The stronghold of the counter-revolutionary organization was the cadet
schools and the Engineering Castle, where considerable arms and
ammunition were stored, and from where attacks were made upon the
revolutionary government's headquarters. Detachments of Red Guards and
sailors had surrounded the cadet schools and were sending in messengers
demanding the surrender of all arms. Some scattering shots came in
reply. The besiegers were trampled upon. Crowds of people gathered
around them, and not infrequently stray shots fired from the windows
would wound passers-by.
The skirmishes were assuming an indefinitely prolonged character, and
this threatened the revolutionary detachments with demoralization. It
was necessary, therefore, to adopt the most determined measures. The
task of disarming the cadets was assigned to the commandant of
Petropavlovsk fortress, Ensign B. He closely surrounded the cadet
schools, brought up some armored cars and artillery, and gave the cadets
ten minutes' time to surrender. Renewed firing from the windows was the
answer at first. At the expiration of the ten minutes, B. ordered an
artillery charge. The very first shots made yawning breaches in the
walls of the schoolhouse. The cadets surrendered, though many of them
tried to save themselves by flight, firing as they fled.
Considerable rancor was created, such as always accompanies civil war.
The sailors undoubtedly committed many outrages upon individual cadets.
The bourgeois press later accused the sailors and the Soviet government
of inhumanity and brutality. It never mentioned, however, the fact that
the revolt of October 25th-26th had been brought about with hardly any
firing or sacrifice, and that only the counter-revolutionary conspiracy
which was organized by the bourgeoisie and which threw the young
generation into the flame of civil war against the workers, soldiers and
sailors, led to unavoidable severities and sacrifices.
The 29th of October marked a decided change in the mood of the
inhabitants of Petrograd. Events took on a more tragic character. At the
same time, our enemies realized that the situation was far more serious
than they thought at first and that the Soviet had not the slightest
intention of relinquishing the power it had won just to oblige the
junkers and the capitalistic newspapers.
The work of clearing Petrograd of counter-revolutionary centers was
carried on intensively. The cadets were almost all disarmed, the
participators in the insurrection were arrested and either imprisoned in
the Petropavlovsk fortress or deported to Kronstadt. All publications
which openly preached revolt against Soviet authority were promptly
suppressed. Orders were issued for the arrest of such of the leaders of
the former Soviet parties whose names figured on the intercepted
counter-revolutionary edicts. All military resistance in the capital was
crushed absolutely.
Next came a long and exhausting struggle against the sabotage of the
bureaucrats, technical workers, clerks, etc. These elements, which by
their earning capacity belong largely to the downtrodden class of
society, align themselves with the bourgeois class by the conditions of
their life and by their general psychology. They had sincerely and
faithfully served the government and its institutions when it was headed
by Czarism. They continued to serve the government when the authority
passed over into the hands of the bourgeois imperialists. They were
inherited with all their knowledge and technical skill, by the coalition
government in the next period of the revolution. But when the revolting
workingmen, soldiers and peasants flung the parties of the exploiting
classes away from the rudder of State and tried to take the management
of affairs into their own hands, then the bureaucrats and clerks flew
into a passion and absolutely refused to support the new government in
any way. More and more extensive became this sabotage, which was
organized mostly by Social-Revolutionists and Mensheviki, and which was
supported by funds furnished by the banks and the Allied Embassies.