The Coming Storm
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.
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.
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
_Tsay-ee-kah_ invited the popular organisations to send delegates to a
Democratic Conference, which should meet at Petrograd in September.
In the _Tsay-ee-kah_ 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.
[6] See Notes and Explanations.
Almost immediately the Bolsheviki won a majority in the Petrograd
Soviet, and the Soviets of Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and other cities
followed suit.
Alarmed, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries in control of the
_Tsay-ee-kah_ 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 _Coalition Government
without the Cadets._ 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.
The fact is that the _Tsay-ee-kah_ 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, _Izviestia_ (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.
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)
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.
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:
“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….”
[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.
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.
This was the situation when the long-awaited announcement of the Allied
Conference in Paris brought up the burning question of foreign policy….
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.
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 _nakaz_—(See App. II, Sect. 5) instructions.
The Provisional Government objected to Skobeliev and his _nakaz;_ 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….”
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!”
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!”
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:
“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.
“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….
“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.’
“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!”
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.
The spokesman for the Eighth Army:
“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….”
For the Forty-sixth Siberian Artillery:
“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….”
From Europe came rumours of peace at the expense of Russia. (See App.
II, Sect. 6)…
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)…
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.
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
_nakaz._ He ended with the key-note:
“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.”
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 _Rabotchi i Soldat_
(Worker and Soldier), organ of the Bolshevik Petrograd Soviet:
THE GOVERNMENT’S ANSWER TO THE TRENCHES
The most taciturn of our Ministers, Mr. Terestchenko, has actually told
the trenches the following:
1. We are closely united with our Allies. (Not with the peoples, but
with the Governments.)
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.
3. The 1st of July offensive was beneficial and a very happy affair.
(He did not mention the consequences.)
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.)
5. The _nakaz_ 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.’
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.
That is how the Government replied to the trenches about peace!
Now in the background of Russian politics began to form the vague
outlines of a sinister power—the Cossacks. _Novaya Zhizn_ (New Life),
Gorky’s paper, called attention to their activities:
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….
Kaledin, _ataman_ 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….
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.”
At the same time another Cossack mission called upon the British
ambassador, treating with him boldly as representatives of “the free
Cossack people.”
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….
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….
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.
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.
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, _Obshtchee Dielo_ (Common Cause), called for a dictatorship of
Kornilov, Kaledin and Kerensky!
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.
“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….”
On the extreme right the organs of the scarcely-veiled Monarchists,
Purishkevitch’s _Narodny Tribun_ (People’s Tribune), _Novaya Rus_ (New
Russia), and _Zhivoye Slovo_ (Living Word), openly advocated the
extermination of the revolutionary democracy….
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!
The bourgeois press was joyful. “At Moscow,” said the Cadet paper
_Ryetch_ (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 _Utro Rossii_
(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:
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….
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….
In the face of a storm of popular disapproval the plan of evacuation
was repudiated.
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 _Tsay-ee-kah_
itself, spared no pains to prevent the meeting. _Izviestia_ and _Golos
Soldata_ (Voice of the Soldier), newspapers founded by the Petrograd
Soviet but now in the hands of the _Tsay-ee-kah,_ fiercely assailed it,
as did the entire artillery of the Socialist Revolutionary party press,
_Dielo Naroda_ (People’s Cause) and _Volia Naroda_ (People’s Will).
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….
[8] See Notes and Explanations.
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 _Fabritchno-Zavodskiye Comitieti_—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….
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 _Obukhovsky Zavod,_ a
Government munitions-plant out on the Schlüsselburg Prospekt.
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.
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.
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!”
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!”
The Bolshevik press suddenly expanded. Besides the two party papers,
_Rabotchi Put_ and _Soldat_ (Soldier), there appeared a new paper for
the peasants, _Derevenskaya Byednota_ (Village Poorest), poured out in
a daily half-million edition; and on October 17th, _Rabotchi i Soldat._
Its leading article summed up the Bolshevik point of view:
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….
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….
This paper advocates the following: All power to the Soviets—both in
the capital and in the provinces.
Immediate truce on all fronts. An honest peace between peoples.
Landlord estates—without compensation—to the peasants.
Workers’ control over industrial production.
A faithfully and honestly elected Constituent Assembly.
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:
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!
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….
In the Council of the Republic the gulf between the two sides of the
chamber deepened day by day.
“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….”
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.”
Cries from the Left, “We don’t believe you!” Mighty applause from the
Right….
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.
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.
Smolny Institute, headquarters of the _Tsay-ee-kah_ 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….
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
_“Tsay-ee-kah”_ 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….
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….
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 _kasha,_ 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….
[Graphic, page 33: text of placard in russian, translation follows]
COMRADES FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR HEALTH, PRESERVE CLEANLINESS.
Upstairs was another eating-place, reserved for the _Tsay-ee-kah—_
though every one went there. Here could be had bread thickly buttered
and endless glasses of tea….
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….
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
_Yedinstvo_[9] group—smiled contemptuously. “These are very different
people from the delegates to the first _Siezd_ (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 _Tsay-ee-kah,_ 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….”
[9] See Notes and Explanations.
_Rabotchi i Soldat_ said:
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….
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…
What would the Bolsheviki do? Rumours ran through the city that there
would be an armed “demonstration,” a _vystuplennie_—“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
_Novaya Rus_ advocated a general Bolshevik massacre.
Gorky’s paper, _Novaya Zhizn,_ 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.
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….
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 _Dien_ (Day), published a
sensational story, accompanied by a map, which professed to reveal the
secret Bolshevik plan of campaign.
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 _Tsay-ee-kah,_ 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:
Again rumours are spreading around the town of an intended
_vystuplennie._ 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 _Tsay-ee-kah,_ 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!
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 _is_ 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….”
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 _that!_”
Under date of October 29th I find entered in my notebook the following
items culled from the newspapers of the day:
Moghilev (General Staff Headquarters). Concentration here of loyal
Guard Regiments, the Savage Division, Cossacks and Death Battalions.
The _yunkers_ of the Officers’ Schools of Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo and
Peterhof ordered by the Government to be ready to come to Petrograd.
Oranienbaum _yunkers_ arrive in the city.
Part of the Armoured Car Division of the Petrograd garrism stationed in
the Winter Palace.
Upon orders signed by Trotzky, several thousand rifles delivered by the
Government Arms Factory at Sestroretzk to delegates of the Petrograd
workmen.
At a meeting of the City Militia of the Lower Liteiny Quarter, a
resolution demanding that all power be given to the Soviets.
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.
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 _uystuplennie._ 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.”
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!
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, _we’re through with you!_” Some
soldiers joined him…. And after that they voted again—insurrection
won….
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 _Rabotchi Put_ 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.
“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….”
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 _nakaz_ 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….
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.
“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.
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 _Tsay-ee-kah,_
were there in force. Against them rose up workmen, peasants and common
soldiers, passionate and simple.
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 _pomieshtchiki_ (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!”
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.
“It is a _provocatzia,”_ said he. “They want to starve us—or drive us
to violence!”
Among the soldiers one began, “Comrades! I bring you greetings from the
place where men are digging their graves and call them trenches!”
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.
“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….”
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—”
“Why don’t you speak about the lack of bread?” shouted another soldier.
“Man shall not live by bread alone,” answered Tchudnovsky, sternly….
Followed him an officer, delegate from the Vitebsk Soviet, a Menshevik
_oboronetz._ “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!”
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 _queue_ 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….
[10] See Notes and Explanations.
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….
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….
Monarchist plots, German spies, smugglers hatching schemes….
And in the rain, the bitter chill, the great throbbing city under grey
skies rushing faster and faster toward—what?