[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.]
Ten Days That Shook the World
by John Reed
Contents
Preface
Notes and Explanations
Chapter 1. Background
Chapter 2. The Coming Storm
Chapter 3. On the Eve
Chapter 4. The Fall of the Provisional Government
Chapter 5. Plunging Ahead
Chapter 6. The Committee for Salvation
Chapter 7. The Revolutionary Front
Chapter 8. Counter-Revolution
Chapter 9. Victory
Chapter 10. Moscow
Chapter 11. The Conquest of Power
Chapter 12. The Peasants’ Congress
Appendices I - XII
Preface
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.
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.
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.
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?
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….
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.
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.
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.
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:
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….
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….
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)….
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….
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.
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….
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.
William English Walling thus characterises them:
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….
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.
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.
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.
Roughly, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries believed that
Russia was not economically ripe for a social revolution—that only a
_political_ 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.
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.
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.
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.
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….
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.
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.
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.
J. R.
New York, January 1st 1919.
Notes and Explanations
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.
Political Parties
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….
1. _Monarchists,_ of various shades, _Octobrists,_ etc. These
once-powerful factions no longer existed openly; they either worked
underground, or their members joined the _Cadets,_ as the _Cadets_ came
by degrees to stand for their political programme. Representatives in
this book, Rodzianko, Shulgin.
2. _Cadets._ 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 _Cadets_
were the great party of _political_ reform, roughly corresponding to
the Progressive Party in America. When the Revolution broke out in
March, 1917, the _Cadets_ formed the first Provisional Government. The
_Cadet_ 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
_social economic_ Revolution, the _Cadets_ grew more and more
conservative. Its representatives in this book are: Miliukov, Vinaver,
Shatsky.
2a. _Group of Public Men._ After the _Cadets_ had become unpopular
through their relations with the Kornilov counter-revolution, the
_Group of Public Men_ was formed in Moscow. Delegates from the _Group
of Public Men_ were given portfolios in the last Kerensky Cabinet. The
_Group_ 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 _Group:_ Lianozov,
Konovalov.
3. _Populist Socialists,_ or _Trudoviki_ (Labour Group). Numerically a
small party, composed of cautious intellectuals, the leaders of the
Cooperative societies, and conservative peasants. Professing to be
Socialists, the _Populists_ 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 _Trudoviki_ in the Imperial Duma when the
Revolution of March, 1917, broke out. The _Populist Socialists_ are a
nationalistic party. Their representatives in this book are:
Peshekhanov, Tchaikovsky.
4. _Russian Social Democratic Labour Party._ 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.
a. _Mensheviki._ 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.
b. _Mensheviki Internationalists._ The radical wing of the
_Mensheviki,_ 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.
c. _Bolsheviki._ Now call themselves the _Communist Party,_ 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 _Bolsheviki_
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 _not_ be translated by “Maximalist.” The Maximalists
are a separate group. (See paragraph 5b). Among the leaders: Lenin,
Trotzky, Lunatcharsky.
d. _United Social Democrats Internationalists._ Also called the _Novaya
Zhizn_ (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 _Mensheviki Internationalists,_ except that the
_Novaya Zhizn_ 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.
e. _Yedinstvo._ 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 _coup d’etat,
Yedinstvo_ disappeared.
5. _Socialist Revolutionary party._ Called _Essaires_ 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 _Essaires_ 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 _Left Socialist Revolutionary party._ The
_Essaires,_ who were afterward always called by the radical groups
_“Right Socialist Revolutionaries,”_ 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.
a. _Left Socialist Revolutionaries._ Although theoretically sharing the
Bolshevik programme of dictatorship of the working-class, at first were
reluctant to follow the ruthless Bolshevik tactics. However, the _Left
Socialist Revolutionaries_ 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 _Essaires_ in increasing numbers, they joined the
_Left Socialist Revolutionary party,_ 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.
b. _Maximalists._ An off-shoot of the _Socialist Revolutionary party_
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.
Parliamentary Procedure
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 _presidium._
The _presidium_ is a presiding committee, composed of representatives
of the groups and political factions represented in the assembly, in
proportion to their numbers. The _presidium_ arranges the Order of
Business, and its members can be called upon by the President to take
the chair _pro tem._
Each question (_vopros_) 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.
The crowd is extremely noisy, cheering or heckling speakers,
over-riding the plans of the _presidium._ Among the customary cries
are: _“Prosim!_ Please! Go on!” _“Pravilno!”_ or _“Eto vierno!_ That’s
true! Right!” _“Do volno!_ Enough!” _“Doloi!_ Down with him!” _“Posor!_
Shame!” and _“Teesche!_ Silence! Not so noisy!”
Popular Organisations
1. _Soviet._ The word _soviet_ means “council.” Under the Tsar the
Imperial Council of State was called _Gosudarstvennyi Soviet._ Since
the Revolution, however, the term _Soviet_ 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.”
Besides the local _Soviets,_ elected in every city, town and village of
Russia—and in large cities, also Ward _(Raionny) Soviets_—there are
also the _oblastne_ or _gubiernsky_ (district or provincial) _Soviets,_
and the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian _Soviets_ in the
capital, called from its initials _Tsay-ee-kah._ (See below, “Central
Committees”).
Almost everywhere the _Soviets_ 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 _Soviets_ of
Peasants’ Deputies did not join the other two until after the Bolshevik
_coup d’etat._ They, too, were organised like the workers and soldiers,
with an Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peasants’ _Soviets_ in
the capital.
2. _Trade Unions._ 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.
3. _Factory-Shop Committees._ 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 _Factory-Shop Committees_ also had
their All-Russian organisation, with a Central Committee at Petrograd,
which co-operated with the Trade Unions.
4. _Dumas._ The word _duma_ 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 _City
Duma_ 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 _political_ representation in the fact of the growing power
of organisations based on _economic_ groups.
5. _Zemstvos._ 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 _Zemstvos_
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 _Zemstvos_ were
democratized, with a view to making them the organs of local government
in the rural districts. But like the _City Dumas,_ they could not
compete with the _Soviets._
6. _Cooperatives._ 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 _Cooperatives_
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
_Cooperatives_ which fed Russia when the old structure of commerce and
transportation collapsed.
7. _Army Committees._ The _Army Committees_ 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 _Army Committee._ The
_Central Army Committee_ cooperated with the General Staff. The
administrative break-down in the army incident upon the Revolution
threw upon the shoulders of the _Army Committees_ most of the work of
the Quartermaster’s Department, and in some cases, even the command of
troops.
8. _Fleet Committees._ The corresponding organisations in the Navy.
Central Committees
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.
The most important Central Committees mentioned in this book are:
_Union of Unions._ 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 _Union of Unions._ In 1905 the _Union of Unions_
acted with the revolutionary democracy; in 1917, however, the _Union of
Unions_ opposed the Bolshevik uprising, and united the Government
employees who went on strike against the authority of the Soviets.
_Tsay-ee-kah._ All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets
of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. So called from the initials of its
name.
_Tsentroflot._ “Centre-Fleet”—the Central Fleet Committee.
_Vikzhel._ All-Russian Central Committee of the Railway Workers’ Union.
So called from the initials of its name.
Other Organisations
_Red Guards._ The armed factory workers of Russia. The _Red Guards_
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 _Red Guards_
appeared on the streets, untrained and undisciplined, but full of
Revolutionary zeal.
_White Guards._ 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.
_Tekhintsi._ The so-called “Savage Division” in the army, made up of
Mohametan tribesmen from Central Asia, and personally devoted to
General Kornilov. The _Tekhintsi_ were noted for their blind obedience
and their savage cruelty in warfare.
_Death Battalions._ Or _Shock Battalions._ The Women’s Battalion is
known to the world as the _Death Battalion,_ but there were many _Death
Battalions_ 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 _Death Battalions_ were
composed mostly of intense young patriots. These came for the most part
from among the sons of the propertied classes.
_Union of Officers._ An organisation formed among the reactionary
officers in the army to combat politically the growing power of the
Army Committees.
_Knights of St. George._ The Cross of St. George was awarded for
distinguished action in battle. Its holder automatically became a
_“Knight of St. George.”_ The predominant influence in the organisation
was that of the supporters of the military idea.
_Peasants’ Union._ In 1905, the _Peasants’ Union_ 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.
Chronology and Spelling
I have adopted in this book our Calendar throughout, instead of the
former Russian Calendar, which was thirteen days earlier.
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.
Sources
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 _Russian Daily News,_ and of the two
French papers, _Journal de Russie_ and _Entente._ But far more valuable
than these is the _Bulletin de la Presse_ 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.
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.
Ten Days That Shook The World
Chapter I
Background
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….
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.
There was a feeling among business men and the _intelligentzia_
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 _oborontsi_ (See App. I,
Sect. 1) Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, who supported the
Provisional Government of Kerensky.
On October 14th the official organ of the “moderate” Socialists said:
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….”
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.
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….
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….
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….
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.
An article in _Rabotchi Put_ (Workers’ Way) about the middle of
October, entitled “The Socialist Ministers,” expressed the feeling of
the masses of the people against the “moderate” Socialists:
Here is a list of their services.(See App. I, Sect. 3)
Tseretelli: disarmed the workmen with the assistance of General
Polovtsev, checkmated the revolutionary soldiers, and approved of
capital punishment in the army.
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.
Avksentiev: put several hundred peasants in prison, members of the Land
Committees, and suppressed dozens of workers’ and soldiers’ newspapers.
Tchernov: signed the “Imperial” manifest, ordering the dissolution of
the Finnish Diet.
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.
Zarudny: with the sanction of Alexinsky and Kerensky, put some of the
best workers of the Revolution, soldiers and sailors, in prison.
Nikitin: acted as a vulgar policeman against the Railway Workers.
Kerensky: it is better not to say anything about him. The list of his
services is too long….
A Congress of delegates of the Baltic Fleet, at Helsingfors, passed a
resolution which began as follows:
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….
The direct result of all this was the rise of the Bolsheviki….
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.
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 _St. Antoine._ 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.
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.
[1] Part of the famous “Sisson Documents”.
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 _oborontsi_ 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….
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 _should have been called
in September;_ but the _Tsay-ee-kah_[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.
[2] See Notes and Explanations.
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 _Sins of
the Tsar_ 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 _intelligentzia_ to refer to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies
(Rabotchikh Deputatov) as _Sabatchikh_ Deputatov—Dogs’ Deputies.
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.
“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….”
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.
“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…. _Or if, for example, the
Constituent Assembly manifests any Utopian tendencies, it can be
dispersed by force of arms….”_
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]
[3] See “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk” by John Reed. Boni and Liveright
N.Y., 1919.
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….
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…
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.
In a provincial town I knew a merchant family turned
speculator—_maradior_ (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.
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 _Okhrana_ 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.
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!”
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.
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….
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….
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.”
“And to think,” said Sir George. “One year ago my Government instructed
me not to receive Miliukov, because he was so dangerously Left!”
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.
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….
For milk and bread and sugar and tobacco one had to stand in _queue_
long hours in the chill rain. Coming home from an all-night meeting I
have seen the _kvost_ (tail) beginning to form before dawn, mostly
women, some with babies in their arms…. Carlyle, in his _French
Revolution,_ has described the French people as distinguished above all
others by their faculty of standing in _queue._ 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….
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 _Krivoye Zerkalo_ staged a sumptuous version of
Schnitzler’s “Reigen.”
Although the Hermitage and other picture galleries had been evacuated
to Moscow, there were weekly exhibitions of paintings. Hordes of the
female _intelligentzia_ 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….
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 _bashliki_ 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!”
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 _queue_ 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 _izvoshtchiki_
(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!”
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 _reading_—politics, economics, history—because the people wanted to
_know…._ 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….
[4] See Notes and Explanations.
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….
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….
[5] See Notes and Explanations.
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 _read?”_
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
_gorodovoye_ (city police) a mild-mannered and unarmed citizen militia
patrolled the streets—still, there were many quaint anachronisms.
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 _tchin_ (rank) of Collegiate Assessor, or Privy Councillor,
with the prospect of retirement on a comfortable pension, and possibly
the Cross of St. Anne….
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!
It was against this background of a whole nation in ferment and
disintegration that the pageant of the Rising of the Russian Masses
unrolled….