commanded immediate respect. He was plainly for the Soviets, but +bewildered. +</p> + +<p> +“The Red Guards were here two hours ago, but they went away again. A +Commissar came this morning, but he returned to Petrograd when the Cossacks +arrived.” +</p> + +<p> +“The Cossacks are here then?” +</p> + +<p> +He nodded, gloomily. “There has been a battle. The Cossacks came early in +the morning. They captured two or three hundred of our men, and killed about +twenty-five.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where are the Cossacks?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, they didn’t get this far. I don’t know just where they +are. Off that way….” He waved his arm vaguely westward. +</p> + +<p> +We had dinner—an excellent dinner, better and cheaper than could be got +in Petrograd—in the station restaurant. Nearby sat a French officer who +had just come on foot from Gatchina. All was quiet there, he said. Kerensky +held the town. “Ah, these Russians,” he went on, “they are +original! What a civil war! Everything except the fighting!” +</p> + +<p> +We sallied out into the town. Just at the door of the station stood two +soldiers with rifles and bayonets fixed. They were surrounded by about a +hundred business men, Government officials and students, who attacked them with +passionate argument and epithet. The soldiers were uncomfortable and hurt, like +children unjustly scolded. +</p> + +<p> +A tall young man with a supercilious expression, dressed in the uniform of a +student, was leading the attack. +</p> + +<p> +“You realise, I presume,” he said insolently, “that by taking +up arms against your brothers you are making yourselves the tools of murderers +and traitors?” +</p> + +<p> +“Now brother,” answered the soldier earnestly, “you +don’t understand. There are two classes, don’t you see, the +proletariat and the bourgeoisie. We—” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I know that silly talk!” broke in the student rudely. “A +bunch of ignorant peasants like you hear somebody bawling a few catch-words. +You don’t understand what they mean. You just echo them like a lot of +parrots.” The crowd laughed. “I’m a Marxian student. And I +tell you that this isn’t Socialism you are fighting for. It’s just +plain pro-German anarchy!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, I know,” answered the soldier, with sweat dripping from +his brow. “You are an educated man, that is easy to see, and I am only a +simple man. But it seems to me—” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose,” interrupted the other contemptuously, “that you +believe Lenin is a real friend of the proletariat?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I do,” answered the soldier, suffering. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, my friend, do you know that Lenin was sent through Germany in a +closed car? Do you know that Lenin took money from the Germans?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I don’t know much about that,” answered the soldier +stubbornly, “but it seems to me that what he says is what I want to hear, +and all the simple men like me. Now there are two classes, the bourgeoisie and +the proletariat—” +</p> + +<p> +“You are a fool! Why, my friend, I spent two years in Schlüsselburg for +revolutionary activity, when you were still shooting down revolutionists and +singing ‘God Save the Tsar!’ My name is Vasili Georgevitch Panyin. +Didn’t you ever hear of me?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sorry to say I never did,” answered the soldier with +humility. “But then, I am not an educated man. You are probably a great +hero.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am,” said the student with conviction. “And I am opposed +to the Bolsheviki, who are destroying our Russia, our free Revolution. Now how +do you account for that?” +</p> + +<p> +The soldier scratched his head. “I can’t account for it at +all,” he said, grimacing with the pain of his intellectual processes. +“To me it seems perfectly simple—but then, I’m not well +educated. It seems like there are only two classes, the proletariat and the +bourgeoisie—” +</p> + +<p> +“There you go again with your silly formula!” cried the student. +</p> + +<p> +“—only two classes,” went on the soldier, doggedly. +</p> + +<p> +“And whoever isn’t on one side is on the other…” +</p> + +<p> +We wandered on up the street, where the lights were few and far between, and +where people rarely passed. A threatening silence hung over the place—as +of a sort of purgatory between heaven and hell, a political No Man’s +Land. Only the barber shops were all brilliantly lighted and crowded, and a +line formed at the doors of the public bath; for it was Saturday night, when +all Russia bathes and perfumes itself. I haven’t the slightest doubt that +Soviet troops and Cossacks mingled in the places where these ceremonies were +performed. +</p> + +<p> +The nearer we came to the Imperial Park, the more deserted were the streets. A +frightened priest pointed out the headquarters of the Soviet, and hurried on. +It was in the wing of one of the Grand Ducal palaces, fronting the Park. The +windows were dark, the door locked. A soldier, lounging about with his hands in +the top of his trousers, looked us up and down with gloomy suspicion. +“The Soviet went away two days ago,” said he. “Where?” +A shrug. <i>“Nie znayu.</i> I don’t know.” +</p> + +<p> +A little further along was a large building, brightly illuminated. From within +came a sound of hammering. While we were hesitating, a soldier and a sailor +came down the street, hand in hand. I showed them my pass from Smolny. +“Are you for the Soviets?” I asked. They did not answer, but looked +at each other in a frightened way. +</p> + +<p> +“What is going on in there?” asked the sailor, pointing to the +building. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know.” +</p> + +<p> +Timidly the soldier put out his hand and opened the door a crack. Inside a +great hall hung with bunting and evergreens, rows of chairs, a stage being +built. +</p> + +<p> +A stout woman with a hammer in her hand and her mouth full of tacks came out. +“What do you want?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Is there a performance to-night?” said the sailor, nervously. +</p> + +<p> +“There will be private theatricals Sunday night,” she answered +severely. “Go away.” +</p> + +<p> +We tried to engage the soldier and sailor in conversation, but they seemed +frightened and unhappy, and drew off into the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +We strolled toward the Imperial Palaces, along the edge of the vast, dark +gardens, their fantastic pavilions and ornamental bridges looming uncertainly +in the night, and soft water splashing from the fountains. At one place, where +a ridiculous iron swan spat unceasingly from an artificial grotto, we were +suddenly aware of observation, and looked up to encounter the sullen, +suspicious gaze of half a dozen gigantic armed soldiers, who stared moodily +down from a grassy terrace. I climbed up to them. “Who are you?” I +asked. +</p> + +<p> +“We are the guard,” answered one. They all looked very depressed, +as undoubtedly they were, from weeks and weeks of all-day all-night argument +and debate. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you Kerensky’s troops, or the Soviets’?” +</p> + +<p> +There was silence for a moment, as they looked uneasily at each other. Then, +“We are neutral,” said he. +</p> + +<p> +We went on through the arch of the huge Ekaterina Palace, into the Palace +enclosure itself, asking for headquarters. A sentry outside a door in a curving +white wing of the Palace said that the commandant was inside. +</p> + +<p> +In a graceful, white, Georgian room, divided into unequal parts by a two-sided +fire-place, a group of officers stood anxiously talking. They were pale and +distracted, and evidently hadn’t slept. To one, an oldish man with a +white beard, his uniform studded with decorations, who was pointed out as the +Colonel, we showed our Bolshevik papers. +</p> + +<p> +He seemed surprised. “How did you get here without being killed?” +he asked politely. “It is very dangerous in the streets just now. +Political passion is running very high in Tsarskoye Selo. There was a battle +this morning, and there will be another to-morrow morning. Kerensky is to enter +the town at eight o’clock.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where are the Cossacks?” +</p> + +<p> +“About a mile over that way.” He waved his arm. +</p> + +<p> +“And you will defend the city against them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear no.” He smiled. “We are holding the city for +Kerensky.” Our hearts sank, for our passes stated that we were +revolutionary to the core. The Colonel cleared his throat. “About those +passes of yours,” he went on. “Your lives will be in danger if you +are captured. Therefore, if you want to see the battle, I will give you an +order for rooms in the officers’ hotel, and if you will come back here at +seven o’clock in the morning, I will give you new passes.” +</p> + +<p> +“So you are for Kerensky?” we said. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, not exactly <i>for</i> Kerensky.” The Colonel hesitated. +“You see, most of the soldiers in the garrison are Bolsheviki, and +to-day, after the battle, they all went away in the direction of Petrograd, +taking the artillery with them. You might say that none of the <i>soldiers</i> +are for Kerensky; but some of them just don’t want to fight at all. The +<i>officers</i> have almost all gone over to Kerensky’s forces, or simply +gone away. We are—ahem—in a most difficult position, as you +see….” +</p> + +<p> +We did not believe that there would be any battle…. The Colonel courteously +sent his orderly to escort us to the railroad station. He was from the South, +born of French immigrant parents in Bessarabia. “Ah,” he kept +saying, “it is not the danger or the hardships I mind, but being so long, +three years, away from my mother….” +</p> + +<p> +Looking out of the window of the train as we sped through the cold dark toward +Petrograd, I caught glimpses of clumps of soldiers gesticulating in the light +of fires, and of clusters of armoured cars halted together at cross-roads, the +chauffeurs hanging out of the turrets and shouting to each other…. +</p> + +<p> +All the troubled night over the bleakflats leaderless bands of soldiers and Red +Guards wandered, clashing and confused, and the Commissars of the Military +Revolutionary Committee hurried from one group to another, trying to organise a +defence…. +</p> + +<p> +Back in town excited throngs were moving in tides up and down the Nevsky. +Something was in the air. From the Warsaw Railway station could be heard +far-off cannonade. In the <i>yunker</i> schools there was feverish activity. +Duma members went from barracks to barracks, arguing and pleading, narrating +fearful stories of Bolshevik violence—massacre of the <i>yunkers</i> in +the Winter Palace, rape of the women soldiers, the shooting of the girl before +the Duma, the murder of Prince Tumanov…. In the Alexander Hall of the Duma +building the Committee for Salvation was in special session; Commissars came +and went, running…. All the journalists expelled from Smolny were there, in +high spirits. They did not believe our report of conditions in Tsarskoye. Why, +everybody knew that Tsarskoye was in Kerensky’s hands, and that the +Cossacks were now at Pulkovo. A committee was being elected to meet Kerensky at +the railway station in the morning…. +</p> + +<p> +One confided to me, in strictest secrecy, that the counter-revolution would +begin at midnight. He showed me two proclamations, one signed by Gotz and +Polkovnikov, ordering the <i>yunker</i> schools, soldier convalescents in the +hospitals, and the Knights of St. George to mobilise on a war footing and wait +for orders from the Committee for Salvation; the other from the Committee for +Salvation itself, which read as follows: +</p> + +<p> +To the Population of Petrograd! +</p> + +<p> +Comrades, workers, soldiers and citizens of revolutionary Petrograd! +</p> + +<p> +The Bolsheviki, while appealing for peace at the front, are inciting to civil +war in the rear. +</p> + +<p> +Do not dig their provocatory appeals! +</p> + +<p> +Do not dig trenches! +</p> + +<p> +Down with the traitorous barricades! +</p> + +<p> +Lay down your arms! +</p> + +<p> +Soldiers, return to your barracks! +</p> + +<p> +The war begun in Petrograd—is the death of the Revolution! +</p> + +<p> +In the name of liberty, land, and peace, unite around the Committee for +Salvation of Country and Revolution! +</p> + +<p> +As we left the Duma a company of Red Guards, stern-faced and desperate, came +marching down the dark, deserted street with a dozen prisoners—members of +the local branch of the Council of Cossacks, caught red-handed plotting +counter-revolution in their headquarters…. +</p> + +<p> +A soldier, accompanied by a small boy with a pail of paste, was sticking up +great flaring notices: +</p> + +<p> +By virtue of the present, the city of Petrograd and its suburbs are declared in +a state of siege. All assemblies or meetings in the streets, and generally in +the open air, are forbidden until further orders. +</p> + +<p> +N. PODVOISKY, President of the Military +</p> + +<p> +Revolutionary Committee. +</p> + +<p> +As we went home the air was full of confused sound—automobile horns, +shouts, distant shots. The city stirred uneasily, wakeful. +</p> + +<p> +In the small hours of the morning a company of <i>yunkers,</i> disguised as +soldiers of the Semionovsky Regiment, presented themselves at the Telephone +Exchange just before the hour of changing guard. They had the Bolshevik +password, and took charge without arousing suspicion. A few minutes later +Antonov appeared, making a round of inspection. Him they captured and locked in +a small room. When the relief came it was met by a blast of rifle-fire, several +being killed. +</p> + +<p> +Counter-revolution had begun… +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>Chapter VIII<br /> +Counter-Revolution</h2> + +<p> +Next morning, Sunday the 11th, the Cossacks entered Tsarskoye Selo, Kerensky +(See App. VIII, Sect. 1) himself riding a white horse and all the church-bells +clamouring. From the top of a little hill outside the town could be seen the +golden spires and many-coloured cupolas, the sprawling grey immensity of the +capital spread along the dreary plain, and beyond, the steely Gulf of Finland. +</p> + +<p> +There was no battle. But Kerensky made a fatal blunder. At seven in the morning +he sent word to the Second Tsarskoye Selo Rifles to lay down their arms. The +soldiers replied that they would remain neutral, but would not disarm. Kerensky +gave them ten minutes in which to obey. This angered the soldiers; for eight +months they had been governing themselves by committee, and this smacked of the +old régime…. A few minutes later Cossack artillery opened fire on the barracks, +killing eight men. From that moment there were no more “neutral” +soldiers in Tsarskoye…. +</p> + +<p> +Petrograd woke to bursts of rifle-fire, and the tramping thunder of men +marching. Under the high dark sky a cold wind smelt of snow. At dawn the +Military Hotel and the Telegraph Agency had been taken by large forces of +<i>yunkers,</i> and bloodily recaptured. The Telephone Station was besieged by +sailors, who lay behind barricades of barrels, boxes and tin sheets in the +middle of the Morskaya, or sheltered themselves at the corner of the +Gorokhovaya and of St. Isaac’s Square, shooting at anything that moved. +Occasionally an automobile passed in and out, flying the Red Cross flag. The +sailors let it pass…. +</p> + +<p> +Albert Rhys Williams was in the Telephone Exchange. He went out with the Red +Cross automobile, which was ostensibly full of wounded. After circulating about +the city, the car went by devious ways to the Mikhailovsky <i>yunker</i> +school, headquarters of the counter-revolution. A French officer, in the +court-yard, seemed to be in command…. By this means ammunition and supplies +were conveyed to the Telephone Exchange. Scores of these pretended ambulances +acted as couriers and ammunition trains for the <i>yunkers.</i> +</p> + +<p> +Five or six armoured cars, belonging to the disbanded British Armoured Car +Division, were in their hands. As Louise Bryant was going along St. +Isaac’s Square one came rolling up from the Admiralty, on its way to the +Telephone Exchange. At the corner of the Gogolia, right in front of her, the +engine stalled. Some sailors ambushed behind wood-piles began shooting. The +machine-gun in the turret of the thing slewed around and spat a hail of bullets +indiscriminately into the wood-piles and the crowd. In the archway where Miss +Bryant stood seven people were shot dead, among them two little boys. Suddenly, +with a shout, the sailors leaped up and rushed into the flaming open; closing +around the monster, they thrust their bayonets into the loop-holes, again and +again, yelling… The chauffeur pretended to be wounded, and they let him go +free—to run to the Duma and swell the tale of Bolshevik atrocities….Among +the dead was a British Officer…. +</p> + +<p> +Later the newspapers told of another French officer, captured in a +<i>yunker</i> armoured car and sent to Peter-Paul. The French Embassy promptly +denied this, but one of the City Councillors told me that he himself had +procured the officer’s release from prison…. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever the official attitude of the Allied Embassies, individual French and +British officers were active these days, even to the extent of giving advice at +executive sessions of the Committee for Salvation. +</p> + +<p> +All day long in every quarter of the city there were skirmishes between +<i>yunkers</i> and Red Guards, battles between armoured cars…. Volleys, single +shots and the shrill chatter of machine-guns could be heard, far and near. The +iron shutters of the shops were drawn, but business still went on. Even the +moving-picture shows, all outside lights dark, played to crowded houses. The +street-cars ran. The telephones were all working; when you called Central, +shooting could be plainly heard over the wire…. Smolny was cut off, but the +Duma and the Committee for Salvation were in constant communication with all +the <i>yunker</i> schools and with Kerensky at Tsarskoye. +</p> + +<p> +At seven in the morning the Vladimir <i>yunker</i> school was visited by a +patrol of soldiers, sailors and Red Guards, who gave the <i>yunkers</i> twenty +minutes to lay down their arms. The ultimatum was rejected. An hour later the +<i>yunkers</i> got ready to march, but were driven back by a violent fusillade +from the corner of the Grebetskaya and the Bolshoy Prospekt. Soviet troops +surrounded the building and opened fire, two armoured cars cruising back and +forth with machine guns raking it. The <i>yunkers</i> telephoned for help. The +Cossacks replied that they dare not come, because a large body of sailors with +two cannon commanded their barracks. The Pavlovsk school was surrounded. Most +of the Mikhailov <i>yunkers</i> were fighting in the streets…. +</p> + +<p> +At half-past eleven three field-pieces arrived. Another demand to surrender was +met by the <i>yunkers</i> shooting down two of the Soviet delegates under the +white flag. Now began a real bombardment. Great holes were torn in the walls of +the school. The <i>yunkers</i> defended themselves desperately; shouting waves +of Red Guards, assaulting, crumpled under the withering blast…. Kerensky +telephoned from Tsarskoye to refuse all parley with the Military Revolutionary +Committee. +</p> + +<p> +Frenzied by defeat and their heaps of dead, the Soviet troops opened a tornado +of steel and flame against the battered building. Their own officers could not +stop the terrible bombardment. A Commissar from Smolny named Kirilov tried to +halt it; he was threatened with lynching. The Red Guards’ blood was up. +</p> + +<p> +At half-past two the <i>yunkers</i> hoisted a white flag; they would surrender +if they were guaranteed protection. This was promised. With a rush and a shout +thousands of soldiers and Red Guards poured through windows, doors and holes in +the wall. Before it could be stopped five <i>yunkers</i> were beaten and +stabbed to death. The rest, about two hundred, were taken to Peter-Paul under +escort, in small groups so as to avoid notice. On the way a mob set upon one +party, killing eight more <i>yunkers</i>…. More than a hundred Red Guards and +soldiers had fallen…. +</p> + +<p> +Two hours later the Duma got a telephone message that the victors were marching +toward the <i>Injinierny Zamok</i>—the Engineers’ school. A dozen +members immediately set out to distribute among them armfuls of the latest +proclamation of the Committee for Salvation. Several did not come back…. All +the other schools surrendered without resistance, and the <i>yunkers</i> were +sent unharmed to Peter-Paul and Cronstadt…. +</p> + +<p> +The Telephone Exchange held out until afternoon, when a Bolshevik armoured car +appeared, and the sailors stormed the place. Shrieking, the frightened +telephone girls ran to and fro; the <i>yunkers</i> tore from their uniforms all +distinguishing marks, and one offered Williams <i>anything</i> for the loan of +his overcoat, as a disguise…. “They will massacre us! They will massacre +us!” they cried, for many of them had given their word at the Winter +Palace not to take up arms against the People. Williams offered to mediate if +Antonov were released. This was immediately done; Antonov and Williams made +speeches to the victorious sailors, inflamed by their many dead—and once +more the <i>yunkers</i> went free…. All but a few, who in their panic tried to +flee over the roofs, or to hide in the attic, and were found and hurled into +the street. +</p> + +<p> +Tired, bloody, triumphant, the sailors and workers swarmed into the switchboard +room, and finding so many pretty girls, fell back in an embarrassed way and +fumbled with awkward feet. Not a girl was injured, not one insulted. +Frightened, they huddled in the corners, and then, finding themselves safe, +gave vent to their spite. “Ugh! The dirty, ignorant people! The +fools!”… The sailors and Red Guards were embarrassed. “Brutes! +Pigs!” shrilled the girls, indignantly putting on their coats and hats. +Romantic had been their experience passing up cartridges and dressing the +wounds of their dashing young defenders, the <i>yunkers,</i> many of them +members of noble families, fighting to restore their beloved Tsar! These were +just common workmen, peasants, “Dark People.”… +</p> + +<p> +The Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee, little Vishniak, tried +to persuade the girls to remain. He was effusively polite. “You have been +badly treated,” he said. “The telephone system is controlled by the +Municipal Duma. You are paid sixty rubles a month, and have to work ten hours +and more…. From now on all that will be changed. The Government intends to put +the telephones under control of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Your +wages will be immediately raised to one hundred and fifty rubles, and your +working-hours reduced. As members of the working-class you should be +happy—” +</p> + +<p> +Members of the <i>working-class</i> indeed! Did he mean to infer that there was +anything in common between these—these animals—and <i>us?</i> +Remain? Not if they offered a thousand rubles!… Haughty and spiteful the girls +left the place…. +</p> + +<p> +The employees of the building, the line-men and labourers—they stayed. +But the switch-boards must be operated—the telephone was vital…. Only +half a dozen trained operators were available. Volunteers were called for; a +hundred responded, sailors, soldiers, workers. The six girls scurried backward +and forward, instructing, helping, scolding…. So, crippled, halting, but +<i>going,</i> the wires slowly began to hum. The first thing was to connect +Smolny with the barracks and the factories; the second, to cut off the Duma and +the <i>yunker</i> schools…. Late in the afternoon word of it spread through the +city, and hundreds of bourgeois called up to scream, “Fools! Devils! How +long do you think you will last? Wait till the Cossacks come!” +</p> + +<p> +Dusk was already falling. On the almost deserted Nevsky, swept by a bitter +wind, a crowd had gathered before the Kazan Cathedral, continuing the endless +debate; a few workmen, some soldiers and the rest shop-keepers, clerks and the +like. +</p> + +<p> +“But Lenin won’t get Germany to make peace!” cried one. +</p> + +<p> +A violent young soldier replied. “And whose fault is it? Your damn +Kerensky, dirty bourgeois! To hell with Kerensky! We don’t want him! We +want Lenin….” +</p> + +<p> +Outside the Duma an officer with a white arm-band was tearing down posters from +the wall, swearing loudly. One read: +</p> + +<p> +To the Population of Petrograd! +</p> + +<p> +At this dangerous hour, when the Municipal Duma ought to use every means to +calm the population, to assure it bread and other necessities, the Right +Socialist Revolutionaries and the Cadets, forgetting their duty, have turned +the Duma into a counter-revolutionary meeting, trying to raise part of the +population against the rest, so as to facilitate the victory of +Kornilov-Kerensky. Instead of doing their duty, the Right Socialist +Revolutionaries and the Cadets have transformed the Duma into an arena of +political attack upon the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and +Peasants’ Deputies, against the revolutionary Government of peace, bread +and liberty. +</p> + +<p> +Citizens of Petrograd, we, the Bolshevik Municipal Councillors elected by +you—we want you to know that the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and the +Cadets are engaged in counter-revolutionary action, have forgotten their duty, +and are leading the population to famine, to civil war. We, elected by 183,000 +votes, consider it our duty to bring to the attention of our constituents what +is going on in the Duma, and declare that we disclaim all responsibility for +the terrible but inevitable consequences…. +</p> + +<p> +Far away still sounded occasional shots, but the city lay quiet, cold, as if +exhausted by the violent spasms which had torn it. +</p> + +<p> +In the Nicolai Hall the Duma session was coming to an end. Even the truculent +Duma seemed a little stunned. One after another the Commissars +reported—capture of the Telephone Exchange, street-fighting, the taking +of the Vladimir school…. “The Duma,” said Trupp, “is on the +side of the democracy in its struggle against arbitrary violence; but in any +case, whichever side wins, the Duma will always be against lynchings and +torture….” +</p> + +<p> +Konovski, Cadet, a tall old man with a cruel face: “When the troops of +the legal Government arrive in Petrograd, they will shoot down these +insurgents, and that will not be lynching!” Protests all over the hall, +even from his own party. +</p> + +<p> +Here there was doubt and depression. The counter-revolution was being put down. +The Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary party had voted lack of +confidence in its officers; the left wing was in control; Avksentiev had +resigned. A courier reported that the Committee of Welcome sent to meet +Kerensky at the railway station had been arrested. In the streets could be +heard the dull rumble of distant cannonading, south and southwest. Still +Kerensky did not come… +</p> + +<p> +Only three newspapers were out—<i>Pravda, Dielo Naroda</i> and <i>Novaya +Zhizn.</i> All of them devoted much space to the new “coalition” +Government. The Socialist Revolutionary paper demanded a Cabinet without either +Cadets or Bolsheviki. Gorky was hopeful; Smolny had made concessions. A purely +Socialist Government was taking shape—all elements except the +bourgeoisie. As for <i>Pravda,</i> it sneered: +</p> + +<p> +We ridicule these coalitions with political parties whose most prominent +members are petty journalists of doubtful reputation; our +“coalition” is that of the proletariat and the revolutionary Army +with the poor peasants… +</p> + +<p> +On the walls a vainglorious announcement of the <i>Vikzhel,</i> threatening to +strike if both sides did not compromise: +</p> + +<p> +The conquerors of these riots, the saviours of the wreck of our country, these +will be neither the Bolsheviki, nor the Committee for Salvation, nor the troops +of Kerensky—but we, the Union of Railwaymen… +</p> + +<p> +Red Guards are incapable of handling a complicated business like the railways; +as for the Provisional Government, it has shown itself incapable of holding the +power… +</p> + +<p> +We refuse to lend our services to any party which does not act by authority of +… a Government based on the confidence of all the democracy…. +</p> + +<p> +Smolny thrilled with the boundless vitality of inexhaustible humanity in +action. +</p> + +<p> +In Trade Union headquarters Lozovsky introduced me to a delegate of the Railway +Workers of the Nicolai line, who said that the men were holding huge +mass-meetings, condemning the action of their leaders. +</p> + +<p> +“All power to the Soviets!” he cried, pounding on the table. +“The <i>oborontsi</i> in the Central Committee are playing +Kornilov’s game. They tried to send a mission to the Stavka, but we +arrested them at Minsk…. Our branch has demanded an All-Russian Convention, and +they refuse to call it….” +</p> + +<p> +The same situation as in the Soviets, the Army Committees. One after another +the various democratic organisations, all over Russia, were cracking and +changing. The Cooperatives were torn by internal struggles; the meetings of the +Peasants’ Executive broke up in stormy wrangling; even among the Cossacks +there was trouble…. +</p> + +<p> +On the top floor the Military Revolutionary Committee was in full blast, +striking and slacking not. Men went in, fresh and vigorous; night and day and +night and day they threw themselves into the terrible machine; and came out +limp, blind with fatigue, hoarse and filthy, to fall on the floor and sleep…. +The Committee for Salvation had been outlawed. Great piles of new proclamations +(See App. VIII, Sect. 2) littered the floor: +</p> + +<p> +… The conspirators, who have no support among the garrison or the +working-class, above all counted on the suddenness of their attack. Their plan +was discovered in time by Sub-Lieutenant Blagonravov, thanks to the +revolutionary vigilance of a soldier of the Red Guard, whose name shall be made +public. At the centre of the plot was the Committee for Salvation. Colonel +Polkovnikov was in command of their forces, and the orders were signed by Gotz, +former member of the Provisional Government, allowed at liberty on his word of +honour…. +</p> + +<p> +Bringing these facts to the attention of the Petrograd population, the Military +Revolutionary Committee orders the arrest of all concerned in the conspiracy, +who shall be tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal…. +</p> + +<p> +From Moscow, word that the <i>yunkers</i> and Cossacks had surrounded the +Kremlin and ordered the Soviet troops to lay down their arms. The Soviet forces +complied, and as they were leaving the Kremlin, were set upon and shot down. +Small forces of Bolsheviki had been driven from the Telephone and Telegraph +offices; the <i>yunkers</i> now held the centre of the city. … But all around +them the Soviet troops were mustering. Street-fighting was slowly gathering +way; all attempts at compromise had failed…. On the side of the Soviet, ten +thousand garrison soldiers and a few Red Guards; on the side of the Government, +six thousand <i>yunkers,</i> twenty-five hundred Cossacks and two thousand +White Guards. +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd Soviet was meeting, and next door the new <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> +acting on the decrees and orders (See App. VIII, Sect. 3) which came down in a +steady stream from the Council of People’s Commissars in session +upstairs; on the Order in Which Laws Are to be Ratified and Published, +Establishing an Eight hour Days for Workers, and Lunatcharsky’s +“Basis for a System of Popular Education.” Only a few hundred +people were present at the two meetings, most of them armed. Smolny was almost +deserted, except for the guards, who were busy at the hall windows, setting up +machine-guns to command the flanks of the building. +</p> + +<p> +In the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> a delegate of the <i>Vikzhel</i> was speaking: +“We refuse to transport the troops of either party…. We have sent a +committee to Kerensky to say that if he continues to march on Petrograd we will +break his lines of communication….” +</p> + +<p> +He made the usual plea for a conference of all the Socialist parties to form a +new Government…. +</p> + +<p> +Kameniev answered discreetly. The Bolsheviki would be very glad to attend the +conference. The centre of gravity, however, lay not in composition of such a +Government, but in its acceptance of the programme of the Congress of Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +… The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> had deliberated on the declaration made by the Left +Socialist Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats Internationalists, and had +accepted the proposition of proportional representation at the conference, even +including delegates from the Army Committees and the Peasants’ Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +In the great hall, Trotzky recounted the events of the day. +</p> + +<p> +“We offered the Vladimir <i>yunkers</i> a chance to surrender,” he +said. “We wanted to settle matters without bloodshed. But now that blood +has been spilled there is only one way—pitiless struggle. It would be +childish to think we can win by any other means…. The moment is decisive. +Everybody must cooperate with the Military Revolutionary Committee, report +where there are stores of barbed wire, benzine, guns…. We’ve won the +power; now we must keep it!” +</p> + +<p> +The Menshevik Yoffe tried to read his party’s declaration, but Trotzky +refused to allow “a debate about principle.” +</p> + +<p> +“Our debates are now in the streets,” he cried. “The decisive +step has been taken. We all, and I in particular, take the responsibility for +what is happening….” +</p> + +<p> +Soldiers from the front, from Gatchina, told their stories. One from the Death +Battalion, Four Hundred Eighty-first Artillery: “When the trenches hear +of this, they will cry, ‘This is <i>our</i> Government!’” A +<i>yunker</i> from Peterhof said that he and two others had refused to march +against the Soviets; and when his comrades had returned from the defence of the +Winter Palace they appointed him their Commissar, to go to Smolny and offer +their services to the <i>real</i> Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +Then Trotzky again, fiery, indefatigable, giving orders, answering questions. +</p> + +<p> +“The petty bourgeoisie, in order to defeat the workers, soldiers and +peasants, would combine with the devil himself!” he said once. Many cases +of drunkenness had been remarked the last two days. “No drinking, +comrades! No one must be on the streets after eight in the evening, except the +regular guards. All places suspected of having stores of liquor should be +searched, and the liquor destroyed. (See App. VIII, Sect. 4) No mercy to the +sellers of liquor….” +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee sent for the delegation from the Viborg +section; then for the members from Putilov. They clumped out hurriedly. +</p> + +<p> +“For each revolutionist killed,” said Trotzky, “we shall kill +five counter-revolutionists!” +</p> + +<p> +Down-town again. The Duma brilliantly illuminated and great crowds pouring in. +In the lower hall wailing and cries of grief; the throng surged back and forth +before the bulletin board, where was posted a list of <i>yunkers</i> killed in +the day’s fighting—or supposed to be killed, for most of the dead +afterward turned up safe and sound…. Up in the Alexander Hall the Committee for +Salvation held forth. The gold and red epaulettes of officers were conspicuous, +the familiar faces of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary intellectuals, +the hard eyes and bulky magnificence of bankers and diplomats, officials of the +old régime, and well-dressed women…. +</p> + +<p> +The telephone girls were testifying. Girl after girl came to the +tribune—over-dressed, fashion-aping little girls, with pinched faces and +leaky shoes. Girl after girl, flushing with pleasure at the applause of the +“nice” people of Petrograd, of the officers, the rich, the great +names of politics—girl after girl, to narrate her sufferings at the hands +of the proletariat, and proclaim her loyalty to all that was old, established +and powerful…. +</p> + +<p> +The Duma was again in session in the Nicolai Hall. The Mayor said hopefully +that the Petrograd regiments were ashamed of their actions; propaganda was +making headway. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 205: Proclamation for “wine pogroms”] +</p> + +<p> +Revolutionary law and order. A proclamation of the Finland Regiment, in +December, 1917, announcing desperate remedies for “wine pogroms.” +For translation see Appendix 5. +</p> + +<p> +… Emissaries came and went, reporting horrible deeds by the Bolsheviki, +interceding to save the <i>yunkers,</i> busily investigating…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Bolsheviki,” said Trupp, “will be conquered by moral +force, and not by bayonets…..” +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile all was not well on the revolutionary front. The enemy had brought up +armoured trains, mounted with cannon. The Soviet forces, mostly raw Red Guards, +were without officers and without a definite plan. Only five thousand regular +soldiers had joined them; the rest of the garrison was either busy suppressing +the <i>yunker</i> revolt, guarding the city, or undecided what to do. At ten in +the evening Lenin addressed a meeting of delegates from the city regiments, who +voted overwhelmingly to fight. A Committee of five soldiers was elected to +serve as General Staff, and in the small hours of the morning the regiments +left their barracks in full battle array…. Going home I saw them pass, swinging +along with the regular tread of veterans, bayonets in perfect alignment, +through the deserted streets of the conquered city…. +</p> + +<p> +At the same time, in the headquarters of the <i>Vikzhel</i> down on the +Sadovaya, the conference of all the Socialist parties to form a new Government +was under way. Abramovitch, for the centre Mensheviki, said that there should +be neither conquerors nor conquered—that bygones should be bygones. …In +this were agreed all the left wing parties. Dan, speaking in the name of the +right Mensheviki, proposed to the Bolsheviki the following conditions for a +truce: The Red Guard to be disarmed, and the Petrograd garrison to be placed at +the orders of the Duma; the troops of Kerensky not to fire a single shot or +arrest a single man; a Ministry of all the Socialist parties <i>except the +Bolsheviki.</i> For Smolny Riazanov and Kameniev declared that a coalition +ministry of all parties was acceptable, but protested at Dan’s proposals. +The Socialist Revolutionaries were divided; but the Executive Committee of the +Peasants’s Soviets and the Populist Socialists flatly refused to admit +the Bolsheviki…. After bitter quarrelling a commission was elected to draw up a +workable plan…. +</p> + +<p> +All that night the commission wrangled, and all the next day, and the next +night. Once before, on the 9th of November, there had been a similar effort at +conciliation, led by Martov and Gorky; but at the approach of Kerensky and the +activity of the Committee for Salvation, the right wing of the Mensheviki, +Socialist Revolutionaries and Populist Socialists suddenly withdrew. Now they +were awed by the crushing of the <i>yunker</i> rebellion… +</p> + +<p> +Monday the 12th was a day of suspense. The eyes of all Russia were fixed on the +grey plain beyond the gates of Petrograd, where all the available strength of +the old order faced the unorganised power of the new, the unknown. In Moscow a +truce had been declared; both sides parleyed, awaiting the result in the +capital. Now the delegates to the Congress of Soviets, hurrying on speeding +trains to the farthest reaches of Asia, were coming to their homes, carrying +the fiery cross. In wide-spreading ripples news of the miracle spread over the +face of the land, and in its wake towns, cities and far villages stirred and +broke, Soviets and Military Revolutionary Committees against Dumas, Zemstvos +and Government Commissars—Red Guards against White—street fighting +and passionate speech…. The result waited on the word from Petrograd…. +</p> + +<p> +Smolny was almost empty, but the Duma was thronged and noisy. The old Mayor, in +his dignified way, was protesting against the Appeal of the Bolshevik +Councillors. +</p> + +<p> +“The Duma is not a centre of counter-revolution,” he said, warmly. +“The Duma takes no part in the present struggle between the parties. But +at a time when there is no legal power in the land, the only centre of order is +the Municipal Self-Government. The peaceful population recognises this fact; +the foreign Embassies recognise only such documents as are signed by the Mayor +of the town. The mind of a European does not admit of any other situation, as +the Municipal self-government is the only organ which is capable of protecting +the interests of the citizens. The City is bound to show hospitality, to all +organisations which desire to profit by such hospitality, and therefore the +Duma cannot prevent the distribution of any newspapers whatever within the Duma +building. The sphere of our work is increasing, and we must be given full +liberty of action, and our rights must be respected by both parties…. +</p> + +<p> +“We are perfectly neutral. When the Telephone Exchange was occupied by +the <i>yunkers</i> Colonel Polkovnikov ordered the telephones to Smolny +disconnected, but I protested, and the telephones were kept going….” +</p> + +<p> +At this there was ironic laughter from the Bolshevik benches, and imprecations +from the right. +</p> + +<p> +“And yet,” went on Schreider, “they look upon us as +counter-revolutionaries and report us to the population. They deprive us of our +means of transport by taking away our last motor-cars. It will not be our fault +if there is famine in the town. Protests are of no use….” +</p> + +<p> +Kobozev, Bolshevik member of the Town Board, was doubtful whether the Military +Revolutionary Committee had requisitioned the Municipal automobiles. Even +granting the fact, it was probably done by some unauthorised individual, in the +emergency. +</p> + +<p> +“The Mayor,” he continued, “tells us that we must not make +political meetings out of the Duma. But every Menshevik and Socialist +Revolutionary here talks nothing but party propaganda, and at the door they +distribute their illegal newspapers, <i>Iskri</i> (Sparks), <i>Soldatski +Golos</i> and <i>Rabotchaya Gazeta,</i> inciting to insurrection. What if we +Bolsheviki should also begin to distribute our papers here? But this shall not +be, for we respect the Duma. We have not attacked the Municipal +Self-Government, and we shall not do so. But you have addressed an Appeal to +the population, and we are entitled also to do so….” +</p> + +<p> +Followed him Shingariov, Cadet, who said that there could be no common language +with those who were liable to be brought before the Attorney General for +indictment, and who must be tried on the charge of treason…. He proposed again +that all Bolshevik members should be expelled from the Duma. This was tabled, +however, for there were no personal charges against the members, and they were +active in the Municipal administration. +</p> + +<p> +Then two Mensheviki Internationalists, declaring that the Appeal of the +Bolshevik Councillors was a direct incitement to massacre. “If everything +that is against the Bolsheviki is counter-revolutionary,” said +Pinkevitch, “then I do not know the difference between revolution and +anarchy…. The Bolsheviki are depending upon the passions of the unbridled +masses; we have nothing but moral force. We will protest against massacres and +violence from both sides, as our task is to find a peaceful issue.” +</p> + +<p> +“The notice posted in the streets under the heading ‘To the +Pillory,’ which calls upon the people to destroy the Mensheviki and +Socialist Revolutionaries,” said Nazariev, “is a crime which you, +Bolsheviki, will not be able to wash away. Yesterday’s horrors are but a +preface to what you are preparing by such a proclamation…. I have always tried +to reconcile you with the other parties, but at present I feel for you nothing +but contempt!” +</p> + +<p> +The Bolshevik Councillors were on their feet, shouting angrily, assailed by +hoarse, hateful voices and waving arms…. +</p> + +<p> +Outside the hall I ran into the City Engineer, the Menshevik Gomberg and three +or four reporters. They were all in high spirits. +</p> + +<p> +“See!” they said. “The cowards are afraid of us. They +don’t dare arrest the Duma! Their Military Revolutionary Committee +doesn’t dare to send a Commissar into this building. Why, on the corner +of the Sadovaya to-day, I saw a Red Guard try to stop a boy selling +<i>Soldatski Golos</i>…. The boy just laughed at him, and a crowd of people +wanted to lynch the bandit. It’s only a few hours more, now. Even if +Kerensky wouldn’t come they haven’t the men to run a Government. +Absurd! I understand they’re even fighting among themselves at +Smolny!” +</p> + +<p> +A Socialist Revolutionary friend of mine drew me aside. “I know where the +Committee for Salvation is hiding,” he said. “Do you want to go and +talk with them?” +</p> + +<p> +By this time it was dusk. The city had again settled down to +normal—shop-shutters up, lights shining, and on the streets great crowds +of people slowly moving up and down and arguing…. +</p> + +<p> +At Number 86 Nevsky we went through a passage into a courtyard, surrounded by +tall apartment buildings. At the door of apartment 229 my friend knocked in a +peculiar way. There was a sound of scuffling; an inside door slammed; then the +front door opened a crack and a woman’s face appeared. After a +minute’s observation she led us in—a placid-looking, middle-aged +lady who at once cried, “Kyril, it’s all right!” In the +dining-room, where a samovar steamed on the table and there were plates full of +bread and raw fish, a man in uniform emerged from behind the window-curtains, +and another, dressed like a workman, from a closet. They were delighted to meet +an American reporter. With a certain amount of gusto both said that they would +certainly be shot if the Bolsheviki caught them. They would not give me their +names, but both were Socialist Revolutionaries…. +</p> + +<p> +“Why,” I asked, “do you publish such lies in your +newspapers?” +</p> + +<p> +Without taking offence the officer replied, “Yes, I know; but what can we +do?” He shrugged. “You must admit that it is necessary for us to +create a certain frame of mind in the people….” +</p> + +<p> +The other man interrupted. “This is merely an adventure on the part of +the Bolsheviki. They have no intellectuals…. The Ministries won’t work…. +Russia is not a city, but a whole country…. Realising that they can only last a +few days, we have decided to come to the aid of the strongest force opposed to +them—Kerensky—and help to restore order.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is all very well,” I said. “But why do you combine with +the Cadets?” +</p> + +<p> +The pseudo-workman smiled frankly. “To tell you the truth, at this moment +the masses of the people are following the Bolsheviki. We have no +following—now. We can’t mobilise a handful of soldiers. There are +no arms available…. The Bolsheviki are right to a certain extent; there are at +this moment in Russia only two parties with any force—the Bolsheviki and +the reactionaries, who are all hiding under the coat-tails of the Cadets. The +Cadets think they are using us; but it is really we who are using the Cadets. +When we smash the Bolsheviki we shall turn against the Cadets….” +</p> + +<p> +“Will the Bolsheviki be admitted into the new Government?” +</p> + +<p> +He scratched his head. “That’s a problem,” he admitted. +“Of course if they are not admitted, they’ll probably do this all +over again. At any rate, they will have a chance to hold the balance of power +in the Constituent—that is, if there <i>is</i> a Constituent.” +</p> + +<p> +“And then, too,” said the officer, “that brings up the +question of admitting the Cadets into the new Government—and for the same +reasons. You know the Cadets do not really want the Constituent +Assembly—not if the Bolsheviki can be destroyed now.” He shook his +head. “It is not easy for us Russians, politics. You Americans are born +politicians; you have had politics all your lives. But for us—well, it +has only been a year, you know!” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you think of Kerensky?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Kerensky is guilty of the sins of the Provisional Government,” +answered the other man. “Kerensky himself forced us to accept coalition +with the bourgeoisie. If he had resigned, as he threatened, it would have meant +a new Cabinet crisis only sixteen weeks before the Constituent Assembly, and +that we wanted to avoid.” +</p> + +<p> +“But didn’t it amount to that anyway?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, but how were we to know? They tricked us—the Kerenskys and +Avksentievs. Gotz is a little more radical. I stand with Tchernov, who is a +real revolutionist…. Why, only to-day Lenin sent word that he would not object +to Tchernov entering the Government. +</p> + +<p> +“We wanted to get rid of the Kerensky Government too, but we thought it +better to wait for the Constituent…. At the beginning of this affair I was with +the Bolsheviki, but the Central Committee of my party voted unanimously against +it—and what could I do? It was a matter of party discipline…. +</p> + +<p> +“In a week the Bolshevik Government will go to pieces; if the Socialist +Revolutionaries could only stand aside and wait, the Government would fall into +their hands. But if we wait a week the country will be so disorganised that the +German imperialists will be victorious. That is why we began our revolt with +only two regiments of soldiers promising to support us—and they turned +against us…. That left only the <i>yunkers</i>….” +</p> + +<p> +“How about the Cossacks?” +</p> + +<p> +The officer sighed. “They did not move. At first they said they would +come out if they had infantry support. They said moreover that they had their +men with Kerensky, and that they were doing their part…. Then, too, they said +that the Cossacks were always accused of being the hereditary enemies of +democracy…. And finally, ‘The Bolsheviki promise that they will not take +away our land. There is no danger to us. We remain neutral.’” +</p> + +<p> +During this talk people were constantly entering and leaving—most of them +officers, their shoulder-straps torn off. We could see them in the hall, and +hear their low, vehement voices. Occasionally, through the half-drawn +portières, we caught a glimpse of a door opening into a bath-room, where a +heavily-built officer in a colonel’s uniform sat on the toilet, writing +something on a pad held in his lap. I recognised Colonel Polkovnikov, former +commandant of Petrograd, for whose arrest the Military Revolutionary Committee +would have paid a fortune. +</p> + +<p> +“Our programme?” said the officer. “This is it. Land to be +turned over to the Land Committees. Workmen to have full representation in the +control of industry. An energetic peace programme, but not an ultimatum to the +world such as the Bolsheviki issued. The Bolsheviki cannot keep their promises +to the masses, even in the country itself. We won’t let them…. They stole +our land programme in order to get the support of the peasants. That is +dishonest. If they had waited for the Constituent Assembly—” +</p> + +<p> +“It doesn’t matter about the Constituent Assembly!” broke in +the officer. “If the Bolsheviki want to establish a Socialist state here, +we cannot work with them in any event! Kerensky made the great mistake. He let +the Bolsheviki know what he was going to do by announcing in the Council of the +Republic that he had ordered their arrest…. +</p> + +<p> +“But what,” I said, “do you intend to do now?” +</p> + +<p> +The two men looked at one another. “You will see in a few days. If there +are enough troops from the front on our side, we shall not compromise with the +Bolsheviki. If not, perhaps we shall be forced to….” +</p> + +<p> +Out again on the Nevsky we swung on the step of a streetcar bulging with +people, its platforms bent down from the weight and scraping along the ground, +which crawled with agonising slowness the long miles to Smolny. +</p> + +<p> +Meshkovsky, a neat, frail little man, was coming down the hall, looking +worried. The strikes in the Ministries, he told us, were having their effect. +For instance, the Council of People’s Commissars had promised to publish +the Secret Treaties; but Neratov, the functionary in charge, had disappeared, +taking the documents with him. They were supposed to be hidden in the British +Embassy…. +</p> + +<p> +Worst of all, however, was the strike in the banks. “Without +money,” said Menzhinsky, “we are helpless. The wages of the +railroad men, of the postal and telegraph employees, must be paid…. The banks +are closed; and the key to the situation, the State Bank, is also shut. All the +bank-clerks in Russia have been bribed to stop work…. +</p> + +<p> +“But Lenin has issued an order to dynamite the State Bank vaults, and +there is a Decree just out, ordering the private banks to open to-morrow, or we +will open them ourselves!” +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd Soviet was in full swing, thronged with armed men, Trotzky +reporting: +</p> + +<p> +“The Cossacks are falling back from Krasnoye Selo.” (Sharp, +exultant cheering.) “But the battle is only beginning. At Pulkovo heavy +fighting is going on. All available forces must be hurried there…. +</p> + +<p> +“From Moscow, bad news. The Kremlin is in the hands of the +<i>yunkers,</i> and the workers have only a few arms. The result depends upon +Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +“At the front, the decrees on Peace and Land are provoking great +enthusiasm. Kerensky is flooding the trenches with tales of Petrograd burning +and bloody, of women and children massacred by the Bolsheviki. But no one +believes him…. +</p> + +<p> +“The cruisers <i>Oleg, Avrora</i> and <i>Respublica</i> are anchored in +the Neva, their guns trained on the approaches to the city….” +</p> + +<p> +“Why aren’t you out there with the Red Guards?” shouted a +rough voice. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m going now!” answered Trotzky, and left the platform. His +face a little paler than usual, he passed down the side of the room, surrounded +by eager friends, and hurried out to the waiting automobile. +</p> + +<p> +Kameniev now spoke, describing the proceedings of the reconciliation +conference. The armistice conditions proposed by the Mensheviki, he said, had +been contemptuously rejected. Even the branches of the Railwaymen’s Union +had voted against such a proposition…. +</p> + +<p> +“Now that we’ve won the power and are sweeping all Russia,” +he declared, “all they ask of us are three little things: 1. To surrender +the power. 2. To make the soldiers continue the war. 3. To make the peasants +forget about the land….” +</p> + +<p> +Lenin appeared for a moment, to answer the accusations of the Socialist +Revolutionaries: +</p> + +<p> +“They charge us with stealing their land programme…. If that is so, we +bow to them. It is good enough for us….” +</p> + +<p> +So the meeting roared on, leader after leader explaining, exhorting, arguing, +soldier after soldier, workman after workman, standing up to speak his mind and +his heart…. The audience flowed, changing and renewed continually. From time to +time men came in, yelling for the members of such and such a detachment, to go +to the front; others, relieved, wounded, or coming to Smolny for arms and +equipment, poured in…. +</p> + +<p> +It was almost three o’clock in the morning when, as we left the hall, +Holtzman, of the Military Revolutionary Committee, came running down the hall +with a transfigured face. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all right!” he shouted, grabbing my hands. +“Telegram from the front. Kerensky is smashed! Look at this!” +</p> + +<p> +He held out a sheet of paper, scribbled hurriedly in pencil, and then, seeing +we couldn’t read it, he declaimed aloud: +</p> + +<p> +Pulkovo. Staff. 2.10 A.M. +</p> + +<p> +The night of October 30th to 31st will go down in history. The attempt of +Kerensky to move counter-revolutionary troops against the capital of the +Revolution has been decisively repulsed. Kerensky is retreating, we are +advancing. The soldiers, sailors and workers of Petrograd have shown that they +can and will with arms in their hands enforce the will and authority of the +democracy. The bourgeoisie tried to isolate the revolutionary army. Kerensky +attempted to break it by the force of the Cossacks. Both plans met a pitiful +defeat. +</p> + +<p> +The grand idea of the domination of the worker and peasant democracy closed the +ranks of the army and hardened its will. All the country from now on will be +convinced that the Power of the Soviets is no ephemeral thing, but an +invincible fact…. The repulse of Kerensky is the repulse of the land-owners, +the bourgeoisie and the Kornilovists in general. The repulse of Kerensky is the +confirmation of the right of the people to a peaceful free life, to land, bread +and power. The Pulkovo detachment by its valorous blow has strengthened the +cause of the Workers’ and Peasants’s Revolution. There is no return +to the past. Before us are struggles, obstacles and sacrifices. But the road is +clear and victory is certain. +</p> + +<p> +Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Power can be proud of their Pulkovo +detachment, acting under the command of Colonel Walden. Eternal memory to those +who fell! Glory to the warriors of the Revolution, the soldiers and the +officers who were faithful to the People! +</p> + +<p> +Long live revolutionary, popular, Socialist Russia! +</p> + +<p> +In the name of the Council, +</p> + +<p> +L. TROTZKY, People’s Commissar…. +</p> + +<p> +Driving home across Znamensky Square, we made out an unusual crowd in front of +the Nicolai Railway Station. Several thousand sailors were massed there, +bristling with rifles. +</p> + +<p> +Standing on the steps, a member of the <i>Vikzhel</i> was pleading with them. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades, we cannot carry you to Moscow. We are neutral. We do not carry +troops for either side. We cannot take you to Moscow, where already there is +terrible civil war….” +</p> + +<p> +All the seething Square roared at him; the sailors began to surge forward. +Suddenly another door was flung wide; in it stood two or three brakeman, a +fireman or so. +</p> + +<p> +“This way, comrades!” cried one. “We will take you to +Moscow—or Vladivostok, if you like! Long live the Revolution!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>Chapter IX<br /> +Victory</h2> + +<p> +<i>Order Number I</i> +</p> + +<p> +To the Troops of the Pulkovo Detachment. +</p> + +<p> +November 13, 1917. 38 minutes past 9 a. m. +</p> + +<p> +After a cruel fight the troops of the Pulkovo detachment completely routed the +counter-revolutionary forces, who retreated from their positions in disorder, +and under cover of Tsarskoye Selo fell back toward Pavlovsk II and Gatchina. +</p> + +<p> +Our advanced units occupied the northeastern extremity of Tsarskoye Selo and +the station Alexandrovskaya. The Colpinno detachment was on our left, the +Krasnoye Selo detachment to our right. +</p> + +<p> +I ordered the Pulkovo forces to occupy Tsarskoye Selo, to fortify its +approaches, especially on the side of Gatchina. +</p> + +<p> +Also to pass and occupy Pavlovskoye, fortifying its southern side, and to take +up the railroad as far as Dno. +</p> + +<p> +The troops must take all measures to strengthen the positions occupied by them, +arranging trenches and other defensive works. +</p> + +<p> +They must enter into close liaison with the detachments of Colpinno and +Krasnoye Selo, and also with the Staff of the Commander in Chief for the +Defence of Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +Signed, +</p> + +<p> +<i>Commander in Chief aver all Forces acting against the Counter-revolutionary +Troops of Kerensky,</i> +</p> + +<p> +Lieutenant-Colonel MURAVIOV. +</p> + +<p> +Tuesday morning. But how is this? Only two days ago the Petrograd campagna was +full of leaderless bands, wandering aimlessly; without food, without artillery, +without a plan. What had fused that disorganised mass of undisciplined Red +Guards, and soldiers without officers, into an army obedient to its own elected +high command, tempered to meet and break the assault of cannon and Cossack +cavalry? (See App. IX, Sect. 1) +</p> + +<p> +People in revolt have a way of defying military precedent. The ragged armies of +the French Revolution are not forgotten—Valmy and the Lines of +Weissembourg. Massed against the Soviet forces were <i>yunkers,</i> Cossacks, +land-owners, nobility, Black Hundreds—the Tsar come again, <i>Okhrana</i> +and Siberian chains; and the vast and terrible menace of the Germans…. Victory, +in the words of Carlyle, meant “Apotheosis and Millennium without +end!” +</p> + +<p> +Sunday night, the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee returning +desperately from the field, the garrison of Petrograd elected its Committee of +Five, its Battle Staff, three soldiers and two officers, all certified free +from counter-revolutionary taint. Colonel Muraviov, ex-patriot, was in +command—an efficient man, but to be carefully watched. At Colpinno, at +Obukhovo, at Pulkovo and Krasnoye Selo were formed provisional detachments, +increased in size as the stragglers came in from the surrounding +country—mixed soldiers, sailors and Red Guards, parts of regiments, +infantry, cavalry and artillery all together, and a few armoured cars. +</p> + +<p> +Day broke, and the pickets of Kerensky’s Cossacks came in touch. +Scattered rifle-fire, summons to surrender. Over the bleak plain on the cold +quiet air spread the sound of battle, falling upon the ears of roving bands as +they gathered about their little fires, waiting…. So it was beginning! They +made toward the battle; and the worker hordes pouring out along the straight +roads quickened their pace…. Thus upon all the points of attack automatically +converged angry human swarms, to be met by Commissars and assigned positions, +or work to do. This was <i>their</i> battle, for <i>their</i> world; the +officers in command were elected by <i>them.</i> For the moment that incoherent +multiple will was one will…. +</p> + +<p> +Those who participated in the fighting described to me how the sailors fought +until they ran out of cartridges, and then stormed; how the untrained workmen +rushed the charging Cossacks and tore them from their horses; how the anonymous +hordes of the people, gathering in the darkness around the battle, rose like a +tide and poured over the enemy…. Before midnight of Monday the Cossacks broke +and were fleeing, leaving their artillery behind them, and the army of the +proletariat, on a long ragged front, moved forward and rolled into Tsarskoye, +before the enemy had a chance to destroy the great Government wireless station, +from which now the Commissars of Smolny were hurling out to the world paeans of +triumph…. +</p> + +<h5>TO ALL SOVIETS OF WORKERS’ AND SOLDIERS’ DEPUTIES</h5> + +<p> +The 12th of November, in a bloody combat near Tsarskoye Selo, the revolutionary +army defeated the counter-revolutionary troops of Kerensky and Kornilov. In the +name of the Revolutionary Government I order all regiments to take the +offensive against the enemies of the revolutionary democracy, and to take all +measures to arrest Kerensky, and also to oppose any adventure which might +menace the conquests of the Revolution and the victory of the proletariat. +</p> + +<p> +Long live the Revolutionary Army!<br /> +MURAVIOV. +</p> + +<p> +News from the provinces…. +</p> + +<p> +At Sevastopol the local Soviet had assumed the power; a huge meeting of the +sailors on the battleships in the harbour had forced their officers to line up +and swear allegiance to the new Government. At Nizhni Novgorod the Soviet was +in control. From Kazan came reports of a battle in the streets, <i>yunkers</i> +and a brigade of artillery against the Bolshevik garrison…. +</p> + +<p> +Desperate fighting had broken out again in Moscow. The <i>yunkers</i> and White +Guards held the Kremlin and the centre of the town, beaten upon from all sides +by the troops of the Military Revolutionary Committee. The Soviet artillery was +stationed in Skobeliev Square, bombarding the City Duma building, the +Prefecture and the Hotel Metropole. The cobblestones of the Tverskaya and +Nikitskaya had been torn up for trenches and barricades. A hail of machine-gun +fire swept the quarters of the great banks and commercial houses. There were no +lights, no telephones; the bourgeois population lived in the cellars…. The last +bulletin said that the Military Revolutionary Committee had delivered an +ultimatum to the Committee of Public Safety, demanding the immediate surrender +of the Kremlin, or bombardment would follow. +</p> + +<p> +“Bombard the Kremlin?” cried the ordinary citizen. “They dare +not!” +</p> + +<p> +From Vologda to Chita in far Siberia, from Pskov to Sevastopol on the Black +Sea, in great cities and little villages, civil war burst into flame. From +thousands of factories, peasant communes, regiments and armies, ships on the +wide sea, greetings poured into Petrograd—greetings to the Government of +the People. +</p> + +<p> +The Cossack Government at Novotcherkask telegraphed to Kerensky, <i>“The +Government of the Cossack troops invites the Provisional Government and the +members of the Council of the Republic to come, if possible, to Novotcherkask, +where we can organise in common the struggle against the Bolsheviki.”</i> +</p> + +<p> +In Finland, also, things were stirring. The Soviet of Helsingfors and the +<i>Tsentrobalt</i> (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet), jointly proclaimed +a state of siege, and declared that all attempts to interfere with the +Bolshevik forces, and all armed resistance to its orders, would be severely +repressed. At the same time the Finnish Railway Union called a countrywide +general strike, to put into operation the laws passed by the Socialist Diet of +June, 1917, dissolved by Kerensky…. +</p> + +<p> +Early in the morning I went out to Smolny. Going up the long wooden sidewalk +from the outer gate I saw the first thin, hesitating snow-flakes fluttering +down from the grey, windless sky. “Snow!” cried the soldier at the +door, grinning with delight. “Good for the health!” Inside, the +long, gloomy halls and bleak rooms seemed deserted. No one moved in all the +enormous pile. A deep, uneasy sound came to my ears, and looking around, I +noticed that everywhere on the floor, along the walls, men were sleeping. +Rough, dirty men, workers and soldiers, spattered and caked with mud, sprawled +alone or in heaps, in the careless attitudes of death. Some wore ragged +bandages marked with blood. Guns and cartridge-belts were scattered about…. The +victorious proletarian army! +</p> + +<p> +In the upstairs buffet so thick they lay that one could hardly walk. The air +was foul. Through the clouded windows a pale light streamed. A battered +samovar, cold, stood on the counter, and many glasses holding dregs of tea. +Beside them lay a copy of the Military Revolutionary Committee’s last +bulletin, upside down, scrawled with painful hand-writing. It was a memorial +written by some soldier to his comrades fallen in the fight against Kerensky, +just as he had set it down before falling on the floor to sleep. The writing +was blurred with what looked like tears…. +</p> + +<p> +Alexei Vinogradov +</p> + +<p> +D. Maskvin +</p> + +<p> +S. Stolbikov +</p> + +<p> +A. Voskressensky +</p> + +<p> +D. Leonsky +</p> + +<p> +D. Preobrazhensky +</p> + +<p> +V. Laidansky +</p> + +<p> +M. Berchikov +</p> + +<p> +These men were drafted into the Army on November 15th, 1916. Only three are +left of the above. +</p> + +<p> +Mikhail Berchikov +</p> + +<p> +Alexei Voskressensky +</p> + +<p> +Dmitri Leonsky +</p> + +<p> +<i>Sleep, Warrior eagles, sleep with peaceful soul.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>You have deserved, our own ones, happiness and</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Eternal peace. Under the earth of the grave</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>You have straitly closed your ranks. Sleep, Citizens!</i> +</p> + +<p> +Only the Military Revolutionary Committee still functioned, unsleeping. +Skripnik, emerging from the inner room, said that Gotz had been arrested, but +had flatly denied signing the proclamation of the Committee for Salvation, as +had Avksentiev; and the Committee for Salvation itself had repudiated the +Appeal to the garrison. There was still disafiection among the city regiments, +Skripnik reported; the Volhynsky Regiment had refused to fight against +Kerensky. +</p> + +<p> +Several detachments of “neutral” troops, with Tchernov at their +head, were at Gatchina, trying to persuade Kerensky to halt his attack on +Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +Skripnik laughed. “There can be no ‘neutrals’ now,” he +said. “We’ve won!” His sharp, bearded face glowed with an +almost religious exaltation. “More than sixty delegates have arrived from +the Front, with assurances of support by all the armies except the troops on +the Rumanian front, who have not been heard from. The Army Committees have +suppressed all news from Petrograd, but we now have a regular system of +couriers….” +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 224: Certificate approving telegram transmission] +</p> + +<p> +Order given me at Staff headquarters by command of the Council of +People’s Commissars, to transmit the first despatch out of Perograd after +the November Revolution, over the Government wires to America.<br /> + (Translation)<br /> + STAFF<br /> + Military Revolutionary<br /> + Commitee<br /> + Sov. W. & S. D.<br /> + 2 November, 1917<br /> + No. 1860<br /> + CERTIFICATE<br /> +Is given by the present to the journalist of the New York Socialist press JOHN +REED, that the text of the telegram (herewith) has been examined by the +Government of People’s Commissars, and there is no objection to its +transmission, and also it is recommended that all cooperate in every way to +transmit same to its destination.<br /> + For the Commander in Chief, ANTONOV<br /> + Chief of Staff, VLAD. BONCH-BRUEVITCH +</p> + +<p> +Down in the front hall Kameniev was just entering, worn out by the all-night +session of the Conference to Form a New Government, but happy. “Already +the Socialist Revolutionaries are inclined to admit us into the new +Government,” he told me. “The right wing groups are frightened by +the Revolutionary Tribunals; they demand, in a sort of panic, that we dissolve +them before going any further. … We have accepted the proposition of the +<i>Vikzhel</i> to form a homogeneous Socialist Ministry, and they’re +working on that now. You see, it all springs from our victory. When we were +down, they would’t have us at any price; not everybody’s in favour +of some agreement with the Soivets…. What we need is a really decisive victory. +Kerensky wants an armistice, but he’ll have to surrender (See App. IX, +Sect. 2) ….” +</p> + +<p> +That was the temper of the Bolshevik leaders. To a foreign journalist who asked +Trotzky what statement he had to make to the world, Trotzky replied: “At +this moment the only statement possible is the one we are making through the +mouths of our cannon!” +</p> + +<p> +But there was an undercurrent of real anxiety in the tide of victory; the +question of finances. Instead of opening the banks, as had been ordered by the +Military Revolutionary Committee, the Union of Bank Employees had held a +meeting and declared a formal strike. Smolny had demanded some thirty-five +millions of rubles from the State Bank, and the cashier had locked the vaults, +only paying out money to the representatives of the Provisional Government. The +reactionaries were using the State Bank as a political weapon; for instance, +when the <i>Vikzhel</i> demanded money to pay the salaries of the employees of +the Government railroads, it was told to apply to Smolny…. +</p> + +<p> +I went to the State Bank to see the new Commissar, a redhaired Ukrainean +Bolshevik named Petrovitch. He was trying to bring order out of the chaos in +which affairs had been left by the striking clerks. In all the offices of the +huge place perspiring volunteer workers, soldiers and sailors, their tongues +sticking out of their mouths in the intensity of their effort, were poring over +the great ledgers with a bewildered air…. +</p> + +<p> +The Duma building was crowded. There were still isolated cases of defiance +toward the new Government, but they were rare. The Central Land Committee had +appealed to the Peasants, ordering them not to recognise the Land Decree passed +by the Congress of the Soviets, because it would cause confusion and civil war. +Mayor Schreider announced that because of the Bolshevik insurrection, the +elections to the Constituent Assembly would have to be indefinitely postponed. +</p> + +<p> +Two questions seemed to be uppermost in all minds, shocked by the ferocity of +the civil war; first, a truce to the bloodshed (See App. IX, Sect. +3)—second, the creation of a new Government. There was no longer any talk +of “destroying the Bolsheviki”—and very little about +excluding them from the Government, except from the Populist Socialists and the +Peasants’ Soviets. Even the Central Army Committee at the <i>Stavka,</i> +the most determined enemy of Smolny, telephoned from Moghilev: “If, to +constitute the new Ministry, it is necessary to come to an understanding with +the Bolsheviki, we agree to admit them <i>in a minority</i> to the +Cabinet.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Pravda,</i> ironically calling attention to Kerensky’s +“humanitarian sentiments,” published his despatch to the Committee +for Salvation: +</p> + +<p> +In accord with the proposals of the Committee for Salvation and all the +democratic organisations united around it, I have halted all military action +against the rebels. A delegate of the Committee has been sent to enter into +negotiations. Take all measures to stop the useless shedding of blood. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Vikzhel</i> sent a telegram to all Russia: +</p> + +<p> +The Conference of the Union of Railway Workers with the representatives of both +the belligerent parties, who admit the necessity of an agreement, protest +energetically against the use of political terrorism in the civil war, +especially when it is carried on between different factions of the +revolutionary democracy, and declare that political terrorism, in whatever +form, is in contradiction to the very idea of the negotiations for a new +Government…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 227: Leaflet] +</p> + +<p> +Popular leaflet sold in the streets just after the Bolshevik insurrection, +containing rhymes and jokes about the defeated bourgeoisie and the +“moderate” Socialist leaders, Called, “How THE BOORZHUI +(BOURGEOISIE) LOST THE POWER.” +</p> + +<p> +Delegations from the Conference were sent to the Front, to Gatchina. In the +Conference itself everything seemed on the point of final settlement. It had +even been decided to elect a Provisional People’s Council, composed of +about four hundred members—seventy-five representing Smolny, seventy-five +the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> and the rest split up among the Town Dumas, the +Trade Unions, Land Committees and political parties. Tchernov was mentioned as +the new Premier. Lenin and Trotzky, rumour said, were to be excluded…. +</p> + +<p> +About noon I was again in front of Smolny, talking with the driver of an +ambulance bound for the revolutionary front. Could I go with him? Certainly! He +was a volunteer, a University student, and as we rolled down the street shouted +over his shoulder to me phrases of execrable German: <i>“Also, gut! Wir +nach die Kasernen zu essen gehen!”</i> I made out that there would be +lunch at some barracks. +</p> + +<p> +On the Kirotchnaya we turned into an immense courtyard surrounded by military +buildings, and mounted a dark stairway to a low room lit by one window. At a +long wooden table were seated some twenty soldiers, eating <i>shtchi</i> +(cabbage soup) from a great tin wash-tub with wooden spoons, and talking loudly +with much laughter. +</p> + +<p> +“Welcome to the Battalion Committee of the Sixth Reserve Engineers’ +Battalion!” cried my friend, and introduced me as an American Socialist. +Whereat every one rose to shake my hand, and one old soldier put his arms +around me and gave me a hearty kiss. A wooden spoon was produced and I took my +place at the table. Another tub, full of <i>kasha,</i> was brought in, a huge +loaf of black bread, and of course the inevitable tea-pots. At once every one +began asking me questions about America: Was it true that people in a free +country sold their votes for <i>money?</i> If so, how did they get what they +wanted? How about this “Tammany”? Was it true that in a free +country a little group of people could control a whole city, and exploited it +for their personal benefit? Why did the people stand it? Even under the Tsar +such things could not happen in Russia; true, here there was always graft, but +to buy and sell a whole city full of people! And in a free country! Had the +people no revolutionary feeling? I tried to explain that in my country people +tried to change things by law. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course,” nodded a young sergeant, named Baklanov, who spoke +French. “But you have a highly developed capitalist class? Then the +capitalist class must control the legislatures and the courts. How then can the +people change things? I am open to conviction, for I do not know your country; +but to me it is incredible….” +</p> + +<p> +I said that I was going to Tsarskoye Selo. “I, too,” said Baklanov, +suddenly. “And I—and I—” The whole roomful decided on +the spot to go to Tsarskoye Selo. +</p> + +<p> +Just then came a knock on the door. It opened, and in it stood the figure of +the Colonel. No one rose, but all shouted a greeting. “May I come +in?” asked the Colonel. “<i>Prosim! Prosim!</i>” they +answered heartily. He entered, smiling, a tall, distinguished figure in a +goat-skin cape embroidered with gold. “I think I heard you say that you +were going to Tsarskoye Selo, comrades,” he said. “Could I go with +you?” +</p> + +<p> +Baklanov considered. “I do not think there is anything to be done here +to-day,” he answered. “Yes, comrade, we shall be very glad to have +you.” The Colonel thanked him and sat down, filling a glass of tea. +</p> + +<p> +In a low voice, for fear of wounding the Colonel’s pride, Baklanov +explained to me. “You see, I am the chairman of the Committee. We control +the Battalion absolutely, except in action, when the Colonel is delegated by us +to command. In action his orders must be obeyed, but he is strictly responsible +to us. In barracks he must ask our permission before taking any action…. You +might call him our Executive Officer….” +</p> + +<p> +Arms were distributed to us, revolvers and rifles—“we might meet +some Cossacks, you know”—and we all piled into the ambulance, +together with three great bundles of newspapers for the front. Straight down +the Liteiny we rattled, and along the Zagorodny Prospekt. Next to me sat a +youth with the shoulder-straps of a Lieutenant, who seemed to speak all +European languages with equal fluency. He was a member of the Battalion +Committee. +</p> + +<p> +“I am not a Bolshevik,” he assured me, emphatically. “My +family is a very ancient and noble one. I, myself, am, you might say, a +Cadet….” +</p> + +<p> +“But how—?” I began, bewildered. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, I am a member of the Committee. I make no secret of my +political opinions, but the others do not mind, because they know I do not +believe in opposing the will of the majority…. I have refused to take any +action in the present civil war, however, for I do not believe in taking up +arms against my brother Russians….” +</p> + +<p> +“Provocator! Kornilovitz!” the others cried at him gaily, slapping +him on the shoulder…. +</p> + +<p> +Passing under the huge grey stone archway of the Moskovsky Gate, covered with +golden hieroglyphics, ponderous Imperial eagles and the names of Tsars, we sped +out on the wide straight highway, grey with the first light fall of snow. It +was thronged with Red Guards, stumbling along on foot toward the revolutionary +front, shouting and singing; and others, greyfaced and muddy, coming back. Most +of them seemed to be mere boys. Women with spades, some with rifles and +bandoleers, others wearing the Red Cross on their arm-bands—the bowed, +toil-worn women of the slums. Squads of soldiers marching out of step, with an +affectionate jeer for the Red Guards; sailors, grim-looking; children with +bundles of food for their fathers and mothers; all these, coming and going, +trudged through the whitened mud that covered the cobbles of the highway inches +deep. We passed cannon, jingling southward with their caissons; trucks bound +both ways, bristling with armed men; ambulances full of wounded from the +direction of the battle, and once a peasant cart, creaking slowly along, in +which sat a white-faced boy bent over his shattered stomach and screaming +monotonously. In the fields on either side women and old men were digging +trenches and stringing barbed wire entanglements. +</p> + +<p> +Back northward the clouds rolled away dramatically, and the pale sun came out. +Across the flat, marshy plain Petrograd glittered. To the right, white and +gilded and coloured bulbs and pinnacles; to the left, tall chimneys, some +pouring out black smoke; and beyond, a lowering sky over Finland. On each side +of us were churches, monasteries…. Occasionally a monk was visible, silently +watching the pulse of the proletarian army throbbing on the road. +</p> + +<p> +At Pulkovo the road divided, and there we halted in the midst of a great crowd, +where the human streams poured from three directions, friends meeting, excited +and congratulatory, describing the battle to one another. A row of houses +facing the cross-roads was marked with bullets, and the earth was trampled into +mud half a mile around. The fighting had been furious here…. In the near +distance riderless Cossack horses circled hungrily, for the grass of the plain +had died long ago. Right in front of us an awkward Red Guard was trying to ride +one, falling off again and again, to the childlike delight of a thousand rough +men. +</p> + +<p> +The left road, along which the remnants of the Cossacks had retreated, led up a +little hill to a hamlet, where there was a glorious view of the immense plain, +grey as a windless sea, tumultuous clouds towering over, and the imperial city +disgorging its thousands along all the roads. Far over to the left lay the +little hill of Kranoye Selo, the parade-ground of the Imperial Guards’ +summer camp, and the Imperial Dairy. In the middle distance nothing broke the +flat monotony but a few walled monasteries and convents, some isolated +factories, and several large buildings with unkempt grounds that were asylums +and orphanages…. +</p> + +<p> +“Here,” said the driver, as we went on over a barren hill, +“here was where Vera Slutskaya died. Yes, the Bolshevik member of the +Duma. It happened early this morning. She was in an automobile, with Zalkind +and another man. There was a truce, and they started for the front trenches. +They were talking and laughing, when all of a sudden, from the armoured train +in which Kerensky himself was riding, somebody saw the automobile and fired a +cannon. The shell struck Vera Slutskaya and killed her….” +</p> + +<p> +And so we came into Tsarskoye, all bustling with the swaggering heroes of the +proletarian horde. Now the palace where the Soviet had met was a busy place. +Red Guards and sailors filled the court-yard, sentries stood at the doors, and +a stream of couriers and Commissars pushed in and out. In the Soviet room a +samovar had been set up, and fifty or more workers, soldiers, sailors and +officers stood around, drinking tea and talking at the top of their voices. In +one corner two clumsy-handed workingmen were trying to make a multigraphing +machine go. At the centre table, the huge Dybenko bent over a map, marking out +positions for the troops with red and blue pencils. In his free hand he +carried, as always, the enormous bluesteel revolver. Anon he sat himself down +at a typewriter and pounded away with one finger; every little while he would +pause, pick up the revolver, and lovingly spin the chamber. +</p> + +<p> +A couch lay along the wall, and on this was stretched a young workman. Two Red +Guards were bending over him, but the rest of the company did not pay any +attention. In his breast was a hole; through his clothes fresh blood came +welling up with every heart-beat. His eyes were closed and his young, bearded +face was greenish-white. Faintly and slowly he still breathed, with every +breath sighing, <i>“Mir boudit! Mir boudit!</i> (Peace is coming! Peace +is coming!)” +</p> + +<p> +Dybenko looked up as we came in. “Ah,” he said to Baklanov. +“Comrade, will you go up to the Commandant’s headquarters and take +charge? Wait; I will write you credentials.” He went to the typewriter +and slowly picked out the letters. +</p> + +<p> +The new Commandant of Tsarskoye Selo and I went toward the Ekaterina Palace, +Baklanov very excited and important. In the same ornate, white room some Red +Guards were rummaging curiously around, while my old friend, the Colonel, stood +by the window biting his moustache. He greeted me like a long-lost brother. At +a table near the door sat the French Bessarabian. The Bolsheviki had ordered +him to remain, and continue his work. +</p> + +<p> +“What could I do?” he muttered. “People like myself cannot +fight on either side in such a war as this, no matter how much we may +instinctively dislike the dictatorship of the mob…. I only regret that I am so +far from my mother in Bessarabia!” +</p> + +<p> +Baklanov was formally taking over the office from the Commandant. +“Here,” said the Colonel nervously, “are the keys to the +desk.” +</p> + +<p> +A Red Guard interrupted. “Where’s the money?” he asked +rudely. The Colonel seemed surprised. “Money? Money? Ah, you mean the +chest. There it is,” said the Colonel, “just as I found it when I +took possession three days ago. Keys?” The Colonel shrugged. “I +have no keys.” +</p> + +<p> +The Red Guard sneered knowingly. “Very convenient,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us open the chest,” said Baklanov. “Bring an axe. Here +is an American comrade. Let him smash the chest open, and write down what he +finds there.” +</p> + +<p> +I swung the axe. The wooden chest was empty. +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s arrest him,” said the Red Guard, venomously. “He +is Kerensky’s man. He has stolen the money and given it to +Kerensky.” +</p> + +<p> +Baklanov did not want to. “Oh, no,” he said. “It was the +Kornilovitz before him. He is not to blame. +</p> + +<p> +“The devil!” cried the Red Guard. “He is Kerensky’s +man, I tell you. If <i>you</i> won’t arrest him, then <i>we</i> will, and +we’ll take him to Petrograd and put him in Peter-Paul, where he +belongs!” At this the other Red Guards growled assent. With a piteous +glance at us the Colonel was led away…. +</p> + +<p> +Down in front of the Soviet palace an auto-truck was going to the front. Half a +dozen Red Guards, some sailors, and a soldier or two, under command of a huge +workman, clambered in, and shouted to me to come along. Red Guards issued from +headquarters, each of them staggering under an arm-load of small, +corrugated-iron bombs, filled with <i>grubit</i>—which, they say, is ten +times as strong, and five times as sensitive as dynamite; these they threw into +the truck. A three-inch cannon was loaded and then tied onto the tail of the +truck with bits of rope and wire. +</p> + +<p> +We started with a shout, at top speed of course; the heavy truck swaying from +side to side. The cannon leaped from one wheel to the other, and the +<i>grubit</i> bombs went rolling back and forth over our feet, fetching up +against the sides of the car with a crash. +</p> + +<p> +The big Red Guard, whose name was Vladimir Nicolaievitch, plied me with +questions about America. “Why did America come into the war? Are the +American workers ready to throw over the capitalists? What is the situation in +the Mooney case now? Will they extradite Berkman to San Francisco?” and +other, very difficult to answer, all delivered in a shout above the roaring of +the truck, while we held on to each other and danced amid the caroming bombs. +</p> + +<p> +Occasionally a patrol tried to stop us. Soldiers ran out into the road before +us, shouted <i>“Shtoi!”</i> and threw up their guns. +</p> + +<p> +We paid no attention. “The devil take you!” cried the Red Guards. +“We don’t stop for anybody! We’re Red Guards!” And we +thundered imperiously on, while Vladimir Nicolaievitch bellowed to me about the +internationalisation of the Panama Canal, and such matters…. +</p> + +<p> +About five miles out we saw a squad of sailors marching back, and slowed down. +</p> + +<p> +“Where’s the front, brothers?” +</p> + +<p> +The foremost sailor halted and scratched his head. “This morning,” +he said, “it was about half a kilometer down the road. But the damn thing +isn’t anywhere now. We walked and walked and walked, but we +couldn’t find it.” +</p> + +<p> +They climbed into the truck, and we proceeded. It must have been about a mile +further that Vladimir Nicolaievitch cocked his ear and shouted to the chauffeur +to stop. +</p> + +<p> +“Firing!” he said. “Do you hear it?” For a moment dead +silence, and then, a little ahead and to the left, three shots in rapid +succession. Along here the side of the road was heavily wooded. Very much +excited now, we crept along, speaking in whispers, until the truck was nearly +opposite the place where the firing had come from. Descending, we spread out, +and every man carrying his rifle, went stealthily into the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Two comrades, meanwhile, detached the cannon and slewed it around until it +aimed as nearly as possible at our backs. +</p> + +<p> +It was silent in the woods. The leaves were gone, and the tree-trunks were a +pale wan colour in the low, sickly autumn sun. Not a thing moved, except the +ice of little woodland pools shivering under our feet. Was it an ambush? +</p> + +<p> +We went uneventfully forward until the trees began to thin, and paused. Beyond, +in a little clearing, three soldiers sat around a small fire, perfectly +oblivious. +</p> + +<p> +Vladimir Nicolaievitch stepped forward. <i>“Zra’zvuitye,</i> +comrades!” he greeted, while behind him one cannon, twenty rifles and a +truck-load of <i>grubit</i> bombs hung by a hair. The soldiers scrambled to +their feet. +</p> + +<p> +“What was the shooting going on around here?” +</p> + +<p> +One of the soldiers answered, looking relieved, “Why we were just +shooting a rabbit or two, comrade….” +</p> + +<p> +The truck hurtled on toward Romanov, through the bright, empty day. At the +first cross-roads two soldiers ran out in front of us, waving their rifles. We +slowed down, and stopped. +</p> + +<p> +“Passes, comrades!” +</p> + +<p> +The Red Guards raised a great clamour. “We are Red Guards. We don’t +need any passes…. Go on, never mind them!” +</p> + +<p> +But a sailor objected. “This is wrong, comrades. We must have +revolutionary discipline. Suppose some counterrevolutionaries came along in a +truck and said: ‘We don’t need any passes?’ The comrades +don’t know you.” +</p> + +<p> +At this there was a debate. One by one, however, the sailors and soldiers +joined with the first. Grumbling, each Red Guard produced his dirty +<i>bumaga</i> (paper). All were alike except mine, which had been issued by the +Revolutionary Staff at Smolny. The sentries declared that I must go with them. +The Red Guards objected strenuously, but the sailor who had spoken first +insisted. “This comrade we know to be a true comrade,” he said. +“But there are orders of the Committee, and these orders must be obeyed. +That is revolutionary discipline….” +</p> + +<p> +In order not to make any trouble, I got down from the truck, and watched it +disappear careening down the road, all the company waving farewell. The +soldiers consulted in low tones for a moment, and then led me to a wall, +against which they placed me. It flashed upon me suddenly; they were going to +shoot me! +</p> + +<p> +In all three directions not a human being was in sight. The only sign of life +was smoke from the chimney of a <i>datchya,</i> a rambling wooden house a +quarter of a mile up the side road. The two soldiers were walking out into the +road. Desperately I ran after them. +</p> + +<p> +“But comrades! See! Here is the seal of the Military Revolutionary +Committee!” +</p> + +<p> +They stared stupidly at my pass, then at each other. +</p> + +<p> +“It is different from the others,” said one, sullenly. “We +cannot read, brother.” +</p> + +<p> +I took him by the arm. “Come!” I said. “Let’s go to +that house. Some one there can surely read.” They hesitated. +“No,” said one. The other looked me over. “Why not?” he +muttered. “After all, it is a serious crime to kill an innocent +man.” +</p> + +<p> +We walked up to the front door of the house and knocked. A short, stout woman +opened it, and shrank back in alarm, babbling, “I don’t know +anything about them! I don’t know anything about them!” One of my +guards held out the pass. She screamed. “Just to read it, comrade.” +Hesitatingly she took the paper and read aloud, swiftly: +</p> + +<p> +The bearer of this pass, John Reed, is a representative of the American +Social-Democracy, an internationalist…. +</p> + +<p> +Out on the road again the two soldiers held another consultation. “We +must take you to the Regimental Committee,” they said. In the +fast-deepening twilight we trudged along the muddy road. Occasionally we met +squads of soldiers, who stopped and surrounded me with looks of menace, +handling my pass around and arguing violently as to whether or not I should be +killed…. +</p> + +<p> +It was dark when we came to the barracks of the Second Tsarskoye Selo Rifles, +low sprawling buildings huddled along the post-road. A number of soldiers +slouching at the entrance asked eager questions. A spy? A provocator? We +mounted a winding stair and emerged into a great, bare room with a huge stove +in the centre, and rows of cots on the floor, where about a thousand soldiers +were playing cards, talking, singing, and asleep. In the roof was a jagged hole +made by Kerensky’s cannon…. +</p> + +<p> +I stood in the doorway, and a sudden silence ran among the groups, who turned +and stared at me. Of a sudden they began to move, slowly and then with a rush, +thundering, with faces full of hate. “Comrades! Comrades!” yelled +one of my guards. “Committee! Committee!” The throng halted, banked +around me, muttering. Out of them shouldered a lean youth, wearing a red +arm-band. +</p> + +<p> +“Who is this?” he asked roughly. The guards explained. “Give +me the paper!” He read it carefully, glancing at me with keen eyes. Then +he smiled and handed me the pass. “Comrades, this is an American comrade. +I am Chairman of the Committee, and I welcome you to the Regiment….” A +sudden general buzz grew into a roar of greeting, and they pressed forward to +shake my hand. +</p> + +<p> +“You have not dined? Here we have had our dinner. You shall go to the +Officers’ Club, where there are some who speak your language….” +</p> + +<p> +He led me across the court-yard to the door of another building. An +aristocratic-looking youth, with the shoulder straps of a Lieutenant, was +entering. The Chairman presented me, and shaking hands, went back. +</p> + +<p> +“I am Stepan Georgevitch Morovsky, at your service,” said the +Lieutenant, in perfect French. From the ornate entrance hall a ceremonial +staircase led upward, lighted by glittering lustres. On the second floor +billiard-rooms, card-rooms, a library opened from the hall. We entered the +dining-room, at a long table in the centre of which sat about twenty officers +in full uniform, wearing their gold- and silver-handled swords, the ribbons and +crosses of Imperial decorations. All rose politely as I entered, and made a +place for me beside the Colonel, a large, impressive man with a grizzled beard. +Orderlies were deftly serving dinner. The atmosphere was that of any +officers’ mess in Europe. Where was the Revolution? +</p> + +<p> +“You are not Bolsheviki?” I asked Morovsky. +</p> + +<p> +A smile went around the table, but I caught one or two glancing furtively at +the orderly. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” answered my friend. “There is only one Bolshevik +officer in this regiment. He is in Petrograd to-night. The Colonel is a +Menshevik. Captain Kherlov there is a Cadet. I myself am a Socialist +Revolutionary of the right wing…. I should say that most of the officers in the +Army are not Bolsheviki, but like me they believe in democracy; they believe +that they must follow the soldier-masses….” +</p> + +<p> +Dinner over, maps were brought, and the Colonel spread them out on the table. +The rest crowded around to see. +</p> + +<p> +“Here,” said the Colonel, pointing to pencil marks, “were our +positions this morning. Vladimir Kyrilovitch, where is your company?” +</p> + +<p> +Captain Kherlov pointed. “According to orders, we occupied the position +along this road. Karsavin relieved me at five o’clock.” +</p> + +<p> +Just then the door of the room opened, and there entered the Chairman of the +Regimental Committee, with another soldier. They joined the group behind the +Colonel, peering at the map. +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” said the Colonel. “Now the Cossacks have fallen back +ten kilometres in our sector. I do not think it is necessary to take up +advanced positions. Gentlemen, for to-night you will hold the present line, +strengthening the positions by—” +</p> + +<p> +“If you please,” interrupted the Chairman of the Regimental +Committee. “The orders are to advance with all speed, and prepare to +engage the Cossacks north of Gatchina in the morning. A crushing defeat is +necessary. Kindly make the proper dispositions.” +</p> + +<p> +There was a short silence. The Colonel again turned to the map. “Very +well,” he said, in a different voice. “Stepan Georgevitch, you will +please—” Rapidly tracing lines with a blue pencil, he gave his +orders, while a sergeant made shorthand notes. The sergeant then withdrew, and +ten minutes later returned with the orders typewritten, and one carbon copy. +The Chairman of the Committee studied the map with a copy of the orders before +him. +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” he said, rising. Folding the carbon copy, he put it in +his pocket. Then he signed the other, stamped it with a round seal taken from +his pocket, and presented it to the Colonel…. +</p> + +<p> +Here was the Revolution! +</p> + +<p> +I returned to the Soviet palace in Tsarskoye in the Regimental Staff +automobile. Still the crowds of workers, soldiers and sailors pouring in and +out, still the choking press of trucks, armoured cars, cannon before the door, +and the shouting, the laughter of unwonted victory. Half a dozen Red Guards +forced their way through, a priest in the middle. This was Father Ivan, they +said, who had blessed the Cossacks when they entered the town. I heard +afterward that he was shot…. (See App. IX, Sect. 4) +</p> + +<p> +Dybenko was just coming out, giving rapid orders right and left. In his hand he +carried the big revolver. An automobile stood with racing engine at the kerb. +Alone, he climbed in the rear seat, and was off-off to Gatchina, to conquer +Kerensky. +</p> + +<p> +Toward nightfall he arrived at the outskirts of the town, and went on afoot. +What Dybenko told the Cossacks nobody knows, but the fact is that General +Krasnov and his staff and several thousand Cossacks surrendered, and advised +Kerensky to do the same. (See App. IX, Sect. 5) +</p> + +<p> +As for Kerensky—I reprint here the deposition made by General Krasnov on +the morning of November 14th: +</p> + +<p> +“Gatchina, November 14, 1917. To-day, about three o’clock (A. M.), +I was summoned by the Supreme Commander (Kerensky). He was very agitated, and +very nervous. +</p> + +<p> +“‘General,’ he said to me, ‘you have betrayed me. Your +Cossacks declare categorically that they will arrest me and deliver me to the +sailors.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘there is talk of it, and I know +that you have no sympathy anywhere.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘But the officers say the same thing.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Yes, most of all it is the officers who are discontented with +you.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘What shall I do? I ought to commit suicide!’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘If you are an honorable man, you will go immediately to Petrograd +with a white flag, you will present yourself to the Military Revolutionary +Committee, and enter into negotiations as Chief of the Provisional +Government.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘All right. I will do that, General.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘I will give you a guard and ask that a sailor go with you.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘No, no, not a sailor. Do you know whether it is true that Dybenko +is here?’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘I don’t know who Dybenko is.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘He is my enemy. +</p> + +<p> +“‘There is nothing to do. If you play for high stakes you must know +how to take a chance.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Yes. I’ll leave to-night!’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Why? That would be a flight. Leave calmly and openly, so that +every one can see that you are not running away.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Very well. But you must give me a guard on which I can +count.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Good.’ +</p> + +<p> +“I went out and called the Cossack Russkov, of the Tenth Regiment of the +Don, and ordered him to pick out ten Cossacks to accompany the Supreme +Commander. Half an hour later the Cossacks came to tell me that Kerensky was +not in his quarters, that he had run away. +</p> + +<p> +“I gave the alarm and ordered that he be searched for, supposing that he +could not have left Gatchina, but he could not be found….” +</p> + +<p> +And so Kerensky fled, alone, “disguised in the uniform of a +sailor,” and by that act lost whatever popularity he had retained among +the Russian masses…. +</p> + +<p> +I went back to Petrograd riding on the front seat of an auto truck, driven by a +workman and filled with Red Guards. We had no kerosene, so our lights were not +burning. The road was crowded with the proletarian army going home, and new +reserves pouring out to take their places. Immense trucks like ours, columns of +artillery, wagons, loomed up in the night, without lights, as we were. We +hurtled furiously on, wrenched right and left to avoid collisions that seemed +inevitable, scraping wheels, followed by the epithets of pedestrians. +</p> + +<p> +Across the horizon spread the glittering lights of the capital, immeasurably +more splendid by night than by day, like a dike of jewels heaped on the barren +plain. +</p> + +<p> +The old workman who drove held the wheel in one hand, while with the other he +swept the far-gleaming capital in an exultant gesture. +</p> + +<p> +“Mine!” he cried, his face all alight. “All mine now! My +Petrograd!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>Chapter X<br /> +Moscow</h2> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee, with a fierce intensity, followed up its +victory: +</p> + +<p> +November 14th. +</p> + +<p> +To all Army, corps, divisional and regimental Committees, to all Soviets of +Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, to all, all, all. +</p> + +<p> +Conforming to the agreement between the Cossacks, <i>yunkers,</i> soldiers, +sailors and workers, it has been decided to arraign Alexander Feodorvitch +Kerensky before a tribunal of the people. We demand that Kerensky be arrested, +and that he be ordered, in the name of the organisations hereinafter mentioned, +to come immediately to Petrograd and present himself to the tribunal. +</p> + +<p> +Signed, +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Cossacks of the First Division of Ussuri Cavalry; the Committee of +Yunkers of the Petrograd detachment of Franc-Tireurs; the delegate of the Fifth +Army.</i> +</p> + +<p> +People’s Commissar DYBENKO. +</p> + +<p> +The Committee for Salvation, the Duma, the Central Committee of the Socialist +Revolutionary party—proudly claiming Kerensky as a member—all +passionately protested that he could only be held responsible to the +Constituent Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +On the evening of November 16th I watched two thousand Red Guards swing down +the Zagorodny Prospekt behind a military band playing the +<i>Marseillaise</i>—and how appropriate it sounded—with blood-red +flags over the dark ranks of workmen, to welcome home again their brothers who +had defended “Red Petrograd.” In the bitter dusk they tramped, men +and women, their tall bayonets swaying; through streets faintly lighted and +slippery with mud, between silent crowds of bourgeois, contemptuous but +fearful…. +</p> + +<p> +All were against them—business men, speculators, investors, land-owners, +army officers, politicians, teachers, students, professional men, shop-keepers, +clerks, agents. The other Socialist parties hated the Bolsheviki with an +implacable hatred. On the side of the Soviets were the rank and file of the +workers, the sailors, all the undemoralised soldiers, the landless peasants, +and a few—a very few—intellectuals…. +</p> + +<p> +From the farthest corners of great Russia, whereupon desperate street-fighting +burst like a wave, news of Kerensky’s defeat came echoing back the +immense roar of proletarian victory. Kazan, Saratov, Novgorod, +Vinnitza—where the streets had run with blood; Moscow, where the +Bolsheviki had turned their artillery against the last strong-hold of the +bourgeoisie—the Kremlin. +</p> + +<p> +“They are bombarding the Kremlin!” The news passed from mouth to +mouth in the streets of Petrograd, almost with a sense of terror. Travellers +from “white and shining little mother Moscow” told fearful tales. +Thousands killed; the Tverskaya and the Kuznetsky Most in flames; the church of +Vasili Blazheiny a smoking ruin; Usspensky Cathedral crumbling down; the +Spasskaya Gate of the Kremlin tottering; the Duma burned to the ground. (See +App. X, Sect. 1) +</p> + +<p> +Nothing that the Bolsheviki had done could compare with this fearful blasphemy +in the heart of Holy Russia. To the ears of the devout sounded the shock of +guns crashing in the face of the Holy Orthodox Church, and pounding to dust the +sanctuary of the Russian nation…. +</p> + +<p> +On November 15th, Lunatcharsky, Commissar of Education, broke into tears at the +session of the Council of People’s Commissars, and rushed from the room, +crying, “I cannot stand it! I cannot bear the monstrous destruction of +beauty and tradition….” +</p> + +<p> +That afternoon his letter of resignation was published in the newspapers: +</p> + +<p> +I have just been informed, by people arriving from Moscow, what has happened +there. +</p> + +<p> +The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, the Cathedral of the Assumption, are +being bombarded. The Kremlin, where are now gathered the most important art +treasures of Petrograd and of Moscow, is under artillery fire. There are +thousands of victims. +</p> + +<p> +The fearful struggle there has reached a pitch of bestial ferocity. +</p> + +<p> +What is left? What more can happen? +</p> + +<p> +I cannot bear this. My cup is full. I am unable to endure these horrors. It is +impossible to work under the pressure of thoughts which drive me mad! +</p> + +<p> +That is why I am leaving the Council of People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +I fully realise the gravity of this decision. But I can bear no more…. (See +App. X, Sect. 2) +</p> + +<p> +That same day the White Guards and <i>yunkers</i> in the Kremlin surrendered, +and were allowed to march out unharmed. The treaty of peace follows: +</p> + +<p> +1. The Committee of Public Safety ceases to exist. +</p> + +<p> +2. The White Guard gives up its arms and dissolves. The officers retain their +swords and regulations side-arms. In the Military Schools are retained only the +arms necessary for instruction; all others are surrendered by the +<i>yunkers.</i> The Military Revolutionary Committee guarantees the liberty and +inviolability of the person. +</p> + +<p> +3. To settle the question of disarmament, as set forth in section 2, a special +commission is appointed, consisting of representatives from all organisations +which took part in the peace negotiations. +</p> + +<p> +4. From the moment of the signature of this peace treaty, both parties shall +immediately give order to cease firing and halt all military operations, taking +measures to ensure punctual obedience to this order. +</p> + +<p> +5. At the signature of the treaty, all prisoners made by the two parties shall +be released…. +</p> + +<p> +For two days now the Bolsheviki had been in control of the city. The frightened +citizens were creeping out of their cellars to seek their dead; the barricades +in the streets were being removed. Instead of diminishing, however, the stories +of destruction in Moscow continued to grow…. And it was under the influence of +these fearful reports that we decided to go there. +</p> + +<p> +Petrograd, after all, in spite of being for a century the seat of Government, +is still an artificial city. Moscow is real Russia, Russia as it was and will +be; in Moscow we would get the true feeling of the Russian people about the +Revolution. Life was more intense there. +</p> + +<p> +For the past week the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, aided by the +rank and file of the Railway Workers, had seized control of the Nicolai +Railroad, and hurled trainload after trainload of sailors and Red Guards +southwest…. We were provided with passes from Smolny, without which no one +could leave the capital…. When the train backed into the station, a mob of +shabby soldiers, all carrying huge sacks of eatables, stormed the doors, +smashed the windows, and poured into all the compartments, filling up the +aisles and even climbing onto the roof. Three of us managed to wedge our way +into a compartment, but almost immediately about twenty soldiers entered…. +There was room for only four people; we argued, expostulated, and the conductor +joined us—but the soldiers merely laughed. Were they to bother about the +comfort of a lot of <i>boorzhui</i> (bourgeois)? We produced the passes from +Smolny; instantly the soldiers changed their attitude. +</p> + +<p> +“Come, comrades,” cried one, “these are American +<i>tovarishtchi.</i> They have come thirty thousand versts to see our +Revolution, and they are naturally tired….” +</p> + +<p> +With polite and friendly apologies the soldiers began to leave. Shortly +afterward we heard them breaking into a compartment occupied by two stout, +well-dressed Russians, who had bribed the conductor and locked their door…. +</p> + +<p> +About seven o’clock in the evening we drew out of the station, an immense +long train drawn by a weak little locomotive burning wood, and stumbled along +slowly, with many stops. The soldiers on the roof kicked with their heels and +sang whining peasant songs; and in the corridor, so jammed that it was +impossible to pass, violent political debates raged all night long. +Occasionally the conductor came through, as a matter of habit, looking for +tickets. He found very few except ours, and after a half-hour of futile +wrangling, lifted his arms despairingly and withdrew. The atmosphere was +stifling, full of smoke and foul odours; if it hadn’t been for the broken +windows we would doubtless have smothered during the night. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning, hours late, we looked out upon a snowy world. It was bitter +cold. About noon a peasant woman got on with a basket-full of bread-chunks and +a great can of luke warm coffee-substitute. From then on until dark there was +nothing but the packed train, jolting and stopping, and occasional stations +where a ravenous mob swooped down on the scantily-furnished buffet and swept it +clean…. At one of these halts I ran into Nogin and Rykov, the seceding +Commissars, who were returning to Moscow to put their grievances before their +own Soviet, and further along was Bukharin, a short, red-bearded man with the +eyes of a fanatic—“more Left than Lenin,” they said of him…. +</p> + +<p> +Then the three strokes of the bell and we made a rush for the train, worming +our way through the packed and noisy aisle…. A good-natured crowd, bearing the +discomfort with humorous patience, interminably arguing about everything from +the situation in Petrograd to the British Trade-Union system, and disputing +loudly with the few <i>boorzhui</i> who were on board. Before we reached Moscow +almost every car had organised a Committee to secure and distribute food, and +these Committees became divided into political factions, who wrangled over +fundamental principles…. +</p> + +<p> +The station at Moscow was deserted. We went to the office of the Commissar, in +order to arrange for our return tickets. He was a sullen youth with the +shoulder-straps of a Lieutenant; when we showed him our papers from Smolny, he +lost his temper and declared that he was no Bolshevik, that he represented the +Committee of Public Safety…. It was characteristic—in the general turmoil +attending the conquest of the city, the chief railway station had been +forgotten by the victors…. +</p> + +<p> +Not a cab in sight. A few blocks down the street, however, we woke up a +grotesquely-padded <i>izvostchik</i> asleep upright on the box of his little +sleigh. “How much to the centre of the town?” +</p> + +<p> +He scratched his head. “The <i>barini</i> won’t be able to find a +room in any hotel,” he said. “But I’ll take you around for a +hundred rubles….” Before the Revolution it cost <i>two!</i> We objected, +but he simply shrugged his shoulders. “It takes a good deal of courage to +drive a sleigh nowadays,” he went on. We could not beat him down below +fifty…. As we sped along the silent, snowy half-lighted streets, he recounted +his adventures during the six days’ fighting. “Driving along, or +waiting for a fare on the corner,” he said, “all of a sudden +<i>pooff!</i> a cannon ball exploding here, <i>pooff!</i> a cannon ball there, +<i>ratt-ratt!</i> a machine-gun…. I gallop, the devils shooting all around. I +get to a nice quiet street and stop, doze a little, <i>pooff!</i> another +cannon ball, <i>ratt-ratt</i>…. Devils! Devils! Devils! Brrr!” +</p> + +<p> +In the centre of the town the snow-piled streets were quiet with the stillness +of convalescence. Only a few arc-lights were burning, only a few pedestrians +hurried along the side-walks. An icy wind blew from the great plain, cutting to +the bone. At the first hotel we entered an office illuminated by two candles. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, we have some very comfortable rooms, but all the windows are shot +out. If the <i>gospodin</i> does not mind a little fresh air….” +</p> + +<p> +Down the Tverskaya the shop-windows were broken, and there were shell-holes and +torn-up paving stones in the street. Hotel after hotel, all full, or the +proprietors still so frightened that all they could say was, “No, no, +there is no room! There is no room!” On the main streets, where the great +banking-houses and mercantile houses lay, the Bolshevik artillery had been +indiscriminately effective. As one Soviet official told me, “Whenever we +didn’t know just where the <i>yunkers</i> and White Guards were, we +bombarded their pocketbooks….” +</p> + +<p> +At the big Hotel National they finally took us in; for we were foreigners, and +the Military Revolutionary Committee had promised to protect the dwellings of +foreigners…. On the top floor the manager showed us where shrapnel had +shattered several windows. “The animals!” said he, shaking his +first at imaginary Bolsheviki. “But wait! Their time will come; in just a +few days now their ridiculous Government will fall, and then we shall make them +suffer!” +</p> + +<p> +We dined at a vegetarian restaurant with the enticing name, “I Eat +Nobody,” and Tolstoy’s picture prominent on the walls, and then +sallied out into the streets. +</p> + +<p> +The headquarters of the Moscow Soviet was in the palace of the former +Governor-General, an imposing white building fronting Skobeliev Square. Red +Guards stood sentry at the door. At the head of the wide, formal stairway, +whose walls were plastered with announcements of committee-meetings and +addresses of political parties, we passed through a series of lofty ante-rooms, +hung with red-shrouded pictures in gold frames, to the splendid state salon, +with its magnificent crystal lustres and gilded cornices. A low-voiced hum of +talk, underlaid with the whirring bass of a score of sewing machines, filled +the place. Huge bolts of red and black cotton cloth were unrolled, serpentining +across the parqueted floor and over tables, at which sat half a hundred women, +cutting and sewing streamers and banners for the Funeral of the Revolutionary +Dead. The faces of these women were roughened and scarred with life at its most +difficult; they worked now sternly, many of them with eyes red from weeping…. +The losses of the Red Army had been heavy. +</p> + +<p> +At a desk in one corner was Rogov, an intelligent, bearded man with glasses, +wearing the black blouse of a worker. He invited us to march with the Central +Executive Committee in the funeral procession next morning…. +</p> + +<p> +“It is impossible to teach the Socialist Revolutionaries and the +Mensheviki anything!” he exclaimed. “They compromise from sheer +habit. Imagine! They proposed that we hold a joint funeral with the +<i>yunkers!”</i> +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 251: Questionaire for the Bourgeoioisie] +</p> + +<p> +Distributed to all bourgeois households in Moscow by the Moscow Military +Revolutionary Commitee, so as to provide a basis for the requisition of +clothing for the Army and the poor workers. For translation see Appendix 3. +(See App. X, Sect. 3) +</p> + +<p> +Across the hall came a man in a ragged soldier-coat and <i>shapka,</i> whose +face was familiar; I recognised Melnichansky, whom I had known as the +watch-maker George Melcher in Bayonne, New Jersey, during the great Standard +Oil strike. Now, he told me, he was secretary of the Moscow +Metal-Workers’ Union, and a Commissar of the Military Revolutionary +Committee during the fighting…. +</p> + +<p> +“You see me!” he cried, showing his decrepit clothing. “I was +with the boys in the Kremlin when the <i>yunkers</i> came the first time. They +shut me up in the cellar and swiped my overcoat, my money, watch and even the +ring on my finger. This is all I’ve got to wear!” +</p> + +<p> +From him I learned many details of the bloody six-day battle which had rent +Moscow in two. Unlike in Petrograd, in Moscow the City Duma had taken command +of the <i>yunkers</i> and White Guards. Rudnev, the Mayor, and Minor, president +of the Duma, had directed the activities of the Committee of Public Safety and +the troops. Riabtsev, Commandant of the city, a man of democratic instincts, +had hesitated about opposing the Military Revolutionary Committee; but the Duma +had forced him…. It was the Mayor who had urged the occupation of the Kremlin; +“They will never dare fire on you there,” he said…. +</p> + +<p> +One garrison regiment, badly demoralised by long inactivity, had been +approached by both sides. The regiment held a meeting to decide what action to +take. Resolved, that the regiment remain neutral, and continue its present +activities—which consisted in peddling rubbers and sunflower seeds! +</p> + +<p> +“But worst of all,” said Melnichansky, “we had to organise +while we were fighting. The other side knew just what it wanted; but here the +soldiers had their Soviet and the workers theirs…. There was a fearful wrangle +over who should be Commander-in-chief; some regiments talked for days before +they decided what to do; and when the officers suddenly deserted us, we had no +battle-staff to give orders….” +</p> + +<p> +Vivid little pictures he gave me. On a cold grey day he had stood at a corner +of the Nikitskaya, which was swept by blasts of machine-gun fire. A throng of +little boys were gathered there—street waifs who used to be newsboys. +Shrill, excited as if with a new game, they waited until the firing slackened, +and then tried to run across the street…. Many were killed, but the rest dashed +backward and forward, laughing, daring each other…. +</p> + +<p> +Late in the evening I went to the <i>Dvorianskoye Sobranie</i>—the +Nobles’ Club—where the Moscow Bolsheviki were to meet and consider +the report of Nogin, Rykov and the others who had left the Council of +People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +The meeting-place was a theatre, in which, under the old régime, to audiences +of officers and glittering ladies, amateur presentations of the latest French +comedy had once taken place. +</p> + +<p> +At first the place filled with the intellectuals—those who lived near the +centre of the town. Nogin spoke, and most of his listeners were plainly with +him. It was very late before the workers arrived; the working-class quarters +were on the outskirts of the town, and no street-cars were running. But about +midnight they began to clump up the stairs, in groups of ten or +twenty—big, rough men, in coarse clothes, fresh from the battle-line, +where they had fought like devils for a week, seeing their comrades fall all +about them. +</p> + +<p> +Scarcely had the meeting formally opened before Nogin was assailed with a +tempest of jeers and angry shouts. In vain he tried to argue, to explain; they +would not listen. He had left the Council of People’s Commissars; he had +deserted his post while the battle was raging. As for the bourgeois press, here +in Moscow there was no more bourgeois press; even the City Duma had been +dissolved. (See App. X, Sect. 4) Bukharin stood up, savage, logical, with a +voice which plunged and struck, plunged and struck…. Him they listened to with +shining eyes. Resolution, to support the action of the Council of +People’s Commissars, passed by overwhelming majority. So spoke Moscow…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 254: Pass to the Kremlin] +</p> + +<p> +By this the Military Revolutionary Commitee requests to give a pass for the +purpose of investigating the Kremlin, the representatives of the American +Socialist party attached to the Socialist press, comrades Reed and Bryant. +Chief of the Military Revolutionary Committee For the Secretary +</p> + +<p> +Late in the night we went through the empty streets and under the Iberian Gate +to the great Red Square in front of the Kremlin. The church of Vasili Blazheiny +loomed fantastic, its bright-coloured, convoluted and blazoned cupolas vague in +the darkness. There was no sign of any damage…. Along one side of the square +the dark towers and walls of the Kremlin stood up. On the high walls flickered +redly the light of hidden flames; voices reached us across the immense place, +and the sound of picks and shovels. We crossed over. +</p> + +<p> +Mountains of dirt and rock were piled high near the base of the wall. Climbing +these we looked down into two massive pits, ten or fifteen feet deep and fifty +yards long, where hundreds of soldiers and workers were digging in the light of +huge fires. +</p> + +<p> +A young student spoke to us in German. “The Brotherhood Grave,” he +explained. “To-morrow we shall bury here five hundred proletarians who +died for the Revolution.” +</p> + +<p> +He took us down into the pit. In frantic haste swung the picks and shovels, and +the earth—mountains grew. No one spoke. Overhead the night was thick with +stars, and the ancient Imperial Kremlin wall towered up immeasurably. +</p> + +<p> +“Here in this holy place,” said the student, “holiest of all +Russia, we shall bury our most holy. Here where are the tombs of the Tsars, our +Tsar—the People—shall sleep….” His arm was in a sling, from a +bullet-wound gained in the fighting. He looked at it. “You foreigners +look down on us Russians because so long we tolerated a mediæval +monarchy,” said he. “But we saw that the Tsar was not the only +tyrant in the world; capitalism was worse, and in all the countries of the +world capitalism was Emperor…. Russian revolutionary tactics are best….” +</p> + +<p> +As we left, the workers in the pit, exhausted and running with sweat in spite +of the cold, began to climb wearily out. Across the Red Square a dark knot of +men came hurrying. They swarmed into the pits, picked up the tools and began +digging, digging, without a word…. +</p> + +<p> +So, all the long night volunteers of the People relieved each other, never +halting in their driving speed, and the cold light of the dawn laid bare the +great Square, white with snow, and the yawning brown pits of the Brotherhood +Grave, quite finished. +</p> + +<p> +We rose before sunrise, and hurried through the dark streets to Skobeliev +Square. In all the great city not a human being could be seen; but there was a +faint sound of stirring, far and near, like a deep wind coming. In the pale +half-light a little group of men and women were gathered before the Soviet +headquarters, with a sheaf of gold-lettered red banners—the Central +Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviets. It grew light. From afar the vague +stirring sound deepened and became louder, a steady and tremendous bass. The +city was rising. We set out down the Tverskaya, the banners flapping overhead. +The little street chapels along our way were locked and dark, as was the Chapel +of the Iberian Virgin, which each new Tsar used to visit before he went to the +Kremlin to crown himself, and which, day or night, was always open and crowded, +and brilliant with the candles of the devout gleaming on the gold and silver +and jewels of the ikons. Now, for the first time since Napoleon was in Moscow, +they say, the candles were out. +</p> + +<p> +The Holy Orthodox Church had withdrawn the light of its countenance from +Moscow, the nest of irreverent vipers who had bombarded the Kremlin. Dark and +silent and cold were the churches; the priests had disappeared. There were no +popes to officiate at the Red Burial, there had been no sacrament for the dead, +nor were any prayers to be said over the grave of the blasphemers. Tikhon, +Metropolitan of Moscow, was soon to excommunicate the Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +Also the shops were closed, and the propertied classes stayed at home—but +for other reasons. This was the Day of the People, the rumour of whose coming +was thunderous as surf…. +</p> + +<p> +Already through the Iberian Gate a human river was flowing, and the vast Red +Square was spotted with people, thousands of them. I remarked that as the +throng passed the Iberian Chapel, where always before the passerby had crossed +himself, they did not seem to notice it…. +</p> + +<p> +We forced our way through the dense mass packed near the Kremlin wall, and +stood upon one of the dirt-mountains. Already several men were there, among +them Muranov, the soldier who had been elected Commandant of Moscow—a +tall, simple-looking, bearded man with a gentle face. +</p> + +<p> +Through all the streets to the Red Square the torrents of people poured, +thousands upon thousands of them, all with the look of the poor and the +toiling. A military band came marching up, playing the <i>Internationale,</i> +and spontaneously the song caught and spread like wind-ripples on a sea, slow +and solemn. From the top of the Kremlin wall gigantic banners unrolled to the +ground; red, with great letters in gold and in white, saying, “Martyrs of +the Beginning of World Social Revolution,” and “Long Live the +Brotherhood of Workers of the World.” +</p> + +<p> +A bitter wind swept the Square, lifting the banners. Now from the far quarters +of the city the workers of the different factories were arriving, with their +dead. They could be seen coming through the Gate, the blare of their banners, +and the dull red—like blood—of the coffins they carried. These were +rude boxes, made of unplaned wood and daubed with crimson, borne high on the +shoulders of rough men who marched with tears streaming down their faces, and +followed by women who sobbed and screamed, or walked stiffly, with white, dead +faces. Some of the coffins were open, the lid carried behind them; others were +covered with gilded or silvered cloth, or had a soldier’s hat nailed on +the top. There were many wreaths of hideous artificial flowers…. +</p> + +<p> +Through an irregular lane that opened and closed again the procession slowly +moved toward us. Now through the Gate was flowing an endless stream of banners, +all shades of red, with silver and gold lettering, knots of crepe hanging from +the top—and some Anarchist flags, black with white letters. The band was +playing the Revolutionary Funeral March, and against the immense singing of the +mass of people, standing uncovered, the paraders sang hoarsely, choked with +sobs…. +</p> + +<p> +Between the factory-workers came companies of soldiers with their coffins, too, +and squadrons of cavalry, riding at salute, and artillery batteries, the cannon +wound with red and black—forever, it seemed. Their banners said, +“Long live the Third International!” or “We Want an Honest, +General, Democratic Peace!” +</p> + +<p> +Slowly the marchers came with their coffins to the entrance of the grave, and +the bearers clambered up with their burdens and went down into the pit. Many of +them were women—squat, strong proletarian women. Behind the dead came +other women—women young and broken, or old, wrinkled women making noises +like hurt animals, who tried to follow their sons and husbands into the +Brotherhood Grave, and shrieked when compassionate hands restrained them. The +poor love each other so! +</p> + +<p> +All the long day the funeral procession passed, coming in by the Iberian Gate +and leaving the Square by way of the Nikolskaya, a river of red banners, +bearing words of hope and brotherhood and stupendous prophecies, against a +back-ground of fifty thousand people,—under the eyes of the world’s +workers and their descendants forever…. +</p> + +<p> +One by one the five hundred coffins were laid in the pits. Dusk fell, and still +the banners came drooping and fluttering, the band played the Funeral March, +and the huge assemblage chanted. In the leafless branches of the trees above +the grave the wreaths were hung, like strange, multi-coloured blossoms. Two +hundred men began to shovel in the dirt. It rained dully down upon the coffins +with a thudding sound, audible beneath the singing…. +</p> + +<p> +The lights came out. The last banners passed, and the last moaning women, +looking back with awful intensity as they went. Slowly from the great Square +ebbed the proletarian tide…. +</p> + +<p> +I suddenly realised that the devout Russian people no longer needed priests to +pray them into heaven. On earth they were building a kingdom more bright than +any heaven had to offer, and for which it was a glory to die…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>Chapter XI<br /> +The Conquest of Power (See App. XI, Sect. 1)</h2> + +<p> +DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLES OF RUSSIA (See App. XI, Sect. 2) +</p> + +<p> +… The first Congress of Soviets, in June of this year, proclaimed the right of +the peoples of Russia to self-determination. +</p> + +<p> +The second Congress of Soviets, in November last, confirmed this inalienable +right of the peoples of Russia more decisively and definitely. +</p> + +<p> +Executing the will of these Congresses, the Council of People’s +Commissars has resolved to establish as a basis for its activity in the +question of Nationalities, the following principles: +</p> + +<p> +(1) The equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia. +</p> + +<p> +(2) The right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, even to the +point of separation and the formation of an independent state. +</p> + +<p> +(3) The abolition of any and all national and national religious privileges and +disabilities. +</p> + +<p> +(4) The free development of national minorities and ethnographic groups +inhabiting the territory of Russia. +</p> + +<p> +Decrees will be prepared immediately upon the formation of a Commission on +Nationalities. +</p> + +<p> +In the name of the Russian Republic, +</p> + +<p> +People’s Commissar for Nationalities +</p> + +<h5>YUSSOV DJUGASHVILI-STALIN</h5> + +<p> +President of the Council of People’s Commissars +</p> + +<h5>V. ULIANOV (LENIN)</h5> + +<p> +The Central Rada at Kiev immediately declared Ukraine an independent Republic, +as did the Government of Finland, through the Senate at Helsingfors. +Independent “Governments” spring up in Siberia and the Caucasus. +The Polish Chief Military Committee swiftly gathered together the Polish troops +in the Russian army, abolished their Committees and established an iron +discipline…. +</p> + +<p> +All these “Governments” and “movements” had two +characteristics in common; they were controlled by the propertied classes, and +they feared and detested Bolshevism…. +</p> + +<p> +Steadily, amid the chaos of shocking change, the Council of People’s +Commissars hammered at the scaffolding of the Socialist order. Decree on Social +Insurance, on Workers’ Control, Regulations for Volost Land Committees, +Abolition of Ranks and Titles, Abolition of Courts and the Creation of +People’s Tribunals…. (See App. XI, Sect. 3) +</p> + +<p> +Army after army, fleet after fleet, sent deputations, “joyfully to greet +the new Government of the People.” +</p> + +<p> +In front of Smolny, one day, I saw a ragged regiment just come from the +trenches. The soldiers were drawn up before the great gates, thin and +grey-faced, looking up at the building as if God were in it. Some pointed out +the Imperial eagles over the door, laughing…. Red Guards came to mount guard. +All the soldiers turned to look, curiously, as if they had heard of them but +never seen them. They laughed good-naturedly and pressed out of line to slap +the Red Guards on the back, with half-joking, half-admiring remarks…. +</p> + +<p> +The Provisional Government was no more. On November 15th, in all the churches +of the capital, the priests stopped praying for it. But as Lenin himself told +the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> that was “only the beginning of the conquest of +power.” Deprived of arms, the opposition, which still controlled the +economic life of the country, settled down to organise disorganisation, with +all the Russian genius for cooperative action—to obstruct, cripple and +discredit the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +The strike of Government employees was well organised, financed by the banks +and commercial establishments. Every move of the Bolsheviki to take over the +Government apparatus was resisted. +</p> + +<p> +Trotzky went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the functionaries refused to +recognise him, locked themselves in, and when the doors were forced, resigned. +He demanded the keys of the archives; only when he brought workmen to force the +locks were they given up. Then it was discovered that Neratov, former assistant +Foreign Minister, had disappeared with the Secret Treaties…. +</p> + +<p> +Shliapnikov tried to take possession of the Ministry of Labour. It was bitterly +cold, and there was no one to light the fires. Of all the hundreds of +employees, not one would show him where the office of the Minister was…. +</p> + +<p> +Alexandra Kollontai, appointed the 13th of November Commissar of Public +Welfare—the department of charities and public institutions—was +welcomed with a strike of all but forty of the functionaries in the Ministry. +Immediately the poor of the great cities, the inmates of institutions, were +plunged in miserable want: delegations of starving cripples, of orphans with +blue, pinched faces, besieged the building. With tears streaming down her face, +Kollontai arrested the strikers until they should deliver the keys of the +office and the safe; when she got the keys, however, it was discovered that the +former Minister, Countess Panina, had gone off with all the funds, which she +refused to surrender except on the order of the Constituent Assembly. (See App. +XI, Sect. 4) +</p> + +<p> +In the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Supplies, the Ministry of +Finance, similar incidents occurred. And the employees, summoned to return or +forfeit their positions and their pensions, either stayed away or returned to +sabotage…. Almost all the <i>intelligentzia</i> being anti-Bolshevik, there was +nowhere for the Soviet Government to recruit new staffs…. +</p> + +<p> +The private banks remained stubbornly closed, with a back door open for +speculators. When Bolshevik Commissars entered, the clerks left, secreting the +books and removing the funds. All the employees of the State Bank struck except +the clerks in charge of the vaults and the manufacture of money, who refused +all demands from Smolny and privately paid out huge sums to the Committee for +Salvation and the City Duma. +</p> + +<p> +Twice a Commissar, with a company of Red Guards, came formally to insist upon +the delivery of large sums for Government expenses. The first time, the City +Duma members and the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary leaders were present +in imposing numbers, and spoke so gravely of the consequences that the +Commissar was frightened. The second time he arrived with a warrant, which he +proceeded to read aloud in due form; but some one called his attention to the +fact that it had no date and no seal, and the traditional Russian respect for +“documents” forced him again to withdraw…. +</p> + +<p> +The officials of the Credit Chancery destroyed their books, so that all record +of the financial relations of Russia with foreign countries was lost. +</p> + +<p> +The Supply Committees, the administrations of the Municipal-owned public +utilities, either did not work at all, or sabotaged. And when the Bolsheviki, +compelled by the desperate needs of the city population, attempted to help or +to control the public service, all the employees went on strike immediately, +and the Duma flooded Russia with telegrams about Bolshevik “violation of +Municipal autonomy.” +</p> + +<p> +At Military headquarters, and in the offices of the Ministries of War and +Marine, where the old officials had consented to work, the Army Committees and +the high command blocked the Soviets in every way possible, even to the extent +of neglecting the troops at the front. The <i>Vikzhel</i> was hostile, refusing +to transport Soviet troops; every troop-train that left Petrograd was taken out +by force, and railway officials had to be arrested each time—whereupon +the <i>Vikzhel</i> threatened an immediate general strike unless they were +released…. +</p> + +<p> +Smolny was plainly powerless. The newspapers said that all the factories of +Petrograd must shut down for lack of fuel in three weeks; the <i>Vikzhel</i> +announced that trains must cease running by December first; there was food for +three days only in Petrograd, and no more coming in; and the Army on the Front +was starving…. The Committee for Salvation, the various Central Committees, +sent word all over the country, exhorting the population to ignore the +Government decrees. And the Allied Embassies were either coldly indifferent, or +openly hostile…. +</p> + +<p> +The opposition newspapers, suppressed one day and reappearing next morning +under new names, heaped bitter sarcasm on the new regime. (See App. XI, Sect. +5) Even <i>Novaya Zhizn</i> characterised it as “a combination of +demagoguery and impotence.” +</p> + +<p> +From day to day (it said) the Government of the People’s Commissars sinks +deeper and deeper into the mire of superficial haste. Having easily conquered +the power… the Bolsheviki can not make use of it. +</p> + +<p> +Powerless to direct the existing mechanism of Government, they are unable at +the same time to create a new one which might work easily and freely according +to the theories of social experimenters. +</p> + +<p> +Just a little while ago the Bolsheviki hadn’t enough men to run their +growing party—a work above all of speakers and writers; where then are +they going to find trained men to execute the diverse and complicated functions +of government? +</p> + +<p> +The new Government acts and threatens, it sprays the country with decrees, each +one more radical and more “socialist” than the last. But in this +exhibition of Socialism on Paper—more likely designed for the +stupefaction of our descendants—there appears neither the desire nor the +capacity to solve the immediate problems of the day! +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the <i>Vikzhel’s</i> Conference to Form a New Government +continued to meet night and day. Both sides had already agreed in principle to +the basis of the Government; the composition of the People’s Council was +being discussed; the Cabinet was tentatively chosen, with Tchernov as Premier; +the Bolsheviki were admitted in a large minority, but Lenin and Trotzky were +barred. The Central Committees of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary +parties, the Executive Committee of the Peasant’s Soviets, resolved that, +although unalterably opposed to the “criminal politics” of the +Bolsheviki, they would, “in order to halt the fratricidal +bloodshed,” not oppose their entrance into the People’s Council. +</p> + +<p> +The flight of Kerensky, however, and the astounding success of the Soviets +everywhere, altered the situation. On the 16th, in a meeting of the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> the Left Socialist Revolutionaries insisted that the +Bolsheviki should form a coalition Government with the other Socialist parties; +otherwise they would withdraw from the Military Revolutionary Committee and the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> Malkin said, “The news from Moscow, where our +comrades are dying on both sides of the barricades, determines us to bring up +once more the question of organisation of power, and it is not only our right +to do so, but our duty…. We have won the right to sit with the Bolsheviki here +within the walls of Smolny Institute, and to speak from this tribune. After the +bitter internal party struggle, we shall be obliged, if you refuse to +compromise, to pass to open battle outside…. We must propose to the democracy +terms of an acceptable compromise….” +</p> + +<p> +After a recess to consider this ultimatum, the Bolsheviki returned with a +resolution, read by Kameniev: +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> considers it necessary that there enter into the +Government representatives of <i>all the Socialist parties composing the +Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies who +recognise the conquests of the Revolution of November 7th—that is to say, +the establishment of a Government of Soviets, the decrees on peace, land, +workers’ control over industry, and the arming of the working-class.</i> +The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> therefore resolves to propose negotiations concerning +the constitution of the Government to all parties <i>of the Soviet,</i> and +insists upon the following conditions as a basis: +</p> + +<p> +The Government is responsible to the <i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> +shall be enlarged to 150 members. To these 150 delegates of the Soviets of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies shall be added 75 delegates of the +<i>Provincial</i> Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, 80 from the Front +organisations of the Army and Navy, 40 from the Trade Unions (25 from the +various All-Russian Unions, in proportion to their importance, 10 from the +<i>Vikzhel,</i> and 5 from the Post and Telegraph Workers), and 50 delegates +from the Socialist groups in the Petrograd City Duma. In the Ministry itself, +at least one-half the portfolios must be reserved to the Bolsheviki. The +Ministries of Labour, Interior and Foreign Affairs must be given to the +Bolsheviki. The command of the garrisons of Petrograd and Moscow must remain in +the hands of delegates of the Moscow and Petrograd Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +The Government undertakes the systematic arming of the workers of all Russia. +</p> + +<p> +It is resolved to insist upon the candidature of comrades Lenin and Trotzky. +</p> + +<p> +Kameniev explained. “The so-called ‘People’s +Council,’” he said, “proposed by the Conference, would +consist of about 420 members, of which about 150 would be Bolsheviki. Besides, +there would be delegates from the counter-revolutionary old <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> +100 members chosen by the Municipal Dumas—Kornilovtsi all; 100 delegates +from the Peasants’ Soviets—appointed by Avksentiev, and 80 from the +old Army Committees, who no longer represent the soldier masses. +</p> + +<p> +“We refuse to admit the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> and also the +representatives of the Municipal Dumas. The delegates from the Peasants’ +Soviets shall be elected by the Congress of Peasants, which we have called, and +which will at the same time elect a new Executive Committee. The proposal to +exclude Lenin and Trotzky is a proposal to decapitate our party, and we do not +accept it. And finally, we see no necessity for a ‘People’s +Council’ anyway; the Soviets are open to all Socialist parties, and the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> represents them in their real proportions among the +masses….” +</p> + +<p> +Karelin, for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, declared that his party would +vote for the Bolshevik resolution, reserving the right to modify certain +details, such as the representation of the peasants, and demanding that the +Ministry of Agriculture be reserved for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. +This was agreed to…. +</p> + +<p> +Later, at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, Trotzky answered a question about +the formation of the new Government: +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know anything about that. I am not taking part in the +negotiations…. However, I don’t think that they are of great +importance….” +</p> + +<p> +That night there was great uneasiness in the Conference. The delegates of the +City Duma withdrew…. +</p> + +<p> +But at Smolny itself, in the ranks of the Bolshevik party, a formidable +opposition to Lenin’s policy was growing. On the night of November 17th +the great hall was packed and ominous for the meeting of the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> +</p> + +<p> +Larin, Bolshevik, declared that the moment of elections to the Constituent +Assembly approached, and it was time to do away with “political +terrorism.” +</p> + +<p> +“The measures taken against the freedom of the press should be modified. +They had their reason during the struggle, but now they have no further excuse. +The press should be free, except for appeals to riot and insurrection.” +</p> + +<p> +In a storm of hisses and hoots from his own party, Larin offered the following +resolution: +</p> + +<p> +The decree of the Council of People’s Commissars concerning the Press is +herewith repealed. +</p> + +<p> +Measures of political repression can only be employed subject to decision of a +special tribunal, elected by the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> proportionally to the +strength of the different parties represented; and this tribunal shall have the +right also to reconsider measures of repression already taken. +</p> + +<p> +This was met by a thunder of applause, not only from the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries, but also from a part of the Bolsheviki. +</p> + +<p> +Avanessov, for the Leninites, hastily proposed that the question of the Press +be postponed until after some compromise between the Socialist parties had been +reached. Overwhelmingly voted down. +</p> + +<p> +“The revolution which is now being accomplished,” went on +Avanessov, “has not hesitated to attack private property; and it is as +private property that we must examine the question of the Press….” +</p> + +<p> +Thereupon he read the official Bolshevik resolution: +</p> + +<p> +The suppression of the bourgeois press was dictated not only by purely military +needs in the course of the insurrection, and for the checking of +counter-revolutionary action, but it is also necessary as a measure of +transition toward the establishment of a new régime with regard to the +Press—a régime under which the capitalist owners of printing-presses and +of paper cannot be the all-powerful and exclusive manufacturers of public +opinion. +</p> + +<p> +We must further proceed to the confiscation of private printing plants and +supplies of paper, which should become the property of the Soviets, both in the +capital and in the provinces, so that the political parties and groups can make +use of the facilities of printing in proportion to the actual strength of the +ideas they represent—in other words, proportionally to the number of +their constituents. +</p> + +<p> +The reëstablishment of the so-called “freedom of the press,” the +simple return of printing presses and paper to the capitalists,—poisoners +of the mind of the people—this would be an inadmissible surrender to the +will of capital, a giving up of one of the most important conquests of the +Revolution; in other words, it would be a measure of unquestionably +counter-revolutionary character. +</p> + +<p> +Proceeding from the above, the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> categorically rejects all +propositions aiming at the reëstablishment of the old régime in the domain of +the Press, and unequivocally supports the point of view of the Council of +People’s Commissars on this question, against pretentions and ultimatums +dictated by petty bourgeois prejudices, or by evident surrender to the +interests of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie. +</p> + +<p> +The reading of this resolution was interrupted by ironical shouts from the Left +Socialist Revolutionaries, and bursts of indignation from the insurgent +Bolsheviki. Karelin was on his feet, protesting. “Three weeks ago the +Bolsheviki were the most ardent defenders of the freedom of the Press… The +arguments in this resolution suggest singularly the point of view of the old +Black Hundreds and the censors of the Tsarist régime—for they also talked +of ‘poisoners of the mind of the people.’” +</p> + +<p> +Trotzky spoke at length in favour of the resolution. He distinguished between +the Press during the civil war, and the Press after the victory. “During +civil war the right to use violence belongs only to the oppressed….” +(Cries of “Who’s the oppressed now? Cannibal!”). +</p> + +<p> +“The victory over our adversaries is not yet achieved, and the newspapers +are arms in their hands. In these conditions, the closing of the newspapers is +a legitimate measure of defence….” Then passing to the question of the +Press after the victory, Trotzky continued: +</p> + +<p> +“The attitude of Socialists on the question of freedom of the Press +should be the same as their attitude toward the freedom of business…. The rule +of the democracy which is being established in Russia demands that the +domination of the Press by private property must be abolished, just as the +domination of industry by private property…. The power of the Soviets should +confiscate all printing-plants.” (Cries, “Confiscate the +printing-shop of <i>Pravda!</i>”) +</p> + +<p> +“The monopoly of the Press by the bourgeoisie must be abolished. +Otherwise it isn’t worth while for us to take the power! Each group of +citizens should have access to print shops and paper…. The ownership of +print-type and of paper belongs first to the workers and peasants, and only +afterwards to the bourgeois parties, which are in a minority…. The passing of +the power into the hands of the Soviets will bring about a radical +transformation of the essential conditions of existence, and this +transformation will necessarily be evident in the Press…. If we are going to +nationalise the banks, can we then tolerate the financial journals? The old +régime must die; that must be understood once and for all….” Applause and +angry cries. +</p> + +<p> +Karelin declared that the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> had no right to pass upon this +important question, which should be left to a special committee. Again, +passionately, he demanded that the Press be free. +</p> + +<p> +Then Lenin, calm, unemotional, his forehead wrinkled, as he spoke slowly, +choosing his words; each sentence falling like a hammer-blow. “The civil +war is not yet finished; the enemy is still with us; consequently it is +impossible to abolish the measures of repression against the Press. +</p> + +<p> +“We Bolsheviki have always said that when we reached a position of power +we would close the bourgeois press. To tolerate the bourgeois newspapers would +mean to cease being a Socialist. When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark +time; one must always go forward—or go back. He who now talks about the +‘freedom of the Press’ goes backward, and halts our headlong course +toward Socialism. +</p> + +<p> +“We have thrown off the yoke of capitalism, just as the first revolution +threw off the yoke of Tsarism. <i>If the first revolution had the right to +suppress the Monarchist papers,</i> then we have the right to suppress the +bourgeois press. It is impossible to separate the question of the freedom of +the Press from the other questions of the class struggle. We have promised to +close these newspapers, and we shall do it. The immense majority of the people +is with us! +</p> + +<p> +“Now that the insurrection is over, we have absolutely no desire to +suppress the papers of the other Socialist parties, except inasmuch as they +appeal to armed insurrection, or to disobedience to the Soviet Government. +However, we shall not permit them, under the pretence of freedom of the +Socialist press, to obtain, through the secret support of the bourgeoisie, a +monopoly of printing-presses, ink and paper…. These essentials must become the +property of the Soviet Government, and be apportioned, first of all, to the +Socialist parties in strict proportion to their voting strength….” +</p> + +<p> +Then the vote. The resolution of Larin and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries +was defeated by 31 to 22; the Lenin motion was carried by 34 to 24. Among the +minority were the Bolsheviki Riazanov and Lozovsky, who declared that it was +impossible for them to vote against any restriction on the freedom of the +Press. +</p> + +<p> +Upon this the Left Socialist Revolutionaries declared they could no longer be +responsible for what was being done, and withdrew from the Military +Revolutionary Committee and all other positions of executive responsibility. +</p> + +<p> +Five members—Nogin, Rykov, Miliutin, Teodorovitch and +Shiapnikov—resigned from the Council of People’s Commissars, +declaring: +</p> + +<p> +We are in favour of a Socialist Government composed of all the parties in the +Soviets. We consider that only the creation of such a Government can possibly +guarantee the results of the heroic struggle of the working-class and the +revolutionary army. Outside of that, there remains only one way: the +constitution of a purely Bolshevik Government by means of political terrorism. +This last is the road taken by the Council of People’s Commissars. We +cannot and will not follow it. We see that this leads directly to the +elimination from political life of many proletarian organisations, to the +establishment of an irresponsible régime, and to the destruction of the +Revolution and the country. We cannot take the responsibility for such a +policy, and we renounce before the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> our function as +People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +Other Commissars, without resigning their positions, signed the +declaration—Riazanov, Derbychev of the Press Department, Arbuzov, of the +Government Printing-plant, Yureniev, of the Red Guard, Feodorov, of the +Commissariat of Labour, and Larin, secretary of the Section of Elaboration of +Decrees. +</p> + +<p> +At the same time Kameniev, Rykov, Miliutin, Zinoviev and Nogin resigned from +the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party, making public their reasons: +</p> + +<p> +… The constitution of such a Government (composed of all the parties of the +Soviet) is indispensable to prevent a new flow of blood, the coming famine, the +destruction of the Revolution by the Kaledinists, to assure the convocation of +the Constituent Assembly at the proper time, and to apply effectively the +programme adopted by the Congress of Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +We cannot accept the responsibility for the disastrous policy of the Central +Committee, carried on against the will of an enormous majority of the +proletariat and the soldiers, who are eager to see the rapid end of the +bloodshed between the different political parties of the democracy…. We +renounce our title as members of the Central Committee, in order to be able to +say openly our opinion to the masses of workers and soldiers…. +</p> + +<p> +We leave the Central Committee at the moment of victory; we cannot calmly look +on while the policy of the chiefs of the Central Committee leads toward the +loss of the fruits of victory and the crushing of the proletariat…. +</p> + +<p> +The masses of the workers, the soldiers of the garrison, stirred restlessly, +sending their delegations to Smolny, to the Conference for Formation of the New +Government, where the break in the ranks of the Bolsheviki caused the liveliest +joy. +</p> + +<p> +But the answer of the Leninites was swift and ruthless. Shliapnikov and +Teodorovitch submitted to party discipline and returned to their posts. +Kameniev was stripped of his powers as president of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> and +Sverdlov elected in his place. Zinoviev was deposed as president of the +Petrograd Soviet. On the morning of the 5th, <i>Pravda</i> contained a +ferocious proclamation to the people of Russia, written by Lenin, which was +printed in hundreds of thousands of copies, posted on the walls everywhere, and +distributed over the face of Russia. +</p> + +<p> +The second All-Russian Congress of Soviets gave the majority to the Bolshevik +party. Only a Government formed by this party can therefore be a Soviet +Government. And it is known to all that the Central Committee of the Bolshevik +party, a few hours before the formation of the new Government and before +proposing the list of its members to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, +invited to its meeting three of the most eminent members of the Left Socialist +Revolutionary group, comrades Kamkov, Spiro and Karelin, and ASKED THEM to +participate in the new Government. We regret infinitely that the invited +comrades refused; we consider their refusal inadmissible for revolutionists and +champions of the working-class; we are willing at any time to include the Left +Socialist Revolutionaries in the Government; but we declare that, as the party +of the majority at the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, we are entitled +and BOUND before the people to form a Government…. +</p> + +<p> +… Comrades! Several members of the Central Committee of our party and the +Council of People’s Commissars, Kameniev, Zinoviev, Nogin, Rykov, +Miliutin and a few others left yesterday, November 17th, the Central Committee +of our party, and the last three, the Council of People’s Commissars…. +</p> + +<p> +The comrades who left us acted like deserters, because they not only abandoned +the posts entrusted to them, but also disobeyed the direct instructions of the +Central Committee of our party, to the effect that they should await the +decisions of the Petrograd and Moscow party organisations before retiring. We +blame decisively such desertion. We are firmly convinced that all conscious +workers, soldiers and peasants, belonging to our party or sympathising with it, +will also disapprove of the behaviour of the deserters…. +</p> + +<p> +Remember, comrades, that two of these deserters, Kameniev and Zinoviev, even +before the uprising in Petrograd, appeared as deserters and strike-breakers, by +voting at the decisive meeting of the Central Committee, October 23d, 1917, +against the insurrection; and even AFTER the resolution passed by the Central +Committee, they continued their campaign at a meeting of the party workers…. +But the great impulse of the masses, the great heroism of millions of workers, +soldiers and peasants, in Moscow, Petrograd, at the front, in the trenches, in +the villages, pushed aside the deserters as a railway train scatters saw-dust…. +</p> + +<p> +Shame upon those who are of little faith, hesitate, who doubt, who allow +themselves to be frightened by the bourgeoisie, or who succumb before the cries +of the latter’s direct or indirect accomplices! There is NOT A SHADOW of +hesitation in the MASSES of Petrograd, Moscow, and the rest of Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +… We shall not submit to any ultimatums from small groups of intellectuals +which are not followed by the masses, which are PRACTICALLY only supported by +Kornilovists, Savinkovists, <i>yunkers,</i> and so forth…. +</p> + +<p> +The response from the whole country was like a blast of hot storm. The +insurgents never got a chance to “say openly their opinion to the masses +of workers and soldiers.” Upon the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> rolled in like +breakers the fierce popular condemnation of the “deserters.” For +days Smolny was thronged with angry delegations and committees, from the front, +from the Volga, from the Petrograd factories. “Why did they dare leave +the Government? Were they paid by the bourgeoisie to destroy the Revolution? +They must return and submit to the decisions of the Central Committee!” +</p> + +<p> +Only in the Petrograd garrison was there still uncertainty. A great soldier +meeting was held on November 24th, addressed by representatives of all the +political parties. By a vast majority Lenin’s policy was sustained, and +the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were told that they must enter the +government…. <i>See next page.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The Mensheviki delivered a final ultimatum, demanding that all Ministers and +<i>yunkers</i> be released, that all newspapers be allowed full freedom, that +the Red Guard be disarmed and the garrison put under command of the Duma. To +this Smolny answered that all the Socialist Ministers and also all but a very +few <i>yunkers</i> had been already set free, that all newspapers were free +except the bourgeois press, and that the Soviet would remain in command of the +armed forces…. On the 19th the Conference to Form a New Government disbanded, +and the opposition one by one slipped away to Moghilev, where, under the wing +of the General Staff, they continued to form Government after Government, until +the end…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 276: Meeting announcement] +</p> + +<p> +Announcement, posted on the walls of Petrograd, of the result of a meeting of +representatives of the garrison regiments, called to consider the question of +forming a new Government. For translation see App. XI, Sect. 6. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the Bolsheviki had been undermining the power of the <i>Vikzhel.</i> +An appeal of the Petrograd Soviet to all railway workers called upon them to +force the <i>Vikzhel</i> to surrender its powers. On the 15th, the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> following its procedure toward the peasants, called an +All-Russian Congress of Railway Workers for December 1st; the <i>Vikzhel</i> +immediately called its own Congress for two weeks later. On November 16th, the +<i>Vikzhel</i> members took their seats in the <i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> On the night +of December 2d, at the opening session of the All-Russian Congress of Railway +Workers, the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> formally offered the post of Commissar of Ways +and Communications to the <i>Vikzhel</i>—which accepted…. +</p> + +<p> +Having settled the question of power, the Bolsheviki turned their attention to +problems of practical administration. First of all the city, the country, the +Army must be fed. Bands of sailors and Red Guards scoured the warehouses, the +railway terminals, even the barges in the canals, unearthing and confiscating +thousands of <i>poods</i> of food held by private speculators. Emissaries were +sent to the provinces, where with the assistance of the Land Committees they +seized the store-houses of the great grain-dealers. Expeditions of sailors, +heavily armed, were sent out in groups of five thousand, to the South, to +Siberia, with roving commissions to capture cities still held by the White +Guards, establish order, and <i>get food.</i> Passenger traffic on the +Trans-Siberian Railroad was suspended for two weeks, while thirteen trains, +loaded with bolts of cloth and bars of iron assembled by the Factory-Shop +Committees, were sent out eastward, each in charge of a Commissar, to barter +with the Siberian peasants for grain and potatoes…. +</p> + +<p> +Kaledin being in possession of the coal-mines of the Don, the fuel question +became urgent. Smolny shut off all electric lights in theatres, shops and +restaurants, cut down the number of street cars, and confiscated the private +stores of fire-wood held by the fuel-dealers…. And when the factories of +Petrograd were about to close down for lack of coal, the sailors of the Baltic +Fleet turned over to the workers two hundred thousand <i>poods</i> from the +bunkers of battle-ships…. +</p> + +<p> +Toward the end of November occurred the “wine-pogroms” (See App. +XI, Sect. 7)—looting of the wine-cellars—beginning with the +plundering of the Winter Palace vaults. For days there were drunken soldiers on +the streets…. In all this was evident the hand of the counter-revolutionists, +who distributed among the regiments plans showing the location of the stores of +liquor. The Commissars of Smolny began by pleading and arguing, which did not +stop the growing disorder, followed by pitched battles between soldiers and Red +Guards…. Finally the Military Revolutionary Committee sent out companies of +sailors with machine-guns, who fired mercilessly upon the rioters, killing +many; and by executive order the wine-cellars were invaded by Committees with +hatchets, who smashed the bottles—or blew them up with dynamite…. +</p> + +<p> +Companies of Red Guards, disciplined and well-paid, were on duty at the +headquarters of the Ward Soviets day and night, replacing the old Militia. In +all quarters of the city small elective Revolutionary Tribunals were set up by +the workers and soldiers to deal with petty crime…. +</p> + +<p> +The great hotels, where the speculators still did a thriving business, were +surrounded by Red Guards, and the speculators thrown into jail. (See App. XI, +Sect. 8)… +</p> + +<p> +Alert and suspicious, the working-class of the city constituted itself a vast +spy system, through the servants prying into bourgeois households, and +reporting all information to the Military Revolutionary Committee, which struck +with an iron hand, unceasing. In this way was discovered the Monarchist plot +led by former Duma-member Purishkevitch and a group of nobles and officers, who +had planned an officers’ uprising, and had written a letter inviting +Kaledin to Petrograd. (See App. XI, Sect. 9)…. In this way was unearthed the +conspiracy of the Petrograd Cadets, who were sending money and recruits to +Kaledin…. +</p> + +<p> +Neratov, frightened at the outburst of popular fury provoked by his flight, +returned and surrendered the Secret Treaties to Trotzky, who began their +publication in <i>Pravda,</i> scandalising the world…. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 279: Proclamation] +</p> + +<p> +Bolshevik order. A proclamation of the Committee to Fight against Pogroms, +attached to the Petrograd Soviet. For translation see App. XI, Sect. 11. +</p> + +<p> +The restrictions on the Press were increased by a decree (See App. XI, Sect. +10) making advertisements a monopoly of the official Government newspaper. At +this all the other papers suspended publication as a protest, or disobeyed the +law and were closed…. Only three weeks later did they finally submit. +</p> + +<p> +Still the strike of the Ministries went on, still the sabotage of the old +officials, the stoppage of normal economic life. Behind Smolny was only the +will of the vast, unorganised popular masses; and with them the Council of +People’s Commissars dealt, directing revolutionary mass-action against +its enemies. In eloquent proclamations, (See App. XI, Sect. 12) couched in +simple words and spread over Russia, Lenin explained the Revolution, urged the +people to take the power into their own hands, by force to break down the +resistance of the propertied classes, by force to take over the institutions of +Government. Revolutionary order. Revolutionary discipline! Strict accounting +and control! No strikes! No loafing! +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 281: Appeal to work hard] +</p> + +<p> +Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet, the Petrograd Council of Professional Unions, +and the Petrograd Council of Factory Shop Committees, to the Workers of +Petrograd, urging them to work hard and not to strike. For translation see App. +XI, Sect. 13. +</p> + +<p> +On the 20th of November the Military Revolutionary Committee issued a warning: +</p> + +<p> +The rich classes oppose the power of the Soviets—the Government of +workers, soldiers and peasants. Their sympathisers halt the work of the +employees of the Government and the Duma, incite strikes in the banks, try to +interrupt communication by the railways, the post and the telegraph…. +</p> + +<p> +We warn them that they are playing with fire. The country and the Army are +threatened with famine. To fight against it, the regular functioning of all +services is indispensable. The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government is +taking every measure to assure the country and the Army all that is necessary. +Opposition to these measures is a crime against the People. We warn the rich +classes and their sympathisers that, if they do not cease their sabotage and +their provocation in halting the transportation of food, they will be the first +to suffer. They will be deprived of the right of receiving food. All the +reserves which they possess will be requisitioned. The property of the +principal criminals will be confiscated. +</p> + +<p> +We have done our duty in warning those who play with fire. +</p> + +<p> +We are convinced that in case decisive measures become necessary, we shall be +solidly supported by all workers, soldiers, and peasants. +</p> + +<p> +On the 22d of November the walls of the city were placarded with a sheet headed +“EXTRAORDINARY COMMUNICATION”: +</p> + +<p> +The Council of People’s Commissars has received an urgent telegram from +the Staff of the Northern Front…. +</p> + +<p> +“There must be no further delay; do not let the Army die of hunger; the +armies of the Northern Front have not received a crust of bread now for several +days, and in two or three days they will not have any more biscuits—which +are being doled out to them from reserve supplies until now never touched…. +Already delegates from all parts of the Front are talking of a necessary +removal of part of the Army to the rear, foreseeing that in a few days there +will be headlong flight of the soldiers, dying from hunger, ravaged by the +three years’ war in the trenches, sick, insufficiently clothed, +bare-footed, driven mad by superhuman misery.” +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee brings this to the notice of the Petrograd +garrison and the workers of Petrograd. The situation at the Front demands the +most urgent and decisive measures. … Meanwhile the higher functionaries of the +Government institutions, banks, railroads, post and telegraph, are on strike +and impeding the work of the Government in supplying the Front with +provisions…. Each hour of delay may cost the life of thousands of soldiers. The +counter-revolutionary functionaries are the most dishonest criminals toward +their hungry and dying brethren on the Front…. +</p> + +<p> +The MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE GIVES THESE CRIMINALS A LAST WARNING. In +event of the least resistance or opposition on their part, the harshness of the +measures which will be adopted against them will correspond to the seriousness +of their crime…. +</p> + +<p> +The masses of workers and soldiers responded by a savage tremor of rage, which +swept all Russia. In the capital the Government and bank employees got out +hundreds of proclamations and appeals (See App. XI, Sect. 14), protesting, +defending themselves, such as this one: +</p> + +<h5>TO THE ATTENTION OF ALL CITIZENS.</h5> + +<h5>THE STATE BANK IS CLOSED!</h5> + +<h5>WHY?</h5> + +<p> +Because the violence exercised by the Bolsheviki against the State Bank has +made it impossible for us to work. The first act of the People’s +Commissars was to DEMAND TEN MILLION RUBLES, and on November 27th THEY DEMANDED +TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS, without any indication as to where this money was to go. +</p> + +<p> +… We functionaries cannot take part in plundering the people’s property. +We stopped work. +</p> + +<p> +CITIZENS! The money in the State Bank is yours, the people’s money, +acquired by your labour, your sweat and blood. CITIZENS! Save the +people’s property from robbery, and us from violence, and we shall +immediately resume work. +</p> + +<h5>EMPLOYEES OF THE STATE BANK.</h5> + +<p> +From the Ministry of Supplies, the Ministry of Finance, from the Special Supply +Committee, declarations that the Military Revolutionary Committee made it +impossible for the employees to work, appeals to the population to support them +against Smolny…. But the dominant worker and soldier did not believe them; it +was firmly fixed in the popular mind that the employees were sabotaging, +starving the Army, starving the people…. In the long bread lines, which as +formerly stood in the iron winter streets, it was not <i>the Government</i> +which was blamed, as it had been under Kerensky, but the <i>tchinovniki,</i> +the sabotageurs; for the Government was <i>their</i> Government, <i>their</i> +Soviets—and the functionaries of the Ministries were against it…. +</p> + +<p> +At the centre of all this opposition was the Duma, and its militant organ, the +Committee for Salvation, protesting against all the decrees of the Council of +People’s Commissars, voting again and again not to recognise the Soviet +Government, openly cooperating with the new counter-revolutionary +“Governments” set up at Moghilev…. On the 17th of November, for +example, the Committee for Salvation addressed “all Municipal +Governments, Zemstvos, and all democratic and revolutionary organisations of +peasants, workers, soldiers and other citizens,” in these words: +</p> + +<p> +Do not recognise the Government of the Bolsheviki, and struggle against it. +</p> + +<p> +Form local Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolution, who will unite +all democratic forces, so as to aid the All-Russian Committee for Salvation in +the tasks which it has set itself…. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the elections for the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd (See App. XI, +Sect. 15) gave an enormous plurality to the Bolsheviki; so that even the +Mensheviki Internationalists pointed out that the Duma ought to be re-elected, +as it no longer represented the political composition of the Petrograd +population…. At the same time floods of resolutions from workers’ +organisations, from military units, even from the peasants in the surrounding +country, poured in upon the Duma, calling it “counter-revolutionary, +Kornilovitz,” and demanding that it resign. The last days of the Duma +were stormy with the bitter demands of the Municipal workers for decent living +wages, and the threat of strikes…. +</p> + +<p> +On the 23d a formal decree of the Military Revolutionary Committee dissolved +the Committee for Salvation. On the 29th, the Council of People’s +Commissars ordered the dissolution and re-election of the Petrograd City Duma: +</p> + +<p> +In view of the fact that the Central Duma of Petrograd, elected September 2d, … +has definitely lost the right to represent the population of Petrograd, being +in complete disaccord with its state of mind and its aspirations … and in view +of the fact that the personnel of the Duma majority, although having lost all +political following, continues to make use of its prerogatives to resist in a +counter-revolutionary manner the will of the workers, soldiers and peasants, to +sabotage and obstruct the normal work of the Government—the Council of +People’s Commissars considers it its duty to invite the population of the +capital to pronounce judgment on the policy of the organ of Municipal autonomy. +</p> + +<p> +To this end the Council of People’s Commissars resolves: +</p> + +<p> +(1) To dissolve the Municipal Duma; the dissolution to take effect November +30th, 1917. +</p> + +<p> +(2) All functionaries elected or appointed by the present Duma shall remain at +their posts and fulfil the duties confided to them, until their places shall be +filled by representatives of the new Duma. +</p> + +<p> +(3) All Municipal employees shall continue to fulfil their duties; those who +leave the service of their own accord shall be considered discharged. +</p> + +<p> +(4) The new elections for the Municipal Duma of Petrograd are fixed for +December 9th, 1917…. +</p> + +<p> +(5) The Municipal Duma of Petrograd shall meet December 11th, 1917, at two +o’clock. +</p> + +<p> +(6) Those who disobey this decree, as well as those who intentionally harm or +destroy the property of the Municipality, shall be immediately arrested and +brought before the Revolutionary Tribunals…. +</p> + +<p> +The Duma met defiantly, passing resolutions to the effect that it would +“defend its position to the last drop of its blood,” and appealing +desperately to the population to save their “own elected City +Government.” But the population remained indifferent or hostile. On the +31st Mayor Schreider and several members were arrested, interrogated, and +released. That day and the next the Duma continued to meet, interrupted +frequently by Red Guards and sailors, who politely requested the assembly to +disperse. At the meeting of December 2d, an officer and some sailors entered +the Nicolai Hall while a member was speaking, and ordered the members to leave, +or force would be used. They did so, protesting to the last, but finally +“ceding to violence.” +</p> + +<p> +The new Duma, which was elected ten days later, and for which the +“Moderate” Socialists refused to vote, was almost entirely +Bolshevik…. +</p> + +<p> +There remained several centres of dangerous opposition, such as the +“republics” of Ukraine and Finland, which were showing definitely +anti-Soviet tendencies. Both at Helsingfors and at Kiev the Governments were +gathering troops which could be depended upon, and entering upon campaigns of +crushing Bolshevism, and of disarming and expelling Russian troops. The +Ukrainean Rada had taken command of all southern Russia, and was furnishing +Kaledin reinforcements and supplies. Both Finland and Ukraine were beginning +secret negotiations with the Germans, and were promptly recognised by the +Allied Governments, which loaned them huge sums of money, joining with the +propertied classes to create counter-revolutionary centres of attack upon +Soviet Russia. In the end, when Bolshevism had conquered in both these +countries, the defeated bourgeoisie called in the Germans to restore them to +power…. +</p> + +<p> +But the most formidable menace to the Soviet Government was internal and +two-headed—the Kaledin movement, and the Staff at Moghilev, where General +Dukhonin had assumed command. +</p> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 287: Education Proclamation] +</p> + +<p> +Proclamation of the Commission of Public Education attached to the City Duma, +concerning the strike of school-teachers, just before the Christmas holidays. +The Duma had been re-elected, and was composed almost entirely of Bolsheviki. +For translation see App. XI, Sect. 17. +</p> + +<p> +The ubiquitous Muraviov was appointed commander of the war against the +Cossacks, and a Red Army was recruited from among the factory workers. Hundreds +of propagandists were sent to the Don. The Council of People’s Commissars +issued a proclamation to the Cossacks, (See App. XI, Sect. 16) explaining what +the Soviet Government was, how the propertied classes, the <i>tchin ovniki,</i> +landlords, bankers and their allies, the Cossack princes, land-owners and +Generals, were trying to destroy the Revolution, and prevent the confiscation +of their wealth by the people. +</p> + +<p> +On November 27th a committee of Cossacks came to Smolny to see Trotzky and +Lenin. They demanded if it were true that the Soviet Government did not intend +to divide the Cossack lands among the peasants of Great Russia? +“No,” answered Trotzky. The Cossacks deliberated for a while. +“Well,” they asked, “does the Soviet Government intend to +confiscate the estates of our great Cossack land-owners and divide them among +the working Cossacks?” To this Lenin replied. “That,” he +said, “is for <i>you</i> to do. We shall support the working Cossacks in +all their actions…. The best way to begin is to form Cossacks Soviets; you will +be given representation in the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> and then it will be +<i>your</i> Government, too….” +</p> + +<p> +The Cossacks departed, thinking hard. Two weeks later General Kaledin received +a deputation from his troops. “Will you,” they asked, +“promise to divide the great estates of the Cossack landlords among the +working Cossacks?” +</p> + +<p> +“Only over my dead body,” responded Kaledin. A month later, seeing +his army melt away before his eyes, Kaledin blew out his brains. And the +Cossack movement was no more…. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile at Moghilev were gathered the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> the +“moderate” Socialist leaders—from Avksentiev to +Tchernov—the active chiefs of the old Army Committees, and the +reactionary officers. The Staff steadily refused to recognise the Council of +People’s Commissars. It had united about it the Death Battalions, the +Knights of St. George, and the Cossacks of the Front, and was in close and +secret touch with the Allied military attachès, and with the Kaledin movement +and the Ukrainean Rada…. +</p> + +<p> +The Allied Governments had made no reply to the Peace decree of November 8th, +in which the Congress of Soviets had asked for a general armistice. +</p> + +<p> +On November 20th Trotzky addressed a note to the Allied Ambassadors: (See App. +XI, Sect. 18) +</p> + +<p> +I have the honour to inform you, Mr. Ambassador, that the All-Russian Congress +of Soviets… on November 8th constituted a new Government of the Russian +Republic, in the form of the Council of People’s Commissars. The +President of this Government is Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin. The direction of +Foreign Affairs has been entrusted to me, People’s Commissar for Foreign +Affairs…. +</p> + +<p> +In drawing your attention to the text, approved by the All-Russian Congress, of +the proposition for an armistice and a democratic peace without annexations or +indemnities, based on the right of self-determination of peoples, I have the +honour to request you to consider that document as a formal proposal of an +immediate armistice on all fronts, and the opening of immediate peace +negotiations; a proposal which the authorised Government of the Russian +Republic addresses at the same time to all the belligerent peoples and their +Governments. +</p> + +<p> +Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the profound assurance of the esteem of the +Soviet Government toward your people, who cannot but wish for peace, like all +the other peoples exhausted and drained by this unexampled butchery…. +</p> + +<p> +The same night the Council of People’s Commissars telegraphed to General +Dukhonin: +</p> + +<p> +… The Council of People’s Commissars considers it indispensable without +delay to make a formal proposal of armistice to all the powers, both enemy and +Allied. A declaration conforming to this decision has been sent by the +Commissar for Foreign Affairs to the representatives of the Allied powers at +Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +The Council of People’s Commissars orders you, Citizen Commander,… to +propose to the enemy military authorities immediately to cease hostilities, and +enter into negotiations for peace. +</p> + +<p> +In charging you with the conduct of these preliminary pourparlers, the Council +of People’s Commissars orders you: +</p> + +<p> +1. To inform the Council by direct wire immediately of any and all steps in the +pourparlers with the representatives of the enemy armies. +</p> + +<p> +2. Not to sign the act of armistice until it has been passed upon by the +Council of People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +The Allied Ambassadors received Trotzky’s note with contemptuous silence, +accompanied by anonymous interviews in the newspapers, full of spite and +ridicule. The order to Dukhonin was characterised openly as an act of treason…. +</p> + +<p> +As for Dukhonin, he gave no sign. On the night of November 22nd he was +communicated with by telephone, and asked if he intended to obey the order. +Dukhonin answered that he could not, unless it emanated from “a +Government sustained by the Army and the country.” +</p> + +<p> +By telegraph he was immediately dismissed from the post of Supreme Commander, +and Krylenko appointed in his place. Following his tactics of appealing to the +masses, Lenin sent a radio to all regimental, divisional and corps Committees, +to all soldiers and sailors of the Army and the Fleet, acquainting them with +Dukhonin’s refusal, and ordering that “the regiments on the front +shall elect delegates to begin negotiations with the enemy detachments opposite +their positions….” +</p> + +<p> +On the 23d, the military attaches of the Allied nations, acting on instructions +from their Governments, presented a note to Dukhonin, in which he was solemnly +warned not to “violate the conditions of the treaties concluded between +the Powers of the Entente.” The note went on to say that if a separate +armistice with Germany were concluded, that act “would result in the most +serious consequences” to Russia. This communication Dukhonin at once sent +out to all the soldiers’ Committees…. +</p> + +<p> +Next morning Trotzky made another appeal to the troops, characterising the note +of the Allied representatives as a flagrant interference in the internal +affairs of Russia, and a bald attempt “to force by threats the Russian +Army and the Russian people to continue the war in execution of the treaties +concluded by the Tsar….” +</p> + +<p> +From Smolny poured out proclamation after proclamation, (See App. XI, Sect. 19) +denouncing Dukhonin and the counter-revolutionary officers about him, +denouncing the reactionary politicians gathered at Moghilev, rousing, from one +end of the thousand-mile Front to the other, millions of angry, suspicious +soldiers. And at the same time Krylenko, accompanied by three detachments of +fanatical sailors, set out for the <i>Stavka,</i> breathing threats of +vengeance, (See App. XI, Sect. 20) and received by the soldiers everywhere with +tremendous ovations—a triumphal progress. The Central Army Committee +issued a declaration in favour of Dukhonin; and at once ten thousand troops +moved upon Moghilev…. +</p> + +<p> +On December 2d the garrison of Moghilev rose and seized the city, arresting +Dukhonin and the Army Committee, and going out with victorious red banners to +meet the new Supreme Commander. Krylenko entered Moghilev next morning, to find +a howling mob gathered about the railway-car in which Dukhonin had been +imprisoned. Krylenko made a speech in which he implored the soldiers not to +harm Dukhonin, as he was to be taken to Petrograd and judged by the +Revolutionary Tribunal. When he had finished, suddenly Dukhonin himself +appeared at the window, as if to address the throng. But with a savage roar the +people rushed the car, and falling upon the old General, dragged him out and +beat him to death on the platform…. +</p> + +<p> +So ended the revolt of the <i>Stavka</i>…. +</p> + +<p> +Immensely strengthened by the collapse of the last important stronghold of +hostile military power in Russia, the Soviet Government began with confidence +the organisation of the state. Many of the old functionaries flocked to its +banner, and many members of other parties entered the Government service. The +financially ambitious, however, were checked by the decree on Salaries of +Government Employees, fixing the salaries of the People’s +Commissars—the highest—at five hundred rubles (about fifty dollars) +a month…. The strike of Government Employees, led by the Union of Unions, +collapsed, deserted by the financial and commercial interests which had been +backing it. The bank clerks returned to their jobs…. +</p> + +<p> +With the decree on the Nationalisation of Banks, the formation of the Supreme +Council of People’s Economy, the putting into practical operation of the +Land decree in the villages, the democratic reorganisation of the Army, and the +sweeping changes in all branches of the Government and of life,—with all +these, effective only by the will of the masses of workers, soldiers and +peasants, slowly began, with many mistakes and hitches, the moulding of +proletarian Russia. +</p> + +<p> +Not by compromise with the propertied classes, or with the other political +leaders; not by conciliating the old Government mechanism, did the Bolsheviki +conquer the power. Nor by the organized violence of a small clique. If the +masses all over Russia had not been ready for insurrection it must have failed. +The only reason for Bolshevik success lay in their accomplishing the vast and +simple desires of the most profound strata of the people, calling them to the +work of tearing down and destroying the old, and afterward, in the smoke of +falling ruins, cooperating with them to erect the frame-work of the new…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>Chapter XII<br /> +The Peasants’ Congress</h2> + +<p> +It was on November 18th that the snow came. In the morning we woke to +window-ledges heaped white, and snowflakes falling so whirling thick that it +was impossible to see ten feet ahead. The mud was gone; in a twinkling the +gloomy city became white, dazzling. The <i>droshki</i> with their padded +coachmen turned into sleights, bounding along the uneven street at headlong +speed, their drivers’ beards stiff and frozen…. In spite of Revolution, +all Russia plunging dizzily into the unknown and terrible future, joy swept the +city with the coming of the snow. Everybody was smiling; people ran into the +streets, holding out their arms to the soft, falling flakes, laughing. Hidden +was all the greyness; only the gold and coloured spires and cupolas, with +heightened barbaric splendour, gleamed through the white snow. +</p> + +<p> +Even the sun came out, pale and watery, at noon. The colds and rheumatism of +the rainy months vanished. The life of the city grew gay, and the very +Revolution ran swifter…. +</p> + +<p> +I sat one evening in a <i>traktir</i>—a kind of lower-class +inn—across the street from the gates of Smolny; a low-ceilinged, loud +place called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” much frequented by Red +Guards. They crowded it now, packed close around the little tables with their +dirty table-cloths and enormous china tea-pots, filling the place with foul +cigarette-smoke, while the harassed waiters ran about crying +<i>“Seichass! Seichass!</i> In a minute! Right away!” +</p> + +<p> +In one corner sat a man in the uniform of a captain, addressing the assembly, +which interrupted him at every few words. +</p> + +<p> +“You are no better than murderers!” he cried. “Shooting down +your Russian brothers on the streets!” +</p> + +<p> +“When did we do that?” asked a worker. +</p> + +<p> +“Last Sunday you did it, when the <i>yunkers</i>—” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, didn’t they shoot us?” One man exhibited his arm in a +sling. “Haven’t I got something to remember them by, the +devils?” +</p> + +<p> +The captain shouted at the top of his voice. “You should remain neutral! +You should remain neutral! Who are you to destroy the legal Government? Who is +Lenin? A German—” +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you? A counter-revolutionist! A provocator!” they bellowed +at him. +</p> + +<p> +When he could make himself heard the captain stood up. “All right!” +said he. “You call yourselves the people of Russia. But you’re +<i>not</i> the people of Russia. The <i>peasants</i> are the people of Russia. +Wait until the peasants—” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” they cried, “wait until the peasants speak. We know +what the peasants will say…. Aren’t they workingmen like +ourselves?” +</p> + +<p> +In the long run, everything depended upon the peasants. While the peasants had +been politically backward, still they had their own peculiar ideas, and they +constituted more than eighty per cent of the people of Russia. The Bolsheviki +had a comparatively small following among the peasants; and a permanent +dictatorship of Russia by the industrial workers was impossible…. The +traditional peasant party was the Socialist Revolutionary party; of all the +parties now supporting the Soviet Government, the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries were the logical inheritors of peasant leadership—and the +Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who were at the mercy of the organised city +proletariat, desperately needed the backing of the peasants…. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Smolny had not neglected the peasants. After the Land decree, one of +the first actions of the new <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> had been to call a Congress of +Peasants, over the head of the Executive Committee of the Peasants’ +Soviets. A few days later was issued detailed Regulations for the <i>Volost</i> +(Township) Land Committees, followed by Lenin’s “Instruction to +Peasants,” (See App. XII, Sect. 1) which explained the Bolshevik +revolution and the new Government in simple terms; and on November 16th, Lenin +and Miliutin published the “Instructions to Provincial Emissaries,” +of whom thousands were sent by the Soviet Government into the villages. +</p> + +<p> +1. Upon his arrival in the province to which he is accredited, the emissary +should call a joint meeting of the Central Executive Committees of the Soviets +of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, to whom he +should make a report on the agrarian laws, and then demand that a joint plenary +session of the Soviets be summoned…. +</p> + +<p> +2. He must study the aspects of the agrarian problem in the province. +</p> + +<p> +a. Has the land-owners’ property been taken over, and if so, in what +districts? +</p> + +<p> +b. Who administers the confiscated land—the former proprietor, or the +Land Committees? +</p> + +<p> +c. What has been done with the agricultural machinery and with the +farm-animals? +</p> + +<p> +3. Has the ground cultivated by the peasants been augmented? +</p> + +<p> +4. How much and in what respect does the amount of land now under cultivation +differ from the amount fixed by the Government as an average minimum? +</p> + +<p> +5. The emissary must insist that, after the peasants have received the land, it +is imperative that they increase the amount of cultivated land as quickly as +possible, and that they hasten the sending of grain to the cities, as the only +means of avoiding famine. +</p> + +<p> +6. What are the measures projected or put into effect for the transfer of land +from the land-owners to the Land Committees and similar bodies appointed by the +Soviets? +</p> + +<p> +7. It is desirable that agricultural properties well appointed and well +organised should be administered by Soviets composed of the regular employees +of those properties, under the direction of competent agricultural scientists. +</p> + +<p> +All through the villages a ferment of change was going on, caused not only by +the electrifying action of the Land decree, but also by thousands of +revolutionary-minded peasant-soldiers returning from the front…. These men, +especially, welcomed the call to a Congress of Peasants. +</p> + +<p> +Like the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> in the matter of the second Congress of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviets, the Executive Committee tried to +prevent the Peasant Congress summoned by Smolny. And like the old +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> finding its resistance futile, the Executive Committee sent +frantic telegrams ordering the election of Conservative delegates. Word was +even spread among the peasants that the Congress would meet at Moghilev, and +some delegates went there; but by November 23d about four hundred had gathered +in Petrograd, and the party caucuses had begun…. +</p> + +<p> +The first session took place in the Alexander Hall of the Duma building, and +the first vote showed that more than half of all the delegates were Left +Socialist Revolutionaries, while the Bolsheviki controlled a bare fifth, the +conservative Socialist Revolutionaries a quarter, and all the rest were united +only in their opposition to the old Executive Committee, dominated by +Avksentiev, Tchaikovsky and Peshekhonov…. +</p> + +<p> +The great hall was jammed with people and shaken with continual clamour; deep, +stubborn bitterness divided the delegates into angry groups. To the right was a +sprinkling of officers’ epaulettes, and the patriarchal, bearded faces of +the older, more substantial peasants; in the centre were a few peasants, +non-commissioned officers, and some soldiers; and on the left almost all the +delegates wore the uniforms of common soldiers. These last were the young +generation, who had been serving in the army…. The galleries were thronged with +workers—who, in Russia, still remember their peasant origin…. +</p> + +<p> +Unlike the old <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> the Executive Committee, in opening the +session, did not recognise the Congress as official; the official Congress was +called for December 13th; amid a hurricane of applause and angry cries, the +speaker declared that this gathering was merely “Extraordinary +Conference”… But the “Extraordinary Conference” soon showed +its attitude toward the Executive Committee by electing as presiding officer +Maria Spiridonova, leader of the Left Socialist Revolution aries. +</p> + +<p> +Most of the first day was taken up by a violent debate as to whether the +representatives of <i>Volost</i> Soviets should be seated, or only delegates +from the Provincial bodies; and just as in the Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Congress, an overwhelming majority declared in favour of the +widest possible representation. Whereupon the old Executive Committee left the +hall…. +</p> + +<p> +Almost immediately it was evident that most of the delegates were hostile to +the Government of the People’s Commissars. Zinoviev, attempting to speak +for the Bolsheviki, was hooted down, and as he left the platform, amid +laughter, there were cries, “There’s how a People’s Commissar +sits in a mudpuddle!” +</p> + +<p> +“We Left Socialist Revolutionaries refuse,” cried Nazariev, a +delegate from the Provinces, “to recognise this so-called Workers’ +and Peasants’ Government until the peasants are represented in it. At +present it is nothing but a dictatorship of the workers…. We insist upon the +formation of a new Government which will represent the entire democracy!” +</p> + +<p> +The reactionary delegates shrewdly fostered this feeling, declaring, in the +face of protests from the Bolshevik benches, that the Council of People’s +Commissars intended either to control the Congress or dissolve it by force of +arms—an announcement which was received by the peasants with bursts of +fury…. +</p> + +<p> +On the third day Lenin suddenly mounted the tribune; for ten minutes the room +went mad. “Down with him!” they shrieked. “We will not listen +to any of your People’s Commissars! We don’t recognise your +Government!” +</p> + +<p> +Lenin stood there quite calmly, gripping the desk with both hands, his little +eyes thoughtfully surveying the tumult beneath. Finally, except for the right +side of the hall, the demonstration wore itself out somewhat. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not come here as a member of the Council of People’s +Commissars,” said Lenin, and waited again for the noise to subside, +“but as a member of the Bolshevik faction, duly elected to this +Congress.” And he held his credentials up to that all might see them. +</p> + +<p> +“However,” he went on, in an unmoved voice, “nobody will deny +that the present Government of Russia has been formed by the Bolshevik +party—” he had to wait a moment, “so that for all purposes it +is the same thing….” Here the right benches broke into deafening clamour, +but the centre and left were curious, and compelled silence. +</p> + +<p> +Lenin’s argument was simple. “Tell me frankly, you peasants, to +whom we have given the lands of the <i>pomieshtchiki;</i> do you want now to +prevent the workers from getting control of industry? This is class war. The +<i>pomieshtchiki</i> of course oppose the peasants, and the manufactures oppose +the workers. Are you going to allow the ranks of the proletariat to be divided? +Which side will you be on? +</p> + +<p> +“We, the Bolsheviki, are the party of the proletariat—of the +peasant proletariat as well as the industrial proletariat. We, the Bolsheviki, +are the protectors of the Soviets—of the Peasants’ Soviets as well +as those of the Workers and Soldiers. The present Government is a Government of +Soviets; we have not only invited the Peasants’ Soviets to join that +Government, but we have also invited representatives of the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries to enter the Council of People’s Commissars…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Soviets are the most perfect representatives of the people—of +the workers in the factories and mines, of the workers in the fields. Anybody +who attempts to destroy the Soviets is guilty of an anti-democratic and +counter-revolutionary act. And I serve notice here on you, comrades +<i>Right</i> Socialist Revolutionaries—and on you, Messrs. +Cadets—that if the Constituent Assembly attempts to destroy the Soviets, +we shall not permit the Constituent Assembly to do this thing!” +</p> + +<p> +On the afternoon of November 25th Tchernov arrived in hot haste from Moghilev, +summoned by the Executive Committee. Only two months before considered an +extreme revolutionist, and very popular with the peasants, he was now called to +check the dangerous drift of the Congress toward the Left. Upon his arrival +Tchernov was arrested and taken to Smolny, where, after a short conversation, +he was released. +</p> + +<p> +His first act was to bitterly rebuke the Executive Committee for leaving the +Congress. They agreed to return, and Tchernov entered the hall, welcomed with +great applause by the majority, and the hoots and jeers of the Bolsheviki. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! I have been away. I participated in the Conference of the +Twelfth Army on the question of calling a Congress of all the Peasant delegates +of the armies of the Western Front, and I know very little about the +insurrection which occurred here—” +</p> + +<p> +Zinoviev rose in his seat, and shouted, “Yes, you were away—for a +few minutes!” Fearful tumult. Cries, “Down with the +Bolsheviki!” +</p> + +<p> +Tchernov continued. “The accusation that I helped lead an army on +Petrograd has no foundation, and is entirely false. Where does such an +accusation come from? Show me the source!” +</p> + +<p> +Zinoviev: “<i>Izviestia</i> and <i>Dielo Naroda</i>—your own +paper—that’s where it comes from!” +</p> + +<p> +Tchernov’s wide face, with the small eyes, waving hair and greyish beard, +became red with wrath, but he controlled himself and went on. “I repeat, +I know practically nothing about what has happened here, and I did not lead any +army except this army, (he pointed to the peasant delegates), which I am +largely responsible for bringing here!” Laughter, and shouts of +“Bravo!” +</p> + +<p> +“Upon my return I visited Smolny. No such accusation was made against me +there…. After a brief conversation I left—and that’s all! Let any +one present make such an accusation!” +</p> + +<p> +An uproar followed, in which the Bolsheviki and some of the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries were on their feet all at once, shaking their fists and +yelling, and the rest of the assembly tried to yell them down. +</p> + +<p> +“This is an outrage, not a session!” cried Tchernov, and he left +the hall; the meeting was adjourned because of the noise and disorder…. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, the question of the status of the Executive Committee was agitating +all minds. By declaring the assembly “Extraordinary Conference,” it +had been planned to block the reelection of the Executive Committee. But this +worked both ways; the Left Socialist Revolutionists decided that if the +Congress had no power over the Executive Committee, then the Executive +Committee had no power over the Congress. On November 25th the assembly +resolved that the powers of the Executive Committee be assumed by the +Extraordinary Conference, in which only members of the Executive who had been +elected as delegates might vote…. +</p> + +<p> +The next day, in spite of the bitter opposition of the Bolsheviki, the +resolution was amended to give all the members of the Executive Committee, +whether elected as delegates or not, voice and vote in the assembly. +</p> + +<p> +On the 27th occurred the debate on the Land question, which revealed the +differences between the agrarian programme of the Bolsheviki and the Left +Socialist Revolutionaries. +</p> + +<p> +Kolchinsky, for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, outlined the history of the +Land question during the Revolution. The first Congress of Peasants’ +Soviets, he said, had voted a precise and formal resolution in favour of +putting the landed estates immediately into the hands of the Land Committees. +But the directors of the Revolution, and the bourgeois in the Government, had +insisted that the question could not be solved until the Constituent Assembly +met…. The second period of the Revolution, the period of +“compromise,” was signalled by the entrance of Tchernov into the +Cabinet. The peasants were convinced that now the practical solution of the +Land question would begin; but in spite of the imperative decision of the first +Peasant Congress, the reactionaries and conciliators in the Executive Committee +had prevented any action. This policy provoked a series of agrarian disorders, +which appeared as the natural expression of impatience and thwarted energy on +the part of the peasants. The peasants understood the exact meaning of the +Revolution—they tried to turn words into action…. +</p> + +<p> +“The recent events,” said the orator, “do not indicate a +simple riot, or a ‘Bolshevik adventure,’ but on the contrary, a +real popular rising, which has been greeted with sympathy by the whole +country…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Bolsheviki in general took the correct attitude toward the Land +question; but in recommending that the peasants seize the land by force, they +committed a profound error…. From the first days, the Bolsheviki declared that +the peasants should take over the land ‘by revolutionary mass +action.’ This is nothing but anarchy; the land can be taken over in an +organised manner…. For the Bolsheviki it was important that the problems of the +Revolution should be solved in the quickest possible manner—but the +Bolsheviki were not interested in <i>how</i> these problems were to be solved…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Land decree of the Congress of Soviets is identical in its +fundamentals with the decisions of the first Peasants’ Congress. Why then +did not the new Government follow the tactics outlined by that Congress? +Because the Council of People’s Commissars wanted to hasten the +settlement of the Land question, so that the Constituent Assembly would have +nothing to do…. +</p> + +<p> +“But also the Government saw that it was necessary to adopt practical +measures, so without further reflection, it adopted the Regulations for Land +Committees, thus creating a strange situation; for the Council of +People’s Commissars abolished private property in land, but the +Regulations drawn up by the Land Committees are based on private property…. +However, no harm has been done by that; for the Land Committees are paying no +attention to the Soviet decrees, but are putting into operation their own +practical decisions—decisions based on the will of the vast majority of +the peasants…. +</p> + +<p> +“These Land Committees are not attempting the legislative solution of the +Land question, which belongs to the Constituent Assembly alone…. But will the +Constituent Assembly desire to do the will of the Russian peasants? Of that we +cannot be sure…. All we can be sure of is that the revolutionary determination +of the peasants is now aroused, and that the Constituent will be <i>forced</i> +to settle the Land question the way the peasants want it settled…. The +Constituent Assembly will not dare to break with the will of the +people….” +</p> + +<p> +Followed him Lenin, listened to now with absorbing intensity. “At this +moment we are not only trying to solve the Land question, but the question of +Social Revolution—not only here in Russia, but all over the world. The +Land question cannot be solved independently of the other problems of the +Social Revolution…. For example, the confiscation of the landed estates will +provoke the resistance not only of Russian land-owners, but also of foreign +capital—with whom the great landed properties are connected through the +intermediary of the banks…. +</p> + +<p> +“The ownership of the land in Russia is the basis for immense oppression, +and the confiscation of the land by the peasants is the most important step of +our Revolution. But it cannot be separated from the other steps, as is clearly +manifested by the stages through which the Revolution has had to pass. The +first stage was the crushing of autocracy and the crushing of the power of the +industrial capitalists and land-owners, whose interests are closely related. +The second stage was the strengthening of the Soviets and the political +compromise with the bourgeoisie. The mistake of the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries lies in the fact that at that time they did not oppose the +policy of compromise, because they held the theory that the consciousness of +the masses was not yet fully developed…. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>If Socialism can only be realised when the intellectual development +of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five +hundred years</i>…. The Socialist political party—this is the vanguard of +the working-class; it must not allow itself to be halted by the lack of +education of the mass average, but it must lead the masses, using the Soviets +as organs of revolutionary initiative…. But in order to lead the wavering, the +comrades Left Socialist Revolutionaries themselves must stop hesitating…. +</p> + +<p> +“In July last a series of open breaks began between the popular masses +and the ‘compromisers’; but now, in November, the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries are still holding out their hand to Avksentiev, who is pulling +the people with his little finger…. If Compromise continues, the Revolution +disappears. No compromise with the bourgeoisie is possible; its power must be +absolutely crushed…. +</p> + +<p> +“We Bolsheviki have not changed our Land programme; we have not given up +the abolition of private property in the land, and we do not intend to do so. +We adopted the Regulations for Land Committees,—which are <i>not</i> +based on private property at all—because we want to accomplish the +popular will in the way the people have themselves decided to do it, so as to +draw closer the coalition of all the elements who are fighting for the Social +Revolution. +</p> + +<p> +“We invite the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to enter that coalition, +insisting, however, that they cease looking backward, and that they break with +the ‘conciliators’ of their party…. +</p> + +<p> +“As far as the Constituent Assembly is concerned, it is true, as the +preceding speaker has said, that the work of the Constituent will depend on the +revolutionary determination of the masses. I say, ‘Count on that +revolutionary determination, but don’t forget your gun!’” +</p> + +<p> +Lenin then read the Bolshevik resolution: +</p> + +<p> +The Peasants’ Congress, fully supporting the Land decree of November 8th… +approves of the Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of +the Russian Republic, established by the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets +of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +The Peasants’ Congress… invites all peasants unanimously to sustain that +law, and to apply it immediately themselves; and at the same time invites the +peasants to appoint to posts and positions of responsibility only persons who +have proved, not by words but by acts, their entire devotion to the interests +of the exploited peasant-workers, their desire and their ability to defend +these interests against all resistance on the part of the great land-owners, +the capitalists, their partisans and accomplices…. +</p> + +<p> +The Peasants’ Congress, at the same time, expresses its conviction that +the complete realisation of all the measures which make up the Land decree can +only be successful through the triumph of the Workers’ Social Revolution, +which began November 7th, 1917; for only the Social Revolution can accomplish +the definite transfer, without possibility of return, of the land to the +peasant-workers, the confiscation of model farms and their surrender to the +peasant communes, the confiscation of agricultural machinery belonging to the +great land-owners, the safe-guarding of the interests of the agricultural +workers by the complete abolition of wage-slavery, the regular and methodical +distribution among all regions of Russia of the products of agriculture and +industry, and the seizure of the banks (without which the possession of land by +the whole people would be impossible, after the abolition of private property), +and all sorts of assistance by the State to the workers…. +</p> + +<p> +For these reasons the Peasants’ Congress sustains entirely the Revolution +of November 7th… as a social revolution, and expresses its unalterable will to +put into operation, with whatever modifications are necessary, but without any +hesitation, the social transformation of the Russian Republic. +</p> + +<p> +The indispensable conditions of the victory of the Social Revolution, which +alone will secure the lasting success and the complete realisation of the Land +decree, is the close union of the peasant-workers with the industrial +working-class, with the proletariat of all advanced countries. From now on, in +the Russian Republic, all the organisation and administration of the State, +from top to bottom, must rest on that union. That union, crushing all attempts, +direct or indirect, open or dissimulated, to return to the policy of +conciliation with the bourgeoisie—conciliation, damned by experience, +with the chiefs of bourgeois politics—can alone insure the victory of +Socialism throughout the world…. +</p> + +<p> +The reactionaries of the Executive Committee no longer dared openly to appear. +Tchernov, however, spoke several times, with a modest and winning impartiality. +He was invited to sit on the platform…. On the second night of the Congress an +anonymous note was handed up to the chairman, requesting that Tchernov be made +honorary President. Ustinov read the note aloud, and immediately Zinoviev was +on his feet, screaming that this was a trick of the old Executive Committee to +capture the convention; in a moment the hall was one bellowing mass of waving +arms and angry faces, on both sides…. Nevertheless, Tchernov remained very +popular. +</p> + +<p> +In the stormy debates on the Land question and the Lenin resolution, the +Bolsheviki were twice on the point of quitting the assembly, both times +restrained by their leaders…. It seemed to me as if the Congress were +hopelessly deadlocked. +</p> + +<p> +But none of us knew that a series of secret conferences were already going on +between the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviki at Smolny. At +first the Left Socialist Revolutionaries had demanded that there be a +Government composed of all the Socialist parties in and out of the Soviets, to +be responsible to a People’s Council, composed of an equal number of +delegates from the Workers’ and Soldiers’ organisation, and that of +the Peasants, and completed by representatives of the City Dumas and the +Zemstvos; Lenin and Trotzky were to be eliminated, and the Military +Revolutionary Committee and other repressive organs dissolved. +</p> + +<p> +Wednesday morning, November 28th, after a terrible all-night struggle, an +agreement was reached. The _Tsay-ee-kah,_composed of 108 members, was to be +augumented by 108 members elected proportionally from the Peasants’ +Congress; by 100 delegates elected directly from the Army and the Fleet; and by +50 representatives of the Trade Unions (35 from the general Unions, 10 Railway +Workers, and 5 from the Post and Telegraph Workers). The Dumas and Zemstvos +were dropped. Lenin and Trotzky remained in the Government, and the Military +Revolutionary Committee continued to function. +</p> + +<p> +The sessions of the Congress had now been removed to the Imperial Law School +building, Fontanka 6, headquarters of the Peasants’ Soviets. There in the +great meeting-hall the delegates gathered on Wednesday afternoon. The old +Executive Committee had withdrawn, and was holding a rump convention of its own +in another room of the same building, made up of bolting delegates and +representatives of the Army Committees. +</p> + +<p> +Tchernov went from one meeting to the other, keeping a watchful eye on the +proceedings. He knew that an agreement with the Bolsheviki was being discussed, +but he did not know that it had been concluded. +</p> + +<p> +He spoke to the rump convention. “At present, when everybody is in favour +of forming an all-Socialist Government, many people forget the first Ministry, +which was <i>not</i> a coalition Government, and in which there was only one +Socialist—Kerensky; a Government which, in its time, was very popular. +Now people accuse Kerensky; they forget that he was raised to power, not only +by the Soviets, but also by the popular masses…. +</p> + +<p> +“Why did public opinion change toward Kerensky? The savages set up gods +to which they pray, and which they punish if one of their prayers is not +answered…. That is what is happening at this moment…. Yesterday Kerensky; +to-day Lenin and Trotzky; another to-morrow…. +</p> + +<p> +“We have proposed to both Kerensky and the Bolsheviki to retire from the +power. Kerensky has accepted—to-day he announced from his hiding-place +that he has resigned as Premier; but the Bolsheviki wish to retain the power, +and they do not know how to use it…. +</p> + +<p> +“If the Bolsheviki succeed, or if they fail, the fate of Russia will not +be changed. The Russian villages understand perfectly what they want, and they +are now carrying out their own measures…. The villages will save us in the +end….” +</p> + +<p> +In the meanwhile, in the great hall Ustinov had announced the agreement between +the Peasants’ Congress and Smolny, received by the delegates with the +wildest joy. Suddenly Tchernov appeared, and demanded the floor. +</p> + +<p> +“I understand,” he began, “that an agreement is being +concluded between the Peasants’ Congress and Smolny. Such an agreement +would be illegal, seeing that the true Congress of Peasants’ Soviets does +not meet until next week…. +</p> + +<p> +“Moreover, I want to warn you now that the Bolsheviki will never accept +your demands….” +</p> + +<p> +He was interrupted by a great burst of laughter; and realising the situation, +he left the platform and the room, taking his popularity with him…. +</p> + +<p> +Late in the afternoon of Thursday, November 16th, the Congress met in +extraordinary session. There was a holiday feeling in the air; on every face +was a smile…. The remainder of the business before the assembly was hurried +through, and then old Nathanson, the white-bearded dean of the left wing of the +Socialist Revolutionaries, his voice trembling and tears in his eyes, read the +report of the “wedding” of the Peasants’ Soviets with the +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviets. At every mention of the word +“union” there was ecstatic applause…. At the end Ustinov announced +the arrival rival of a delegation from Smolny, accompanied by representatives +of the Red Army, greeted with a rising ovation. One after another a workman, a +soldier and a sailor took the floor, hailing them. +</p> + +<p> +Then Boris Reinstein, delegate of the American Socialist Labor Party: +“The day of the union of the Congress of Peasants and the Soviets of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies is one of the great days of the +Revolution. The sound of it will ring with resounding echoes throughout the +whole world—in Paris, in London, and across the ocean—in New York. +This union will fill with happiness the hearts of all toilers. +</p> + +<p> +“A great idea has triumphed. The West, and America, expected from Russia, +from the Russian proletariat, something tremendous…. The proletariat of the +world is waiting for the Russian Revolution, waiting for the great things that +it is accomplishing….” +</p> + +<p> +Sverdlov, president of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> greeted them. And with the +shout, “Long live the end of civil war! Long live the United +Democracy!” the peasants poured out of the building. +</p> + +<p> +It was already dark, and on the ice—covered snow glittered the pale light +of moon and star. Along the bank of the canal were drawn up in full marching +order the soldiers of the Pavlovsky Regiment, with their band, which broke into +the <i>Marseillaise.</i> Amid the crashing full-throated shouts of the +soldiers, the peasants formed in line, unfurling the great red banner of the +Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peasants’ Soviets, embroidered +newly in gold, “Long live the union of the revolutionary and toiling +masses!” Following were other banners; of the District Soviets—of +Putilov Factory, which read, “We bow to this flag in order to create the +brotherhood of all people!” +</p> + +<p> +From somewhere torches appeared, blazing orange in the night, a thousand times +reflected in the facets of the ice, streaming out smokily over the throng as it +moved down the bank of the Fontanka singing, between crowds that stood in +astonished silence. +</p> + +<p> +“Long live the Revolutionary Army! Long live the Red Guard! Long live the +Peasants!” +</p> + +<p> +So the great procession wound through the city, growing and unfurling ever new +red banners lettered in gold. Two old peasants, bowed with toil, were walking +hand in hand, their faces illumined with child-like bliss. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said one, “I’d like to see them take away our +land again, <i>now!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +Near Smolny the Red Guard was lined up on both sides of the street, wild with +delight. The other old peasant spoke to his comrade, “I am not +tired,” he said. “I walked on air all the way!” +</p> + +<p> +On the steps of Smolny about a hundred Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies were massed, with their banner, dark against the blaze of light +streaming out between the arches. Like a wave they rushed down, clasping the +peasants in their arms and kissing them; and the procession poured in through +the great door and up the stairs, with a noise like thunder…. +</p> + +<p> +In the immense white meeting-room the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> was waiting, with the +whole Petrograd Soviet and a thousand spectators beside, with that solemnity +which attends great conscious moments in history. +</p> + +<p> +Zinoviev announced the agreement with the Peasants’ Congress, to a +shaking roar which rose and burst into storm as the sound of music blared down +the corridor, and the head of the procession came in. On the platform the +presidium rose and made place for the Peasants’ presidium, the two +embracing; behind them the two banners were intertwined against the white wall, +over the empty frame from which the Tsar’s picture had been torn…. +</p> + +<p> +Then opened the “triumphal session.” After a few words of welcome +from Sverdlov, Maria Spiridonova, slight, pale, with spectacles and hair drawn +flatly down, and the air of a New England school-teacher, took the +tribune—the most loved and the most powerful woman in all Russia. +</p> + +<p> +“… Before the workers of Russia open now horizons which history has never +known…. All workers’ movements in the past have been defeated. But the +present movement is international, and that is why it is invincible. There is +no force in the world which can put out the fire of the Revolution! The old +world crumbles down, the new world begins….” +</p> + +<p> +Then Trotzky, full of fire: “I wish you welcome, comrades peasants! You +come here not as guests, but as masters of this house, which holds the heart of +the Russian Revolution. The will of millions of workers is now concentrated in +this hall…. There is now only one master of the Russian land: the union of the +workers, soldiers and peasants….” +</p> + +<p> +With biting sarcasm he went on to speak of the Allied diplomats, till then +contemptuous of Russia’s invitation to an armistice, which had been +accepted by the Central Powers. +</p> + +<p> +“A new humanity will be born of this war…. In this hall we swear to +workers of all lands to remain at our revolutionary post. If we are broken, +then it will be in defending our flag….” +</p> + +<p> +Krylenko followed him, explaining the situation at the front, where Dukhonin +was preparing to resist the Council of People’s Commissars. “Let +Dukhonin and those with him understand well that we shall not deal gently with +those who bar the road to peace!” +</p> + +<p> +Dybenko saluted the assembly in the name of the Fleet, and Krushinsky, member +of the <i>Vikzhel,</i> said, “From this moment, when the union of all +true Socialists is realised, the whole army of railway workers places itself +absolutely at the disposition of the revolutionary democracy!” And +Lunatcharsky, almost weeping, and Proshian, for the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries, and finally Saharashvili, for the United Social Democrats +Internationalists, composed of members of the Martov’s and of +Gorky’s groups, who declared: +</p> + +<p> +“We left the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> because of the uncompromising policy of +the Bolsheviki, and to force them to make concessions in order to realise the +union of all the revolutionary democracy. Now that that union is brought about, +we consider it a sacred duty to take our places once more in the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i>…. We declare that all those who have withdrawn from the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> should now return.” +</p> + +<p> +Stachkov, a dignified old peasant of the presidium of the Peasants’ +Congress, bowed to the four corners of the room. “I greet you with the +christening of a new Russian life and freedom!” +</p> + +<p> +Gronsky, in the name of the Polish Social Democracy; Skripnik, for the +Factory-Shop Committees; Tifonov, for the Russian soldiers at Salonika; and +others, interminably, speaking out of full hearts, with the happy eloquence of +hopes fulfilled…. +</p> + +<p> +It was late in the night when the following resolution was put and passed +unanimously: +</p> + +<p> +“The <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> united in extraordinary session with the +Petrograd Soviet and the Peasants’ Congress, confirms the Land and Peace +decrees adopted by the second Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Deputies, and also the decree on Workers’ Control adopted +by the <i>Tsay-ee-kah.</i> +</p> + +<p> +“The joint session of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> and the Peasants’ +Congress expresses its firm conviction that the union of workers, soldiers and +peasants, this fraternal union of all the workers and all exploited, will +consolidate the power conquered by them, that it will take all revolutionary +measures to hasten the passing of the power into the hands of the working-class +in other countries, and that it will assure in this manner the lasting +accomplishment of a just peace and the victory of Socialism.” (See App. +XI, Sect. 2) +</p> + + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap13"></a>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I</h3> + +<p class="center"> +1. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Oborontsi</i>—“Defenders.” All the “moderate” +Socialist groups adopted or were given this name, because they consented to the +continuation of the war under Allied leadership, on the ground that it was a +war of National Defence. The Bolsheviki, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, +the Mensheviki Internationalists (Martov’s faction), and the Social +Democrats Internationalists (Gorky’s group) were in favour of forcing the +Allies to declare democratic war-aims, and to offer peace to Germany on those +terms…. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +2.<br /> +WAGES AND COST OF LIVING BEFORE AND DURING THE REVOLUTION +</p> + +<p> +The following tables of wages and costs were compiled, in October, 1917, by a +joint Committee from the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and the Moscow section of +the Ministry of Labour, and published in <i>Novaya Zhizn,</i> October 26th, +1917: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Wages Per Day</i>—(<i>Rubles and kopeks</i>) +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td><i>Trade</i></td><td><i>July</i> 1914</td><td><i>July</i> +1916</td><td><i>August</i> 1917</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Carpenter, +Cabinet-maker</td><td>1.60—2.</td><td>4.—6.</td><td>8.50 </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Terrassier</td><td>1.30—1.50</td><td>3.—3.50</td><td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Mason, +plasterer</td><td>1.70—2.35</td><td>4.—6.</td><td>8.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Painter, +upholsterer</td><td>1.80—2.20</td><td>3.—5.50</td><td>8.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Blacksmith</td><td>1.—2.25</td><td>4.—5.</td><td>8.50</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chimney-sweep</td><td>1.50—2.</td><td>4.—5.50</td><td>7.50 +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Locksmith</td><td>.90—2.</td><td>3.50—6.</td><td>9.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Helper</td><td>1.—1.50</td><td>2.50—4.50</td><td>8.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +In spite of numerous stories of gigantic advances in wages immediately +following the Revolution of March, 1917, these figures, which were published by +the Ministry of Labour as characteristic of conditions all over Russia, show +that wages did not rise immediately after the Revolution, but little by little. +On an average, wages increased slightly more than 500 per cent…. +</p> + +<p> +But at the same time the value of the ruble fell to less than one-third its +former purchasing power, and the cost of the necessities of life increased +enormously. +</p> + +<p> +The following table was compiled by the Municipal Duma of Moscow, where food +was cheaper and more plentiful than in Petrograd: +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Cost of Food—(Rubles and Kopeks)</i> +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td></td><td></td><td><i>August</i> 1914</td><td><i>August</i> +1917</td><td><i>% Increase</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Black bread</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.02 +1/2</td><td>.12</td><td>330</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>White bread</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.05</td><td>.20</td><td>300</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Beef</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.22 </td><td>1.10</td><td>400</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Veal</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.26 </td><td>2.15</td><td>727</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Pork</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.23</td><td>2.</td><td>770</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Herring</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.06</td><td>.52</td><td>767</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cheese</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.40</td><td>3.50</td><td>754</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Butter</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.48</td><td>3.20</td><td>557</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Eggs</td><td>(Doz.)</td><td>.30</td><td>1.60</td><td>443</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Milk</td><td><i>(Krushka)</i></td><td>.07</td><td>.40</td><td>471</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +On an average, food increased in price 556 per cent, or 51 per cent more than +wages. +</p> + +<p> +As for the other necessities, the price of these increased tremendously. +</p> + +<p> +The following table was compiled by the Economic section of the Moscow Soviet +of Workers’ Deputies, and accepted as correct by the Ministry of Supplies +of the Provisional Government. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Cost of Other Necessities</i>—(<i>Rubles and Kopeks</i>) +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td></td><td></td><td><i>August</i> 1914</td><td><i>August</i> 1917</td><td>% +<i>Increase</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Calico</td><td><i>(Arshin)</i></td><td> .11</td><td>1.40</td><td>1173</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cotton +cloth</td><td><i>(Arshin)</i></td><td>.15</td><td>2.</td><td>1233</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Dress +Goods</td><td><i>(Arshin)</i></td><td>2.</td><td>40.</td><td>1900</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Castor +Cloth</td><td><i>(Arshin)</i></td><td>6.</td><td>80.</td><td>1233</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Men’s Shoes</td><td>(Pair)</td><td>12.</td><td>144.</td><td>1097</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sole Leather</td><td></td><td>20.</td><td>400.</td><td>1900</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Rubbers</td><td>(Pair)</td><td>2.50</td><td>15.</td><td>500</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Men’s +Clothing</td><td>(Suit)</td><td>40.</td><td>400.–455.</td><td>900–1109</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Tea</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>4.50</td><td>18.</td><td>300</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Matches</td><td>(Carton)</td><td>.10</td><td>.50</td><td>400</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Soap</td><td><i>(Pood)</i></td><td>4.50</td><td>40.</td><td>780</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Gasoline</td><td><i>(Vedro)</i></td><td>1.70</td><td>11.</td><td>547</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Candles</td><td><i>(Pood)</i></td><td>8.50</td><td>100.</td><td>1076</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Caramel</td><td><i>(Fund)</i></td><td>.30</td><td>4.50</td><td>1400</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Fire Wood</td><td>(Load)</td><td>10.</td><td>120.</td><td>1100</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Charcoal</td><td></td><td>.80</td><td>13.</td><td>1525</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sundry Metal Ware</td><td></td><td>1.</td><td>20.</td><td>1900</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +On an average, the above categories of necessities increased about 1,109 per +cent in price, more than twice the increase of salaries. The difference, of +course, went into the pockets of speculators and merchants. +</p> + +<p> +In September, 1917, when I arrived in Petrograd, the average daily wage of a +skilled industrial worker—for example, a steel-worker in the Putilov +Factory—was about 8 rubles. At the same time, profits were enormous…. I +was told by one of the owners of the Thornton Woollen Mills, an English concern +on the outskirts of Petrograd, that while wages had increased about 300 per +cent in his factory, his profits had gone up <i>900 per cent.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +3.<br /> +THE SOCIALIST MINISTERS +</p> + +<p> +The history of the efforts of the Socialists in the Provisional Government of +July to realise their programme in coalition with the bourgeois Ministers, is +an illuminating example of class struggle in politics. Says Lenin, in +explanation of this phenomenon: +</p> + +<p> +“The capitalists, … seeing that the position of the Government was +untenable, resorted to a method which since 1848 has been for decades practised +by the capitalists in order to befog, divide, and finally overpower the +working-class. This method is the so-called ‘Coalition Ministry,’ +composed of bourgeois and of renegades from the Socialist camp. +</p> + +<p> +“In those countries where political freedom and democracy have existed +side by side with the revolutionary movement of the workers—for example +in England and France—the capitalists make use of this subterfuge, and +very successfully too. The ‘Socialist’ leaders, upon entering the +Ministries, invariably prove mere figure-heads, puppets, simply a shield for +the capitalists, a tool with which to defraud the workers. The +‘democratic’ and ‘republican’ capitalists in Russia set +in motion this very same scheme. The Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviki +fell victim to it, and on June 1st a ‘Coalition’ Ministry, with the +participation of Tchernov, Tseretelli, Skobeliev, Avksentiev, Savinkov, Zarudny +and Nikitin became an accomplished fact….”—<i>Problems of the +Revolution.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +4.<br /> +SEPTEMBER MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN MOSCOW +</p> + +<p> +In the first week of October, 1917, <i>Novaya Zhizn</i> published the following +comparative table of election results, pointing out that this meant the +bankruptcy of the policy of Coalition with the propertied classes. “If +civil war can yet be avoided, it can only be done by a united front of all the +revolutionary democracy….” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Elections for the Moscow Central and Ward Dumas.</i> +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td></td><td><i>June</i> 1917</td><td><i>September</i> 1917</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Socialist Revolutionaries</td><td>58 Members</td><td>14 Members</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cadets</td><td>17 Members</td><td>30 Members</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Mensheviki</td><td>12 Members</td><td>4 Members</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bolsheviki</td><td>11 Members</td><td>47 Members</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"> +5.<br /> +GROWING ARROGANCE OF THE REACTIONARIES +</p> + +<p> +September 18th. The Cadet Shulgin, writing in a Kiev newspaper, said that the +Provisional Government’s declaration that Russia was a Republic +constituted a gross abuse of its powers. “We cannot admit either a +Republic, or the present Republican Government…. And we are not sure that we +want a Republic in Russia….” +</p> + +<p> +October 23d. At a meeting of the Cadet party held at Riazan, M. Dukhonin +declared, “On March 1st we must establish a Constitutional Monarchy. We +must not reject the legitimate heir to the throne, Mikhail +Alexandrovitch….” +</p> + +<p> +October 27th. Resolution passed by the Conference of Business Men at Moscow: +</p> + +<p> +“The Conference… insists that the Provisional Government take the +following immediate measures in the Army: +</p> + +<p> +“1. Forbidding of all political propaganda; the Army must be out of +politics. +</p> + +<p> +“2. Propaganda of antinational and international ideas and theories deny +the necessity for armies, and hurt discipline; it should be forbidden, and all +propagandists punished…. +</p> + +<p> +“3. The function of the Army Committees must be limited to economic +questions exclusively. All their decisions should be confirmed by their +superior officers, who have the right to dissolve the Committees at any time…. +</p> + +<p> +“4. The salute to be reestablished, and made obligatory. Full +reestablishment of disciplinary power in the hands of officers, with right of +review of sentence…. +</p> + +<p> +“5. Expulsion from the Corps of Officers of those who dishonour it by +participating in the movement of the soldier-masses, which teaches them +disobedience…. Reestablishment for this purpose of the Courts of Honor…. +</p> + +<p> +“6. The Provisional Government should take the necessary measures to make +possible the return to the army of Generals and other officers unjustly +discharged under the influence of Committees, and other irresponsible +organisations….” +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II</h3> + +<p class="center"> +1. +</p> + +<p> +The Kornilov revolt is treated in detail in my forthcoming volume, +“Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” The responsibility of Kerensky for the +situation which gave rise to Kornilov’s attempt is now pretty clearly +established. Many apologists for Kerensky say that he knew of Kornilov’s +plans, and by a trick drew him out prematurely, and then crushed him. Even Mr. +A. J. Sack, in his book, “The Birth of the Russian Democracy,” +says: +</p> + +<p> +“Several things… are almost certain. The first is that Kerensky knew +about the movement of several detachments from the Front toward Petrograd, and +it is possible that as Prime Minister and Minister of War, realising the +growing Bolshevist danger, he called for them….” +</p> + +<p> +The only flaw in that argument is that there was no “Bolshevist +danger” at that time, the Bolsheviki still being a powerless minority in +the Soviets, and their leaders in jail or hiding. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +2.<br /> +DEMOCRATIC CONFERENCE +</p> + +<p> +When the Democratic Conference was first proposed to Kerensky, he suggested an +assembly of all the elements in the nation—“the live forces,” +as he called them—including bankers, manufacturers, land-owners, and +representatives of the Cadet party. The Soviet refused, and drew up the +following table of representation, which Kerensky agreed to: +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td>100 delegates</td><td>All-Russian Soviets Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Deputies</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>100 delegates</td><td>All-Russian Soviets Peasants’ Deputies</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>50 delegates</td><td>Provincial Soviets Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>50 delegates</td><td>Peasants’ District Land Committees</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>100 delegates</td><td>Trade Unions </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>84 delegates</td><td>Army Committees at the Front</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>150 delegates</td><td>Workers’ and Peasants’ Cooperative +Societies</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>20 delegates</td><td>Railway Workers’ Union</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>10 delegates</td><td>Post and Telegraph Workers’ Union</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>20 delegates</td><td>Commercial Clerks</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>15 delegates</td><td>Liberal Professions—Doctors, Lawyers, +Journalists, etc.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>50 delegates</td><td>Provincial Zemstvos</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>59 delegates</td><td>Nationalist Organisations—Poles, Ukraineans, +etc.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +This proportion was altered twice or three times. The final disposition of +delegates was: +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td>300 delegates</td><td>All-Russian Soviets Workers’, Soldiers’ +& Peasants’ Deputies</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>300 delegates</td><td>Cooperative Societies</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>300 delegates</td><td>Municipalities</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>150 delegates</td><td>Army Committees at the Front</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>150 delegates</td><td>Provincial Zemstvos</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>200 delegates</td><td>Trade Unions</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>100 delegates</td><td>Nationalist Organisations</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>200 delegates</td><td>Several small groups</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"> +3.<br /> +THE FUNCTION OF THE SOVIETS IS ENDED +</p> + +<p> +On September 28th, 1917, <i>Izviestia,</i> organ of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> +published an article which said, speaking of the last Provisional Ministry: +</p> + +<p> +“At last a truly democratic government, born of the will of all classes +of the Russian people, the first rough form of the future liberal parliamentary +régime, has been formed. Ahead of us is the Constituent Assembly, which will +solve all questions of fundamental law, and whose composition will be +essentially democratic. The function of the Soviets is at an end, and the time +is approaching when they must retire, with the rest of the revolutionary +machinery, from the stage of a free and victorious people, whose weapons shall +hereafter be the peaceful ones of political action.” +</p> + +<p> +The leading article of <i>Izviestia</i> for October 23d was called, “The +Crisis in the Soviet Organisations.” It began by saying that travellers +reported a lessening activity of local Soviets everywhere. “This is +natural,” said the writer. “For the people are becoming interested +in the more permanent legislative organs—the Municipal Dumas and the +Zemstvs…. +</p> + +<p> +“In the important centres of Petrograd and Moscow, where the Soviets were +best organised, they did not take in all the democratic elements…. The majority +of the intellectuals did not participate, and many workers also; some of the +workers because they were politically backward, others because the centre of +gravity for them was in their Unns…. We cannot deny that these organisations +are firmly united with the masses, whose everyday needs are better served by +them…. +</p> + +<p> +“That the local democratic administrations are being energetically +organised is highly important. The City Dumas are elected by universal +suffrage, and in purely local matters have more authority than the Soviets. Not +a single democrat will see anything wrong in this…. +</p> + +<p> +“… Elections to the Municipalities are being conduct in a better and more +democratic way than the elections to the Soviets… All classes are represented +in the Municipalities…. And as soon as the local Self-Governments begin to +organise life in the Municipalities, the rôle of the local Soviets naturally +ends…. +</p> + +<p> +“… There are two factors in the falling off of interest in the Soviets. +The first we may attribute to the lowering of political interest in the masses; +the second, to the growing effort of provincial and local governing bodies to +organise the building of new Russia…. The more the tendency lies in this latter +direction, the sooner disappears the significance of the Soviets…. +</p> + +<p> +“We ourselves are being called the ‘undertakers’ of our own +organisation. In reality, we ourselves are the hardest workers in constructing +the new Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +“When autocracy and the whole bureaucratic régime fell, we set up the +Soviets as a barracks in which all the democracy cod find temporary shelter. +Now, instead of barracks, we are building the permanent edifice of a new +system, and naturally the people will gradually leave the barracks for more +comfortable quarters.” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +4.<br /> +TROTZKY’S SPEECH AT THE COUNCIL OF THE RUSSIAN REPUBLIC +</p> + +<p> +“The purpose of the Democratic Conference, which was called by the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> was to do away with the irresponsible personal government +which produced Kornilov, and to establish a responsible government which would +be capable of finishing the war, and ensure the calling of the Constituent +Assembly at the given time. In the meanwhile behind the back of the Democratic +Conference, by trickery, by deals between Citizen Kerensky, the Cadets, and the +leaders of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties, we received the +opposite result from the officially announced purpose. A power was created +around which and in which we have open and secret Kornilovs playing leading +parts. The irresponsibility of the Government is offically proclaimed, when it +is announced that the Council of the Russian Republic is to be a +<i>consultative</i> and not <i>legislative</i> body. In the eighth month of the +Revolution, the irresponsible Government creates a cover for itself in this new +edition of Bieligen’s Duma. +</p> + +<p> +“The propertied classes have entered this Provision Council in a +proportion which clearly shows, from elections all over the country, that many +of them have no right here whatever. In spite of that the Cadet party, which +until yesterday wanted the Provisional Government to be responsible to the +State Duma—this same Cadet party secured the independence Assembly the +propertied classes will no doubt have as favourable position than they have in +this Council, and they will not be able to be irresponsible to the Constituent +Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +“If the propertied classes were really getting ready for the Constituent +Assembly six weeks from now, there could be no reason for establishing the +irresponsibility of the Government at this time. The whole truth is that the +bourgeoisie, which directs the policies of the Provisional Government, has for +its aim to break the Constituent Assembly. At present this is the main purpose +of the propertied classes, which control our entire national +policy—external and internal. In the industrial, agrarian and supply +departments the politics of the propertied classes, acting with the Government, +increases the natural disorganisation caused by the war. The propertied +classes, which are provoking a peasants’ revolt! The propertied classes, +which are provoking civil war, and openly hold their course on the bony hand of +hunger, with which they intend to overthrow the Revolution and finish with the +Constituent Assembly! +</p> + +<p> +“No less criminal also is the international policy of the bourgeoisie and +its Government. After forty months of war, the capital is threatened with +mortal danger. In reply to this arises a plan to move the Government to Moscow. +The idea of abandoning the capital does not stir the indignation of the +bourgeoisie. Just the opposite. It is accepted as a natural part of the general +policy designed to promote counter-revolutionary conspiracy. … Instead of +recognising that the salvation of the country lies in concluding peace, instead +of throwing openly the idea of immediate peace to all the worn-out peoples, +over the heads of diplomats and imperialists, and making the continuation of +the war impossible,—the Provisional Government, by order of the Cadets, +the Counter-Revolutionists and the Allied Imperialists, without sense, without +purpose and without a plan, continues to drag on the murderous war, sentencing +to useless death new hundreds of thousands of soldiers and sailors, and +preparing to give up Petrograd, and to wreck the Revolution. At a time when +Bolshevik soldiers and sailors are dying with other soldiers and sailors as a +result of the mistakes and crimes of others, the so-called Supreme Commander +(Kerensky) continues to suppress the Bolshevik press. The leading parties of +the Council are acting as a voluntary cover for these policies. +</p> + +<p> +“We, the faction of Social Democrats Bolsheviki, announce that with this +Government of Treason to the People we have nothing in common. We have nothing +in common with the work of these Murderers of the People which goes on behind +official curtains. We refuse either directly or indirectly to cover up one day +of this work. While Wilhelm’s troops are threatening Petrograd, the +Government of Kerensky and Kornilov is preparing to run away from Petrograd and +turn Moscow into a base of counter-revolution! +</p> + +<p> +“We warn the Moscow workers and soldiers to be on their guard. Leaving +this Council, we appeal to the manhood and wisdom of the workers, peasants and +soldiers of all Russia. Petrograd is in danger! The Revolution is in danger! +The Government has increased the danger—the ruling classes intensify it. +Only the people themselves can save themselves and the country. +</p> + +<p> +“We appeal to the people. Long live immediate, honest, democratic peace! +All power to the Soviets! All land to the people! Long live the Constituent +Assembly!” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +5.<br /> +THE “NAKAZ” TO SKOBELIEV +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Resumé</i> +</p> + +<p> +(Passed by the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> and given to Skobeliev as an instruction for +the representative of the Russian Revolutionary democracy at the Paris +Conference.) +</p> + +<p> +The peace treaty must be based on the principle, “No annexations, no +indemnities, the right of self-determination of peoples.” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Territorial Problems</i> +</p> + +<p> +(1) Evacuation of German troops from invaded Russia. Full right of +self-determination to Poland, Lithuania and Livonia. +</p> + +<p> +(2) For Turkish Armenia autonomy, and later complete self-determination, as +soon as local Governments are established. +</p> + +<p> +(3) The question of Alsace-Lorraine to be solved by a plebiscite, after the +withdrawal of all foreign troops. +</p> + +<p> +(4) Belgium to be restored. Compensation for damages from an international +fund. +</p> + +<p> +(5) Serbia and Montenegro to be restored, and aided by an international relief +fund. Serbia to have an outlet on the Adriatic. Bosnia and Herzegovina to be +autonomous. +</p> + +<p> +(6) The disputed provinces in the Balkans to have provisional autonomy, +followed by a plebiscite. +</p> + +<p> +(7) Rumania to be restored, but forced to give complete self-determination to +the Dobrudja…. Rumania must be forced to execute the clauses of the Berlin +Treaty concerning the Jews, and recognise them as Rumanian citizens. +</p> + +<p> +(8) In Italia Irridenta a provisional autonomy, followed by a plebiscite to +determine state dependence. +</p> + +<p> +(9) The German colonies to be returned. +</p> + +<p> +(10) Greece and Persia to be restored. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Freedom of the Seas</i> +</p> + +<p> +All straits opening into inland seas, as well as the Suez and Panama Canals, +are to be neutralised. Commercial shipping to be free. The right of +privateering to be abolished. The torpedoing of commercial ships to be +forbidden. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Indemnities</i> +</p> + +<p> +All combatants to renounce demands for any indemnities, either direct or +indirect—as, for instance, charges for the maintenance of prisoners. +Indemnities and contributions collected during the war must be refunded. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Economic Terms</i> +</p> + +<p> +Commercial treaties are not to be a part of the peace terms. Every country must +be independent in its commercial relations, and must not be obliged to, or +prevented from, concluding an economic treaty, by the Treaty of Peace. +Nevertheless, all nations should bind themselves, by the Peace Treaty, not to +practise an economic blockade after the war, nor to form separate tariff +agreements. The right of most favoured nation must be given to all countries +without distinction. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Guarantees of Peace</i> +</p> + +<p> +Peace is to be concluded at the Peace Conference by delegates elected by the +national representative institutions of each country. The peace terms are to be +confirmed by these parliaments. +</p> + +<p> +Secret diplomacy is to be abolished; all parties are to bind themselves not to +conclude any secret treaties. Such treaties are declared in contradiction to +international law, and void. All treaties, until confirmed by the parliaments +of the different nations, are to be considered void. +</p> + +<p> +Gradual disarmament both on land and sea, and the establishment of a militia +system. The “League of Nations” advanced by President Wilson may +become a valuable aid to international law, provided that (a), all nations are +to be obliged to participate in it with equal rights, and (b), international +politics are to be democratised. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Ways to Peace</i> +</p> + +<p> +The Allies are to announce immediately that they are willing to open peace +negotiations as soon as the enemy powers declare their consent to the +renunciation of all forcible annexations. +</p> + +<p> +The Allies must bind themselves not to begin any peace negotiations, nor to +conclude peace, except in a general Peace Conference with the participation of +delegates from all the neutral countries. +</p> + +<p> +All obstacles to the Stockholm Socialist Conference are to be removed, and +passports are to be given immediately to all delegates of parties and +organisations who wish to participate. +</p> + +<p> +(The Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets also issued a +<i>nakaz,</i> which differs little from the above.) +</p> + +<p class="center"> +6.<br /> +PEACE AT RUSSIA’S EXPENSE +</p> + +<p> +The Ribot revelations of Austria’s peace-offer to France; the so-called +“Peace Conference” at Berne, Switzerland, during the summer of +1917, in which delegates participated from all belligerent countries, +representing large financial interests in all these countries; and the +attempted negotiations of an English agent with a Bulgarian church dignitary; +all pointed to the fact that there were strong currents, on both sides, +favourable to patching up a peace at the expense of Russia. In my next book, +“Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk,” I intend to treat this matter at some +length, publishing several secret documents discovered in the Ministry of +Foreign Affairs at Petrograd. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +7.<br /> +RUSSIAN SOLDIERS IN FRANCE +</p> + +<p> +<i>Official Report of the Provisional Government.</i> +</p> + +<p> +“From the time the news of the Russian Revolution reached Paris, Russian +newspapers of extreme tendencies immediately began to appear; and these +newspapers, as well as individuals, freely circulated among the soldier masses +and began a Bolshevik propaganda, often spreading false news which appeared in +the French journals. In the absence of all official news, and of precise +details, this campaign provoked discontent among the soldiers. The result was a +desire to return to Russia, and a hatred toward the officers. +</p> + +<p> +“Finally it all turned into rebellion. In one of their meetings, the +soldiers issued an appeal to refuse to drill, since they had decided to fight +no more. It was decided to isolate the rebels, and General Zankievitch ordered +all soldiers loyal to the Provisional Government to leave the camp of Courtine, +and to carry with them all ammunition. On June 25th the order was executed; +there remained at the camp only the soldiers who said they would submit +‘conditionally’ to the Provisional Government. The soldiers at the +camp of Courtine received several times the visit of the Commander-in-Chief of +the Russian Armies abroad, of Rapp, the Commissar of the Ministry of War, and +of several distinguished former exiles who wished to influence them, but these +attempts were unsuccessful, and finally Commissar Rapp insisted that the rebels +lay down their arms, and, in sign of submission, march in good order to a place +called Clairvaux. The order was only partially obeyed; first 500 men went out, +of whom 22 were arrested; 24 hours later about 6,000 followed…. About 2,000 +remained…. +</p> + +<p> +“It was decided to increase the pressure; their rations were diminished, +their pay was cut off, and the roads toward the village of Courtine were +guarded by French soldiers. General Zankievitch, having discovered that a +Russian artillery brigade was passing through France, decided to form a mixed +detachment of infantry and artillery to reduce the rebels. A deputation was +sent to the rebels; the deputation returned several hours later, convinced of +the futility of the negotiations. On September 1st General Zankievitch sent an +ultimatum to the rebels demanding that they lay down their arms, and menacing +in case of refusal to open fire with artillery if the order was not obeyed by +September 3d at 10 o’clock. +</p> + +<p> +“The order not being executed, a light fire of artillery was opened on +the place at the hour agreed upon. Eighteen shells were fired, and the rebels +were warned that the bombardment would become more intense. In the night of +September 3d 160 men surrendered. September 4th the artillery bombardment +recommenced, and at 11 o’clock, after 36 shells had been fired, the +rebels raised two white flags and began to leave the camp without arms. By +evening 8,300 men had surrendered. 150 soldiers who remained in the camp opened +fire with machine-guns that night. The 5th of September, to make an end of the +affair, a heavy barrage was laid on the camp, and our soldiers occupied it +little by little. The rebels kept up a heavy fire with their machine-guns. +September 6th, at 9 o’clock, the camp was entirely occupied…. After the +disarmament of the rebels, 81 arrests were made….” +</p> + +<p> +Thus the report. From secret documents discovered in the Ministry of Foreign +Affairs, however, we know that the account is not strictly accurate. The first +trouble arose when the soldiers tried to form Committees, as their comrades in +Russia were doing. They demanded to be sent back to Russia, which was refused; +and then, being considered a dangerous influence in France, they were ordered +to Salonika. They refused to go, and the battle followed…. It was discovered +that they had been left in camp without officers for about two months, and +badly treated, before they became rebellious. All attempts to find out the name +of the “Russian artillery brigade” which had fired on them were +futile; the telegrams discovered in the Ministry left it to be inferred that +French artillery was used…. +</p> + +<p> +After their surrender, more than two hundred of the mutineers were shot in cold +blood. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +8.<br /> +TERESTCHENKO’S SPEECH (<i>Resumé</i>) +</p> + +<p> +“… The questions of foreign policy are closely related to those of +national defence…. And so, if in questions of national defence you think it is +necessary to hold session in secret, also in our foreign policy we are +sometimes forced to observe the same secrecy…. +</p> + +<p> +“German diplomacy attempts to influence public opinion…. Therefore the +declarations of directors of great democratic organisations who talk loudly of +a revolutionary Congress, and the impossibility of another winter campaign, are +dangerous…. All these declarations cost human lives…. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish to speak merely of governmental logic, without touching the +questions of the honour and dignity of the State. From the point of view of +logic, the foreign policy of Russia ought to be based on a real comprehension +of the <i>interests</i> of Russia…. These interests mean that it is impossible +that our country remain alone, and that the present alignment of forces with +us, (the Allies), is satisfactory…. All humanity longs for peace, but in Russia +no one will permit a humiliating peace which would violate the State interests +of our fatherland!” +</p> + +<p> +The orator pointed out that such a peace would for long years, if not for +centuries, retard the triumph of democratic principles in the world, and would +inevitably cause new wars. +</p> + +<p> +“All remember the days of May, when the fraternisation on our Front +threatened to end the war by a simple cessation of military operations, and +lead the country to a shameful separate peace… and what efforts it was +necessary to use to make the soldier masses at the front understand that it was +not by this method that the Russian State must end the war and guarantee its +interest….” +</p> + +<p> +He spoke of the miraculous effect of the July offensive, what strength it gave +to the words of Russian ambassadors abroad, and the despair in Germany caused +by the Russian victories. And also, the disillusionment in Allied countries +which followed the Russian defeat…. +</p> + +<p> +“As to the Russian Government, it adhered strictly to the formula of May, +‘No annexations and no punitive indemnities.’ We consider it +essential not only to proclaim the self-determination of peoples, but also to +renounce imperialist aims….” +</p> + +<p> +Germany is continually trying to make peace. The only talk in Germany is of +peace; she knows she cannot win. +</p> + +<p> +“I reject the reproaches aimed at the Government which allege that +Russian foreign policy does not speak clearly enough about the aims of the +war…. +</p> + +<p> +“If the question arises as to what ends the Allies are pursuing, it is +indispensable first to demand what aims the Central Powers have agreed upon…. +</p> + +<p> +“The desire is often heard that we publish the details of the treaties +which bind the Allies; but people forget that, up to now, we do not know the +treaties which bind the Central Powers….” +</p> + +<p> +Germany, he said, evidently wants to separate Russia from the West by a series +of weak buffer-states. +</p> + +<p> +“This tendency to strike at the vital interests of Russia must be +checked…. +</p> + +<p> +“And will the Russian democracy, which has inscribed on its banner the +rights of nations to dispose of themselves, allow calmly the continuation of +oppression upon the most civilised peoples (in Austria-Hungary)? +</p> + +<p> +“Those who fear that the Allies will try to profit by our difficult +situation, to make us support more than our share of the burden of war, and to +solve the questions of peace at our expense, are entirely mistaken…. Our enemy +looks upon Russia as a market for its products. The end of the war will leave +us in a feeble condition, and with our frontier open the flood of German +products can easily hold back for years our industrial development. Measures +must be taken to guard against this…. +</p> + +<p> +“I say openly and frankly: the combination of forces which unites us to +the Allies is <i>favourable to the interests of Russia….</i> It is therefore +important that our views on the questions of war and peace shall be in accord +with the views of the Allies as clearly and precisely as possible…. To avoid +all misunderstanding, I must say frankly that Russia must present at the Paris +Conference <i>one point of view….</i>” +</p> + +<p> +He did not want to comment on the <i>nakaz</i> to Skobeliev, but he referred to +the Manifesto of the Dutch-Scandinavian Committee, just published in Stockholm. +This Manifesto declared for the autonomy of Lithuania and Livonia; “but +that is clearly impossible,” said Terestchenko, “for Russia must +have free ports on the Baltic all the year round…. +</p> + +<p> +“In this question the problems of foreign policy are also closely related +to interior politics, for if there existed a strong sentiment of unity of all +great Russia, one would not witness the repeated manifestations, everywhere, of +a desire of peoples to separate from the Central Government…. Such separations +are contrary to the interests of Russia, and the Russian delegates cannot raise +the issue….” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +9.<br /> +THE BRITISH FLEET (<i>etc.</i>) +</p> + +<p> +At the time of the naval battle of the Gulf of Riga, not only the Bolsheviki, +but also the Ministers of the Provisional Government, considered that the +British Fleet had deliberately abandoned the Baltic, as one indication of the +attitude so often expressed publicly by the British press, and semi-publicly by +British representatives in Russia, “Russia’s finished! No use +bothering about Russia!” +</p> + +<p> +See interview with Kerensky (Appendix 13). +</p> + +<p> +GENERAL GURKO was a former Chief of Staff of the Russian armies under the Tsar. +He was a prominent figure in the corrupt Imperial Court. After the Revolution, +he was one of the very few persons exiled for his political and personal +record. The Russian naval defeat in the Gulf of Riga coincided with the public +reception, by King George in London, of General Gurko, a man whom the Russian +Provisional Government considered dangerously pro-German as well as +reactionary! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +10.<br /> +APPEALS AGAINST INSURRECTION +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>To Workers and Soldiers</i> +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! The Dark Forces are increasingly trying to call forth in +Petrograd and other towns DISORDERS AND <i>Pogroms.</i> Disorder is necessary +to the Dark Forces, for disorder will give them an opportunity for crushing the +revolutionary movement in blood. Under the pretext of establishing order, and +of protecting the inhabitants, they hope to establish the domination of +Kornilov, which the revolutionary people succeeded in suppressing not long ago. +Woe to the people if these hopes are realised! The triumphant +counter-revolution will destroy the Soviets and the Army Committees, will +disperse the Constituent Assembly, will stop the transfer of the land to the +Land Committees, will put an end to all the hopes of the people for a speedy +peace, and will fill all the prisons with revolutionary soldiers and workers. +</p> + +<p> +“In their calculations, the counter-revolutionists and Black Hundred +leaders are counting on the serious discontent of the unenlightened part of the +people with the disorganisation of the food-supply, the continuation of the +war, and the general difficulties of life. They hope to transform every +demonstration of soldiers and workers into a <i>pogrom,</i> which will frighten +the peaceful population and throw it into the arms of the Restorers of Law and +Order. +</p> + +<p> +“Under such conditions every attempt to organise a demonstration in these +days, although for the most laudable object, would be a crime. All conscious +workers and soldiers who are displeased with the policy of the Government will +only bring injury to themselves and to the Revolution if they indulge in +demonstrations. +</p> + +<p> +“THEREFORE THE <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> ASKS ALL WORKERS NOT TO OBEY ANY CALLS +TO DEMONSTRATE. +</p> + +<h5>“WORKERS AND SOLDIERS! DO NOT YIELD TO PROVOCATION! REMEMBER YOUR +DUTY TO YOUR COUNTRY AND TO THE REVOLUTION! DO NOT BREAK THE UNITY OF THE +REVOLUTIONARY FRONT BY DEMONSTRATIONS WHICH ARE BOUND TO BE +UNSUCCESSFUL!”</h5> + +<p> +<i>The Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’ and +Soldiers’ Deputies (Tsay-ee-kah)</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Russian Social Democratic Labour Party</i> THE DANGER IS NEAR! To All +Workers and Soldiers (<i>Read and Hand to Others</i>) +</p> + +<p> +<i>Comrades Workers and Soldiers!</i> +</p> + +<p> +“Our country is in danger. On account of this danger our freedom and our +Revolution are passing through difficult days. The enemy is at the gates of +Petrograd. The disorganisation is growing with every hours. It becomes more and +more difficult to obtain bread for Petrograd. All, of from the smallest to the +greatest, must redouble their efforts, must endeavour to arrange things +properly…. We must save our country, save freedom…. More arms and provisions +for the Army! Bread—for the great cities. Order and organisation in the +country…. +</p> + +<p> +“And in these terrible critical days rumours creep about that SOMEWHERE a +demonstration is being prepared, that SOME ONE is calling on the soldiers and +workers to destroy revolutionary peace and order…. <i>Rabotchi Put,</i> the +newspaper of the Bolsheviki, is pouring oil on the flames: it flattering, +trying to please the unenlightened people, tempting the worker and soldiers, +urging them on against the Government, promising them mountains of good +things…. The confiding, ignorant men believe, they do not reason…. And from the +other side come also rumours—rumours that the Dark Forces, the friends of +the Tsar, the German spies, are rubbing their hands with glee. They are ready +to join the Bolsheviki, and with them fan the disorders into civil war. +</p> + +<p> +“The Bolsheviki and the ignorant soldiers and workers seduced by them cry +senselessly: ‘Down with the Government! All power to the Soviets!’ +And the Dark servants of the Tsar and the spies of Wilhelm will egg the on; +‘Beat the Jews, beat the shopkeepers, rob the markets, devastate the +shops, pillage the wine stores! Slay, burn, rob!’ +</p> + +<p> +“And then will begin a terrible confusion, a war between one part of the +people and the other. All will become still more disorganised, and perhaps once +more blood will be shed on the streets of the capital. And then what then? +</p> + +<p> +“Then, the road to Petrograd will be open to Wilhelm. Then, no bread will +come to Petrograd, the children will die of hunger. Then, the Army as the front +will remain without support, our brothers in the trenches will be delivered to +the fire of the enemy. Then, Russia will lose all prestige in other countries, +our money will lose its value; everything will be so dear as to make life +impossible. Then, the long awaited Constituent Assembly will be +postponed—it will be impossible to convene it in time. And +then—Death to the Revolution, Death to our Liberty…. +</p> + +<p> +“Is it this that you want, workers and soldiers? No! If you do not then +go, go to the ignorant people seduced by the betrayers, and tell them the whole +truth, which we have told you! +</p> + +<p> +“Let all know that EVERY MAN WHO IN THESE TERRIBLE DAYS CALLS ON YOU TO +COME OUT IN THE STREETS AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT, IS EITHER A SECRET SERVANT OF +THE TSAR, A PROVOCATOR, OR AN UNWISE ASSISTANT OF THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE, OR +A PAID SPY OF WILHELM! +</p> + +<p> +“Every conscious worker revolutionist, every conscious peasant, every +revolutionary soldier, all who understand what harm a demonstration or a revolt +against the Government might cause to the people, must join together and not +allow the enemies of the people to destroy our freedom.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Petrograd Electoral Committee of the Mensheviki-oborontzi.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +11.<br /> +LENIN’s “LETTER TO THE COMRADES” +</p> + +<p> +This series of articles appeared in <i>Rabotchi Put</i> several days running, +at the end of October and beginning of November, 1917. I give here only +extracts from two instalments: +</p> + +<p> +1. Kameniev and Riazanov say that we have not a majority among the people, and +that without a majority insurrection is hopeless. +</p> + +<p> +“Answer: People capable of speaking such things are falsifiers, pedants, +or simply don’t want to look the real situation in the face. In the last +elections we received in all the country more than fifty per cent of all +thevotes…. +</p> + +<p> +“The most important thing in Russia to-day is the peasants’ +revolution. In Tambov Government there has been a real agrarian uprising with +wonderful political results…. Even <i>Dielo Naroda</i> has been scared into +yelling that the land must be turned over to the peasants, and not only the +Socialist Revolutionaries in the Council of the Republic, but also the +Government itself, has been similarly affected. Another valuable result was the +bringing of bread which had been hoarded by the <i>pomieshtchiki</i> to the +railroad stations in that province. The <i>Russkaya Volia</i> had to admit that +the stations were filled with bread after the peasants’ rising…. +</p> + +<p> +“2. We are not sufficiently strong to take over the Government, and the +bourgeoisie is not sufficiently strong to prevent the Constituent Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +“Answer: This is nothing but timidity, expressed by pessimism as regards +workers and soldiers, and optimism as regards the failure of the bourgeoisie. +If <i>yunkers</i> and Cossacks say they will fight, you believe them; if +workmen and soldiers say so, you doubt it. What is the distinction between such +doubts and siding politically with the bourgeoisie? +</p> + +<p> +“Kornilov proved that the Soviets were really a power. To believe +Kerensky and the Council of the Republic, if the bourgeoisie is not strong +enough to break the Soviets, it is not strong enough to break the Constituent. +But that is wrong. The bourgeoisie will break the Constituent by sabotage, by +lock-outs, by giving up Petrograd, by opening the front to the Germans. This +has already been done in the case of Riga…. +</p> + +<p> +“3. The Soviets must remain a revolver at the head of the Government to +force the calling of the Constituent Assembly, and to suppress any further +Kornilov attempts. +</p> + +<p> +“Answer: Refusal of insurrection is refusal of ‘All Power to the +Soviets.’ Since September the Bolshevik party has been discussing the +question of insurrection. Refusing to rise means to trust our hopes in the +faith of the good bourgeoisie, who have ‘promised’ to call the +Constituent Assembly. When the Soviets have all the power, the calling of the +Constituent is guaranteed, and its success assured. +</p> + +<p> +“Refusal of insurrection means surrender to the +‘Lieber-Dans.’ Either we must drop ‘All Power to the +Soviets’ or make an insurrection; there is no middle course.” +</p> + +<p> +“4. The bourgeoisie cannot give up Petrograd, although the Rodziankos +want it, because it is not the bourgeoisie who are fighting, but our heroic +soldiers and sailors. +</p> + +<p> +“Answer: This did not prevent two admirals from running away at the +Moonsund battle. The Staff has not changed; it is composed of Kornilovtsi. If +the Staff, with Kerensky at its head, wants to give up Petrograd, it can do it +doubly or trebly. It can make arrangements with the Germans or the British; +open the fronts. It can sabotage the Army’s food supply. At all these +doors has it knocked. +</p> + +<p> +“We have no right to wait until the bourgeoisie chokes the Revolution. +Rodzianko is a man of action, who has faithfully and truthfully served the +bourgeoisie for years…. Half the Lieber-Dans are cowardly compromisers; half of +them simple fatalists….” +</p> + +<p> +“5. We’re getting stronger every day. We shall be able to enter the +Constituent Assembly as a strong opposition. Then why should we play everything +on one card?” +</p> + +<p> +“Answer: This is the argument of a sophomore with no practical +experience, who reads that the Constituent Assembly is being called and +trustfully accepts the legal and constitutional way. Even the voting of the +Constituent Assembly will not do away with hunger, or beat Wilhelm…. The issue +of hunger and of surrendering Petrograd cannot be decided by waiting for the +Constituent Assembly. Hunger is not waiting. The peasants’ Revolution is +not waiting. The Admirals who ran away did not wait. +</p> + +<p> +“Blind people are surprised that hungry people, betrayed by admirals and +generals, do not take an interest in voting. +</p> + +<p> +“6. If the Kornilovtsi make an attempt, we would show them our strength. +But why should we risk everything by making an attempt ourselves? +</p> + +<p> +“Answer: History doesn’t repeat. ‘Perhaps Kornilov will some +day make an attempt!’ What a serious base for proletarian action! But +suppose Kornilov waits for starvation, for the opening of the fronts, what +then? This attitude means to build the tactics of a revolutionary party on one +of the bourgeoisie’s former mistakes. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us forget everything except that there is no way out but by the +dictatorship of the proletariat—either that or the dictatorship of +Kornilov. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us wait, comrades, for—a miracle!” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +12.<br /> +MILIUKOV’s SPEECH (<i>Resumé</i>) +</p> + +<p> +“Every one admits, it seems, that the defence of the country is our +principal task, and that, to assure it, we must have discipline in the Army and +order in the rear. To achieve this, there must be a power capable of daring, +not only by persuasion, but also by force…. The germ of all our evils comes +from the point of view, original, truly Russian, concerning foreign policy, +which passes for the Internationalist point of view. +</p> + +<p> +“The noble Lenin only imitates the noble Keroyevsky when he holds that +from Russia will come the New World which shall resuscitate the aged West, and +which will replace the old banner of doctrinary Socialism by the new direct +action of starving masses—and that will push humanity forward and force +it to break in the doors of the social paradise….” +</p> + +<p> +These men sincerely believed that the decomposition of Russia would bring about +the decomposition of the whole capitalist régime. Starting from that point of +view, they were able to commit the unconscious treason, in wartime, of calmly +telling the soldiers to abandon the trenches, and instead of fighting the +external enemy, creating internal civil war and attacking the proprietors and +capitalists…. +</p> + +<p> +Here Miliukov was interrupted by furious cries from the Left, demanding what +Socialist had ever advised such action…. +</p> + +<p> +“Martov says that only the revolutionary pressure of the proletariat can +condemn and conquer the evil will of imperialist cliques and break down the +dictatorship of these cliques…. Not by an accord between Governments for a +limitation of armaments, but by the disarming of these Governments and the +radical democratisation of the military system….” +</p> + +<p> +He attacked Martov viciously, and then turned on the Mensheviki and Socialist +Revolutionaries, whom he accused of entering the Government as Ministers with +the avowed purpose of carrying on the class struggle! +</p> + +<p> +“The Socialists of Germany and of the Allied countries contemplated these +gentlemen with ill-concealed contempt, but they decided that it was for Russia, +and sent us some apostles of the Universal Conflagration…. +</p> + +<p> +“The formula of our democracy is very simple; no foreign policy, no art +of diplomacy, an immediate democratic peace, a declaration to the Allies, +‘We want nothing, we haven’t anything to fight with!’ And +then our adversaries will make the same declaration, and the brotherhood of +peoples will be accomplished!” +</p> + +<p> +Miliukov took a fling at the Zimmerwald Manifesto, and declared that even +Kerensky has not been able to escape the influence of “that unhappy +document which will forever be your indictment.” He then attacked +Skobeliev, whose position in foreign assemblies, where he would appear as a +Russian delegate, yet opposed to the foreign policy of his Government, would be +so strange that people would say, “What’s that gentleman carrying, +and what shall we talk to him about?” As for the <i>nakaz,</i> Miliukov +said that he himself was a pacifist; that he believed in the creation of an +International Arbitration Board, and the necessity for a limitation of +armaments, and parliamentary control over secret diplomacy, which did not mean +the abolition of secret diplomacy. +</p> + +<p> +As for the Socialist ideas in the <i>nakaz,</i> which he called +“Stockholm ideas”—peace without victory, the right of +self-determination of peoples, and renunciation of the economic war— +</p> + +<p> +“The German successes are directly proportionate to the successes of +those who call themselves the revolutionary democracy. I do not wish to say, +‘to the successes of the Revolution,’ because I believe that the +defeats of the revolutionary democracy are victories for the Revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +“The influence of the Soviet leaders abroad is not unimportant. One had +only to listen to the speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to be convinced +that, in this hall, the influence of the revolutionary democracy on foreign +policy is so strong, that the Minister does not dare to speak face to face with +it about the honour and dignity of Russia! +</p> + +<p> +“We can see, in the <i>nakaz</i> of the Soviets, that the ideas of the +Stockholm Manifesto have been elaborated in two direction—that of +Utopianism, and that of German interests….” +</p> + +<p> +Interrupted by the angry cries of the Left, and rebuked by the President, +Miliukov insisted that the proposition of peace concluded by popular +assemblies, not by diplomats, and the proposal to undertake peace negotiations +as soon as the enemy had renounced annexations, were pro-German. Recently +Kuhlman said that a personal declaration bound only him who made it…. +“Anyway, we will imitate the Germans before we will imitate the Soviet of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies….” +</p> + +<p> +The sections treating of the independence of Lithuania and Livonia were +symptoms of nationalist agitation in different parts of Russia, supported, said +Miliukov, by German money…. Amid bedlam from the Left, he contrasted the +clauses of the <i>nakaz</i> concerning Alsace-Lorraine, Rumania, and Serbia, +with those treating of the nationalities in Germany and Austria. The +<i>nakaz</i> embraced the German and Austrian point of view, said Miliukov. +</p> + +<p> +Passing to Terestchenko’s speech, he contemptuously accused him of being +afraid to speak the thought in his mind, and even afraid to think in terms of +the greatness of Russia. The Dardanelles must belong to Russia…. +</p> + +<p> +“You are continually saying that the soldier does not know why he is +fighting, and that when he does know, he’ll fight…. It is true that the +soldier doesn’t know why he is fighting, but now you have told him that +there is no reason for him to fight, that we have no national interests, and +that we are fighting for alien ends….” +</p> + +<p> +Paying tribute to the Allies, who, he said, with the assistance of America, +“will yet save the cause of humanity,” he ended: +</p> + +<p> +“Long live the light of humanity, the advanced democracies of the West, +who for a long time have been travelling the way we now only begin to enter, +with ill-assured and hesitating steps! Long live our brave Allies!” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +13.<br /> +INTERVIEW WITH KERENSKY +</p> + +<p> +The Associated Press man tried his hand. “Mr. Kerensky,” he began, +“in England and France people are disappointed with the +Revolution——” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know,” interrupted Kerensky, quizzically. “Abroad the +Revolution is no longer fashionable!” +</p> + +<p> +“What is your explanation of why the Russians have stopped +fighting?” +</p> + +<p> +“That is a foolish question to ask.” Kerensky was annoyed. +“Russia entered the war first of all the Allies, and for a long time she +bore the whole brunt of it. Her losses have been inconceivably greater than +those of all the other nations put together. Russia has now the right to demand +of the Allies that they bring greater force of arms to bear.” He stopped +for a moment and stared at his interlocutor. “You are asking why the +Russians have stopped fighting, and the Russians are asking where is the +British fleet—with German battle-ships in the Gulf of Riga?” Again +he ceased suddenly, and as suddenly burst out. “The Russian Revolution +hasn’t failed and the revolutionary Army hasn’t failed. It is not +the Revolution which caused disorganisation in the army—that +disorganisation was accomplished years ago, by the old regime. Why aren’t +the Russians fighting? I will tell you. Because the masses of the people are +economically exhausted,—and because they are disillusioned with the +Allies!” +</p> + +<p> +The interview of which this is an excerpt was cabled to the United States, and +in a few days sent back by the American State Department, with a demand that it +be “altered.” This Kerensky refused to do; but it was done by his +secretary, Dr. David Soskice—and, thus purged of all offensive references +to the Allies, was given to the press of the world…. +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>RESOLUTION OF THE FACTORY-SHOP COMMITTEES</h5> + +<p> +<i>Workers’ Control</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. (See page 43) +</p> + +<p> +2. The organisation of Workers’ Control is a manifestation of the same +healthy activity in the sphere of industrial production, as are party +organisations in the sphere of politics, trade unions in employment, +Cooperatives in the domain of consumption, and literary clubs in the sphere of +culture. +</p> + +<p> +3. The working-class has much more interest in the proper and uninterrupted +operation of factories… than the capitalist class. Workers’ Control is a +better security in this respect for the interests of modern society, of the +whole people, than the arbitrary will of the owners, who are guided only by +their selfish desire for material profits or political privileges. Therefore +Workers’ Control is demanded by the proletariat not only in their own +interest, but in the interest of the whole country, and should be supported by +the revolutionary peasantry as well as the revolutionary Army. +</p> + +<p> +4. Considering the hostile attitude of the majority of the capitalist class +toward the Revolution, experience shows that proper distribution of raw +materials and fuel, as well as the most efficient management of factories, is +impossible without Workers’ Control. +</p> + +<p> +5. Only Workers’ Control over capitalist enterprises, cultivating the +workers’ conscious attitude toward work, and making clear its social +meaning, can create conditions favourable to the development of a firm +self-discipline in labour, and the development of all labour’s possible +productivity. +</p> + +<p> +6. The impending transformation of industry from a war to a peace basis, and +the redistribution of labour all over the country, as well as among the +different factories, can be accomplished without great disturbances only by +means of the democratic self-government of the workers themselves…. Therefore +the realisation of Workers’ Control is an indispensable preliminary to +the demobilisation of industry. +</p> + +<p> +7. In accordance with the slogan proclaimed by the Russian Social Democratic +Labour Party (Bolsheviki), Workers’ Control on a national scale, in order +to bring results, must extend to all capitalist concerns, and not be organised +accidentally, without system; it must be well-planned, and not separated from +the industrial life of the country as a whole. +</p> + +<p> +8. The economic life of the country—agriculture, industry, commerce and +transport—must be subjected to one unified plan, constructed so as to +satisfy the individual and social requirements of the wide masses of the +people; it must be approved by their elected representatives, and carried out +under the direction of these representatives by means of national and local +organisations. +</p> + +<p> +9. That part of the plan which deals with land-labour must be carried out under +supervision of the peasants’ and land-workers’ organisations; that +relating to industry, trade and transport operated by wage-earners, by means of +Workers’ Control; the natural organs of Workers’ Control inside the +industrial plant will be the Factory-Shop and similar Committees; and in the +labour market, the Trade Unions. +</p> + +<p> +10. The collective wage agreements arranged by the Trade Unions for the +majority of workers in any branch of labour, must be binding on all the owners +of plants employing this kind of labour in the given district. +</p> + +<p> +11. Employment bureaus must be placed under the control and management of the +Trade Unions, as class organisations acting within the limits of the whole +industrial plan, and in accordance with it. +</p> + +<p> +12. Trade Unions must have the right, upon their own initiative, to begin legal +action against all employers who violate labour contracts or labour +legislation, and also in behalf of any individual worker in any branch of +labour. +</p> + +<p> +13. On all questions relating to Workers’ Control over production, +distribution and employment, the Trade Unions must confer with the workers of +individual establishments through their Factory-Shop Committees. +</p> + +<p> +14. Matters of employment and discharge, vacations, wage scales, refusal of +work, degree of productivity and skill, reasons for abrogating agreements, +disputes with the administration, and similar problems of the internal life of +the factory, must be settled exclusively according to the findings of the +Factory-Shop Committee, which has the right to exclude from participation in +the discussion any members of the factory administration. +</p> + +<p> +15. The Factory-Shop Committee forms a commission to control the supplying of +the factory with raw materials, fuel, orders, labour power and technical staff +(including equipment), and all other supplies and arrangements, and also to +assure the factory’s adherence to the general industrial plan. The +factory administration is obliged to surrender to the organs of Workers’ +Control, for their aid and information, all data concerning the business; to +make it possible to verify this data, and to produce the books of the company +upon demand of the Factory-Shop Committee. +</p> + +<p> +16. Any illegal acts on the part of the administration discovered by the +Factory-Shop Committees, or any suspicion of such illegal acts, which cannot be +investigated or remedied by the workers alone, shall be referred to the +district central organisation of Factory-Shop Committees charged with the +particular branch of labour involved, which shall discuss the matter with the +institutions charged with the execution of the general industrial plan, and +find means to deal with the matter, even to the extent of confiscating the +factory. +</p> + +<p> +17. The union of the Factory-Shop Committees of different concerns must be +accomplished on the basis of the different trades, in order to facilitate +control over the whole branch of industry, so as to come within the general +industrial plan; and so as to create an effective plan of distribution among +the different factories of orders, raw materials, fuel, technical and labour +power; and also to facilitate cooperation with the Trade Unions, which are +organised by trades. +</p> + +<p> +18. The central city councils of Trade Unions and Factory-Shop Committees +represent the proletariat in the corresponding provincial and local +institutions formed to elaborate and carry out the general industrial plan, and +to organise economic relations between the towns and the villages (workers and +peasants). They also possess final authority for the management of Factory-Shop +Committees and Trade Unions, so far as Workers’ Control in their district +is concerned, and they shall issue obligatory regulations concerning +workers’ discipline in the routine of production—which regulations, +however, must be approved by vote of the workers themselves. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>THE BOURGEOIS PRESS ON THE BOLSHEVIKI</h5> + +<p> +<i>Russkaya Volia,</i> October 28. “The decisive moment approaches…. It +is decisive for the Bolsheviki. Either they will give us… a second edition of +the events of July 16-18, or they will have to admit that with their plans and +intentions, with their impertinent policy of wishing to separate themselves +from everything consciously national, they have been definitely defeated…. +</p> + +<p> +“What are the chances of Bolshevik success? +</p> + +<p> +“It is difficult to answer that question, for their principal support is +the… ignorance of the popular masses. They speculate on it, they work upon it +by a demagogy which nothing can stop…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Government must play its part in this affair. Supporting itself +morally by the Council of the Republic, the Government must take a +clearly-defined attitude toward the Bolsheviki…. +</p> + +<p> +“And if the Bolsheviki provoke an insurrection against the legal power, +and thus facilitate the German invasion, they must be treated as mutineers and +traitors….” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Birzhevya Viedomosti,</i> October 28. “Now that the Bolsheviki have +separated themselves from the rest of the democracy, the struggle against them +is very much simpler—and it is not reasonable, in order to fight against +Bolshevism, to wait until they make a manifestation. The Government should not +even allow the manifestation…. +</p> + +<p> +“The appeals of the Bolsheviki to insurrection and anarchy are acts +punishable by the criminal courts, and in the freest countries, their authors +would receive severe sentences. For what the Bolsheviki are carrying on is not +a political struggle against the Government, or even for the power; it is +propaganda for anarchy, massacres, and civil war. This propaganda must be +extirpated at its roots; it would be strange to wait, in order to begin action +against an agitation for <i>pogroms,</i> until the <i>pogroms</i> actually +occurred….” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Novoye Vremya,</i> November 1. “… Why is the Government excited only +about November 2d (date of calling of the Congress of Soviets), and not about +September 12th, or October 3d? +</p> + +<p> +“This is not the first time that Russia burns and falls in ruins, and +that the smoke of the terrible conflagration makes the eyes of our Allies +smart…. +</p> + +<p> +“Since it came to power, has there been a single order issued by the +Government for the purpose of halting anarchy, or has any one attempted to put +out the Russian conflagration? +</p> + +<p> +“There were other things to do…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Government turned its attention to a more immediate problem. It +crushed an insurrection (the Kornilov attempt) concerning which every one is +now asking, ‘Did it ever exist?” +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<h5>MODERATE SOCIALIST PRESS ON THE BOLSHEVIKI</h5> + +<p> +<i>Dielo Naroda,</i> October 28 (Socialist Revolutionary). “The most +frightful crime of the Bolsheviki against the Revolution is that they impute +exclusively to the bad intentions of the revolutionary Government all the +calamities which the masses are so cruelly suffering; when as a matter of fact +these calamities spring from objective causes. +</p> + +<p> +“They make golden promises to the masses, knowing in advance that they +can fulfil none of them; they lead the masses on a false trail, deceiving them +as to the source of all their troubles…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Bolsheviki are the most dangerous enemies of the Revolution….” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Dien,</i> October 30 (Menshevik). “Is this really ‘the freedom +of the press’? Every day <i>Novaya Rus</i> and <i>Rabotchi Put</i> openly +incite to insurrection. Every day these two papers commit in their columns +actual crimes. Every day they urge <i>pogroms</i>…. Is that ‘the freedom +of the press’?… +</p> + +<p> +“The Government ought to defend itself and defend us. We have the right +to insist that the Government machinery does not remain passive while the +threat of bloody riots endangers the lives of its citizens….” +</p> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<h5>“YEDINSTVO”</h5> + +<p> +Plekhanov’s paper, <i>Yedinstvo,</i> suspended publication a few weeks +after the Bolsheviki seized the power. Contrary to popular report, +<i>Yedinstvo</i> was not suppressed by the Soviet Government; an announcement +in the last number admitted that it was unable to continue <i>because there +were too few subscribers</i>…. +</p> + +<p> +5. +</p> + +<h5>WERE THE BOLSHEVIKI CONSPIRATORS?</h5> + +<p> +The French newspaper <i>Entente</i> of Petrograd, on November 15th, published +an article of which the following is a part: +</p> + +<p> +“The Government of Kerensky discusses and hesitates. The Government of +Lenin and Trotzky attacks and acts. +</p> + +<p> +“This last is called a Government of Conspirators, but that is wrong. +Government of usurpers, yes, like all revolutionary Governments which triumph +over their adversaries. Conspirators—no! +</p> + +<p> +“No! They did not conspire. On the contrary, openly, audaciously, without +mincing words, without dissimulating their intentions, they multiplied their +agitation, intensified their propaganda in the factories, the barracks, at the +Front, in the country, everywhere, even fixing in advance the date of their +taking up arms, the date of their seizure of the power…. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>They</i>—conspirators? Never….” +</p> + +<p> +6. +</p> + +<h5>APPEAL AGAINST INSURRECTION</h5> + +<p> +<i>From the Central Army Committee</i> +</p> + +<p> +“… Above everything we insist upon the inflexible execution of the +organised will of the majority of the people, expressed by the Provisional +Government in accord with the Council of the Republic and the +<i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> as organ of the popular power…. +</p> + +<p> +“Any demonstration to depose this power by violence, at a moment when a +Government crisis will infallibly create disorganisation, the ruin of the +country, and civil war, will be considered by the Army as a +counter-revolutionary act, and repressed by force of arms…. +</p> + +<p> +“The interests of private groups and classes should be submitted to a +single interest—that of augmenting industrial production, and +distributing the necessities of life with fairness…. +</p> + +<p> +“All who are capable of sabotage, disorganisation, or disorder, all +deserters, all slackers, all looters, should be forced to do auxiliary service +in the rear of the Army…. +</p> + +<p> +“We invite the Provisional Government to form, out of these violators of +the people’s will, these enemies of the Revolution, labour detachments to +work in the rear, on the Front, in the trenches under enemy fire….” +</p> + +<p> +7. +</p> + +<h5>EVENTS OF THE NIGHT, NOVEMBER 6TH</h5> + +<p> +Toward evening bands of Red Guards began to occupy the printing shops of the +bourgeois press, where they printed <i>Rabotchi Put, Soldat,</i> and various +proclamations by the hundred thousand. The City Militia was ordered to clear +these places, but found the offices barricaded, and armed men defending them. +Soldiers who were ordered to attack the print-shops refused. +</p> + +<p> +About midnight a Colonel with a company of <i>yunkers</i> arrived at the club +“Free Mind,” with a warrant to arrest the editor of <i>Rabotchi +Put.</i> Immediately an enormous mob gathered in the street outside and +threatened to lynch the <i>yunkers.</i> The Colonel thereupon begged that he +and the <i>yunkers</i> be arrested and taken to Peter-Paul prison for safety. +This request was granted. +</p> + +<p> +At 1 A. M. a detachment of soldiers and sailors from Smolny occupied the +Telegraph Agency. At 1.35 the Post Office was occupied. Toward morning the +Military Hotel was taken, and at 5 o’clock the Telephone Exchange. At +dawn the State Bank was surrounded. And at 10 A. M. a cordon of troops was +drawn about the Winter Palace. +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>EVENTS OF NOVEMBER 7TH</h5> + +<p> +From 4 A. M. until dawn Kerensky remained at the Petrograd Staff Headquarters, +sending orders to the Cossacks and to the <i>yunkers</i> in the Officers’ +Schools in and around Petrograd—all of whom answered that they were +unable to move. +</p> + +<p> +Colonel Polkovnikov, Commandant of the City, hurried between the Staff and the +Winter Palace, evidently without any plan. Kerensky gave an order to open the +bridges; three hours passed without any action, and then an officer and five +men went out on their own initiative, and putting to flight a picket of Red +Guards, opened the Nicolai Bridge. Immediately after they left, however, some +sailors closed it again. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky ordered the print-shop of <i>Rabotchi Put</i> to be occupied. The +officer detailed to the work was promised a squad of soldiers; two hours later +he was promised some <i>yunkers;</i> then the order was forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +An attempt was made to recapture the Post Office and the Telegraph Agency; a +few shots were fired, and the Government troops announced that they would no +longer oppose the Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +To a delegation of <i>yunkers</i> Kerensky said, “As chief of the +Provisional Government and as Supreme Commander I know nothing, I cannot advise +you; but as a veteran revolutionist, I appeal to you, young revolutionists, to +remain at your posts and defend the conquests of the Revolution.” +</p> + +<p> +Orders of Kishkin, November 7th: +</p> + +<p> +“By decree of the Provisional Government…. I am invested with +extraordinary powers for the reestablishment of order in Petrograd, in complete +command of all civil and military authorities….” +</p> + +<p> +“In accordance with the powers conferred upon me by the Provisional +Government, I herewith relieve from his functions as Commandant of the +Petrograd Military District Colonel George Polkovnikov….” +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>Appeal to the Population</i> signed by Vice-Premier Konovalov, November 7th: +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens! Save the fatherland, the republic and your freedom. Maniacs +have raised a revolt against the only governmental power chosen by the people, +the Provisional Government…. +</p> + +<p> +“The members of the Provisional Government fulfil their duty, remain at +their post, and continue to work for the good of the fatherland, the +reestablishment of order, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, +future sovereign of Russia and of all the Russian peoples…. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens, you must support the Provisional Government. You must +strengthen its authority. You must oppose these maniacs, with whom are joined +all enemies of liberty and order, and the followers of the Tsarist régime, in +order to wreck the Constituent Assembly, destroy the conquests of the +Revolution, and the future of our dear fatherland…. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens! Organise around the Provisional Government for the defence of +its temporary authority, in the name of order and the happiness of all +peoples….” +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>Proclamation of the Provisional Government.</i> +</p> + +<p> +“The Petrograd Soviet…. has declared the Provisional Government +overthrown, and has demanded that the Governmental power be turned over to it, +under threat of bombarding the Winter Palace with the cannon of Peter-Paul +Fortress, and of the cruiser <i>Avrora,</i> anchored in the Neva. +</p> + +<p> +“The Government can surrender its authority only to the Consituent +Assembly; for that reason it has decided not to submit, and to demand aid from +the population and the Army. A telegram has been sent to the <i>Stavka;</i> and +an answer received says that a strong detachment of troops is being sent…. +</p> + +<p> +“Let the Army and the People reject the irresponsible attempts of the +Bolsheviki to create a revolt in the rear….” +</p> + +<p> +About 9 A. M. Kerensky left for the Front…. +</p> + +<p> +Toward evening two soldiers on bicycles presented themselves at the Staff +Headquarters, as delegates of the garrison of Peter-Paul Fortress. Entering the +meeting-room of the Staff, where Kishkin, Rutenburg, Paltchinski, General +Bagratouni, Colonel Paradielov and Count Tolstoy were gathered, they demanded +the immediate surrender of the Staff; threatening, in case of refusal, to +bombard headquarters…. After two panicky conferences the Staff retreated to the +Winter Palace, and the headquarters were occupied by Red Guards…. +</p> + +<p> +Late in the afternoon several Bolshevik armoured cars cruised around the Palace +Square, and Soviet soldiers tried unsuccessfully to parley with the +<i>yunkers</i>…. +</p> + +<p> +Firing on the Palace began about 7 o’clock in the evening…. +</p> + +<p> +At 10 P. M. began an artillery bombardment from three sides, in which most of +the shells were blanks, only three small shrapnels striking the façade of the +Palace…. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>KERENSKY IN FLIGHT</h5> + +<p> +Leaving Petrograd in the morning of November 7th, Kerensky arrived by +automobile at Gatchina, where he demanded a special train. Toward evening he +was in Ostrov, Province of Pskov. The next morning, extraordinary session of +the local Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Depulies, with +participation of Cossack delegates—there being 6,000 Cossacks at Ostrov. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky spoke to the assembly, appealing for aid against the Bolsheviki, and +addressed himself almost exclusively to the Cossacks. The soldier delegates +protested. +</p> + +<p> +“Why did you come here?” shouted voices. Kerensky answered, +“To ask the Cossacks’ assistance in crushing the Bolshevik +insurrection!” At this there were violent protestations, which increased +when he continued, “I broke the Kornilov attempt, and I will break the +Bolsheviki!” The noise became so great that he had to leave the +platform…. +</p> + +<p> +The soldier deputies and the Ussuri Cossacks decided to arrest Kerensky, but +the Don Cossacks prevented them, and got him away by train…. A Military +Revolutionary Committee, set up during the day, tried to inform the garrison of +Pskov; but the telephone and telegraph lines were cut…. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky did not arrive at Pskov. Revolutionary soldiers had cut the railway +line, to prevent troops being sent against the capital. On the night of +November 8th he arrived by automobile at Luga, where he was well received by +the Death Battalions stationed there. +</p> + +<p> +Next day he took train for the South-West Front, and visited the Army Committee +at headquarters. The Fifth Army, however, was wild with enthusiasm over the +news of the Bolshevik success, and the Army Committee was unable to promise +Kerensky any support. +</p> + +<p> +From there he went to the <i>Stavka,</i> at Moghilev, where he ordered ten +regiments from different parts of the Front to move against Petrograd. The +soldiers almost unanimously refused; and those regiments which did start halted +on the way. About five thousand Cossacks finally followed him…. +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<h5>LOOTING OF THE WINTER PALACE</h5> + +<p> +I do not mean to maintain that there was no looting, in the Winter Palace. Both +after and <i>before</i> the Winter Palace fell, there was considerable +pilfering. The statement of the Socialist Revolutionary paper <i>Narod,</i> and +of members of the City Duma, to the effect that precious objects to the value +of 500,000,000 rubles had been stolen, was, however, a gross exaggeration. +</p> + +<p> +The most important art treasures of the Palace—paintings, statues, +tapestries, rare porcelains and armorie,—had been transferred to Moscow +during the month of September; and they were still in good order in the +basement of the Imperial Palace there ten days after the capture of the Kremlin +by Bolshevik troops. I can personally testify to this…. +</p> + +<p> +Individuals, however, especially the general public, which was allowed to +circulate freely through the Winter Palace for several days after its capture, +made away with table silver, clocks, bedding, mirrors and some odd vases of +valuable porcelain and semi-precious stone, to the value of about $50,000. +</p> + +<p> +The Soviet Government immediately created a special commission, composed of +artists and archæologists, to recover the stolen objects. On November 1st two +proclamations were issued: +</p> + +<h5>“CITIZENS OF PETROGRAD!</h5> + +<p> +“We urgently ask all citizens to exert every effort to find whatever +possible of the objects stolen from the Winter Palace in the night of November +7-8, and to forward them to the Commandant of the Winter Palace. +</p> + +<p> +“Receivers of stolen goods, antiquarians, and all who are proved to be +hiding such objects will be held legally responsible and punished with all +severity. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Commissars for the Protection of Museums and Artistic +Collections,</i> “G. YATMANOV, B. MANDELBAUM.” +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<h5>“TO REGIMENTAL AND FLEET COMMITTEES</h5> + +<p> +“In the night of November 7-8, in the Winter Palace, which is the +inalienable property of the Russian people, valuable objects of art were +stolen. +</p> + +<p> +“We urgently appeal to all to exert every effort, so that the stolen +objects are returned to the Winter Palace. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Commissars</i>….<br /> + “G. YATMANOV, B. MANDELBAUM.” +</p> + +<p> +About half the loot was recovered, some of it in the baggage of foreigners +leaving Russia. +</p> + +<p> +A conference of artists and archæologists, held at the suggestion of Smolny, +appointed a commission of make an inventory of the Winter Palace treasures, +which was given complete charge of the Palace and of all artistic collections +and State museums in Petrograd. On November 16th the Winter Palace was closed +to the public while the inventory was being made…. +</p> + +<p> +During the last week in November a decree was issued by the Council of +People’s Commissars, changing the name of the Winter Palace to +“People’s Museum,” entrusting it to the complete charge of +the artistic-archæological commission, and declaring that henceforth all +Governmental activities within its wall were prohibited…. +</p> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<h5>RAPE OF THE WOMEN’S BATTALION</h5> + +<p> +Immediately following the taking of the Winter Palace all sorts of sensational +stories were published in the anti-Bolshevik press, and told in the City Duma, +about the fate of the Women’s Battalion defending the Palace. It was said +that some of the girl-soldiers had been thrown from the windows into the +street, most of the rest had been violated, and many had committed suicide as a +result of the horrors they had gone through. +</p> + +<p> +The City Duma appointed a commission to investigate the matter. On November +16th the commission returned from Levashovo, headquarters of the Women’s +Battalion. Madame Tyrkova reported that the girls had been at first taken to +the barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment, and that there some of them had been +badly treated; but that at present most of them were at Levashovo, and the rest +scattered about the city in private houses. Dr. Mandelbaum, another of the +commission, testified drily that <i>none</i> of the women had been thrown out +of the windows of the Winter Palace, that <i>none</i> were wounded, that three +had been violated, and that one had committed suicide, leaving a note which +said that she had been “disappointed in her ideals.” +</p> + +<p> +On November 21st the Military Revolutionary Committee officially dissolved the +Women’s Battalion, at the request of the girls themselves, who returned +to civilian clothes. +</p> + +<p> +In Louise Bryant’s book, “Six Red Months in Russia,” there is +an interesting description of the girl-soldiers during this time. +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>APPEALS AND PROCLAMATIONS</h5> + +<p> +<i>From the Military Revolutionary Committee,</i> November 8: +</p> + +<p> +“To All Army Committees and All Soviets of Soldiers’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +“The Petrograd garrison has overturned the Government of Kerensky, which +had risen against the Revolution and the People…. In sending this news to the +Front and the country, the Military Revolutionary Committee requests all +soldiers to keep vigilant watch on the conduct of officers. Officers who do not +frankly and openly declare for the Revolution should be immediately arrested as +enemies. +</p> + +<p> +“The Petrograd Soviet interprets the programme of the new Government as: +immediate proposals of a general democratic peace, the immediate transfer of +great landed estates to the peasants, and the honest convocation of the +Constituent Assembly. The people’s revolutionary Army must not permit +troops of doubtful morale to be sent to Petrograd. Act by means of arguments, +by means of moral suasion—but if that fails, halt the movement of troops +by implacable force. +</p> + +<p> +“The present order must be immediately read to all military units of +every branch of the service. Whoever keeps the knowledge of this order from the +soldier-masses…. commits a serious crime against the Revolution, and will be +punished with all the rigour of revolutionary law. +</p> + +<p> +“Soldiers! For peace, bread, land, and popular government!” +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +“To All Front and Rear Army, Corps, Divisional, Regimental and Company +Committees, and All Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and +Peasants’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +“Soldiers and Revolutionary Officers! +</p> + +<p> +“The Military Revolutionary Committee, by agreement with the majority of +the workers, soldiers, and peasants, has decreed that General Kornilov and all +the accomplices of his conspiracy shall be brought immediately to Petrograd, +for incarceration in Peter-Paul Fortress and arraignment before a military +revolutionary court-martial…. +</p> + +<p> +“All who resist the execution of this decree are declared by the +Committee to be traitors to the Revolution, and their orders are herewith +declared null and void.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Military Revolutionary Committee Attached to the Petrograd Soviet of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.</i> +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +“To all Provincial and District Soviets of Workers’, +Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +“By resolution of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, all arrested +members of Land Committees are immediately set free. The Commissars who +arrested them are to be arrested. +</p> + +<p> +“From this moment all power belongs to the Soviets. The Commissars of the +Provisional Government are removed. The presidents of the various local Soviets +are invited to enter into direct relations with the revolutionary +Government.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Military Revolutionary Committee.</i> +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>PROTEST OF THE MUNICIPAL DUMA</h5> + +<p> +“The Central City Duma, elected on the most democratic principles, has +undertaken the burden of managing Municipal affairs and food supplies at the +time of the greatest disorganisation. At the present moment the Bolshevik +party, three weeks before the elections to the Constituent Assembly, and in +spite of the menace of the external enemy, having removed by armed force the +only legal revolutionary authority, is making an attempt against the rights and +independence of the Municipal Self-Government, demanding submission to its +Commissars and its illegal authority. +</p> + +<p> +“In this terrible and tragic moment the Petrograd City Duma, in the face +of its constituents, and of all Russia, declares loudly that it will not submit +to any encroachments on its rights and its independence, and will remain at the +post of responsibility to which it has been called by the will of the +population of the capital. +</p> + +<p> +“The Central City Duma of Petrograd appeals to all Dumas and Zemstvos of +the Russian Republic to rally to the defence of one of the greatest conquests +of the Russian Revolution—the independence and inviolability of popular +self-government.” +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<h5>LAND DECREE—PEASANTS’ “NAKAZ”</h5> + +<p> +The Land question can only be permanently settled by the general Constituent +Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +The most equitable solution of the Land question should be as follows: +</p> + +<p> +1. The right of private ownership of land is abolished forever; land cannot be +sold, nor leased, nor mortgaged, nor alienated in any way. All dominical lands, +lands attached to titles, lands belonging to the Emperor’s cabinet, to +monasteries, churches, possession lands, entailed lands, private estates, +communal lands, peasant free-holds, and others, are confiscated without +compensation, and become national property, and are placed at the disposition +of the workers who cultivate them. +</p> + +<p> +Those who are damaged because of this social transformation of the rights of +property are entitled to public aid during the time necessary for them to adapt +themselves to the new conditions of existence. +</p> + +<p> +2. All the riches beneath the earth—ores, oil, coal, salt, etc.—as +well as forests and waters having a national importance, become the exclusive +property of the State. All minor streams, lakes and forests are placed in the +hands of the communities, on condition of being managed by the local organs of +government. +</p> + +<p> +3. All plots of land scientifically cultivated—gardens, plantations, +nurseries, seed-plots, green-houses, and others—shall not be divided, but +transformed into model farms, and pass into the hands of the State or of the +community, according to their size and importance. +</p> + +<p> +Buildings, communal lands and villages with their private gardens and their +orchards remain in the hands of their present owners; the dimensions of these +plots and the rate of taxes for their use shall be fixed by law. +</p> + +<p> +4. All studs, governmental and private cattle-breeding and bird-breeding +establishments, and others, are confiscated and become national property, and +are transferred either to the State or to the community, according to their +size and importance. +</p> + +<p> +All questions of compensation for the above are within the competence of the +Constituent Assembly. +</p> + +<p> +5. All inventoried agricultural property of the confiscated lands, machinery +and live-stock, are transferred without compensation to the State or the +community, according to their quantity and importance. +</p> + +<p> +The confiscation of such machinery or live-stock shall not apply to the small +properties of peasants. +</p> + +<p> +6. The right to use the land is granted to all citizens, without distinction of +sex, who wish to work the land themselves, with the help of their families, or +in partnership, and only so long as they are able to work. No hired labour is +permitted. +</p> + +<p> +In the event of the incapacity for work of a member of the commune for a period +of two years, the commune shall be bound to render him assistance during this +time by working his land in common. +</p> + +<p> +Farmers who through old age or sickness have permanently lost the capacity to +work the land themselves, shall surrender their land and receive instead a +Government pension. +</p> + +<p> +7. The use of the land should be equalised—that is to say, the land shall +be divided among the workers according to local conditions, the unit of labour +and the needs of the individual. +</p> + +<p> +The way in which land is to be used may be individually determined upon: as +homesteads, as farms, by communes, by partnerships, as will be decided by the +villages and settlements. +</p> + +<p> +8. All land upon its confiscation is pooled in the general People’s Land +Fund. Its distribution among the workers is carried out by the local and +central organs of administration, beginning with the village democratic +organisations and ending with the central provincial institutions—with +the exception of urban and rural cooperative societies. +</p> + +<p> +The Land Fund is subject to periodical redistribution according to the increase +of population and the development of productivity and rural economy. +</p> + +<p> +In case of modification of the boundaries of allotments, the original centre of +the allotment remains intact. +</p> + +<p> +The lands of persons retiring from the community return to the Land Fund; +providing that near relatives of the persons retiring, or friends designated by +them, shall have preference in the redistribution of these lands. +</p> + +<p> +When lands are returned to the Land Fund, the money expended for manuring or +improving the land, which has not been exhausted, shall be reimbursed. +</p> + +<p> +If in some localities the Land Fund is insufficient to satisfy the local +population, the surplus population should emigrate. +</p> + +<p> +The organisation of the emigration, also the costs thereof, and the providing +of emigrants with the necessary machinery and live-stock, shall be the business +of the State. +</p> + +<p> +The emigration shall be carried out in the following order: first, the peasants +without land who express their wish to emigrate; then the undesirable members +of the community, deserters, etc., and finally, by drawing lots on agreement. +</p> + +<p> +All which is contained in this <i>nakaz,</i> being the expression of the +indisputable will of the great majority of conscious peasants of Russia, is +declared to be a temporary law, and until the convocation of the Constituent +Assembly, becomes effective immediately so far as is possible, and in some +parts of it gradually, as will be determined by the District Soviets of +Peasants’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<h5>THE LAND AND DESERTERS</h5> + +<p> +The Government was not forced to make any decision concerning the rights of +deserters to the land. The end of the war and the demobilisation of the army +automatically removed the deserter problem…. +</p> + +<p> +5. +</p> + +<h5>THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS</h5> + +<p> +The Council of People’s Commissars was at first composed entirely of +Bolsheviki. This was not entirely the fault of the Bolsheviki, however. On +November 8th they offered portfolios to members of the Left Socialist +Revolutionaries, who declined. See page 273. {of original volume} +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>APPEALS AND DENUNCIATIONS</h5> + +<p> +Appeal to all Citizens and to the Military Organisations of the Socialist +Revolutionary Party. +</p> + +<p> +“The senseless attempt of the Bolsheviki is on the eve of complete +failure. The garrison is disaffected…. The Ministries are idle, bread is +lacking. All factions except a handful of Bolsheviki have left the Congress of +Soviets. The Bolsheviki are alone! Abuses of all sorts, acts of vandalism and +pillage, the bombardment of the Winter Palace, arbitrary arrests—all +these crimes committed by the Bolsheviki have aroused against them the +resentment of the majority of the sailors and soldiers. The <i>Tsentroflot</i> +refuses to submit to the orders of the Bolsheviki…. +</p> + +<p> +“We call upon all sane elements to gather around the Committee for +Salvation of Country and Revolution; to take serious measures to be ready, at +the first call of the Central Committee of the Party, to act against the +counter-revolutionists, who will doubtless attempt to profit by these troubles +provoked by the Bolshevik adventure, and to watch closely the external enemy, +who also would like to take advantage of this opportune moment when the Front +is weakened….” +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Military Section of the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary +Party.</i> +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +From <i>Pravda:</i> +</p> + +<p> +“What is Kerensky? +</p> + +<p> +“A usurper, whose place is in Peter-Paul prison, with Kornilov and +Kishkin. +</p> + +<p> +“A criminal and a traitor to the workers, soldiers and peasants, who +believed in him. +</p> + +<p> +“Kerensky? A murderer of soldiers! +</p> + +<p> +“Kerensky? A public executioner of peasants! +</p> + +<p> +“Kerensky? A strangler of workers! +</p> + +<p> +“Such is the second Kornilov who now wants to butcher Liberty!” +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>TWO DECREES</h5> + +<p> +<i>On the Press</i> +</p> + +<p> +In the serious decisive hour of the Revolution and the days immediately +following it, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee is compelled to adopt a +series of measures against the counter-revolutionary press of all shades. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately on all sides there are cries that the new Socialist authority is in +this violating the essential principles of its own programme by an attempt +against the freedom of the press. +</p> + +<p> +The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government calls the attention of the +population to the fact that in our country, behind this liberal shield, is +hidden the opportunity for the wealthier classes to seize the lion’s +share of the whole press, and by this means to poison the popular mind and +bring confusion into the consciousness of the masses. +</p> + +<p> +Every one knows that the bourgeois press is one of the most powerful weapons of +the bourgeoisie. Especially in this critical moment, when the new authority of +the workers and peasants is in process of consolidation, it is impossible to +leave it in the hands of the enemy, at a time when it is not less dangerous +than bombs and machine-guns. This is why temporary and extraordinary measures +have been adopted for the purpose of stopping the flow of filth and calumny in +which the yellow and green press would be glad to drown the young victory of +the people. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the new order is consolidated, all administrative measures against +the press will be suspended; full liberty will be given it within the limits of +responsibility before the law, in accordance with the broadest and most +progressive regulations…. +</p> + +<p> +Bearing in mind, however, the fact that any restrictions of the freedom of the +press, even in critical moments, are admissible only within the bounds of +necessity, the Council of People’s Commissars decrees as follows: +</p> + +<p> +1. The following classes of newspapers shall be subject to closure: (a) Those +inciting to open resistance or disobedience to the Workers’ and +Peasants’ Government; (b) Those creating confusion by obviously and +deliberately perverting the news; (c) Those inciting to acts of a criminal +character punishable by the laws. +</p> + +<p> +2. The temporary or permanent closing of any organ of the press shall be +carried out only by virtue of a resolution of the Council of People’s +Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +3. The present decree is of a temporary nature, and will be revoked by a +special <i>ukaz</i> when normal conditions of public life are re-established. +</p> + +<p> +<i>President of the Council of People’s Commissars,</i> +</p> + +<h5>VLADIMIR ULIANOV (LENIN).</h5> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On Workers’ Militia</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. All Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies shall form a +Workers’ Militia. +</p> + +<p> +2. This Workers’ Militia shall be entirely at the orders of the Soviets +of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +3. Military and civil authorities must render every assistance in arming the +workers and in supplying them with technical equipment, even to the extent of +requisitioning arms belonging to the War Department of the Government. +</p> + +<p> +4. This decree shall be promulgated by telegraph. Petrograd, November 10, 1917. +</p> + +<p> +<i>People’s Commissar of the Interior</i> +</p> + +<h5>A. I. RYKOV.</h5> + +<p> +This decree encouraged the formation of companies of Red Guards all over +Russia, which became the most valuable arm of the Soviet Government in the +ensuing civil war. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>THE STRIKE FUND</h5> + +<p> +The fund for the striking Government employees and bank clerks was subscribed +by banks and business houses of Petrograd and other cities, and also by foreign +corporations doing business in Russia. All who consented to strike against the +Bolsheviki were paid full wages, and in some cases their pay was increased. It +was the realisation of the strike fund contributors that the Bolsheviki were +firmly in power, followed by their refusal to pay strike benefits, which +finally broke the strike. +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>KERENSKY’S ADVANCE</h5> + +<p> +On November 9th Kerensky and his Cossacks arrived at Gatchina, where the +garrison, hopelessly split into two factions, immediately surrendered. The +members of the Gatchina Soviet were arrested, and at first threatened with +death; later they were released on good behaviour. +</p> + +<p> +The Cossack advance-guards, practically unopposed, occupied Pavlovsk, +Alexandrovsk and other stations, and reached the outskirts of Tsarskoye Selo +next morning—November 10th. At once the garrison divided into three +groups—the officers, loyal to Kerenskly; part of the soldiers and +non-commissioned officers, who declared themselves “neutral”; and +most of the rank and file, who were for the Bolsheviki. The Bolshevik soldiers, +who were without leaders or organisation, fell back toward the capital. The +local Soviet also withdrew to the village of Pulkovo. +</p> + +<p> +From Pulkovo six members of the Tsarskoye Selo Soviet went with an +automobile-load of proclamations to Gatchina, to propagandise the Cossacks. +They spent most of the day going around Gatchina from one Cossack barracks to +another, pleading, arguing and explaining. Toward evening some officers +discovered their presence and they were arrested and brought before General +Krasnov, who said, “You fought against Kornilov; now you are opposing +Kerensky. I’ll have you all shot!” +</p> + +<p> +After reading aloud to them the order appointing him commander-in-chief of the +Petrograd District, Krasnov asked if they were Bolsheviki. They replied in the +affirmative—upon which Krasnov went away; a short time later an officer +came and set them free, saying that it was by order of General Krasnov…. +</p> + +<p> +In the meanwhile delegations continued to arrive from Petrograd; from the Duma, +the Committee for Salvation, and, last of all, from the <i>Vikzhel.</i> The +Union of Railway Workers insisted that some agreement be reached to halt the +civil war, and demanded that Kerensky treat with the Bolsheviki, and that he +stop the advance on Petrograd. In case of refusal, the <i>Vikzhel</i> +threatened a general strike at midnight of November 11th. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky asked to be allowed to discuss the matter with the Socialist Ministers +and with the Committee for Salvation. He was plainly undecided. +</p> + +<p> +On the 11th Cossack outposts reached Krasnoye Selo, from which the local Soviet +and the heterogeneous forces of the Military Revolutionary Committee +precipitately retired, some of them surrendering…. That night they also touched +Pulkovo, where the first real resistance was encountered…. +</p> + +<p> +Cossacks deserters began to dribble into Petrograd, declaring that Kerensky had +lied to them, that he had spread broadcast over the front proclamations which +said that Petrograd was burning, that the Bolsheviki had invited the Germans to +come in, and that they were murdering women and children and looting +indiscriminately…. +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee immediately sent out some dozens of +“agitators,” with thousands of printed appeals, to inform the +Cossacks of the real situation…. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>PROCLAMATIONS OF THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE</h5> + +<p> +“To All Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ +Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +“The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ +and Peasants’ Deputies charges the local Soviets immediately to take the +most energetic measures to oppose all counter-revolutionary anti-Semitic +disturbances, and all <i>pogroms</i> of whatever nature. The honour of the +workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ Revolution cannot tolerate +any disorders…. +</p> + +<p> +“The Red Guard of Petrograd, the revolutionary garrison and the sailors +have maintained complete order in the capital. +</p> + +<p> +“Workers, soldiers, and peasants, everywhere you should follow the +example of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades soldiers and Cossacks, on us falls the duty of keeping real +revolutionary order. +</p> + +<p> +“All revolutionary Russia and the whole world have their eyes on +you….” +</p> + +<p> +“The All-Russian Congress of Soviets decrees: +</p> + +<p> +“To abolish capital punishment at the Front, which was reintroduced by +Kerensky. +</p> + +<p> +“Complete freedom of propaganda is to be re-established in the country. +All soldiers and revolutionary officers now under arrest for so-called +political ‘crimes’ are at once to be set free.” +</p> + +<p> +“The ex-Premier Kerensky, overthrown by the people, refuses to submit to +the Congress of Soviets and attempts to struggle against the legal Government +elected by the All-Russian Congress—the Council of People’s +Commissars. The Front has refused to aid Kerensky. Moscow has rallied to the +new Government. In many cities (Minsk, Moghilev, Kharkov) the power is in the +hands of the Soviets. No infantry detachment consents to march against the +Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, which, in accord with the firm +will of the Army and the people, has begun peace negotiations and has given the +land to the peasants…. +</p> + +<p> +“We give public warning that if the Cossacks do not halt Kerensky, who +has deceived them and is leading them against Petrograd, the revolutionary +forces will rise with all their might for the defence of the precious conquests +of the Revolution—Peace and Land. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens of Petrograd! Kerensky fled from the city, abandoning the +authority to Kishkin, who wanted to surrender the capital to the Germans; +Rutenburg, of the Black Band, who sabotaged the Municipal Food Supply; and +Paltchinsky, hated by the whole democracy. Kerensky has fled, abandoning you to +the Germans, to famine, to bloody massacres. The revolting people have arrested +Kerensky’s Ministers, and you have seen how the order and supplying of +Petrograd at once improved. Kerensky, at the demand of the aristocrat +proprietors, the capitalists, speculators, marches against you for the purpose +of giving back the land to the land-owners, and continuing the hated and +ruinous war. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens of Petrograd! We know that the great majority of you are in +favour of the people’s revolutionary authority, against the Kornilovtsi +led by Kerensky. Do not be deceived by the lying declarations of the impotent +bourgeois conspirators, who will be pitilessly crushed. +</p> + +<p> +“Workers, soldiers, peasants! We call upon you for revolutionary devotion +and discipline. +</p> + +<p> +“Millions of peasants and soldiers are with us. +</p> + +<p> +“The victory of the people’s Revolution is assured!” +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<p> +ACTS OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’s COMMISSARS +</p> + +<p> +In this book I am giving only such decrees as are in my opinion pertinent to +the Bolshevik conquest of power. The rest belong to a detailed account of the +Structure of the Soviet State, for which I have no place in this work. This +will be dealt with very fully in the second volume, now in preparation, +“Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Concerning Dwelling-Places</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. The independent Municipal Self-Governments have the right to sequestrate all +unoccupied or uninhabited dwelling-places. +</p> + +<p> +2. The Municipalities may, according to laws and arrangements established by +them, install in all available lodgings citizens who have no place to live, or +who live in congested or unhealthy lodgings. +</p> + +<p> +3. The Municipalities may establish a service of inspection of dwelling-places, +organise it and define its powers. +</p> + +<p> +4. The Municipalities may issue orders on the institution of House Committees, +define their organisation, their powers and give them juridical authority. +</p> + +<p> +5. The Municipalities may create Housing Tribunals, define their powers and +their authority. +</p> + +<p> +6. This decree is promulgated by telegraph. +</p> + +<p> +<i>People’s Commissar of the Interior,</i> +</p> + +<h5>A. I. RYKOV.</h5> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On Social Insurance</i> +</p> + +<p> +The Russian proletariat has inscribed on its banners the promise of complete +Social Insurance of wage-workers, as well as of the town and village poor. The +Government of the Tsar, the proprietors and the capitalists, as well as the +Government of coalition and conciliation, failed to realise the desires of the +workers with regard to Social Insurance. +</p> + +<p> +The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, relying upon the support of +the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, +announces to the working-class of Russia and to the town and village poor, that +it will immediately prepare laws on Social Insurance based on the formulas +proposed by the Labour organisations: +</p> + +<p> +1. Insurance for all wage-workers without exception, as well as for all urban +and rural poor. +</p> + +<p> +2. Insurance to cover all categories of loss of working capacity, such as +illness, infirmities, old age, childbirth, widowhood, orphanage, and +unemployment. +</p> + +<p> +3. All the costs of insurance to be charged to employers. +</p> + +<p> +4. Compensation of at least full wages in all loss of working capacity and +unemployment. +</p> + +<p> +5. Complete workers’ self-government of all Insurance institutions. +</p> + +<p> +In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic,<br /> + <i>The People’s Commissar of +Labour,</i><br /> + ALEXANDER SHLIAPNIKOV. +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On Popular Education</i> +</p> + +<p> +Citizens of Russia! +</p> + +<p> +With the insurrection of November 7th the working masses have won for the first +time the real power. +</p> + +<p> +The All-Russian Congress of Soviets has temporarily transferred this power both +to its Executive Committee and to the Council of People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +By the will of the revolutionary people, I have been appointed People’s +Commissar of Education. +</p> + +<p> +The work of guiding in general the people’s education, inasmuch as it +remains with the central government, is, until the Constituent Assembly meets, +entrusted to a Commission on the People’s Education, whose chairman and +executive is the People’s Commissar. +</p> + +<p> +Upon what fundamental propositions will rest this State Commission? How is its +sphere of competence determined? +</p> + +<p> +<i>The General Line of Educational Activity:</i> Every genuinely democratic +power must, in the domain of education, in a country where illiteracy and +ignorance reign supreme, make its first aim the struggle against this darkness. +It must acquire in the shortest time <i>universal literacy,</i> by organising a +network of schools answering to the demands of modern pedagogics; it must +introduce universal, obligatory and free tuition for all, and establish at the +same time a series of such teachers’ institutes and seminaries as will in +the shortest time furnish a powerful army of people’s teachers so +necessary for the universal instruction of the population of our boundless +Russia. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Decentralisation:</i> The State Commission on People’s Education is by +no means a central power governing the institutions of instruction and +education. On the contrary, the entire school work ought to be transferred to +the organs of local self-government. The independent work of the workers, +soldiers and peasants, establishing on their own initiative cultural +educational organisations, must be given full autonomy, both by the State +centre and the Municipal centres. +</p> + +<p> +The work of the State Commission serves as a link and helpmate to organise +resources of material and moral support to the Municipal and private +institutions, particularly to those with a class-character established by the +workers. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The State Committee on People’s Education:</i> A whole series of +invaluable law projects was elaborated from the beginning of the Revolution by +the State Committee for People’s Education, a tolerably democratic body +as to its composition, and rich in experts. The State Commission sincerely +desires the collaboration of this Committee. +</p> + +<p> +It has addressed itself to the bureau of the Committee, with the request at +once to convoke an extraordinary session of the Committee for the fulfilment of +the following programme: +</p> + +<p> +1. The revision of rules of representation in the Committee, in the sense of +greater democratisation. +</p> + +<p> +2. The revision of the Committee’s rights in the sense of widening them, +and of converting the Committee into a fundamental State institute for the +elaboration of law projects calculated to reorganise public instruction and +education in Russia upon democratic principles. +</p> + +<p> +3. The revision, jointly with the new State Commission, of the laws already +created by the Committee, a revision required by the fact that in editing them +the Committee had to take into account the bourgeois spirit of previous +Ministries, which obstructed it even in this its narrowed form. +</p> + +<p> +After this revision these laws will be put into effect without any bureaucratic +red tape, in the revolutionary order. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Pedagogues and the Societists:</i> The State Commission welcomes the +pedagogues to the bright and honourable work of educating the people—the +masters of the country. +</p> + +<p> +No one measure in the domain of the people’s education ought to be +adopted by any power without the attentive deliberation of those who represent +the pedagogues. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, a decision cannot by any means be reached exclusively +through the cooperation of specialists. This refers as well to reforms of the +institutes of general education. +</p> + +<p> +The cooperation of the pedagogues with the social forces—this is how the +Commission will work both in its own constitution, in the State Committee, and +in all its activities. +</p> + +<p> +As its first task the Commission considers the improvement of the +teachers’ status, and first of all of those very poor though almost most +important contributors to the work of culture—the elementary school +teachers. Their just demands ought to be satisfied at once and at any cost. The +proletariat of the schools has in vain demanded an increase of salary to one +hundred rubles per month. It would be a disgrace any longer to keep in poverty +the teachers of the overwhelming majority of the Russian people. +</p> + +<p> +But a real democracy cannot stop at mere literacy, at universal elementary +instruction. It must endeavour to organise a uniform secular school of several +grades. The ideal is, equal and if possible higher education for all the +citizens. So long as this idea has not been realised for all, the natural +transition through all the schooling grades up to the university—a +transition to a higher stage—must depend entirely upon the pupil’s +aptitude, and not upon the resources of his family. +</p> + +<p> +The problem of a genuinely democratic organisation of instruction is +particularly difficult in a country impoverished by a long, criminal, +imperialistic war; but the workers who have taken the power must remember that +education will serve them as the greatest instrument in their struggle for a +better lot and for a spiritual growth. However needful it may be to curtail +other articles of the people’s budget, the expenses on education must +stand high. A large educational budget is the pride and glory of a nation. The +free and enfranchised peoples of Russia will not forget this. +</p> + +<p> +The fight against illiteracy and ignorance cannot be confined to a thorough +establishment of school education for children and youths. Adults, too, will be +anxious to save themselves from the debasing position of a man who cannot read +and write. The school for adults must occupy a conspicuous place in the general +plan of popular instruction. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Instruction and Education:</i> One must emphasise the difference between +instruction and education. +</p> + +<p> +Instruction is the transmission of ready knowledge by the teacher to his pupil. +Education is a creative process. The personality of the individual is being +“educated” throughout life, is being formed, grows richer in +content, stronger and more perfect. +</p> + +<p> +The toiling masses of the people—the workmen, the peasants, the +soldiers—are thirsting for elementary and advanced instruction. But they +are also thirsting for education. Neither the government nor the intellectuals +nor any other power outside of themselves can give it to them. The school, the +book, the theatre, the museum, etc., may here by only aids. They have their own +ideas, formed by their social position, so different from the position of those +ruling classes and intellectuals who have hitherto created culture. They have +their own ideas, their own emotions, their own ways of approaching the problems +of personality and society. The city labourer, according to his own fashion, +the rural toiler according to his, will each build his clear world-conception +permeated with the class-idea of the workers. There is no more superb or +beautiful phenomenon than the one of which our nearest descendants will be both +witnesses and participants: The building by collective Labour of its own +general, rich and free soul. +</p> + +<p> +Instruction will surely be an important but not a decisive element. What is +more important here is the criticism, the creativeness of the masses +themselves; for science and art have only in some of their parts a general +human importance. They suffer radical changes with every far-reaching class +upheaval. +</p> + +<p> +Throughout Russia, particularly among the city labourers, but also among the +peasants, a powerful wave of cultural educational movement has arisen; +workers’ and soldiers’ organisations of this kind are multiplying +rapidly. To meet them, to lend them support, to clear the road before them is +the first task of a revolutionary and popular government in the domain of +democratic education. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Constituent Assembly</i> will doubtless soon begin its work. It alone +can permanently establish the order of national and social life in our country, +and at the same time the general character of the organisation of popular +education. +</p> + +<p> +Now, however, with the passage of power to the Soviets, the really democratic +character of the Constituent Assembly is assured. The line which the State +Commission, relying upon the State Committee, will follow, will hardly suffer +any modification under the influence of the Constituent Assembly. Without +pre-determining it, the new People’s Government considers itself within +its rights in enacting in this domain a series of measures which aim at +enriching and enlightening as soon as possible the spiritual life of the +country. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Ministry:</i> The present work must in the interim proceed through the +Ministry of the People’s Education. Of all the necessary alterations in +its composition and construction the State Commission will have charge, elected +by the Executive Committee of the Soviets and the State Committee. Of course +the order of State authority in the domain of the people’s education will +be established by the Constituent Assembly. Until then, the Ministry must play +the part of the executive apparatus for both the State Committee and the State +Commission for People’s Education. +</p> + +<p> +The pledge of the country’s safety lies in the cooperation of all its +vital and genuinely democratic forces. +</p> + +<p> +We believe that the energetic effort of the working people and of the honest +enlightened intellectuals will lead the country out of its painful crisis, and +through complete democracy to the reign of Socialism and the brotherhood of +nations. +</p> + +<p> +<i>People’s Commissar on Education,</i> +</p> + +<h5>A. V. LUNACHARSKY.</h5> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On the Order in Which the Laws Are to be Ratified and Published.</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. Until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the enacting and +publishing of laws shall be carried out in the order decreed by the present +Provisional Workmen’s and Peasants’ Government, elected by the +All-Russian Congress of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ +Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +2. Every bill is presented for consideration of the Government by the +respective Ministry, signed by the duly authorised People’s Commissar; or +it is presented by the legislative section attached to the Government, signed +by the chief of the section. +</p> + +<p> +3. After its ratification by the Government, the decree in its final edition, +in the name of the Russian Republic, is signed by the president of the Council +of People’s Commissars, or for him by the People’s Commissar who +presented it for the consideration of the Government, and is then published. +</p> + +<p> +4. The date of publishing it in the official “Gazette of the Provisional +Workmen’s and Peasants’ Government,” is the date of its +becoming law. +</p> + +<p> +5. In the decree there may be appointed a date, other than the date of +publication, on which it shall become law, or it may be promulgated by +telegraph; in which case it is to be regarded in every locality as becoming law +upon the publication of the telegram. +</p> + +<p> +6. The promulgation of legislative acts of the government by the State Senate +is abolished. The Legislative Section attached to the Council of People’s +Commissars issues periodically a collection of regulations and orders of the +government which possess the force of law. +</p> + +<p> +7. The Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’, +Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Deputies <i>(Tsay-ee-kah)</i> has at all +times the right to cancel, alter or annul any of the Government decrees. +</p> + +<p> +<i>In the name of the Russian Republic, the President of the Council of +People’s Commissars,</i> +</p> + +<h5>V. ULIANOV-LENIN.</h5> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<h5>THE LIQUOR PROBLEM</h5> + +<p> +<i>Order Issued by the Military Revolutonary Committee</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. Until further order the production of alcohol and alcoholic drinks is +prohibited. +</p> + +<p> +2. It is ordered to all producers of alcohol and alcoholic drinks to inform not +later than on the 27th inst. of the exact site of their stores. +</p> + +<p> +3. All culprits against this order will be tried by a Military Revolutionary +Court. +</p> + +<h5>THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE.</h5> + +<p> +5. +</p> + +<h5>ORDER NO. 2</h5> + +<p> +<i>From the Committee of the Finland Guard Reserve Regiment to all House +Committees and to the citizens of Vasili Ostrov.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The bourgeoisie has chosen a very sinister method of fighting against the +proletariat; it has established in various parts of the city huge wine depots, +and distributes liquor among the soldiers, in this manner attempting to sow +dissatisfaction in the ranks of the Revolutionary army. +</p> + +<p> +It is herewith ordered to all house committees, that at 3 o’clock, the +time set for posting this order, they shall in person and secretly notify the +President of the Committee of the Finland Guard Regiment, concerning the amount +of wine in their premises. +</p> + +<p> +Those who violate this order will be arrested and given trial before a +merciless court, and their property will be confiscated, and the stock of wine +discovered will be +</p> + +<h5>BLOWN UP WITH DYNAMITE</h5> + +<p> +2 hours after this warning, +</p> + +<p> +because more lenient measures, as experience has shown, do not bring the +desired results. +</p> + +<h5>REMEMBER, THERE WILL BE NO OTHER WARNING BEFORE THE EXPLOSIONS.</h5> + +<p> +<i>Regimental Committee of the Finland Guard Regiment.</i> +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE. BULLETIN NO. 2</h5> + +<p> +November 12th, in the evening, Kerensky sent a proposition to the revolutionary +troops—“to lay down their arms.” Kerensky’s men opened +artillery fire. Our artillery answered and compelled the enemy to be silent. +The Cossacks assumed the offensive. The deadly fire of the sailors, the Red +Guards and the soldiers forced the Cossacks to retreat. Our armoured cars +rushed in among the ranks of the enemy. The enemy is fleeing. Our troops are in +pursuit. The order has been given to arrest Kerensky. Tsarskoye Selo has been +taken by the revolutionary troops. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Lettish Riflemen:</i> The Military Revolutionary Committee has received +precise information that the valiant Lettish Riflemen have arrived from the +Front and taken up a position in the rear of Kerensky’s bands. +</p> + +<p> +<i>From the Staff of the Military Revolutionary Committee</i> +</p> + +<p> +The seizure of Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo by Kerensky’s detachments is +to be explained by the complete absence of artillery and machine-guns in these +places, whereas Kerensky’s cavalry was provided with artillery from the +beginning. The last two days were days of enforced work for our Staff, to +provide the necessary quantity of guns, machine-guns, field telephones, etc., +for the revolutionary troops. When this work—with the energetic +assistance of the District Soviets and the factories (the Putilov Works, +Obukhov and others)—was accomplished, the issue of the expected encounter +left no place for doubt: on the side of the revolutionary troops there was not +only a surplus in quantity and such a powerful material base as Petrograd, but +also an enormous moral advantage. All the Petrograd regiments moved out to the +positions with tremendous enthusiasm. The Garrison Conference elected a Control +Commission of five soldiers, thus securing a complete unity between the +commander in chief and the garrison. At the Garrison Conference it was +unanimously decided to begin decisive action. +</p> + +<p> +The artillery fire on the 12th of November developed with extraordinary force +by 3 P.M. The Cossacks were completely demoralised. A parliamentarian came from +them to the staff of the detachment at Krasnoye Selo, and proposed to stop the +firing, threatening otherwise to take “decisive” measures. He was +answered that the firing would cease when Kerensky laid down his arms. +</p> + +<p> +In the developing encounter all sections of the troops—the sailors, +soldiers and the Red Guards—showed unlimited courage. The sailors +continued to advance until they had fired all their cartridges. The number of +casualties has not been established yet, but it is larger on the part of the +counter-revolutionary troops, who experienced great losses through one of our +armoured cars. +</p> + +<p> +Kerensky’s staff, fearing that they would be surrounded, gave the order +to retreat, which retreat speedily assumed a disorderly character. By 11-12 +P.M., Tsarkoye Selo, including the wireless station, was entirely occupied by +the troops of the Soviets. The Cossacks retreated towards Gatchina and +Colpinno. +</p> + +<p> +The morale of the troops is beyond all praise. The order has been given to +pursue the retreating Cossacks. From the Tsarskoye Selo station a +radio-telegram was sent immediately to the Front and to all local Soviets +throughout Russia. Further details will be communicated…. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>EVENTS OF THE 13TH IN PETROGRAD</h5> + +<p> +Three regiments of the Petrograd garrison to take any part in the battle +against Kerensky. On the morning of the 13th they summoned to a joint +conference sixty delegates from the Front, in order to find some way to stop +the civil war. This conference appointed a committee to go and persuade +Kerensky’s troops to lay down their arms. They proposed to ask the +Government soldiers the following questions: (1) Will the soldiers and Cossacks +of Kerensky recognise the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> as the repository of Governmental +power, responsible to the Congress of Soviets? (2) Will the soldiers and +Cossacks accept the decrees of the second Congress of Soviets? (3) Will they +accept the Land and Peace decrees? (4) Will they agree to cease hostilities and +return to their units? (5) Will they consent to the arrest of Kerensky, Krasnov +and Savinkov? +</p> + +<p> +At the meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, Zinoviev said, “It would be +foolish to think that this committee could finish affair. The enemy can only be +broken by force. However, it would be a crime for us not to try every peaceful +means to bring the Cossacks over to us…. What we need is a military victory…. +The news of an armistice is premature. Our Staff will be ready to conclude an +armistice when the enemy can no longer do any harm…. +</p> + +<p> +“At present, the influence of our victory is creating new political +conditions…. To-day the Socialist Revolutionaries are inclined to admit the +Bolsheviki into the new Government…. A decisive victory is indispensable, so +that those who hesitate will have no further hesitation….” +</p> + +<p> +At the City Duma all attention was concentrated on the formation of the new +Government. In many factories and barracks already Revolutionary Tribunals were +operating, and the Bolsheviki were threatening to set up more of these, and try +Gotz and Avksentiev before them. Dan proposed that an ultimatum be sent +demanding the abolition of these Revolutionary Tribunals, or the other members +of the Conference would immediately break off all negotiations with the +Bolsheviki. +</p> + +<p> +Shingariov, Cadet, declared that the Municipality ought not to take part in any +agreement with the Bolsheviki…. “Any agreement with the maniacs is +impossible until they lay down their arms and recognise the authority of +independent courts of law….” +</p> + +<p> +Yartsev, for the <i>Yedinstvo</i> group, declared that any agreement with the +Bolsheviki would be equivalent to a Bolshevik victory…. +</p> + +<p> +Mayor Schreider, for the Socialist Revolutionaries, stated that he was opposed +to all agreement with the Bolsheviki…. “As for a Government, that ought +to spring from the popular will; and since the popular will has been expressed +in the municipal elections, the popular will which can create a Government is +actually concentrated in the Duma….” +</p> + +<p> +After other speakers, of which only the representative of the Mensheviki +Internationalists was in favour of considering the admission of the Bolsheviki +into the new Government, the Duma voted to continue its representatives in the +<i>Vikzhel’s</i> conference, but to insist upon the restoration of the +Provisional Government before everything, and to exclude the Bolsheviki from +the new power…. +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<p> +TRUCE. KRASNOV’s ANSWER TO THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION +</p> + +<p> +“In answer to your telegram proposing an immediate armistice, the Supreme +Commander, not wishing further futile bloodshed, consents to enter into +negotiations and to establish relations between the armies of the Government +and the insurrectionists. He proposes to the General Staff of the +insurrectionists to recall its regiments to Petrograd, to declare the line +Ligovo-Pulkovo-Colpinno neutral, and to allow the advance-guards of the +Government cavalry to enter Tsarskoye Selo, for the purpose of establishing +order. The answer to this proposal must be placed in the hands of our envoys +before eight o’clock to-morrow morning. +</p> + +<h5>KRASNOV.”</h5> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<h5>EVENTS AT TSARSKOYE SELO</h5> + +<p> +On the evening that Kerensky’s troops retreated from Tsarskoye Selo, some +priests organised a religious procession through the streets of the town, +making speeches to the citizens in which they asked the people to support the +rightful authority, the Provisional Government. When the Cossacks had +retreated, and the first Red Guards entered the town, witnesses reported that +the priests had incited the people against the Soviets, and had said prayers at +the grave of Rasputin, which lies behind the Imperial Palace. One of the +priests, Father Ivan Kutchurov, was arrested and shot by the infuriated Red +Guards…. +</p> + +<p> +Just as the Red Guards entered the town the electric lights were shut off, +plunging the streets in complete darkness. The director of the electric light +plant, Lubovitch, was arrested by the Soviet troops and asked why he had shut +off the lights. He was found some time later in the room where he had been +imprisoned with a revolver in his hand and a bullet hole in his temple. +</p> + +<p> +The Petrograd anti-Bolshevik papers came out next day with headlines, +“Plekhanov’s temperature 39 degrees!” Plekhanov lived at +Tsarskoye Selo, where he was lying ill in bed. Red Guards arrived at the house +and searched it for arms, questioning the old man. +</p> + +<p> +“What class of society do you belong to?” they asked him. +</p> + +<p> +“I am a revolutionist,” answered Plekhanov, “who for forty +years has devoted his life to the struggle for liberty!” +</p> + +<p> +“Anyway,” said a workman, “you have now sold yourself to the +bourgeoisie!” +</p> + +<p> +The workers no longer knew Plekhanov, pioneer of the Russian Social Democracy! +</p> + +<p> +5. +</p> + +<h5>APPEAL OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT</h5> + +<p> +“The detachments at Gatchina, deceived by Kerensky, have laid down their +arms and decided to arrest Kerensky. That chief of the counter-revolutionary +campaign has fled. The Army, by an enormous majority, has pronounced in favour +of the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and of the Government which it +has created. Scores of delegates from the Front have hastened to Petrograd to +assure the Soviet Government of the Army’s fidelity. No twisting of the +facts, no calumny against the revolutionary workers, soldiers, and peasants, +has been able to defeat the People. The Workers’ and Soldiers’ +Revolution is victorious…. +</p> + +<p> +“The <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> appeals to the troops which march under the flag +of the counter-revolution, and invites them immediately to lay down their +arms—to shed no longer the blood of their brothers in the interests of a +handful of land-owners and capitalists. The Workers’, Soldiers’ and +Peasants’ Revolution curses those who remain even for a moment under the +flag of the People’s enemies…. +</p> + +<p> +“Cossacks! Come over to the rank of the victorious People! Railwaymen, +postmen, telegraphers—all, all support the new Government of the +People!” +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>DAMAGE TO THE KREMLIN</h5> + +<p> +I myself verified the damage to the Kremlin, which I visited immediately after +the bombardment. The Little Nicolai Palace, a building of no particular +importance, which was occupied occasionally by receptions of one of the Grand +Duchesses, had served as barracks for the <i>yunkers.</i> It was not only +bombarded, but pretty well sacked; fortunately there was nothing in it of +particular historical value. +</p> + +<p> +Usspensky Cathedral had a shell-hole in one of the cupolas, but except for a +few feet of mosaic in the ceiling, was undamaged. The frescoes on the porch of +Blagovestchensky Cathedral were badly damaged by a shell. Another shell hit the +corner of Ivan Veliki. Tchudovsky Monastery was hit about thirty times, but +only one shell went through a window into the interior, the others breaking the +brick window-moulding and the roof cornices. +</p> + +<p> +The clock over the Spasskaya Gate was smashed. Troitsky Gate was battered, but +easily reparable. One of the lower towers had lost its brick spire. +</p> + +<p> +The church of St. Basil was untouched, as was the great Imperial Palace, with +all the treasures of Moscow and Petrograd in its cellar, and the crown jewels +in the Treasury. These places were not even entered. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<p> +LUNATCHARSKY’s DECLARATION +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! You are the young masters of the country, and although now you +have much to do and think about, you must know how to defend your artistic and +scientific treasures. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! That which is happening at Moscow is a horrible, irreparable +misfortune…. The People in its struggle for the power has mutilated our +glorious capital. +</p> + +<p> +“It is particularly terrible in these days of violent struggle, of +destructive warfare, to be Commissar of Public Education. Only the hope of the +victory of Socialism, the source of a new and superior culture, brings me +comfort. On me weighs the responsibility of protecting the artistic wealth of +the people…. Not being able to remain at my post, where I had no influence, I +resigned. My comrades, the other Commissars, considered this resignation +inadmissible. I shall therefore remain at my post…. And moreover, I understand +that the damage done to the Kremlin is not as serious as has been reported…. +</p> + +<p> +“But I beg you, comrades, to give me your support…. Preserve for +yourselves and your descendants the beauty of our land; be the guardians of the +property of the People. +</p> + +<p> +“Soon, very soon, even the most ignorant, who have been held in ignorance +so long, will awake and understand what a source of joy, strength and wisdom is +art….” +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<h5>QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE BOURGEOISIE</h5> + +<p> +[Graphic, page 354] +</p> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<h5>REVOLUTIONARY FINANCIAL MEASURE</h5> + +<p> +<i>Order</i> +</p> + +<p> +In virtue of the powers vested in me by the Military Revolutionary Committee +attached to the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, I +decree: +</p> + +<p> +1. All banks with branches, the Central State Savings Bank with branches, and +the savings banks at the Post and Telegraph offices are to be opened beginning +November 22nd, from 11 A. M. to 1 P. M. until further order. +</p> + +<p> +2. On current accounts and on the books of the savings banks, payments will be +made by the above mentioned institutions, of not more than 150 rubles for each +depositor during the course of the next week. +</p> + +<p> +3. Payments of amounts exceeding 150 rubles a week on current accounts and +savings banks books, also payments on other accounts of all kinds will be +allowed during the next three days—November 22nd, 23d, and 24th, only in +the following cases: +</p> + +<p> +(a) On the accounts of military organisations for the satisfaction of their +needs; +</p> + +<p> +(b) For the payment of salaries of employees and the earnings of workers +according to the tables and lists certified by the Factory Committees or +Soviets of Employees, and attested by the signatures of the Commissars, or the +representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and the district +Military Revolutionary Committees. +</p> + +<p> +4. Not more than 150 rubles are to be paid against drafts; the remaining sums +are to be entered on current account, payments on which are to be made in the +order established by the present decree. +</p> + +<p> +5. All other banking operations are prohibited during these three days. +</p> + +<p> +6. The receipt of money on all accounts is allowed for any amount. +</p> + +<p> +7. The representatives of the Finance Council for the certification of the +authorisations indicated in clause 3 will hold their office in the building of +the Stock Exchange, Ilyinka Street, from 10 A. M. to 2 P. M. +</p> + +<p> +8. The Banks and Savings Banks shall send the totals of daily cash operations +by 5 P. M. to the headquarters of the Soviet, Skobeliev Square, to the Military +Revolutionary Committee, for the Finance Council. +</p> + +<p> +9. All employees and managers of credit institutions of all kinds who refuse to +comply with this decree shall be responsible as enemies of the Revolution and +of the mass of the population, before the Revolutionary Tribunals. Their names +shall be published for general information. +</p> + +<p> +10. For the control of the operations of Branches of the Savings Banks and +Banks within the limits of this decree, the district Military Revolutionary +Committees shall elect three representatives and appoint their place of +business. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Fully-authorised Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee,</i> +</p> + +<h5>S. SHEVERDIN-MAKSIMENKO.</h5> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>LIMITATIONS OF THIS CHAPTER</h5> + +<p> +This chapter extends over a period of two months, more or less. It covers the +time of negotiations with the Allies, the negotiations and armistice with the +Germans, and the beginning of the Peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, as well +as the period in which were laid the foundations of the Soviet State. +</p> + +<p> +However, it is no part of my purpose in this book to describe and interpret +these very important historical events, which require more space. They are +therefore reserved for another volume, “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” +</p> + +<p> +In this chapter, then, I have confined myself to the Soviet Government’s +attempts to consolidate its political power at home, and sketched its +successive conquests of hostile domestic elements—which process was +temporarily interrupted by the disastrous Peace of Brest-Litovsk. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<h5>PREAMBLE—DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLES OF RUSSIA</h5> + +<p> +The October Revolution of the workers and peasants began under the common +banner of Emancipation. +</p> + +<p> +The peasants are being emancipated from the power of the landowners, for there +is no longer the landowner’s property right in the land—it has been +abolished. The soldiers and sailors are being emancipated from the power of +autocratic generals, for generals will henceforth be elective and subject to +recall. The workingmen are being emancipated from the whims and arbitrary will +of the capitalists, for henceforth there will be established the control of the +workers over mills and factories. Everything living and capable of life is +being emancipated from the hateful shackles. +</p> + +<p> +There remain only the peoples of Russia, who have suffered and are suffering +oppression and arbitrariness, and whose emancipation must immediately be begun, +whose liberation must be effected resolutely and definitely. +</p> + +<p> +During the period of Tsarism the peoples of Russia were systematically incited +against one another. The result of such a policy are known: massacres and +<i>pogroms</i> on the one hand, slavery of peoples on the other. +</p> + +<p> +There can be and there must be no return to this disgraceful policy. Henceforth +the policy of a voluntary and honest union of the peoples of Russia must be +substituted. +</p> + +<p> +In the period of imperialism, after the March revolution, when the power was +transferred into the hands of the Cadet bourgeoisie, the naked policy of +provocation gave way to one of cowardly distrust of the peoples of Russia, to a +policy of fault-finding, of meaningless “freedom” and +“equality” of peoples. The results of such a policy are known: the +growth of national enmity, the impairment of mutual confidence. +</p> + +<p> +An end must be put to this unworthy policy of falsehood and distrust, of +fault-finding and provocation. Henceforth it must be replaced by an open and +honest policy leading to the complete mutual confidence of the peoples of +Russia. Only as the result of such a trust can there be formed an honest and +lasting union of the peoples of Russia. Only as the result of such a union can +the workers and peasants of the peoples of Russia be cemented into one +revolutionary force able to resist all attempts on the part of the +imperialist-annexationist bourgeoisie. +</p> + +<p> +3. +</p> + +<h5>DECREES</h5> + +<p> +<i>On the Nationalisation of the Banks</i> +</p> + +<p> +In the interest of the regular organisation of the national economy, of the +thorough eradication of bank speculation and the complete emancipation of the +workers, peasants, and the whole labouring population from the exploitation of +banking capital, and with a view to the establishment of a single national bank +of the Russian Republic which shall serve the real interests of the people and +the poorer classes, the Central Executive Committee <i>(Tsay-ee-kah)</i> +resolves: +</p> + +<p> +1. The banking business is declared a state monopoly. +</p> + +<p> +2. All existing private joint-stock banks and banking offices are merged in the +State Bank. +</p> + +<p> +3. The assets and liabilities of the liquidated establishments are taken over +by the State Bank. +</p> + +<p> +4. The order of the merger of private banks in the State Bank is to be +determined by a special decree. +</p> + +<p> +5. The temporary administration of the affairs of the private banks is +entrusted to the board of the State Bank. +</p> + +<p> +6. The interests of the small depositors will be safeguarded. +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On the Equality of Rank of All Military Men</i> +</p> + +<p> +In realisation of the will of the revolutionary people regarding the prompt and +decisive abolition of all remnants of former inequality in the Army, the +Council of People’s Commissars decrees: +</p> + +<p> +1. All ranks and grades in the Army, beginning with the rank of Corporal and +ending with the rank of General, are abolished. The Army of the Russian +Republic consists now of free and equal citizens, bearing the honourable title +of Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army. +</p> + +<p> +2. All privileges connected with the former ranks and grades, also all outward +marks of distinction, are abolished. +</p> + +<p> +3. All addressing by titles is abolished. +</p> + +<p> +4. All decorations, orders, and other marks of distinction are abolished. +</p> + +<p> +5. With the abolition of the rank of officer, all separate officers’ +organisations are abolished. +</p> + +<p> +Note.—Orderlies are left only for headquarters, chanceries, Committees +and other Army organisations. +</p> + +<p> + <i>President of the Council of People’s Commissars,</i><br /> + VL. ULIANOV (LENIN). +</p> + +<p> + <i>People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs,</i><br /> + N. KRYLENKO. +</p> + +<p> + <i>People’s Commissar for Military Affairs,</i><br /> + N. PODVOISKY. +</p> + +<p> + <i>Secretary of the Council,</i><br /> + N. GORBUNOV. +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On the Elective Principle and the Organisation of Authority in the Army</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. The army serving the will of the toiling people is subject to its supreme +representative—the Council of People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +2. Full authority within the limits of military units and combinations is +vested in the respective Soldiers’ Committees and Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +3. Those phases of the life and activity of the troops which are already under +the jurisdiction of the Committees are now formally placed in their direct +control. Over such branches of activity which the Committees cannot assume, the +control of the Soldiers’ Soviets is established. +</p> + +<p> +4. The election of commanding Staff and officers is introduced. All commanders +up to the commanders of regiments, inclusive, are elected by general suffrage +of squads, platoons, companies, squadrons, batteries, divisions (artillery, 2-3 +batteries), and regiments. All commanders higher than the commander of a +regiment, and up to the Supreme Commander, inclusive, are elected by congresses +or conferences of Committees. +</p> + +<p> +Note.—By the term “conference” must be understood a meeting +of the respective Committees together with delegates of committees one degree +lower in rank. (Such as a “conference” of Regimental Committees +with delegates from Company Committees.—Author.) +</p> + +<p> +5. The elected commanders above the rank of commander of regiment must be +confirmed by the nearest Supreme Committee. +</p> + +<p> +Note. In the event of a refusal by a Supreme Committee to confirm an elected +commander, with a statement of reasons for such refusal, a commander elected by +the lower Committee a second time must be confirmed. +</p> + +<p> +6. The commanders of Armies are elected by Army congresses. Commanders of +Fronts are elected by congresses of the respective Fronts. +</p> + +<p> +7. To posts of a technical character, demanding special knowledge or other +practical preparation, namely: doctors, engineers, technicians, telegraph and +wireless operators, aviators, automobilists, etc., only such persons as possess +the required special knowledge may be elected, by the Committees of the units +of the respective services. +</p> + +<p> +8. Chiefs of Staff must be chosen from among persons with special military +training for that post. +</p> + +<p> +9. All other members of the Staff are appointed by the Chief of Staff, and +confirmed by the respective congresses. +</p> + +<p> +Note.—All persons with special training must be listed in a special list. +</p> + +<p> +10. The right is reserved to retire from the service all commanders on active +service who are not elected by the soldiers to any post, and who consequently +are ranked as privates. +</p> + +<p> +11. All other functions beside those pertaining to the command, with the +exception of posts in the economic departments, are filled by appointment of +the respective elected commanders. +</p> + +<p> +12. Detailed instructions regarding the elections of the commanding Staff will +be published separately. +</p> + +<p> +<i>President of the Council of People’s Commissars.</i> +</p> + +<h5>VL. ULIANOV (LENIN).</h5> + +<p> +<i>People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs,</i> +</p> + +<h5>N. KRYLENKO.</h5> + +<p> +<i>People’s Commissar for Military Affairs,</i> +</p> + +<h5>N. PODVOISKY.</h5> + +<p> +<i>Secretary of the Council,</i> +</p> + +<h5>N. GORBUNOV.</h5> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>On the Abolition of Classes and Titles</i> +</p> + +<p> +1. All classes and class divisions, all class privileges and delimitations, all +class organisations and institutions and all civil ranks are abolished. +</p> + +<p> +2. All classes of society (nobles, merchants, petty bourgeois, etc.), and all +titles (Prince, Count and others), and all denominations of civil rank (Privy +State Councillor, and others), are abolished, and there is established the +general denomination of Citizen of the Russian Republic. +</p> + +<p> +3. The property and institutions of the classes of nobility are transferred to +the corresponding autonomous Zemstvos. +</p> + +<p> +4. The property of merchant and bourgeois organisations is transferred +immediately to the Municipal Self-Governments. +</p> + +<p> +5. All class institutions of any sort, with their property, their rules of +procedure, and their archives, are transferred to the administration of the +Municipalities and Zemstvos. +</p> + +<p> +6. All articles of existing laws applying to these matters are herewith +repealed. +</p> + +<p> +7. The present decree becomes effective on the day it is published and applied +by the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +The present decree has been confirmed by the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> at the meeting +of November 23d, 1917, and signed by: +</p> + +<p> +<i>President of the Tsay-ee-kah,</i> +</p> + +<h5>SVERDLOV.</h5> + +<p> +<i>President of the Council of People’s Commissars,</i> +</p> + +<h5>VL. ULIANOV (LENIN).</h5> + +<p> +<i>Executive of the Council of People’s Commissars,</i> +</p> + +<h5>V. BONCH-BRUEVITCH.</h5> + +<p> +<i>Secretary of the Council,</i> +</p> + +<h5>N. GORBUNOV.</h5> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +On December 3d the Council of People’s Commissars resolved “to +reduce the salaries of functionaries and employees in all Government +institutions and establishments, general or special, without exception.” +</p> + +<p> +To begin with, the Council fixed the salary of a People’s Commissar at +500 rubles per month, with 100 rubles additional for each grown member of the +family incapable of work…. +</p> + +<p> +This was the highest salary paid to any Government official…. +</p> + +<p> +4. +</p> + +<p> +Countess Panina was arrested and brought to trial before the first Supreme +Revolutionary Tribunal. The trial is described in the chapter on +“Revolutionary Justice” in my forthcoming volume, “Kornilov +to Brist-Litovsk.” The prisoner was sentenced to “return the money, +and then be liberated to the public contempt.” In other words, she was +set free! +</p> + +<p> +5. +</p> + +<h5>RIDICULE OF THE NEW RÉGIME</h5> + +<p> +From <i>Drug Naroda</i> (Menshevik), November 18th: +</p> + +<p> +“The story of the ‘immediate peace’ of the Bolsheviki reminds +us of a joyous moving-picture film…. Neratov runs—Trotzky pursues; +Neratov climbs a wall, Trotzky too; Neratov dives into the water—Trotzky +follows; Neratov climbs onto the roof—Trotzky right behind him; Neratov +hides under the bed—and Trotzky has him! He has him! Naturally, peace is +immediately signed…. +</p> + +<p> +“All is empty and silent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The couriers +are respectful, but their faces wear a caustic expression…. +</p> + +<p> +“How about arresting an ambassador and signing an armistice or a Peace +Treaty with him? But they are strange folk, these ambassadors. They keep silent +just as if they had heard nothing. Hola, hola, England, France, Germany! We +have signed an armistice with you! Is it possible that you know nothing about +it? Nevertheless, it has been published in all the papers and posted on all the +walls. On a Bolshevik’s word of honour, Peace has been signed. +We’re not asking much of you; you just have to write two words…. +</p> + +<p> +“The ambassadors remain silent. The Powers remain silent. All is empty +and silent in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Listen,’ says Robespierre-Trotzky to his assistant +Marat-Uritzky, ‘run over to the British Ambassador’s, tell him +we’re proposing peace!’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Go yourself,’ says Marat-Uritzky. ‘He’s not +receiving.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Telephone him, then.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘I’ve tried. The receiver’s off the hook.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Send him a telegram.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘I did.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Well, with what result?’ +</p> + +<p> +“Marat-Uritzky sighs and does not answer. Robespierre-Trotzky spits +furiously into the corner…. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Listen, Marat,’ recommences Trotzky, after a moment. +‘We must absolutely show that we’re conducting an active foreign +policy. How can we do that?’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Launch another decree about arresting Neratov,’ answers +Uritzky, with a profound air. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Marat, you’re a blockhead!’ cries Trotzky. All of a +sudden he arises, terrible and majestic, looking at this moment like +Robespierre. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Write, Uritzky!’ he says with severity. ‘Write a +letter to the British ambassador, a registered letter with receipt demanded. +Write! I also will write! The peoples of the world await an immediate +peace!’ +</p> + +<p> +“In the enormous and empty Ministry of Foreign Affairs are to be heard +only the sound of two typewriters. With his own hands Trotzky is conducting an +active foreign policy….” +</p> + +<p> +6. +</p> + +<h5>ON THE QUESTION OF AN AGREEMENT</h5> + +<p> +To the Attention of All Workers and All Soldiers. +</p> + +<p> +November 11th, in the club of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, was held an +extraordinary meeting of representatives of all the units of the Petrograd +garrison. +</p> + +<p> +The meeting was called upon the initiative of the Preobrazhensky and +Semionovsky Regiments, for the discussion of the question as to which Socialist +parties are for the power of the Soviets, which are against, which are for the +people, which against, and if an agreement between them is possible. +</p> + +<p> +The representatives of the <i>Tsay-ee-kah,</i> of the Municipal Duma, of the +Avksentiev Peasants’ Soviets, and of all the political parties from the +Bolsheviki to the Populist Socialists, were invited to the meeting. +</p> + +<p> +After long deliberation, having heard the declarations of all parties and +organisations, the meeting by a tremendous majority of votes agreed that only +the Bolsheviki and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries are for the people, and +that all the other parties are only attempting, under cover of seeking an +agreement, to deprive the people of the conquests won in the days of the great +Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolution of November. +</p> + +<p> +Here is the text of the resolution carried at this meeting of the Petrograd +garrison, by 61 votes against 11, and 12 not voting: +</p> + +<p> +“The garrison conference, summoned at the initiative of the Semionovsky +and Preobrazhensky Regiments, on hearing the representatives of all the +Socialist parties and popular organisations on the question of an agreement +between the different political parties finds that: +</p> + +<p> +“1. The representatives of the <i>Tasy-ee-kah,</i> the representatives of +the Bolshevik party and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, declared definitely +that they stand for a Government of the Soviets, for the decrees on Land, Peace +and Workers’ Control of Industry, and that upon this platform they are +willing to agree with all the Socialist parties. +</p> + +<p> +“2. At the same time the representatives of the other parties +(Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries) either gave no answer at all, or +declared simply that they were opposed to the power of the Soviets and against +the decrees on Land, Peace and Workers’ Control. +</p> + +<p> +“In view of this the meeting resolves: +</p> + +<p> +“‘1. To express severe censure of all parties which, under cover of +an agreement, wish practically to annul the popular conquests of the Revolution +of November. +</p> + +<p> +“2. To express full confidence in the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> and the Council +of People’s Commissars, and to promise them complete support.’ +</p> + +<p> +“At the same time the meeting deems it necessary that the comrades Left +Socialist Revolutionaries should enter the People’s Government.” +</p> + +<p> +7. +</p> + +<h5>WINE “POGROMS”</h5> + +<p> +It was afterward discovered that there was a regular organisation, maintained +by the Cadets, for provoking rioting among the soldiers. There would be +telephone messages to the different barracks, announcing that wine was being +given away at such and such an address, and when the soldiers arrived at the +spot an individual would point out the location of the cellar…. +</p> + +<p> +The Council of People’s Commissars appointed a Commissar for the Fight +Against Drunkenness, who, besides mercilessly putting down the wine riots, +destroyed hundreds of thousands of bottles of liquor. The Winter Palace +cellars, containing rare vintages valued at more than five million dollars, +were at first flooded, and then the liquor was removed to Cronstadt and +destroyed. +</p> + +<p> +In this work the Cronstadt sailors, “flower and pride of the +revolutionary forces,” as Trotzky called them, acquitted themselves with +iron self-dicipline…. +</p> + +<p> +8. +</p> + +<h5>SPECULATORS</h5> + +<p> +Two orders concerning them: +</p> + +<p> +<i>Council of People’s Commissars</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>To the Military Revolutionary Committee</i> +</p> + +<p> +The disorganisation of the food supply created by the war, and the lack of +system, is becoming to the last degree acute, thanks to the speculators, +marauders and their followers on the railways, in the steamship offices, +forwarding offices, etc. +</p> + +<p> +Taking advantage of the nation’s greatest misfortunes, these criminal +spoliators are playing with the health and life of millions of soldiers and +workers, for their own benefit. +</p> + +<p> +Such a situation cannot be borne a single day longer. +</p> + +<p> +The Council of People’s Commissars proposes to the Military Revolutionary +Committee to take the most decisive measures towards the uprooting of +speculation, sabotage, hiding of supplies, fraudulent detention of cargoes, +etc. +</p> + +<p> +All persons guilty of such actions shall be subject, by special orders of the +Military Revolutionary Committee, to immediate arrest and confinement in the +prisons of Cronstadt, pending their arraignment before the Revolutionary +Tribunal. +</p> + +<p> +All the popular organisations are invited to cooperate in the struggle against +the spoliators of food supplies. +</p> + +<p> + <i>President of the Council of People’s +Commissaries.</i><br /> + V. ULIANOV (LENIN). +</p> + +<p> +Accepted for execution,<br /> + <i>Military Revolutionary Committee attached to<br /> + the C. E. C. of the Soviets of W. & S. Deputies.</i> +</p> + +<p> +Petrograd, Nov. 23d, 1917. +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>To All Honest Citizens</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Military Revolutionary Committee Decrees:</i> +</p> + +<p> +Spoliators, marauders, speculators, are declared to be enemies of the People…. +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee proposes to all public organisations, to +all honest citizens: to inform the Military Revolutionary Committee immediately +of all cases of spoliation, marauding, speculation, which become known to them. +</p> + +<p> +The struggle against this evil is the business of all honest people. The +Military Revolutionary Committee expects the support of all to whom the +interests of the People are dear. +</p> + +<p> +The Military Revolutionary Committee will be merciless in pursuit of +speculators and marauders. +</p> + +<h5>THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE</h5> + +<p> +Petrograd, Dec. 2d, 1917. +</p> + +<p> +9. +</p> + +<p> +PURISHKEVITCH’s LETTER TO KALEDIN +</p> + +<p> +“The situation at Petrograd is desperate. The city is cut off from the +outside world and is entirely in the power of the Bolsheviki…. People are +arrested in the streets, thrown into the Neva, drowned and imprisoned without +any charge. Even Burtzev is shut up in Peter-Paul fortress, under strict guard. +</p> + +<p> +“The organisation at whose head I am is working without rest to unite all +the officers and what is left of the <i>yunker</i> schools, and to arm them. +The situation cannot be saved except by creating regiments of officers and +<i>yunkers.</i> Attacking with these regiments, and having gained a first +success, we could later gain the aid of the garrison troops; but without that +first success it is impossible to count on a single soldier, because thousands +of them are divided and terrorised by the scum which exists in every regiment. +Most of the Cossacks are tainted by Bolshevik propaganda, thanks to the strange +policy of General Dutov, who allowed to pass the moment when by decisive action +something could have been obtained. The policy of negotiations and concessions +has borne its fruits; all that is respectable is persecuted, and it is the +<i>plebe</i> and the criminals who dominate—and nothing can be done +except by shooting and hanging them. +</p> + +<p> +“We are awaiting you here, General, and at the moment of your arrival, we +shall advance with all the forces at our disposal. But for that we must +establish some communication with you, and before all, clear up the following +points: +</p> + +<p> +“(1) Do you know that in your name all officers who could take part in +the fight are being invited to leave Petrograd on the pretext of joining you? +</p> + +<p> +“(2) About when can we count on your arrival at Petrograd? We should like +to know in order to coordinate our actions. +</p> + +<p> +“In spite of the criminal inaction of the conscious people here, which +allowed the yoke of Bolshevism to be laid upon us—in spite of the +extraordinary pig—headedness of the majority of officers, so difficult to +organise—we believe in spite of all that Truth is on our side, and that +we shall conquer the vicious and criminal forces who say that they are acting +for motives of love of country and in order to save it. Whatever comes, we +shall not permit ourselves to be struck down, and shall remain firm until the +end.” +</p> + +<p> +Purishkevitch, being brought to trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal, was +given a short prison term…. +</p> + +<p> +10. +</p> + +<h5>DECREE ON THE MONOPOLY OF ADVERTISEMENTS</h5> + +<p> +1. The printing of advertisements, in newspapers, books, bill-boards, kiosks, +in offices and other establishments is declared to be a State monopoly. +</p> + +<p> +2. Advertisements may only be published in the organs of the Provisional +Workers’ and Peasants’ Government at Petrograd, and in the organs +of local Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +3. The proprietors of newspapers and advertising offices, as well as all +employees of such establishments, should remain at their posts until the +transfer of the advertisement business to the Government…. superintending the +uninterrupted continuation of their houses, and turning over to the Soviets all +private advertising and the sums received therefor, as well as all accounts and +copy. +</p> + +<p> +4. All managers of publications and businesses dealing with paid advertising, +as well as their employees and workers, shall agree to hold a City Congress, +and to join, first the City Trade Unions, and then the All-Russian Unions, to +organise more thoroughly and justly the advertising business in the Soviet +publications, as well as to prepare better rules for the public utility of +advertising. +</p> + +<p> +5. All persons found guilty of having concealed documents or money, or having +sabotaged the regulations indicated in paragraphs 3 and 4, will be punished by +a sentence of not more than three years’ imprisonment, and all their +property will be confiscated. +</p> + +<p> +6. The paid insertion of advertisements…. in private publications, or under a +masqued form, will also be severely penalised. +</p> + +<p> +7. Advertising offices are confiscated by the Government, the owners being +entitled to compensation in cases of necessity. Small proprietors, depositors +and stock-holders of the confiscated establishments will be reimbursed for all +moneys held by them in the concern. +</p> + +<p> +8. All buildings, officers, counters, and in general every establishment doing +a business in advertising, should immediately inform the Soviet of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies of its address, and proceed to the +transfer of its business, under penalty of the punishment indicated in +paragraph 5. +</p> + +<p> + <i>President of the Council of People’s +Commissars,</i><br /> + VL. ULIANOV (LENIN). +</p> + +<p> + <i>People’s Commissar for Public +Instruction,</i><br /> + A. V. LUNATCHARSKY. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Secretary of the Council,</i> +</p> + +<h5>N. GORBUNOV.</h5> + +<p> +11. +</p> + +<h5>OBLIGATORY ORDINANCE</h5> + +<p> +1. The city of Petrograd is declared to be in a state of siege. +</p> + +<p> +2. All assemblies, meetings and congregations on the streets and squares are +prohibited. +</p> + +<p> +3. Attempts to loot wine-cellars, warehouses, factories, stores, business +premises, private dwellings, etc., etc., <i>will be stopped by machine-gun fire +without warning.</i> +</p> + +<p> +4. House Committees, doormen, janitors and Militiamen are charged with the duty +of keeping strict order in all houses, courtyards and in the streets, and +house-doors and carriage-entrances must be locked at 9 o’clock in the +evening, and opened at 7 o’clock in the morning. After 9 o’clock in +the evening only tenants may leave the house, under strict control of the House +Committees. +</p> + +<p> +5. Those guilty of the distribution, sale or purchase of any kind of alcoholic +liquor, and also those guilty of the violation of sections 2 and 4, will be +immediately arrested and subjected to the most severe punishment. +</p> + +<p> +Petrograd, 6th of December, 3 o’clock in the night. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Committee to Fight Against Pogroms, attached to the Executive Committee of +the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.</i> +</p> + +<p> +12. +</p> + +<h5>TWO PROCLAMATIONS</h5> + +<p> +Lenin, To <i>the People of Russia:</i> +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades workers, soldiers, peasants—all toilers! +</p> + +<p> +“The Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolution has won at Petrograd, +at Moscow…. From the Front and the villages arrive every day, every hour, +greetings to the new Government…. The victory of the Revolution…. is assured, +seeing that it is sustained by the majority of the people. +</p> + +<p> +“It is entirely understandable that the proprietors and the capitalists, +the employees and functionaries closely allied with the bourgeoisic—in a +word, all the rich and all those who join hands with them—regard the new +Revolution with hostility, oppose its success, threaten to halt the activity of +the banks, and sabotage or obstruct the work of other establishments…. Every +conscious worker understands perfectly that we cannot avoid this hostility, +because the high officials have set themselves against the People and do not +wish to abandon their posts without resistance. But the working classes are not +for one moment afraid of that resistance. The majority of the people are for +us. For us are the majority of the workers and the oppressed of the whole +world. We have justice on our side. Our ultimate victory is certain. +</p> + +<p> +“The resistance of the capitalists and high officials will be broken. No +one will be deprived of his property without a special law on the +nationalisation of banks and financial syndicates. This law is in preparation. +Not a worker will lose a single kopek; on the contrary, he will be assisted. +Without at this moment establishing the new taxes, the new Government considers +one of its primary duties to make a severe accounting and control on the +reception of taxes decreed by the former régime…. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades workers! Remember that you yourselves direct the Government. No +one will help you unless you organise yourselves and take into your own hands +the affairs of the State. Your Soviets are now the organs of governmental +power…. Strengthen them, establish a severe revolutionary control, pitilessly +crush the attempts at anarchy on the part of drunkards, brigands, +counter-revolutionary <i>yunkers</i> and Kornilovists. +</p> + +<p> +“Establish a strict control over production and the accounting for +products. Arrest and turn over to the Revolutionary Tribunal of the People +every one who injures the property of the People, by sabotage in production, by +concealment of grain-reserves, reserves of other products, by retarding the +shipments of grain, by bringing confusion into the railroads, the posts and the +telegraphs, or in general opposing the great work of bringing Peace and +transferring the Land to the peasants…. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades workers, soldiers, peasants—all toilers! +</p> + +<p> +“Take immediately all local power into your hands…. Little by little, +with the consent of the majority of peasants, we shall march firmly and +unhesitatingly toward the victory of Socialism, which will fortify the +advance-guards of the working-class of the most civilised Countries, and give +to the peoples an enduring peace, and free them from every slavery and every +exploitation.” +</p> + +<p> +13. +</p> + +<p> +<i>“To All Workers of Petrograd!</i> +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades! The Revolution is winning—the revolution has won. All +the power has passed over to our Soviets. The first weeks are the most +difficult ones. The broken reaction must be finally crushed, a full triumph +must be secured to our endeavours. The working-class ought +to—must—show in these days THE GREATEST FIRMNESS AND ENDURANCE, in +order to facilitate the execution of all the aims of the new People’s +Government of Soviets. In the next few days decrees on the Labour question will +be issued, and among the very first will be the decree on Workers’ +Control over the production and regulation of Industry. +</p> + +<h5>“STRIKES AND DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE WORKER MASSES IN PETROGRAD NOW CAN +ONLY DO HARM.</h5> + +<p> +“We ask you to cease immediately all economic and political strikes, to +take up your work, and do it in perfect order. The work in the factories and +all the industries is necessary for the new Government of Soviets, because any +interruption of this work will only create new difficulties for us, and we have +enough as it is. All to your places. +</p> + +<p> +“The best way to support the new Government of Soviets in these +days—is by doing your job. +</p> + +<h5>“LONG LIVE THE IRON FIRMNESS OF THE PROLETARIAT! LONG LIVE THE +REVOLUTION!”</h5> + +<p> +<i>Petrograd Soviet of W. & S. D.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Petrograd Council of Trade Unions.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Petrograd Council of Factory-Shop Committees.</i> +</p> + +<p> +14. +</p> + +<h5>APPEALS AND COUNTER-APPEALS</h5> + +<p> +<i>From the Employees of the State and private Banks To the Population of +Petrograd:</i> +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades workers, soldiers and citizens! +</p> + +<p> +“The Military Revolutionary Committee in an ‘extraordinary +notice’ is accusing the workers of the State and private banking and +other institutions of ‘impeding the work of the Government, directed +towards the ensuring of the Front with provisions.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades and citizens, do not believe this calumny, brought against us, +who are part of the general army of labour. +</p> + +<p> +“However difficult it be for us to work under the constant threat of +interference by acts of violence in our hard-working life, however depressing +it be to know that our Country and the Revolution are on the verge of ruin, we, +nevertheless, all of us, from the highest to the lowest, employees, +<i>artelshtchiki,</i> counters, labourers, couriers, etc., are continuing to +fulfil our duties which are connected with the ensuring of provisions and +munitions to the Front and country. +</p> + +<p> +“Counting upon your lack of information, comrades workers and soldiers, +in questions of finance and banking, you are being incited against workers like +yourselves, because it is desirable to divert the responsibility for the +starving and dying brother-soldiers at the Front from the guilty persons to the +innocent workers who are accomplishing their duty under the burden of general +poverty and disorganisation. +</p> + +<h5>“REMEMBER, WORKERS AND SOLDIERS! THE EMPLOYEES HAVE ALWAYS STOOD UP +FOR AND WILL ALWAYS STAND UP FOR THE INTERESTS OF THE TOILING PEOPLE, PART OF +WHICH THEY ARE THEMSELVES, AND NOT A SINGLE KOPEK NECESSARY FOR THE FRONT AND +THE WORKERS HAS EVER BEEN DETAINED AND WILL NOT BE DETAINED BY THE +EMPLOYEES.</h5> + +<p> +“From November 6th to November 23d, i.e., during 17 days, 500 million +rubles were dispatched to the Front, and 120 millions to Moscow, besides the +sums sent to other towns. +</p> + +<p> +“Keeping guard over the wealth of the people, the master of which can be +only the Constituent Assembly, representing the whole nation, the employees +refuse to give out money for purposes which are unknown to them. +</p> + +<h5>“DO NOT BELIEVE THE CALUMNIATORS CALLING YOU TO TAKE THE LAW INTO +YOUR OWN HANDS!”</h5> + +<p> +<i>Central Board of the All-Russian Union of Employees of the State Bank.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Central Board of the All-Russian Trade Union of Employees of Credit +Institutions.</i> +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>To the Population of Petrograd.</i> +</p> + +<p> +“CITIZENS: Do not believe the falsehood which irresponsible people are +trying to suggest to you by spreading terrible calumnies against the employees +of the Ministry of Supplies and the workers in other Supply organisations who +are labouring in these dark days for the salvation of Russia. Citizens! In +posted placards you are called upon to lynch us, we are accused falsely of +sabotage and strikes, we are blamed for all the woes and misfortunes that the +people are suffering, although we have been striving indefatigably and +uninterruptedly, and are still striving, to save the Russian people from the +horrors of starvation. Notwithstanding all that we are bearing as citizens of +unhappy Russia, we have not for one hour abandoned our heavy and responsible +work of supplying the Army and population with provisions. +</p> + +<p> +“The image of the Army, cold and hungry, saving our very existence by its +blood and its tortures, does not leave us for a single moment. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens! If we have survived the blackest days in the life and history +of our people, if we have succeeded in preventing famine in Petrograd, if we +have managed to procure to the suffering army bread and forage by means of +enormous, almost superhuman, efforts, it is because we have honestly continued +and are still continuing to do our work…. +</p> + +<p> +“To the ‘last warning’ of the usurpers of the power we reply: +It is not for you who are leading the country to ruin to threaten us who are +doing all we can not to allow the country to perish. We are not afraid of +threats; before us stands the sacred image of tortured Russia. We will continue +our work of supplying the Army and the people with bread to our last efforts, +so long as you will not prevent us from accomplishing our duty to our country. +In the contrary case the Army and the people will stand before the horrors of +famine, but the responsibility therefor belongs to the perpetrators of +violence. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Executive Committee of the Employees of the Ministry of Supplies.</i> +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>To the</i> Tchinovniki (<i>Government Officials</i>). +</p> + +<p> +It is notified hereby, that all officials and persons who have quitted the +service in Government and public institutions or have been dismissed for +sabotage or for having failed to report for work on the day fixed, and who have +nevertheless received their salary paid in advance for the time they have not +served, are bound to return such salary not later than on November 27th, 1917, +to those institutions where they were in service. +</p> + +<p> +In the event of this not being done, these persons will be rendered answerable +for stealing the Treasury’s property and tried by the Military +Revolutionary Court. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The Military-Revolutionary Committee.</i> +</p> + +<p> +December 7th, 1917. +</p> + +<p> + * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +<i>From the Special Board for the Supplies</i> CITIZENS +</p> + +<p> +“The conditions of our work for the supplying of Petrograd are getting +more and more difficult every day. +</p> + +<p> +“The interference with our work—which is so ruinous to our +business—of the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee is +still continuing. +</p> + +<p> +“THEIR ARBITRARY ACTS, their annulling of our orders, MAY LEAD TO A +CATASTROPHE. +</p> + +<p> +“Seals have been affixed to one of the cold storages where the meat and +butter destined for the population are kept, and we cannot regulate the +temperature SO THAT THE PRODUCTS WOULD NOT BE SPOILT. +</p> + +<p> +“One carload of potatoes and one carload of cabbages have been seized and +carried away no one knows where to. +</p> + +<p> +“Cargoes which are not liable to requisition (<i>khalva</i>) are +requisitioned by the Commissars and, as was the case one day, five boxes of +<i>khalva</i> were seized by the Commissar for his own use. +</p> + +<p> +“WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO DISPOSE OF OUR STORAGES, where the +self-appointed Commissars do not allow the cargoes to be taken out, and +terrorise our employees, threatening them with arrest. +</p> + +<h5>“ALL THAT IS GOING ON IN PETROGRAD IS KNOWN IN THE PROVINCES, AND +FROM THE DON, FROM SIBERIA, FROM VORONEZH AND OTHER PLACES PEOPLE ARE REFUSING +TO SEND FLOUR AND BREAD.</h5> + +<h5>“THIS CANNOT GO ON MUCH LONGER.</h5> + +<p> +“The work is simply falling out of our hands. +</p> + +<p> +“OUR DUTY is to let the population know of this. +</p> + +<p> +“To the last possibility we will remain on guard of the interests of the +population. +</p> + +<h5>“WE WILL DO EVERYTHING TO AVOID THE ONCOMING FAMINE, BUT IF UNDER +THESE DIFFICULT CONDITIONS OUR WORK IS COMPELLED TO STOP, LET THE PEOPLE KNOW +THAT IT IS NOT OUR FAULT….”</h5> + +<p class="center"> +15.<br /> +ELECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY IN PETROGRAD +</p> + +<p> +There were nineteen tickets in Petrograd. The results are as follows, published +November 30th: +</p> + +<table summary="" border="1" > + +<tr> +<td><i>Party</i></td><td><i>Vote</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Populist Socialists</td><td>19,109</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cadets</td><td>245,006</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Christian Democrats</td><td>3,707</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bolsheviki</td><td>424,027</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Socialist Universalists</td><td>158</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>S. D. and S. R. Ukrainean and Jewish Workers</td><td>4,219</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>League of Women’s Rights </td><td>5,310</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Socialist Revolutionaries (<i>oborontsi</i>)</td><td>4,696</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Left Socialist Revolutionaries</td><td>152,230</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>League of the People’s Development</td><td>385</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Radical Democrats</td><td>413</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Orthodox Parishes</td><td>24,139</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Feminine League for Salvation of Country</td><td>318</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Independent League of Workers, Soldiers, Peasants</td><td>4,942</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Christian Democrats (Catholic) </td><td>14,382</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Unified Social Democrats </td><td>11,740</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Mensheviki</td><td>17,427</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><i>Yedinstvo</i> group</td><td>1,823</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>League of Cossack Troops</td><td>6,712</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"> +16.<br /> +FROM THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’s COMMISSARS TO THE TOILING COSSACKS +</p> + +<p> +<i>“Brothers-Cossacks.</i> +</p> + +<p> +“You are being deceived. You are being incited against the People. You +are told that the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and +Peasants’ Deputies are your enemies, that they want to take away your +Cossack land, your Cossack ‘liberty’. Don’t believe it, +Cossacks…. Your own Generals and landowners are deceiving you, in order to keep +you in darkness and slavery. We, the Council of People’s Commissars, +address ourselves to you, Cossacks, with these words. Read them attentively and +judge yourselves which is the truth and which is cruel deceit. The life and +service of a Cossack were always bondage and penal servitude. At the first call +of the authorities a Cossack always had to saddle his horse and ride out on +campaign. All his military equipment a Cossack had to provide with his own +hardly earned means. A Cossack is on service, his farm is going to rack and +ruin. Is such a condition fair? No, it must be altered for ever. THE COSSACKS +MUST BE FREED FROM BONDAGE. The new People’s Soviet power is willing to +come to the assistance of the toiling Cossacks. It is only necessary that the +Cossacks themselves should resolve to abolish the old order, that they should +refuse submission to their slave-driver officers, land-owners, rich men, that +they should throw off the cursed yoke from their necks. Arise, Cossacks! Unite! +The Council of People’s Commissars calls upon you to enter a new, fresh, +more happy life. +</p> + +<p> +“In November and December in Petrograd there were All-Russian Congresses +of Soviets of Soldiers’, Workers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. +These Congresses transferred all the authority in the different localities into +the hands of the Soviets, i.e., into the hands of men elected by the People. +From now on there must be in Russia no rulers or functionaries who command the +People from above and drive them. The People create the authority themselves. A +General has no more rights than a soldier. All are equal. Consider, Cossacks, +is this wrong or right? We are calling upon you, Cossacks, to join this new +order and to create your own Soviets of Cossacks’ Deputies. To such +Soviets all the power must belong in the different localities. Not to +<i>hetmans</i> with the rank of General, but to the elected representatives of +the toiling Cossacks, to your own trustworthy reliable men. +</p> + +<p> +“The All-Russian Congresses of Soldiers’, Workers’, and +Peasants’ Deputies have passed a resolution to transfer all +landowners’ land into the possession of the toiling people. Is not that +fair, Cossacks? The Kornilovs, Kaledins, Dutovs, Karaulovs, Bardizhes, all +defend with their whole souls the interests of the rich men, and they are ready +to drown Russia in blood if only the lands remain in the hands of the +landowners. But you, the toiling Cossacks, do not you suffer yourselves from +poverty, oppression and lack of land? How many Cossacks are there who have more +than 4-5 <i>dessiatins</i> per head? But the landowners, who have thousands of +<i>dessiatins</i> of their own land, wish besides to get into their hands the +lands of the Cossack Army. According to the new Soviet laws, the lands of +Cossack landowners must pass without compensation into the hands of the Cossack +workers, the poorer Cossacks. You are being told that the Soviets wish to take +away your lands from you. Who is frightening you? The rich Cossacks, who know +that the Soviet AUTHORITY WISHES TO transfer the landowners’ lands to +you. Choose then, Cossacks, for whom will you stand: for the Kornilovs and +Kaledins, for the Generals and rich men, or for the Soviets of Peasants’, +Soldiers’, Workers’ and Cossacks’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +“THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’s COMMISSARS elected by the All-Russian +Congress HAS PROPOSED TO ALL NATIONS AN IMMEDIATE ARMISTICE AND AN HONOURABLE +DEMOCRATIC PEACE WITHOUT LOSS OR DETRIMENT TO ANY NATION. All the capitalists, +landowners, Generals-Kornilovists have risen against the peaceful policy of the +Soviets. The war was bringing them profits, power, distinctions. And to you, +Cossack privates? You were perishing without reason, without purpose, like your +brothers-soldiers and sailors. It will soon be three years and a half that this +accursed war has gone on, a war devised by the capitalists and landowners of +all countries for their own profit, their world robberies. To the toiling +Cossacks the war has only brought ruin and death. The war has drained all the +resources from Cossack farm life. The only salvation for the whole of our +country and for the Cossacks in particular is a prompt and honest peace. The +Council of People’s Commissars has declared to all Governments and +peoples: We do not want other people’s property, and we do not wish to +give away our own. Peace without annexations and without indemnities. Every +nation must decide its own fate. There must be no oppressing of one nation by +another. Such is the honest, democratic, People’s peace which the Council +of People’s Commissars is proposing to all Governments, to all peoples, +allies and enemies. And the results are visible: ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT AN +ARMISTICE HAS BEEN CONCLUDED. +</p> + +<p> +“The soldier’s and the Cossack’s blood is not flowing there +any more. Now, Cossacks, decide: do you wish to continue this ruinous, +senseless, criminal slaughter? Then support the Cadets, the enemies of the +people, support Tchernov, Tseretelli, Skobeliev, who drove you into the +offensive of July 1st; support Kornilov, who introduced capital punishment for +soldiers and Cossacks at the front. BUT IF YOU WISH A PROMPT AND HONEST PEACE, +THEN ENTER THE RANKS OF THE SOVIETS AND SUPPORT THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’s +COMMISSARS. +</p> + +<p> +“Your fate, Cossacks, lies in your own hands. Our common foes, the +landowners, capitalists, officers-Kornilovists, bourgeois newspapers, are +deceiving you and driving you along the road to ruin. In Orenburg, Dutov has +arrested the Soviet and disarmed the garrison. Kaledin is threatening the +Soviets in the province of the Don. He has declared the province to be in a +state of war and is assembling his troops. Karaulov is shooting the local +tribes in the Caucasus. The Cadet bourgeoisie is supplying them with its +millions. Their common aim is to suppress the People’s Soviets, to crush +the workers and peasants, to introduce again the discipline of the whip in the +army, and to eternalise the bondage of the toiling Cossacks. +</p> + +<p> +“Our revolutionary troops are moving to the Don and the Ural in order to +put an end to this criminal revolt against the people. The commanders of the +revolutionary troops have received orders not to enter into any negotiations +with the mutinous Generals, to act decisively and mercilessly. +</p> + +<p> +“Cossacks! On you depends now whether your brothers’ blood is to +flow still. We are holding out our hand to you. Join the whole people against +its enemies. Declare Kaledin, Kornilov, Dutov, Karaulov and all their aiders +and abettors to be the enemies of the people, traitors and betrayers. Arrest +them with your own forces and turn them over into the hands of the Soviet +authority, which will judge them in open and public Revolutionary Tribunal. +Cossacks! Form Soviets of Cossacks’ Deputies. Take into your toil-worn +hands the management of all the affairs of the Cossacks. Take away the lands of +your own wealthy landowners. Take over their grain, their inventoried property +and live-stock for the cultivation of the lands of the toiling Cossacks, who +are ruined by the war. +</p> + +<p> +“Forward, Cossacks, to the fight for the common cause of the people! +</p> + +<p> +“Long live the toiling Cossacks! +</p> + +<p> +“Long live the union of the Cossacks, the soldiers, peasants and workers! +</p> + +<p> +“Long live the power of the Soviets of Cossacks’, Soldiers’, +Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. +</p> + +<p> +“Down with the war! Down with the landowners and the +Kornilovist-Generals! +</p> + +<p> +“Long live Peace and the Brotherhood of peoples!” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Council of People’s Commissars.</i> +</p> + +<p> +17. +</p> + +<h5>FROM THE COMMISSION ON PUBLIC EDUCATION ATTACHED TO THE CENTRAL CITY +DUMA</h5> + +<p> +“Comrades Workingmen and Workingwomen! +</p> + +<p> +“A few days before the holidays, a strike has been declared by the +teachers of the public schools. The teachers side with the bourgeoisie against +the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades, organise parents’ committees and pass resolutions +against the strike of the teachers. Propose to the Ward Soviets of +Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the Trade Unions, the Factory-Shop +and Party Committees, to organise protest meetings. Arrange with your own +resources Christmas trees and entertainments for the children, and demand the +opening of the schools, after the holidays, at the date which will be set by +the Duma. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades, strengthen your position in matters of public education, +insist on the control of the proletarian organisations over the schools.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>Commission on Public Education attached to the Central City Duma.</i> +</p> + +<p> +18. +</p> + +<h5>DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT</h5> + +<p> +The notes issued by Trotzky to the Allies and to the neutral powers, as well as +the note of the Allied military Attachés to General Dukhonin, are too +voluminous to give here. Moreover they belong to another phase of the history +of the Soviet Republic, with which this book has nothing to do—the +foreign relations of the Soviet Government. This I treat at length in the next +volume, “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” +</p> + +<p> +19. +</p> + +<h5>APPEALS TO THE FRONT AGAINST DUKHONIN</h5> + +<p> +“… The struggle for peace has met with the resistance of the bourgeoisie +and the counter-revolutionary Generals…. From the accounts in the newspapers, +at the <i>Stavka</i> of former Supreme Commander Dukhonin are gathering the +agents and allies of the bourgeoisie, Verkhovski, Avksentiev, Tchernov, Gotz, +Tseretelli, etc. It seems even that they want to form a new power against the +Soviets. +</p> + +<p> +“Comrades soldiers! All the persons we have mentioned have been Ministers +already. They have acted in accord with Kerensky and the bourgeoisie. They are +responsible for the offensive of July 1st and for the prolongation of the war. +They promised the land to the peasants and then arrested the Land Committees. +They reestablished capital punishment for soldiers. They obey the orders of +French, English and American financiers…. +</p> + +<p> +“General Dukhonin, for having refused to obey orders of the Council of +People’s Commissars, has been dismissed from his position as Supreme +Commander…. For answer he is circulating among the troops the note from the +Military Attachés of the Allied imperialist Powers, and attempting to provoke a +counter-revolution…. +</p> + +<p> +“Do not obey Dukhonin! Pay no attention to his provocation! Watch him and +his group of counter-revolutionary Generals carefully….” +</p> + +<p> +20. +</p> + +<h5>FROM KRYLENKO</h5> + +<p> +<i>Order Number Two</i> +</p> + +<p> +“… The ex-Supreme Commander, General Dukhonin, for having opposed +resistance to the execution of orders, for criminal action susceptible of +provoking a new civil war, is declared enemy of the People. All persons who +support Dukhonin will be arrested, without respect to their social or political +position or their past. Persons equipped with special authority will operate +these arrests. I charge General Manikhovsky with the execution of the +above-mentioned dispositions….” +</p> + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<p> +1. +</p> + +<h5>INSTRUCTION TO PEASANTS</h5> + +<p> +In answer to the numerous enquiries coming from peasants, it is hereby +explained that the whole power in the country is from now on held by the +Soviets of the Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. +The Workers’ Revolution, after having conquered in Petrograd and in +Moscow, is now conquering in all other centres of Russia. The Workers’ +and Peasants’ Government safeguards the interests of the masses of +peasantry, the poorest of them; it is with the majority of peasants and workers +against the landowners, and against the capitalists. +</p> + +<p> +Hence the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, and before all the District +Soviets, and subsequently those of the Provinces, are from now on and until the +Constituent Assembly meets, full-powered bodies of State authority in their +localities. All landlords’ titles to the land are cancelled by the second +All-Russian Congress of Soviets. A decree regarding the land has already been +issued by the present Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ +Government. On the basis of the above decree all lands hitherto belonging to +landlords now pass entirely and wholly into the hands of the Soviets of +Peasants’ Deputies. The <i>Volost</i> (a group of several villages forms +a <i>Volost</i>) Land Committees are immediately to take over all land from the +landlords, and to keep a strict account over it, watching that order be +maintained, and that the whole estate be well guarded, seeing that from now on +all private estates become public property and must therefore be protected by +the people themselves. +</p> + +<p> +All orders given by the <i>Volost</i> Land Committees, adopted with the assent +of the District Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, in fulfilment of the +decrees issued by the revolutionary power, are absolutely legal and are to be +forthwith and irrefutably brought into execution. +</p> + +<p> +The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government appointed by the second +All-Russian Congress of Soviets has received the name of the Council of +People’s Commissars. +</p> + +<p> +The Council of People’s Commissars summons the Peasants to take the whole +power into their hands in every locality. +</p> + +<p> +The workers will in every way absolutely and entirely support the peasants, +arrange for them all that is required in connection with machines and tools, +and in return they request the peasants to help with the transport of grain. +</p> + +<p> +<i>President of the Council of People’s Commissars,</i> V. ULIANOV +(LENIN). +</p> + +<p> +Petrograd, November 18th, 1917. +</p> + +<p> +2. +</p> + +<p> +The full-powered Congress of Peasants’ Soviets met about a week later, +and continued for several weeks. Its history is merely an expanded version of +the history of the “Extraordinary Conference.” At first the great +majority of the delegates were hostile to the Soviet Government, and supported +the reactionary wing. Several days later the assembly was supporting the +moderates with Tchernov. And several days after that the vast majority of the +Congress were voting for the faction of Maria Spiridonova, and sending their +representatives into the <i>Tsay-ee-kah</i> at Smolny…. The Right Wing then +walked out of the Congress and called a Congress of its own, which went on, +dwindling from day to day, until it finally dissolved…. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 3076-h.htm or 3076-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/3076/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</body> + +</html> + |