At this period the Smolny building was already completely in the hands
of the Petrograd Soviet and of our party. The Mensheviks and the S. R.'s
transferred their political activity to the Maryiinsky Palace, where the
infant Pre-Parliament was already expiring. In the Pre-Parliament
Kerensky delivered a great speech, in which, stormily applauded by the
bourgeois wing, he endeavored to conceal his impotence behind clamorous
threats. The Staff made its last attempt at opposition. To all units of
the garrison it sent out invitations to appoint two delegates to
conferences concerning the removal of troops from the capital. The first
conference was called for October 22nd, at 11 P. M. From the regiments
we immediately received information about it. By telephone we issued a
call for a garrison conference at 11 A. M. Withal, a part of the
delegates did get to the Staff quarters, only to declare that without
the Petrograd Soviet's decision they would not move anywhere. Almost
unanimously the Garrison Conference confirmed its allegiance to the
Military Revolutionary Committee. Objections came only from official
representatives of the former Soviet parties, but they found no response
whatever among the regimental delegates. The Staff's attempt brought out
only more strikingly that we were standing on firm ground. In the front
rank there was the Volhynian Regiment, the very one which on July 4th,
with its band playing, had invaded the Tauri'da Palace, in order to put
down the Bolsheviks.
As already mentioned earlier, the Central Executive Committee had charge
of the Petrograd Soviet's treasury and its publications. An attempt to
obtain even a single one of these publications brought no results.
Beginning with the end of September, we initiated a series of measures
toward creating an independent newspaper of the Petrograd Soviet. But
all printing establishments were occupied and their owners boycotted us
with the assistance of the Central Executive Committee. It was decided
to arrange for a "Petrograd Soviet Day," for the purpose of developing a
widespread agitation and collecting pecuniary resources for establishing
a newspaper. About a fortnight before, this day was set for October
22nd, and consequently it coincided with the moment of the open outburst
of the insurrection.
With complete assurance, the hostile press announced that on October
22nd an armed insurrection of the Bolsheviks would occur in the streets
of Petrograd. That the insurrection would occur, nobody had any doubt.
They only tried to determine exactly when; they guessed, they
prophesied, striving in this way to force a denial or confession on our
part. But the Soviet calmly and confidently marched forward, making no
answer to the howl of bourgeois public opinion. October 22nd became the
reviewing day for the forces of the proletarian army. It went off
magnificently in every respect. In spite of the warnings coming from the
Right that blood would flow in torrents in the streets of Petrograd, the
masses of the populace were pouring in floods to the Petrograd Soviet
meetings. All our oratorical forces were mobilized. All public places
were filled. Meetings were held unceasingly for hours at a stretch. They
were addressed by speakers of our party, by delegates arriving for the
Soviet Congress, by representatives from the front, by left S.R.'s and
by Anarchists. Public buildings were flooded by waves of working-men,
soldiers and sailors. There had not been many gatherings like that even
in the time of the Revolution. Up rose a considerable mass of the petty
townfolk, less frightened than aroused by the shouts, warnings and
baiting of the bourgeois press. Waves of people by tens of thousands
dashed against the People's House building, rolled through the
corridors, filled the halls. On the iron columns huge garlands of human
heads, feet and hands were hanging like bunches of grapes. The air was
surcharged with the electric tension that heralds the most critical
moments of revolution. "Down with Kerensky's government! Down with the
war! All power to the Soviets!" Not one from the ranks of the previous
Soviet parties ventured to appear before those colossal throngs with a
word of reply. The Petrograd Soviet held undivided sway. In reality the
campaign had already been won. It only remained to deal the last
military blow to this spectral authority.
The most cautious in our midst were reporting that there still remained
units that were not with us: the cossacks, the cavalry regiment, the
Semyonofski regiment, the cyclists. Commissioners and agitators were
assigned to these units. Their reports sounded perfectly satisfactory:
the red-hot atmosphere was infecting one and all, and the most
conservative elements of the army were losing the strength to withstand
the general tendency of the Petrograd garrison. In the Semyonofski
regiment, which was considered the bulwark of Kerensky's government, I
was present at a meeting which took place in the open air. The most
prominent speakers of the right wing addressed it. They clung to the
conservative guard regiments as to the last support of the coalition
power. Nothing would avail. By an overwhelming majority of votes, the
regiment expressed itself for us and did not even give the ex-ministers
a chance to finish their speeches. The groups which still opposed the
Soviet watch-words were made up mainly of officers, volunteers and
generally of bourgeois intellectuals and semi-intellectuals. The masses
of peasants and workmen were with us one and all. The demarcation ran as
a distinct social line.
The Fortress of Peter and Paul is the central military base of
Petrograd. As commandant thereof we appointed a young ensign. He proved
the best man for the post and within a few hours he became master of the
situation. The lawful authorities withdrew, biding their time. The
element regarded as unreliable for us were the cyclists, who in July had
smashed our party's military organization in the Kshessinsky mansion and
taken possession of the mansion itself. On the 23rd, I went to the
Fortress about 2 P. M. Within the courtyard a meeting was being held.
The speakers of the right wing were cautious and evasive in the extreme,
painstakingly avoiding the question of Kerensky, whose name inevitably
aroused shouts of protest and indignation even among the soldiers. We
were listened to, and our advice vas followed. About four o'clock, the
cyclists assembled nearby, in the "Modern" Circus, for a battalion
meeting. Among the speakers appearing there was Quartermaster-General
Paradyelof. He spoke with extreme caution. The days had been left far
behind, when official and semi-official speakers referred to the party
of the workers merely as to a gang of traitors and hired agents of the
German Kaiser.
The Lieutenant-Commander of the Staff accosted me with: "We really ought
to be able to come to some agreement." But it was already too late. The
whole battalion, with only thirty dissenting votes, had voted for
handing over all power to the Soviets.