was spreading; by the 10th it had become practically universal. But
meanwhile the workingmen were quietly organizing. Electing delegates,
they formed the Council of Workingmen's Deputies, which immediately
took over the control of their movements. It was this fact which
caused what might have been a blind uprising of desperate people to
assume the character of an organized revolution. On this date the
Duma, which had been in continual session, broke off relations with
the Government with a resolution stating that "with such a Government
the Duma forever severs its connections." In response to this act the
czar issued a decree ordering the dissolution of the Duma.
On the following day, Sunday the 11th, the members of the Duma
unanimously decided to ignore the decree of the czar and to hold what
was to prove the first session of the Duma as the representative body
of the Russian democracy.
Meanwhile the street demonstrations continued, augmented by those
workers who had not yet gone out on strike and were simply out on
their weekly day of rest. A proclamation had been issued by the
military authorities forbidding gatherings, adding that the severest
measures would be resorted to in breaking them up. But no notice was
taken of this order. The Cossacks were riding through the crowded
streets, but, in sharp contrast to their behavior of former times,
they took great care not to jostle the people even, guiding their
horses carefully among the moving people.
CHAPTER LXXIX
REVOLUTION
The first actual violence was begun by the police, who opened fire on
the crowds in certain sections of the city from the housetops with
their machine guns. A number of demonstrators were killed and wounded,
but still the disorders did not yet become general. Where the police
opened fire the more resolute elements of the crowds rushed in to
attack them and killed them. And now came Protopopoff's pretext for
ordering the soldiers to fire and to begin such a massacre as had
squelched the premature uprising on Red Sunday twelve years before.
It was at this point that one of the most vital arrangements of
Protopopoff's scheme snapped.
There were 35,000 soldiers in Petrograd at this time, more than
sufficient to suppress any uprising. Neither Protopopoff nor the most
radical members of the Duma doubted that the soldiers would obey the
orders of their officers, and shoot down the crowds on the streets.
When had Russian soldiers ever refused to suppress demonstrations of
the people? "The revolution is on," cried Milukov, "but it will be
drowned in blood!" In this supposition both sides were to prove
greatly mistaken.
The Russian army of March, 1917, was a very different organization
from the Russian army of March, 1914. First of all, it was now
composed of men who three years before had been part of the Russian
people. The regular professional army, the standing establishment,
which had been the support of the autocracy, had been practically
drowned in the vast influx of recruits. Furthermore, the old,
well-trained regiments constituting the regular army had been
decimated in the fierce battles along the Russian front, some of
them being annihilated. They had been eliminated. Of still more
importance there had been a change in the minds of the highest army
leaders themselves. Whatever might have been their attitude toward
the autocracy and the people in the days of old, like their
colleagues, the civilian reactionaries, they had seen the autocracy
and the social organizations contrasted; they were profoundly
patriotic and they realized what Rasputin and his dark forces had
stood for, what Protopopoff stood for; they had personally, most of
them, pleaded with the czar to clean the court of the sinister
pro-German influences--with absolutely no success. They realized
that the country must choose between the autocracy as it was and a
government of the people if Prussianism was to be defeated, and they
did not hesitate in their choice.
Among these army leaders, who had undergone such a change of
psychology, was no less a person than the Grand Duke Nicholas
Nicholaievitch himself, who had been removed from his command of the
armies facing the Austro-Germans and transferred to the minor field of
operations against Turkey, only because he had protested against the
influence of an illiterate Siberian mujik.
With very few exceptions, the army leaders, from the commander in
chief down to the regimental commanders, stood arrayed on the side of
the Duma. So clever an intriguer as Protopopoff should have realized
this.
One of the first regiments to be called out to fire on the people
after the first encounters between the machine-gun squads of the
police and the demonstrators was the famous Volynski Regiment,
notorious in Russian revolutionary history. Never had it failed its
masters. A noncommissioned officer of this crack regiment,
Kirpitchnikov, immediately made the round of the soldiers and the
other noncommissioned officers. They organized a committee which
approached the officers. The latter, with the single exception of the
colonel, stood with the committee. When the order came to fire on the
people, they shot the colonel, formed, shouldered their pieces, and
marched out on the streets as the first organized body of soldiers to
fight for the awakening Russian democracy.
Persuading several other guard regiments to join them, they attacked
Protopopoff's police squads. This event occurred at 5 o'clock in the
afternoon of the 11th, and marked the beginning of the actual
revolution. The fighting begun by the mutinied soldiers now became
general. One by one other regiments were called out, but with very few
exceptions all refused to fire on the people and joined the
revolutionists. Then the Cossacks came over in a body. As twilight
approached the firing in the streets became general and continuous.
Meanwhile Michael Rodzianko, president of the Duma, made one more
effort to avert the great crisis. The czar, having been assured by
Protopopoff several days previous that all danger was over and the
situation well in hand, had gone to army headquarters at the front. To
him Rodzianko sent a telegram worded as follows:
"The situation is extremely serious. Anarchy threatens in the capital,
transportation of provisions is completely disorganized, and fighting
has begun in the streets. It is of vital importance that a new cabinet
be formed by some person enjoying the confidence of the people. Each
moment of delay adds to the disaster. May the responsibility for a
great national calamity not fall upon your head."
To this telegram the czar made no answer.
CHAPTER LXXX
THE CULMINATION
Meanwhile the deputies sat in session, helpless, regarding the
situation with growing alarm. After all, the majority were naturally
conservatives and feared revolution. As a matter of fact, they allowed
themselves to lose grip of the situation.
As has already been said, the uprising was not a blind force giving
vent to elemental feeling, but a thoroughly organized revolutionary
movement. The old revolutionary forces had awakened in time to take
control of the developing situation. It was the leaders of the Social
Democrats, the Social Revolutionists, the successors of the old-time
Nihilists and the labor leaders, who were proving themselves masters
of the situation. The Duma sat quiet, inert, and so lost its
opportunity. It hated the dark forces on the one hand, it feared the
revolution on the other, and at the critical moment helped neither.
What saved it from being completely discredited was the fact that a
number of the revolutionary leaders, such as Alexander Kerensky and
Tcheidze, both Socialists, were also deputies in the Duma, and, being
of well-balanced minds, realized that they must have the support of
those elements which the Duma represented to succeed. The real center
of government of the new democracy, then rising out of the birth pangs
of the nation, was the Council of Workingmen's Deputies.
This organization on the part of the active revolution was largely
completed during the night of the 11th, even while heavy firing swept
up and down the streets of the city. When Monday morning dawned the
various radical and labor leaders had knit themselves together in the
Council of Workingmen's Deputies and were in control of the
revolutionary forces through a great number of subcommittees. An
intelligent plan of campaign for the actual military or fighting
operations had been drawn up and was followed with an efficiency that
would have done credit to organized troops. Undoubtedly the officers
of the mutinied regiments who had gone over to the side of the people
helped, but the revolutionary commanders did not for a moment allow
them to take control of the situation. The red flag of International
Socialism was raised that Monday morning as the emblem of the new
regime, and to the present moment it continues flying.
The dominating brain, the vital moral force, behind the revolution was
Alexander Kerensky, the young Socialist lawyer.
On Monday morning the revolutionary column headed by a regiment of the
mutineers delivered an attack on the Arsenal, after dispersing the
police groups in the neighborhood. The commandant, General Matusov,
proved loyal to Protopopoff and offered resistance, but after some
sharp fighting the garrison was overcome and Matusov killed. The
capture of the Arsenal gave the revolutionists possession of a supply
of rifles, small arms, machine guns, and ammunition more than ample to
equip all their fighting forces. The artillery depot was also taken,
and now the revolutionary soldiers, most of them students and
workingmen, organized into flying detachments which scoured the city
in automobiles and hunted down the police as though they were wild
animals. The jails and prisons too were broken into and all the
political prisoners liberated. And so fell the notorious Peter and
Paul Fortress, the Bastille of Russia, in which some of the finest
minds of the Russian revolutionary movement, both men and women, had
been done to death with horrible torture. In the confusion some
criminals also escaped, but in spite of their presence in the fighting
crowds, there was very little looting or disorder, such as invariably
attends violent uprisings. Schlusselburg Prison, another monument to
martyred advocates of freedom, also fell. Then, headed by one of the
old revolutionists, just released from a long imprisonment, the people
turned on the most hated of all the old institutions, the headquarters
of the secret police. This building was stormed, its defenders killed
and then burned to its foundations, together with all its records.
Everywhere the revolutionary forces were successful, meeting
comparatively little resistance.
Meanwhile the Duma continued inactive, except that Rodzianko sent a
second telegram to the czar and also a telegram to each of the
prominent army commanders, begging them to make their personal appeals
to the czar, that he might be persuaded to take some action which
would at least save him his throne nominally.
"The last hour has struck," wired the Duma president. "To-morrow will
be too late if you wish to save your throne and dynasty."
And again the czar, misled by a false adviser, refused to heed.
Various accounts would seem to indicate that he was drunk at the time.
By this time 25,000 soldiers of the garrison had joined Kerensky's
revolutionary army under the red flag. Then came a committee from
these soldiers to the doors of the Duma with the demand:
"We have risen and helped the people overturn the autocracy. Down with
czarism! Where do you stand?"
President Rodzianko, speaking for the Duma, showed them his telegrams
demanding a ministry of the czar responsible to the people, and said
that they stood for a constitutional democracy. The soldiers were
satisfied. Then soldiers began arriving at the Taurida Palace, the
meeting place of the Duma, to acknowledge their recognition of its
authority. This was done under the influence of deputies Kerensky,
Tcheidze, and Skobelev, all Socialists, who felt the need of having
the cohesion of the Duma to the revolution. At about this time the
newly appointed premier, Golitzin, who had succeeded Trepov,
telephoned his resignation to the Duma. The other members of the
cabinet had disappeared.
That afternoon the Duma appointed a committee of twelve members,
representing all parties, which should represent its authority and
should assist the revolutionary organizers in maintaining order. These
latter held a separate meeting in another room of the palace and
issued an appeal to the populace to refrain from excesses. An election
of deputies to the Council of Workingmen's Deputies was then called
for that evening, the name of the council being now changed to the
Council of Workingmen and Soldiers' Deputies.
CHAPTER LXXXI
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
By this time the firing in the streets had died down. Desultory
fighting still continued in the outskirts of the city between patrols
of the revolutionary forces and policemen, but by evening calm once
more settled down over the city. The autocracy was dead; the
revolution had been won. The dead and wounded had been collected and
the latter were being cared for. The dead amounted to slightly less
than two hundred.
The two committees--the one representing the Duma and the one
representing the red radicals--were in joint session all that night
working with a harmony that would have seemed incredible only a week
before. On the following morning they issued two proclamations. The
first simply appealed to the people to remain calm and commit no
excesses. The other announced the establishment of a new government
for Russia, which should be based on universal suffrage. Then the Duma
committee issued a special appeal to army officers to support the new
regime. All day delegations from various organizations of both social
and military life of the capital appeared before the doors of the Duma
to offer allegiance, and again and again Milukov and Kerensky, each
the popular hero of their separate elements, the one of the liberal
middle classes and the other of the radical working classes, were
called out to deliver addresses to crowds of enthusiastic people.
Despite their differences of opinion, these two and their fellows
worked together with an ideal harmony, each supporting the other with
his constituency. Perhaps no greater anomaly was ever presented in
history than the spectacle of Rodzianko, ultraconservative, and
Kerensky, radical Socialist, each addressing a large crowd, the one in
one courtyard the other in another courtyard, exhorting their
audiences to stand shoulder to shoulder for a common purpose. Nothing
but the knowledge that on the morrow the Prussians might be thundering
at the gates of the city could have produced such harmony of action
between two such differing types.
Another picturesque incident of the actual revolution occurred when
the Imperial Guards at the palace revolted and, having disposed of
their commanders, sent a committee in to arrest the czarina, who was
attending her children, all of whom were ill with the measles.
"Do not hurt me or my children," she appealed, "I am only a poor
Sister of Charity." A guard was left over her while the main body of
the regiment went over to Taurida Palace to place itself at the
disposal of the Provisional Government.
Meanwhile other notorious members of the dark forces were apprehended.
Ex-Premier Boris von Sturmer, the traitor whom Milukov had denounced
as a thief, and who had since his downfall been a member of the court
camarilla, was arrested and put in a cell lately occupied by a
political prisoner. Next came the metropolitan of the church, Pitirim,
an appointee of Rasputin, a feeble old man in a white cap and a black
cassock, tottering in the midst of a crowd of laughing and jesting
soldiers and workingmen, showing him, however, no other violence than
with their tongues. One by one all the members of the old regime were
brought in, or they came of themselves. Finally the archconspirator,
Protopopoff himself, was the only one of note still at large. For two
days his whereabouts remained unknown. As developed later, he was
hiding in the house of a relative.
On the evening of the 13th an old man in civilian dress appeared
before the main doorway of the Duma headquarters. A civilian guard, a
student, stood there.
"I am Protopopoff," said the man to the astonished guard; "I have come
to surrender myself to the Duma and to recognize its authority. Take
me to the right person."
The guard shouted the ex-minister's name in his excitement and a crowd
quickly gathered. Even the perennial good humor of a Russian crowd
forsook this gathering and it began to assume the aspect of a Western
vigilance committee. There were angry shouts; the archtraitor,
Protopopoff, was before them in person. But before actual violence
could be offered the old man, Kerensky, the Socialist leader, leaped
into the crowd and allayed the excitement, thus saving Protopopoff's
life.
Another strange feature of the day's events was the appearance of
Grand Duke Cyril on the balcony of his own house, uttering a
revolutionary speech to the crowds on the pavement below. He declared
himself unequivocally for the new government, wherever it might lead,
and appealed to the people to support it. Meanwhile the Duma committee
sent telegrams to all the commanders along the various fronts and to
the admirals of the Baltic and Black Sea fleets, stating the bare
facts and asking their adhesion to the Provisional Government. From
all came ready professions of loyalty and adhesion. Similar telegrams
were sent to all the towns and cities throughout the provinces. And
all the country responded similarly. With very little violence the old
regime was upset all over Russia and local councils elected to work in
harmony with and under the authority of the Provisional Government in
Petrograd. The French and British ambassadors too hastened to inform
the president of the Duma that their respective governments recognized
its authority and were prepared to enter into diplomatic relations
with the Duma committee.
On the 14th the streets of Petrograd had assumed their normal quiet,
if not their normal appearance, for it was somewhat unusual not to
observe a single policeman in sight. Every member of the police was
either in prison, in the hospital, or dead. The maintenance of order
was given over to a civilian police, or city militia, under the
command of Professor Yurevitch, the first time in Russian history that
a college professor had ever undertaken such a function. On this day
the garrison of the fortress of Kronstadt and the sailors of the fleet
stationed there mutinied, killed their commanders and came over to the
cause of the revolution. That evening the Duma committee issued a
proclamation worded as follows:
"Citizens! The wonderful event has transpired! Old Russia is dead. The
Committee of Safety of the Duma and the Council of Workingmen's and
Soldiers' Deputies are bringing back order into the city and the
country.... The most pressing need now is food supplies for the people
and the army. Assist with bread and your labor."
Until now since the last of the fighting the control of affairs had
been in the hands of the two committees, one representing the radical
revolutionists and the other the middle class and aristocratic Duma.
Each committee appealed to its constituency to respect the authority
of the other.
During all of the next morning, the 15th, the two committees were in
continuous joint session, planning the formation of a cabinet or set
of officers for the Provisional Government. Early in the afternoon
this labor was concluded and the members of the new government were
announced. Prince George Lvov, he who had organized the Zemstvo Union
and served so efficiently as its president, was Premier and Minister
of the Interior. Though an aristocrat of the bluest blood, he was
extremely liberal in his views. Never had he been an autocrat, even
in sympathy. Paul Milukov, the leader of the Constitutional Democrats,
was Minister of Foreign Relations. He represented the middle-class
liberals or progressives, constituting what in this country would be
called the business men and professional class, as Lvov represented
the broad-minded country gentry. Alexander Kerensky, the radical
Socialist, an old member of the Social Revolutionists, the
organization of many assassinations, was named Minister of Justice.
Less fanatical and more balanced than many of his associates, he
represented the connecting link between the two sharply contrasting
elements which constituted the new government. To him the red flag of
International Socialism meant more than the flag of national
patriotism, but he, as some of his associates did not, realized that
national patriotism must not be destroyed until the spirit of
international brotherhood was an established fact; that world
federation must rest first on national unity. He proved then, though
still a man in his early thirties, the dominant figure of the
situation, a position which he has retained to an increasing degree
ever since.
The other members of the new cabinet were: M. A. I. Gutchkov, chairman
of the War Industries Committee, Minister of War and Marine. In
earlier life he had been a soldier of fortune, having fought under
many flags, for many causes, including that of the Boers in South
Africa. In politics he was conservative. Andrei Shingarev, a
Constitutional Democrat, was made Minister of Agriculture, an
important post, for under his charge came the complicated problem of
food supply, to be solved by means of a transportation all too
inadequate in its lack of rolling stock to supply both army and people
together. A physician by profession, he was also an expert on finance.
Neither Rodzianko, president of the Duma, nor Tcheidze, the president
of the Council of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Deputies, was represented
in the cabinet, though both had taken important and leading parts in
the revolution and the organization following.
The policy agreed upon was a compromise between the two elements in
the new government. The Duma party could not yet face the possibility
of a pure republic, and desired a constitutional monarchy under the
czar, reducing him to a mere figurehead, to be sure. The radicals
wanted a clear-cut democracy. Between them, by mutual compromise, they
agreed that the czar should be deposed and his brother Grand Duke
Michael should be proclaimed regent, with the Czarevitch Alexis as
heir apparent. The new constitution, which was to be as liberal as the
most progressive in the world, must, it was decided, be worked out in
detail by a national congress or constituent assembly which should be
elected by universal suffrage as soon as possible. The more important
and pressing task before the nation, it was realized by both elements,
was the organization of transportation that both the people and the
army might be supplied with food and that munitions and other military
supplies might be sent to the front. The armies of two great empires
were still to be defeated before there could be any detailed
discussion of forms of government.
CHAPTER LXXXII
THE CZAR ABDICATES
Meanwhile where was the czar? As yet not a word had been heard from
him. He seemed to have been lost in the confusion. And as a matter of
fact he was as though he were the lost soul of the dead autocracy
wandering about in space, mournfully looking for some spot on which he
might alight.
As has already been stated, Nicholas was at the general headquarters
of General Alexiev, the commander in chief, when the crisis was
precipitated in Petrograd. With him were a number of his personal
toadies, among them Baron Fredericks, the Court Minister, said to have
been responsible for most of the evil influences during past years.
Another of his companions was General Voyeykov.
The two telegrams from Rodzianko had been received, but it seems
probable that they had been intercepted by either one of these two
attendants. At any rate, they must have counteracted whatever
influence the telegrams might have had on the weak-willed man's
decisions. General Alexiev, too, in response to Rodzianko's telegram
to himself had attempted to bring the czar to a realization of the
seriousness of the situation. Nevertheless he did nothing. Of the many
personal pictures of the czar which have been painted by those who
have known him personally one stands out predominantly: a little man
with a weak face, twirling his mustache with one hand and alternately
looking out of the window or fixing the speaker with a semi-vacant
stare.
Nicholas stood so when Alexiev explained to him the situation in the
capital and then pleaded with him to grasp his last opportunity. But
this last opportunity he allowed to slip by. Undoubtedly he could then
have saved himself. Had he been a man of broad intelligence he might
have come forward and averted the rising storm by granting even less
than the autocracy of Germany has conceded to the German masses. Thus
he might have emerged more firmly fixed in his high position than ever
before. There are those who assert that Nicholas is mentally
defective. Certainly the facts bear them out.
Finally there came an urgent appeal from his wife to return to
Tsarskoe Selo, and this, a purely domestic matter, he understood.
Together with his suite he started on a train, his escort under the
command of General Tsabel. All had been drinking heavily, and when
finally the news of the uprising came through in full detail, they
were all inclined to minimize the importance of what had happened. On
the morning of the 14th General Voyeykov briefly summarized the
situation to the czar, then added that General Ivanov, the one
commander at the front who still remained faithful to the autocracy,
was advancing on Petrograd with a regiment of picked men and he would
soon restore order. General Tsabel overheard this conversation. He
thereupon showed a telegram which he had just received from Petrograd
in which he was ordered to bring the czar's train direct to the city
instead of to Tsarskoe Selo.
"How dare they give such orders!" demanded Nicholas.
"This order," replied General Tsabel, "is backed by sixty thousand
officers and soldiers, who have gone over to the revolutionists."
Nicholas was now finally impressed by actual fact.
"Very well," he said, suddenly, "if it must be so, it must. I will go
to my estate in Livadia and spend the rest of my days among my
flowers."
But even that was not a final decision. On approaching Petrograd and
Tsarskoe Selo the news came through that the garrison at the latter
place had gone over to the revolutionists. The czar now insisted that
he would go to Moscow, which he believed still remained loyal. But
presently there came a telegram announcing that the Moscow garrison
had also revolted.
All day the train rolled back and forth from point to point, with no
destination in view, the czar and his suite hoping to find some break
in the wall about them. At Dno General Ivanov joined the party and
advised the czar to go to the army. It was later said that he and
General Voyeykov suggested that the Russian lines be thrown open at
Minsk and the Germans be allowed to come in to suppress the
revolution. To his credit be it said, however, that Nicholas refused
to consider this last resort.
He next went to Pskov, the headquarters of General Russky, in command
of the army nearest to Petrograd, hoping to persuade that commander to
send a large enough force to Petrograd to suppress the revolution. At
8 o'clock in the evening he arrived. But Russky, together with all the
other army leaders, including the Grand Duke Nicholas, who had
conferred together by means of telegrams, had decided to support the
Duma.
At 2 o'clock next morning, on the 15th, the czar met Russky. The
latter explained to him his position, and then called up Rodzianko by
telephone. Rodzianko told Russky that the Duma and the Council of
Workingmen's and Soldiers' Deputies had mutually agreed that the czar
must abdicate and two deputies--Gutchkov, the War Minister, and
Shulgin--were on their way to demand a document to this effect from
Nicholas. Before seeing the czar again Russky communicated with all
the commanders and explained the new situation, namely, that the czar
must be eliminated entirely. All replied immediately that they agreed
to this as the best course. Then Russky went to the czar again and
told him there was no other way open to him, he must vacate his
throne. The czar agreed and went to his private apartment on the train
to prepare the document.
At 8 o'clock that evening the two deputies from the Provisional
Government arrived and were taken directly to the czar. They
immediately explained to the fallen monarch the full details of the
situation in Petrograd. The one incident that seemed to make an
impression on him was the defection of his own body guard.
"What shall I do, then?" demanded Nicholas finally.
"Abdicate," replied Gutchkov briefly.
It will be remembered that the Provisional Government had decided that
it would demand of the czar that he abdicate in favor of his son and
of his brother, the Grand Duke Michael, as regent.
"I have already signed my abdication," said Nicholas, "but on account
of his health I have decided that I cannot part with my son. Therefore
I wish to abdicate in favor of Michael."
The two deputies asked leave to consult together for a few minutes
over this change. Finally they agreed to this form of abdication. The
czar then withdrew and presently returned with the document. The two
deputies read it through, approved it, shook hands with Nicholas
Romanoff, no longer czar, and returned to Petrograd.
Still unrestrained in regard to his freedom of action, Nicholas went
to Moghiliev, the general headquarters, to bid his staff farewell, but
his reception there was cool at least; nobody took the slightest
notice of him, no more than if he had been some minor subaltern
officer. Then his mother, the Dowager Empress Marie, appeared and in
the evening he dined with her in her private car.
Meanwhile public opinion in Petrograd had begun to make itself
strongly felt in regard to the outward form of the future Russian
Government. Many organizations passed resolutions and street
demonstrations took place, all protesting against a monarchical form
of government. Before the Provisional Government needed to take any
special action in response to this expression of popular sentiment,
Grand Duke Michael, the new czar, hastened to abdicate in his turn.
Favoring the principle of democracy, he added, he was not willing to
assume the responsibilities of such a high office without the formal
assent of the Russian people expressed by an election "based on the
principle of universal, direct, equal, and secret suffrage." Finally,
he urged the people to give their loyal support to the Provisional
Government, until such a time as an election could be held.
Czar Nicholas abdicated on March 15, 1917. His brother, Czar Michael,
abdicated within twenty-four hours.
CHAPTER LXXXIII
FIRST ACTS OF THE NEW REGIME
The Provisional Government then made no further steps toward filling
the vacant throne and Russia remained a republic.
Then on the following day came a telegram from General Alexiev,
stating that the people of Moghiliev were growing impatient over the
freedom allowed ex-Czar Nicholas and requested the Provisional
Government to have him removed from headquarters. Alexiev did not wish
him wandering about headquarters.
Four deputies were dispatched to Moghiliev to arrest the ex-emperor.
The four were received with a popular demonstration of enthusiasm,
which contrasted sharply with the coldness with which Nicholas had
been received. Nicholas was in his mother's train when the four
deputies arrived. He immediately emerged, crossed the platform and
stood before the four representatives of the new republic like a
school child about to be punished; with one hand he came to a salute,
recognizing their authority; with the other he twirled his mustache.
He was shown his carriage and quietly placed under guard. The deputies
took places in another carriage, and then the train steamed out of the
station with Nicholas a prisoner. Arriving at the palace at Tsarskoe
Selo, Nicholas was taken over by the commandant and marched through
the gates of his old residence. And so he disappeared completely from
Russian public life.
Meanwhile the czarina had also been arrested and confined to her suite
of rooms in the palace. All the telephone and telegraph wires were
cut. Most of the palace servants were dismissed and all the doors
except three were locked and barred. A battalion of soldiers now
mounted guard over him who had made more political prisoners than any
other man in the world.
Now began the troubled career of the new Russian republic. The Council
of Workingmen and Soldiers, under whose direct supervision the
fighting forces of the old regime had been overcome and the revolution
organized, and which represented just those elements which the Duma
did not represent on account of the restrictive election laws, felt
its right to exist beside the Duma, possessing at least an equal
authority. Thus the new governing forces started under very peculiar
conditions, with a double head. The Council immediately issued a
proclamation inviting the communities all over Russia to elect local
councils, which might send their delegates to Petrograd to associate
themselves with the deputies elected by the workingmen and soldiers of
the capital.
Another of the first acts of the Provisional Government was to order
the liberation of all the political prisoners of the old regime,
especially those in Siberia, and to invite all exiles abroad to return
home. The return of some of these political exiles roused quite as
much enthusiasm and popular demonstration as had the overthrow of the
autocracy itself. The progress of Catherine Breshkovskaya, the
"grandmother of the Russian revolution," from Siberia to Petrograd was
almost like the progress of a conquering general. She had been one of
the original Nihilists in the seventies and since then had spent most
of her life in Siberia. All Petrograd turned out to welcome the
popular heroine, now a feeble old woman, and she was officially
received at the railroad station by Kerensky and other members of the
Government in the old Imperial waiting rooms, where formerly only
members of the Imperial family had been permitted to enter. Outside in
the streets surged crowds of fur-capped people as far as the eye could
reach, waving red banners and revolutionary emblems. Now and again a
roar of voices chanting the Marseillaise would sweep back and forth
over the throngs. Within the station the walls were banked with
flowers and festooned with red bunting and inscriptions addressed to
the returning heroine. However, this incident occurred later, already
a great deal had been accomplished.
The emancipation of the Jews had been one of first acts of the new
cabinet. All restrictions were removed and the Jews were recognized as
Russian citizens, and as such to be distinguished from all other
citizens in no way. Then the constitution of Finland was restored and
its full autonomy recognized. The same recognition was granted all the
other minor nationalities. Next the death penalty was abolished, and
finally the Provisional Government declared itself in favor of the
equal suffrage of women with men, a principle which is innate in the
revolutionary movement of Russia, to which as many women as men have
sacrificed themselves. The vast possessions of the ex-czar and most of
his munificent income were confiscated. At the same time the grand
dukes and other members of the Imperial family voluntarily gave up
their landed possessions and at the same time expressed their loyalty
to the new order.
CHAPTER LXXXIV
SOCIALISM SUPREME
Within the church the same overturning of old authorities took place.
The new procurator caused to be thrown out the gilded emblems of the
autocracy, and priests known to be in sympathy with the revolution
were elevated to the offices vacated by the reactionaries. Most of the
vast landed estates of the church were confiscated, and the church was
relegated to a position in which it could no longer interfere in
matters of state. Probably a majority of the radicals would have liked
to abolish the church altogether, but even they must have realized
that the great body of Russia's population, the peasantry, had not yet
arrived at this state of mind, corrupt though they knew the
institution to be.
For some weeks while these reforms, in which the vast majority of the
people believed, were being promulgated the most enthusiastic harmony
prevailed between the two elements constituting the Provisional
Government. But those realizing the wide gulf lying between these two
elements, the constitutionalists and the revolutionary radicals, were
every day expecting the inevitable dissensions to arise. Eventually
they came. They would have come much sooner had it not been for the
fact that the nation was at war.
The friction which presently began between the two contrasting
elements sharing the power of government has undoubtedly been much
magnified and distorted by the press in Great Britain and this
country, not through malicious intent, but through ignorance of the
aims of one of these elements and of Russian character. The two
elements in question are, of course, found in all countries, and the
dissensions in Petrograd probably caused more bitterness in other
countries between these opposing elements than existed in Russia
itself. The conservative press of England and America exaggerated to
absurdity the program and aims of the radical forces in Russia, while
the Socialist press of these same countries was equally unreliable in
its partisanship, and would have had its readers believe Prince Lvov
and Milukov hardly any improvement on Protopopoff, a view in which it
would not have been supported by the most radical Russians. For the
true story of this period we must wait yet a while until dispassionate
witnesses have had time to present their experiences and observations
in permanent form.
Nevertheless, there seems to be no doubt that the wine of freedom did
rise to the heads of the ultraradicals, and the Russian radical's
ideas often do approach the borders of absurdity. Having obtained
democracy in civil life, the extremists among the deputies of the
Workingmen's and Soldier's Council wished to extend it in full to the
army. Though this army was face to face with the best organized
military machine in the world, they demanded the resignation of all
the officers, that their places might be filled by the votes of the
common soldiers. This rank absurdity the commanders on the front
naturally resisted, and it was not allowed to come into practice, but
the spirit behind the suggestion did begin to permeate the ignorant,
peasants of the rank and file and caused endless demoralization.
Animated by the same spirit, many of the workingmen in the factories
supplying the army grew restless under the discipline of work and
struck for impossible wages. They had always thought that under a
Socialist system they would have little work and plenty to eat. Now
the social revolution had been accomplished, and these improvements
did not materialize. If more disorder and fighting were needed to
bring them about, they would supply these deficiencies.
What added to this spirit was the arrival in Russia, early in April,
1917, of the extreme radical Socialist, Lenine. He is generally
credited in this country with being an agent of Germany, but men of
his type are not easily subsidized, nor would it have been necessary
for the Germans to do so. Utterly idealistic, a wild fanatic,
unpractical to the point of being unbalanced, he represented that wing
of radicalism which lives in Utopias and will give no consideration to
things as they are. They preach the doctrine of the brotherhood of man
with the same bitterness that many religious sects preach the
salvation of the soul. Lenine began his propaganda, together with
thirty or more of his followers who arrived with him. They preached
an immediate separate peace with Germany and Austria; it was not to
the interest of the Russian working classes to fight the Teuton
working classes when both were slaves under the same masters, the
capitalists of the world. Let the Germans fight their capitalists and
the Russians theirs. And even if the Germans did conquer Russia, what
did it matter? They would not prove any worse masters than the Russian
capitalists. All the working classes of the world should unite and
attack the capitalists simultaneously, etc. Undoubtedly Lenine made
some impression on the more ignorant workingmen of Petrograd and
soldiers of the army, but his significance has been much overestimated
in this country. In Russia his influence corresponds somewhat to the
influence of Emma Goldman in this country: their followers are more
noisy than numerous.
CHAPTER LXXXV
POLICIES PROCLAIMED
The first important cause for dissension between the Council of
Workingmen's and Soldiers' Deputies and the Provisional Government
occurred on April 7, 1917, when Professor Milukov, speaking as
Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that the occupation of
Constantinople and the Dardanelles was essential to the economic
prosperity of Russia. Either he underestimated the strength of the
Socialist elements, or he did not understand their point of view, for
here he proclaimed a principle to which even the mildest Socialist
would be opposed: the holding of territory occupied by people of one
nationality by a nation whose people are of another nationality.
There was a rising storm of protest, in which even Kerensky joined
against his associate in the ministry. The result was that the
Provisional Government was compelled to issue the famous statement of
its aims in the war, in which it renounced all indemnities and the
desire to conquer any foreign territories, at the same time
enunciating the rights of all small nationalities to decide their own
separate destinies. President Wilson had expressed a very similar
formula before the entrance of the United States into the war in the
words "peace without victory." Unfortunately this general statement of
Socialistic principle lacked the detail necessary to make it
applicable to the war situation; nor have the radical forces ever been
unanimous enough in their opinions since then to supply these details.
There remained, and there still remains, the question as to whether
liberating Alsace and Lorraine from the Germans would be the conquest
of foreign territory, or whether reparation on the part of Germany for
the damage done in Belgium would constitute an indemnity. Must the
Armenians remain forever under Turkey, or must armed force be employed
to take Armenia away from Turkey, that the Armenians might settle
their own destiny? Either course might be interpreted as against or in
accordance with the principle enunciated.
Nevertheless, this manifesto had a powerful influence in the Allied
countries, and the justice of the principles in question have been,
broadly speaking, generally recognized.
The Germans made the most of the proclamation and suggested a separate
peace through countless agencies, in which Russia should not lose any
territory inhabited by Russians and need not pay any indemnities. At
this bait the Leninites and dupes of the numerous agitators in German
pay, which undoubtedly began infesting Petrograd, bit readily. But
here the Provisional Government responded by a clever stroke of
diplomacy, and in this it had the support of the council; if the
German and Austrian Socialists were really in sympathy with the
Russian ideals of democracy and wished to make peace with them, let
them then also overturn their autocracies. If they would do this, then
they might expect peace with Russia and undoubtedly with the other
Allies, for France, Great Britain, and the United States had each
declared that it was fighting the Teutonic autocracies and not the
people they ruled.
The German Socialist is entirely a different type from the Russian
Socialist. He believes in iron discipline. He believes in strong
centralization. The German autocracy in many of its features
approaches something not far from the ideal of the German Socialist,
especially in its care of the working classes through state insurance,
workingmen's compensation legislation, and its many state and
municipal enterprises. In this lies the strength of the German
autocracy; with all its imperialistic features, it has cared for the
welfare of the working classes.
The German Socialists did not respond to this appeal. And from that
moment all danger of a separate peace between the Russian democracy
and Germany was past, if danger it may be called. The real danger to
the cause of the Allies and to Russia itself was the internal danger,
the disorganization in army discipline which the radicalism of the
revolution naturally spread among the soldiers, augmented, as it was,
by every power and agency which the enemy could bring to bear.
In the second week of April, 1917, a convention or congress of the
Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council was held, all parts of Russia being
represented. By a vote of 325 against 57 the continuance of the war
was declared necessary. The council also issued various appeals to the
soldiers, both in Petrograd and at the front, asking their support of
the Provisional Government, which seemed at least to indicate that
there were radical influences at work even too advanced for the
council.
In Petrograd General Kornilov, the famous Cossack commander, who had
once been a prisoner of the Austrians and had escaped, and who had
personally placed the czarina under arrest, was placed in command of
the Petrograd garrison. His task was especially difficult, as his men
were in closer contact with the demoralizing influences of the radical
debating clubs of the capital.
The Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council probably had no deliberate
intention of undermining the military discipline necessary to maintain
the efficiency of a body of troops, but it could not entirely give up
its idea of "democratizing the army." The result of these efforts, as
the members of the council themselves admitted, went far beyond
anything they had intended. On the 1st of May a number of political
demonstrations on the part of the soldiers took place in Petrograd.
Socialistic in nature, some of them directed against policies of the
Provisional Government. The council immediately disclaimed all
responsibility for the demonstrations and appealed to the soldiers to
remain in their barracks.
This disintegration in army organization nevertheless made continual
progress during the early part of May, 1917, and was fast
precipitating a crisis. The fact was that the Provisional Government,
though nominally at the head of affairs, had no material power behind
it. This power, the army, was organized in the council and was
self-conscious. Naturally it could not resist the temptation of
attempting to exercise its judgment, though it realized that it was
not fitted to assume the entire responsibility of government. It felt,
too, a right to assert itself because the Duma, on account of the
restrictive election laws which had created it years before during the
old regime did not represent those classes to which the soldiers
belonged.
The members of the Provisional Government did not deny the justice of
this claim, and early in May, 1917, they suggested as a remedy that
the cabinet be reorganized and the radical elements be given fuller
representation. But here again the council was faced by the obstacle
in the Socialist principle that Socialist organizations must never
fuse with so-called capitalist organizations. The offer was refused.
CHAPTER LXXXVI
KERENSKY SAVES RUSSIA FROM HERSELF
On May 9, 1917, the situation was intensified when the council issued
an appeal to the working classes of the world to come together in a
general congress to discuss terms of peace. This meant naturally an
international Socialist conference. There was really no disloyalty
behind this move. The majority of the deputies no doubt considered it
a means of forcing the hands of the Socialists of the Central
Empires, perhaps to force them to overthrow their autocracies. The
idea was to formulate a peace program which would come close to
demanding universal democracy the world over and, by having the Teuton
Socialists subscribe to it, force them to bring pressure to bear on
their governments which might even develop into revolution. But this
was not understood abroad, and created much ill feeling.
On May 13, 1917, General Kornilov, commanding the Petrograd garrison,
gave up his efforts in despair and handed in his resignation, on
account of "the interference of certain organizations with the
discipline of his troops." Generals Gurko and Brussilov also sent in
their resignations, and a few days later Minister of War and Marine
Gutchkov, wishing to precipitate the impending crisis, also resigned.
Complete anarchy now threatened, for the council still insisted on its
right to guard the interests of democracy in the army as well as among
the civil population. It was then that Minister of Justice Kerensky
rose and saved the situation with an impassioned speech, in which he
declared that he wished he had died two months before when democracy
seemed such a promising dream. He then appealed to his associates in
the council, of which he was a vice president, to set aside their
Utopian fantasies for the time being and consider the needs of the
present. His oratory carried the day. The council agreed to a
coalition cabinet which should have full control of affairs.
After a joint session between the executive committee of the council
and the Duma committee, the new cabinet was formed on May 19, 1917.
Paul Milukov retired as Foreign Minister, for his nationalistic
utterances in regard to Constantinople had aroused against him all the
radicals. Prince Lvov remained as premier. Kerensky became Minister of
War. The Minister of Finance, Terestchenko, became Minister of Foreign
Affairs. Shingarev, a Social Revolutionist, became Minister of
Finance. Altogether the new cabinet included six radicals. Immediately
afterward the council passed a resolution of confidence in the new
government and urged all its constituents to support it. Kerensky
then stated that he would immediately leave for a tour of the front
for the purpose of exhorting the soldiers to submit to military
organization and that an iron discipline would be instituted. The
generals at the front now withdrew their resignations, which had not
been accepted, and returned to their posts.
During this period two important conventions were held in Petrograd; a
national congress of the Cossacks and a national congress of peasants.
The former declared itself for a strong offensive against the enemy
but passed no political resolutions other than to support the
Provisional Government. The peasants' congress did likewise and also
showed itself strongly Socialistic in its election of officers.
Lenine, however, who was one of the candidates, received only 11
votes, as against 810 polled by Tchernov, a Social Revolutionist, and
809 by Catherine Breshkovskaya, the "grandmother of the revolution."
During the month of June, 1917, the Provisional Government made
distinct progress, considering the almost insurmountable obstacles
inherent in such a situation as it had to face. From now on there was
very little friction between the cabinet and the council; they worked
together with comparative harmony. The fact that the radical elements
were now so well represented in the ministry probably was the chief
reason, but the personality of Kerensky was now beginning to rise as
the dominating figure of the new Russia. A fairly extreme radical
himself, with the confidence of his associates, he was also respected
by the more conservative elements on account of his sanity and
practical abilities. On June 1, 1917, A. I. Konovalov, Minister of
Commerce and Trade, resigned on account of friction with his
associates over what he considered the Government's interference with
private industries, but this incident passed quietly.
On this same date there occurred another incident which, on account of
its highly dramatic aspect, attracted wide attention in the press of
the Allied countries, and was therefore considered more significant
than it has since proved to be. The local council of the Workingmen's
and Soldiers' Council of Deputies in Kronstadt, the location of the
naval arsenal and the headquarters of the Baltic fleet, declared
Kronstadt an independent republic. The president of this council, a
young student by the name of Anatole Lamanov, was apparently an
anarchist of the extreme type; extreme in that he believed that
anarchist principles could be put into immediate practice, and he at
once issued a proclamation calling on all other communities in Russia
to declare their independence. His idea was that all the communities
should be knit together very loosely for specific purposes, such as
the war against the Germans, of which he was still heartily in favor.
Later dispatches, if true, would indicate that the real instigator of
this comic-opera scene was a woman, possibly in the pay of the German
Government, since she was the companion of Robert Grimm, a Swiss
Socialist, later expelled from Russia by the Socialists themselves on
account of pro-German activities.
With its usual tolerance the Provisional Government made no attempt to
suppress this act of secession by armed force. The council itself in
Petrograd, representing the whole country, immediately denounced the
Kronstadt proclamation, and sent two deputies to Kronstadt to reason
with Lamanov and his associates. The whole incident seemed to be
largely a matter of paper proclamations, since no violence on either
side ever occurred, and the Kronstadt situation finally faded from
public attention. Nevertheless it caused Kerensky to cut short his
tour of the various fronts and return to Petrograd two days later.
In the public speeches which he then made he spoke very encouragingly
of the situation on the firing lines, but two days later it was
announced that General Alexiev's resignation as commander in chief had
been accepted and that Brussilov had been appointed in his place.
On the 10th President Wilson issued his famous note, prepared in
response to the radical formula of the council, declaring for a peace
"without annexation and without indemnities." In spirit it was in
perfect accord with what the council had demanded: that no people
should be annexed against their will, that democracy should be the
guiding principle, etc. Certainly it was in accord with his previous
declaration made before the war; a "peace without oppressive
victories," a principle quite as radical as anything the Petrograd
radicals had ever formulated. There was then, and has been ever since,
every indication that the Provisional Government and the big majority
of the members of the council accepted this declaration as being in
harmony with their own sentiments. Nevertheless, it became the object
of a very noisy attack by those extreme elements known as the
Maximalists, best represented by Lenine and his type.
CHAPTER LXXXVII
THE AMERICAN COMMISSIONS
To the members of the German Government the Russian revolution
undoubtedly came as a great surprise, placing their faith, as they
did, in the efforts of Protopopoff and his machinations. It is
extremely unlikely that Petrograd was infested with German agents
disguised as radicals in the earlier days after the overthrow of the
autocracy. But by this time, in June, 1917, Germany had had time to
meet the new conditions, and obviously the German agents had arrived
and were busy.
The only fertile ground available was that occupied by the Leninites.
While the genuine Maximalists may have been, and in all probability
really were, unconscious of the spies in their midst, they accepted
the cooperation of the dark elements, and together they set to work to
create disorder. The Kronstadt affair was their initial success.
In the early days of June, 1917, armed bands of these disturbers began
parading the streets of the capital, haranguing the crowds. The
Provisional Government followed the policy of noninterference. One
party of the armed propagandists entered and took possession of a
large residential building in the Viborg section of the city and held
this position until late in July, 1917.
These activities culminated in an attempt on the part of the
Maximalist leaders to organize a giant demonstration in the streets
on June 23, 1917. Placards were posted all over the city denouncing
the war, calling upon the soldiers to refuse to fight for the
capitalist governments, etc.
The action taken by the Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council, itself so
often denounced as being under pro-German influence, and even in
German pay, by the press of the Allied countries, was extremely
significant. It immediately placarded the city with appeals to the
soldiers and workingmen to ignore the call of the Maximalists. All
that night until daybreak not only Kerensky himself, but N. C.
Tcheidze, the president of the council, and his associates, spent in
making the rounds of the barracks, addressing the soldiers, appealing
to them against participating in the demonstration. Their efforts were
a complete success; on the following day there was no demonstration.
And apparently in the last hour the Maximalist leaders themselves
realized that foreign influences were at work, for when their organ,
"Pravda," appeared, its front page was covered with an appeal to their
followers not to demonstrate.
On June 16, 1917, a convention of newly elected deputies to the
Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council, representing all Russia, convened
in Petrograd. One of its first acts was to pass a resolution of
approval of the Provisional Government's expulsion of Grimm, the Swiss
Socialist, who had attempted pro-German activities in the capital, the
vote being 640 against 121.
In the middle of the month the two American commissions, one under
Root and the other under Stevens, arrived in Russia, and it was
notable that the reported utterances of their members were sharply in
contrast to the press dispatches in their optimism. The conclusion
must be obvious that German influences were at work with our sources
of news. The Stevens Commission, whose mission was of a technical
nature, expressed surprise and pleasure over the progress which had
been made in straightening out the transportation tangle and the good
condition in which they found railroad facilities, the only handicaps
being lack of locomotives and rolling stock.
Meanwhile, during June, 1917, a special council of sixty members was
at work drafting new legislation for the civil government of the
country. One law prepared by this body, as an illustration, was making
the judges of petty courts subject to the election of the people on
the American principle. This council was also intrusted with the task
of formulating the groundwork for the new constitution for the Russian
democracy, to be approved by the General Assembly when elected.
During the first half of July, 1917, the sudden offensive of the
Russian armies, so brilliantly begun, seemed to engross every element
of Russian society. Kerensky himself had gone to the front and was
said to be leading the advancing troops himself. But even his magnetic
personality and stupendous vitality proved insufficient to accomplish
a task evidently begun too prematurely.
On July 15, 1917, five members of the Provisional Government
resigned--Shingarev, Minister of Finance; Manuilov, of Education;
Nekrasov, of Ways and Communications; Prince Shakovsky, of Social
Welfare; and Acting Minister of Trade and Commerce, Steganov. Their
reasons for this action was their inability to agree with their
associates in the cabinet over the demands made just then by the
Ukraine elements in southern Russia, who wanted complete independence.
The dissenting ministers held that to grant such a demand would open
the way to similar action on the part of Finns, Ruthenians, Poles, and
other minor nationalities, which would mean the disintegration of
Russia.
On July 18, 1917, there was a sudden outburst of Maximalist activity,
the most violent which had yet occurred. A body of sailors from
Kronstadt appeared and, together with the Anarchists who had
previously made armed demonstrations, they began parading the streets.
A body of Cossacks, armed only with sabers, which was advancing up one
of the streets conveying some wagon loads of material was fired upon
and several Cossacks were killed. The cavalrymen retired, being unable
to return the fire. This first bloodshed roused the indignation of the
troops supporting the Provisional Government, and they at once set
about clearing the streets. Some severe fighting followed, in which a
number of men on both sides were killed and several hundreds were
wounded. The demonstrators were finally driven away and within
forty-eight hours order had been reestablished. On this occasion, as
before, the Council of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Deputies cooperated
with the members of the Government in making the rounds of the
barracks and the workingmen's quarters to quiet the soldiers and the
people. The disturbance on this occasion was obviously of traitorous
origin, as the leaflets which had been used in furthering the
disorders accused both the Provisional Government and the council of
planning a counter-revolution in favor of the autocracy.
The Provisional Government and the council now together appointed a
special commission for the purpose of keeping in touch with the
commandant of the Petrograd garrison and cooperate with him in
counteracting the efforts of the Maximalist agitators.
Of special significance is the fact that these disorders occurred
almost simultaneously with the mutinous behavior of the regiments at
the front, whose treachery at a critical moment broke the Russian
offensive. Another result of the disturbances was a more energetic
policy against the Anarchists. Troops were now detailed to dislodge
the armed bands of Anarchists who had been occupying several large
residences in the city. On seeing that the Government was in earnest
the Anarchists surrendered unconditionally.
On July 20, 1917, it was announced that Prince Lvov had resigned from
the premiership and that Kerensky had taken his place. Prince Lvov
gave as his reason for retiring his inability to agree with his
Socialist associates in their determination to declare Russia a
republic, since he believed that this decision was essentially the
right of the Constituent Assembly yet to be elected. The recent
disorders and the unfortunate situation at the front, however,
probably had much to do with the new ministerial crisis, for it was
also announced that Kerensky would be granted unlimited powers in
suppressing further disorders and an "iron discipline" in the army
would be instituted. At a joint conference held between the
Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council and the Executive Committee of the
Peasants' Congress, it was decided by a large majority to give the new
government, to be known as the "Government of National Safety,"
absolute support.
On the following day Kerensky announced that sterner measures would
immediately be taken: the death penalty would be reestablished, both
in civil life and in the army. Deserters and traitors would be shot.
Though the radical elements were behind the change in the government
personnel, the new cabinet was not by any means a Socialist body. Five
non-Socialists still remained: Nekrasov, Vice Minister President,
without portfolio; Terestchenko, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Efremov,
Minister of Justice; Nicholas Lvov, Procurator of the Holy Synod; and
Godniev, Controller of State. The radicals were Kerensky, the Premier,
who also retained the War portfolio; Terestelli, Minister of Posts and
Telegraphs; Skobeliev, Minister of Education; Tchernov, Minister of
Agriculture; and Pieschiehonov, Minister of Supplies.
For some days there were reports that further changes were still to be
made, giving the Constitutional Democratic party more definite
representation in the cabinet, on condition that these representatives
would be free from party dictation. Milukov, the party chief, showed
himself very much opposed to this suggestion, as he was to the
granting of such absolute power to the Government. On the last day of
the month further changes had not been made. Already Russia's armies
on the front were stiffening up against the German onslaughts. For
this full credit was given to Kerensky. He stands now as the
dominating figure in Russia, with the eyes not only of all Russians,
but all the peoples of the Allied nations, turned on him as the man
most capable of guiding the Russian republic through the difficulties
lying before it. Beginning with only the confidence of the radical
elements, he has gradually acquired a similar confidence in his
abilities and integrity from the Russian conservatives and all the
peoples of the countries aligned with Russia against the common enemy.
PART X--EASTERN FRONT
CHAPTER LXXXVIII
THE END OF WINTER AT THE EASTERN FRONT
Various similar local enterprises were carried out on February 19,
1917. The Germans, about a battalion strong, attacked in close
formation in the region of Slaventine, northwest of Podgaste, but were
met by concentrated fire and forced to return to their own
intrenchments. In the Carpathians during a snowstorm a Russian
blockhouse south of Smotreo was successfully raided. The blockhouse
was blown up after the capture of its defenders. North of the Slanio
Valley, after driving away Russian forces and repulsing counterattacks
by outposts, Austro-German forces advanced their fighting position on
a ridge of heights.
East of Lipnicadolna, on the Narayuvka River (Galicia), the Russians
exploded a mine under some German trenches and occupied the crater.
The Germans, however, reconquered the position in a counterattack.
South of Brzezany a Russian attack, made after mine-throwing
preparations, was repulsed.
On February 22, 1917, near Smorgon, west of Lutsk and between the
Zlota Lipa and the Narayuvka, fighting with artillery and mine
throwing became more violent. Near Zvyzyn, east of Zlochoff, German
thrusting detachments entered a Russian position and after blowing up
four mine shafts returned with 250 prisoners, including three officers
and two machine guns. A successful reconnoitering advance was made
southeast of Brzezany by another German detachment.
Similar enterprises, frequently accompanied by increased artillery
activity, were carried out in various parts of the front toward the
middle of March, 1917. Thus on March 12, 1917, north of the
Zlochoff-Tarnopol railroad, German reconnoitering detachments made an
attack during which three Russian officers, 320 men, and thirteen
machine guns were captured. Advances into the Russian lines near
Brzezany and on the Narayuvka also brought gains in prisoners and
booty.
Again on March 14, 1917, near Vitoniez, on the Stokhod, and near
Yamnica, south of the Dniester, enterprises of German thrusting
detachments were carried out with success. More than 100 prisoners and
several machine guns and mine throwers were brought back from the
Russian positions.
In the meantime there had occurred one of the most momentous events of
the war. The great Russian nation had risen in a comparatively
bloodless revolution against its former masters, the autocratic
government headed by Czar Nicholas. Though these events took place
March 8-11, 1917, news of them did not get to the outside world until
March 16, 1917. By then the czar had abdicated both for himself and
for his son. He, as well as his immediate family, had been made
prisoners. A new democratic though temporary government had been set
up by the guiding spirits who had directed the upheaval.
Of course, the Germans and Austrians were not slow in taking advantage
of these new conditions. Fortunately for Russia the spring thaw was
beginning to set in and made really extensive operations impossible
for the time being.
The last week of March, 1917, however, saw some determined attempts
on the part of the Germans to take as great an advantage of the
Russian disorganization as circumstances permitted.
On March 21, 1917, in the direction of Lida, on the river Beresina, in
the region of the villages of Saberezyna and Potaschnia, German
thrusting detachments after a bombardment of long duration attacked
Russian positions and occupied them. By a counterattack they were
driven out of Potaschnia. The other part of the positions remained in
their hands.
Northwest of Brody (Galicia) after artillery preparation the Germans
attacked Russian positions in the region of Baldur. After a stubborn
battle they were driven back to their trenches.
The Russian forces were still active in some sections. On March 23,
1917, Russian reconnoitering detachments, advancing after artillery
preparation near Smorgon and Baranovitchy and on the Stokhod, were
driven away by the Germans; however, severe fire by artillery and mine
throwers preceded attacks, in which Austro-German troops south of the
Trotus Valley in the Carpathians near the Rumanian frontier took by
storm and in hand-to-hand fighting Russian positions on the frontier
ridge between the Sueta and Csobonyos valleys and brought in 500
prisoners. A Russian advance north of Magyaros that followed soon
after failed.
On March 26, 1917, the Germans again registered a success. Southeast
of Baranovitchy an energetically carried out attack was successful.
Russian positions situated on the west bank of the Shara between
Darovo and Labuzy were taken by storm and in hand-to-hand fighting.
More than 300 Russians were made prisoner and four machine guns and
seven mine throwers captured. West of Lutsk and north of the railroad
from Zlochoff to Tarnopol and near Brzezany, Russian battalions
attacked after violent artillery fire. They were repulsed with heavy
losses.
Considerable fighting occurred during the following night and day,
March 27, 1917. This, in spite of the fact that the spring thaw was
officially announced to have set in. On the night of March 26-27,
1917, after artillery preparation the Germans attacked in the region
of Boguchy, northeast of Krevo, and occupied some Russian trenches.
Immediate counterattacks restored the situation. On the Stokhod River,
in the region of Borovo, the Russians delivered a mass attack. East of
Brzezany (Galicia), following a mine explosion, Russian patrols raided
German trenches and took twenty men prisoners. A German armored train
bombarded Russian positions east of Korosmezo. During a raid on the
northeast slope of Coman, in the wooded Carpathians, German raiding
detachments worked their way into a Russian position, blew up several
dugouts and returned with some prisoners and booty. A Russian attack
on Magyaros failed. South of the Uzul Valley, near the Rumanian
frontier, a strongly intrenched ridge was taken by storm and in
hand-to-hand fighting by German troops, who maintained it against
repeated counterattacks. One hundred prisoners and some machine guns
and mine throwers remained in German hands.
CHAPTER LXXXIX
EFFECTS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
By this time, however, the disorganization of the Russian forces which
had resulted from the revolution made itself everywhere felt to a much
greater extent. The Germans apparently were either taken by surprise
by the suddenness of the revolution or else decided to wait for some
time before undertaking any important operations and to determine
first to what extent the revolution and change of government would
affect the Russian armies. Another factor in the delay of the German
attack which everyone expected almost as soon as news of the Russian
revolution became known was the successful battles which had been
fought by the British and French forces at the western front.
On April 3, 1917, however, signs began to multiply, indicating that
the Germans had decided to begin more extensive operations. On that
day they opened a heavy artillery fire against Russian munition depots
on the left bank of the river Stokhod, in the region of the
Stchervitche-Helenin station, and on the river passages. The fire was
delivered partly with chemical shells. Simultaneously the Germans
discharged thirteen gas waves from the Helenin-Borovno sector.
Under cover of the artillery fire the Germans took the offensive on
the Toboly-Helenin front and pressed back the Russian troops. Part of
the Germans succeeded in crossing the Stokhod in the region northeast
of Helenin. The Russian left flank detachments, which were defending
the munition dumps, found themselves in a serious position owing to
the pressure of the Germans and were forced to cross to the right bank
of the Stokhod. Some of the Russian detachments suffered heavy losses.
After strongly bombarding Russian positions south of Illukst the
Germans, attacked and occupied field posts and trenches in the region
south of the Poniewesch railway line, but were expelled and driven
back by a Russian counterattack.
During the same night the Germans also directed a violent fire with
artillery and mine throwers against Russian trenches in the region of
the village of Novoselki, south of Krevo. At daybreak a German column
in strength of about a company forced its way into first-line trenches
near Novoselki, but as the outcome of a counterattack by Russian
scouts was dislodged and driven back.
Russian raiding troops attacked the Austrians as they were attempting
to fortify positions in the region six miles west of Rafailova. Having
penetrated the barbed-wire entanglements the Russian troops occupied
three rows of trenches and bayoneted the Austrians. On the remainder
of the front rifle firing and reconnoitering operations occurred.
The German success on the Stokhod, according to German reports,
developed almost into a rout. It was claimed that almost 10,000 men
and officers and fifteen guns and 150 machine guns and mine throwers
fell into the hands of the Germans.
On April 5, 1917, after heavy artillery preparation, partly with
shells charged with chemicals, the Germans took the offensive and
occupied part of the Russian trenches to the east of Plakanen,
thirteen miles south of Riga. They were driven out as the result of a
Russian counterattack.
On the following day, April 6, 1917, a number of local engagements
were reported. North of Brzezany, in the region of Angostoveka and
Koniuchy, after artillery preparation, the Germans attacked Russian
positions, but were repulsed. Southwest of Brzezany, in the region of
Lipnica Dolna, the Russians exploded a mine, destroying some German
trenches which the patrols immediately captured. The Russians repulsed
all counterattacks at this point and also took prisoners. In the same
region they attacked with gas. West of the town of Tomnatik strong
German detachments, supported by the fire of artillery, bomb throwers
and mine throwers, entered Russian trenches, but were immediately
ejected by counterattacks.
Again on April 7 and 8, 1917, the Germans on the Galician front made
minor attacks in the Carpathians, in the region west of Dzemdron, in
the direction of Marmaroch and Siguet and to the west of the town of
Tomnatik. All of these were repulsed, however.
Similar unimportant activities occupied the next few weeks. In the
meantime the disorganization of the Russian forces apparently
continued to increase. The Germans, however, apparently had decided by
this time not to attempt to make any military use of this condition,
but to improve the opportunity to come to an understanding with the
Russians. Almost daily reports appeared from various sources
indicating that a certain amount of fraternizing was going on in many
places on the eastern front. Though these reports varied very much, it
became quite clear that generally speaking the Russian lines still
held. In some places, undoubtedly, Russian detachments of varying size
laid down their arms and refused to continue to fight. There were even
isolated reports of some military groups having entered into peace
negotiations with their opponents. It is almost impossible to sift the
truth from these reports. It appears, however, that for some weeks a
more or less unofficial truce had been established almost everywhere
on the eastern front. The majority of the Russian soldiers at that
time undoubtedly were strongly in favor of immediate cessation of
hostilities. The Germans, on the other hand, seemed to be acting under
orders to treat their opponents with a minimum of severity and to
await further political developments before undertaking any important
military operations.
The Russians, though of course glad enough to notice this cessation of
military activity, apparently were frequently not willing to let the
enemy get too close to their lines, even though he pretended to come
with friendly intentions. The official Russian report occasionally
indicates this, as for instance that for April 15, 1917, which says
that "attempts to approach Russian positions at various sectors of our
front by small enemy groups, the members of which carried flags in
their hands, were discovered. These groups, on coming under our fire,
returned rapidly to their trenches."
Only very rarely, however, did the Russians attempt any offensive
movements during this period. On April 16, 1917, they made a gas
attack in the region of Konkary, but were met by strong machine-gun
fire. On the next day, April 17, 1917, the Germans started a slight
diversion of a similar nature north of Zboroff in Galicia.
At that reports began to appear concerning the massing of troops by
the Germans in the northern sector of the line, indicating an attempt
to take Riga and possibly to march against Petrograd.
Throughout May, 1917, the disorganization of the Russian army
continued. In the early part of the month the Council of Workingmen's
and Soldiers' became more and more radical in its demands, both as to
the share it was to have in the control of the army and as to the
disciplinary measures under which soldiers were to live. So serious
became the crisis that Minister of War General Gutchkov, as well as
Generals Kornilov, Brussilov, and Gurko resigned their commands. A. F.
Kerensky, then Minister of Justice, assumed the War portfolio, and it
was primarily due to his sagacity that the government and the council
finally agreed on May 16, 1917, on a basic program including the
continuation of the war.
While these serious events were happening at Petrograd nothing of any
importance occurred at the front. The Germans still were playing their
waiting game and, according to reports, were exerting all their
influence toward a separate peace with Russia, both in Petrograd and
at the front.
Military operations during May, 1917, were practically negligible.
Here and there skirmishes would occur between outposts and other small
detachments, and occasionally artillery duels would be fought for
short periods. Only a few times throughout the entire month were the
engagements important enough to be mentioned specifically in the
official reports. Thus on May 6, 1917, in the region of the village of
Potchne, on the Beresina River (western front), Russian artillery
dispersed a German attempt to approach the Russian trenches. In the
direction of Vladimir Volynski, south of Zubilno, after an intense
fire with grenades and bombs, a German company left their trenches and
began to attack the Russian trenches with hand grenades. Russian
artillery drove them back to their own trenches. On the
Kabarovce-Zboroff front the Germans carried out an intense
bombardment.
Again on May 8, 1917, German artillery was active in the direction of
Vilna, in the Smorgon and Krevo sectors, in the direction of Vladimir
Volynski, and in the Zatorchy-Helvov sector. In the region of Zwyjene,
to the east of Zlochoff, the Germans exploded two mines which damaged
Russian trenches. Northeast of Brzezany Russian artillery caused
explosions among the German batteries. "Elsewhere on the front there
were the usual fusillades and scouting operations," continued the
Russian official report.
CHAPTER XC
THE BEGINNING OF RUSSIAN REHABILITATION
The beginning of June, 1917, saw the first signs of a decided change
in Russian military conditions. It became clear that those political
forces at Petrograd who were demanding a separate peace and an
immediate cessation of hostilities were losing ground. Strong as the
cry of the soldiers was for peace and sincere as their belief had been
that the revolution had freed them not only from czarism and all that
went with it, but also from the awful business of killing and maiming
in which they had been engaged for almost three years, it gradually
dawned on them that this was not yet time.
As early as June 1, 1917, reports came of increased firing at many
points of the eastern front. A few days later, however, it again
seemed as if Russia's military establishment was near to complete
collapse. General Alexiev, appointed commander in chief of all the
Russian armies as recently as April 15, 1917, resigned. He had been
forced out as a result of the opposition on the part of the Council of
Workingmen's and Soldiers' Deputies to his frankly pronounced belief
that adherence to most prerevolution conditions in the army was
essential if the army's discipline and effectiveness were to be
retained. General Brussilov, then commanding on the southeastern
front, was made commander in chief. Though this quick change in the
supreme command necessarily was for discipline, it augured well in all
other respects for a reconstruction of the Russian armies. The new
supreme commander was known to be an efficient general, a keen
fighter, and a sincere adherent of the Allied cause. His own command
at the southeastern front was assumed by General Gurko.
On June 20, 1917, it was announced that the Congress of Soldiers' and
Workingmen's Delegates from the whole of Russia which was then in
session in Petrograd had voted confidence in the Provisional
Government and unanimously passed a resolution demanding an immediate
resumption of the offensive and the reorganization of the army. It was
also reported that a war cabinet was formed including the leaders of
the Russian army and navy and technical representatives.
On the same day it was reported that near Lutsk (Kovel region), on
the Zlota Lipa, and Narayuvka (Lemberg region) and south of the
Dniester the artillery of both sides was more active than it had been
before. Russian raiding detachments, however, were driven off at
several points by the Germans.
Again on June 21, 1917, in some sectors of the Galician and Volhynian
fronts Russian artillery activity increased, heavy guns cooperating.
Aerial activity was also livelier.
The first signs of a possible Russian drive against Lemberg and Kovel
became evident on June 22, 1917. On the mountain front and in Volhynia
Russian artillery fire was revived. The Russian artillery's continuous
bombardment of the region south of Brzezany (Galicia) was
energetically returned by Austrian batteries. Increased fighting
activity also prevailed, especially between the Lemberg-Tarnopol
railway (Galicia) and the Dniester, a front of about forty miles.
Additional proof of the revival of the Russian fighting spirit was
furnished by the detailed report of a small engagement on the historic
Stokhod River. The Russian statement described how, near the village
of Pozog (Volhynia), Russian scouts prepared an ambush, and,
surrounding the approaching Germans, showered hand grenades on them.
In the bayonet fighting that followed some Germans were killed. Owing
to the approach of German reenforcements, however, the Russian scouts
were forced to return to their own trenches.
On the rest of the front fusillades became more intense in the region
of Krevo.
Apparently all thoughts of fraternizing with the enemy had left by
that time the minds of the Russian soldiers. This was shown by the two
occurrences reported on June 23, 1917. In Galicia, in the region of
Grabkovce, an Austrian scouting party attempted to gain information of
a Russian position, but was dispersed by a Russian company.
In the region of Presovce an Austrian company surrounded a Russian
scouting party. The commander of the party assembled his men and by
means of bayonet fighting and the use of hand grenades succeeded in
breaking through and returning to their trenches without losing a
single man.
June 24, 1917, brought very lively artillery activity at many
points in the eastern theater. In the Narayuvka-Zboroff sector the
Russian fire appreciably increased and continued with systematic
regularity. In the Carpathians north of Kirlibaba fighting also
increased in strength and frequency.
[Illustration: When revolutionary Russia seemed likely to revert to
chaotic conditions, A. F. Kerensky, the Minister of War, rallied the
armies. He succeeded Prince Lvoff as Premier.]
The following day, June 25, 1917, the Austro-Germans apparently
decided to follow the Russian lead and renew military operations to a
considerable extent. In the direction of Zlochoff and in the region of
Perpelniki (Galicia) a strong Austro-German party, supported by
artillery, endeavored to approach the Russian trenches, but was
repulsed by rifle fire. South of Brzezany, in the region of the
village of Svistelniki, on the Narayuvka, German infantry forced their
way into Russian trenches, but a counterattack compelled them to
retire. The German heavy artillery conducted an intense fire in the
region of Potuary, Ribney, and Kotov.
On June 26, 1917, south of the Lemberg-Tarnopol railway line and on
the Narayuvka the artillery and mine-throwing fire was lively. On the
Zlota Lipa more German forces made some Russian prisoners as the
result of a successful reconnoitering advance.
On the last day of June, 1917, came at last news of renewed fighting
on the part of the Russians on a larger scale. After a destructive
fire lasting all day against Austro-German positions on the upper
Stripa as far as the Narayuvka River there followed in the afternoon
powerful attacks by the Russian infantry on a front of about eighteen
and a half miles. The storming troops, who suffered heavy losses, were
compelled everywhere to retire by the defensive fire of the
Austro-Germans.
On the same day, after several days of violent fire from the heaviest
guns, the Russians in the afternoon commenced an infantry attack south
and southeast of Brzezany and near Koniuchy. Strong fire from Austrian
batteries stopped this attack and inflicted heavy losses on the
Russians. Another very strong attack, started late in the afternoon
west of Zalocz, broke down under artillery fire. Toward midnight the
Russians, without artillery preparation, endeavored to advance south
of Brzezany. They were repulsed. During the night the artillery fire
declined, but it revved the next morning. The artillery duel extended
northward as far as the middle Stokhod and south as far as Stanislau.
Then came on July 1, 1917, the news that the Russians had successfully
attacked in force on a front about thirty-five miles wide to the west
of Lemberg. Not until then did it become known that Prime Minister
Kerensky, the guiding spirit of the Provisional Government, had been
at the front for four days and had by his fiery eloquence stirred up
the Russian armies to such an extent that all talk of peace and all
thought of sedition disappeared for the time being. Press reports
stated that Kerensky having told the soldiers that if they would not
attack he would march toward the enemy's trenches alone, was embraced
and kissed by soldiers.
The Russian attacks were made at various points. In the direction of
Kovel (Volhynia), in the region of Rudkasitovichskaya, Russian scouts
under command of four officers, after destroying the wire
entanglements by mines, penetrated the Austrian trenches, killed some
of the occupants, and captured a number of prisoners. According to the
testimony of prisoners, the Austrians knew of the attack from two
deserters. In the direction of Zloczow, after two days' artillery
preparation, Russian troops attacked the Austro-German positions on
the Koniuchy-Byshki front. After a severe engagement they occupied
three lines of trenches and the fortified village of Koniuchy and
advanced to the Koniuchy stream, to the south of the village of the
same name.
Farther south, southeast of Brzezany, after artillery preparation,
Russian troops attacked the strongly fortified positions of the
Germans and after stubborn fighting occupied them at places. Germans
and Turks made counterattacks, and formidable positions changed hands
constantly. Along the Stokhod and on the Dniester the lively artillery
activity of the Russians continued. As a result of these attacks the
Russians claimed to have captured 164 officers, 8,400 men, and seven
guns. On the other hand, the Germans claimed that sixteen Russian
divisions constantly employing fresh troops assaulted their positions,
which were completely maintained or recaptured by counter attacks by
Saxon, Rhineland, and Ottoman divisions. The Russian losses surpassed
any hitherto known. Some units were said to have been entirely
dispersed. The Germans apparently considered these attacks very
serious, for it was announced officially that Field Marshal von
Hindenburg and General von Ludendorff, quartermaster general, had
arrived at headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian army to visit the
Austrian field marshal, Artur Arz von Straussenburg.
CHAPTER XCI
THE RUSSIAN JULY OFFENSIVE
It soon became clear that the gradual increase in fighting activity
was not simply an impulsive response to Prime Minister Kerensky's
eloquence or the result of isolated local conditions. Gradually the
fighting spread over more and more ground. It became more efficient
and less spasmodic. Undoubtedly this was partly due to the fact that
matters behind the front began to settle down somewhat and that
supplies of ammunition and food again flowed more regularly and
abundantly. Then too the new commander in chief seemed to be more
capable of controlling his troops and to have a more definite plan for
his operations than his predecessor. Where formerly only small
detachments of Russians apparently could be persuaded or forced to
undertake military operations, now regiments, brigades, and even whole
divisions, went again at the business of fighting. Thus the Russians
were able to gain nice successes at many points. Especially in the
direction of Zlochoff, the Russians continued their offensive
successfully. In the afternoon of July 2, 1917, after a stubborn
battle, the Zoraisky regiment occupied the village of Presovce, while
the troops of the Fourth Finnish Division and the Cheshskoslovatsky
brigade occupied the strongly fortified German positions on the
heights to the west and southwest of the village of Zboroff and the
fortified village of Korshiduv. Three lines of trenches were
penetrated. The troops of the Central Powers then retired across the
Little Stripa. The Finns took 1,560 officers and soldiers prisoner,
while their captures included four trench mortars, nine machine guns,
and one bomb thrower. The Cheshskoslovatsky brigade captured sixty-two
officers and 3,150 soldiers, fifteen guns and many machine guns. Many
of the captured guns were turned against the former owners. Positions
to the west of the Uzefuvka also were taken.
Altogether in that day's battle in the neighborhood of Zlochoff the
Russians took 6,300 prisoners, officers and soldiers, twenty-one guns,
sixteen machine guns, and several bomb throwers. Southeast of Brzezany
the battle continued with less intensity. In that region the Russians
captured fifty-three officers and 2,200 men. Between the Baltic and
the Pripet the activity of the fighting increased only at Riga and
Smorgon; there was heavy artillery fighting on the middle course of
the Stokhod, where, however, Russian local attacks on the Kovel-Lutsk
railway line failed with heavy losses, and also on the Zlota Lipa.
During the night following there was lively artillery fighting from
the Stokhod to the Narayuvka. New strong attacks of the Russians took
place at Brzezany, which failed with heavy losses.
South of Zboroff the Russians, with the use of superior forces,
succeeded in pushing back a limited portion of the Austrian front
toward the prepared supporting position. In engagements involving
heavy sacrifices the Austro-Hungarians were forced to retire step by
step against the pressure of superior forces, but did this so easily
that they enabled the reserves to intervene for the restoration of the
situation.
Unsuccessful attempts were made by the Germans in eastern Galicia on
July 4, 1917, to regain some of the lost ground. East of Brzezany the
Germans attacked advanced Russian posts, but were compelled by
artillery fire to retire. East of Lipnicadolna on the eastern bank of
the Narayuvka, after artillery preparation, they twice attacked
Russian positions, but were repulsed on both occasions.
The next day, July 5, 1917, the violence of the fighting again
increased. In Galicia, between Zboroff and Brzezany, an artillery
battle of great violence developed. It diminished during the night and
increased again after daybreak. Also at Zwyzyn, Brody, and Smorgon the
artillery activity was very lively at intervals. On that part of the
Galician front, held chiefly by Turkish troops intermingled with some
Germans and Austro-Hungarian forces, the Russians made an unsuccessful
attack which cost them, according to German claims, 200 prisoners and
500 dead.
Some more successes were gained by the Russian forces on July 6, 1917.
In the direction of Zlochoff, after artillery preparation, Russian
infantry attacked strongly fortified positions of the enemy. They
occupied three lines of trenches, but later the Germans succeeded in
pressing back the Russian detachments.
In the sector of the heights northwest of Presovce and in the wood
west of Koniuchy Russian detachments conducted an offensive and
engaged in a stubborn battle throughout July 6, 1917. The Germans
executed counterattacks and at certain places pressed back the Russian
detachments. Toward evening, however, there remained in Russian hands
the heights northwest of Presovce and the villages of Lavrikovce and
Travotloki and the heights east of Dodov, as well as seventeen
officers and 672 men.
In the region northwest of Stanislau to the south of the Dniester,
after artillery preparation, Russian advance detachments pressed back
the Austrians in the Jamnica-Pasechna sector and occupied their
trenches. South of Bohorodszany Russian advance detachments defeated
an advanced post of the Austrians. The Russians also occupied
Sviniuchy and repulsed the enemy's counterattack. Altogether in the
engagement the Russians took 360 prisoners.
By now the Russian attack had spread so that Halicz, only sixty miles
southwest of Lemberg, Galicia's capital, and its chief protection from
the southeast, was practically in reach of the Russian guns. In this
sector the front was somewhat more than thirty miles long and ran
along the Narayuvka River. The newly organized Russian forces had been
formed into three armies and were continuing to pound away at their
adversaries. There was considerable fighting near Stanislau on July 7,
1917. Austro-Hungarian regiments in hand-to-hand encounters repulsed
several Russian divisions whose storming waves, broken by destructive
fire, had pushed forward as far as the Austrian position. Near Huta,
in the upper valley of the Bystritza Solotvina, another Russian attack
was repulsed. Between the Stripa and the Zlota Lipa the Russians were
apparently unable to renew their attacks in spite of their gains of
the previous days. Near Zboroff a Russian attack without artillery
preparation broke down with heavy losses.
Farther north, in the Brzezany-Zlochoff sector, in the direction of
Zlochoff the Germans launched energetic counterattacks on the front at
Godov and the wood west of Koniuchy in an attempt to dislodge Russian
troops. All these attacks were repelled. Assaults west of Bychka by
troops in dense columns, supported by armored motor cars, were also
repulsed.
Not until then did it become known that the Russians, in the beginning
of their offensive, had had the support of some of their allies.
The Russian offensive had now been under way for more than a week. As
so often in the past, it had been launched against that part of the
front which was held chiefly by Austro-Hungarians, and also, as many
times before, the troops of the Dual Monarchy had been forced to give
way under the Russian pressure. German reenforcements, however, now
began to arrive and the defense began to stiffen, bringing at the same
time more frequent and stronger counterattacks.
CHAPTER XCII
THE CAPTURE OF HALICZ AND KALUSZ
The surmise that Halicz, the important railroad point on the Dniester,
was soon to fall into the hands of the Russians, provided they were
able to keep up the strength and swiftness of their offensive, was
proved correct on July 10, 1917. Late that day the news that Halicz
had fallen on July 9, 1917, into Russian hands came from Petrograd.
The Russians were fighting under General Kornilov and their attacks
were so strong that the Austrians under General Kirchbach were unable
to resist. In two days Austro-German positions seven miles deep and
strongly fortified during a period of two years were overrun by the
victorious Russians. More than 1,000 prisoners, seven guns, many
trench mortars and machine guns, and a large booty of engineering
materials and other military stores fell into the hands of the
victors. The Austro-Hungarians were forced to retire behind the lower
course of the Lomnitza River, and at the end of the day the road to
Lemberg, only sixty-three miles northwest of Halicz, seemed seriously
threatened from the south.
Earlier in the day sanguinary battles occurred on the road to Halicz
in the region of the villages of Huciska, Pacykov, and Pavelone. In
the streets of Pavelone there was bayonet fighting, which ended in a
complete rout of the Austrians. Toward evening the Russian troops
reached the village of Bukovica, having occupied the villages of
Viktarov, Majdan, Huciska, and Pacykov.
South of Brzezany there was intense artillery fighting. In the
direction of Dolina the army of General Kornilov continued its
offensive in the region west of Stanislau. The Austro-Germans
displayed energetic resistance which developed into stubborn
counterattacks. Farther north, too, near Riga, Dvinsk, and Smorgon,
the fighting activity increased.
The Russians maintained their successes on the following day, July 10,
1917. In the direction of Dolina they continued the pursuit
northwestward toward Lemberg of the retreating enemy, who had been
broken by General Kornilov's army on the Jezupol-Stanislau-Borgordchan
front--a front of almost twenty miles.
At midday troops led by General Tcheremisoff, who had accomplished the
capture of Halicz, were thrown across to the left bank of the Dniester.
Toward evening they reached the valley of the river Lomnitza on the
front from the mouth of the river to Dobrovlany, and advance
detachments, crossing over after a short engagement to the left bank of
the river, occupied the villages of Bludniki and Babin. Russian troops
advancing on the Borgordchan-Zolotvin front, having broken down the
resistance of the enemy, reached the line of Posiecz-Lesiuvka-Kosmocz.
This was a success in a new sector south of Halicz and threatened the
approaches to the northern Carpathians.
In the course of the day the Russians captured more than 2,000
prisoners and about thirty guns. Altogether in the three days' battle
from the 8th to the 10th in the direction of Dolina they took more
than 150 officers and 10,000 men. Their captures also included about
eighty guns, twelve of them of heavy caliber, and a large number of
trench mortars and machine guns and a large quantity of engineering
material and military stores. On the remainder of the front there was
artillery firing, which was more intense in the direction of Zlochoff
and south of Brzezany.
These various operations continued to develop on July 11, 1917,
especially among the rivers Dniester and Lomnitza. After a stubborn
and sanguinary battle the Austrians were forced out of the town of
Kalusz, which was occupied by the Russians. Kalusz, a town of about
8,000 population previous to the war, is on the west bank of the
Lomnitza and on the important railroad that runs from Stanislau to
Lemberg south of the Dniester. Until the development of the Russian
offensive it served as Austrian headquarters in this sector. To the
west of Bohorodszany, on the Grabovka-Rosolna-Krivicz front, the
Austrians taking advantage of the extremely intricate terrain,
succeeded in holding back the Russian advance. Near Riga, Smorgon and
Baranovitchy the artillery fighting was again spirited. Near Lutsk and
in the East Galicia fighting area the firing also reached a point of
considerable intensity at times. On the Ochtschara Russian chasseur
troops were repulsed, as were local Russian attacks on the Stokhod.
On July 12, 1917, the firing activity between the Zlota Lipa and the
Narayuvka increased. Engagements developed also on the Honika River,
northwest of Halicz. Russian troops crossed to the left bank of the
river confluence and captured heights on the line of the river
Dniester-Bukazowice-Bludniki. After a stubborn battle the Austrians
were driven back from the heights to the northeast of Ehilus. The
Russians occupied the villages of Studzianka and Podhorki.
In the region of Kalusz a Bohemian regiment by means of a daring
cavalry attack captured four heavy guns. Southeast of Kalusz, on the
Landstru-Lazianya-Kraisne front, Russian troops engaged in battle with
Austrian detachments who were protecting the crossings of the river
Lomnitza on the road to Kornistov and Dolina. The crossings of the
river at Perehinsko west of Bohorodszany were captured.
In the region of Vladimir Volynski (Volhynia) southeast of Kiselin
German detachments under cover of artillery fire attacked Russian
positions and entered Russian trenches, but were expelled by reserves
which came forward, immediately restoring the situation. On the Dvina
near Smorgon and on the Shara there was spirited fighting, and also
west of Lutsk there was a temporary revival of activity in consequence
of reconnoitering thrusts.
In describing the capture of Kalusz the "Russky Slovo" says that the
Russian cavalry entered the town at noon and found it abandoned by the
garrison. The Russians were soon attacked, however, by fresh enemy
forces, which were rushed from the fortress. After a stiff fight the
Russians were compelled to fall back. Reenforced, they returned and
drove the Germans out. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon the Germans,
supported by an armored train, counterattacked and again occupied
Kalusz. But they were once more expelled with heavy losses. Sanguinary
house-to-house fighting, mostly with the bayonet, ensued until 6
o'clock in the evening.
On July 13, 1917, it was reported that there was considerable rifle
firing on the lower Lomnitza, between the confluence with the Dniester
River and Kalusz. In the neighborhood of the town of Kalusz the
Austrians made two attacks from the direction of Mosciska and near
Gartenel and attempted to dislodge the Russian troops occupying
Kalusz, but were repulsed. The Russians occupied, after fighting, the
village of Novica, southwest of Kalusz. Heavy rains prevented
extensive fighting at other points south of the Dniester. Near Dvinsk
and Smorgon lively fighting activity continued. In eastern Galicia the
gunfire was lively only in the Brzezany sector.
Heavy rains continued and swelled the rivers Lomnitza and Dniester and
the small streams running into them. Naturally this also affected the
condition of the roads. In spite of the unfavorable weather there was
considerable fighting on July 14, 1917. Southwest of Kalusz the
Austrians several times attacked troops which were occupying the
Dobrovdiany-Novica front. All the attacks were repulsed. As a result
of the battles in this region the Russians captured sixteen officers
and more than 600 of the rank and file. In the region of Lodziany
(eighteen miles southwest of Kalusz) as the final result of a series
of stubborn attacks Russian troops drove the Austrians from their
positions and took more than 1,000 prisoners and a number of guns. At
the crossing of the river Lomnitza, near Perehinsko, the Austrians
launched an offensive with the object of throwing Russian detachments
back to the right bank of the Lomnitza. The Russian offensive on the
Slivkiasen front met with stubborn resistance.
CHAPTER XCIII
THE COLLAPSE OF THE RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE
The accomplishments of the Russian armies during the first two weeks
of July, 1917, were little short of marvelous. Not only had they
captured such important points as Halicz and Kalusz and had forced
back the Austrian lines in southeastern Galicia for miles and miles,
but they had also taken large numbers of prisoners and captured
valuable booty. From July 1 to July 13, 1917, 834 officers and 35,809
men were captured by the Russians, with ninety-three heavy and light
guns, twenty-nine trench mortars, 493 machine guns, forty-three mine
throwers, forty-five bomb mortars, three fire throwers, two
aeroplanes, and much equipment.
By the middle of July, 1917, however, the first fury of the Russian
onslaught had spent itself, and then too, as so often before, the
Central Powers had recovered from their first surprise and had
succeeded, thanks to their superior transportation facilities, in
bringing up strong reserves. For the first time since the beginning of
the Russian offensive on July 15, 1917, there appeared definite signs
that the German defensive was stiffening. On the lower Lomnitza there
were fusillades and artillery bombardments. Northeast of Kalusz the
Germans made energetic attempts to throw back the Russian troops on
the Lomnitza. The battle on the Landes-Reuldzian-Kraisne front
continued all day. After a severe engagement the Austrians were driven
out of the village of Lodziany and pressed hard to the river Lomnitza,
but owing to attacks made by their newly arrived reserves from the
direction of Rozniazov, and in view of the great losses, the Russian
troops were compelled to retire a short distance and intrench
themselves in the eastern end of the Lodziany.
Then on July 16, 1917, came the news that the Russians had been forced
to evacuate Kalusz. Northeast of Kalusz the Germans had conducted
persistent attacks which at first had been repulsed by the Russians.
Finally, however, Russian troops occupying the left bank of the lower
course of the river Lomnitza were transferred to the right bank,
leaving Kalusz in Austrian hands and securing behind them the
important crossing of the Lomnitza.
In the Novica-Lodziany-Kraisne section the Russian troops continued
their attacks, with the object of throwing the enemy back across the
Lomnitza. The Germans made stubborn resistance. With the approach of
evening, they counterattacked in dense waves from the direction of
Selohy-Kagnka, and, pressing the Russians back, occupied the village
of Novica, but were driven out again upon the arrival of fresh
reserves. Farther north, too, the lively fighting activity at Riga,
Dvinsk, and Smorgon continued. With the clearing of the weather the
firing on the Narayuvka front became heavier than it had previously
been.
Once again on the following day, July 17, 1917, the Russians had to
yield ground under the ever-increasing pressure from the Germans. In
the north there was a still more noticeable increase in the fighting
activity at Riga, south of Dvinsk, and at Smorgon. In eastern Galicia
the firing was strong at Brzezany.
In the Carpathian foothills Bavarian and Croatian troops in a combined
attack captured the heights to the east of Novica, which were
stubbornly defended by the Russians, and repulsed Russian
counterattacks in the captured positions. At other points on the
Lomnitza line also the Russians were forced back in local engagements.
As the result of a night attack Russian detachments reoccupied the
village of Novica to the south of Kalusz, but, suffering great losses
in this operation, withdrew to the eastern end of the village. Two
German attacks on these detachments were repulsed. Northwest of Lutsk
and on the East Galician front operations carried out by Austro-German
forces brought about an increase in artillery activity and resulted in
the capture of numerous prisoners.
The artillery activity south of Dvinsk and Smorgon, which had been
lively for some days, continued.
During the next few days fighting everywhere became more violent. Near
Jacobstadt, Dvinsk, and Smorgon, along the Stokhod, and from the Zlota
Lipa to south of the Dniester, the artillery activity increased
considerably. Advances and reconnoitering operations often led to
local engagements. Near Novica, on the Lomnitza front, new strong
Russian attacks were repulsed with sanguinary losses.
On July 19, 1917, east of Brzezany, to the south of Szybalin,
Austro-German troops made repeated attacks and occupied a portion of
the Russian first-line trenches. Austrian efforts to attack south of
Brzezany were repelled by gun and rifle fire. West of Halicz
detachments occupying the village of Bludniki retired, whereupon the
Austrians, profiting by this movement, occupied the place. An effort
to win back this village was unsuccessful. In the direction of Vilna
there was animated artillery fighting throughout the day. After strong
artillery preparation the Germans persistently attacked the Russian
detachments on the Pieniaki-Harbuzov front, twenty miles south of
Brody. At first all these attacks were repulsed. At 10 o'clock the Six
Hundred and Seventh Mlynov Regiment, stationed between Bathov and
Manajov, in the same region, left its trenches voluntarily and
retired, with the result that neighboring units also had to retire.
This gave the Germans opportunity for developing their success.
The Russians explained this occurrence officially in the following
statement:
"Our failure south of Brody is explained to a considerable degree by
the fact that under the influence of the Bolsheviki extremists
(Anarchists) several detachments, having received a command to support
the attacked detachments, held meetings and discussed the advisability
of obeying the order; whereupon some regiments refused to obey the
military command. Efforts of commanders and committees to arouse the
men to fulfillment of the commands were fruitless."
A similar incident, indeed, had happened during the German attacks
against Novica on July 17, 1917. On that day when the Germans early in
the evening had taken the offensive and had seized the height south of
Novica, to the south of Kalusz, one of the Russian regiments began to
leave. Major General Prince Gargarin, commander of the military
district, perceiving that the situation was critical, at once moved
forward a battalion of the Ukhnov regiment commanded by Second Captain
Burishen, which had only recently arrived in the district. This
battalion conducted an energetic attack. Simultaneously General Prince
Gargarin threw troops into the attack on both flanks, advancing
infantry and native cavalry regiments of Daghestanians on the right
and Circassians and Kabardians on the left. The Ukhnov regiment and
the natives rushed forward in a furious onslaught, carrying with them
also the Russian regiment which had retired. The general assault soon
changed the situation in favor of the Russians.
These two occurrences were typical of many others of a like nature at
various points of the entire front. The affected groups varied in
extent, sometimes only small detachments would refuse to fight, while
at other times entire companies or battalions and even whole regiments
were affected.
It now became quite evident that the Russian offensive had to come to
a standstill, and that Russian disorganization not only set in again,
but came much nearer to a total collapse than it had been previous to
the beginning of the Russian offensive. At the same time the new
German offensive developed in strength and extent. Even then it was
likely that the Russians not only were to lose the territory which
they had gained so recently, but possibly a large portion of East
Galicia that had been occupied by them for a long time. Whether the
Central Powers would be able to follow up their offensive in Galicia
with similar undertakings at other points of the eastern front, of
course, was a matter that depended not only on conditions at the
eastern front, but also on how things were going in the west.
The Austro-German forces made good use of the opportunity created for
them by the defection rampant in the Russian armies. In East Galicia,
on July 20, 1917, behind the hastily retreating Russian forces, of
which only parts made a stand for rear-guard purposes, German troops
in impetuous pursuit crossed the Zlochoff-Tarnopol road on both sides
of Jezierna on a width of twenty-five miles. Wherever the Russians
made a stand they were defeated in swift assaults; burning villages
and great destruction showed the route of the retiring Russians.
Again the Russians had to admit officially that their army
organization was going to pieces. They did this, in regard to their
retreat toward Tarnopol, in the following words:
"Our troops on the whole did not show the necessary stability, and at
some points did not fulfill military commands; consequently they
continued to retire, and toward evening they paused on the line
Renov-Hlatiki-Pokropuvia-Vybudow."
North of Brzezany Austro-Hungarian troops after hard fighting
recaptured positions they lost on July 1, 1917. North of the Dniester
Russian attacks broke down before the Austrian lines. South of the
river the Russians were driven out of Babin. At Novica German and
Austro-Hungarian troops stormed the Russian height positions in spite
of a stubborn defense. From the Stokhod to the Baltic the activity of
the artillery increased occasionally. It reached special intensity
between Krevo and Smorgon and at Dvinsk.
At this critical point the Provisional Government again decided to
make a change in the command of the Russian armies fighting in
Galicia. Early in June, 1917, General Gouter had been placed in
supreme command in this section. Lieutenant General L. G, Kornilov,
then commander of the Eighth Russian Army, with which he had gained in
the first part of July, 1917, the successes on the Halicz-Stanislau
line, was now intrusted with the chief command of all Russian troops
fighting in Galicia.
CHAPTER XCIV
THE RUSSIAN ROUT IN GALICIA AND THE BUKOWINA
Day by day the Russians' disorganization became worse. Instances of
defection became more frequent as the German offensive movement
increased in violence. With their usual thoroughness, and with almost
incredible swiftness, the forces of the Central Powers struck. Again
the Russian Government was forced to admit officially that Russian
commanders had lost control over their troops.
By July 21, 1917, the Germans and Austrians in the region west of
Tarnopol managed to reach the Brzezany-Tarnopol railway at several
points. Near Brzezany the Seventh Russian Army also began to yield to
increasing pressure on its flanks. The number of prisoners and the
amount of booty were large. At Jezierna rich supplies of provisions,
munitions, and other war stores fell into German hands.
[Illustration: The Russian Offensive and Retreat in Galicia.]
Late in the afternoon the Germans forced their way forward from
Tarnopol to as far as the Sereth bridgehead. During the fight the
railway line from Kozowa to Tarnopol was reached at several points.
The Russian masses southeast of Brzezany began to yield. The town of
Tarnopol and numerous villages east of the Sereth soon were in flames.
On the lower Narayuvka River the artillery duel increased to
considerable intensity. On the river Lomnitza after a bombardment the
Germans took the offensive in the regions of the villages of Babino
and Studzianka and forced Russian troops to evacuate Babino and cross
the right bank of the Lomnitza. By the end of the day the whole
Russian front from the Zlota Lipa close up to the Dniester was
wavering under the pressure of the German-Austrian attack on the
Sereth.
In the north, however, the Russians were still fighting back, though
unsuccessfully. Between Krevo and Smorgon the Russians after a strong
artillery preparation attacked with a strong force. Their assaults
broke down with heavy losses on the German troops. After an agitated
night fresh fighting broke out at that point. Northward as far as
Naroz Lake and also between Drysviaty Lake and Dvinsk increased
artillery fighting continued.
The offensive movements undertaken by the Russians in the northern
sector were continued on July 22, 1917. In the direction of Vilna, in
the neighborhood of Krevo, Russian troops attacked and occupied German
positions in the district of Tsary-Bogushi, penetrating to a depth of
two miles in places. Over one thousand Germans were taken prisoner.
However, the spirit of disobedience was gradually spreading among the
Russian troops. "The development of a further success is being
jeopardized by the instability and moral weakness of certain
detachments. Particularly noteworthy was the gallant conduct of the
officers, great numbers of them perishing during the fulfillment of
their duties," says the official Russian statement. On the upper
course of the Sereth, from Zalovce to Tarnopol, there was considerable
rifle firing. South of Berezovica-Velka the Germans conducted an
intense artillery fire. Between the rivers Sereth, Stripa, and Zlota
Lipa they continued their offensive, occupying the villages of
Nastasov, Beniave (on the Stripa), Uvse, and Slavintin. The strategic
effect of the German operations in East Galicia was continually
becoming more powerful. The Russians began retreating from the
northern Carpathian front. From the Sereth to the wooded Carpathians
the Germans were pressing forward over a front of 155 miles wide.
By July 23, 1917, the victorious German army corps had forced their
way over the Sereth, crossing to the south near Tarnopol. Near
Trembowla desperate Russian mass attacks were repulsed. The Germans
advanced beyond Podhaytse, Halicz, and the Bystritza Solotvina River.
The booty was large. Several divisions reported 3,000 prisoners each.
Numerous heavy guns, including those of the largest calibers, railway
trucks filled with foodstuffs and fodder, munitions, armored cars and
motor lorries, tents, articles left on the field, and every kind of
war material were captured.
Archduke Joseph's north wing now joined in a movement which had
commenced to the south of the Dniester. There was strong Russian
firing activity along that whole front.
In the north the fighting, too, was severe. In some places the
Russians made decided gains, only to lose them again by the refusal of
certain troops to obey their commanders. Southwest of Dvinsk Russian
detachments, after strong artillery preparation, occupied German
positions on both sides of the Dvinsk-Vilna railway. After this
success entire units, without any pressure on the part of the Germans,
voluntarily returned to their original trenches. A number of these
units refused to carry out military commands during the battle.
Detachments of the Twenty-fourth Division, the Tulsk, Lovitsky, and
Saraosky regiments, and the "Battalion of Death," consisting of women,
acted especially heroically, and as at other points the gallantry of
the officers was noteworthy. Their losses were large. In the direction
of Vilna and in the region north of Krevo the Germans delivered a
number of counterattacks, and succeeded in occupying one of the
heights north of Bogush, which had been captured by the Russians on
the previous day, July 22, 1917. Heroic exertion by the Russian
officers was required to restrain the men from withdrawing to the rear
in great numbers.