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 TEN DAYS THAT 
 SHOOK THE WORLD 
 i by JOHN REED 
 
 with an introduction by 
 
 V. I. LENIN 
 
 
 
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 i WieeeEMVOLUTIONARY FRONT . . . .. -.- . 172 
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 INTRODUCTION 
 
 With the greatest interest and with never 
 slackening attention I read John Reed’s 
 book, Ten Days that Shook the World. 
 Unreservedly do I recommend it to the 
 workers of the world. Here is a book which 
 I should like to see published in millions of 
 copies and translated into all languages. It 
 gives a truthful and most vivid exposition 
 of the events so significant to the compre- 
 hension of what really is the Proletarian 
 Revolution and the Dictatorship of the 
 Proletariat. These problems are widely 
 discussed, but before one can accept or 
 reject these ideas, he must understand 
 the full significance of his decision. John 
 Reed’s book will undoubtedly help to clear 
 this question, which is the fundamental 
 problem of the international labor move- 
 ment. 
 
 N. Lenin. 
 
 End of 1919. 
 

 
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 CATR TIN NS 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book is a slice of intensified history—history as I 
 saw it. It does not pretend to be anything but a detailed 
 account of the November Revolution, when the Bolsheviki, 
 at the head of the workers and soldiers, seized the state power 
 of Russia and placed it in the hands of the Soviets. 
 
 Naturally most of it deals with “Red Petrograd,” the cap- 
 ital and heart of the insurrection. But the reader must real- 
 ize that what took place in Petrograd was almost exactly 
 duplicated, with greater or lesser intensity, at different inter- 
 vals of time, all over Russia. 
 
 In this book, the first of several which I am writing, I must 
 confine myself to a chronicle of those events which I myself 
 
 _ observed and experienced, and those supported by reliable evi- 
 
 dence; preceded by two chapters briefly outlining the back- 
 ground and causes of the November Revolution. I am aware 
 that these two chapters make difficult reading, but they are 
 essential to an understanding of what follows. 
 
 Many questions will suggest themselves to the mind of the 
 reader. What is Bolshevism? What kind of a governmental 
 structure did the Bolsheviki set up? If the Bolsheviki cham- 
 pioned the Constituent Assembly before the November Revo- 
 Ir“ion, why did they disperse it by force of arms afterward? 
 
 mt if the bourgeoisie opposed the Constituent Assembly until 
 
 » danger of Bolshevism became apparent, why did they 
 mpion it afterward? 
 
 | These and many other questions cannot be answered here. 
 
 sist another volume, “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk,” I trace the 
 
 ; lacurse of the Revolution up to and including the German 
 
 4 
 
 | i 
 
Vil PREFACE 
 
 i 
 
 peace. There I explain the origin and functions of the 
 
 Revolutionary organisations, the evolution of popular senti- 
 ment, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the structure 
 of the Soviet state, and the course and outcome of the Brest- 
 Litovsk negotiations. . . 
 
 In considering the rise of the Bolsheviki it is necessary 
 to understand that Russian economic life and the Russian 
 army were not disorganised on November 7th, 1917, but 
 many months before, as the logical result of a process which 
 
 began as far back as 1915. The corrupt reactionaries in con- ~ 
 
 trol of the Tsar’s Court deliberately undertook to wreck Russia 
 in order to make a separate peace with Germany. ‘The lack 
 of arms on the front, which had caused the great retreat of the 
 summer of 1915, the lack of food in the army and in the great 
 
 cities, the break-down of manufactures and transportation in 
 
 1916—all these we know now were part of a gigantic campaign 
 of sabotage. This was halted just in time by the March 
 
 Revolution. 
 
 For the first few months of the new régime, in spite of 
 
 the confusion incident upon a great Revolution, when one 
 hundred and sixty millions of the world’s most oppressed 
 peoples suddenly achieved liberty, both the internal situation 
 and the combative power of the army actually improved. 
 But the ‘“Shoneymoon” was short. The propertied classes 
 wanted merely a political revolution, which would take the 
 power from the Tsar and give it to them. ‘They wanted Rus- 
 sia to be a constitutional Republic, like France or the United 
 States; or a constitutional Monarchy, like England. On the 
 other hand, the masses of the people wanted real industri | 
 and agrarian democracy. | 
 
 William English Walling, in his book, “Russia’s Message,’ | | 
 
 an account of the Revolution of 1905, describes very well th | ) 
 
 state of mind of the Russian workers, who were later to sap 
 port Bolshevism almost unanimously: 
 
PREFACE | ix 
 
 They (the working people) saw it was possible that even under 
 a free Government, if it fell into the hands of other social classes, 
 they might still continue to starve... . 
 The Russian workman is revolutionary, but he is neither vio- 
 lent, dogmatic, nor unintelligent. He is ready for barricades, 
 but he has studied them, and alone of the workers of the world he 
 has learned about them from actual experience. He is ready and 
 willing to fight his oppressor, the capitalist class, to a finish. But 
 
 _ he does not ignore the existence of other classes. He merely asks 
 that the other classes take one side or the other in the bitter 
 conflict that draws near. .. . 
 
 They (the workers) were all agreed that our (American) polit- 
 ical institutions were preferable to their own, but they were not very 
 anxious to exchange one despot for another (i.e., the capitalist 
 class)... .. 
 
 The workingmen of Russia did not have themselves shot down, 
 executed by hundreds in Moscow, Riga and Odessa, imprisoned by 
 thousands in every Russian jail, and exiled to the deserts and the 
 arctic regions, in exchange for the doubtful privileges of the 
 workingmen of Goldfields and Cripple Creek. ... 
 
 And so developed in Russia, in the midst of a foreign war, 
 the Social Revolution on top of the Political Revolution, cul- 
 minating in the triumph of Bolshevism. 
 
 Mr. A. J. Sack, director in this country of the Russian 
 Information Bureau, which opposes the Soviet Government, has 
 this to say in his book, “The Birth of the Russian Democracy”: 
 
 The Bolsheviks organised their own cabinet, with Nicholas 
 Lenine as Premier and Leon Trotsky—Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 The inevitability of their coming into power became evident almost 
 immediately after the March Revolution. The history of the Bolshe- 
 viki, after the Revolution, is a history of their steady growth. ... 
 
 Foreigners, and Americans especially, frequently empha- 
 sise the “ignorance” of the Russian workers. It is true they 
 _ lacked the political experience of the peoples of the West, but 
 
 | 
 
x | PREFACE 
 
 they were very well trained in voluntary organisation. In 
 1917 there were more than twelve million members of the Russian 
 consumers’ Cooperative societies; and the Soviets themselves 
 are a wonderful demonstration of their organising genius. 
 Moreover, there is probably not a people in the world so well 
 educated in Socialist theory and its practical application. © 
 William English Walling thus characterises them: i 
 
 The Russian working people are for the most part able to read 
 and write. For many years the country has been in such a dis- 
 turbed condition that they have had the advantage of leadership not 
 only of intelligent individuals in their midst, but of a large part of 
 the equally revolutionary educated class, who have turned to the 
 working people with their ideas for the political and social regen- 
 eration of Russia. ... 
 
 Many writers explain their hostility to the Soviet Gov- 
 
 ernment by arguing that the last phase of the Russian Revo- 
 lution was simply a struggle of the “respectable” elements 
 
 against the brutal attacks of Bolshevism. However, it was — 
 
 the propertied classes, who, when they realised the growth in 
 power of the popular revolutionary organisations, undertook 
 
 to destroy them and to halt the Revolution. To this end the 
 
 propertied classes finally resorted to desperate measures. In 
 order to wreck the Kerensky Ministry and the Soviets, trans- 
 portation was disorganised and internal troubles provoked; to 
 crush the Factory-Shop Committees, plants were shut down, 
 and fuel and raw materials diverted; to break the Army Com- 
 mittees at the front, capital punishment was restored and 
 military defeat connived at. 
 
 This was all excellent fuel for the Bolshevik fire. ‘The 
 Bolsheviki retorted by preaching the class war, and by assert- 
 ing the supremacy of the Soviets. 
 
 Between these two extremes, with the other factions which 
 whole-heartedly or half-heartedly supported them, were the 
 so-called “moderate” Socialists, the Mensheviki and Socialist 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 - Revolutionaries, and several smaller parties. These groups 
 _were also attacked by the propertied classes, but their power 
 
 _ of resistance was crippled by their theories. 
 
 Roughly, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries 
 believed that Russia was not economically ripe for a social 
 
 _ revolution—that only a political revolution was possible. 
 _ According to their interpretation, the Russian masses were not 
 
 _ educated enough to take over the power; any attempt to do so 
 
 _ would inevitably bring on a reaction, by means of which some 
 ruthless opportunist might restore the old régime. And so it 
 
 followed that when the “‘moderate” Socialists were forced to 
 
 _ assume the power, they were afraid to use it. 
 
 They believed that Russia must pass through the stages 
 of political and economic development known to Western 
 
 Europe, and emerge at last, with the rest of the world, 
 into full-fledged Socialism. Naturally, therefore, they agreed 
 
 with the propertied classes that Russia must first be a parlia- 
 mentary state—though with some improvements on the West- 
 ern democracies. As a consequence, they insisted upon the 
 collaboration of the propertied classes in the Government. 
 
 From this it was an easy step to supporting them. The 
 “moderate” Socialists needed the bourgeoisie. But the bour- 
 geoisie did not need the “moderate” Socialists. So it resulted 
 in the Socialist Ministers being obliged to give way, little by 
 little, on their entire program, while the propertied classes 
 grew more and more insistent. 
 
 And at the end, when the Bolsheviki upset the whole hollow 
 compromise, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries 
 found themselves fighting on the side of the propertied classes. 
 . . - Inalmost every country in the world to-day the same phe- 
 nomenon is visible. 
 
 Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that 
 the Bolsheviki were the only party in Russia with a construc- 
 
 tive program and the power to impose it on the country. If 
 
 / 
 
/ 
 xi PREFACE 
 | f 
 they had not succeeded to the Government when they did, — 
 there is little doubt in my mind that the armies of Imperial — 
 Germany would have been in Petrograd and Moscow in De- — 
 cember, and Russia would again be ridden by a Tsar... . 
 
 It is still fashionable, after a whole year of the Soviet 
 Government, to speak of the Bolshevik insurrection as an 
 “adventure.”” Adventure it was, and one of the most marvel- | 
 lous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into history at 
 the head of the toiling masses, and staking everything on their — 
 vast and simple desires. Already the machinery had been ~ 
 set up by which the land of the great estates could be dis- 
 tributed among the peasants. The Factory-Shop Committees — 
 and the Trade Unions were there to put into operation 
 workers’ control of industry. In every village, town, city, q 
 district and province there were Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ 
 and Peasants’ Deputies, prepared to assume the task of local - 
 administration. 
 
 No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable 
 that the Russian Revolution is one of the great events of 
 human history, and the rise of the Bolsheviki a phenomenon 
 of world-wide importance. Just as historians search the rec- 
 ords for the minutest details of the story of the Paris Com- 
 mune, so they will want to know what happened in Petrograd 
 in November, 1917, the spirit which animated the people, and 
 how the leaders looked, talked and acted. It is with this in 
 view that I have written this book. 
 
 In the struggle my sympathies were not neutral. But in 
 telling the story of those great days I have tried to see events 
 with the eye of a conscientious reporter, interested in seen 
 down the truth. 
 
 J. R. 
 
 New York, January Ist, 1919. 
 
NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS 
 
 To the average reader the multiplicity of Russian organisa: 
 tions—political groups, Committees and Central Committees, 
 
 _ Soviets, Dumas and Unions—will prove extremely confusing. 
 
 For this reason I am giving here a few brief definitions and 
 explanations. 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES 
 
 In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, there were 
 
 ; seventeen tickets in Petrograd, and in some of the provincial 
 
 towns as many as forty; but the following summary of the 
 aims and composition of political parties is limited to the 
 groups and factions mentioned in this book. Only the essence 
 of their programmes and the general character of their con- 
 stituencies can be noticed. .. . 
 
 1. Monarchists, of various shades, Octobrists, etc. These 
 once-powerful factions no longer existed openly; they either 
 worked underground, or their members joined the Cadets, as 
 the Cadets came by degrees to stand for their political pro- 
 gramme. Representatives in this book, Rodzianko, Shulgin. 
 
 2. Cadets. So-called from the initials of its’ name, 
 Constitutional Democrats. Its official name is “Party of the 
 People’s Freedom.” Under the Tsar composed of Liberals 
 from the propertied classes, the Cadets were the great party 
 of political reform, roughly corresponding to the Progressive 
 Party in America. When the Revolution broke out in March, 
 1917, the Cadets formed the first Provisional Government. 
 The Cadet Ministry was overthrown in April because it de- 
 
 xiii 
 
 pe itself in favour of Allied imperialistic aims, including the 
 
a NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS 
 
 imperialistic aims of the Tsar’s Government. As the Revolu- i 
 tion became more and more a social economic Revolution, the — 
 Cadets grew more and more conservative. Its representatives ; 
 in this book ‘are: Miliukov, Vinaver, Shatsky. 
 
 2a. Group of Public Men. After the Cadets had be- — 
 come unpopular through their relations with the Kornilov — 
 counter-revolution, the Group of Public Men was formed in ~ 
 Moscow. Delegates from the Group of Public Men were — 
 given portfolios in the last Kerensky Cabinet. The Group — 
 declared itself non-partisan, although its intellectual leaders — 
 were men like Rodzianko and Shulgin. It was composed of — 
 the more “modern” bankers, merchants and manufacturers, — 
 who were intelligent enough to realise that the Soviets must 
 be fought by their own weapon—economic organisation. — 
 Typical of the Group: Lianozov, Konovalov. q 
 
 3. Populist Socialists, or Trudoviki (Labour Group). 
 Numerically a small party, composed of cautious intellectuals, 
 the leaders of the Cooperative societies, and conservative peas- 
 ants. Professing to be Socialists, the Populists really sup- 
 _ ported the interests of the petty bourgeoisie—clerks, shop- — 
 keepers, etc. By direct descent, inheritors of the compromis- — 
 ing tradition of the Labour Group in the Fourth Imperial 
 Duma, which was composed largely of peasant representatives. 
 Kerensky was the leader of the T'rudovikit in the Imperial 
 Duma when the Revolution of March, 1917, broke out. The 
 Populist Socialists are a nationalistic party. Their repre- 
 sentatives in this book are: Peshekhanov, Tchaikoysky. | 
 
 4. Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Originally 
 Marxian Socialists. At a party congress held in 1903, the 
 party split, on the question of tactics, into two factions—the 
 Majority (Bolshinstvo), and the Minority (Menshinstvo). 
 From this sprang the sames “Bolsheviki” and “Mensheviki?”— 
 “members of the majority” and “members of the minority.” 
 These two wings became two separate parties, both calling 
 
NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS xv 
 
 
 
 themselves “Russian Social Democratic Labour Party,” and 
 ‘both professing to be Marxians. Since the Revolution of 
 1905 the Bolsheviki were really the minority, becoming again 
 the majority in September, 1917. 
 _ a. Mensheviki. This party includes all shades of Social- 
 ists who believe that society must progress by natural evolu- 
 tion toward Socialism, and that the working-class must con- 
 quer political power first. Also a nationalistic party. This 
 was the party of the Socialist intellectuals, which means: all 
 the means of education having been in the hands of the 
 ‘propertied classes, the intellectuals instinctively reacted to 
 their training, and took the side of the propertied classes. 
 Among their representatives in this book are: Dan, Lieber, 
 ‘Tseretelli. 
  b. Mensheviki Internationalists. The radical wing of the 
 Mensheviki, internationalists and opposed to all coalition with 
 the propertied classes; yet unwilling to break loose from the 
 conservative Mensheviki, and opposed to the dictatorship of 
 ‘the working-class advocated by the Bolsheviki. Trotzky was 
 long a member of this group. Among their leaders: Martov, 
 Martinov. 
 
 ce. Bolsheviki. Now call themselves the Communist Party, 
 ‘in order to emphasise their complete separation from the 
 tradition of “moderate”? or “parliamentary” Socialism, 
 which dominates the Mensheviki and the so-called Majority 
 Socialists in all countries. The Bolsheviki proposed immediate 
 proletarian insurrection, and seizure of the reins of Govern- 
 ‘ment, in order to hasten the coming of Socialism by forcibly 
 taking over industry, land, natural resources and financial 
 institutions. This party expresses the desires chiefly of the 
 factory workers, but also of a large section of the poor 
 peasants. The name “Bolshevik” can not be translated by 
 “Maximalist.”? The Maximalists are a separate group. (See 
 
evi NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS | 
 
 E 
 
 paragraph 5b). Among the leaders: Lenin, Trotzky, Lunat- 
 charsky. 
 
 d. United Social Democrats Internationalists, Also called 
 the Novaya Zhizn (New Life) group, from the name of the 
 very influential newspaper which was its organ. A little group 
 of intellectuals with a very small following among the working- 
 class, except the personal following of Maxim Gorky, its 
 leader. Intellectuals, with almost the same programme as the 
 Mensheviki Internationalists, except that the Novaya Zhizn 
 group refused to be tied to either of the two great factions. 
 Opposed the Bolshevik tactics, but remained in the Soviet 
 Government. Other representatives in this book: Avilov, 
 Kramarov. 
 
 e. Yedinstvo. A very small and dwindling group, com- 
 posed almost entirely of the personal following of Plekhanov, 
 one of the pioneers of the Russian Social Democratic movement — 
 in the 80’s, and its greatest theoretician. Now an old man, 
 Plekhanov was extremely patriotic, too conservative even for 
 the Mensheviki. After the Bolshevik coup d’etat, Yedinstvo 
 disappeared. 3 
 
 5. Socialist Revolutionary party. Called Essaires from 
 the initials of their name. Originally the revolutionary party — 
 of the peasants, the party of the Fighting Organisations—the 
 Terrorists. After the March Revolution, it was joined by 
 many who had never been Socialists. At that time it stood 
 for the abolition of private property in land only, the owners — 
 to be compensated in some fashion. Finally the increasing 
 revolutionary feeling of peasants forced the Essaires to 
 abandon the ‘‘compensation” clause, and led to the younger 
 and more fiery intellectuals breaking off from the main 
 party in the fall of 1917 and forming a new party, the 
 Left Socialist Revolutionary party. The Essaires, who were 
 afterward always called by the radical groups “Right Socialist 
 Revolutionaries,” adopted the political attitude of the Men- 
 
ny 
 
 | 
 
 sharing the Bolshevik programme of dictatorship of the work- 
 
 " NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS xvii 
 _ sheviki, and worked together with them. They finally came to 
 _ represent the wealthier peasants, the intellectuals, and the 
 politically uneducated populations of remote rural districts. 
 Among them there was, however, a wider difference of shades 
 _ of political and economic opinion than among the Mensheviki. 
 
 Among their leaders mentioned in these pages: Avksentiev, 
 Gotz, Kerensky, Tchernov, “Babuschka” Breshkovskaya. 
 a, Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Although theoretically 
 
 - ing-class, at first were reluctant to follow the ruthless Bol- 
 
 _ shevik tactics. However, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries re- 
 
 t 
 . 
 
 _ mained in the Soviet Government, sharing the Cabinet port- 
 
 _ folios, especially that of Agriculture. They withdrew from the 
 _ Government several times, but always returned. As the peas- 
 _ ants left the ranks of the Essaires in increasing numbers, they 
 _ joined the Left Socialist Revolutionary party, which became 
 the great peasant party supporting the Soviet Government, 
 _ standing for confiscation without compensation of the great 
 
 landed estates, and their disposition by the peasants themselves. 
 
 _Among the leaders: Spiridonova, Karelin, Kamkov, Kala- 
 
 gayev. 
 
 b. Mazimalists. An off-shoot of the Socialist Revolution- 
 ary party in the Revolution of 1905, when it was a powerful 
 peasant movement, demanding the immediate application of 
 the maximum Socialist programme. Now an insignificant 
 group of peasant anarchists. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE 
 
 Russian meetings and conventions are organised after the 
 continental model rather than our own. The first action is 
 usually the election of officers and the presidium. 
 
 The presidiwm is a presiding committee, composed of 
 representatives of the groups and political factions repre- 
 sented in the assembly, in proportion to their numbers. The 
 
| Xvi NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS 
 
 presidium arranges the Order of Business, and its members can — 
 ‘be called upon by the President to take the chair pro tem. _ 
 Each question (vopros) is stated in a general way and | 
 ‘then debated, and at the close of the debate resolutions are — 
 submitted by the different factions, and each one voted on 
 separately. The Order of Business can be, and usually is, 
 smashed to pieces in the first half hour. On the plea of — 
 “emergency,” which the crowd almost always grants, anybody — 
 from the floor can get up and say anything on any subject. 
 The crowd controls the meeting, practically the only functions | 
 of the speaker being to keep order by ringing a little bell, and 
 to recognise speakers. Almost all the real work of the session 
 is done in caucuses of the different groups and political fac- _ 
 ‘tions, which almost always cast their votes in a body and are 
 represented by floor-leaders. The result is, however, that at 
 every important new point, or vote, the session takes a recess — 
 ‘to enable the different groups and political factions to hold a— 
 caucus. j 
 The crowd is extremely noisy, cheering or heckling tee : 
 -ers, over-riding the plans of the presidium. Among the cus- 
 tomary cries are: “‘Prosim! Please! Go on!” “Pravilno!” 
 or “Eto vierno! That’s true! Right!” “Do volno! Enough!” 
 ‘“Dolot! Down with him!” ‘“Posor! Shame!” and “Teesche! 
 
 Silence! Not so noisy!” 
 
 POPULAR ORGANISATIONS 
 
 1. Soviet. The word soviet means “council.” Under the - 
 ‘Tsar the Imperial Council of State was called Gosudarstvennys © 
 wSoviet. Since the Revolution, however, the term Soviet has 
 come to be associated with a certain type of parliament elected — 
 by members of working-class economic organisations—the 
 Soviet of Workers’, of Soldiers’, or of Peasants’ Deputies. I 
 have therefore limited the word to these bodies, and wherever 
 ‘else it occurs I have translated it ‘Council.’ 
 
a 
 
 Pra 
 —» 
 
 NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS xix. 
 
 ‘ 
 
 Besides the local Soviets, elected in every city, town and 
 ‘village of Russia—and in large cities, also Ward (Raionny) 
 Soviets—there are also the oblastne or gubiernsky (district: 
 or provincial) Soviets, and the Central Executive Committee 
 of the All-Russian Soviets in the capital, called from its initials. 
 ‘Tsay-ee-kah. (See below, “Central Committees’’). 
 ' Almost everywhere the Soviets of Workers’ and of Soldiers’ 
 Deputies combined very soon after the March Revolution. In 
 ‘special matters concerning their peculiar interests, however, the 
 ‘Workers’ and the Soldiers’ Sections continued to meet sep- 
 arately. The Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies did not join the 
 other two until after the Bolshevik coup d’etat. They, too, 
 were organised like the workers and soldiers, with an Execu- 
 ‘tive Committee of the All-Russian Peasants’ Soviets in the 
 capital. 
 _ 2 Trade Unions. Although mostly industrial in form, 
 ‘the Russian labour unions were still called Trade Unions,. 
 and at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution had from three 
 to four million members. ‘These Unions were also organised 
 in an All-Russian body, a sort of Russian Federation of 
 ‘Labour, which had its Central Executive Committee in the 
 capital. 
 
 3. Factory-Shop Committees. 'These were spontaneous 
 organisations created in the factories by the workers in their 
 attempt to control industry, taking advantage of the adminis- 
 ‘trative break-down incident upon the Revolution. Their 
 ‘function was by revolutionary action to take over and 
 run the factories. The Factory-Shop Committees also had 
 their All-Russian organisation, with a Central Committee at 
 Petrograd, which co-operated with the Trade Unions. 
 © 4 Dumas. The word dwma means roughly “deliberative 
 body.” The old Imperial Duma, which persisted six months 
 after the Revolution, in a democratised form, died a natural 
 death in September, 1917. The City Duma referred to in this 
 y 
 
 
 

 
 ak NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS 
 
 book was the reorganised Municipal Council, often called — 
 “Municipal Self-Government.” It was elected by direct and | 
 secret ballot, and its only reason for failure to hold the masses — 
 during the Bolshevik Revolution was the general decline in in-— 
 fluence of all purely political representation in the fact of — 
 the growing power of organisations based on economic groups. _ 
 
 5. Zemstvos. May be roughly translated “county coun- — 
 cils.’ Under the Tsar semi-political, semi-social bodies with © 
 very little administrative power, developed and controlled — 
 largely by intellectual Liberals among the land-owning classes. | 
 Their most important function was education and social] service 
 among the peasants. During the war the Zemstvos gradually — 
 took over the entire feeding and clothing of the Russian Army, — 
 as well as the buying from foreign countries, and work among 
 
 FP, 9 tae 
 
 the soldiers generally corresponding to the work of the Ameri- — 
 ean Y. M. C. A. at the Front. After the March Revolution ~ 
 the Zemstvos were democratized, with a view to making them _ 
 the organs of local government in the rural districts. But like — 
 the City Dumas, they could not compete with the Soviets. 
 
 6. Cooperatives. ‘These were the workers’ and peasants? 
 Consumers’ Cooperative societies, which had several million — 
 members all over Russia before the Revolution. Founded by — 
 Liberals and “moderate” Socialists, the Cooperative move-— 
 
 (Se) een ato 
 
 ment was not supported by the revolutionary Socialist groups, 
 because it was a substitute for the complete transference of 
 means of production and distribution into the hands of the 
 workers. After the March Revolution the Cooperatives spread 
 rapidly, and were dominated by Populist Socialists, Mensheviki 
 and Socialist Revolutionaries, and acted as a conservative - 
 political force until the Bolshevik Revolution. However, it 
 was the Cooperatives which fed Russia when the old structure — 
 of commerce and transportation collapsed. 
 
 7. Army Committees. The Army Committees were formed 
 by the soldiers at the front to combat the reactionary in- 
 
 »* 
 
 che 
 

 
 NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS xxl 
 
 ‘fluence of the old regime officers. Every company, regiment, 
 _ brigade, division and corps had its committee, over all of which 
 was elected the Army Committee. The Central Army Commit- 
 tee cooperated with the General Staff. The administrative 
 | break-down in the army incident upon the Revolution threw 
 ‘upon the shoulders of the Army Committees most of the work 
 of the Quartermaster’s Department, and in some cases, even 
 the command of troops. 
 
 8. Fleet Committees. The corresponding organisations in 
 
 the Navy. 
 CENTRAL COMMITTEES 
 
 | In the spring and summer of 1917, All-Russian conven- 
 | tions of every sort of organisation were held at Petrograd. 
 ''There were national congresses of Workers’, Soldiers’ and 
 _ Peasants’ Soviets, Trade Unions, Factory-Shop Committees, 
 _Army and Fleet Committees—besides every branch of the mili- 
 tary and naval service, Cooperatives, Nationalities, etc. 
 Each of these conventions elected a Central Committee, 
 or a Central Executive Committee, to guard its particular in- 
 terests at the seat of Government. As the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment grew weaker, these Central Committees were forced 
 to assume more and more administrative powers. 
 
 The most important Central Committees mentioned in this 
 book are: 
 
 Union of Unions. During the Revolution of 1905, Pro- 
 fessor Miliukov and other Liberals established unions of pro- 
 fessional men—doctors, lawyers, physicians, etc. These were 
 united under one central organisation, the Union of Unions. 
 In 1905 the Union of Unions acted with the revolutionary 
 democracy; in 1917, however, the Union of Unions opposed 
 the Bolshevik uprising, and united the Government employees 
 who went on strike against the authority of the Soviets. 
 
 Tsay-ee-kah. All-Russian Central Executive Committee of 
 
| Xxii NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS | 
 
 the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. So called | 
 the initials of its name. | 
 Tsentroflot. ‘Centre-Fleet”—the Central Fleet Commit+ 
 tee. 
 Vikzhel. All-Russian Central Committee of the Railway 
 Workers’ Union. So called from the initials of its name. __ 
 
 OTHER ORGANISATIONS 
 
 Red Guards. The armed factory workers of Russia. — 
 The Red Guards were first formed during the Revolution of — 
 1905, and sprang into existence again in the days of March, — 
 1917, when a force was needed to keep order in the | 
 city. At that time they were armed, and all efforts of the — 
 Provisional Government to disarm them were more or less — 
 unsuccessful. At every great crisis in the Revolution the Red 
 Guards appeared on the streets, untrained and undisciplined, | 
 but full of Revolutionary zeal. 
 
 White Guards. Bourgeois volunteers, who emerged in the — 
 last stages of the Revolution, to defend private property from 
 the Bolshevik attempt to abolish it. A great many of them 
 were University students. >a 
 
 Tekhintst. The so-called ‘Savage Division” in the army, 
 made up of Mohametan tribesmen from Central Asia, and 
 personally devoted to General Kornilov. The T'ekhintsi were 
 noted for their blind obedience and their savage cruelty in 
 warfare. 
 
 Death Battalions. Or Shock Battalions. The Women’s . 
 Battalion is known to the world as the Death Battalion, but — 
 there were many Death Battalions composed of men. These 
 were formed in the summer of 1917 by Kerensky, for the © 
 purpose of strengthening the discipline and combative fire — 
 of the army by heroic example. The Death Battalions were — 
 composed mostly of intense young patriots. These came for — 
 
 the most part from among the sons of the propertied classes. LM 
 } 
 
[ie . M 
 ) |e I ‘ 
 My NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS xxiii 
 
 - - Union of Officers. An organisation fornied among the re- 
 _ actionary officers in the army to combat politically the grow- 
 _ ing power of the Army Committees. , 
 
 | Knights of St. George. The Cross of St. George was 
 _ awarded for distinguished action in battle. , Its holder auto- 
 matically became a “Knight of St. George.” ‘The predominant 
 ' influence in the organisation was that of the supporters of the 
 _ military idea. ee 
 Peasants’ Union. In 1905, the Peasants’? Union was a 
 ' revolutionary peasants’ organisation. In 1917, however, it 
 i had become the political expression of the more prosperous 
 i peasants, to fight the growing power and revolutionary aims 
 _ of the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies. 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHRONOLOGY AND SPELLING 
 
 | I have adopted in this book our Calendar throughout, in- 
 _ stead of the former Russian Calendar, which was thirteen da, - 
 earlier. 
 
 In the spelling of Russian names and words, I have made 
 no attempt to follow any scientific rules for transliteration, but 
 have tried to give the spelling which would lead the English- 
 speaking reader to the simplest approximation of their pro- 
 nunciation. 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 Much of the material in this book is from my own notes, 
 I have also relied, however, upon a heterogeneous file of several 
 hundred assorted Russian newspapers, covering almost every 
 day of the time described, of files of the English paper, the 
 Russian Daily News, and of the two French papers, Journal 
 de Russie and Entente. But far more valuable than these is 
 the Bulletin de la Presse issued daily by the French Informa- 
 tion Bureau in Petrograd, which reports all important happen- 
 jngs, speeches and the comment of the Russian press. Of this 
 
 | 
 
 7 
 
xxiv NOWES AND EXPLANATIONS 
 
 I have an almost ‘complete file from the spring of 1917 to the 4 
 end of January, 1918. 4 
 
 Besides the fo regoing, I have in my possession almost every | q 
 proclamation, decree and announcement posted on the walls ‘ 
 of Petrograd from the middle of September, 1917, to the end — 
 of January, 1918. Also the official publication of all Gove 
 ment decrees and orders, and the official Government publica- 
 tion of the secret treaties and other documents discovered in i 
 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when the Bolsheviki took it 
 over. 
 
 
 
TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK 
 THE WORLD 
 
 { CHAPTER I 
 BACKGROUND 
 
 _ Towarp the end of September, 1917, an alien Professor of 
 Sociology visiting Russia came to see me in Petrograd. He 
 had been informed by business men and intellectuals that the 
 Revolution was slowing down. The Professor wrote an 
 article about it, and then travelled around the country, visit- 
 ing factory towns and peasant communities—where, to his 
 astonishment, the Revolution seemed to be speeding up. 
 Among the wage-earners and the land-working people it was 
 common to hear talk of “all land to the peasants, all factories 
 to the workers.” If the Professor had visited the front, he 
 would have heard the whole Army talking Peace. ... 
 
 The Professor was puzzled, but he need not have been; 
 both observations were correct. The property-owning 
 classes were becoming more conservative, the masses of the 
 people more radical. 
 
 There was a feeling among business men and the intelligent- 
 zia generally that the Revolution had gone quite far enough, and 
 lasted too long; that things should settle down. This senti- 
 ment was shared by the dominant “moderate” Socialist groups, 
 the oborontsi! Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, who 
 supported the Provisional Government of Kerensky. 
 
 * References numbered in this manner refer to the Appendix to Chapter 
 . See page 315. 
 1 
 
2 ‘TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 On October 14th the official organ of the “moderate” _ 
 Socialists said: | | 
 
 The drama of Revolution has two acts; the destruction of the old . 
 régime and the creation of the new one. The first act has lasted 
 long enough. Now it is time to go on to the second, and to play it 
 as rapidly as possible. As a great revolutionist put it, “Let us 
 hasten, friends, to terminate the Revolution. He who makes it last © 
 too long will not gather the fruits. . . .” 
 
 Among the worker, soldier and peasant masses, however, — 
 there was a stubborn feeling that the “first act” was not yet — 
 played out. On the front the Army Committees were always 
 running foul of officers who could not get used to treating — 
 their men like human beings; in the rear the Land Committees — 
 elected by the peasants were being jailed for trying to carry 
 out Government regulations concerning the land; and the 
 workmen ? in the factories were fighting black-lists and lock- 
 outs. Nay, furthermore, returning political exiles were being — 
 excluded from the country as “undesirable” citizens; and in © 
 some cases, men who returned from abroad to their villages 
 were prosecuted and imprisoned for revolutionary acts com- 
 mitted in 1905. 
 
 To the multiform discontent of the people the “moderate” 
 Socialists had one answer: Wait for the Constituent Assembly, — 
 which is to meet in December. But the masses were not 
 satisfied with that. The Constituent Assembly was all well — 
 and good; but there were certain definite things for which the 
 Russian Revolution had been made, and for which the revo- 
 lutionary martyrs rotted in their stark Brotherhood Grave 
 on Mars Field, that must be achieved Constituent Assembly 
 or no Constituent Assembly: Peace, Land, and Workers’ Con- 
 trol of Industry. The Constituent Assembly had been post- — 
 poned and postponed—would probably be postponed again, 
 until the people were calm enough—perhaps to modify re 
 
BACKGROUND 3 
 
 
 
 
 demands! At any rate, here were eight months of the Revo- 
 - lution gone, and little enough to show for it. ... 
 q Meanwhile the soldiers began to solve the peace question by 
 simply deserting, the peasants burned manor-houses and took 
 _ over the great estates, the workers sabotaged and struck... . 
 Of course, as was natural, the manufacturers, land-owners 
 and army officers exerted all their influence against any 
 _ democratic compromise. ... 
 _ /The policy of the Provisional Crranene alternated be- 
 _tween ineffective reforms and stern repressive measures. An 
 _ edict from the Socialist Minister of Labour ordered all the 
 - Workers’ Committees henceforth to meet only after working- 
 hours. Among the troops at the front, “agitators” of oppo- 
 _ sition political parties were arrested, radical newspapers closed 
 down, and capital punishment applied—to revolutionary 
 _ propagandists. Attempts were made to disarm the Red Guard. 
 - Cossacks were sent to keep order in the provinces. .. . 
 
 These measures were supported by the “moderate” Social- 
 jsts and their leaders in the Ministry, who considered it neces- 
 sary to cooperate with the propertied classes. ‘The people 
 
 rapidly deserted them, and went over to the Bolsheviki, who 
 stood for Peace, Land, and Workers’ Control of Industry, 
 - and a Government of the working-class. In September, 1917, 
 matters reached a crisis. Against the overwhelming sentiment 
 
 
 
 of the country, Kerensky and the “moderate” Socialists suc- 
 ceeded in establishing a Government of Coalition with the 
 _propertied classes; and as a result, the Mensheviki and Social- 
 ist Revolutionaries lost the confidence of the people forever. 
 An article in Rabotchi Put (Workers’ Way) about the 
 middle of October, entitled “The Socialist Ministers,” ex- 
 _ypressed the feeling of the masses of the people against the 
 *tlmoderate” Socialists: 
 a 
 
 
 
 Here is a list of their services.® 
 Tseretelli: disarmed the workmen with the assistance of Gen~ 
 
4 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD | 
 
 eral Polovtsev, checkmated the revolutionary soldiers, and approved 
 of capital punishment in the army. 2 | 
 
 Skobeliev: commenced by trying to tax the capitalists 100% of — 
 their profits, and finished—and finished by an attempt to dissolvg 
 the Workers’ Committees in the shops and factories. . 
 
 Avksentiev: put several hundred peasants in prison, members” 
 of the Land Committees, and suppressed dozens of workers’ and 
 soldiers’ newspapers. 
 
 Tchernov: signed the “Imperial” manifest, ordering the disso- 
 lution of the Finnish Diet. 
 
 Savinkov: concluded an open alliance with General Kornilov. If 
 this saviour of the country was not able to betray Petrograd, it was — 
 due to reasons over which he had no control. | 
 
 Zarudny: with the sanction of Alexinsky and Kerensky, put | 
 some of the best workers of the Revolution, soldiers and sailors, in’ 
 prison. 
 Nikitin: acted as a vulgar policeman against the Railwav — 
 Workers. 
 
 Kerensky: it is better not to say anything about him. The list 
 of his services is too long. ... 
 
 A Congress of delegates of the Baltic Fleet, at Helsing- 
 
 fors, passed a resolution which began as follows: 
 
 We demand the immediate removal from the ranks of the Pro- 
 visional Government of the “Socialist,” the political adventurer— 
 Kerensky, as one who is scandalising and ruining the great Revo- 
 lution, and with it the revolutionary masses, by his shameless politi- 
 cal blackmail on behalf of the bourgeoisie. ... 
 
 ‘The direct result of all this was the rise of the Bolshe- 
 SAKA VoY G 
 
 Siace March, 1917, when the roaring torrents of workmen 
 and soldiers beating upon the Tauride Palace compelled ths, 
 reluctant Imperial Duma to assume the supreme power in Ru. * 
 sia, it was the masses of the people, workers, soldiers and pea * 
 ants, which forced every change in the course of the a i 
 
 ( 
 
 
 
BACKGROUND 5 
 
 
 
 
 ‘They hurled the Miliukov Ministry down; it was their Soviet 
 shich proclaimed to the world the Russian peace terms—“No 
 Bitiexa tions; no indemnities, and the right of self-determination 
 
 of peoples”; and again, in July, it was the spontaneous ris- 
 
 ing of the unorganised proletariat which once more stormed 
 the Tauride Palace, to demand that the Soviets take over the 
 
 Government of Russia. 
 
 :/ -The Bolsheviki, then a small political sect, put themselves 
 
 at the head of the movement. As a result of the disastrous 
 
 failure of the rising, public opinion turned against them, 
 and their leaderless hordes slunk back into the Viborg Quarter, 
 ihich is Petrograd’s St. Antoine. Then followed a savage 
 
 ! hunt of the Bolsheviki; hundreds were imprisoned, among them 
 
 
 
 Trotzky, Madame Kollontai and Kameniev; Lenin and Zinoviev 
 went into hiding, fugitives from justice; the Bolshevik papers 
 were suppressed. Provocators and reactionaries raised the 
 ery that the Bolsheviki were German agents, until people all 
 over the world believed it. 
 
 _ But the Provisional Government found itself unable to 
 substantiate its accusations; the documents proving pro-Ger- 
 man conspiracy were discovered to be forgeries;* and one by 
 one the Bolsheviki were released from prison without trial, on 
 “nominal or no bail—until only six remained. The impotence 
 and indecision of the ever-changing Provisional Government 
 was an argument nobody could refute. The Bolsheviki raised 
 ‘again the slogan so dear to the masses, “All Power to the 
 Soviets !"—and they were not merely self-seeking, for at 
 that time the majority of the Soviets was “moderate” Socialist, 
 their bitter enemy. 
 
 But more potent still, they took the crude, simple desires 
 of the workers, soldiers and peasants, and from them built 
 “their immediate programme. And so, while the oborontst Men: 
 ~sheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries involved themselves in cor 
 
 .  * Part ef the famous “Sisson Documents.” 
 
 : 
 
 
 
6 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD : i 
 
 promise with the bourgeoisie, the Bolshevile rapidly captured 
 the Russian masses. In July they were hunted and despised; by 
 September the metropolitan workmen, the sailors of the Baltic _ 
 Fleet, and the soldiers, had been won almost entirely to thein | 
 cause. The September municipal elections in the large cities * 
 were significant ; only 18 per cent of the returns were Menshevik - 
 and Socialist Revolutionary, against more than 70 per cent — 
 ify sure...” ae 
 There remains a phenomenon which puzzled foreign ob- 
 servers: the fact that the Central Executive Committees of — 
 the Soviets, the Central Army and Fleet Committees,* and 
 the Central Committees of some of the Unions—notably, the — 
 Post and Telegraph Workers and the Railway Workers—op- 
 posed the Bolsheviki with the utmost violence. These Central — 
 Committees had all been elected in the middle of the summer, — 
 or even before, when the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolution- 
 aries had an enormous following; and they delayed or pre- 
 vented any new elections. ‘Thus, according to the constitu-_ 
 tion of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the 
 All-Russian Congress should have been called in September; — 
 but the T'say-ee-kah* would not call the meeting, on the ground — 
 that the Constituent Assembly was only two months away, — 
 at which time, they hinted, the Soviets would abdicate. Mean- ij 
 while, one by one, the Bolsheviki were winning in the local 
 Soviets all over the country, in the Union branches and the 
 ranks of the soldiers and sailors. ‘The Peasants’ Soviets re- 
 mained still conservative, because in the sluggish rural districts © 
 political consciousness developed slowly, and the Socialist 
 Revolutionary party had been for a generation the party which — 
 had agitated among the peasants. . . . But even among the 
 peasants a revolutionary wing was forming. It showed itself 
 clearly in October, when the left wing of the Socialist Revolu-— 
 * See Notes and Explanations. | 
 
 
 
BACKGROUND % 
 
 
 
 tionaries split off, and formed a new political faction, the Left 
 J Socialist Revolutionaries. 
 
 _ At the same time there were signs everywhere that the 
 forces of reaction were gaining confidence. At the Troitsky 
 Farce theatre in Petrograd, for example, a burlesque called 
 Sins of the Tsar was interrupted by a group of Monarchists, 
 who threatened to lynch the actors for “msulting the Em 
 peror. ” Certain newspapers began to sigh for a “Russian 
 Napoleon.” It was the usual thing among bourgeois intelli- 
 gentzia to refer to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies (Rabot- 
 chikh Deputatov) as Sabatchikh Deputatov—Dogs’ Deputies. 
 _ On October 15th I had a conversation with a great Rus- 
 sian capitalist, Stepan Georgevitch Lianozov, known as the 
 “Russian Rockefeller”—a Cadet by politica] faith. 
 
 | “Revolution,” he said, “is a sickness. Sooner or later 
 the foreign powers must intervene here—as one would inter- 
 vene to cure a sick child, and teach it how to walk. Of course 
 it would be more or less improper, but the nations must realise 
 the danger of Bolshevism in their own countries—such con- 
 fagious ideas as ‘proletarian dictatorship,’ and ‘world social 
 revolution’ . . . There is a chance that this intervention may 
 not be necessary. Transportation is demoralised, the facto- 
 ries are closing down, and the Germans are advancing. 
 Starvation and defeat may bring the Russian people to their 
 Pensea, 4...” 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 Mr. Lianozov was emphatic in his opinion that whatever 
 i1appened, it would be impossible for merchants and manufac- 
 surers to permit the existence of the workers’ Shop Commit- 
 sees, or to allow the workers any share in the management 
 of industry. 
 
 “As for the Bolsheviki, they will be done away with by 
 me of two methods. The Government can evacuate Petro- 
 grad, then a state of siege declared, and the military 
 commander of the district can deal with these gentlemen with- 
 
 S| 
 
 vo 
 4 
 re! 
 
/ 
 / 
 7 
 
 8 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 out legal formalities. . . . Or tf, for example, the Constituent 
 Assembly manifests any Utopian tendencies, it can be dis- 
 persed by force of arms... .” : 
 
 Winter was coming on—the terrible Russian winter. I 
 heard business men speak of it so: ‘Winter was always Rus- 
 sia’s best friend. Perhaps now it will rid us of Revolution.” 
 On the freezing front miserable armies continued to starve and 
 die, without enthusiasm. The railways were breaking down, - 
 food lessening, factories closing. The desperate masses cried | 
 out that the bourgeoisie was sabotaging the life of the people, 
 causing defeat on the Front. Riga had been surrendered just 
 after General Kornilov said publicly, “Must we pay with Riga 
 the price of bringing the country to a sense of its duty?” * | 
 
 To Americans it is incredible that the class war should 
 develop to such a pitch. But I have personally met officers | 
 on the Northern Front who frankly preferred military dis- 
 aster to cooperation with the Soldiers’ Committees. The 
 secretary of the Petrograd branch of the Cadet party told 
 me that the break-down of the country’s economic life was 
 part of a campaign to discredit the Revolution. An Allied 
 diplomat, whose name I promised not to mention, confirmed 
 this from his own knowledge. I know of certain coal-mines 
 near Kharkov which were fired and flooded by their owners, 
 of textile factories at Moscow whose engineers put the machin- 
 ery out of order when they left, of railroad officials caught 
 by the workers in the act of crippling locomotives. .. . 
 
 A large section of the propertied classes preferred the 
 Germans to the Revolution—even to the Provisional Govern- 
 ment—and didn’t hesitate to say so. In the Russian house- 
 hold where I lived, the subject of conversation at the dinner- 
 table was almost invariably the coming of the Germans, bring- 
 ing “law and order.” . . . One evening I spent at the house 
 
 * See “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk,” by John Reed. Boni and Liveright, 
 N. Y.. 1919. 
 
 i 
 + 
 
 : 
 
 
 
BACKGROUND 9 
 
 
 
 ‘of a Moscow merchant; during tea we asked the eleven people 
 at the table whether they preferred “Wilhelm or the Bol- 
 | sheviki.” ‘The vote was ten to one for Wilhelm... 
 
 ‘The speculators took advantage of the universal disor- 
 | ganisation to pile up fortunes, and to spend them in fantastic 
 “revelry or the corruption of Government officials. Food- 
 'stuffs and fuel were hoarded, or secretly sent out of the coun- 
 try to Sweden. In the first four months of the Revolution, 
 for example, the reserve food-supplies were almost openly 
 looted from the great Municipal warehouses of Petrograd, 
 \until the two-years’ provision of grain had fallen to less than 
 ‘enough to feed the city for one month. . . . According to the 
 official report of the last Minister of Supplies in the Provi- 
 sional Government, coffee was bought wholesale in Vladivostok 
 ‘for two rubles a pound, and the consumer in Petrograd paid 
 ‘thirteen. In all the stores of the large cities were tons of 
 food and clothing; but only the rich could buy them. 
 
 ' In a provincial town I knew a merchant family turned 
 ‘speculator—maradior (bandit, ghoul) the Russians call it. 
 'The three sons had bribed their way out of military service. 
 ‘One gambled in foodstuffs. Another sold illegal gold from 
 ‘the Lena mines to mysterious parties in Finland. The third 
 ‘owned a controlling interest in a chocolate factory, which 
 ‘supplied the local Cooperative societies—on condition that 
 the Cooperatives furnished him everything he needed. And 
 80, while the masses of the people got a quarter pound of 
 black bread on their bread cards, he had an abundance of 
 Ben bread, sugar, tea, candy, cake and butter... . Yet 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 when the soldiers at the front could no longer fight from cold, 
 hunger and exhaustion, how indignantly did this family scream 
 ~“Cowards !”—how “ashamed” they were “to be Russians” 
 When finally the Bolsheviki found and requisitioned vast 
 hoarded stores of provisions, what “Robbers” they were. 
 Beneath all this external rottenness moved the old-time 
 
10 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Dark Forces, unchanged since the fall of Nicholas the Second, 
 secret still and very active. The agents of the notorious 
 Okhrana still functioned, for and against the Tsar, for and 
 against Kerensky—whoever would pay. . . . In the darkness, 
 underground organisations of all sorts, such as the Black 
 Hundreds, were busy attempting to restore reaction in some | 
 form or other. | 
 
 In this atmosphere of corruption, of monstrous half-truths, 
 one clear note sounded day after day, the deepening chorus 
 of the Bolsheviki, “All Power %o the Soviets! All power to 
 the direct representatives of millions on millions of common 
 workers, soldiers, peasants. Land, bread, an end to the sense- 
 less war, an end to secret diplomacy, speculation, treachery. | 
 
 - The Revolution is in danger, and with it the cause of | 
 
 the pao all over the world!’ 
 
 The struggle between the proletariat and the middle class, | 
 between the Soviets and the Government, which had begun in | 
 the first March days, was about to culminate. Having at oreé 
 bound leaped from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century, 
 Russia showed the startled world two systems of Revolution 
 —the political and the social—in mortal combat. f 
 
 What a revelation of the vitality of the Russian Revolu- 
 tion, after all these months of starvation and disillusionment! — 
 The bourgeoisie should have better known its Russia. Not 
 for a long time in Russia, will the “sickness” of Revolution have 
 run its course... . 
 
 Looking back, Russia before the November insurrection 
 seems of another age, almost incredibly conservative. So 
 quickly did we adapt ourselves to the newer, swifter life; just 
 as Russian politics swung bodily to the Left—until the Cadets 
 were outlawed as “enemies of the people,” Kerensky became 
 a ‘“counter-revolutionist,” the “middle” Socialist leaders, 
 Tseretelli, Dan, Lieber, Gotz and Avksentiev, were too reag- 
 
 
 
BACKGROUND 3 iT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ionary for their following, and men like Victor Tchernov, and 
 ven Maxim Gorky, belonged to the Right Wing... . 
 
 - About the middle of December, 1917, a group of Socialist 
 Re islationary leaders paid a private visit to Sir George 
 F B ane, the British Ambassador, and implored him not to 
 mention the fact that they had been there, because they were 
 “considered too far Right.” 
 
 P “And to think,” said Sir George. “One year ago my Gov- 
 ernment instructed me not to receive Miliukov, because he was 
 
 30 dangerously Left!” 
 
 H 
 
 } 2 September and October are the worst months of the Rus- 
 - sian year—especially the Petrograd year. Under dull grey 
 _ skies, in the shortening days, the rain fell drenching, inces- 
 ee The mud underfoot was deep, slippery and clinging, 
 tracked everywhere by heavy boots, and worse than usual be- 
 cause of the complete break-down of the Municipal admin- 
 istration. Bitter damp winds rushed in from the Gulf of 
 _ inland, and the chill fog rolled through the streets. At 
 night, for motives of economy as well as fear of Zeppelins, the 
 street-lights were few and far between; in private dwellings 
 and apartment-houses the electricity was turned on from six 
 
 | 
 ii 
 i 
 i 
 t 
 j 
 
 = ’clock until midnight, with candles forty cents apiece and 
 little kerosene to be had. It was dark from three in the 
 ‘afternoon to ten in the morning. Robberies and _ house- 
 " breakings increased. In apartment houses the men took turns 
 ae all-night guard duty, armed with loaded rifles. This was 
 under the Provisiona! Government. 
 
 4" 7 Week by week food became scarcer. 'The daily allowance 
 of bread fell from a pound and a half to a pound, then three- 
 | quarters, half, and a quarter-pound. Toward the end there 
 _ was a week without any bread at all. Sugar one was entitled 
 to at the rate of two pounds a month—if one could get it at 
 all, which was seldom. A bar of chocolate or a pound of 
 
 BY 
 & 
 
 a 
 
 
 
4 
 12 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 tasteless candy cost anywhere from seven to ten rubles—at 
 Jeast a dollar. There was milk for about half the babies in 
 the city; most hotels and private houses never saw it for 
 
 months. In the fruit season apples and pears sold for a little 
 Jess than a ruble apiece on the street-corner. . . . 
 
 For milk and bread and sugar and tobacco one had to 
 
 stand in queue long hours in the chill rain. Coming home 
 
 from an all-night meeting I have seen the kvost (tail) begin- 
 
 ning to form before dawn, mostly women, some with babies in 
 
 their arms. .. . Carlyle, in his French Revolution, has de- 
 scribed the French people as distinguished above all others — 
 by their faculty of standing in queue. Russia had accustomed 2 
 herself to the practice, begun in the reign of Nicholas the | 
 Blessed as long ago as 1915, and from then continued inter- ) 
 mittently until the summer of 1917, when it settled down as 
 the regular order of things. ‘Think of the poorly-clad people — 
 standing on the iron-white streets of Petrograd whole days — 
 in the Russian winter! I have listened in the bread-lines, hear- — 
 
 ing the bitter, acrid note of discontent which from time to 
 time burst up through the miraculous goodnature of the Rus- 
 sian crowd. ... 
 
 Of course all the theatres were going every night, including 
 Sundays. Karsavina appeared in a new Ballet at the Marin- 
 sky, all dance-loving Russia coming te see her. Shaliapin 
 was singing. At the Alexandrinsky they were reviving Meyer- 
 hold’s production of Tolstoy’s “Death of Ivan the Terrible” ; 
 and at that performance I remember noticing a student of the 
 Imperial School of Pages, in his dress uniform, who stood 
 up correctly between the acts and faced the empty Imperial 
 box, with its eagles all erased. ... The Krivoye Zerkalo 
 staged a sumptuous version of Schnitzler’s *“*Reigen.” 
 
 Although the Hermitage and other picture galleries had 
 been evacuated to Moscow, there were weekly exhibitions of 
 paintings. Hordes of the female intelligentzia went to hear 
 
 
 
eo BACKGROUND 13° 
 
 4 lectures on Art, Literature and the Easy Philosophies. It 
 ‘a Pe a particularly active season for Theosophists. And the 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rea. old-trimmed crimson ‘bashliki and their elaborate Caucasian 
 swords around the hotel lobbies. The ladies of the minor 
 _ bureaucratic set took tea with each other in the afternoon, 
 | carrying each her little gold or silver or jewelled sugar-box, 
 and half a loaf of bread in her muff, and wished that the Tsar 
 exe back, or that the Germans would come, or anything that 
 _would solve the servant problem. . . The daughter of a 
 friend of mine came home one oroee | in hysterics because 
 hen. woman street-car conductor had called her “Comrade!” 
 All around them great Russia was in travail, bearing a 
 “new world. ‘The servants one used to treat like animals and 
 pay next to nothing, were getting independent. A pair of 
 shoes cost more than a hundred rubles, and as wages averaged 
 it about thirty-five rubles a month the servants refused to 
 ‘stand in queue and wear out their shoes. But more than 
 - that. In the new Russia every man and woman could vote; 
 E were working-class newspapers, saying new and start- 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sees Ret ee 
 
 ling things; there were the Soviets; and there were the Unions. 
 The izvoshtchiki (cab-drivers) had a Union; they were also 
 ‘represented in the Petrograd Soviet. The waiters and hotel- 
 servants were organised, and refused tips. On the walls of 
 
14 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ~ 
 
 restaurants they put up signs which read, “No tips taken 
 here—” or, “Just because a man has to make his living waiting 
 on table is no reason to insult him by offering him a tip!” 
 
 At the Front the soldiers fought out their fight with the 
 officers, and learned self-government through their committees. 
 In the factories those unique Russian organisations, the Fac- 
 tory-Shop Committees,* gained experience and strength and a 
 realisation of their historical mission by combat with the old 
 order. All Russia was learning to read, and reading—poli- 
 tics, economics, history—because the people wanted to | 
 know. . . . In every city, in most towns, along the Front, 
 each political faction had its newspaper—sometimes several. | 
 Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets were distributed by | 
 thousands of organisations, and poured into the armies, the _ 
 villages, the factories, the streets. The thirst for education, | 
 so long thwarted, burst with the Revolution into a frenzy of | 
 expression. From Smolny Institute alone, the first six months, — 
 went out every day tons, car-loads, train-loads of literature, © 
 saturating the land. Russia absorbed reading matter like hot 
 sand drinks water, insatiable. And it was not fables, falsified 
 history, diluted religion, and the cheap fiction that corrupts 
 —but social and economic theories, philosophy, the works of 
 ‘Tolstoy, Gogol, and Gorky. .. . 
 
 Then the Talk, beside which Carlyle’s “flood of French 
 speech” was a mere trickle. Lectures, debates, speeches—in 
 theatres, circuses, school-houses, clubs, Soviet meeting-rooms, 
 Union headquarters, barracks. . . . Meetings in the trenches 
 at the Front, in village squares, factories. . . . What a marvel- 
 lous sight to see Putilovsky Zavod (the Putilov factory) pour 
 out its forty thousand to listen to Social Democrats, Socialist 
 Revolutionaries, Anarchists, anybody, whatever they had to 
 say, as long as they would talk! For months in Petrograd, 
 and all over Russia, every street-corner was a public tribune. — 
 
 * See Notes and xplanations. 
 
 
 
A 4 rr ip 
 t Z fd 
 , 
 
 
 
 BACKGROUND ; 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ¢ i apromptu debate, everywhere. 
 
 _ And the All-Russian Conferences and Congresses, drawing 
 : together the men of two continents—conventions of Soviets, 
 , . alee Zemstvos,* nationalities, priests, peasants, po- 
 
 ie ference, the Council of the Russian Republic. There were 
 _ always three or four conventions going on in Petrograd. At 
 _ every meeting, attempts to limit the time of speakers voted 
 
 Riga, where gaunt and bootless men sickened in the mud of 
 rate trenches ; and when they saw us they started up, 
 
 their torn clothing, demanding eagerly, “Did you bring any- 
 _ thing to read?” 
 
 _ What though the outward and visible signs of change 
 "were many, what though the statue of Catharine the Great 
 4 before the Alexandrinsky Theatre bore a little red flag in its 
 
 ; Sidings and the Imperial monograms and eagles were Atha 
 torn down or covered up; and in place of the fierce gorodovoye 
 (city police) a mild-mannered and unarmed citizen militia 
 patrolled the streets—still, there were many quaint anachron- 
 isms. 
 
 For example, Peter the Great’s Tabel 0 Rangov—Table 
 ‘of Ranks—which he rivetted upon Russia with an iron hand, 
 still held sway. Almost everybody from the school-boy up 
 wore his prescribed uniform, with the insignia of the Emperor 
 von button and shoulder-strap. Along about five o’clock in 
 the afternoon the streets were full of subdued old gentlemen 
 in uniform, with portfolios, going home from work in the 
 
 
 
 
 
 ah? EE 
 
 
 
 Re 
 
 *See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 eS Rey Se 
 
t Sar 
 i 
 
 16 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD — : 
 
 huge, barrack-like Ministries or Government institutions, cal- 
 culating perhaps how great a mortality among their superiors. 
 would advance them to the coveted tchin (rank) of Collegiate 
 Assessor, or Privy Councillor, with the prospect of retirement 
 on a comfortable pension, and possibly the Cross of St. 
 PATING. Yi. F.L dlc 
 
 There is the story of Senator Sokolov, uae in full tide of 
 Revolution came to a meeting of the Senate one day in civilian 
 clothes, and was not admitted because he did not wear the 
 prescribed livery of the Tsar’s service! | 
 
 It was against this background of a whole nation in fer- 
 ment and disintegration that the pageant of the Rising of 
 the Russian Masses unrolled. ; ! 
 
 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 
 
 va THE COMING STORM 
 
 
 
 i In September General Kornilov marched on Petrograd to 
 ake himself military dictator of Russia. Behind him was 
 BF ideniy revealed the mailed fist of the bourgeoisie, boldly at- 
 ' tempting to crush the Revolution. Some of the Socialist 
 NY] Ainisters were implicated; even Kerensky was under suspi- 
 Weion.2 _ Savinkov, summoned to explain to the Central Com- 
 “mittee of his party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, refused and 
 pres expelled. Kornilov was arrested by the Soldiers’ Com- 
 perttees. Generals were dismissed, Ministers suspended from 
 
 their functions, and the Cabinet fell. 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kerensky tried to form a new Government, including the 
 Cadets, party of the bourgeoisie. His party, the Socialist 
 Revolutionaries, ordered him to exclude the Cadets. Kerensky 
 declined to obey, and threatened to resign from the Cabinet if 
 : the Socialists insisted. However, popular feeling ran so high 
 that for the moment he did not dare oppose it, and a tem- 
 porary Directorate of Five of the old Ministers, with Keren- 
 | sky at the head, assumed the power until the question should 
 be settled. 
 
 } The Kornilov affair drew together all the Socialist groups 
 ) —‘“moderates” as well as revolutionists—in a passionate impulse 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 of self-defence. ‘There must be no more Kornilovs. A new 
 Government must be created, responsible to the elements sup- 
 porting the Revolution. So the T'say-ee-kah invited the popu- 
 *References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter II. See 
 page 317. 
 17 
 
18 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 lar organisations to send delegates to a Democratic Confer- 
 ence, which should meet at Petrograd in September. { 
 
 In the T'say-ee-kah three factions immediately appeared. 
 The Bolsheviki demanded that the All-Russian Congress of 
 Soviets be summoned, and that they take over the power. 
 The “centre” Socialist Revolutionaries, led by Tchernov, 
 joined with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, led by Kamkov 
 and Spiridonova, the Mensheviki Internationalists under 
 Martoy, and the “centre” Mensheviki,* represented by Bog- 
 danov and Skobeliev, in demanding a purely Socialist Govern- 
 ment. ‘T'seretelli, Dan and Lieber, at the head of the right 
 wing Mensheviki, and the right Socialist Revolutionaries under 
 Avksentiev and Gotz, insisted that the propertied classes | 
 must be represented in the new Government. 2 
 
 Almost immediately the Bolsheviki won a majority in the | 
 Petrograd Soviet, and the Soviets of Moscow, Kiev, Odessa — 
 and other cities followed suit. 
 
 Alarmed, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries in 
 control of the T’say-ee-kah decided that after all they feared 
 the danger of Kornilov less than the danger of Lenin. They 
 revised the plan of representation in the Democratic Confer- 
 ence,” admitting more delegates from the Cooperative Societies 
 and other conservative bodies. Even this packed assembly 
 at first voted for a Coalition Government without the Cadets. 
 Only Kerensky’s open threat of resignation, and the alarm- 
 ing cries of the “moderate” Socialists that “the Republic is 
 in danger” persuaded the Conference, by a small majority, to 
 declare in favour of the principle of coalition with the bour- 
 geoisie, and to sanction the establishment of a sort of consulta-_ 
 tive Parliament, without any legislative power, called the 
 Provisional Council of the Russian Republic. In the new 
 Ministry the propertied classes practically controlled, tnd in 
 
 *See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 | 
 
 
 
THE COMING STORM 19 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 he Council of the Russian Republic they occupied a dispro- 
 portionate number of seats. 
 
 ‘ The fact is that the T'say-ce-kah no longer represented the 
 rank and file of the Soviets, and had illegally refused to call 
 another All-Russian Congress of Soviets, due in September. It 
 _had no intention of calling this Congress or of allowing it to be 
 called. Its official organ, Izviestia (News), began to hint that 
 : the function of the Soviets was nearly at an end,*® and that 
 they might soon be dissolved . . . At this time, too, the new 
 Government announced as part of its policy the liquidation of 
 Vs ‘irresponsible organisations”—i.e. the Soviets. 
 
 Ly The Bolsheviki responded by summoning the All-Russian 
 
 _ would not participate in a “Government of Treason to the 
 gr eople.” + 
 
 | The withdrawal of the Bolsheviki, however, did not bring 
 
 _ tranquillity to the ill-fated Council. The propertied classes, 
 
 ‘now in a position of power, became arrogant. The Cadets 
 
 declared that the Government had no legal right to declare 
 
 ‘9 ussia a republic. They demanded stern measures in the 
 
 _ Army and Navy to destroy the Soldiers’ and Sailors? Commit- 
 
 tees, and denounced the Soviets. On the other side of the 
 
 chamber the Mensheviki Internationalists and the Left Social- 
 ist Revolutionaries advocated immediate peace, land to the 
 
 7 asants, and workers’ control of industry—practically the 
 
 Bolshevik programme. 
 
 _ Iheard Martov’s speech in answer to the Cadets. Stooped 
 ‘over the desk of the tribune like the mortally sick man he was, 
 find speaking in a voice so hoarse it could hardly be heard, 
 he shook his finger toward the right benches: 
 
 “Vou call us defeatists; but the real defeatists are those 
 who wait for a more propitious moment to conclude peace, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ee ee 
 
 
 
 ap 
 | 
 
f 
 
 4 
 ? 
 ; 
 
 20 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ‘ 
 
 insist upon postponing peace until later, until nothing is left 
 of the Russian army, until Russia becomes the subject of © 
 bargaining between the different imperialist groups. . . . 
 You are trying to impose upon the Russian people a policy 
 dictated by the interests of the bourgeoisie. The question of 
 peace should be raised without delay. . . . You will see then 
 that not in vain has been the work of those whom you call 
 German agents, of those Zimmerwaldists * who in all the lands 
 have prepared the awakening of the conscience of the demo- 
 cratic masses. .. .” 
 
 Between these two groups the Mensheviki and Socialist | 
 Revolutionaries wavered, irresistibly forced to the left by the 
 pressure of the rising dissatisfaction of the masses. Deep’ 
 hostility divided the chamber into irreconcilable groups. 
 
 This was the situation when the long-awaited announce- | 
 ment of the Allied Conference in Paris brought up the burning ) 
 question of foreign policy. . 
 
 Theoretically all Socialist Hvartiew in Russia were in bayou 
 of the earliest possible peace on democratic terms. As long 
 ago as May, 1917, the Petrograd Soviet, then under control 
 of the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, had pro- 
 claimed the famous Russian peace-conditions. They had de- 
 manded that the Allies hold a conference to discuss war-aims. 
 This conference had been promised for August; then postponed 
 until September; then until October; and now it was fixed for 
 November 10th. Sa 
 
 The Provisional Government suggested two representa- 
 tives—General Alexeyev, reactionary military man, and Ter- 
 estchenko, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Soviets chose 
 Skobeliev to speak for them and drew up a manifesto, the 
 famous nakaz °—instructions. The Provisional Government 
 
 “ Members of the revolutionary internationalist wing of the Socialists of — 
 Europe, so-called because of their participation in the International Con-. 
 ference held at Zimmerwald, Switzerland, in 1915. 
 
 
 
ier eral’! | 
 mire: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE COMING STORM 21 
 " oh jected to Skobeliev and his nakaz; the Allied ambassadors 
 
 Commons, in answer to a question, responded coldly, “As far 
 as I know the Paris Conference will not discuss the aims of 
 _ the war at all, but only the methods of conducting it. . . .” 
 
 Ai _ At this the conservative Russian press was jubilant, and 
 the Bolsheviki cried, “See where the compromising tactics of 
 she Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries have led them!” 
 
 Along a thousand miles of front the millions of men 
 in Russia’s armies stirred like the sea rising, pouring into the 
 capital their hundreds upon hundreds of delegations, crying 
 | “Peace! Peace!” 
 
 4 I went across the river to the Cirque Moderne, to one of 
 the great popular meetings which occurred all over the city, 
 nore numerous night after night. The bare, gloomy amphi- 
 heatre, lit by five tiny lights hanging from a thin wire, was 
 packed from the ring up the steep sweep of grimy benches to 
 q ' he very roof—soldiers, sailors, workmen, women, all listening 
 as if their lives depended upon it. A soldier was speaking—: 
 
 from the Five Hundred and Forty-eighth Division, wherever 
 and whatever that was: 
 
 | “Comrades,” he cried, and there was real anguish in his 
 drawn face and despairing gestures. “The people at the 
 top are always calling upon us to sacrifice more, sacrifice more, 
 while those who have everything are left unmolested. 
 
 % “We are at war with Germany. Would we invite German 
 generals to serve on our Staff? Well we’re at war with the 
 : “capitalists too, and yet we invite them into our Govern- 
 ‘ment. 
 
 “The soldier says, ‘Show me what I am fighting for. Is it 
 I Constantinople, or is it free Russia? Is it the democracy, or 
 is it the capitalist plunderers? If you can prove to me that 
 ‘I am defending the Revolution then I’ll go out and fight with- 
 ' out capital punishment to force me.’ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
22 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ‘ 
 
 “‘When the land belongs to the peasants, and the factories to” 
 the workers, and the power to the Soviets, then we'll know 
 we have something to fight for, and we'll fight for it!” 
 
 In the barracks, the factories, on the street-corners, end- 
 less soldier speakers, all clamouring for an end to the war, 
 declaring that if the Government did not make an energetic 
 effort to get peace, the army would leave the trenches and go 
 home. 
 
 The spokesman for the Eighth Army: 
 
 ““We are weak, we have only a few men left in each com- 
 pany. ‘They must give us food and boots and reinforcements, 
 or soon there will be left only empty trenches. Peace or sup- 
 plies . . . either let the Government end the war or support _ 
 the Army... .” 
 
 For the Forty-sixth Siberian Artillery: 
 
 “The officers will not work with our Committees, they be- 
 tray us to the enemy, they apply the death penalty to our _ 
 agitators; and the counter-revolutionary Government sup- 
 ports them. We thought that the Revolution would bring 
 peace. But now the Government forbids us even to talk of 
 such things, and at the same time doesn’t give us enough food — 
 to live on, or enough ammunition to fight with... .” 
 
 From Europe came rumours of peace at the expense of 
 WN igsia:” 3. 
 
 News of the treatment of Russian troops in France added 
 to the discontent. The First Brigade had tried to replace — 
 its officers with Soldiers’ Committees, like their comrades at 
 home, and had refused an order to go to Salonika, demanding 
 to be sent to Russia. They had been surrounded and starved, 
 and then fired on by artillery, and many killed.7 . . . 
 
 On October 29th I went to the white-marble and crimson 
 hall of the Marinsky palace, where the Council of the Republic 
 
 sat, to hear Terestchenko’s declaration of the Government’s 
 
 
 
THE COMING STORM | 23 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 foreign policy, awaited with such terrible anxiety by all the 
 yeace-thirsty and exhausted land. 
 
 : e tall, impeccably-dressed young man with a smooth face 
 md high cheek-bones, suavely reading his careful, non-com- 
 nittal speech.8 Nothing . . . Only the same platitudes about 
 rushing German militarism with the help of the Allies—about 
 he “state interests” of Russia, about the “embarrassment” 
 
 aused by Skobeliev’s nakaz. He ended with the key-note: 
 
 “Russia is a great power. Russia will remain a great 
 ower, whatever happens. We must all defend her, we must 
 
 
 
 Nobody was satisfied. The reactionaries wanted a 
 
 reproduce an editorial in Rabotchi i Soldat (Worker and Sol- 
 ‘dier), organ of the Bolshevik Petrograd Soviet: 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT'S ANSWER TO THE TRENCHES 
 
 The most taciturn of our Ministers, Mr. Terestchenko, has ac- 
 tually told the trenches the following: 
 
 a 1. We are closely united with our Allies. (Not with the 
 ‘peoples, but with the Governments.) 
 
 _ 2. There is no use for the democracy to discuss the possibility 
 | r impossibility of a winter campaign. That will be decided by 
 | he Governments of our Allies. 
 
 x 3. The 1st of July offensive was beneficial and a very happy 
 eee. (He did not mention the consequences. ) 
 
 _ 4. It is not true that our Allies do not care about us. The 
 Minister has in his possession very important declarations. (Dec- 
 larations? What about deeds? What about the behaviour of the 
 ‘British fleet? ® The parleying of the British king with exiled 
 counter-revolutionary General Gurko? The Minister did not men- 
 tion all this.) 
 
 | 5. The nakaz to Skobeliev is bad; the Allies don’t like it and 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 > ys Pts 
 
“ 
 
 -_ 
 
 24 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Wn 
 
 the Russian diplomats don’t like it. In the Allied Conference we 
 must all ‘speak one language.’ | 
 And is that all? That is all. What is th way out? The 
 solution is, faith in the Allies and in Terestchenko. When will | 
 peace come? When the Allies permit. 
 That is how the Government replied to the trenches about 
 peace! 
 
 Now in the background of Russian politics began to form 
 the vague outlines of a sinister power—the Cossacks. Novaya 
 Zhizn (New Life), Gorky’s paper, called attention to their 
 activities : 
 
 At the beginning of the Revolution the Cossacks refused to shoot 
 down the people. When Kornilov marched on Petrograd they re- | 
 fused to follow him. From passive loyalty to the Revolution the - 
 Cossacks have passed to an active political offensive (against it). 
 From the back-ground of the Revolution they have suddenly ad- 
 vanced to the front of the stage. .. . 
 
 Kaledin, ataman of the Don Cossacks, had been dismissed 
 by the Provisional Government for his complicity in the Korni- | 
 lov affair. He flatly refused to resign, and surrounded by 
 three immense Cossack armies lay at Novotcherkask, plotting 
 and menacing. So great was his power that the Government 
 was forced to ignore his insubordination. More than that, 
 it was compelled formally to recognise the Council of the Union 
 of Cossack Armies, and to declare illegal the newly-formed 
 Cossack Section of the Soviets. 
 
 In the first part of October a Cossack delegation called 
 upon Kerensky, arrogantly insisting that the charges against 
 Kaledin be dropped, and reproaching the Minister-President 
 for yielding to the Soviets. Kerensky agreed to let Kaledin 
 alone, and then is reported to have said, “In the eyes of the 
 Soviet leaders I am a despot and a tyrant. ... As for the 
 Provisional Government. not only does it not depend upon the 
 
 
 
THE COMING STORM > 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : Soviets, but it considers it regrettable that they exist at all.” 
 _ At the same time another Cossack mission called upon 
 . the British ambassador, treating with him boldly as repre- 
 
 : In the Don something very like a (Gosace Republic had 
 been established. The Kuban declared itself an independent 
 Cossack State. The Soviets of Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterin- 
 _ burg were dispersed by armed Cossacks, and the headquarters 
 of the Coal Miners’ Union at Kharkoy raided. In all its 
 on anifestations the Cossack movement was anti-Socialist and 
 * ilitaristic. Its leaders were nobles and great land-owners, 
 ee Kaledin, Kornilov, Generals Dutov, Karaulov and Bar- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : ‘Old Russia was te breaking up. In Ukraine, in Fin- 
 land, Poland, White Russia, the nationalist movements gath- 
 ered strength and became bolder. The local Governments, 
 “controlled by the propertied classes, claimed autonomy, re- 
 ! fusing to obey orders from Petrograd. At Helsingfors the 
 | Finnish Senate declined to loan money to the Provisional Gov: 
 ernment, declared Finland autonomous, and demanded the 
 withdrawal of Russian troops. The bourgeois Rada at 
 Kiev extended the boundaries of Ukraine until they included 
 all the richest agricultural lands of South Russia, as far east 
 
 EA 
 ‘ : 
 
 “as the Urals, and began the formation of a national army. 
 f -remier Vinnitchenko hinted at a separate peace with Ger- 
 | many—and the Provisional Government was helpless. Siberia, 
 
 
 
 i 
 | 
 
 Mth Caucasus, demanded separate Constituent Assemblies. 
 i And in all these countries there was the beginning of a bitter 
 "struggle between the authorities and the local Soviets of 
 | Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. . .. 
 
 ' Conditions were daily more chaotic. Hundreds of thou- 
 ‘4 sands of soldiers were deserting the front and beginning to 
 move in vast, aimless tides over the face of the land. The 
 | 
 
26 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 peasants of Tambov and Tver Governments, tired of waiting 
 for the land, exasperated by the repressive measures of the Gov- 
 ernment, were burning manor-houses and massacring land-own- | 
 ers. Immense strikes and lock-outs convulsed Moscow, Odessa 
 and the coal-mines of the Don. Transportation was paralysed; 
 the army was starving and in the big cities there was no bread. 
 
 The Government, torn between the democratic and reac- 
 tionary factions, could do nothing: when forced to act it al- 
 ways supported the interests of the propertied classes. Cos- 
 sacks were sent to restore order among the peasants, to break 
 the strikes. In Tashkent, Government authorities suppressed 
 the Soviet. In Petrograd the Economic Council, established 
 to rebuild the shattered economic life of the country, came to a_ 
 deadlock between the opposing forces of capital and labour, 
 and was dissolved’by Kerensky. The old régime military men, | 
 backed by Cadets, demanded that harsh measures be adopted. 
 to restore discipline in the Army and the Navy. In vain Ad- | 
 miral Verderevsky, the venerable Minister of Marine, and Gen- © 
 eral Verkhovsky, Minister of War, insisted that only a new, vol- 
 untary, democratic discipline, based on cooperation with the | 
 soldiers’ and sailors’ Committees, could save the army and 
 navy. Their recommendations were ignored. 
 
 The reactionaries seemed determined tc provoke popular 
 anger. ‘Ihe trial of Korniloy was coming on. More and 
 more openly the bourgeois press defended him, speaking of 
 him as “the great Russian patriot.” Burtzev’s _ paper, 
 Obshtchee Dielo (Common Cause), called for a dictatorship of 
 Kornilov, Kaledin and Kerensky! 
 
 I had a talk with Burtzev one day in the press gallery of 
 the Council of the Republic. A small, stooped figure with a — 
 wrinkled face, eyes near-sighted behind thick glasses, untidy 
 hair and beard streaked with grey. 
 
 “Mark my words, young man! What Russia needs is a 
 Strong Man. We should get our minds off the Revolution now 
 
 
 
THE COMING STORM — 27 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : and concentrate on the Germans. Bunglers, bunglers, to defeat 
 -Kornilov; and back of the bunglers are the German agents. 
 -Kornilov should have won... .” 
 
 On the extreme right the organs of the scarcely-veiled Mon- 
 f archists, Purishkevitch’s Narodny Tribun (People’s Tribune), 
 
 4 ; ocracy. 
 
  /On tke 23rd of October occurred the naval battle with 
 of fete dit squadron in the Gulf of Riga. On the pretext that 
 Petrograd was in danger, the Provisional Government drew 
 ie plans for evacuating the pet First the great muni- 
 i: nd then the Government itself was to move to Moscow. In- 
 . 5 antly the Bolsheviki began to cry out that the Government 
 ' was abandoning the Red Capital in order to weaken the Revo- 
 ‘Tution. Riga had been sold to the Germans; now Petrograd 
 "was being betrayed! 
 
 The bourgeois press was joyful. “At Moscow,” said the 
 
 its work in a tranquil atmosphere, without being interfered 
 | with by anarchists.” Rodzianko, leader of the right wing of the 
 ( adet party, declared in Utro Rossii (The Morning of Russia) 
 i : hat the taking of Petrograd by the Germans would be a bless- 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ Petrograd is in danger (he wrote). I say to myself, “Let God 
 take care of Petrograd.” They fear that if Petrograd is lost the 
 central revolutionary organisations will be destroyed. To that I 
 answer that I rejoice if all these organisations are destroyed; for 
 ‘they will bring nothing but disaster upon Russia... . 
 
 _ With the taking of Petrograd the Baltic Fleet will also be de- 
 stroyed. . . But there will be es to regret; most of the 
 | a are completely demoralised. 
 
 a 
 
 
 
28 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 In the face of a storm of popular disapproval the plan of 
 evacuation was repudiated. | : 
 
 Meanwhile the Congress of Soviets loomed over Russia hike | 
 a thunder-cloud, shot through with lightnings. It was, /op- 
 posed, not only by the Government but by all the “moderate” 
 Socialists. 'The Central Army and Fleet Committees, the Cen-_ 
 tral Committees of some of the Trade Unions, the Peasants’ 
 Soviets, but most of all the T'say-ee-kah itself, spared no pains” 
 to prevent the meeting. Izviestia and Golos Soldata (Voice of 
 the Soldier), newspapers founded by the Petrograd Soviet 
 but now in the hands of the T'say-ee-kah, fiercely assailed it, as 
 did the entire artillery of the Socialist Revolutionary party | 
 press, Dielo Naroda (People’s Cause) and Volia Naroda (Peo- — 
 ple’s Will). 
 
 Delegates were sent through the country, messages flashed | 
 by wire to committees in charge of local Soviets, to Army Com- | 
 mittees, instructing them to halt or delay elections to the Con- 
 gress. Solemn public resolutions against the Congress, declara- _ 
 tions that the democracy was opposed to the meeting so near 
 the date of the Constituent Assembly, representatives from the 
 Front, from the Union of Zemstvos, the Peasants’ Union, Union 
 of Cossack Armies, Union of Officers, Knights of St. George, 
 Death Battalions,* protesting. . . . The Council of the Rus- 
 sian Republic was one chorus of disapproval. The entire ma- 
 chinery set up by the Russian Revolution of March functioned 
 to block the Congress of Soviets. ... | 
 
 On the other hand was the shapeless will of the proletariat 
 —the workmen, common soldiers and poor peasants. Many lo- 
 cal Soviets were already Bolshevik; then there were the orga- 
 nisations of the industrial workers, the Fabritchno-Zavodskiye 
 Comitieti—F actory-Shop Committees ; and the insurgent Army 
 and Fleet organisations. In some places the people, prevented 
 from electing their regular Soviet delegates, held rump meet- — 
 
 * See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 
 
| ‘THE COMING STORM 29 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘ings and chose one of their number to go to Petrograd. In 
 others they smashed the old obstructionist committees and 
 ah new ones. A Sh ee of revolt heaved and cracked 
 
 Congress of Soviets... . 
 
 | Day after day the Bolshevik orators toured the barracks 
 _and factories, violently denouncing “this Government of civil 
 war.” One Sunday we went, on a top-heavy steam tram that 
 | Mombered through oceans of mud, between stark factories and 
 | immense churches, to Obukhovsky Zavod, a Government muni- 
 ) | tions-plant out on the Schliisselburg Prospekt. 
 
 The meeting took place between the gaunt brick walls of 
 
 
 
 Js 
 
 i | huge unfinished building, ten thousand black-clothed men and 
 | omen packed around a scaffolding draped in red, people 
 | heaped on piles of lumber and bricks, perched high up on shad- 
 owy girders, intent and thunder-voiced. Through the dull, 
 heavy sky now and again burst the sun, flooding reddish light 
 
 
 
 _ through- the skeleton windows upon the mass of simple faces 
 | i 
 H upturned to us. 
 es 
 | 
 | 
 
 _ Lunatcharsky, a slight, student-like figure with the sensitive 
 face of an artist, was telling why the power must be taken 
 | by the Soviets. Nothing else could guarantee the Revolution 
 
 
 
 against its enemies, who were deliberately ruining the country, 
 ‘ruining the army, creating opportunities for a new Kornilov. 
 
 % A soldier from the Rumanian front, thin, tragical and fierce, 
 ] cried, “Comrades! We are starving at the front, we are stiff 
 with cold. We are dying for no reason. I ask the American 
 “comrades to carry word to America, that the Russians will 
 never give up their Revolution until they die. We will hold 
 the fort with all our strength until the peoples of the world rise 
 and help us! Tell the American workers to rise and fight for 
 ] the Social Revolution!” 
 
 ; 
 
 a 
 4 
 
 ay 
 
oe 
 
 30 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Then came Petrovsky, slight, slow-voiced, implacable: __ 
 
 “‘Now is the time for deeds, not words. The economic situ- 
 ation is bad, but we must get used to it. They are trying to 
 starve us and freeze us. They are trying to provoke us. But 
 let them know that they can go too far—that if they dare to 
 lay their hands upon the organisations of the proletariat we 
 will sweep them away like scum from the face of the earth!” 
 
 The Bolshevik press suddenly expanded. Besides the two 
 party papers, Rabotchi Put and Soldat (Soldier), there ap- 
 peared a new paper for the peasants, Derevenskaya Byednota — 
 (Village Poorest), poured out in a daily half-million edition; 
 and on October 17th, Rabotchi i Soldat, Its leading article 
 summed up the Bolshevik point of view: | 
 
 The fourth year’s campaign will mean the annihilation of the — 
 army and the country. ... There is danger for the safety of — 
 Petrograd. . . . Counter-revolutionists rejoice in the people’s mis- 
 fortunes. . . . The peasants brought to desperation come out in 
 open rebellion; the landlords and Government authorities massacre _ 
 them with punitive expeditions; factories and mines are closing 
 down, workmen are threatened with starvation. ... The bour- | 
 geoisie and its Generals want to restore a blind discipline in the | 
 army. . . . Supported by the bourgeoisie, the Kornilovtsi are openly | 
 getting ready to break up the meeting of the Constituent Assem- | 
 Bigs ia. 
 
 The Kerensky Government is against the people. He will de- 
 stroy the country. . . . This paper stands for the people and by — 
 the people—the poor classes, workers, soldiers and peasants. ‘The 
 people can only be saved by the completion of the Revolution . . . 
 and for this purpose the full power must be in the hands of the 
 Soviets. ... 
 
 This paper advocates the following: 
 
 All power to the Soviets—both in the capital and in the proy- 
 inces. | 
 
 Immediate truce on all fronts. An honest peace between peoples. | 
 
 Landlord estates—without compensation—to the peasants. | 
 
 
 
 es: oo es 
 
THE COMING STORM 3h 
 
 Workers’ control over industrial production. 
 A faithfully and honestly elected Constituent Assembly. 
 
 
 
 It is interesting to reproduce here a passage from that 
 “same paper—the organ of those Bolsheviki so well known to 
 ' the world as German agents: 
 
 _ The German kaiser, covered with the blood of millions of dead 
 people, wants to push his army against Petrograd. Let us call to 
 the German workmen, soldiers and peasants, who want peace not 
 less than we do, to . . . stand up against this damned war! 
 __ This can be done only by a revolutionary Government, which 
 ' would speak really for the workmen, soldiers and peasants of Rus- 
 sia, and would appeal over the heads of the diplomats directly to 
 the German troops, fill the German trenches with proclamations 
 in the German language. ... Our airmen would spread these 
 _ proclamations all over Germany... . 
 
 In the Council of the Republic the gulf between the two 
 sides of the chamber deepened day by day. 
 _ “The propertied classes,” cried Karelin, for the Left So- 
 cialist Revolutionaries, “want to exploit the revolutionary 
 machine of the State to bind Russia to the war-chariot of the 
 
 Allies ! The revolutionary parties are absolutely against this 
 3 
 
 policy. aga” 
 Old Nicholas Tchaikovsky, representing the Populist So- 
 | cialists, spoke against giving the land to the peasants, and took 
 the side of the Cadets: 
 “We must have immediately strong discipline in the army. 
 . . - Since the beginning of the war I have not ceased to insist 
 _ that it is a crime to undertake social and economic reforms 
 in war-time. We are committing that crime, and yet I am 
 not the enemy of these reforms, because I am a Socialist.” 
 Cries from the Left, “We don’t believe you!” Mighty 
 applause from the Right... . 
 
 Adzhemovy, for the Cadets, declared that there was no neces- 
 
 
 
82 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD i 
 
 sity to tell the army what it was fighting for, since every | 
 soldier ought to realise that the first task was to drive the 
 enemy from Russian territory. | 
 Kerensky himself came twice, to plead passionately for na- | 
 tional unity, once bursting into tears at the end. The assem- 
 bly heard him coldly, interrupting with ironical remarks. } 
 
 Smolny Institute, headquarters of the T'say-ee-kah and of 
 the Petrograd Soviet, lay miles out on the edge of the city, be-=) | 
 side the wide Neva. I went there on a street-car, moving | 
 snail-like with a groaning noise through the cobbled, muddy 
 streets, and jammed with people. At the end of the line | 
 rose the graceful smoke-blue cupolas of Smolny Convent out- | 
 lined in dull gold, beautiful; and beside it the great barracks- | 
 like fagade of Smolny Institute, two hundred yards long and 
 three lofty stories high, the Imperial arms carved hugely in | 
 
 
 
 stone still insolent over the entrance. 
 Under the old régime a famous convent-school for thal | 
 daughters of the Russian nobility, patronised by the Tsarina 
 herself, the Institute had been taken over by the revolutionary 
 organisations of workers and soldiers. Within were more than | 
 a hundred huge rooms, white and bare, on their doors enamelled | 
 plaques still informing the passerby that within was “Ladies? 
 Class-room Number 4’ or ‘Teachers’ Bureau”; but over these | 
 hung crudely-lettered signs, evidence of the vitality of the new | 
 order: “Central Committee of the Petrograd Soviet” and 
 “T'say-ee-kah” and “Bureau of Foreign Affairs”; “Union of | 
 Socialist Soldiers,” “Central Committee of the All-Russian | 
 Trade Unions,” “Factory-Shop Committees,” “Central Army 
 Committee”; and the central offices and caucus-rooms of the | 
 political parties. ... | 
 The long, vaulted corridors, lit by rare electric lights, were 
 thronged with hurrying shapes of soldiers and workmen, some 
 bent under the weight of huge bundles of newspapers, pro 
 
: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE COMING STORM 33 
 
 lamations, printed propaganda of all sorts. The sound of 
 ‘their heavy boots made a deep and incessant thunder on the 
 wooden floor. . . . Signs were posted up everywhere: “Com- 
 rades! For the sake of your health, preserve cleanliness!” 
 Long tables stood at the head of the stairs on every floor, and 
 on the landings, heaped with pamphlets and the literature of 
 ‘the different political parties, for sale... . 
 
 iF The spacious, low-ceilinged refectory downstairs was still 
 ‘a dining-room. For two rubles I bought a ticket entitling me 
 
 _ __ TOBAPHILM, 
 
 ma BAWETO-ME 3/\0POBbS, 
 CORN MAATE YACTOTY. 
 
 COMRADES 
 FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR HEALTH, 
 PRESERVE CLEANLINESS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 to dinner, and stood in line with a thousand others, waiting to 
 get to the long serving-tables, where twenty men and women 
 were ladling from immense cauldrons cabbage soup, hunks of 
 
 ‘meat and piles of kasha, slabs of black bread. Five kopeks 
 paid for tea in a tin cup. From a basket one grabbed a greasy 
 
 wooden spoon. . . . The benches along the wooden tables were 
 
 packed with Eihiry proletarians, wolfing their food, plotting, 
 outing rough jokes across the room... . 
 
 Upstairs was another eating-place, reserved for the T'say- 
 ee-kah—though every one went there. Here could be had 
 bread thickly buttered and endless glasses of tea... . 
 
 In the south wing on the second floor was the great hall 
 
 
 
\ 
 
 » : 
 34 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 of meetings, the former ball-room of the Institute. _ A 
 lofty white room lighted by glazed-white chandeliers hold- 
 ing hundreds of ornate electric bulbs, and divided by two | 
 rows of massive columns; at one end a dais, flanked with | 
 two tall many-branched light standards, and a gold frame 
 behind, from which the Imperial portrait had been cut. Here 
 on festal occasions had been banked brilliant military and 
 ecclesiastical uniforms, a setting for Grand Duchesses. .. . 
 Just across the hall outside was the office of the Creden- 
 tials Committee for the Congress of Soviets. I stood there 
 watching the new delegates come in—burly, bearded soldiers, 
 workmen in black blouses, a few long-haired peasants. The 
 girl in charge—a member of Plekhanov’s Yedinstvo* group— 
 smiled contemptuously. “These are very different people from 
 the delegates to the first Siezd (Congress),” she remarked. 
 “See how rough and ignorant they look! The Dark Peo- | 
 ple. . . .” It was true; the depths of Russia had been stirred, 
 and it was the bottom which came uppermost now. ‘The Cre- 
 dentials Committee, appointed by the old T'say-ee-kah, was 
 challenging delegate after delegate, on the ground that they 
 had been illegally elected. Karakhan, member of the Bolshevik 
 Central Committee, simply grinned. ‘Never mind,” he said, 
 “When the time comes we'll see that you get your seats. . . .? 
 Rabotchi i Soldat said: | 
 
 The attention of delegates to the new All-Russian Congress is 
 called to attempts of certain members of the Organising Commit- 
 tee to break up the Congress, by asserting that it will not take place, 
 and that delegates had better leave Petrograd. . . . Pay no at- 
 tention to these lies. . . . Great days are coming. .. . 
 
 It was evident that a quorum would not come together 
 by November 2, so the opening of the Congress was postponed 
 to the 7th. But the whole country was now aroused; and the 
 
 *See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 rea a il 
 is 
 
THE COMING STORM — 35 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, realising that they 
 were defeated, suddenly changed their tactics and began to wire 
 i frantically to their provincial organisations to elect as many 
 ‘ moderate” Socialist delegates as possible.) At the same time 
 the Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets issued an 
 emergency cal! for a Peasants’ Congress, to meet December 
 18th and offset whatever action the workers and soldiers might 
 | 
 
 ; = What Pana the Bolsheviki do? Rumours ran through the 
 f 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 ity that there would be an armed “demonstration,” a vystu- 
 plennie—“coming out” of the workers and soldiers. The 
 ont gcois and reactionary press prophesied insurrection, and 
 | urged the Government to arrest the Petrograd Soviet, or at 
 ‘least to prevent the meeting of the Congress. Such sheets as 
 i ovaya Rus alvocated a general Bolshevik massacre. 
 Gorky’s paver, Novaya Zhizn, agreed with the Bolsheviki 
 that the reactionaries were attempting to destroy the Revolu- 
 tion, and that if necessary they must be resisted by force of 
 arms ; but all tie parties of the revolutionary democracy must 
 ‘present a unital front. 
 
 ; As long as tle democracy has not organised its principal forces, 
 i so long as the resistance to its influence is still strong, there is no 
 advantage in pissing to the attack. But if the hostile elements 
 appeal to force, then the revolutionary democracy should enter the 
 battle to seize tle power, and it will be sustained by the most pro- 
 | found strata of the people. . 
 
 . / Gorky poirted out that both reactionary and Government 
 newspapers were inciting the Bolsheviki to violence. An in- 
 “ surrection, how-ver, would prepare the way for a new Korniloy. 
 He urged the Bolsheviki to deny the rumours. Potressov, in 
 the Menshevik Dien (Day), published a sensational story, 
 accompanied by a map, which professed to reveal the secret 
 Bolshevik plan of campaign. 
 
 
 
36 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 As if by magic, the walls were covered with warnings," 
 proclamations, appeals, from the Central Committees of the | 
 “moderate” and conservative factions and the T'say-ee-kah, de- 
 nouncing any “demonstrations,” imploring the workers and 
 soldiers not to listen to agitators. For instance, this from 
 the Military Section of the Socialist Revoluticnary party: 
 
 Again rumours are spreading around the town of an intended | 
 vystuplennie. What is the source of these rumours? What or- 
 ganisation authorises these agitators who preach insurrection? The | 
 Bolsheviki, to a question addressed to them in the Tsay-ee-kah, 
 denied that they have anything to do with it. . .. But these ru- | 
 mours themselves carry with them a great danger. It may easily | 
 happen that, not taking into consideration the state of mind of the | 
 majority of the workers, soldiers and peasants, individual hot-heads 
 will call out part of the workers and soldiers on the streets, incit- | 
 ing them to an uprising. . . . In this fearful time through which — 
 revolutionary Russia is passing, any insurrection can easily turn | 
 into civil war, and there can result from it the destruction of all | 
 organisations of the proletariat, built up with so much labour. | 
 
 . The counter-revolutionary plotters are planaing to take ad- 
 vantage of this insurrection to destroy the Revolution, open the | 
 front to Wilhelm, and wreck the Constituent Assimbly. . . . Stick 
 stubbornly to your posts! Do not come out! . 
 
 On October 28th, in the corridors of Smoliy, I spoke with | 
 Kameniev, a little man with a reddish pointed beard and Gal- | 
 lic gestures. He was not at all sure that mough delegates 
 would come. “If there is a Congress,” he sail, “it will repre- | 
 sent the overwhelming sentiment of the people If the major- | 
 ity is Bolshevik, as I think it will be, we shall demand that 
 the power be given to the Soviets, and the ?rovisional Gov- 
 ernment must resign. ef 
 
 Volodarsky, a tall, pale youth with glasse and a bad com- 
 plexion, was more definite. ‘The ‘Lieber-Dais’ and the other 
 compromisers are sabotaging the Congress. If they succeed 
 
 
 
ne THE COMING STORM 37 
 
 
 
 Bee to depend on that!” 
 i & Under date of October 29th I find entered in my notebook 
 e following items culled from the newspapers of the day: 
 y & 
 | ‘ Moghilev (General Staff Headquarters). Concentration here of 
 } loyal Guard Regiments, the Savage Division, Cossacks and Death 
 i Battalions. 
 He The yunkers of the Officers’ Schools of Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye 
 | Selo and Peterhof ordered by the Government to be ready to come 
 y to Petrograd. Oranienbaum yunkers arrive in the city. 
 
 ie Part of the Armoured Car Division of the Petrograd garrison 
 4 stationed in the Winter Palace. 
 
 i. Upon orders signed by Trotzky, several thousand rifles deliv- 
 ered by the Government Arms Factory at Sestroretzk to delegates 
 | “of the Petrograd workmen. 
 
 i At a meeting of the City Militia of the Lower Liteiny Quarter, 
 
 ‘a resolution demanding that all power be given to the Soviets. 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ This is just a sample of the confused events of those fever- 
 ‘ish days, when everybody knew that something was going to 
 Wappen, but nobody knew just what. 
 } _ At a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet in Smolny, the night 
 L of October 30th, Trotzky branded the assertions of the bour- 
 i geois press that the Soviet contemplated armed insurrec- 
 
 i 
 
 the Congress of Soviets. . . . The Petrograd Soviet,” he de- 
 
 ¥ 
 
 _clared, ‘Shad not ordered any WesaEcntoisis If it is necessary 
 _ we shall do so, and we will be supported by the Petrograd 
 
 garrison. . . . They (the Government) are preparing a coun- 
 t Be lntion: and we shall answer with an offensive which will 
 
 - tion as “an attempt of the reactionaries to discredit and wreck 
 
 
 
 
 
 | be merciless and decisive.” 
 It is true that the Petrograd Soviet had not ordered a 
 demonstration, but the Central Committee of the Bolshevik 
 
 * See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 
 
88 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD } 
 
 party was considering the question of insurrection, All night — 
 long the 23d they met. There were present all the party intel- 
 lectuals, the leaders—and delegates of the Petrograd workers 
 and garrison. Alone of the intellectuals Lenin and Trotzky 
 stood for insurrection. Even the military men opposed it. A 
 vote was taken. Insurrection was defeated! / j 
 
 Then arose a rough workman, his face convulsed with rage. | 
 “I speak for the Petrograd proletariat,” he said, harshly. | 
 “We are in favour of insurrection. Have it your own way, but | 
 I tell you now that if you allow the Soviets to be destroyed, | 
 we're through with you!” Some soldiers joined him. . . . And 
 after that they voted again—insurrection won.* . , .1% } 
 
 However, the right wing of the Bolsheviki, led by Riazanov, _ 
 Kameniev and Zinoviev, continued to campaign against an 
 armed rising. On the morning of October 31st appeared in 
 Rabotchi Put the first instalment of Lenin’s “Letter to the 
 Comrades,” one of the most audacious pieces of political 
 propaganda the world has ever seen. In it Lenin seriously pre- | 
 sented the arguments in favour of insurrection, taking as text | 
 the objections of Kameniev and Riazanov. “Either... openly 
 renouncing the slogan, ‘All Power to the Soviets,” ” he wrote, | 
 “or an uprising. There is no middle course. . . .” ai 
 
 That same afternoon Paul Miliukov, leader of the Cadets, : | 
 made a brilliant, bitter speech %* in the council of the Republic, | 
 branding the Skobeliev nakaz as pro-German, declaring that : 
 the “revolutionary democracy” was destroying Russia, sneer-_ | 
 ing at Terestchenko, and openly declaring that he preferred 
 German diplomacy to Russian. . . . The Left benches were | 
 one roaring tumult all through... . 
 
 On its part the Government could not ignore the signifi- _ 
 cance of the success of the Bolshevik propaganda. On the | 
 29th a joint commission of the Government and the Council 
 of the Republic hastily drew up two laws, one for giving the 
 
 * See p. 326, note 11 for a correct account.—Ed. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 THE COMING STORM 39 
 
 ‘land temporarily to the peasants, and the other for pushing 
 ‘an energetic foreign policy of peace. The next day Kerensky 
 suspended capital punishment in the army. That same after- 
 [ noon was opened with great ceremony the first session of the 
 new “Commission for Strengthening the Republican Régime 
 and Fighting Against Anarchy and Counter-Revolution”—of 
 _which history shows not the slightest further trace. . . . The 
 ‘following morning with two other correspondents I interviewed 
 ‘Kerensky'*—the last time he received journalists. 
 
 L | “The Russian people,” he said, bitterly, “are suffering from 
 economic fatigue—and from disillusionment with the Allies! 
 |The world thinks that the Russian Revolution is at an end. 
 Do not be mistaken. The Russian Revolution is just begin- 
 ming. . . ”? Words more prophetic, perhaps, than he knew. 
 | Stormy was the all-night meeting of the Petrograd Soviet 
 ‘the 30th of October, at which I was present. The “moderate” 
 Socialist intellectuals, officers, members of Army Committees, 
 ‘the Tsay-ee-kah, were there in force. Against them rose 
 “up workmen, peasants and common soldiers, passionate and 
 simple. 
 
 _ A peasant told of the disorders in Tver, which he said 
 were caused by the arrest of the Land Committees. “This 
 Kerensky is nothing but a shield to the pomieshtchiki (land- 
 owners),” he cried. “They know that at the Constituent As- 
 ‘sembly we will take the land anyway, so they are trying to 
 destroy the Constituent Assembly !” 
 
 k A machinist from the Putilov works described how the 
 superintendents were closing down the departments one by one 
 on the pretext that there was no fuel or raw materials. The 
 'Factory-Shop Committee, he declared, had discovered huge 
 hidden supplies. 
 
 
 
 “It is a provocatzia,” said he. ‘They want to starve us— 
 or drive us to violence!” 
 Among the soldiers one began, “Comrades! I bring you 
 
re 
 
 40 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 greetings from the place where men are digging their graves 
 and call them trenches!” | | 
 Then arose a tall, gaunt young soldier, with flashing eyes, | 
 met with a roar of welcome. It was Tchudnovsky, reported 
 killed in the July fighting, and now risen from the dead. | 
 “The soldier masses no longer trust their officers. Even 
 the Army Committees, who refused to call a meeting of our 
 Soviet, betrayed us. . . . The masses of the soldiers want the | 
 Constituent Assembly to be held exactly when it was called | 
 for, and those who dare to postpone it will be cursed—and | 
 not only platonic curses either, for the Army has guns | 
 LOOK te | 
 He told of the electoral campaign for the Constituent now | 
 raging in the Fifth Army. “The officers, and especially the | 
 Mensheviki and the Socialist Revolutionaries, are trying de- 
 liberately to cripple the Bolsheviki. Our papers are not al- 
 
 lowed to circulate in the trenches. Our speakers are ar- | 
 99 
 
 
 
 rested 
 “Why don’t you speak about the lack of bread?” shouted | 
 another soldier. | 
 “Man shall not live by bread alone,” answered Tchudnov- 
 sky, sternly... . | 
 Followed him an officer, delegate from the Vitebsk Soviet, 
 a Menshevik oboronetz. ‘It isn’t the question of who has the | 
 power. The trouble is not with the Government, but with the 
 war ... and the war must be won before any change—?” At 
 this, hoots and ironical cheers. “These Bolshevik agitators 
 are demagogues!” The hall rocked with laughter. “Let us 
 for a moment forget the class struggle—” But he got no 
 farther. A voice yelled, “Don’t you wish we would!” 
 
 Petrograd presented a curious spectacle in those days. In 
 the factories the committee-rooms were filled with stacks of | 
 
 
 
THE COMING STORM | 41 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 es, couriers came and went, the Red Guard* drilled. . . . In 
 the barracks meetings every night, and all day long inter- 
 nable hot arguments. On the streets the crowds thickened 
 oward gloomy evening, pouring in slow voluble tides up and 
 lown the Nevsky, fighting for the newspapers. . . . Hold-ups 
 ncreased to such an extent that it was dangerous to walk 
 lown side streets. . . . On the Sadovaya one afternoon I saw 
 . crowd of several hundred people beat and trample to death 
 a soldier caught stealing. . . . Mysterious individuals circu- 
 
 Te ted around the shivering women who waited in queue long 
 
 ‘erowded to the uproarious sessions of the Petrograd 
 ‘Soviet. . 
 4 Fe anline clubs functioned hectically from dusk to dawn, 
 le. champagne flowing and stakes of twenty thousand rubles. 
 In the centre of the city at night prostitutes in jewels and 
 | pensive furs walked up and down, crowded the cafés. 
 
 _ Monarchist plots, German spies, smugglers hatching 
 “Schemes. .. . 
 
 _ And in the rain, the bitter chill, the great throbbing city 
 u mder grey skies rushing faster and faster toward—what? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 * See Notes and Explanations. 
 
CHAPTER IIIf 
 
 ON THE EVE 
 
 In the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious 
 people there comes a time when every act of the authorities | 
 exasperates the masses, and every refusal to act excites their | 
 COILenIDE. | 6, 
 
 The proposal to abandon Petrograd raised a hurricane; 
 Kerensky’s public denial that the Government had any such 
 intention was met with hoots of derision. 
 
 Pinned to the wall by the pressure of the Revolution (cried | 
 Rabotchi Put), the Government of “provisional” bourgeois tries to | 
 get free by giving out lying assurances that it never thought of | 
 fleeing from Petrograd, and that it didn’t wish to surrender the — 
 Caribab ic 4. 
 
 In Kharkov thirty thousand coal miners organised, adopt- | 
 ing the preamble of the I. W. W. constitution: “The working | 
 class and the employing class have nothing in common.” Dis- 
 persed by Cossacks, some were locked out by the mine-owners, | 
 and the rest declared a general strike. Minister of Commerce | 
 and Industry Konovalov appointed his assistant, Orloy, with | 
 plenary powers, to settle the trouble. Orlov was hated by the | 
 miners. But the T'say-ce-kah not only supported his appoint- | 
 ment, but refused to demand that the Cossacks be recalled | 
 from the Don Basin. .. . ; i | 
 
 This was followed by the dispersal of the Soviet at Kaluga. | 
 The Bolsheviki, having secured a majority in the Soviet, set | 
 free some political prisoners. With the sanction of the Gov- | 
 
 42 9 || 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE 43 
 
 
 
 
 Minsk, and bombarded the Soviet headquarters with artillery. 
 The Bolsheviki yielded, but as they left the building Cossacks 
 attacked them, crying, “This is what we'll do to all the other 
 
 ‘Bolshevik Soviets, including those of Moscow and Petrograd!” 
 This incident sent a wave of panic rage throughout Rus- 
 
 ‘sia. 
 
 * 
 
 _ In Petrograd was ending a regional Congress of Soviets 
 | f the North, presided over by the Bolshevik Krylenko. By an 
 immense majority it resolved that all power should be assumed 
 ‘by the All-Russian Congress; and concluded by greeting the 
 Bolsheviki in prison, bidding them rejoice, for the hour of 
 ‘their liberation was at hand. At the same time the first All- 
 Russian Conference of Factory-Shop Committees * declared em- 
 /phatically for the Soviets, and continued significantly, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i} After liberating themselves politically from Tsardom, the work- 
 ‘ing-class wants to see the democratic régime triumphant in the 
 ‘sphere of its productive activity. This is best expressed by Work- 
 ‘ers’ Control over industrial production, which naturally arose in 
 the atmosphere of economic decomposition created by the criminal 
 | aed of the dominating classes. .. . | 
 
 
 
 eee 
 
 The Union of Railwaymen was demanding the resignation 
 0 of Liverovsky, Minister of Ways and Communications. 
 
 In the name of the T'say-ee-kah, Skobeliev insisted that 
 ‘be nakaz be presented at the Allied Conference, and formally 
 t protested against the sending of Terestchenko to Paris. Ter- 
 -estchenko offered to resign. ... 
 General Verkhovsky, unable to accomplish his reorganisa- 
 tion of the army, only came to Cabinet meetings at long in- 
 
 ‘tervals. ... 
 
 ze. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter III. See 
 page 330. 
 
 ey 
 ny WY 
 

 
 44 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 On November 3d Burtzev’s Obshtchee Dielo came out with 
 great headlines: 4) 
 
 Citizens! Save the fatherland! | 
 
 I have just learned that yesterday, at a meeting of the Commis- | 
 sion for National Defence, Minister of War General Verkhovsky, 
 one of the principal persons responsible for the fall of Korniloy, | 
 proposed to sign a separate peace, independently of the Allies. 
 
 That is treason to Russia! . 
 
 Terestchenko declared that the Provisional Government had | 
 not even examined Verkhovsky’s proposition. a 
 
 “You might think,” said Terestchenko, “that we were in a mad- 
 house!” . . 
 The members of the Commission were astounded at the General’s 
 words. 
 
 General Alexeyev wept. , - || 
 No! It is not madness! It is worse. It is direct treason to 
 Russia! 2 
 Kerensky, Terestchenko and Nekrassov must immediately an- | 
 Swer us concerning the words of Verkhovsky. 
 
 Citizens, arise! 
 
 Russia is being sold! 
 
 Save her! 
 
 , 7 
 
 What Verkhovsky really said was that the Allies must be 
 pressed to offer peace, because the Russian army could fight 
 no longer... . 4 
 
 Both in Russia and abroad the sensation was tremendous. 
 Verkhovsky was given “indefinite leave of absence for ill- | 
 health,” and left the Government. Obshtchee Dielo was sup- | 
 pressed. ... | ‘| 
 
 Sunday, November 4th, was designated as the Day of the | 
 Petrograd Soviet, with immense meetings planned all over the | 
 city, ostensibly to raise money for the organisation and the | 
 press; really, to make a demonstration of strength. Suddenly | 
 it was announced that on the same day the Cossacks would | 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 hold a Krestny Khod—Procession of the Cross—in honour of 
 the Ikon of 1612, through whose miraculous intervention Na- 
 _poleon had been driven from Moscow. The atmosphere was 
 “glectric; a spark might kindle civil war. The Petrograd 
 | | Soviet issued a manifesto, headed “Brothers—Cossacks |! o 
 
 ‘- You, Cossacks, are being incited against us, workers and sol- 
 - diers. This plan of Cain is being put into operation by our com- 
 _ mon enemies, the oppressors, the privileged classes—generals, bank- 
 ers, landlords, former officials, former servants of the Tsar. ... 
 We are hated by all grafters, rich men, princes, nobles, generals, 
 i _ including your Cossack generals. They are ready at any moment 
 _ to destroy the Petrograd Soviet and crush the Revolution. . . . 
 3 On the 4th of November somebody is organising a Cossack re- 
 | ligious procession. It is a question of the free consciousness of 
 | every individual whether he will or will not take part in this pro- 
 |" cession. We do not interfere in this matter, nor do we obstruct 
 _ anybody. - . - However, we warn you, Cossacks! Look out and 
 p ‘see to it that under the pretext of a Krestni Khod, your Kaledins 
 do not instigate you against workmen, against soldiers. ... 
 
 
 
 The procession was hastily called off... . 
 
 In the barracks and the working-class quarters of the town 
 ‘the Bolsheviki were preaching, “All Power to the Soviets!” 
 ~ and agents of the Dark Forces were urging the people to rise 
 r slaughter the Jews, shop-keepers, Socialist leaders. .. . 
 
 On one side the Monarchist press, inciting to bloody repres- 
 
 
 
 
 
 | sion—on the other Lenin’s great voice roaring, “Insurrec- 
 4 tion! . . . We cannot wait any longer!” 
 ven the bourgeois press was uneasy.” Birjevya Viedo- 
 | mosti (Exchange Gazette) called the Bolshevik propaganda an 
 attack on “the most elementary principles of society—personal 
 Security and the respect for private property.”’ 
 But it was the “moderate” Socialist journals which were 
 the most hostile.? ‘The Bolsheviki are the most dangerous 
 _ enemies of the Revolution,” declared Dielo Naroda. Said the 
 

 
 Ylerporpaxcrifi conbrs coxzatexexs @ pasom$ ye- 
 Oyrarcss obpamacTs Eb BAM CBOO CAOBO. 
 
 Bars, £83akH, XOTHT) BOSCT8HOBHTL MPOTHN HACE, Pa- 
 Seuxt w comjarb. Sry wamHosy pabory conepuiamT. uawM 
 edmis sparta: HacKALRERA-yRopane, GanknpM, nowbmaxs, 
 (Tape THHOBHAEM, Onwemie cxyru gapcsie. Onn scerza bum 
 CHILHM WH BAACTUN pasybreniemsb Hapoxa. Hatpasausase 
 comarh Wa pabowexs # Kpocrssis. Ka3zanosb wanyekasH 
 wa comatTs. Kaxuwm cpegcTsamm xocruram oH eToro? 
 Moan, sxepetod. Hazanb, congatb, matpocs, padovia, Kpe- 
 STSAKMHD — poanwwe SparbA. Bcb oma tpymennurn, Bch 
 OSym, ech THHyTb IghRy, BCH ODAAaBSeHN wm orpabacnEt 
 poiizon. 
 
 Komy uyaua soins? [ro ee sarhaxs? Fle na3zant a 
 Be comaTs, ne pabowi m Ad EpccTbAHEHD. Botiga aymna 
 fomepaians, 6aikupays, mapmes, nombmuxaus. Oua yoc- 
 QHauBaNTL HA Bons cpolo BAaCTh, CBOW cAay, cBOn Oorat- 
 piss. Hapoxsyw posh’ of mpespamanTs Bb bos0TO 
 peours Gappmoi. 
 
 Hapoa» xoverb mupa. Bo schxb crpanaxb coayaTH # 
 padoxie mamyyTs Mups. Llerporpasczia copbrs pabourxs 
 W CoRyaTcRAxt JevyTaTosb rosopaTs SypxyaMb H reHepa~ 
 gem: ,,OToigute Bb cTdpony, HacnabAuEal [Mlyctb enactb 
 Mepehigets Bd pyK Camoro Haposa, M TOrAa HapOA HeMe,- 
 QRANO Me SARAONHTD. YECTHI MUDb”. 
 
 TIpapaasuo xa ero, ToBapamu-sasace? Ma ne commb- 
 ehouts, wo BH BCh cBameTe: mpapgsboo! Ho monHo n0- 
 OFONY #acb HenaBalgTe Bch PocTOBUTHRH, OoraqH, EHAIEA, 
 gpopa@ue, rexepat, H Bb WXb WHcKh Ballw, kasauba rene- 
 pam. Ona rorosit Bb mo6oH wach YHAYTORATS MeTporpag- 
 exli cosbrb, 8aXyIINTb pesoXWin, Haxbsb OROBM Ha Ha- 
 poss, aes Suz0 upa maph 
 
 Tiosromy nm BaMb EXeBeMyTS HA Hach. UnH obma- 
 ptmants Bach. Onn rosopaTs, 6yx1 Cosbrb xoueTs oTO- 
 6par san eéuau. He shpsre, xasaxal Cosirs rovers 
 trotgers poh nombaowmibH BeMIH M MepexaTh AXE EPecTEA- 
 pans, xxbSopobawb H Bb YACTHOCTH ObAHLIME BazakaMb, 
 @ sem me nogmaMeTca pyea, OTOMpats Sema Y TPyYRou- 
 fugsa-zacaze ?, 
 
 Baws renopars, 6yxre CopSrs coSapscrea 22-16 weeas 
 6pa ycrporThs gakoo-ro soscranie, cpamenig ¢p BaMm, 
 crphap6y aa yakuars, pisum. Th, ero ceasars Bax STO— 
 Berojaa m oposoxatup. Tart = sasaute. aus! Ha 22-0 one 
 va6pa Costr> naskaiMab MMPHEG MMTMHTH, COOpania, ROH. 
 uepThl, rxb pabouie m coxlaTH, MaTpockl m EpccTsaHo OyAyTH 
 C4yWath B ObcymAaTS pha o Bokab @ mays, © Bapoynoe 
 Xorh. Ha orm mmpaie, Opatcxie muTuurR MM opuraamacwy 
 B xach. flobpo nomanosate, Gpaths-nasanul 
 
 Kro 83 Bach coxnbsaeres, nycts safzers st Cuore 
 mui, rxs nowbmactca Costre. Tyts scerga moro cougars, — 
 ccTh @ Rasaxs. Qua o6nacHaTs commbaawmemyen, aero 
 xovers Costs, kaxosu ero miss a myre. Jaa Toro napose 
 HW CERBYIb napa, obs cBobosHo obcymxaT cRoB BYMAM : 
 hn Opats coon Absa Bt cobcTseumua pyre. COpochte w BH, 
 Kasann, UOOAIKY, KOTOPyO MeghsalT> sews me reece Ka~ 
 acqnuu, Dapsuma, Kapayaosit a opoxie spark tpyxosorg 
 ga3a9CcTBA. 
 
 22-ro onra6pa yerpampactca Kbx To Easavifl Epect~ 
 HH xoxb. [bao crobognol copbcra gamyjaro Razaga yaa- 
 CTBOBaTh @IH HS YYACTBOBaTh Bb EpecTHOMS x0xs. My Bb 
 
 eTo Xhso we BMAMHBACMCH B HURASHXS Opensrcraili HE- 
 XoMy HO THREYS. 
 
 Oxnazo, Ww Bach mpexyUpeMAsews, KASAKH: TAMMETS 
 BOpEO, RAD Ou, DOXb BAAOMS KPCCTHArO Xofa, HO MOMNTa- 
 auch pamn Kaxeqana BaTpaBHTS Bach HA pabodExs, HS 
 comsars. Hxp mia-—sapaTs xposompommtie # Bb 6pat 
 ckof Eposa YTOMHTS Bamy w amy cBobogy. 
 
 Suafte rsepgo: 22-ro oxraSpa—gous Lerporpazcearp 
 Coshra, ACHb MUPHMXb MHTHHTOBS, cobpasifi m ACHOMEWXS 
 cOoposb Ha coagatcxia w pabouia raseru. Upmamaire 55 
 Hab, KASAkk,—8> O6MYH COMBO TPYKOSOTO HapoRe, ARB 
 o6mei Goph6n 3&8 BOX HM CUACTES, 
 
 Bparcky pySy IpPCrarHEsets Baws, Easake, 
 
 flerporpagcald Costr> Patowxs & Com 
 @arcnuxn Llenytatogh. 
 
 Trmorpahia cKomtfxs, Metporpaxs, Cathaars acp, 6, 000, Aaa, 
 
 Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet to the Cossacks to call off their Kresiny Khod— 
 
 the religious procession planned for November 4th (our calendar). 
 
 Cossacks!” it begins. 
 addresses you.” 
 
 *“Brothers— — 
 
 “The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 “ae ON THE EVE at 
 
 fenshevike ne “The Government ought to defend itself and 
 efend us.” Plekhanov’s paper, Yedinstvo (Unity)*, called 
 che attention of the Government to the fact that the Petrograd 
 
 | ie 
 
 _ workers were being armed, and demanded stern measures against 
 4 the Bolsheviki. 
 
 : r Daily the Government seemed to become more helpless. 
 ere the Municipal administration broke down.’ The columns 
 of the morning papers were filled with accounts of the most 
 Bodacious robberies and murders, and the criminals were un- 
 molested. 
 is On the other hand armed workers patrolled the streets at 
 iB night, doing battle with marauders and requisitioning arms 
 [ Y herever they found them. 
 
 v On the first of November Colonel Polkovnikov, Military 
 Commander of Petrograd, issued a proclamation: 
 
 } k 
 
 e Despite the difficult days through which the country is passing, 
 
 _ irresponsible appeals to armed demonstrations and massacres are 
 “still being spread around Petrograd, and from day to day robbery 
 
 | disorder increase. 
 
 | This state of things is disorganising the life of the citizens, 
 and hinders the systematic work of the Government and the Mu- 
 | ae Institutions. 
 
 
 
 
 
 In full consciousness of my responsibility and my duty before 
 “my country, I command: 
 
 t 1. Every military unit, in accordance with special instructions 
 and within the territory of its garrison, to afford every assistance 
 to the Municipality, to the Commissars, and to the militia, in the 
 guarding of Government institutions. 
 
 2. The organisation of patrols, in co-operation with the District 
 Commander and the representatives of the city militia, and the 
 taking of measures for the arrest of criminals and deserters. 
 
 3. The arrest of all persons entering barracks and inciting 
 to armed demonstrations and massacres, and their delivery to the 
 Be cauarters of the Second Commander of the city. 
 
 
 

 
 48 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 4. 'To suppress any armed demonstration or riot at its start, wit 
 all armed forces at hand. % | 
 
 5. To afford assistance to the Commissars in preventing un- 
 warranted searches in houses and unwarranted arrests. } 
 
 6. To report immediately all that happens in the district under 
 charge to the Staff of the Petrograd Military District. Hy 
 
 I call upon all Army Committees and organisations to foal | 
 their help to the commanders in fulfilment of the duties with which 
 they are charged. 
 
 te Sek my 
 
 | 
 
 In the Council of the Republic Kerensky declared that 
 the Government was fully aware of the Bolshevik preparations, 
 and had sufficient force to cope with any demonstration.? He 
 accused Novaya Rus and Rabotcht Put of both doing the same 
 kind of subversive work. “But owing to the absolute freedom 
 of the press,” he added, “the Government is not in a position | 
 to combat printed lies.* . . .” Declaring that these were two: 
 aspects of the same propaganda, which had for its object the 
 counter-revolution, so ardently desired by the Dark Forces, 
 he went on: 
 
 “I am a doomed man, it doesn’t matter what happens to me, 
 and I have the audacity to say that the other enigmatic pari 
 is that of the unbelievable provocation created in the city be | 
 the Bolsheviki!”’ 
 
 On November 2d only fifteen delegates to the Congress of 
 Soviets had arrived. Next day there were a hundred, and 
 the morning after that a hundred and seventy-five, of whom | 
 one hundred and three were Bolsheviki. . . . Four hundred i 
 constituted a quorum, and the Canaan was only three : 
 days off. 
 
 I as a ores deal of time at Smolny. It was no longer i 
 easy to get in. Double rows of sentries guarded the outer — 
 gates, and once inside the front door there was a long line 7 . 
 
 ~~ 
 
 ut 
 
 Se 
 owe ae ee 
 
 Linerane 
 
 
 
 = 
 = AS 
 
 esti 
 et ee ee 
 
 BATE 
 
 “This was not quite candid. The Provisional Government had su i 
 pressed Bolshevik papers before, in July, and was planning to do so 4 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE 49 
 
 
 
 
 
 people waiting to be let in, four at a time, to be questioned 
 
 s to their identity and their business. Passes were given 
 ‘out, and the pass system was changed every few hours; for 
 ‘spies continually sneaked through... . 
 
 
 
 ref 
  BoeHHO-Pegomouion. 
 op Komrivet> JIpon YCKD. 
 7 na g Lee 
 «*AETP. C. Ba C. X Tauo, cie ......€ ha corner ff OC ce 
 
 
 
 KG.1917 r.  CPOKOMb 110 wy pi woe oe 
 
 Ha npako ceo6ogzHaro BxON. ab CmMonb- 
 
 HB Mucrutyr. 
 
 Areaonpouzeodumerb 
 
 Pass to Smolny Institute, issued by the Military Revolutionary Committee, giving 
 ‘me the right of entry at any time. 
 
 (Translation) 
 
 Homexdaxms 
 
 ‘Military Revolutionary Committee 
 attached to the 
 Petrograd Soviet of W. & S. D. 
 Commandant’s office 
 16th Novemberx, 1917 
 
 a No. 955. 
 a Smolny Institute 
 PASS 
 
 ; 7 Is given by the present to John Reed, correspondent of the American Socialist 
 (i ‘Press, until December 1, the right of free entry into Smolny Institute. 
 
 : Commandant 
 Adjutant 
 
 [ One day as I came up to the outer gate I saw Trotzky 
 and his wife just ahead of me. They were halted by a soldier. 
 Zrotzky searched through his pockets, but could find no pass. 
 ‘Never mind,” he said finally. ‘You know me. My name 
 is Trotzky.” 
 
 “You haven’t got a pass,” answered the soldier stubbornly. 
 “You cannot go in. Names don’t mean anything to me.” 
 
 
 
 
 
50 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD q 
 
 “But I am the president of the Petrograd Soviet.” 4) 
 
 “Well,” replied the soldier, “if you’re as important a 7 
 as that you must at least have one little paper.” 
 
 Trotzky was very patient. “Let me see the Commandant, ’» | 
 he said. The soldier hesitated, grumbling something about 
 not wanting to disturb the Commandant for every devil that — 
 came along. He beckoned finally to the soldier in command | 
 of the guard. Trotzky explained matters to him. “My name | 
 is 'Trotzky,” he repeated. * 
 
 “Trotzky?” The other soldier scratched his head. “I’ve 
 heard the name somewhere,” he said at length. “I guess it’s 
 all right. You can go on in, comrade. . . .” 
 
 In the corridor I met Karakhan, member of the Bolshevik 
 Central Committee, who explained to me what the new Gov- 
 ernment would be like. | | 
 
 “A loose organisation, sensitive to the popular will as ex- 
 pressed through the Soviets, allowing local forces full play. | 
 At present the Provisional Government obstructs the action — 
 of the local democratic will, just as the Tsar’s Government 
 did. The initiative of the new society shall come from be- 
 low. .. . The form of the Government will be modelled on 
 the Constitution of the Russian Social Democratic Labour | 
 Party. The new T'say-ee-kah, responsible to frequent meetings 
 of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, will be the parliament ; 
 the various Ministries will be headed by collegia—committees— 
 instead of by Ministers, and will be directly responsible to the 
 Soviets. . . .” 
 
 On October 30th, by appointment, I went up to a small, 
 bare room in the attic of Smolny, to talk with Trotzky. In 
 the middle of the room he sat on a rough chair at a bare table. 
 Few questions from me were necessary; he talked rapidly and 
 steadily, for more than an hour. The substance of his talk, 
 in his own words, I give here: 
 
 “The Provisional Government is absolutely powerless. The 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE | 51 
 
 
 
 
 ourgeoisie is in control, but this control is masked by a fic- 
 tious coalition with the oborontsi parties. Now, during the 
 Revolution, one sees revolts of peasants who are tired of wait- 
 ing for their promised land; and all over the country, in all 
 the toiling classes, the same disgust is evident. This domina- 
 tion by the bourgeoisie is only possible by means of civil war. 
 : The Kornilov method is the only way by which the bourgeoisie 
 ean control. But it is force which the bourgeoisie lacks. 
 
 The Army is with us. The conciliators and pacifists, Socialist 
 Bie clutionaries and Mensheviki, have lost all authority—be- 
 cause the struggle between the peasants and the landlords, be- 
 } tween the workers and the employers, between the soldiers and 
 ‘the officers, has become more bitter, more irreconcilable than 
 
 “ever. Only by the concerted action of the popular mass, only 
 by the victory of proletarian dictatorship, can the Revolution 
 | be achieved and the people saved. 
 
 _ The Soviets are the most etek representatives of the 
 | people—perfect in their revolutionary experience, in their 
 ideas and objects. Based directly upon the army in the 
 ‘trenches, the workers in the factories, and the peasants in the 
 fields, they are the backbone of the Revolution. 
 
 _ “There has been an attempt to create a power without the 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘Soviets—and only powerlessness has been created. Counter- 
 revolutionary schemes of all sorts are now being hatched in 
 the corridors of the Council of the Russian Republic. The 
 Cadet party represents the counter-revolution militant. On 
 ‘ the other side, the Soviets represent the cause of the people. 
 | Between the two camps there are no groups of serious impor- 
 tance. . . . It is the lutte finale. 'The bourgeois counter-revo- 
 lution organises all its forces and waits for the moment to 
 attack us. Our answer will be decisive. We will complete the 
 work scarcely begun in March, and advanced during the 
 
 Kornilov affair... .” 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 52 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 He went on to speak of the new Government’s foreigr 
 policy: . 
 “Our first act will be to call for an ‘eninbdoee armistice 
 on all fronts, and a conference of peoples to discuss demo- 
 cratic peace terms. ‘The quantity of democracy we get in 
 the peace settlement depends on the quantity of revolutionary — 
 response there is in Europe. If we create here a Government — 
 of the Soviets, that will be a powerful factor for imme, 
 peace in Europe; for this Government will address itself 
 directly and immediately to all peoples, over the heads of i i 
 Governments, proposing an armistice. At the moment of the 
 conclusion of peace the pressure of the Russian Revolution ri 
 be in the direction of ‘no annexations, no indemnities, the right 
 of self-determination of peoples,’ and a Federated Republic 1 
 Europe. ... ! 
 
 “At the end of this war I see Europe recreated, not | 
 the diplomats, but by the proletariat. The Federated Repub- — 
 lic of Europe—the United States of Europe—that 1s what 
 must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic 
 evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Eu- ‘ 
 rope is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism — 
 will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of 
 Europe can give peace to the world.” He smiled—that fine, | 
 
 faintly ironical smile of his. “But without the action of the — 
 97% 
 
 a } 
 
 European masses, these ends cannot be realised—now. . . . 
 
 Now while everybody was waiting for the Bolsheviki to 
 appear suddenly on the streets one morning” and begin to 
 shoot down people with white collars on, the real insurrection : 
 took its way quite naturally and openly. 
 
 The Provisional Government Pa to send the Petrograd 
 garrison to the front. 
 
 The Petrograd garrison numbered about sixty thousand — 
 men, who had taken a prominent part in the Revolution. 7 
 
 “ 
 . 
 
 ‘ 
 4 
 
 as 
 
Phy ii ON THE EVE 53 
 
 -was they who had turned the tide in the great days of March, 
 _ereated the Soviets of Soldiers’ Deputies, and hurled back 
 Kornilov from the gates of Petrograd. 
 % Now a large part of them were Bolsheviki. When the 
 Provisional Government talked of evacuating the city, it was 
 the Petrograd garrison which answered, “If you are not capable 
 of defending the capital, conclude peace; if you cannot con- 
 clude peace, go away and pene room for a People’s Govern- 
 eo which can do both. 
 | It was evident that any Peitcartt at insurrection depended 
 Bion the attitude of the Petrograd garrison. The Govern- 
 ment’s plan was to replace the garrison regiments with “de- 
 ‘pendable” troops—Cossacks, Death Battalions. The Army 
 Committees, the “moderate” Socialists and the T'say-ee-kah 
 ‘supported the Government. <A wide-spread agitation was car- 
 ried on at the Front and in Petrograd, emphasizing the fact 
 that for eight months the Petrograd garrison had been leading 
 ‘an easy life in the barracks of the capital, while their exhausted 
 comrades in the trenches starved and died. 
 
 Naturally there was some truth in the accusation that the 
 garrison regiments were reluctant to exchange their compara- 
 
 
 
 
 
 tive comfort for the hardships of a winter campaign. But 
 there were other reasons why they refused to go. The Petro- 
 ‘grad Soviet feared the Government’s intentions, and from 
 the Front came hundreds of delegates, chosen by the common 
 soldiers, crying, “It is true we need reinforcements, but more 
 ‘important, we must know that Petrograd and the Revolution 
 are well-guarded. . . . Do you hold the rear, comrades, and 
 we will hold the front!” 
 
 On October 25th, behind closed doors, the Central Com- 
 mittee of the Petrograd Soviet discussed the formation of a 
 special Military Committee to decide the whole question. The 
 next day a meeting of the Soldiers’ Section of the Petrograd 
 Soviet elected a Committee, which immediately proclaimed a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
54 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 boycott of the bourgeois newspapers, and condemned the T'say- 
 ee-kah for opposing the Congress of Soviets. On the 29th . 
 in open session of the Petrograd Soviet, Trotzky proposed 
 
 that the Soviet formally sanction the Military Revo cea | 
 Committee. “We ought,” he said, “to create our special or- 
 ganisation to march to battle, and if necessary to die. . . .” It 
 
 was decided to send to the front two delegations, one from the | 
 Soviet and one from the garrison, to confer with the Soldieum : 
 Committees and the General Staff. 
 
 At Pskov, the Soviet delegates were met by General Tchered | 
 missov, commander of the Northern Front, with the curt | 
 declaration that he had ordered the Petrograd garrison to 
 the trenches, and that was all. The garrison committee was 
 not allowed to leave Petrograd. . 
 
 A delegation of the Soldiers? Section of the Petrogral 
 Soviet asked that a representative be admitted to the Staff of 
 the Petrograd District. Refused. The Petrograd Soviet de- | 
 manded that no orders be issued without the approval of the j 
 Soldiers’ Section. Refused. The delegates were roughly told, — 
 “We only recognise the T'say-ee-kah. We do a recognise vould 1 
 if you break any laws, we shall arrest you.” 
 
 On the 30th a meeting of representatives of all the Petro- 
 grad regiments passed a resolution: “The Petrograd garrison ; 
 no longer recognises the Provisional Government. The Petro- : 
 grad Soviet is our Government. We will obey only the orders” 
 of the Petrograd Soviet, through the Military Revolutionary | 
 Committee.” The local military units were ordered to wait — 
 for instructions from the Soldiers’ Section ofsthe Petrograd — 
 Soviet. 
 
 Next day the T'say-ee-kah summoned its own meeting, com- | 
 posed largely of officers, formed a Committee to cooperate 
 with the Staff, and detailed Commissars in all quarters of the | 
 city. 4 
 
 A great soldier meeting at Smolny on pi 3d resolved? : 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ON THE EVE | 55 
 
 _ Saluting the creation of the Military Revolutionary Committee, 
 he Petrograd garrison promises it complete support in all its ac- 
 ons, to unite more closely the front and the rear in the interests 
 f the Revolution. 
 
 _ The garrison moreover declares that with the revolutionary 
 proletariat it assures the maintenance of revolutionary order in 
 Petrograd. Every attempt at provocation on the part of the Kor- 
 nilovtsi or the bourgeoisie will be met with merciless resistance. 
 
 4 
 La Now conscious of its power, the Military Revolutionary 
 Committee peremptorily summoned the Petrograd Staff to 
 Babmit to its control. To all printing plants it gave orders 
 not to publish any appeals or proclamations without the Com- 
 mittee’s authorisation. Armed Commissars visited the Kron- 
 versk arsenal and seized great quantities of arms and ammuni- 
 tion, halting a shipment of ten thousand bayonets which was 
 being sent to Novotcherkask, headquarters of Kaledin. .. . 
 
 _ Suddenly awake to the danger, the Government offered im- 
 munity if the Committee would disband. Too late. At mid- 
 night November 5th Kerensky himself sent Malevsky to offer 
 the Petrograd Soviet representation on the Staff. The Mili- 
 tary Revolutionary Committee accepted. An hour later Gen- 
 
 eral Manikovysky, acting Minister of war, countermanded the 
 
 
 
 Tuesday morning, November 6th, the city was thrown into 
 ex xcitement by the appearance of a placard signed, “Military 
 Revolutionary Committee attached to the Petrograd Soviet of 
 Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.” 
 
 Counter-revolution has raised its criminal head. The Kornil- 
 ovtsi are mobilising their forces in order to crush the All-Russian 
 Congress of Soviets and break the Constituent Assembly. At 
 the same time the pogromists may attempt to call upon the people 
 of Petrograd for trouble and bloodshed. The Petrograd Soviet 
 
 i 
 eli) 
 
 | To the Population of Petrograd. Citizens! 
 
 
 

 
 
 56 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies takes upon itself the guarding g | 
 of revolutionary order in the city against counter-revolutionary and 
 pogrom attempts. 
 
 The Petrograd garrison will not allow any violence or Risorde s. 
 The population is invited to arrest hooligans and Black Hundred 
 agitators and take them to the Soviet Commissars at the nearen| 
 barracks. At the first attempt of the Dark Forces to make troub 
 on the streets of Petrograd, whether robbery or fighting, the 
 criminals will be wiped off the face of the earth! 
 
 Citizens! We call upon you to maintain complete quiet alll 
 self-possession. ‘The cause of order and Revolution is in strong 
 
 ¢ SOO ne vir TY gee 
 
 
 
 hands. 4 ) 
 List of regiments where there are Commissars of the Military i 
 Revolutionary Committee... . a | 
 
 On the 3rd the leaders of the Bolsheviki had another hist | 
 toric meeting behind closed doors. Notified by Zalkind, I | 
 waited in the corridor outside the door; and Volodarsky as hy | 
 came out told me what was going on. 
 
 Lenin spoke: “November 6th will be too early. We rate 
 have an all-Russian basis for the rising; and on the 6th all 
 the delegates to the Congress will not have arrived. : On | 
 the other hand, November 8th will be too late. By that time | 
 the Congress will be organised, and it is difficult for a large | 
 organised body of people to take swift, decisive action. We 
 must act on the 7th, the day the Congress meets, so that we | 
 may say to it, ‘Here is the power! What are you going to 
 do with it?” i 
 
 In a certain upstairs room sat a thin-faced, long-haired | 
 individual, once an officer in the armies of the Tsar, then revo- | 
 lutionist and exile, a certain Avseenko, called Antonov, mathe- 7 
 matician and chess-player; he was drawing careful plans for | 
 the seizure of the capital. | 
 
 On its side the Government was preparing. Inconspicu- | 
 
ON THE EVE 57 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ous y certain of the most loyal regiments, from widely-sepa- 
 ed divisions, were ordered to Petrograd. The yunker 
 lis: y was drawn into the Winter Palace. Patrols of Cos- 
 acks made their appearance in the streets, for the first time 
 mce the July days. Polkovnikov issued order after order, 
 hreatening to repress all insubordination with the “utmost 
 aergy.” Kishkin, Minister of Public Instruction, the worst- 
 hated member of the Cabinet, was appointed Special Commissar 
 0 keep order in Petrograd; he named as assistants two men 
 less unpopular, Rutenburg and Paltchinsky. Petrograd, 
 ; ronstadt and Finland were declared in a state of siege—upon 
 which the bourgeois Novoye Vremya (New Times) remarked 
 ironically : 
 Le Why the state of siege? The Government is no longer a power. It 
 
 ‘has no moral authority and it does not possess the necessary apparatus to 
 ‘use force. ...In the most favourable circumstances it can only ne- 
 oo with Obs one who consents to parley. Its authority goes no far- 
 
 : ae 
 
 
 
 we Monday morning, the 5th, I dropped in at the Marinsky 
 Palace, to see what was happening in the Council of the Russian 
 Republic. Bitter debate on Terestchenko’s foreign policy. 
 Echoes of the Burtzev-Verkhovski affair. All the diplomats 
 present except the Italian ambassador, who everybody said 
 was prostrated by the Carso disaster. . . 
 _ As I came in, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Karelin was 
 reading aloud an editorial from the London Times which said, 
 Phe remedy for Bolshevism is bullets!’ ‘Turning to the 
 Cadets he cried, “That’s what you think, too!’ 
 
 Voices from the Right, “Yes! Yes!’ 
 ' Yes, I know you think so,” answered Karelin, hotly. 
 “But you haven’t the courage to try it!” 
 _ Then Skobeliev, looking like a matinée idol with his soft 
 Bsa beard and wavy yellow hair, rather apologetically de- 
 Rpding tke Soviet nakaz. Terestchenko followed, assailed 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 e 
 -_ 
 te 
 
 (i 
 a 
 
‘58 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 from the Left by cries of “Resignation! Resignation! Of ae 
 insisted that the delegates of the Government and of tl 
 Tsay-ce-kah to Paris should have a common point of view— 
 his own. A few words about the restoration of discipline in | 
 the army, about war to victory. . . . Tumult, and over the | 
 stubborn opposition of the Eeneulene Left, the Council of the | 
 Republic passed to the simple order of the day. a | 
 
 There stretched the rows of Bolshevik seats—empty sini 
 that first day when they left the Council, carryig with them | 
 so much life. As I went down the stairs it seemed to me that 
 in spite of the bitter wrangling, no real voice from the rough 
 world outside could penetrate this high, cold hall, and that the | 
 Provisional Government was wrecked—on the same rock | 
 War and Peace that had wrecked the Miliukov Ministry. . . 
 The doorman grumbled as he put on my coat, “I don’t kn 
 what is becoming of poor Russia. All these Mensheviki and | 
 Bolsheviki and Trudoviki. . . . This Ukraine and this Fin- 
 land and the German retraces and the English imperialists. | 
 I am forty-five years old, and in all my life I never heard so 
 many words as in this place... .” | 
 
 In the corridor I met Professor Shatsky, a rat-faced ind | 
 vidual in a dapper frock-coat, very influential in the councils | 
 of the Cadet party. I asked him what he thought of the | 
 much-talked-of Bolshevik vystuplennie. He shrugged, sneer- | 
 ing. a 
 “They are cattle—canaille,” he answered. “They will not | 
 dare, or if they dare they will soon be sent flying. From our | 
 point of view it will not be bad, for then they will ruin them- | 
 selves and have no power in the Constituent Assembly. . | 
 
 “But, my dear sir, allow me to outline to you my stad for | | 
 a form of Government to be submitted to the Constituent As- | 
 sembly. You see, I am chairman of a commission appointed | 
 from this body, in conjunction with the Provisional Govern- | 
 ment, to work out a constitutional project. . .,. We will | 
 
ON THE EVE 59 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ave a legislative assembly of two chambers, such as you have 
 the United States. In the lower chamber will be territorial 
 epresentatives; in the upper, representatives of the liberal 
 professions, zemstvos, Cooperatives—and Trade Unions. .. .” 
 is Outside a chill, damp wind came from the west, and the cold 
 mud underfoot soaked through my shoes. Two companies 
 | yunkers passed swinging up the Morskaya, tramping stiffly 
 in their long coats and singing an oldtime crashing chorus, 
 SU ch as the soldiers used to sing under the Tsar. . . . At the 
 fi st cross-street I noticed that the City Militiamen were 
 : nounted, and armed with revolvers in bright new holsters; 
 a little group of people stood silently staring at them. At 
 the corner of the Nevsky I bought a pamphlet by Lenin, “Will 
 the Bolsheviki be Able to Hold the Power?” paying for it with 
 one of the stamps which did duty for small change. The 
 usual street-cars crawled past, citizens and soldiers clinging 
 to the outside in a way to make Theodore P. Shonts green 
 with envy. . Along the sidewalk a row of deserters in 
 uniform ied idavettéa and sunflower seeds. 
 
 _ Up the Nevsky in the sour twilight crowds were battling 
 for the latest papers, and knots of people were trying to make 
 ‘out the multitudes of appeals®* and proclamations pasted in 
 every flat place; from the T'say-ee-kah, the Peasants’ Soviets, 
 ithe “moderate” Socialist parties, the Army Committees— 
 threatening, cursing, beseeching the workers and soldiers to 
 fika.y home, to support the Government. . 
 
 ‘An armoured automobile went slowly up and down, siren 
 streaming. On every corner, in every open space, thick 
 groups were clustered; arguing soldiers and students. Night 
 came swiftly down, the wide-spaced street-lights flickered on, 
 the tides of people flowed endlessly. . . . It is always like that 
 ‘in Petrograd just before trouble. .. . 
 
 _ The city was nervous, starting at every sharp sound. But 
 still no sign from the Bolsheviki; the soldiers stayed in the 
 
 De 
 ¢ 
 tb 
 
 
 
 
 
 o a 
 a, ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 60 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 barracks, the workmen in the factories. . . . We went to 
 moving picture show near the Kazan Cathedral—a blood 
 Italian film of passion and intrigue. Down front were some 
 soldiers and sailors, staring at the screen in childlike wonder | 
 totally unable to comprehend why there should be so mu 
 violent running: about, and so much homicide. .. . | 
 From there I hurried to Smolny. In room 10 on the top | 
 floor, the Military Revolutionary Committee sat in continuous | 
 session, under the chairmanship of a tow-headed, eighteen-year- | 
 old boy named Lazimir. He stopped, as he passed, to shake | 
 hands rather bashfully. ; 
 ‘‘Peter-Paul Fortress has just come over to us,” said “ai 
 with a pleased grin. “A minute ago we got word from a | 
 regiment that was ordered by the Government to come to 
 Petrograd. The men were suspicious, so they stopped the train | 
 at Gatchina and sent a delegation to us. ‘What’s the mat- i 
 ter?’ they asked. ‘What have you got to say? We bene just | 
 passed a resolution, “All Power to the Soviets.”” . . The | 
 Military Revolutionary Committee sent back word, ‘Brothers! 
 We greet you in the name of the Revolution. Stay where van} i 
 are until further instructions!’ ” ' 
 All telephones, he said, were cut off: bit comminitatal 
 with the factories and barracks was established by means of | 
 military telephonograph apparatus... . i 
 A steady stream of couriers and Commissars came and | 
 went. Outside the door waited a dozen volunteers, ready to | 
 carry word to the farthest quarters of the city. One of them, i 
 a gypsy-faced man in the uniform of a lieutenant, said in | 
 French, “Everything is ready to move at the push of a but- | 
 
 99 ot 
 2% 
 
 
 
 noe 
 
 IS OY AE 
 
 Rt eeeqarter 
 
 tOn. .. ; 
 
 There passed Podvoisky, the thin, bearded civillian whose | 
 brain conceived the strategy of insurrection; Antonoy, un- | 
 shaven, his collar filthy, drunk with loss of sleep; Krylenko, | 
 the squat, wide-faced soldier, always smiling, with his violent | 
 
os ON THE EVE 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ges tures and tumbling speech; and Dybenko, the giant bearded 
 ailor with the placid face. These were the men of the hour— 
 nd of other hours to come. 
 
 _ Downstairs in the office of the Factory-Shop Committees 
 sat Seratov, signing orders on the Government Arsenal for 
 s—one hundred and fifty rifles for each factory. . . . Dele- 
 b.. waited in line, forty of them. 
 
 : % In the hall I ran into some of the minor Bolshevik leaders. 
 One showed me a revolver. ‘The game is on,” he said, and his 
 face was pale. ‘Whether we move or not the other side knows 
 it must finish us or be finished. . . .” 
 
 | The Petrograd Soviet was meeting day and night. As I 
 came into the great hall Trotzky was just finishing. 
 
 _ “We are asked,” he said, “if we intend to have a vystu- 
 plennic. I can give a clear answer to that question. The 
 Petrograd Soviet feels that at last the moment has arrived 
 ‘when the power must fall into the hands of the Soviets. This 
 ‘transfer of government will be accomplished by the All-Russian 
 Congress. Whether an armed demonstration is necessary will 
 ‘depend on... those who wish to interfere with the All-Rus- 
 
 sian Congress. 
 
 7 “We feel that our Government, entrusted to the personnel 
 of the Provisional Cabinet, is a pitiful and helpless Govern- 
 ment, which only awaits the sweep of the broom of History 
 to give way to a really popular Government. But we are 
 frying to avoid a conflict, even now, to-day. We hope that 
 the All-Russian Congress will take . . . into its hands that 
 power and authority which rests upon the organised freedom 
 of the people. If, however, the Government wants to utilise 
 
 
 
 
 
 the short period it is expected to live—twenty-four, forty- 
 eight, or seventy-two hours—to attack us, then we shail answer 
 with counter-attacks, blow for blow, steel for iron!” 
 
 . Amid cheers he announced that the Left Socialist Revolu- 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD | 
 
 tionaries had agreed to send representatives into the Military 
 
 Revolutionary Committee. 
 
 As I left Smolny, at thee o’clock in the morning, I notices | 
 
 that two rapid-firmg guns had been mounted, one on each 
 side of the door, and that strong patrols of soldiers guarded 
 the gates and the near-by street-corners. Bill Shatov* ca 
 bounding up the steps. “Well,” he cried, “We’re off! Ker 
 sky sent the yunkers to close down our papers, Soldat and 
 
 
 
 “ 
 
 Rabotchi Put. But our troops went down and smashed the 
 Government seals, and now we're sending detachments to — 
 seize the bourgeois newspaper offices!” Exultantly he lappa / 
 
 
 
 
 me on the shoulder, and ranin.... 
 
 On the morning of the 6th I had business with the con 
 whose office was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Every- | 
 where, on all the walls, hysterical appeals to the people to — 
 remain “calm.” Polkovnikov emitted prikaz after prikaz: 5 
 
 I order all military units and detachments to remain in their 
 barracks until further orders from the Staff of the Military Dia 
 trict. . . . All officers who act without orders from their superioaat 
 will be SaHEE- martialled for mutiny. I forbid absolutely any execu- 
 tion by soldiers of instructions from other organisations. . . . ¢ 
 
 | 
 
 > | 
 
 The morning papers announced that the Government had | 
 suppressed the papers Novaya Rus, Zhivoye Slovo, Rabotchi 
 Put and Soldat, and decreed the arrest of the leaders of the 
 Petrograd Soviet and the members of the Military Revolig I 
 
 tionary Committee. 
 
 As I crossed the Palace Square several batteries of crunk ) 
 artillery came through the Red Arch at a jingling trot, and» 
 
 drew up before the Palace. The great red building of the 
 
 General Staff was unusually animated, several armoured auto- — 
 mobiles ranked before the door, and motors full of officers were 
 ; 7 
 
 Well known in the American labor movement. 
 
 =| 
 
 scneenntenente neinennene . 
 
 ‘¥ 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE 3 63 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 coming and going. . . . The censor was very much excited, 
 _ like a small boy at a circus. Kerensky, he said, had just 
 gone to the Council of the Republic to offer his resignation. 
 rh hurried down to the Marinsky Palace, arriving at the end of 
 “that passionate and almost incoherent speech of Kerensky’s, 
 
 ‘full of self-justification and bitter denunciation of his enemies. 
 
 is 
 , 
 
 “I will cite here the most characteristic passage from a 
 whole series of articles published in Rabotchi Put by Ulianov- 
 H Lenin, a state criminal who is in hiding and whom we are 
 
 | trying to find. . This state criminal has invited the prole- 
 ‘tariat and the Pet dora garrison to repeat the experience of 
 “the 16th-18th of July, and insists upon the immediate neces- 
 ‘sity for an armed rising. . . . Moreover, other Bolshevik 
 ‘leaders have taken the iioor in a series of meetings, and also 
 
 
 
 ‘made an appeal to immediate insurrection. Particularly 
 should be noticed the activity of the yaa president of the 
 Petrograd Soviet, Bronstein-Trotzky. . 
 
 ' “TI ought to bring to your notice... Wana the expressions 
 ' and the style of a whole series of articles in Rabotchi Put and 
 ‘Soldat resemble absolutely those of Novaya Rus. ... We 
 have to do not so much with the movement of such and such 
 | political party, as with the exploitation of the political igno- 
 -rance and criminal instincts of a part of the population, a 
 sort of organisation whose object it is to provoke in Russia, 
 cost what it may, an inconscient movement of destruction and 
 - pillage; for given the state of mind of the masses, any move- 
 / ment at Petrograd will be followed by the most terrible mas- 
 sacres, which will cover with eternal shame the name of free 
 Russia. ... 
 
 “* . .. By the admission of Wlanov-Lenin himself, the 
 ‘situation of the extreme left wing of the Social Democrats in 
 Russia is very favourable.” (Here Kerensky read the follow- 
 ‘ing quotation from Lenin’s article.): 
 
 
 
 
 
64 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Think of it! ... The German comrades have only” one Lieb 
 knecht, without newspapers, without freedom of meeting, without @ 
 Soviet. . They are opposed by the incredible hostility of all 
 classes of porter yet the German comrades try to act; while 
 we, having dozens of newspapers, freedom of meeting, the majority _ 
 of the Soviets, we, the best-placed international proletarians of the 
 entire world, can we refuse to support the German revolutionists | 
 and insurrectionary organisations? .. . 
 
 Kerensky then continued: 
 
 “The organisers of rebellion recognise thus implicitly that 
 the most perfect conditions for the free action of a political — 
 party obtain now in Russia, administered by a Provisional — 
 Government at the head of which is, in the eyes of this party, 
 ‘a usurper and a man who has sold ce to the bourgeoisie, — 
 the Minister-President Kerensky. . 
 
 *“*. . . The organisers of the insure ae do not come to” 
 the aid of the German proletariat, but of the German govern- | 
 ing classes, and they open the Russian front to the iron fists © 
 of Wilhelm and his friends. . . . Little matter to the Provi- _ 
 sional Government the motives of these people, little matter if ; 
 they act consciously or unconsciously; but in any case, from 
 this tribune, in full consciousness of my responsibility, I qualify 
 such acts of a Russian political party as acts of treason 
 to et 
 
 . I place myself at the point of view of the Right, andl 
 
 I propose immediately to proceed to an investigation and 
 make the necessary arrests.” (Uproar from the Left.) 
 “Listen to me!” he cried in a powerful voice. “At the moment 
 when the state is in danger, becaus of conscious or unconscloua | 
 treason, the Provisional Government, and myself among others, 
 prefer to be killed rather than betray the life, the honour — 
 and the independence of Russia. . . .” j 
 
 At this moment a paper was handed to Kerensky. 
 
 “I have just received the proclamation which they are dis- 
 
 hcg pea Nias Nineie.: ‘aeitiingd as 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE 65 
 
 
 
 
 
 ai buting to the regiments. Here is the contents.” Reading: 
 “The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies 
 q menaced. We order immediately the regiments to mobilise 
 on a war footing and to await new orders. All delay or non- 
 execution of this order will be considered as an act of treason 
 i to the Revolution. The Military Revolutionary Committee. 
 : For the President, Podvoisky. The Secretary, Antonov.’ 
 
 | “In reality, this is an attempt to raise the populace against 
 the existing order of things, to break the Constituent and to 
 open the front to the regiments of the iron fist of Wil- 
 helm... . 
 
 “I say ‘populace’? intentionally, because the conscious de- 
 ‘mMmocracy and its T'say-ee-kah, all the Army organisations, 
 _all that free Russia glorifies, the good sense, the honour and 
 the conscience of the great Russian democracy, protests 
 against these things. .. . 
 
 “I have not come here with a prayer, but to state my firm 
 "conviction that the Provisional Government, which defends at 
 | this moment our new liberty—that the new Russian state, 
 | destined to a brilliant future, will find unanimous support ex- | 
 cept among those who have never dared to face the truth. . . . 
 
 “. .. The Provisional Government has never violated the 
 liberty of all citizens of the State to use their political 
 rights. . . . But now the Provisional Government ... de- 
 _clares: in this moment those elements of the Russian nation, 
 
 
 
 - those groups and parties who have dared to lift their hands 
 against the free will of the Russian people, at the same time 
 _ threatening to open the front to Germany, must be liquidated 
 with decision! . 
 
 “Let the population of Petrograd understand that it will 
 encounter a firm power, and perhaps at the last moment good 
 sense, conscience and honour will triumph in the hearts of 
 
 those who still possess them. . . .” 
 
ee 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 66 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 All through this speech, the hall rang with denfenisi , 
 clamour. When the Minister-President had stepped down, | 
 pale-faced and wet with perspiration, and strode out with his | 
 suite of officers, speaker after speaker from the Left and 
 Centre attacked the Right, all one angry roaring. Even the 
 Socialist Revolutionaries, through Gotz: at 
 
 “The policy of the Bolsheviki is demagogic and criminal, : | 
 in their exploitation of the popular discontent. But there 
 is a whole series of popular demands which have received no 
 satisfaction up to now. . . . The questions of peace, land and | 
 the democratization of the army ought to be stated in such aq 
 fashion that no soldier, peasant or worker would have the least — 
 doubt that our Government is attempting, firmly and na 
 to solve them. | 
 
 “We Mensheviki do not wish to provoke a Cabinet. crisis, _ 2 
 and we are ready to defend the Provisional Government ied 
 all our energy, to the last drop of our blood—if only the Provi- — ¢ i 
 sional Government, on all these burning questions, will speak 
 the clear and precise words awaited by the people with such : 
 impatience. .. .” , el 
 
 Then Martov, furious: »& 
 
 “The words of the Minister-President, who allowed him- 3 
 self to speak of ‘populace’ when it is question of the movement — 
 of important sections of the proletariat and the my al , 
 though led in the coe direction—are tee but an incite-_ 
 ment to civil war.’ ’ 
 
 The order of the day proposed by the Left was voted. oc 
 amounted practically to a vote of lack of confidence. , 
 
 1. The armed demonstration which has been preparing for some 
 days past has for its object a coup d’etat, threatens to provoke | 
 civil war, creates conditions favourable to pogroms and counter-_ 
 revolution, the mobilization of counter-revolutionary forces, such as 
 the Black Hundreds, which will inevitably bring about the impos-_ 7 
 sibility of convoking the Constituent, will cause a military catastro- 
 
1} 
 . ON THE EVE 67 
 
 ae 
 
 _phe, the death of the Revolution, paralyse the economic life of the 
 
 _ country and destroy Russia; 
 
 ; % 2. The conditions favourable to this agitation have been created 
 
 by delay in passing urgent measures, as well as objective conditions 
 caused by the war and the general disorder. It is necessary before 
 
 ' everything to promulgate at once a decree transmitting the land to 
 
 the peasants’ Land Committees, and to adopt an energetic course 
 
 of action abroad in proposing to the Allies to proclaim their peace- 
 
 _terms and to begin peace-parleys; 
 
 | 3. To cope with Monarchist manifestations and pogromist move- 
 “ments, it is indispensable to take immediate measures to suppress 
 
 | these movements, and for this purpose to create at Petrograd a 
 
 
 
 NO OOS ee err ee nr a ae = 
 e . = 
 
 Committee of Public Safety, composed of representatives of the 
 Municipality and the organs of the revolutionary democracy, act- 
 _ing in contact with the Provisional Government. . . . 
 
 It is interesting to note that the Mensheviki and Socialist 
 
 Revolutionaries all rallied to this resolution. . . . When 
 _Kerensky saw it, however, he summoned Avksentiev to the 
 Winter Palace to explain. If it expressed a lack of confidence 
 “in the Provisional Government, he begged Avksentiev to 
 
 form a new Cabinet. Dan, Gotz and Avksentiev, the leaders 
 of the “compromisers,” performed their last compromise. .. . 
 They explained to Kerensky that it was not meant as a criti- 
 cism of the Government! 
 
 At the corner of the Morskaya and the Nevsky, squads of 
 soldiers with fixed bayonets were stopping all private auto- 
 mobiles, turning out the occupants, and ordering them toward 
 the Winter Palace. A large crowd had gathered to watch 
 them. Nobody knew whether the soldiers belonged to the 
 Government or the Military Revolutionary Committee. Up 
 in front of the Kazan Cathedral the same thing was happening, 
 machines being directed back up the Nevsky. Five or six 
 sailors with rifles came along, laughing excitedly, and fell into 
 
<a 
 wos 
 . 
 
 68 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD — 
 
 
 
 
 
 conversation with two of the soldiers. On the sailors’ hat 
 bands were Avrora and Zaria Svobody,—the names o 
 the leading Bolshevik cruisers of the Baltic Fleet. One of 
 them said, “Cronstadt is coming!” . . . It was as if, in 1792, | 
 on the streets of Paris, some one had oud: “The Marseillais — 
 are coming!” For at Cronstadt were twenty-five thousand — 
 sailors, convinced Bolsheviki and not afraid to die... . i 
 
 Rabotchi i Soldat was just out, all its front page one huge 
 proclamation: 
 
 | 
 | 
 if 
 i 
 
 ee et ee 
 
 SOLDIERS! WORKERS! CITIZENS! 
 
 The enemies of the people passed last night to the offensive. ‘ 
 The Kornilovists of the Staff are trying to draw in from the . 
 suburbs yunkers and volunteer battalions. The Oranienbaum yun- — 
 kers and the Tsarskoye Selo volunteers refused to come out. A j 
 stroke of high treason is being contemplated against the Petrograd 
 Soviet. . . . The campaign of the counter-revolutionists is being 
 directed against the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the eve | 
 of its opening, against the Constituent Assembly, against the — 
 people. The Petrograd Soviet is guarding the Revolution. The ‘ 
 Military Revolutionary Committee is directing the repulse of the 
 conspirators’ attack. The entire garrison and proletariat of Petro- oi 
 grad are ready to deal the enemy of the people a crushing blow. 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee decrees: tH 
 
 1. All regimental, division and battle-ship Committees, together | 
 with the Soviet Commissars, and all revolutionary organisations, 
 
 ot me eg Pe 
 
 shall meet in continuous session, concentrating in their hands all 
 information about the plans of the conspirators. i 
 
 2. Not one soldier shall leave his division without permission 
 of the Committee. 
 
 8. To send to Smolny at once two delegates from each military 
 unit and five from each Ward Soviet. 
 
 4, All members of the Petrograd Soviet and all delegates to 
 the All-Russian Congress are invited immediately to Smolny for 
 an extraordinary meeting. 
 
 Counter-revolution has raised its criminal head. 
 
 
 
ON THE EVE | 69 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A greao danger threatens all the conquests and hopes of the 
 soldiers and workers. 
 _ But the forces of the Revolution by far exceed those of its 
 enemies. 
 i The cause of the People is in strong hands. The conspirators 
 will be crushed. 
 _ No hesitation or doubts! Firmness, steadfastness, discipline, 
 ic determination ! ! 
 
 _ Long live the Revolution! 
 i The Military Revolutionary Committee. 
 ; The Petrograd Soviet was meeting continuously at Smolny, * 
 ‘a centre of storm, delegates falling down asleep on the floor 
 and rising again to take part in the debate, Trotzky, Kameniev, 
 ‘Volodarsky speaking six, eight, twelve hours a day. . 
 ie I went down'to room 18 on the first floor where és Bol- 
 -shevik delegates were holding caucus, a harsh voice steadily 
 booming, the speaker hidden by the crowd: “The compromisers 
 say that we are isolated. Pay no attention to them. Once 
 it begins they must be dragged along with us, or else lose 
 their following... .” 
 
 Here he héld up a piece of paper. “We are dragging 
 “them! A message has just come from the Mensheviki and 
 ‘Socialist Revolutionaries! They say that they condemn our 
 action, but that if the Government attacks us they will not 
 | oppose the cause of the proletariat!” Exultant shouting. . 
 
 
 
 As night fell the great hall filled with soldiers and work- 
 | men, a monstrous dun mass, deep-humming in a blue haze of 
 smoke. The old T'say-ee-kah had finally decided to welcome 
 ‘the delegates to that new Congress which would mean its own 
 Yruin—and perhaps the ruin of the revolutionary order it had 
 built. At this meeting, however, only members of the T'say- 
 
 @é-kah could vote... . 
 It was after midnight when Gotz took the chair and Dar 
 
70 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 rose to speak, in a tense silence, which seemed to me almos 
 menacing. | | 
 
 ‘The hours in which we live appear in the most tag f 
 colours,” he said. ‘The enemy is at the gates of Petrograd, — 
 the forces of the democracy are trying to organise to resist | 
 him, and yet we await bloodshed in the streets of the capital, | 
 and famine threatens to destroy, not ee our homogeneous | 
 Government, but the Revolution itself. s ; | 
 
 “The masses are sick and chilean They have no in- | 
 terest in the Revolution. If the Bolsheviki start anything, | 
 that will be the end of the Revolution . . .” (Cries, “That’s a | 
 lie!)” The counter-revolutionists are waiting with the Bol- 
 sheviki to begin riots and massacres. ... If there is ong 
 vystuplennie, there will be no Constituent Assembly. . 
 (Cries, “Lie! Shame!) 
 
 ‘It is inadmissible that in the zone of military operations — 
 the Petrograd garrison shall not submit to the orders of the 
 Staff. . You must obey the orders of the Staff and of the 
 Maicceskah elected by you. All Power to the Soviets —thag 
 means death! Robbers and thieves are waiting for the mo- — 
 ment to loot and burn. . . . When you have such slogans put t 
 before you, ‘Enter the hoteee take away the shoes and clothes | 
 from the bourgeoisie— ”? (Tumult. Cries, “No such slo- 
 gan! A lie! <A lie!’) ‘Well, it may start differently, but 
 it will end that way! | 
 
 “The T'say-ee-kah has full power to act, and must be | 
 obeyed. . . . We are not afraid of bayonets. . . . The Tsay- | 
 ee-kah will defend the Revolution with its baile ootege (Cries, | 
 “Tt was a dead body long ago!’’) 
 
 Immense continued uproar, in which his voice could bet 
 heard screaming, as he pounded the desk, “Those who are. | 
 urging this are committing a crime?’ | 
 
 Voice: “You committed a crime long ago, when you cap- | 
 tured the power and turned it over to the bourgeoisie!” 
 
 
 
 2 ae. 
 
 oe 
 et CRD 
 
 
 
 eae 
 
 ILE EON LETS 
 
 os 
 
 At 
 

 
 
 ON THE EVE 71 
 
 | Gotz, ringing the chairman’s bell: ‘‘Silence, or I'll have 
 you put out!” 
 
 ' Voice: “Try it?’ (Cheers and whistling.) 
 
 ae “Now concerning our policy about peace.” (Laughter.) 
 “Unfortunately Russia can no longer support the continua- 
 tion of the war. There is going to be peace, but not perma- 
 nent peace—not a democratic peace. ... To-day, at the 
 Council of the Republic, in order to avoid bloodshed, we passed 
 ‘an order of the day demanding the surrender of the land to the 
 Land Committees and immediate peace negotiations. .. .” 
 (Laughter, and cries, ‘“Too late!’”’) 
 
 _ Then for the Bolsheviki, Trotzky mounted the tribune, 
 ‘borne on a wave of roaring applause that burst into cheers 
 and a rising house, thunderous. His thin, pointed face was 
 positively Mephistophelian in its expression of malicious irony. 
 f ' “Pan’s tactics prove that the masses—the great, dull, in- 
 
 } 
 
 ‘different masses—are absolutely with him!” (Titantic mirth.) 
 ‘He turned toward the chairman, dramatically. “When we 
 spoke of giving the land to the peasants, you were against it. 
 ‘We told the peasants, ‘If they don’t give it to you, take it 
 yourselves! and the peasants followed our advice. And now 
 you advocate what we did six months ago... . 
 
 “J don’t think Kerensky’s order to suspend the death pen- 
 alty in the army was dictated by his ideals. I think Keren- 
 sky was persuaded by the Petrograd garrison, which refused 
 ‘to obey him... . 
 
 * “To-day Dan is accused of having made a speech in the 
 Council of the Republic which proves him to be a secret Bol- 
 shevik. . . . The time may come when Dan will say that the 
 flower of the Revolution participated in the rising of July 16th 
 and 18th. . . . In Dan’s resolution to-day at the Council of 
 the Republic there was no mention of enforcing discipline in 
 ‘the army, although that is urged in the propaganda of his 
 Agerty- ptett 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 as 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 i 
 

 
 
 “98 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLY 
 
 “No. The history of the last seven months shows tha 
 the masses have left the Mensheviki. The Mensheviki and 
 the Socialist Revolutionaries conquered the Cadets, and then 
 when they got the power, they gave it to the Cadets.... 
 
 “Dan tells you that you have no right to make an insurrec- 
 tion. Insurrection is the right of all revolutionists! When 
 the down-trodden masses revolt, it is their right. . . .” 
 
 Then the long-faced, cruel-tongued Lieber, greeted with 
 groans and laughter. 
 
 “Engels and Marx said that the proletariat had no right 
 to take power until it was ready for it. In a bourgeois revo- 
 lution like this . . . the seizure of power by the masses means 
 the tragic end of the Revolution. . . . Trotzky, as a Social 
 Democratic theorist, is himself opposed to what he is now 
 advocating. .. .” (Cries, “Enough! Down with him!’) 
 
 Martov, constantly interrupted: “The Internationalists are 
 not opposed to the transmission of power to the democracy, 
 but they disapprove of the methods of the Bolsheviki. This 
 is not the moment to seize the power. .. .” 
 
 Again Dan took the floor, violently protesting agaist the 
 action of the Military Revolutionary Committee, which had 
 sent a Commissar to seize the office of Izviestia and censor the 
 paper. The wildest uproar followed. Martov tried to speak, 
 but could not be heard. Delegates of the Army and the Baltic 
 Fleet stood up all over the hall, shouting that the Soviet was. 
 their Government... . 
 
 Amid the wildest confusion Ehrlich offered a resolution, ap- 
 pealing to the workers and soldiers to remain calm and not to 
 respond to provocations to demonstrate, recognising the neces- 
 sity of immediately creating a Committee of Public Safety, and 
 asking the Provisional Government at once to pass decrees 
 transferring the land to the peasants and beginning peace 
 negotiations. ... 
 
 Then up leaped Volodarsky, shouting harshly that the 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PE BVH | ¥8 
 e 
 
 say-ee-kah, on the eve of the Congress, had no right 
 assume the functions of the Congress. The T'say-ee-kah 
 us practically dead, he said, and the resolution was simply a 
 1 ick to bolster up its waning power... . 
 
 “As for us, Bolsheviki, we will not vote on this resolution !” 
 Vhereupon all the Bolsheviki left the hall and the resolution 
 as passed. . 
 
 Toward fori in the morning I met Zorin in the outer hall, 
 | rifle slung from his shoulder. 
 
 _ We’re moving!’ said he, calmly but with satisfaction. 
 “We pinched the Assistant Minister of Justice and the Min- 
 F ster of Religions. -They’re down cellar now. One regiment 
 is s on the march to capture the Telephone Exchange, another 
 he Telegraph Agency, another the State Bank. The Red 
 ‘Guard is out... .” 
 
 ie: Fon the ihe of Smolny, in the chill dark, we first saw the 
 Red Guard—a huddled group of boys in workmen’s clothes, 
 a errying guns with bayonets, talking nervously together. 
 
 _ Far over the still roofs westward came the sound of scat- 
 : ered rifle fire, where the yunkers were trying to open the 
 , " idces over the Neva, to prevent the factory workers and 
 ‘soldiers of the Viborg quarter from joining the Soviet forces 
 n the centre of the city; and the Cronstadt sailors were closing 
 ‘them again. . 
 
 _ Behind us great Smolny, bright with lights, hummed like 
 a gigantic hive... . 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 Wepnespay, November 7th, I rose very late. The noon 
 cannon boomed from Peter-Paul as I went down the Nevsky. 
 It was a raw, chill day. In front of the State Bank some 
 soldiers with fixed bayonets were standing at the closed gates, 
 
 ment?”’ 
 
 “No more Government,” one answered with a grin, “Slava | 
 > 
 
 Bogu! Glory to God!” That was all I could get out of 
 
 himi/Si. 
 
 The street-cars were running on the Nevsky, men, women 
 
 and small boys hanging on every projection. Shops were 
 open, and there seemed even less uneasiness among the street 
 crowds than there had been the day before. A whole crop of 
 new appeals against insurrection had blossomed out on the 
 
 walls during the night—to the peasants, to the soldiers at the 
 
 front, to the workmen of Petrograd. One read: 
 
 FROM THE PETROGRAD MUNICIPAL DUMA: 
 
 The Municipal Duma informs the citizens that in the extraor- 
 
 dinary meeting of November 6th the Duma formed a Committee 
 of Public Safety, composed of members of the Central and Ward 
 Dumas, and representatives of the following revolutionary demo- 
 cratic organizations: ‘The Tsay-ee-kah, the All-Russian Executive 
 Committee of Peasant Deputies, the Army organisations, the 
 Tsentroflot, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Dee | 
 ties (!), the Council of Trade Unions, and others. 
 74 
 
 Sats axed 
 
 “What side do you belong to?” I asked. “The Govern- 
 
 -_— a 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 15 
 q ‘ “Members of the Committee of Public Safety will be on duty 
 ‘in the building of the Municipal Duma. Telephones No. 15-40, 
 (223-77, 138-36. 
 
 t November 7th, 1917. 
 
 Though I didn’t realize it then, this was the Duma’s 
 declaration of war against the Bolsheviki. 
 
 - I bought a copy of Rabotchi Put, the only newspaper 
 which seemed on sale, and a little later paid a soldier fifty 
 kopeks for a second-hand copy of Dien. The Bolshevik paper, 
 
 
 
 Russkaya Volia, had: huge headlines: “Att Powrr—To THE 
 | ial or Workers, Souprers AND Peasants! Peace! 
 B Lanp!” The leading article was signed “Zinoviev,” 
 1 is companion in hiding. It began: 
 
 » Every soldier, every worker, every real Socialist, every honest 
 ‘democrat realises that there are only two alternatives to the present 
 
 ‘ _Either—the power will remain in the hands of the bourgeois- 
 landlord crew, and this will mean every kind of repression for 
 the workers, soldiers and peasants, continuation of the war, in- 
 vitable hunger and death. . . 
 
 _ Or—the power will be transferred to the hands of the revolu- 
 ionary workers, soldiers and peasants; and in that case it will 
 pean a complete abolition of landlord tyranny, immediate check 
 of the capitalists, immediate proposal of a just peace. Then the 
 and is assured to the peasants, then control of industry is assured 
 0 the workers, then bread is assured to the hungry, then the end 
 
 te, 
 
 f this nonsensical war! ... 
 
 _ Dien contained fragmentary news of the agitated night. 
 , capture of the Telephone Exchange, the Baltic 
 
i 
 
 46 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 arrests, counter-arrests, skirmishes between clashing patrols 
 of soldiers, yunkers and Red Guards.* | 4 
 
 On the corner of the Morskaya I ran into Captain Gom- 
 berg, Menshevik oboronetz, secretary of the Military Section 
 of his party. When I asked him if the insurrection had really 
 happened he shrugged his shoulders in a tired manner and 
 replied, “T'chort znayet! ‘The devil knows! Well, perhaps 
 the Bolsheviki can seize the power, but they won’t be able to 
 hold it more than three days. They haven’t the men to run 
 a government. Perhaps it’s a good thing to let them try— 
 that will finish them... .” 
 
 The Military Hotel at the corner of St. Isaac’s Square was 
 picketed by armed sailors. In the lobby were many of the 
 smart young officers, walking up and down or muttering 
 together; the sailors wouldn’t let them leave.... 4 
 
 Suddenly came the sharp crack of a rifle outside, followed 
 by a scattered burst of firing. I ran out. Something unusual 
 was going on around the Marinsky Palace, where the Council 
 of the Russian Republic met. Diagonally across the wide 
 square was drawn a line of soldiers, rifles ready, staring at the 
 hotel roof. 
 
 “Provocatzia! Shot at us!” snapped one, while another 
 went running toward the door. 
 
 At the western corner of the Palace lay a big armoured | 
 car with a red flag flying from it, newly lettered in red paint: 
 “S.R.S. D.” (Soviet Rabotchikh Soldatskikh Deputatov); 
 all the guns trained toward St. Isaac’s. A barricade had been. 
 heaped up across the mouth of Novaya Ulitza—hoxes, barrels, 
 an old bed-spring, a wagon. A pile of lumber barred the end 
 of the Moika quay. Short logs from a neighbouring wood- 
 pile were being built up along the front of the building to 
 form breastworks. .. . 
 
 1References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter IV. See 
 page 334. 
 
 
 
F L OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 77 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Ts there going to be any fighting?” I asked. 
 ! soon, soon,” answered a soldier, nervously. “Go away, 
 ‘comrade, you'll get hurt. They will come from that direc- 
 tion,” pointing toward the Admiralty. 
 (> ‘Who will?” 
 “That I couldn’t tell you, brother,” he answered, and spat. 
 _ Before the door of the Palace was a crowd of soldiers and 
 ‘sailors. A sailor was telling of the end of the Council of 
 e Russian Republic. ‘We walked in there,” he said, “and 
 filled all the doors with comrades. I went up to the counter- 
 revolutionist Kornilovitz who sat in the president’s chair. 
 “No more Council” I says. ‘Run along home now! ” 
 ‘ There was laughter. By waving assorted papers I man- 
 ‘aged to get around to the door of the press gallery. There 
 4 enormous smiling sailor stopped me, and when I showed my 
 i pass, just said, “If you were Saint Michael himself, comrade, 
 | you couldn’t pass here!? Through the glass of the door I 
 made out the distorted face and gesticulating arms of a French 
 ) correspondent, locked in... . 
 _ Around in front stood a little, grey-moustached man in 
 the uniform of a general, the centre of a knot of soldiers. He 
 Was very red in the face. 
 “I am General Alexeyev,” he cried. “As your superior 
 > off cer and as a member of the Council of the Republic I de- 
 nand to be allowed to pass!’ The guard scratched his head, 
 ooking uneasily out of the corner of his eye; he beckoned to an 
 — officer, who grew very agitated when he saw who 
 | was and saluted before he realised what he was doing. 
  “Vashe Vuisokoprevoskhoditelstvo—your High Excellen- 
 - he stammered, in the manner of the old régime, eres 
 fo the Palace is strictly forbidden—I have no right 
 An automobile came by, and I saw Gotz sitting inside, 
 hing apparently with great amusement. A few minutes 
 
 
 
%8 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD > 
 arrested members of the Provisional Government. Petertl 
 Lettish member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, 
 came hurrying across the Square. 
 
 “I thought you bagged all those gentlemen last night,” said 
 I, pointing to them. 
 
 “Oh,” he answered, with the expression of a Heappointel 
 small boy. ‘The damn fools let most of them go again before 
 we made up our minds... .” | 
 
 Down the Voskressensky Prospect a great mass of sailors 
 were drawn up, and behind them came marching soldiers, as 
 far as the eye could reach. ) 
 
 We went toward the Winter Balane by way of the Admiral- 
 teisky. All the entrances to the Palace Square were closed 
 by sentries, and a cordon of troops stretched clear across the 
 western end, besieged by an uneasy throng of citizens. Ex- | 
 cept for far-away soldiers who seemed to be carrying wood 
 out of the Palace courtyard and piling it in front of the 
 main gateway, everything was quiet. 
 
 We couldn’t make out whether the sentries were pro-Goy- 
 ernment or pro-Soviet. Our papers from Smolny had no ef- 
 fect, however, so we approached another part of the line with | 
 an important air and showed our American passports, saying 
 “Official business!” and shouldered through. At the door of 
 the Palace the same old shveitzari, in their brass-buttoned 
 blue uniforms with the red-and-gold collars, politely took our 
 coats and hats, and we went up-stairs. In the dark, gloomy 
 corridor, stripped of its tapestries, a few old attendants were 
 lounging about, and in front of Kerensky’s door a young officer 
 paced up and down, gnawing his moustache. We asked if we 
 could interview the Minister-president. He bowed and clicked 
 his heels. 
 
 “No, I am sorry,” he replied in French. ‘“Alexander> 
 Feodorvitch is extremely occupied just now. . . .”? He looked 
 at us for a moment. “In fact, he is not here... .” 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 79 
 
 - “Where is he?” 7 
 f ie “He has gone to the Front. And do you know, there 
 wasn’t enough gasoline for his automobile. We had to send 
 | to the English Hospital and borrow some.” 
 
 Are the Ministers here?” 
 
 | “They are meeting in some room—lI don’t know where.’ 
 
 : _ Are the Bolsheviki coming?” 
 
 “Of course. Certainly, they are coming. I expect a 
 telephone call every minute to say that they are coming. But 
 'we are ready. We have yunkers in the front of the Palace. 
 | ‘hrough that door there.” 
 
 _ Can we go in there?” 
 
 _ “No. Certainly not. It is not permitted.” Abruptly 
 ‘he shook hands all around and walked away. We turned to 
 the forbidden door, set in a temporary partition dividing the 
 i hall and locked on the outside. On the other side were voices, 
 and somebody laughing. Except for that the vast spaces of 
 the old Palace were silent as the grave. An old shveitzar ran 
 up. “No, barin, you must not go in there.” 
 
 ‘Why is the door locked?’ 
 
 _ “To keep the soldiers in,” he answered. After a few 
 minutes he said something about having a glass of tea and 
 went back up the hall. We unlocked the door. 
 
 _ Just inside a couple of soldiers stood on guard, but they 
 - said nothing. At the end of the corridor was a large, ornate 
 
 tresses and blankets, upon which occasional soldiers were 
 stretched out; everywhere was a litter of cigarette-butts, bits 
 of bread, cloth, and empty bottles with expensive French labels. 
 More and more soldiers, with the red shoulder-straps of the 
 yt nker-schools, moved about in a stale atmosphere of tobacco- 
 smoke and unwashed humanity. One had a bottle of white 
 
sy  ‘T&N DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Burgundy, evidently filched from the cellars of the Palace. | 
 They looked at us with astonishment as we marched past, 
 through room after room, until at last we came out into a 
 series of great state-salons, fronting their long and dirty win- | 
 dows on the Square. The walls were covered with huge can- 
 ivases in massive gilt frames—historical battle-scenes. ... 
 “12 October 1812” and “6 November 1812” and “16/28 August 
 1813.” ... One had a gash across the upper right hand 
 corner. 
 
 The place was all a huge barrack, and evidently had been 
 for weeks, from the look of the floor and walls. Ma- 
 chine guns were mounted on window-sills, rifles stacked between 
 the mattresses. 
 
 As we were looking at the pictures an alcoholic breath 
 assailed me from the region of my left ear, and a voice said 
 in thick but fluent French, “I see, by the way you admire the 
 paintings, that you are foreigners.” He was a short, pia 
 man with a baldish head as he removed his cap. 
 
 “Americans? Enchanted. I am Stabs-Capitan Vladimir 
 Artzibashev, absolutely at your service.” It did not seem to 
 occur to him that there was anything unusual in four strangers, 
 one a woman, wandering through the defences of an army 
 awaiting attack. He began to complain of the state of Russia. 
 
 “Not only these Bolsheviki,” he said, “but the fine traditions 
 of the Russian army are broken down. Look around you. 
 These are all students in the officers’ training schools. But 
 are they gentlemen? Kerensky opened the officers’ schools to 
 the ranks, to any soldier who could pass an examination. 
 Naturally there are many, many who are contaminated by the 
 Revolution. . . .” | 
 
 Without consequence he changed the subject. “I am very 
 anxious to go away from Russia. I have made up my mind 
 to join the American army. Will you please go to your 
 Consul and make arrangements? I will give you my address.” © 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 81 
 
 n Bh eiaite of our protestations he wrote it on a piece of paper, 
 } bd seemed to feel better at once. I have it still—‘Oranien- 
 _baumskaya Shkola Praporshtchikov 2nd, Staraya Peterhof.” 
 “We had a review this morning early,” he went on, as he 
 guided us through the rooms and explained everything. “The 
 ] Women’s Battalion decided to remain loyal to the Govern- 
 _ ment.” 
 
 “Are the women soldiers in the Palace?” 
 
 “Yes, they are in the back rooms, where they won’t be hurt 
 if any trouble comes.” He sighed. “It is a great responsi- 
 | bility,” said he. 
 
 | For a while we stood at the window, looking down on the 
 “Square before the Palace, where three companies of long-coated 
 ; yunkers were drawn up under arms, being harangued by a 
 ei tall, energetic-looking officer I recognised as Stankievitch, 
 j chief Military Commissar of the Provisional Government. 
 | After a few minutes two of the companies shouldered arms with 
 a clash, barked three sharp shouts, and went swinging off 
 across the Square, disappearing through the Red Arch into 
 ne quiet city. 
 
 LH “They are going to capture the Telephone Exchange,” 
 \said some one. Three cadets stood by us, and we fell into 
 _ conversation. They said they had entered the schools from 
 Bienko and Erni Sachs, an Esthonian. But now they didn’t 
 | want to be officers any more, because officers were very un- 
 popular. ‘They didn’t seem to know what to do, as a matter 
 of fact, and it was plain that they were not happy. 
 
 _ But soon they began to boast. “If the Bolsheviki come 
 we shall show them how to fight. They do not dare to fight, 
 
 ‘they are cowards. But if we should be overpowered, well, 
 99 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 e ranks, and gave their names—Robert Olev, Alexei Vasi- 
 
 every man keeps one bullet for himself... . 
 _ At this point there was a burst of rifle-fire not far off. 
 Out on the Square all the people began to run, falling flat on 
 
82 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 1 
 
 their faces, and the izvoshtchiki, standing on the corners, gal- 
 loped in every direction. Inside all was uproar, soldiers run- | 
 ning here and there, grabbing up guns, rifle-belts and shouting, 
 “Here they come! Here they come!” ... But in a few min- 
 utes it quieted down again. The izvoshtchiki came back, the 
 people lying down stood up. Through the Red Arch appeared 
 the yunkers, marching a little out of step, one of them sup- 
 ported by two comrades, 
 
 It was getting late when we left the Palace. The sentries 
 in the Square had all disappeared. The great semi-circle of 
 Government buildings seemed deserted. We went into the 
 Hotel France for dinner, and right in the middle of soup | 
 the waiter, very pale in the face, came up and insisted that we 
 move to the main dining-room at the back of the house, because 
 they were going to put out the lights in the café. ‘There will 
 be much shooting,” he said. 
 
 When we came out on the Morskaya again it was quite 
 dark, except for one flickering street-light on the corner of | 
 the Nevsky. Under this stood a big armored automobile, 
 with racing engine and oil-smoke pouring out of it. A small 
 boy had climbed up the side of the thing and was looking down 
 the barrel of a machine gun. Soldiers and sailors stood 
 around, evidently waiting for something. We walked back up 
 to the Red Arch, where a knot of soldiers was gathered star- 
 ing at the brightly-ighted Winter Palace and talking in loud 
 tones. | 
 
 *““No, comrades,” one was saying. “How can we shoot at 
 them? The Women’s Battalion is in there—they will say 
 we have fired on Russian women.”’ 
 
 As we reached the Nevsky again another armoured car 
 came around the corner, and a man poked his head out of the 
 turret-top. 
 
 “Come on!’ he yelled. ‘‘Let’s go on through and attack!” 
 
 The driver of the other car came over, and shouted so 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT ~ 83 
 
 ' as to be heard above the roaring engine. “The Committee 
 | says to wait. goer have got artillery behind the wood-piles 
 . Q teres) y'0:) <P? 
 
 » Here the street-cars had stopped running, few people 
 passed, and there were no lights; but a few blocks away we 
 could see the trams, the crowds, the lighted shop-windows and 
 the electric signs of the moving-picture shows—life going on 
 as usual. We had tickets to the Ballet at the Marinsky The- 
 | ‘atre—all the theatres were open—but it was too exciting out 
 ‘of doors. 
 
 * In the darkness we wetuiibled over lumber-piles barricading 
 the Police Bridge, and before the Stroganov Palace made out 
 ‘some soldiers wheeling into position a three-inch field-gun. 
 
 Men i in various uniforms were coming and going in an aimless 
 “way, and doing a great deal of talking. . 
 
 Up the Nevsky the whole city seemed to He out promenad- 
 “ing. On every corner immense crowds were massed around a 
 ‘core of hot discussion. Pickets of a dozen soldiers with fixed 
 bayonets lounged at the street-crossings, red-faced old men in 
 Mich fur coats shook their fists at them, smartly-dressed women 
 Be resined epithets ; the soldiers argued feebly, with embarrassed 
 hg grins. ... Armoured cars went up and down the street, named 
 ‘after the first Tsars—Oleg, Rurik, Svietoslav—and daubed 
 with huge red letters, “R. S. D. R. P.” (Rossiskaya Sotsial- 
 “Demokrateetcheskaya Rabotchaya Partia)*. At the Mik- 
 ‘Railovsky a man appeared with an armful of newspapers, and 
 “was immediately stormed by frantic people, offering a rouble, 
 five roubles, ten roubles, tearing at each other like animals. 
 
 ‘It was Rabotchi i Soldat, announcing the victory of the Prole- 
 tarian Revolution, the Jiberation of the Bolsheviki still in 
 prison, calling upon the Army front and rear for support . 
 
 e feverish little sheet of four pages, running to enormous cae 
 ‘containing no news. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ * (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party). 
 
84 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ~ 
 
 On the corner of the Sadovaya about two thousand pal 
 had gathered, staring up at the roof of a tall building, where 
 a tiny red spark glowed and waned. 
 “See!” said a tall peasant, pointing to it. “It is a provo- 
 cator. Presently he will fire on the people. . . .” Apparently 
 no one thought of going to investigate. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 The massive facade of Smolny blazed with lights as we drove 
 up, and from every street converged upon it streams of hurry- 
 ing shapes dim in the gloom. Automobiles and motorcycles 
 came and went; an enormous elephant-coloured armoured au- 
 tomobile, with two red flags flying from the turret, lumbered 
 out with screaming siren. It was cold, and at the outer gate 
 the Red Guards had built themselves a bon-fire. At the inner | 
 gate, too, there was a blaze, by the light of which the sentries 
 slowly spelled out our passes and looked us up and down. The 
 canvas covers had been taken off the four rapid-fire guns on 
 each side of the doorway, and the ammunition-belts hung snake- 
 like from their breeches. A dun herd of armoured cars stood 
 under the trees in the court-yard, engines going. The long, 
 bare, dimly-illuminated halls roared with the thunder of feet, 
 calling, shouting. . . . There was an atmosphere of reckless- 
 ness. A crowd came pouring down the staircase, workers in 
 black blouses and round black fur hats, many of them with 
 guns slung over their shoulders, soldiers in rough dirt-coloured 
 coats and grey fur shapki pinched fiat, a leader or so—Lunat- 
 
 
 
 charsky, Kameniev—hurrying along in the centre of a group 
 all talking at once, with harassed anxious faces, and bulging 
 portfolios under their arms. The extraordinary meeting of 
 the Petrograd Soviet was over. I stopped Kame2sev—a quick- 
 moving little man, with a wide, vivacious face set close to his 
 shoulders. Without preface he read in rapid French a | 
 
 of the resolution just passed: 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 85 
 
 _ The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, salut- 
 ng the victorious Revolution of the Petrograd proletariat and gar- 
 _rison, particularly emphasises the unity, organisation, discipline, 
 and complete cooperation shown by the masses in this rising; rarely 
 “has less blood been spilled, and rarely has an insurrection suc- 
 seeded so well. 
 
 | The Soviet expresses its firm conviction that the Workers’ and 
 | Peasants’ Government which, as the government of the Soviets, will 
 be created by the Revolution, and which will assure the industrial 
 proletariat of the support of the entire mass of poor peasants, will 
 march firmly toward Socialism, the only means by which the coun- 
 try can be spared the miseries and unheard-of horrors of war. 
 _ The new Workers’ and Peasants’ Government will propose imme- 
 ‘diately a just and democratic peace to all the belligerent countries. 
 It will suppress immediately the great landed property, and 
 transfer the land to the peasants. It will establish workmen’s con- 
 ‘trol over production and distribution of manufactured products, and 
 will set up a general control over the banks, which it will trans- 
 form into a state monopoly. 
 
 " The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies calls 
 upon the workers and the peasants of Russia to support with 
 all their energy and all their devotion the Proletarian Revolution. 
 the Soviet expresses its conviction that the city workers, allies of 
 ne poor peasants, will assure complete revolutionary order, indis~ 
 pensable to the victory of Socialism. The Soviet is convinced 
 
 j 
 | 
 
 sthat the proletariat of the countries of Western Europe will aid 
 is in conducting the cause of Socialism to a real and lasting 
 victory. 
 
 i “You consider it won then?” 
 
 | He lifted his shoulders. “There is much to do. Horribly 
 nuch. It is just Be TON iN eben 50"? 
 
 ‘: On the landing I met Riazanov, vice-president of the Trade 
 Jnions, looking black and biting his grey beard. “It’s in- 
 Jame! Insane!’ he shouted. “The European working-class 
 fon’t move! All Russia—” He waved his hand distractedly 
 
 } 
 
 ee Mle ences eel 
 
 
 
 
8g TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ; 
 
 | | 
 and ran off. Riazanov and Kameniev had both opposed the 
 insurrection, and felt the lash of Lenin’s terrible tongue. . -— 
 
 It had been a momentous session. In the name of the Mili 
 tary Revolutionary Committee Trotzky had declared that the 
 Provisional Government no longer existed. 
 
 “The characteristic of bourgeois governments,” he said, 
 “is to deceive the people. We, the Soviets of Workers’, Sol- 
 diers’? and Peasants’ Deputies, are going to try an experiment 
 unique in history; we are going to found a power which will 
 have no other aim but to satisfy the needs of the soldiers, work- 
 ers, and peasants.” 
 
 Lenin had appeared, welcomed with a mighty ovation, pro- 
 phesying world-wide Social Revolution. . . . And Zinoviev, 
 crying, “This day we have paid our debt to the international 
 proletariat, and struck a terrible blow at the war, a terrible 
 body-blow at all the imperialists and particularly at Wilhelm 
 the Executioner... .” 
 
 Then Trotzky, that telegrams had been sent to the front 
 announcing the victorious insurrection, but no reply had come. 
 Troops were said to be marching against Petrograd—a dele- 
 gation must be sent to tell them the truth. 
 
 Cries, “You are anticipating the will of the All-Russia: 
 
 199 
 
 
 
 
 
 Congress of Soviets 
 
 Trotzky, coldly, “The will of the All-Russian Congress of 
 Soviets has been anticipated by the rising of the Petrogr | 
 workers and soldiers!’ 3 
 
 So we came into the great meeting-hall, pushing through 
 the clamorous mob at the door. In the rows of seats, under 
 the white chandeliers, packed immovably in ‘the aisles and 0 
 the sides, perched on every window-sill, and even the edge of 
 the platform, the representatives of the workers and soldiers 
 of all Russia waited in anxious silence or wild exultation the 
 ringing of the chairman’s bell. There was no heat in the hal! 
 but the stifling heat of unwashed human bodies. A foul blu 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 87 
 
 cloud of cigarette smoke rose from the mass and hung in the 
 thick air. Occasionally some one in authority mounted the 
 tribune and asked the comrades not to smoke; then everybody, 
 smokers and all, took up the cry “Don’t smoke, comrades!” 
 and went on smoking. Petrovsky, Anarchist delegate from the 
 Obukhoy factory, made a seat for me beside him. Unshaven 
 and filthy, he was reeling from three nights’ sleepless work on 
 ‘the Military Revolutionary Committee. | 
 
 : On the platform sat the leaders of the old Tsay-ee-kah—for 
 the last time dominating the turbulent Soviets, which they 
 nad ruled from the first days, and which were now risen against 
 them. It was the end of the first period of the Russian revolu- 
 tion, which these men had attempted to guide in careful ways. 
 
 — 
 
 ... The three greatest of them were not there: Kerensky, 
 Hiying to the front through country towns all doubtfully heav- 
 ing up; Tcheidze, the old eagle, who had contemptuously re- 
 tired to his own Georgian mountains, there to sicken with con- 
 sumption; and the high-souled Tseretelli, also mortally 
 stricken, who, nevertheless, would return and pour out his beau- 
 tiful eloquence for a lost cause. Gotz sat there, Dan, Lieber, 
 Bogdanoy, Broido, Fillipovsky,—white-faced, hollow-eyed and 
 indignant. Below them the second siezd of the All-Russian 
 Soviets boiled and swirled, and over their heads the Military 
 Revolutionary Committee functioned white-hot, holding in its 
 rr the threads of insurrection and striking with a long arm. 
 . It was 10.40 P. M. 
 1 Dan, a mild-faced, baldish figure in a shapeless military 
 surgeon’s uniform, was ringing the bell. Silence fell sharply, 
 intense, broken by the scuffling and disputing of the people 
 ‘at the door. ... 
 “We have the power in our hands,” he began sadly, stopped 
 
 for a moment, and then went on in a low voice. ‘Comrades! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Congress of Soviets is meeting in such unusual circum- 
 stances and in such an extraordinary moment that you will 
 
88 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 understand why the T'say-ee-kah considers it unnecessary to d- 
 dress you with a political speech. This will become mu¢ 
 clearer to you if you will recollect that I am a member of the 
 Tsay-ee-kah, and that at this very moment our party com- 
 rades are in the Winter Palace under bombardment, sacrific 
 ing themselves to execute the duty put on them by the T'say-ee- 
 kah.” (Confused uproar.) 
 
 “T declare the first session of the Second Congress of So 
 viets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies open!’ . 
 
 The election of the presidium took place amid stir an 
 moving about. Avanessov announced that by agreement 0 
 the Bolsheviki, Left Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviki 
 Tnternationalists, it was decided to base the presidium upon 
 proportionality. Several Mensheviki leaped to their feet pro 
 testing. <A bearded soldier shouted at them, “Remember wha 
 you did to us Bolsheviki when we were the minority!” Result 
 —14 Bolsheviki, 7 Socialist Revolutionaries, 8 Mensheviki an 
 1 Internationalist (Gorky’s group). Hendelmann, for th 
 right and centre Socialist Revolutionaries, said that they re 
 fused to take part in the presidium; the same from Kintchuk, 
 for the Mensheviki; and from the Mensheviki Internationalists 
 that until the verification of certain circumstances, they to 
 could not enter the presidium. Scattering applause and hoots 
 One voice, “Renegades, you call yourselves Socialists!’ A rep 
 resentative of the Ukrainean delegates demanded, and received. 
 a place. Then the old T'say-ee-kah stepped down, and in thei 
 places appeared Trotzky, Kameniev, Lunatcharsky, Madam 
 Kollentai, Nogin. . . . The hall rose, thundering. How fa 
 they had soared, these Bolsheviki, from a despised and hunted 
 sect less than four months ago, to this supreme place, the hel 
 of great Russia in full tide of insurrection! 
 
 The order of the day, said Kameniev, was first, Organi- 
 sation of Power; second, War and Peace; and third, the Con: 
 stituent Assembly. Lozovsky, rising, announced that ‘upor 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 89 
 ‘agreement of ie bureau of all factions, it was proposed to hear 
 and discuss the report of the Petrograd Soviet, then to give 
 4 1e floor to members of the T'say-ee-kah and the different par- 
 vies, and finally to pass to the order of the day. 
 
 But suddenly a new sound made itself heard, deeper than 
 she tumult of the crowd, persistent, disquieting,—the dull 
 shock of guns. People looked anxiously toward the clouded win- 
 dows, and a sort ef fever came over them. Martov, demanding 
 the floor, croaked hoarsely, “The civil war is beginning, com- 
 rades! The first question must be a peaceful settlement of the 
 orisis. On princivle and from a political standpoint we must 
 i rgently discuss ¢ means of averting civil war. Our brothers 
 are being shot dovn in the streets! At this moment, when be- 
 fore the opening of the Congress of Soviets the question of 
 Power is being scttled by means of a military plot organised 
 by one of the revolutionary parties—” for a moment he could 
 aot make himself heard above the noise, “All of the revolution- 
 ary parties must jace the fact! The first vopros (question) be- 
 ‘ore the Congress is the question of Power, and this question is 
 uready being set‘led by force of arms in the streets! ... We 
 nust create a pover which will be recognised by the whole de- 
 nocracy. If the Congress wishes to be the voice of the revolu- 
 sionary democracy it must not sit with folded hands before the 
 leveloping civil war, the result of which may be a dangerous 
 
 sutburst of coun er-revolution. . . . The possibility of a peace- 
 
 al outcome lies in the formation of a united democratic au- 
 
 ec. . . . We must elect a delegation to negotiate with the 
 ither Socialist parties and organisations. . . .” 
 
 _ Always the methodical muffled boom of cannon through 
 
 Jhe windows, an’ the delegates, screaming at each other. ... 
 
 30, with the crash of artillery, in the dark, with hatred, and 
 
 ear, and reckles daring, new Russia was being born. 
 
 _ The Left Sccialist Revolutionaries and the United Social 
 
 Jemocrats supprted Martov’s proposition. It was accepted. 
 
99 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 i 
 * 
 
 A soldier announced that the All-Russian Peasatsig? Soviets had 
 refused to send delegates to the Congress; he proposed that a 
 committee be sent with a formal invitation. “‘Some delegate 
 are present,” he said. “I move that Hey be given votes.” 
 Accepted. 
 
 Kharash, wearing the epaulets of a captain, passionately 
 demanded the floor. “The political hypocrites who control this 
 Congress,” he shouted, “told us we were to settle the questio: 
 of Power—and it is being settled behind our backs, before th 
 Congress opens! Blows are being struck azainst the Winter 
 
 
 
 
 Palace, and it is by such blows that the nails are being drive 
 into the coffin of the political party which has risked such a 
 adventure!” Uproar. Followed him Gharra: ‘While we are 
 here discussing propositions of peace, there is a battle on in 
 the streets. . . . The Socialist Revolutionaries and the Men- 
 sheviki refuse to be involved in what is happening, and cal 
 upon all public forces to resist the attempt to capture the 
 power... .” Kutchin, delegate of the 12th Army and rep- 
 resentative of the Troudoviki: “I was sent here only for in 
 formation, and I am returning at once to the Front, where all 
 the Army Committees consider that the takng of power by 
 the Soviets, only three weeks before the Constituent Assembly 
 is a stab in the back of the Army and a crime against the peo- 
 ple—!” Shouts of “Lie! You he!’ . . When te could be hear 
 again, ‘‘Let’s make an end of this advent n Petrograd! 
 
 call upon all delegates to leave this hall in Order to save the 
 7 As he went Cown the aisle ir 
 the midst of a deafening noise, people surgd in upon him 
 
 country and the Revolution! 
 
 threatening. ... Then Khintchuk, an officy with a long 
 brown goatee, speaking suavely and persuasivey: “I speak foi 
 the delegates from the Front. The Army is irjperfectly repre- 
 sented in this Congress, and furthermore, the Army does no 
 consider the Congress of Soviets necessary ai this time, onl 
 three weeks before the opening of the Constiyent—” shouts 
 
f FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 91 
 and stamping, always growing more violent. “The Army 
 ‘Joes not consider that the Congress of Soviets has the neces- 
 sary authority—” Soldiers began to stand up all over the 
 all. 
 
 _ “Who are you speaking for? What do you represent?” 
 they cried. 
 
 _ “The Central Executive Committee of the Soviet of the 
 Fifth Army, the Second F— regiment, the First N— Regi- 
 ment, the Third S— Rifles. . . .” 
 
 _ “When were you elected? You represent the officers, not 
 she soldiers! What do the soldiers say about it?” Jeers and 
 ‘oots. 
 
 ' “We, the Front group, disclaim all responsibility for what 
 nas happened and is happening, and we consider it necessary 
 
 
 
 <o mobilise all self-conscious revolutionary forces for the salva- 
 sion of the Revolution! The Front group will leave the Con- 
 gress. . . . The place to fight is out on the streets!” 
 Immense bawling outcry. “You speak for the Staff—not 
 Vor the Army!” 
 
 | J appeal to all reasonable soldiers to leave this Congress !”” 
 | Kornilovitz! Counter-revolutionist! Provocator!” were 
 hurled at hm. 
 
 ' On behalf of the Mensheviki, inatchak then announced 
 shat the only possibility of a peaceful solution was to begin 
 
 
 
 1egotiations with the Provisional Government for the forma- 
 “ion of a new Cabinet, which wou! find support in all strata of 
 hociety. Fe could not proceed for several minutes. Raising 
 is voice to a fhout he, read the Menshevik declaration: 
 
 ' “Because th Bolsheviki have made a military conspiracy 
 vith the aid of hé Petrograd Soviet, without consulting the 
 ‘ther factions af@ parties, we find it impossible to remain in the 
 Jongress, and therefore withdraw, inviting the other groups 
 ‘o follow us and to meet for discussion of the situation!” 
 
 | “Deserter!” |At intervals in the almost continuous dis- 
 
 W 
 5 
 og 
 
 
 
92 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE woRLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 turbance Hendelman, for the Socialist Revolutionaries, could 
 be heard protesting against the bombardment of the Winter 
 Palace. . . . “We are opposed to this kind of anarchy. . . , 
 
 Scarcely had he stepped down than a young, lean-faced 
 soldier, with flashing eyes, leaped to the platform, and dra- 
 matically lifted his hand: . 
 
 “Comrades!” he cried and there was a hush. “My familia 
 (name) is Peterson—I speak for the Second Lettish Rifles. You 
 have heard the statements of two representatives of the Army 
 committees ; these statements would have some value ¢f thear au- 
 thors had been representatives of the Army—”’ Wild ap- 
 plause. “But they do not represent the soldiers!” Shakin, 
 his fist. ‘The Twelfth Army has been insisting for a long time 
 upon the re-election of the Great Soviet and the Army Com 
 mittee, but just as your own T'say-ee-kah, our Committee re- 
 fused to call a meeting of the representatives of the masse 
 until the end of September, so that the reactionaries coul 
 elect their own false delegates to this Congress. I tell yo 
 now, the Lettish soldiers have many times said, ‘No more res 
 lutions! No more talk! We want deeds—the Power mus 
 be in our hands!’ Let these impostor delegates leave the Con 
 gress! The Army is not with them!” 
 
 The hall rocked with cheering. In the first moments 0 
 the session, stunned -by the rapidity of events, startled b 
 the sound of cannon, txe aca had hesitated. For a 
 
 
 
 
 this clear-eyed young soldier had spoken, 
 knew it for the truth. . . . This was the voic 
 
 in a flash they 
 f the soldiers— 
 
 men like them, and their thoughts and feelings - 
 More soldiers . . . Gzhelshakh; for the Frjont delegates, an: 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 93 
 
 7 ov ncing that they had only decided to leave the Congress by 
 ‘a small majority, and that the Bolshevik members had not even 
 taken part in the vote, as they stood for division according to 
 jolitical parties, and not groups. “Hundreds of delegates 
 rom the Front,” he said, “are being elected without the par- 
 icipation of the soldiers because the Army Committees are no 
 onger the real representatives of the rank and file... .” 
 wukianov, erying that officers like Kharash and Khintchuk 
 ould not represent the Army in this congress,—but only the 
 high command. “The real inhabitants of the trenches want 
 with all their hearts the transfer of Power into the hands of 
 the Soviets, and they expect very much from it!” ... The 
 tide was turning. 
 
 if Then came Abramovitch, for the Bund, the organ of the 
 Jewish Social Democrats—his eyes snapping behind thick 
 lasses, trembling with rage. 
 
 “What is taking place now in Petrograd is a monstrous 
 calamity! The Bund group joins with the declaration of the 
 NV ensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries and will leave the 
 Congress!” He raised his voice and hand. “Our duty to 
 the Russian proletariat doesn’t permit us to remain here and 
 be responsible for these crimes. Because the firing on the 
 Winter Palace doesn’t cease, the Municipal Duma _ to- 
 ether with the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and 
 the Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviet, has decided 
 to perish with the Provisional Government, and we are going 
 with them! Unarmed we will expose our breasts to the ma- 
 chine guns of the Terrorists. . . . We invite all delegates to 
 
 99 
 
 
 
 rE Congress The rest was lost in a storm of hoots, 
 naces and curses which rose to a hellish a as fifty 
 Adlegates got up and pushed their way out. 
 
 _ Kameniev jangled the bell, shouting, “Keep your seats and 
 | el go on with our business!’ And Trotzky, standing up 
 ith a pale, vc face, letting out his rich voice in cool con- 
 
94 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD | a 
 
 tempt, “All these so-called Socialist compromisers, mr | 
 frightened Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries, Bund—let | 
 them go! They are just so much refuse which will be swept 
 into the garbage-heap of history !”” 
 
 Riazanov, for the Bolsheviki, stated that at the request 
 of the City Duma the Military Revolutionary Committee had 
 sent a delegation to offer negotiations to the Winter Palace. 
 “In this way we have done everything possible to avoid blood- 
 edit ha" s7? | 
 
 We hurried from the place, stopping for a moment at 
 the room where the Military Revolutionary Committee worked 
 at furious speed, engulfing and spitting out panting couriers, 
 despatching Commissars armed with power of life and death | 
 to all the corners of the city, amid the buzz of the telephono- | 
 graphs. The door opened, a blast of stale air and cigarette- | 
 smoke rushed out, we caught a glimpse of dishevelled men bend- 
 ing over a map under the glare of a shaded electric-light. . . ./ 
 Comrade Josephov-Dukhvinski, a smiling youth with a mop 
 of pale yellow hair, made out passes for us. | 
 
 When we came into the chill night, all the front of Smolny_ 
 was one huge park of arriving and departing automobiles, 
 above the sound of which could be heard the far-off slow 
 beat of the cannon. A great motor-truck stood there, shak- 
 ing to the roar of its engine. Men were tossing bundles into 
 it, and others receiving them, with guns beside them. 
 
 ‘‘Where are you going?” I shouted. 
 
 ‘Down-town—all over—everywhere!? answered a little 
 workman, grinning, with a large exultant gesture. 
 
 We showed our passes. “Come along!” they invited. ‘“‘But 
 there’ll probably be shooting——” We climbed in; the clutch 
 slid home with a raking jar, the great car jerked forward, 
 ve all toppled backward on top of those who were climbing 
 in; past the huge fire by the gate, and then the fire by 
 the outer gate, glowing red on the faces of the workmen with 
 
 a 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ee man tore the wrapping froin a bundle and bein ‘S hurl 
 ' oo of papers into the air. We imitated him, plunging 
 
 - pick them up; the patrols Oeacnd ponte on the corners 
 ‘Yan out with uplifted arms to catch them. Sometimes armed 
 
 
 
 _ I picked up a copy of the paper, and under a fleeting 
 street-light read: 
 
 TO THE CITIZENS OF RUussiA! 
 
 
 
 _ The Provisional Government is deposed. The State Power 
 _ has passed into the hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet 
 ( 
 ommittee, which stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat 
 nd garrison. 
 
 i Be ernient—that cause is securely achieved. 
 
 LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION OF WORKMEN, 
 
 Military Revolutionary Goeiiees 
 _ Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. 
 
 ye A slant-eyed, Mongolian-faced man who sat beside me, 
 ' dressed in a goat-skin Caucasian cape, snapped, “Look out! 
 | Here the provocators always shoot from the windows!” We 
 turned into Znamensky Square, dark and almost deserted, 
 
 
 
 
 
Orb BocHHo - Peano nm - Romurert areas co 
 b H CORAOTCKHRD jlengTaTOBS. 
 
 
 
 Kp Tpaxgqakamp Poccin. 
 
 Bowens [nasuremserno smomomend, [oepaap: 
 CTDCHA BAACTE MepeMa B pyre oprana Leno 
 rpagciar0 Contra Patocurs u Congarenma Henyras 
 mons Boeto=Peomomonnara Komaneta, CTomlard 
 
 b0 rab’: lemporpagenard mpomonaplata @ rapaMgona, 
 
 JKéno, 38 KOTODOR OOPONCA HANOI: HEMEMIMERROE (Pe) 
 JOOKCHE eMOKTATHTRCKCSTO MEA, OTWTBHA TOMBITEaBeR 
 PODCTROHHOGTH HA SEMUIU0, [A004 KORT DONG Hah MDOSRON- 
 re ag Coptrexard [paBureMbeTka — 370 
 
 il ee PEBOVIOUIA PABOUAX'D, CONIATD 
 
 eHHo=-Pes02nvqi te FlomurTreTs 
 tae Merporpazcroms Cosnsrs 
 Patouwmxs = CommzarTe ee AlenyrT2TosE 
 
 2> oxta6pa 1917 r, 10 Gy, yrpa. 
 et, aera of the Fall of the Pro ional Government, issued b 
 
 : y the Milit 
 Rev femme ittee on the night of Nove er 7t our calendar) i 
 he ne ant nina ribute from a motor- deoak just after the surrender o Pala 
 
 
 
ee, 
 Af, 
 
 FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 97 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " Ing at the windows. Behind us the street was alive with 
 
 * the City Duma was all brightly lighted. Beyond that we 
 ‘made out a dark mass of people, and a line of sailors, who 
 : yelled furiously at us to stop. The machine slowed down, 
 and we climbed out. 
 «*Tt was an astonishing scene. Just at the corner of the 
 | Bhatern Canal, under an arc-light, a cordon of armed sailors 
 _ was drawn across the Nevsky, blocking the way to a crowd of 
 "people in column of fours. There were about three or four 
 ie undred of them, men in frock coats, well-dressed women, 
 i officers—all sorts and conditions of people. Among them 
 We recognised many of the delegates from the Congress, leaders 
 f the Mensheviki and Socialist ‘Revolutionaries; Avksentiev, 
 ' the lean, red-bearded president of the Peasants’ Soviets, Saro- 
 _kin, Kerensky’s spokesman, Khintchuk, Abramovitch; and at 
 q the head white-bearded old Schreider, Mayor of Petrograd, 
 and Prokopovitch, Minister of Supplies in the Provisional 
 Government, arrested that morning and released. I caught 
 sight of Malkin, reporter for the Russian Daily News. 
 I: “Going to die in the Winter Palace,”? he shouted cheerfully. 
 The procession stood still, but from the front of it came loud 
 _ argument. Schreider and Prokopovitch were bellowing at 
 ) the big sailor who seemed in command. 
 “We demand to pass!” they cried. “See, these comrades 
 j\ come from the Congress of Soviets! Look at their tickets! 
 We are going to the Winter Paiace!”? 
 _ The sailor was plainly puzzled. He scratched his head 
 with an enormous hand, frowning. “I have orders from the 
 Committee not to let anybody go to the Winter Palace,” he 
 "grumbled. “But I will send a comrade to telephone to 
 Smolny... .” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 98 ‘TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 “We insist upon passing! We are unarmed! We will i 
 march on whether you permit us or not!” cried old Schreider, i 
 very much excited. ay 
 
 “ T have orders > repeated the sailor sullenly. 
 
 “Shoot us if you want to! We will pass! Forward!” 
 came from all sides. “We are ready to die, if you have the 
 
 
 
 heart to fire on Russians and comrades! We bare our breasts 
 to your guns!” 
 
 “No,” said the sailor, looking stubborn, “I can’t allow you 
 to pass.” 
 
 “What will you do if we go forward? Will you shoot?” | 
 
 “No, I’m not going to shoot people who haven’t any guns. 
 We won’t shoot unarmed Russian people. . . .” ( 
 
 “We will go forward! What can you do?” 
 
 ‘We will do something,” replied the sailor, evidently at at 
 loss. ‘We can’t let you pass. We will do something.” 
 
 “What will you do? What will you do?” 
 
 Another sailor came up, very much irritated. “We will 
 spank you!” he cried, energetically. “And if necessary we | 
 will shoot you too. Go home now, and leave us in peace!” 
 
 At this there was a great clamour of anger and resentment, 
 Prokopovitch had mounted some sort of box, and, waving his 
 umbrella, he made a speech: 
 
 “Comrades and citizens!” he said. “Force is being nse 
 against us! We cannot have our innocent blood upon the 
 hands of these ignorant men! It is beneath our dignity to be 
 shot down here in the street by switchmen—” (What he meant 
 by “switchmen” I never discovered.) “Let us return to the 
 Duma and discuss the best means of saving the country and the 
 Revolution !”” 
 
 Whereupon, in dignified silence, the procession marched 
 around and back up the Nevsky, always in column of fours. 
 And taking advantage of the diversion we slipped past the 
 guards and set off in the direction of the Winter Palace. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 | j FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 99 
 ae | Here it was absolutely dark, and nothing moved but pickets 
 of soldiers and Red Guards grimly intent. In front of the 
 Kazan Cathedral a three-inch field-gun lay in the middle of 
 the street, slewed sideways from the recoil of its last shot over 
 the roofs. Soldiers were standing in every doorway talking 
 in low tones and peering down toward the Police Bridge. I 
 _heard one voice saying: “It is possible that we have done 
 wrong. . - .’ At the corners patrols stopped all passersby— 
 and the composition of these patrols was interesting, for in 
 oo of the regular troops was invariably a Red Guard. 
 - The shooting had ceased. 
 4 ¥ That as we came to the Morskaya somebody was shouting: 
 “The yunkers have sent word they want us to go and get them 
 out!’ Voices began to give commands, and in the thick gloom 
 “we made out a dark mass moving forward, silent but for the 
 “shuffle of feet and the clinking of arms. We fell in with the 
 ‘first ranks. 
 4 Like a black river, filling all the street, without song or 
 ‘cheer we poured through the Red Arch, where the man just 
 i ahead of me said in a low voice: “Look out, comrades! Don’t 
 ‘trust them. They will fire, surely!’ In the open we began to 
 ‘Tun, stooping low and bunching together, and jammed up sud- 
 -denly behind the pedestal of the Alexander Column. 
 iq _ “How many of you did they kill?” I asked. 
 ‘ “I don’t know. About ten... .” 
 | _ After a few minutes huddling there, some hundreds of men, 
 ‘the army seemed reassured and without any orders suddenly 
 began again to flow forward. By this time, in the light that 
 streamed out of all the Winter Palace windows, I could see 
 that the first two or three hundred men were Red Guards, with 
 only a few scattered soldiers. Over the barricade of fire- 
 “wood we clambered, and leaping down inside gave a trium- 
 ‘phant shout as we stumbled on a heap of rifles thrown down 
 by the yunkers who had stood there. On both sides of the 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 100 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 main gateway the doors stood wide open, light streamed out, 
 and from the huge pile came not the slightest sound. 4 
 
 Carried along by the eager wave cf men we were swept H 
 into the right hand entrance, opening into a great bare vaulted a 
 room, the cellar of the East wing, from which issued a maze 
 of corridors and stair-cases. A number of huge packing cases | 
 stood about, and upon these the Red Guards and soldiers fell 
 furiously, battering them open with the butts of their rifles, | 
 and ie out carpets, curtains, linen, porcelain plates, glass- 
 ware. . . . One man went strutting around with a bronze clock 
 sarod on his shoulder; another found a plume of ostrich | 
 feathers, which he stuck in his hat. The looting was just 
 beginning when somebody cried, “Comrades! Don’t touch 
 anything! Don’t take anything! This is the property of 
 the People!” Immediately twenty voices were crying, “Stop! 
 Put everything back! Don’t take anything! Property of | 
 the People!’ Many hands dragged the spoilers down. — 
 Damask and tapestry were snatched from the arms of those 
 who had them; two men took away the bronze clock. Roughly - 
 and hastily the things were crammed back in their cases, and | 
 self-appointed sentinels stood guard. It was all utterly spon- 
 taneous. Through corridors and up stair-cases the ery could | 
 be heard growing fainter and fainter in the distance, “‘Revolu-_ 
 tionary discipline! Property of the People... .” i 
 
 We crossed back over to the left entrance, in the West 
 wing. There order was also being established. “Clear the i 
 Palace!” bawled a Red Guard, sticking his head through an_ 
 inner door. ‘Come, comrades, let’s show that we’re not thieves ; 
 and bandits. Everybody out of the Palace except the Comm 
 missars, until we get sentries posted.” 
 
 Two Red Guards, a soldier and an officer, stobe with re- | 
 volvers in their hands. Another soldier sat at a table behind | 
 them, with pen and paper. Shouts of “All out! All out!” } 
 were heard far and near within, and the Army began to mv | 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 101 
 
 a hrough the door, jostling, expostulating, arguing. As each 
 ‘man appeared he was seized by the self-appointed committee, 
 “who went through his pockets and looked under his coat. 
 | Everything that was plainly not his property was taken away, 
 he man at the table noted it on his paper, and it was carried 
 into a little room. The most amazing assortment of objects 
 /were thus confiscated; statuettes, bottles of ink, bed-spreads 
 worked with the Imperial monogram, candles, a small oil- 
 13 ainting, desk blotters, gold-handled swords, cakes of soap, 
 _clothes of every description, blankets. One Red Guard car- 
 (ried three rifles, two of which jhe had taken away from 
 yunkers: another had four portfolios bulging with written 
 ‘documents, The culprits either sullenly surrendered or 
 ‘pleaded like children. All talking at once the committee ex- 
 ‘plained that stealing was not worthy of the people’s cham- 
 ‘Pions; often those who had been caught turned around and 
 began to help go through the rest of the comrades.? 
 
 _ Yunkers came out, in bunches of three or four. The com- 
 mittee seized upon them with an excess of zeal, accompanying 
 ‘the search with remarks like, “Ah, Provocators! Kornilov- 
 ists! Counter-revolutionists! Murderers of the People!’ 
 ‘But there was no violence done, although the yunkers were 
 terrified. They too had their pockets full of small plunder. 
 
 ‘Tt was “aed noted down by the scribe, and piled in the 
 little room. . . . The yunkers were disarmed. ‘Now, will you 
 take up arms ee ilet the People any more?” demanded clam- 
 ouring voices. 
 
 ‘i “No,” answered the yunkers, one by one. Whereupon they 
 were allowed to go free, 
 
 We asked if we might go inside. The committee was 
 doubtful, but the big Red Guard answered firmly that it was 
 forbidden. “Who are you anyway? he asked. “How do I 
 ‘know that you are not all Kerenskys? (There were five of 
 as, two women.) 
 
 
 
i 
 
 “Pazhal’st’?, tovarishtchi! Way, Comrades?! A soldier 
 and a Red Guard appeared in the door, waving the crowd | 
 aside, and other guards with fixed bayonets. After them fol- 
 lowed single file half a dozen men in civilian dress—the mem- 
 bers of the Provisional Government. First came Kishkin, his 
 face drawn and pale, then Rutenberg, looking sullenly at the 
 floor; Terestchenko was next, glancing sharply around; he 
 stared at us with cold fixity. . . . They passed in silence; the 
 victorious insurrectionists crowded to see, but there were 
 only a few angry mutterings. It was only later that we 
 learned how the people in the street wanted to lynch them, and 
 shots were fired—but the sailors brought them safely to Peter- | 
 Paaie sie". : 
 
 In the meanwhile unrebuked we walked into the Palace. 
 There was still a great deal of coming and going, of exploring 
 new-found apartments in the vast edifice, of searching for | 
 hidden garrisons of yunkers which did not exist. We went 
 upstairs and wandered through room after room. This part 
 of the Palace had been entered also by other detachments from 
 the side of the Neva. The paintings, statues, tapestries and. 
 rugs of the great state apartments were unharmed; in the 
 offices, however, every desk and cabinet had been ransacked, 
 the papers scattered over the floor, and in the living rooms 
 beds had been stripped of their coverings and ward-robes 
 wrenched open. The most highly prized loot was clothing, 
 which the working people needed. In a room where furniture 
 was stored we came upon two soldiers ripping the elaborate 
 Spanish leather upholstery from chairs. They explained it 
 was to make boots with... . ' 
 
 The old Palace servants in their blue and red and gold 
 uniforms stood nervously about, from force of habit repeating; 
 “You can’t go in there, barin! It is forbidden 7? 
 penetrated at length to the gold and malachite chamber with 
 crimson brocade hangings where the Ministers had been in ses- 
 
 102 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 sw i 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 108 
 
 § ion all that day and night, and where the shveitzari had be- 
 trayed them to the Red Guards. The long table covered with 
 green baize was just as they had left it, under arrest. Before 
 ach empty seat was pen and ink and paper; the papers were 
 cribbled over with beginnings of plans of action, rough drafts 
 of proclamations and manifestos, Most of these were 
 scratched out, as their futility became evident, and the rest of 
 tl e sheet covered with absent-minded geometrical designs, as 
 ‘the writers sat despondently listening while Minister after Min- 
 ister proposed chimerical schemes. I took one of these scrib- 
 ‘bled pages, in the hand writing of Konovaloy, which read, 
 “The Provisional Government appeals to all classes to support 
 the Provisional Government—” 
 
 | _ All this time, it must be remembered, although the Winter 
 Palace was surrounded, the Government was in constant com- 
 nunication with the Front and with provincial Russia. The Bol- 
 sheviki had captured the Ministry of War early in the morning, 
 ut they did not know of the military telegraph office in the 
 attic, nor of the private telephone line connecting it with the 
 Winter Palace. In that attic a young officer sat all day, 
 douring out over the country a flood of appeals and proclama- 
 sions; and when he heard that the Palace had fallen, put on 
 lis hat and walked calmly out of the building. ... 
 
 
 
 [. Interested as we were, for a considerable time we didn’t 
 lotice a change in the attitude of the soldiers and Red Guards 
 ‘round us. As we strolled from room to room a small group 
 ollowed us, until by the time we reached the great picture- 
 allery where we had spent the afternoon with the yunkers, 
 bout a hundred men surged in after us. One giant of a sol- 
 der stood in our path, his face dark with sullen suspicion. 
 
 » “Who are you?” he growled. “What are you doing here?” 
 “he others massed slowly around, staring and beginning to 
 jutter. “Provocatori!” I heard somebody say. ‘Loot- 
 
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 104 
 
 
 
 a Ad 
 
 \7 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 ‘q ‘FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 105 
 ‘ers!” I produced our passes from the Military Revolutionary 
 [Bommittee The soldier took them gingerly, turned them 
 upside down and looked at them without comprehension. Evi- 
 . he could not read. He handed them back and spat on 
 the floor. “Bumagi! Papers!” said he with contempt. The 
 ‘mass slowly began to close in, like wild cattle around a cow- 
 _puncher on foot. Over their heads I caught sight of an officer, 
 looking helpless, and shouted to him. He made for us, 
 ‘shouldering his way through. 
 
 Ie “I’m the Commissar,” he said to me. “Who are you? 
 WwW hat is it?” The others held back, waiting. I produced the 
 papers. 
 
 “You are foreigners?” he rapidly asked in Franch. “It is 
 very dangerous. . . .” Then he turned to the mob, holding 
 up our documents. “Comrades!” he cried. “These people 
 are foreign comrades—from America. They have come here 
 to be able to tell their countrymen about the bravery and the 
 revolutionary discipline of the proletarian army!” 
 
 “How do you know that?” replied the big soldier. “I tell 
 you they are provocators! They say they came here to 
 observe the revolutionary discipline of the proletarian army, 
 but they have been wandering freely through the Palace, and 
 ‘how do we know they haven’t got their pockets full of loot?” 
 
 _“Pravilno!” snarled the others, pressing forward. 
 
 “Comrades! Comrades!” appealed the officer, sweat stand- 
 ing out on his forehead. “I am Commissar of the Military 
 Revolutionary Committee. Do you trust me? Well, I tell 
 you that these passes are signed with the same names that are 
 signed to my pass!” 
 
 _ He led us down through the Palace and out through a 
 Toor opening onto the Neva quay, before which stood the 
 isual committee going through pockets. . . “You have nar- 
 rowly escaped,” he kept muttering, wiping hie face. 
 
 3 “What happened to the Women’s Battalion?” we asked. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ay Pa 
 
 | He 
 

 
 106 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 ‘‘Qh—the women!? He laughed. ‘They were all huddle 
 up in a back room. We had a terrible time deciding what 
 do with them—many were in hysterics, and so on. So finally 
 we marched them up to the Finland Station a as them on 
 a train for Levashovo, where they have a camp.* . . .” 4 
 
 We came out into the cold, nervous night, murmurous with | 
 obscure armies on the move, electric with patrols. From 
 across the river, where loomed the darker mass of Peter-Paul, 
 came a hoarse shout. . Underfoot the sidewalk was lit- 
 tered with broken es ieroin the cornice of the Palace where | 
 two shells from the battleship Avrora had struck; that was | 
 the only damage done by the bombardment. 
 
 It was now after three in the morning. On the Nevsky all 
 the street-lights were again shining, the cannon gone, and 
 the only signs of war were Red Guards and soldiers squatting 
 around fires. The city was quiet—probably never so quiet in| 
 its history; on that night not a single hold-up occurred, na} 
 a single robbery. 
 
 But the City Duma Building was all illuminated. We 
 mounted to the galleried Alexander Hall, hung with its great, | 
 gold-framed, red-shrouded Imperial portraits. About a hun- 
 dred people were grouped around the platform, where Skobe- 
 liev was speaking. He urged that the Committee of Public 
 Safety be expanded, so as to unite all the anti-Bolshevik ele 
 ments in one huge organisation, to be called the Committee for 
 Salvation of Country and Revolution. And as we looked on, 
 the Committee for Salvation was formed—that Committee 
 which was to develop into the most powerful enemy of the 
 Bolsheviki, appearing, in the next week, sometimes under its 
 own partisan name, and sometimes as the strictly non-partisan 
 Committee of Public Safety. . 
 
 Dan, Gotz, Avksentiev were aieherth some of the insurgent 
 Soviet delegates, members of the Executive Committee of the 
 Peasants’ Soviets, old Prokopovitch, and even members of the 
 
 At 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 ‘FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 107 
 
 : Youncil of the Republic—among whom Vinaver and _ other 
 Cadets. Lieber cried that the convention of Soviets was not 
 . legal convention, that the old T'say-ee-kah was still in office. 
 . . An appeal to the country was drafted. 
 
 _ We hailed a cab. “Where to??? But when we said 
 _“Smolny,” the izvoshtchik shook his head. ‘Niet!’ said he, 
 there: are devils... .” It was only after weary wandering 
 that we found a driver willing to take us—and he wanted 
 ‘thirty rubles, and stopped two blocks away. 
 
 Pe The windows of Smolny were still ablaze, motors came 
 _and went, and around the still-leaping fires the sentries hud- 
 ‘dled close, eagerly asking everybody the latest news. The 
 corridors were full of hurrying men, hollow-eyed and dirty. 
 In some of the committee-rooms people lay sleeping on the 
 floor, their guns beside them. In spite of the seceding dele- 
 gates, the hall of meetings was crowded with people, roaring 
 like the sea. As we came in, Kameniev was reading the list of 
 arrested Ministers. The name of Terestchenko was greeted 
 with thunderous applause, shouts of satisfaction, laughter; 
 /Rutenburg came in for less; and at the mention of Paltchinsky, 
 a storm of hoots, angry cries, cheers burst forth. ... It 
 ‘was announced that Tchudnovsky had been appointed Com- 
 ,missar of the Winter Palace. 
 
 Now occurred a dramatic interruption. A big peasant, 
 ‘his bearded face convulsed with rage, mounted the platform 
 Jand pounded with his fist on the presidium table. 
 
 _ “We, Socialist Revolutionaries, insist upon the immediate 
 Telease of the Socialist Ministers arrested in the Winter Pal- 
 ace! Comrades! Do you know that four comrades who 
 
 
 
 risked their lives and their freedom fighting against tyranny 
 of the Tsar, have been flung into Peter-Paul prison—the his- 
 torical tomb of Liberty?’ In the uproar he pounded and 
 yelled. Another delegate climbed up beside him, and pointed 
 _at the presidium. 
 
 
 
 , 
 = 
 
108 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 “Are the representatives of the revolutionary masses going — 
 to sit quietly here while the Okhrana of the Bolsheviki tortures } 
 their leaders?” | 4 
 
 Trotzky was gesturing for silence. ‘“These ‘comrades? 
 who are now caught plotting the crushing of the Soviets with 
 the adventurer Kerensky—is there any reason to handle them 
 ‘with gloves? After July 16th and 18th they didn’t use much 
 ceremony with us!’ With a triumphant ring in his voice he 
 cried, “Now that the oborontsi and the faint-hearted have 
 gone, and the whole task of defending and saving the Revolu- | 
 tion rests on our shoulders, it is particularly necessary to 
 work—work—work! We have decided to die rather than 
 give up!” 
 
 Followed him a Commissar from Tsarskoye Selo, panting | 
 and covered with the mud of his ride. “The garrison of 
 Tsarskoye Selo is on guard at the gates of Petrograd, ready 
 to defend the Soviets and the Military Revolutionary Commit- 
 tee!” Wild cheers. ‘The Cycle Corps sent from the front. 
 has arrived at T’sarskoye, and the soldiers are now with us; 
 they recognise the power of the Soviets, the necessity of im- 
 mediate transfer of land to the peasants and industrial control 
 to the workers. The Fifth Battalion of Cyclists, stationed at 
 Tsarskoye, is ours. a 
 
 Then the delegate of the ThirdCycle Battalion. In the midal 
 of delirious enthusiasm he told how the cycle corps had been 
 ordered three days before from the South-west front to the 
 “defence of Petrograd.” They suspected, however, the meaning” 
 of the order; and at the station of Peredolsk were met by rep- 
 resentatives of the Fifth Battalion from Tsarskoye. A joint 
 meeting was held, and it was discovered that “among the 
 cyclists not a single man was found willing to shed the blood 
 of his brothers, or to support a Government of bourgeois and 
 land-owners !” 
 
 Kapelinski, for the Mensheviki Internationalists, propos 
 
 
 
 ‘ f 
 

 
 
 
 FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 109 
 
 civil war. ‘There isn’t any peaceful solution!” bellowed the 
 serowd. ‘Victory is the only solution!’ The vote was over- 
 whelmingly against, and the Mensheviki Internationalists left 
 ie Congress in a whirlwind of jocular insults. There was no 
 Jonger any panic fear... . Kameniev from the platform 
 houted after them, “The Mensheviki Internationalists claimed 
 ‘femergency’ for the question of a ‘peaceful solution,’ but they 
 ‘ always voted for suspension of the order of the day in favour 
 of declarations of factions which wanted to leave the Con- 
 ‘gress. It is evident,”’ finished Kameniev, “that the withdrawal 
 ‘of all these renegades was decided upon beforehand!”’ 
 
 The assembly decided to ignore the withdrawal of the fac- 
 
 tions, and proceed to the appeal to the workers, soldiers and 
 
 ‘peasants of all Russia: 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 em 
 
 TO WORKERS, SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS 
 
 
 
 i; The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and 
 ‘Soldiers’ Deputies has opened. It represents the great majority 
 of the Soviets. There are also a number of Peasant deputies. 
 ‘Based upon the will of the great majority of the workers’, soldiers 
 and peasants, based upon the triumphant uprising of the Petrograd 
 workmen and soldiers, the Congress assumes the Power. 
 
 r The Provisional Government is deposed. Most of the mem- 
 bers of the Provisional Government are already arrested. 
 
 E _ The Soviet authority will at once propose an immediate demo- 
 cratic peace to all nations, and an immediate truce on all fronts. 
 (Tt will assure the free transfer of landlord, crown and monastery 
 lands to the Land Committees, defend the soldier: * rights, enforc- 
 ing a complete democratisation of the Army, establish workers’ 
 control over production, ensure the convocation of the Constituent 
 Assembly at the proper date, take means to supply bread to the 
 ‘cities and articles of first necessity to the villages, and secure to all 
 ‘nationalities living in Russia a real right to independent existence. 
 + The Congress resolves: that all local power shall be transferred 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 ‘4 - 
 | ub 
 
 Sar 
 
110 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 to the Soviets of Workers,’ Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, which 
 must enforce revolutionary order. 
 
 The Congress calls upon the soldiers in the trenches to be 
 watchful and steadfast. The Congress of Soviets is sure that the — 
 revolutionary Army will know how to defend the Revolution against 
 all attacks of Imperialism, until the new Government shall have - 
 brought about the conclusion of the democratic peace which it will | 
 directly propose to all nations. The new Governraent will take 
 all necessary steps to secure everything needful to the revolutionary 
 Army, by means of a determined policy of requisition and taxation — 
 of the propertied classes, and also to improve the situation of 
 soldiers’ families. | 
 
 The Kornilovitz—Kerensky, Kaledin and others, are endeavour~ | 
 ing to lead troops against Petrograd. Several regiments, deceived — 
 by Kerensky, have sided with the insurgent People. 
 
 Soldiers! Make active resistance to the Kornilovitz—Keren- _ 
 sky! Be on guard! 
 
 Railway men! Stop all troop-trains being sent by Kerensky © 
 against Petrograd! ! 
 
 Soldiers, Workers, Clerical employees! The destiny of the 
 Revolution and democratic peace is in your hands! 
 
 Long live the Revolution! 
 
 The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of — 
 Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. } 
 Delegates from the Peasants’ Soviets. 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 It was exactly 5:17 A. M. when Krylenko, staggering with | 
 fatigue, climbed to the tribune with a telegram in his hand. ~ 
 
 “Comrades! From the Northern Front. The Twelfth - 
 Army sends greetings to the Congress of Soviets, announcing 
 the formation of a Military Revolutionary Committee which 
 has taken over the command of the Northern Front!” Pande-— 
 monium, men weeping, embracing each other. “General 
 Tchermissov has recognised the Committee—Commissar of the 
 Provisional Government Voitinsky has resigned!” 
 
 Se. Lenin and the Petrograd workers had decided on in- 
 
 i 
 a 
 

 
 
 _ FALL OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 111 
 
 ‘ surrection, the Petrograd Soviet had overthrown the Provi- 
 ‘sional Government, and thrust the coup detat upon the Con- 
 gress of Soviets. Now there was all great Russia to win— 
 and then the world! Would Russia follow and rise? And the 
 world—what of it? Would the peoples answer and rise, a red 
 ‘world-tide? | 
 
 a Although it was six in the morning, night was yet heavy 
 and chill. There was only a faint unearthly pallor stealing 
 over the silent streets, dimming the watch-fires, the shadow of 
 a terrible dawn grey-rising over Russia... . 
 
 i 
 
 
 

 
 CHAPTER V 
 PLUNGING AHEAD 
 
 Tuurspay, November 8th. Day broke on a city in the 
 wildest excitement and confusion, a whole nation heaving up 
 in long hissing swells of storm. Superficially all was quiet; 
 hundreds of thousands of people retired at a prudent hour, got | 
 up early, and went to work. In Petrograd the street-cars were 
 running, the stores and restaurants open, theatres going, an 
 exhibition of paintings advertised. . All the complex rou- | 
 tine of common life—humdrum even in war-time jiroceeaaan 
 as usual. Nothing is so astounding as the vitality of the 
 social organism—how it persists, feeding itself, clothing itself, 
 amusing itself, in the face of the worst calamities. ... i i} 
 
 The air was full of rumours about Kerensky, who was said 
 to have raised the Front, and to be leading a great army 
 against the capital. Volia Naroda published a prikaz 
 launched by him at Pskov: ay 
 
 place the country on the verge of a precipice, and demand the effor 
 of our entire will, our courage and the devotion of every one of us 
 to win through the terrible trial which the fatherland is und 
 going. 
 
 Until the declaration of the composition of the new Covel 
 —if one is formed—every one ought to remain at his post and ful- 
 fil his duty toward bleeding Russia. It must be remembered that 
 the least interference with existing Army organisations can bring on 
 irreparable misfortunes, by opening the Front to the enemy. There- 
 fore it is indispensable to preserve at any price the morale of - 
 
 112 ie 
 
 a 
 
 The disorders caused by the insane attempt of the ec 
 
 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD ON ae 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ! ops, by assuring complete order and the preservation of the 
 rm y from new shocks, and by maintaining absolute confidence 
 etween officers and their subordinates. I order all the chiefs and 
 ommissars, in the name of the safety of the country, to stay at 
 their posts, as I myself retain the post of Supreme Commander, 
 until the Provisional Government of es Republic shall declare its 
 will... . 
 
 In answer, this placard on all the walls: 
 
 +f FROM THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF SOVIETS 
 
 ' “The ex-Ministers Konovaloy, Kishkin, Terestchenko, Malianto- 
 vitch, Nikitin and others have been arrested by the Military Revo- 
 utionary Committee. Kerensky has fled. All Army organisations 
 tre ordered to take every measure for the immediate arrest of 
 Xerensky and his conveyance to Petrograd. 
 
 _ “All assistance given to Kerensky will be punished es a serious 
 ‘rime against the state.” 
 
 oor 
 
 i With brakes released the Military Revolutionary Commit- 
 ‘ee whirled, throwing off orders, appeals, decrees, like sparks.! 
 - Kornilov was ordered brought to Petrograd. Members 
 if the Peasant Land Committees imprisoned by the Provisional 
 Fovernment were declared free. Capital punishment in the 
 my was abolished. Government employees were ordered to 
 ontinue their work, and threatened with severe penalties if 
 hey refused. All pillage, disorder and speculation were for- 
 jdden under pain of death. Temporary Commissars were ap- 
 sointed to the various Ministries: Foreign Affairs, Vuritsky 
 nd Trotzky; Interior and Justice, Rykov; Labor, Shliapni- 
 ov: Finance, Menzhinsky; Public Welfare, Madame Kollon- 
 ai; Commerce, Ways and Communications, Riazanov; Navy, 
 ‘he sailor Korbir; Posts and Telegraphs, Spiro; Theatres, 
 Auraviov; State Printing Office, Gherbychev; for the City 
 
 -* References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter V. See 
 age 338, 
 
 oh 
 
 ee 
 “eg 
 Oo 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 114 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 of Petrograd, Lieutenant Nesterov; for the Northern Fro 
 
 Pozern.. .*. 
 
 To the Army, appeal to set up Military Revolutions 
 Committees. To the railway workers, to maintain order, 
 especially not to delay the transport of food to the cities and | 
 the front. . . . In return, they were promised representation 1 in 
 the Nery of Ways and Communications, 
 
 i 
 
 Cossack brothers! (said one proclamation). You are being led 
 against Petrograd. They want to force you into battle with the 
 revolutionary workers and soldiers of the capital. Do not believe. 
 a word that is said by our common enemies, the land-owners and 
 the capitalists. i 
 
 At our Congress are represented all the conscious organisations 
 of workers, soldiers and peasants of Russia. The Congress wishes, 
 also to welcome into its midst the worker-Cossacks. The Generals 
 of the Black Band, henchmen of the land-owners, of Nicolai the 
 Cruel, are our enemies. 
 
 They tell you that the Soviets wish to confiscate the lands of od 
 Cossacks. This is a lie. It is only from the great Cossack land- 
 lords that the Revolution will confiscate the land to give it to the 
 people. 1 
 
 Organise Soviets of Cossacks’ Deputies! Join with the Soviets 
 of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies! 
 
 Show the Black Band that you are not traitors to the Pcoplbe 
 and that you do not wish to be cursed by the whole of revolutionary 
 Russia! ... | 
 
 Cossack brothers, execute no orders of the enemies of the peda 
 Send your delegates to Petrograd to talk it over with us... . Th 
 Cossacks of the Petrograd garrison, to their honour, have nae jus 
 tified the hope of the People’s enemies. 
 
 Cossack brothers! The All-Russian Congress of Soviets exteine 
 to you a fraternal hand. Long live the brotherhood of the Cos- 
 sacks with the soldiers, workers and peasants of all Russia! 
 
 On the other side, what a storm of proclamations posted 
 up, hand-bills scattered everywhere, newspapers—screamin 
 
 ‘ 
 

 
 
 
 
 - PLUNGING AHEAD 115 
 
 nd cursing and prophesying evil. Now raged the battle of 
 he printing press—all other weapons being in the hands of 
 1e Soviets. 
 
 _ First, the appeal of the Committee for Salvation of Coun- 
 try and Revolution, flung broadcast over Russia and Europe: 
 4 
 
 « 
 TO THE CITIZENS OF THE RUSSIAN REPUBLIC! 
 
 se re RAE 9 map 
 
 Contrary to the will of the revolutionary masses, on November 
 ith the Bolsheviki of Petrograd criminally arrested part of the 
 Provisional Government, dispersed the Council of the Republic, 
 ind proclaimed an illegal power. Such violence committed against 
 che Government of revolutionary Russia at the moment of its 
 greatest external danger, is an indescribable crime against the 
 Jatherland. 
 The insurrection of the Bolsheviki deals a mortal blow to the 
 yause of national defence, and postpones immeasurably the moment 
 of peace so greatly desired. 
 ; Civil war, begun by the Bolsheviki, threatens to deliver the 
 tountry to the horrors of anarchy and counter-revolution, and 
 vause the failure of the Constituent Assembly, which must affirm 
 he republican régime and transmit to the People forever their 
 sight to the land. 
 __ Preserving the continuity of the only legal Governmental power, 
 he Committee for Salvation of Country and Revolution, established 
 mm the night of November 7th, takes the initiative in forming a 
 sew Provisional Government; which, basing itself on the forces 
 f democracy, will conduct the country to the Constituent Assembly 
 pnd save it from anarchy and counter-revolution. The Committee 
 or Salvation summons you, citizens, to refuse to recognise the 
 ower of violence. Do not obey its orders! 
 . Rise for the defence of the country and Revolution! 
 
 | Support the Committee for Salvation! 
 
 Signed by the Council of the Russian Republic, the Municipal 
 Yuma of Petrograd, the T'say-ee-kah (First Congress), the Execu- 
 ive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets, and from the Congress it- 
 elf the Front group, the factions of Socialist Revolutionaries, Men- 
 
 4 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 116 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 sheviki, Populist Socialists, Unified Social Democrats, and the | 
 
 group “Yedinstvo.” 4] 
 4 
 § 
 
 Then posters from the Socialist Revolutionary party, the 
 Mensheviki oborontsi, Peasants’ Soviets again; from the Cen-— 
 tral Army Committee, the T'sentroflot. . .. p i 
 
 if 
 
 . Famine will crush Petrograd! (they cried). The Germal 
 armies will trample on our liberty. Black Hundred pogroms will 
 spread over Russia, if we all—conscious workers, soldiers, citi- 
 
 i 
 
 The promise of - i 
 
 zens—do not unite. . . 
 
 Do not trust the promises of the Bolsheviki! 
 immediate peace—is a lie! The promise of bread—a hoax! The 
 promise of land—a fairy tale! if 
 | 
 
 They were all in this manner. 
 
 Comrades! You have been basely and cruelly deceived! The 
 seizure of power has been accomplished by the Bolsheviki alone. | 
 . They concealed their plot from the other Socialist party 
 
 composing the Soviet. 
 You have been srsnuided land and freedom, but the counters” 
 
 revolution will profit by the anarchy called forth by the Bolshevilie 
 and will deprive you of land and freedom... . ¥ 
 
 The newspapers were as violent. 
 
 Our duty (said the Dielo Naroda) is to unmask these traitors 
 to the working-class. Our duty is to mobilise all our forces and 
 
 mount guard over the cause of the Revolution! .. . 
 
 zviestia, for the last time speaking in the name of the old 
 T'say-ee-kah, threatened awful retribution. 
 
 ho Se ee OED: ES Sr I 
 
 As for the Congress of Soviets, we affirm that there has been | 
 no Congress of Soviets! We affirm that it was merely a private | 
 conference of the Bolshevik faction! And in that case, they hav 
 no right to cancel the powers of the Tsay-ee-kah. .. . 
 

 
 
 
 -PLUNGING AHEAD 117 
 
 . Novaya Zhizn, while pleading for a new Government that 
 should unite all the Socialist parties, criticised severely the 
 action of the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviki in 
 ‘quitting the Congress, and pointed out that the Bolshevik in- 
 surrection meant one thing very clearly: that all illusions 
 about coalition with the bourgeoisie were henceforth demon- 
 strated vain. . . | 
 
 _ Rabotchi Put blossomed out as Pravda, Lenin’s newspaper 
 which had been suppressed in July. It crowed, bristling: 
 
 . Workers, soldiers, peasants! In March you struck down 
 ‘the tyranny of the clique of nobles. Yesterday you struck down 
 she tyranny of the bourgeois ETE HO il 
 
 The first task now is to guard the approaches to Petrograd. 
 __ The second is definitely to disarm the counter-revolutionary ele- 
 nents of Petrograd. 
 _ The third is definitely to organise the revolutionary power and 
 assure the realisation of the popular programme. ... 
 
 
 
 What few Cadet organs appeared, and the bourgeoisie gen- 
 2rally, adopted a detached, ironical attitude toward the whole 
 ‘Jusiness, a sort of contemptuous “I-told-you-so” to the other 
 ‘aarties. Influential Cadets were to be seen hovering around 
 the Municipal Duma, and on the outskirts of the Committee 
 or Salvation. Other than that, the bourgeoisie lay low, biding 
 ts hour—which could not be far off. That the Bolsheviki 
 vould remain in power longer than three days never occurred 
 j0 anybody—except perhaps to Lenin, Trotzky, the Petrograd 
 vorkers and the simpler soldiers. . . . 
 
 In the high, amphitheatrical Nicolai Hall that afternoon 
 . saw the Duma sitting in permanence, tempestuous, grouping 
 ‘round it all the forces of opposition. 'The old Mayor, 
 Schreider, majestic with his white hair and beard, was describ- 
 ng his visit to Smolny the night before, to protest in the 
 tame of the Municipal Self-Government. “The Duma, being 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 118 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 the only existing legal Government in the city, elected by equa Hl 
 direct and secret suffrage, would not recognise the new power 
 he had told Trotzky. And Trotzky had answered, “Ther 
 is a constitutional remedy for that. The Duma can be dis- 
 solved and re-elected. . . .” At this report there was a furious: 
 outcry. 
 
 “Tf one recognises a Government by bayonet,” contimmlls 
 the old man, addressing the Duma, “‘well, we have one; but I 
 consider legitimate only a Government recognised by the peo- 
 ple, by the majority, and not one created by the usurpation 
 of a minority!” Wild applause on all benches except those 
 of the Bolsheviki. Amid renewed tumult the Mayor an- 
 nounced that the Bolsheviki already were violating Municipal | 
 autonomy by appointing Commissars in many departments. | 
 
 The Bolshevik speaker shouted, trying to make himself 
 heard, that the decision of the Congress of Soviets meant that 
 all Russia backed up the action of the Bolsheviki. | 
 
 “You!” he cried. “You are not the real representative 
 of the people of Petrograd!” Shrieks of “Insult! Insult 4 
 The old Mayor, with dignity, reminded him that the Duma was 
 elected by the freest possible popular vote. “Yes,” he an- 
 swered, “‘but that was a ie time ago—like the T'say-ce-kahs4 
 like the Army Committee.” fF 
 
 ‘There has been no new Congress of Soviets!’ they yelled 
 at him. 
 
 “The Bolshevik faction refuses to remain any longer in this 
 nest of counter-revolution—” Uproar. “—and we demand a 
 re-election of the Duma. .. .”». Whereupon the Bolsheviki left 
 the chamber, followed by cries of “German agents! Down 
 with the traitors!” ; 
 
 Shingariov, Cadet, then demanded that all Municipal func- 
 tionaries who had consented to be Commissars of the Military 
 Revolutionary Committee be discharged from their position 
 and indicted. Schreider was on his feet, putting a motion to 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 

 
 
 PLUNGING AHEAD 119 
 
 e effect that the Duma protested against the menace of the 
 
 isheviki to dissolve it, and as the legal representative of 
 e population, it would refuse to leave its post. 
 EW Outside, the Alexander Hall was crowded for the meeting 
 £ the Committee for Salvation, ane Skobeliev was again 
 geaking. “Never yet,” he said, “was the fate of the 
 Mvolution so acute, never yet did the question of the 
 cistence of the Russian state excite so much anxiety, never 
 ‘et did history put so harshly and categorically the question 
 is Russia to be or not to be! The great hour for the sal- 
 ‘ation of the Revolution has arrived, and in consciousness 
 nercof we observe the close union of the live forces of the revo- 
 itionary democracy, by whose organised will a centre for the 
 alvation of the country and the Revolution has already been 
 veated. . . .”’ And much of the same sort. ‘We shall die 
 doner Hai surrender our post!” 
 
 
 
 _ Amid violent applause it was announced that the Union 
 f Railway Workers had joined the Committee for Salvation. 
 ; few moments later the Post and Telegraph Employees came 
 “3 then some Mensheviki Internationalists entered the hall, 
 » cheers. The Railway men said they did not recognise the 
 ‘olsheviki and had taken the entire railroad apparatus into 
 ieir own hands, refusing to entrust it to any usurpatory 
 wer. The Telegraphers’ delegate declared that the opera- 
 ors had flatly refused to work their instruments as long as 
 1e Bolshevik Commissar was in the office. The Postmen would 
 yt deliver or accept mail at Smolny. ... All the Smolny 
 lephones were cut off. With great glee it was reported how 
 ‘titzky had gone to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to 
 mand the secret treaties, and how Neratov had put him out. 
 ‘he Government employees were all stopping work. ... 
 
 ' It was war—war deliberately planned, Russian fashion; 
 ‘ar by strike and sabotage. As we sat there the chairman 
 ad a list of names and assignments; so-and-so was to make 
 
 
 
 7 
 aay 
 
120 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK! THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 the round of the Ministries; another was to visit the banks 
 
 some ten or twelve were to work the barracks and persuade 
 the soldiers to remain neutral—“Russian soldiers, do not she 
 
 the blood of your brothers !’; a committee was to go and con 
 fer with Kerensky; still others were despatched to an 
 cities, to form branches of the Committee for Salvation, and 
 link together the anti-Bolshevik elements. 7 i 
 
 The crowd was in high spirits. ‘These Bolsheviki will 
 try to dictate to the intelligentzia? We'll show them!’ . . : 
 Nothing could be more striking than the contrast between this 
 assemblage and the Congress of Soviets. ‘There, great masses 
 of shabby soldiers, grimy workmen, peasants—poor men, bent 
 and scarred in the brute struggle for existence; here the Men- 
 shevik and Social Revolutionary leaders—Avksentievs, Dans 
 Liebers,—the former Socialist Ministers—Skobelievs, Tcher- 
 novs,—rubbed shoulders with Cadets like oily Shatsky, sleek 
 Vinaver; with journalists, students, intellectuals of almost all 
 camps. This Duma crowd was well-fed, well-dressed; I did 
 
 not see more than three proletarians among them all. i: 
 
 News came. Kornilov’s faithful Tekhintsi* had slaugh- 
 tered his guards at Bykhov, and he had escaped. Kaledin was 
 marching north. . The Soviet of Moscow had set up a 
 Military Revelaticdal Committee, and was negotiating with 
 the commandant of the city for possession of the arsenal, 80 
 that the workers might be armed. 
 
 With these facts was mixed an astounding jumble of ah 
 mours, distortions, and plain lies. For instance, an intelligent 
 young Cadet, formerly private secretary to Miliukoy and then 
 to Terestchenko, drew us aside and told us all about the tant 
 of the Winter Palace. 
 
 “The Bolsheviki were led by German and Austrian officers,” 
 he affirmed. 
 
 “Is that so?” we replied, politely. ‘How do you iio 
 
 *See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 
 
 naa a, p 
 Peres, wile Mag 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ~PLUNGING AHEAD 12% 
 
 F A friend of mine was there and saw them.” 
 i _ “How could he tell they were German officers?” 
 , “Oh, because they wore German uniforms!” 
 _ There were hundreds of such absurd tales, and they were 
 bt only solemnly published by the anti-Bolshevik press, but 
 uelieved by the most unlikely persons—Socialist Revolution- 
 ries and Mensheviki who had always been distinguished by 
 heir sober devotion to facts. ... 
 _ But more serious were the stories of Bolshevik violence 
 nd terrorism. For example, it was said and printed that 
 ‘he Red Guards had not only thoroughly looted the Winter 
 ’alace, but that they had massacred the yunkers after disarm- 
 ng them, had killed some of the Ministers in cold blood; and 
 8 for the woman soldiers, most of them had been violated, 
 ind many had committed suicide because of the tortures they 
 ad gone through. . . . All these stories were swallowed whole 
 y the crowd in the Duma. And worse still, the mothers and 
 athers of the students and of the women read these frightful 
 etails, often accompanied by lists of names, and toward 
 ightfall the Duma began to be besieged by frantic citi- 
 WEDS. «5 
 
 A typical case is that of Prince Tumanov, whose body, it 
 ‘as announced in many newspapers, had been found floating 
 1 the Moika Canal. A few hours later this was denied by the 
 rince’s family, who added that the Prince was under arrest, 
 9 the press identified the dead man as General Demissov. 
 ‘he General having also come to life, we investigated, and 
 uld find no trace of any body having been found what- 
 els 6 oe 
 As we left the Duma building two boy scouts were distribut- 
 ig hand-bills* to the enormous crowd which blocked the Nev< 
 ty in front of the door—a crowd composed almost entirely 
 E business men, shop-keepers, tchinovniki, clerks. One read: 
 
 
 
 a 
 
122 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 FROM THE MUNICIPAL DUMA — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Municipal Duma in its meeting of October 26th, in view 
 of the events of the day decrees: To announce the inviolability of 
 private dwellings. Through the House Committees it calls upor 
 the population of the town of Petrograd to meet with decisive re- 
 pulse all attempts to enter by force private apartments, not stop 
 ping at the use of arms, in the interests of the self-defence o. | 
 citizens. 
 
 Up on the corner of the Liteiny, five or six Red Guards « 
 a couple of sailors had surrounded a news-dealer and were) 
 demanding that he hand over his copies of the Menshevik Rabot 7 
 chaya Gazeta (Workers’ Gazette). Angrily he shouted at 
 them, shaking his fist, as one of the sailors tore the papers 
 from his stand. An ugly crowd had gathered around, abusi gs 
 the patrol. One little workman kept explaining doggedly to 
 the people and the news-dealer, over and over again, “It has 
 Kerensky’s proclamation in it. It says we killed Russian peo- 
 ple. It will make bloodshed. . 
 
 Smolny was tenser than ever, if that were possible. The; 
 same running men in the dark corridors, squads of workers 
 with rifles, leaders with bulging portfolios arguing, explaining i 
 giving orders as they hurried anxiously along, surrounded by) 
 friends and lieutenants. Men literally out of themselves, liv- 
 ing prodigies of sleeplessness and work—men unshaven, filthy, 
 with burning eyes, who drove upon their fixed purpose 
 full speed on engines of exaltation. So much they had 
 to do, so much! Take over the Government, organise the 
 City, keep the garrison loyal, fight the Duma and the Com= 
 mittee for Salvation, keep out the Germans, prepare to de 
 battle with Kerensky, inform the provinces what had happened. 
 propagandise from Archangel to Vladivostok... . Govern- 
 ment and Municipal employees refusing to obey their Com-| 
 missars, post and telegraph refusing them communication, rat 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD | 123 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " ads stonily ignoring their appeals for trains, Kerensky com- 
 ng, the garrison not altogether to be trusted, the Cossacks 
 vaiting to come out. . Against them not only the organised 
 »ourgeoisie, but all Bie? Kt Socialist parties except the Left 
 Socialist Revolutionaries, a few Mensheviki Internationalists 
 ind the Social Democrat Internationalists, and even they unde- 
 ided whether to stand by or not. With them, it is true, the 
 vorkers and the soldier-masses—the peasants an unknown 
 juantity—but after all the Bolsheviki were a political faction 
 sot rich in trained and educated men... . 
 
 Riazanov was coming up the front steps, explaining in 
 . sort of humorous panic that he, Commissar of Commerce, 
 mew nothing whatever of business. In the upstairs café sat 
 -man all by himself in the corner, in a goat-skin cape and 
 lothes which had been—I was going to say “slept in,” but of 
 ourse he hadn’t slept—and a three days’ growth of beard. 
 Te was anxiously figuring on a dirty envelope, and biting his 
 pencil meanwhile. This was Menzhinsky, Commissar of 
 ‘nance, whose We on were that he had oace been clerk 
 I a French bank. . And these four half-running down 
 ‘he hall from eke” office of the Military Revolutionary 
 vommittee, and scribbling on bits of paper as they run— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 aese were Commissars despatched to the four corners of Russia 
 2 carry the news, argue, or fight—with whatever arguments 
 'r weapons came to hand... . 
 
 _ The Congress was to meet at one o’clock, and long since 
 ae great mecting-hall had filled, but by seven there was yet 
 0 sign of the presidium. . . . The Bolshevik and Left Social 
 \evolutionary factions were in session in their own rooms. 
 ‘ll the livelong afternoon Lenin and Trotzky had fought 
 gainst compromise. A considerable part of the Bolsheviki 
 ‘ere in favour of giving way so far as to create a joint 
 i-Socialist government. “We can’t hold on!” they cried. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 124 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 “Too much is against us. We haven’t got the men. We will 
 be isolated, and the whole thing will fall.” So Kameniey, 
 Riazanov and others. 7 i 
 But Lenin, with Trotzky beside him, stood firm as a rock. 
 “Tet the compromisers accept our programme and they can 
 come in! We won’t give way an inch. If there are com- 
 rades here who haven’t the courage and the will to dare what 
 we dare, let them leave with the rest of the cowards and 
 conciliators! Backed by the workers and soldiers we shall 
 go on.” | 
 At five minutes past seven came word from the left Social- 
 ist Revolutionaries to say that they would remain in the 
 Military Revolutionary Committee. | 
 “See!” said Lenin. “They are following!” 
 A little later, as we sat at the press table in the big hall, 
 an Anarchist who was writing for the bourgeois papers pro 
 posed to me that we go and find out what had become of th 
 presidium. There was nobody in the T'say-ee-kah office. 
 nor in the bureau of the Petrograd Soviet. From roor 
 to room we wandered, through vast Smolny. Nobody seemec 
 to have the slightest idea where to find the governing bod} 
 of the Congress. As we went my companion described hi: 
 ancient revolutionary activities, his long and pleasant exil: 
 in France. . . . As for the Bolsheviki, he confided to me tha: 
 they were common, rude, ignorant persons, without ges theti' 
 sensibilities. He was a real specimen of the Russian intelli 
 gentzia. ».+ So he came at last to Room 17, office 0 
 the Military Revolutionary Committee, and stood there in th 
 midst of all the furious coming and going. The door openec 
 and out shot a squat, flat-faced man in a uniform witho 
 insignia, who seemed to be smiling—which smile, after a minut 
 one saw to be the fixed grin of extreme fatigue. It w 
 Krylenko. tS 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PLUNGING AHEAD | 125 
 
 . _ My friend, who was a dapper, civilized-looking young man, 
 gave a cry of pleasure and stepped forward. 
 
 “Nicolai Vasilievitch !’he said, holding out his hand. “Don’t 
 ou remember me, comrade? We were in prison together.” 
 _ Krylenko made an effort and concentrated his mind and 
 t. “Why yes,” he answered finally, looking the other 
 and down with an expression of great friendliness. ‘“‘You 
 are S Zdra stvuitye!’ They kissed. “What are you 
 oing in all this?” He waved his arm around. 
 
 “Oh, I’m just looking on. . . . You seem very successful.” 
 _ “Yes,” replied Krylenko, with a sort of doggedness, “The 
 roletarian Revolution is a great success.” He laughed. 
 
 
 
 erhaps—perhaps, however, we’ll meet in prison again!’ 
 
 When we got out into the corridor again my friend went 
 n with his explanations. “You see, I’m a follower of Kropot- 
 n. To us the Revolution is a great failure; it has not 
 roused the patriotism of the masses. Of course that only 
 
 roves that the people are not ready for Revolution. . . .” 
 
 
 
 ies—but with the power of explaining profound ideas in sim- 
 le terms, of analysing a concrete situation. And combined, 
 vith shrewdness, the greatest intellectual audacity. 
 
126 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kameniev was reading the report of the actions of th 
 Military Revolutionary Committee ; abolition of capital pun- 
 ishment in the Army, restoration of the free right of propa- 
 ganda, release of officers and soldiers arrested for political 
 crimes, orders to arrest Kerensky and confiscation of food 
 supplies in private store-houses. . . - Tremendous applause. 
 
 Again the representative of the Bund. The uncompromis- 
 ing attitude of the Bolsheviki would mean the crushing of the 
 Revolution; therefore, the Bund delegates must refuse any 
 longer to sit in the Congress. Cries from the audience, ““We 
 thought you walked out last might! How many more times 
 are you going to walk out?” i 
 
 Then the representative of the Mensheviki International- 
 ists. Shouts, “What! You here still?” The speaker ex- 
 plained that only part of the Mensheviki Internationalists left 
 the Congress; the rest were going to stay 
 
 “We consider it dangerous and perhaps even mortal for 
 the Revolution to transfer the power to the Soviets”—Inter- 
 ruptions—“but we feel it our duty to remain in the Congress 
 and vote against the transfer here!” 
 
 Other speakers followed, apparently without any order. 
 A delegate of the coal-miners of the Don Basin called upo 
 the Congress to take measures against Kaledin, who might cut 
 off coal and food from the capital. Several soldiers jus! 
 arrived from the Front brought the enthusiastic greetings ol 
 their regiments. . . . Now Lenin, gripping the edge of the 
 reading stand, letting his little winking eyes travel over the 
 crowd as he stood there waiting, apparently oblivious to the 
 long-rolling ovation, which lasted several minutes. When 1 
 finished, he said simply, “We shall now proceed to construct thi 
 Socialist order!?? Again that overwhelming human roar. 
 
 “The first thing is the adoption of practical measures te 
 realise peace. . . . We shall offer peace to the peoples of al 
 the belligerent countries upon the basis of the Soviet terms— 
 
 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD 127 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘no annexations, no indemnities, and the right of self-determina- 
 - tion of peoples. At the same time, according to our promise, we 
 ‘shall publish and repudiate the secret treaties. . . . The ques- 
 tion of War and Peace is so clear that I think that I may, 
 without preamble, read the project of a Proclamation to the 
 | Peoples of All the Belligerent Countries. .. .” 
 
 ‘4 
 t 
 
 His great mouth, seeming to smile, opened wide as he 
 
 
 
 
 ‘spoke; his voice was hoarse—not unpleasantly so, but as if 
 it had hardened that way after years and years of speaking— 
 ‘and went on monotonously, with the effect of being able to go 
 ‘on forever. . . . For emphasis he bent forward slightly. No 
 | gestures. And before him, a thousand simple faces looking 
 up in intent adoration. 
 
 PROCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLES AND GOVERNMENTS OF ALL THE 
 ib BELLIGERENT NATIONS. 
 
 ti 
 ; The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, created by the revo- 
 lution of November 6th and 7th and based on the Soviets of 
 
 ‘Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, proposes to all the bel- 
 
 
 
 /ligerent peoples and to their Governments to begin immediately 
 , negotiations for a just and democratic peace. 
 
 __ The Government means by a just and democratic peace, which 
 is desired by the immense majority of the workers and the labouring 
 . “classes, exhausted and depleted by the war—that peace which 
 “the Russian workers and peasants, after having struck down the 
 “Tearist monarchy, have not ceased to demand categorically—imme- 
 diate peace without annexations (that is to say, without conquest of 
 foreign territory, without forcible annexation of other nationali- 
 ties), and without indemnities. 
 
 if 
 
 peoples immediately to conclude such a peace, by showing them- 
 
 The Government of Russia proposes to all the belligerent 
 
 selves willing to enter upon the decisive steps of negotiations aim- 
 "ing at such a peace, at once, without the slightest delay, before 
 ‘the definitive ratification of all the conditions of such a peace 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 128 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 by the authorised assemblies of the people of all countries anc 
 of all nationalities. | . 
 
 By annexation or conquest of foreign territory, the Govern iy 
 ment means—conformably to the conception of democratic rights — 
 in general, and the rights of the working-class in particular—all 
 union to a great and strong State of a small or weak nationality, 
 without the voluntary, clear and precise expression of its consent 
 and desire; whatever be the moment when such an annexation by 
 force was accomplished, whatever be the degree of civilisation of 
 the nation annexed by force or maintained outside the frontiers _ 
 of another State, no matter if that nation be in Europe or in the | 
 
 
 
 far countries across the sea. ; 
 
 If any nation is retained by force within the limits of another 
 State; if, in spite of the desire expressed by it, (it matters little if 
 that desire be expressed by the press, by popular meetings, de- 
 cisions of political parties, or by disorders and riots against | 
 national oppression), that nation is not given the right of deciding | 
 by free vote—without the slightest constraint, after the complete — 
 departure of the armed forces of the nation which has annexed it 
 or wishes to annex it or is stronger in general—the form of its 
 national and political organisation, such a union constitutes an an= 
 nexation—that is to say, conquest and an act of violence. 
 
 To continue this war in order to permit the strong and rich 
 nations to divide among themselves the weak and conquered nation- 
 alities is considered by the Government the greatest possible crime 
 against humanity; and the Government solemnly proclaims its de- 
 cision to sign a treaty of peace which will put an end to this war 
 upon the above conditions, equally fair for all nationalities without 
 exception. 
 
 The Government abolishes secret diplomacy, expressing before 
 the whole country its firm decision to conduct all the negotiations 
 in the light of day before the people, and will proceed immediately | 
 to the full publication of all secret treaties confirmed or concluded 
 by the Government of land-owners and capitalists, from Mareh 
 until November 7th, 1917. All the clauses of the secret treaties 
 which, as occur in a majority of cases, have for their object to pro- 
 
 ' eure advantages and privileges for Russian capitalists, to maintain 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD 129 
 
 
 
 or augment the annexations of the Russian imperialists, are de~ 
 n jounced by the Government immediately and without discussion. 
 
 # In proposing to all Governments and all peoples to engage in 
 public negotiations for peace, the Government declares itself ready 
 to carry on these negotiations by telegraph, by post, or by pourpar- 
 ‘lers between the representatives of the different countries, or at a 
 conference of these representatives. To facilitate these pourparlers, 
 the Government appoints its authorised representatives in the 
 neutral countries. 
 
 The Government proposes to all the governments and to the 
 ‘peoples of all the belligerent countries to conclude an immediate 
 Jarmistice, at the same time suggesting that the armistice ought to 
 last three months, during which time it is perfectly possible, not 
 only to hold the necessary pourparlers between the representatives 
 of all the nations and nationalities without exception drawn into 
 the war or forced to take part in it, but also to convoke authorised 
 ‘assemblies of representatives of the people of all countries, for the 
 ‘purpose of the definite acceptance of the conditions of peace. 
 
 @ In addressing this offer of peace to the Governments and 
 ‘to the peoples of all the belligerent countries, the Provisional 
 ‘Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of Russia addresses equally 
 
 
 
 and in particular the conscious workers of the three nations 
 ‘most devoted to humanity and the three most important nations 
 [rong those taking part in the present war—England, France, 
 ‘and Germany. The workers of these countries have rendered the 
 Ct services to the cause of progress and of Socialism. The 
 ‘splendid examples of the Chartist movement in England, the 
 ‘series of revolutions, of world-wide historical significance, accom- 
 plished by the French proletariat—and finally, in Germany, the 
 ' historic struggle against the Laws of Exception, an example for 
 ‘the workers of the whole world of prolonged and stubborn action, 
 ‘and the creation of the formidable organisations of German pro- 
 ‘Ietarians—all these models of proletarian heroism, these monu- 
 ‘ments of history, are for us a sure guarantee that the workers of 
 ‘these countries will understand the duty imposed upon them to 
 liberate humanity from the horrors and consequences of war; and 
 that these workers, by decisive, energetic and continued action, will 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 130 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 help us to bring to a successful conclusion the cause of peace— 
 and at the same time, the cause of the liberation of the exploited 
 working masses from all slavery and all exploitation. 
 When the grave thunder of applause had died away, Lenin — 
 spoke again: | 
 “We propose to the Congress to ratify this declaration. | 
 We address ourselves to the Governments as well as to the | 
 peoples, for a declaration which would be addressed only to . 
 the peoples of the belligerent countries might delay the con- | 
 clusion of peace. The conditions of peace, drawn up during © 
 the armistice, will be ratified by the Constituent Assembly. In ) 
 fixing the duration of the armistice at three months, we desire 
 to give to the peoples as long a rest as possible after this — 
 bloody extermination, and ample time for them to elect. their — 
 representatives. This proposal of peace will meet with re- | 
 sistance on the part of the imperialist governments—we don’t 
 fool ourselves on that score. But we hope that revolution | 
 will soon break out in all the belligerent countries; that is | 
 why we address ourselves especially to the workers of France, | 
 England and Germany... . | 
 “The revolution of November 6th and th,” he ended, 
 “has opened the era of the Social Revolution. . . . The | 
 labour movement, in the name of peace and Socialism, shall | 
 win, and fulfil its destiny. . . .” | | 
 There was something quiet and powerful in all this, which | 
 stirred the souls of men. It was understandable why people | 
 believed when Lenin spoke. .. . | 
 By crowd vote it was quickly decided that only representa- | 
 tives of political factions should be allowed to speak on the | 
 motion and that speakers should be limited to fifteen minutes. | 
 First Karelin for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. “Our | 
 faction had no opportunity to propose amendments to the | 
 text of the proclamation; it is a private document of the 
 
 { 
 
 % oI 
 
- PLUNGING AHEAD 131 
 
 
 
 Bolsheviki. But we will vote for it because we agree with its 
 iBpirit. . . .” 
 } For the Social Democrats Internationalists Kramarov, 
 long, stoop-shouldered and near-sighted—destined to achieve 
 ‘some notoriety as the Clown of the Opposition. Only a Gov- 
 ernment composed of all the Socialist parties, he said, could 
 ‘possess the authority to take such important action. If a 
 Socialist coalition were formed, his faction would support the 
 entire programme; if not, only part of it. As for the 
 proclamation, the Internationalists were in thoreugh accord 
 /with its main points... . 
 
 _ Then one after another, amid rising enthusiasm; Ukrainean 
 Social Democracy, support; Lithuanian Social Democracy, sup- 
 port; Populist Socialists, support; Polish Social Democracy, 
 | support ; Polish Socialists support—but would prefer a Social- 
 ‘ist coalition; Lettish Social Democracy, support. . . . Some- 
 ‘thing was kindled in these men. One spoke of the “coming 
 | World-Revolution, of which we are the advance-guard”; an- 
 other of “the new age of brotherhood, when all the peoples 
 will become one great family... .” An individual member 
 claimed the floor. “There is contradiction here,” he said. 
 “First you offer peace without annexations and indemnities, 
 ‘and then you say you will consider all peace offers. To con- 
 sider means to accept... .” 
 
 _ Lenin was on his feet. “We want a just peace, but we 
 gare not afraid of a revolutionary war. ... Probably the 
 Imperialist Governments will not answer our appeal—but we 
 ‘shall not issue an ultimatum to which it will be easy to say 
 no. . . . If the German proletariat realises that we are ready 
 a. Pynkider all offers of peace, that will perhaps be the last 
 drop which overflows the bowl—revolution will break out in 
 Germany. ae 
 
 _ We consent to examine all conditions of peace, but that 
 lcesn’t mean that we shall accept them. ... For some of 
 
 
 
 
 
 - eae 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 1382 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 our terms we shall fight to the end—but possibly for ot 
 will find it impossible to continue the war. . . . Above all, we 
 want to finish the war... .” . j 
 
 It was exactly 10:35 when Kameniev asked all in favour of 
 the proclamation to hold up their cards. One delegate dared | 
 to raise his hand against, but the sudden sharp outburst | 
 around him brought it swiftly down. . . . Unanimous. i 
 
 Suddenly, by common impulse, we found ourselves on our | 
 feet, mumbling together into the smooth lifting unison of the 
 Internationale. A grizzled old soldier was sobbing like a 
 child. Alexandra Kollontai rapidly winked the tears back. 
 The immense sound rolled through the hall, burst windows — 
 and doors and seared into the quiet sky. “The war is ended! 
 The war is ended!” said a young workman near me, his face : 
 shining. And when it was over, as we stood there in a kind 
 of awkward hush, some one in the back of the room shouted, | 
 “Comrades! Let us remember those who have died for lb- 
 erty!” So we began to sing the Funeral March, that slow, 
 melancholy and yet triumphant chant, so Russian and so mov-- 
 ing. The Internationale is an alien air, after all. The 
 Funeral March seemed the very soul of those dark masses 
 whose delegates sat in this hall, building from their obscure 
 visions a new Russia—and perhaps more. 
 
 
 
 You fell in the fatal fight 
 
 For the liberty of the people, for the honour of the people .«-« 
 You gave up your lives and everything dear to you, 
 
 You suffered in horrible prisons, 
 
 You went to exile in chains. ... 
 
 Without a word you carried your chains because you could not | 
 ignore your suffering brothers, 
 
 Because you believed that justice is stronger than the sword. . «= 
 
 The time will come when your surrendered life will count. 
 
 That time is near; when tyranny falls the people will rise, 
 great and free! 
 
-PLUNGING AHEAD 133 
 
 
 
 ce Farewell, brothers, you chose a noble path, 
 e You are followed by the new and fresh army ready to die and 
 to Butler.) \s) 
 
 f Farewell, brothers, you chose a noble path, 
 At your grave we swear to fight, to work for freedom and 
 the people’s happiness. . . . 
 
 For this did they lie there, the martyrs of March, in 
 their cold Brotherhood Grave on Mars Field; for this thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands had died in the prisons, in exile, 
 
 
 
 in Siberian mines. It had not come as they expected it would 
 come, nor as the intelligentzia desired it; but it had come— 
 rough, strong, a. of formulas, contemptuous of senti- 
 mentalism ; real. » . « 
 
 
 
 fe 
 
 
 
 Lenin was reading the Decree on Land: 
 
 | (1.) All private ownership of land is abolished immediately 
 ‘without compensation. 
 
 (2.) All land-owners’ estates, and all lands belonging to the 
 Crown, to monasteries, church lands with all their live stock and 
 inventoried property, buildings and all appurtenances, are trans- 
 ferred to the disposition of the township Land Committees and the 
 district Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies until the Constituent Assem- 
 bly meets. 
 
 (3.) Any damage whatever done to the confiscated property 
 which from now on belongs to the whole People, is regarded as a 
 Serious crime, punishable by the revolutionary tribunals. The dis- 
 trict Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies shall take all necessary measures 
 for the observance of the strictest order during the taking over of 
 ‘the land-owners’ estates, for the determination of the dimensions of 
 the plots of land and which of them are subject to confiscation, for 
 ‘the drawing up of an inventory of the entire confiscated property, 
 and for the strictest revolutionary protection of all the farming 
 property on the land, with all buildings, implements, cattle, sup- 
 ‘Plies of products, etc., passing into the hands of the People. 
 
 
 
 
 
134 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 4 
 
 (4.) For guidance during the realisation of the great land re- 
 forms until their final resolution by the Constituent Assembly, shall | 
 serve the following peasant nakaz * (instructions), drawn up on the 
 basis of 242 local peasant nakazi by the editorial board of the © 
 “Teviestia of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies,” and 
 published in No. 88 of said “Isviestia” (Petrograd, No. 88, August . 
 19th, 1917). | | 
 
 The lands of peasants and of Cossacks serving in the Army . 
 shall not be confiscated. | 
 
 
 
 “This is not,” explained Lenin, “the project of former — 
 Minister Tchernov, who spoke of ‘erecting a frame-work’ and 
 tried to realise reforms from above. From below, on the 
 spot, will be decided the questions of division of the land. The _ 
 amount of land received by each peasant will vary according 
 to the locality. ... F 
 
 ‘Under the Provisional Government, the pomieshtchikt 
 flatly refused to obey the orders of the Land Committees—~ 
 those Land Committees projected by Lvov, brought into exist- 
 ence by Shingariov, and administered by Kerensky !” 
 
 Before the debates could begin a man forced his way vi0- 
 lently through the crowd in the aisle and climbed upon the 
 platform. It was Pianikh, member of the Executive Commit 
 tee of the Peasants’ Soviets, and he was mad clean through. 
 
 “The Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviets of 
 Peasants’ Deputies protests against the arrest of our com- 
 rades, the Ministers Salazkin and Mazlov’” he flung harshly 
 in the faces of the crowd, “We demand their instant release! 
 They are now in Peter-Paul fortress. We must have im- 
 
 
 
 mediate action! There is not a moment to lose!’ 
 
 Another followed him, a soldier with disordered beard and 
 flaming eyes. “You sit here and talk about giving the land to 
 the peasants, and you commit an act of tyrants and usurpers 
 against the peasants’ chosen representatives! TI tell you—” 
 he raised his fist, “if one hair of their heads is harmed, you'll 
 
 5 
 
-PLUNGING AHEAD 135 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1a ve a revolt on your hands!” The crowd stirred confusedly. 
 Then up rose Trotzky, calm and venomous, conscious of 
 ower, greeted with a roar. “Yesterday the Military Revolu- 
 nerery Committee decided to release the Socialist Revolu- 
 
 ind Maliantovitch—on principle. That they are still in 
 eee is only because v we have had so much to do... 
 
 cts of Kerensky during the Banelgy affair |” 
 
 | “Never,” shouted Pianikh, “in any revolution have such 
 hings been seen as go on here!” 
 
 i" “You are mistaken,” responded Trotzky. “Such things 
 lave been seen even in this revolution. Hundreds of our 
 fomrades were arrested in the July days. . . . When Comrade 
 Collontai was released from prison by the doctor’s orders, 
 \vksentiev placed at her door two former agents of the Tsar’s 
 ecret police!’ The peasants withdrew, muttering, followed 
 'y ironical hoots. 
 
 The representative of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries 
 Poke on the Land Decree. While agreeing in principle, his 
 action could not vote on the question until after discussion. 
 The Peasants’ Soviets should be consulted. 
 
 _ The Mensheviki Internationalists, too, paitdd on a party 
 saucus. 
 
 , Then the leader of the Maximalists, the Anarchist wing 
 f the peasants: “We must do honour to a political party 
 ‘ich puts such an act into effect the first day, without jawing 
 bout it!” 
 
 A typical peasant was in the tribune, long hair, boots 
 nd sheep-skin coat, bowing to all corners of the hall. “I wish 
 ou well, comrades and citizens,” he said. “There are some 
 ladets walking around outside. You arrested our Socialist 
 easants—why not arrest them?” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
136 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This was the signal for a debate of excited peasants. " 
 was precisely like the debate of soldiers of the night before. 
 Here were the real proletarians of the land... . ‘ 
 
 “Those members of our Executive Committee, Avksentiey 
 and the rest, whom we thought were the peasants’ oe | 
 they are only Cadets too! Arrest them! Arrest them!” vt 
 
 Another, “Who are these Pianikhs, these Avksentievs? 
 They are not peasants at all! They only wag their tails? 
 
 How the crowd rose to them, recognising brothers! a 
 
 The Left Socialist Revolutionaries proposed a half-hour 
 intermission. As the delegatcs streamed out, Lenin stood up 
 in his place. 1 
 
 “We must not lose time, comrades! News all-important 
 to Russia must be on the press to-morrow morning. No delay!” 
 
 And above the hot discussion, argument, shuffling of feet 
 could be heard the voice of an emissary of the Military Revo- 
 lutionary Committee, crying, “Fifteen agitators wanted 1 
 room 17 at once! To go to the Front!”... 
 
 | 
 t ¥ 
 $ 
 
 It was almost two hours and a half later that the delegatet 
 came straggling back, the presidium mounted the platform. 
 and the session recommenced by the reading of telegrams from 
 regiment after regiment, announcing their adhesion to the 
 Military Revolutionary Committee. 
 
 In leisurely manner the meeting gathered momentum. A 
 delegate from the Russian troops on the Macedonian from 
 spoke bitterly of their situation. “We suffer there more from 
 the friendship of our ‘Allies’ than from the enemy,” he sai 
 Representatives of the Tenth and Twelfth Armies, just arrivet 
 in hot haste, reported, “We support you with all our strength ! 
 A peasant-soldier protested against the release of “the traito 
 Socialists, Mazlov and Salazkin”; as for the Executive Com 
 mittee of the Peasants’ Soviets, it should be arrested en massé 
 
 wm * 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD 7 137 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 [ere was real revolutionary talk. ... A deputy from the 
 Russian Army in Persia declared he was instructed to demand 
 all power to the Soviets. . . . A Ukrainean officer, speaking in 
 his native tongue: “There is no nationalism in this crisis. . . . 
 Da zdravstvuyet the proletarian dictatorship of all lands!? 
 Such a deluge of high ‘and hot thoughts that surely Russia 
 would never again be dumb! | 
 
 _ Kameniev remarked that the anti-Bolshevik forces were 
 trying to stir up disorders everywhere, and read an appeal 
 of the Congress to all the Soviets of Russia: 
 
 _ The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 Deputies, including some Peasants’ Deputies, calls upon the local 
 Soviets to take immediate energetic measures to oppose all counter- 
 revolutionary anti-Jewish action and all pogroms, whatever they 
 may be. The honour of the Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ 
 Revolution demands that no pogrom be tolerated. 
 
 The Red Guard of Petrograd, the revolutionary garrison and 
 the sailors have maintained complete order in the capital. 
 
 Workers, soldiers and peasants, you should follow everywhere 
 \ example of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd. 
 
 Comrade soldiers and Cossacks, on us falls the duty of assur- 
 -ng real revolutionary order. 
 . All revolutionary Russia and the entire world have their eyes on 
 Es > 
 
 
 
 
 
 | At two o’clock the Land Decree was put to vote, with only 
 
 ie against and the peasant delegates wild with joy. ... So 
 dlunged the Bolsheviki ahead, irresistible, over-riding hesita- 
 
 tion and opposition—the only people in Russia who had a defi- 
 
 aite programme of action while the others talked for eight long 
 
 nonths. 
 
 _ Now arose a soldier, gaunt, ragged and eloquent, to pro- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 est against the clause of the nakaz tending to deprive mili- 
 tary deserters from a share in village land allotments. 
 Bawled at and hissed at first, his simple, moving speech finally 
 t 
 
 a 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 138 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 made silence. “Forced against his will into the butchery 3 
 of the trenches,”’ he cried, “which you yourselves, in the Peace 
 decree, have voted senseless as well as horrible, he greeted 
 the Revolution with hope of peace and freedom. Pearce? 
 The Government of Kerensky forced him again to go forward 
 into Galicia to slaughter and be slaughtered; to his pleas for 
 peace, Terestchenko simply laughed. . . . Freedom? Under” 
 Kerensky he found his Committees suppressed, his newspapers” 
 cut off, his party speakers put in prison... - At home in his 
 village, the landlords were defying his Land Committees, jail- 
 ing his comrades. .. . In Petrograd the bourgeoisie, in alli- 
 ance with the Germans, were sabotaging the food and am- 
 munition for the Army. ... He was without boots, r 
 clothes. . . . Who forced him to desert? The Government 
 
 of Kerensky, which you have overthrown!” At the end there | 
 a] 
 
 was applause. ay 
 
 But another soldier hotly denounced it: “The Governed 
 of Kerensky is not a screen behind which can be hidden dirt; 
 work like desertion! Deserters are scoundrels, who run any 
 home and leave their comrades to die in the trenches alone! 
 Every deserter is a traitor, and should be punished. .. .” 
 Uproar, shouts of “Do volno! Teesche!” Kameniev hastily 
 proposed to leave the matter to the Government for decision.* 
 
 At 2.30 A. M. fell a tense hush. Kameniev was reading the 
 
 decree of the Constitution of Power: 
 
 Until the meeting of the Constituent Assembly, a provisional: 
 Workers’ and Peasants’ Government is formed, which shall be 
 named the Council of People’s Commissars.° | 
 
 The administration of the different branches of state activity’ 
 shall be intrusted to commissions, whose composition shall be regu- 
 lated to ensure the carrying out of the programme of the Congress; 
 in close union with the mass-organisations of working-men, working- 
 women, sailors, soldiers, peasants and clerical employees. The 
 governmental power is vested in a collegium made up of the chair, 
 
 - # 
 - ol 
 
ss PLUNGING AHEAD 139 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' en of these commissions, that is to say, the Council of People’s 
 et. 
 
 _ Control over the activities of the People’s Commissars, and the 
 Tht to replace them, shall belong to the All-Russian Congress of 
 Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, and its 
 zentral Executive Committee. 
 
 Still silence; as he read the list of Commissars, bursts 
 f applause after each name, Lenin’s and Trotzky’s especially. 
 
 President of the Council: Vladimir Ulianov (Lenin) 
 Interior: A. E. Rykov 
 
 Agriculture: V. P. Miliutin 
 
 Labour: A. G. Shliapnikov 
 
 Military and Naval Affairs—a committee composed of V. A. 
 ee (Antonov), N. V. Krylenko, and F, M. Dybenko. 
 _ Commerce and Industry: V. P. Nogin 
 
 _ Popular Education: A. V. Lunatcharsky 
 
 Finance: E. E. Skvortsov (Stepanov) 
 
 Foreign Affairs: L. D. Bronstein (Trotsky) 
 
 | Justice: G. E. Oppokov (Lomov) 
 
 Supplies: E. A. Teodorovitch 
 
 _ Post and Telegraph: N. P. Avilov (Gliebov) 
 
 ' Chairman for Nationalities: I. V. Djougashvili (Stalin) 
 ' Railroads: To be filled later. 
 
 There were bayonets at the edges of the room, bayonets 
 wicking up among the delegates; the Military Revolutionary 
 Jommittee was arming everybody, Bolshevism was arming for 
 he decisive battle with Kerensky, the sound of whose trumpets 
 ame up the south-west wind. - In the meanwhile nobody 
 rent home; on the contrary tiindyads of newcomers filtered in, 
 lling the great room solid with stern-faced soldiers and work- 
 aen who stood for hours and hours, indefatigably intent. 
 Che air was thick with cigarette smoke, and human breathing, 
 md the smell of coarse clothes and sweat. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 140 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iy 
 
 Avilov of the staff of Novaya Zhizn was speaking in the 
 name of the Social Democrat Internationalists and the rem-_ 
 nant of the Mensheviki Internationalists ; Avilov, with his | 
 young, intelligent face, looking out of place in his smart frock- | 
 coat. : | ay 
 “We must ask ourselves where we are going... . The 
 ease with which the Coalition Government was upset cannot 
 be explained by the strength of the left wing of the democracy, 
 but only by the incapacity of the Government to give the 
 people peace and bread. And the left wing cannot maintam | 
 itself in power unless it can solve these questions. .. . i 
 
 “Can it give bread to the people? Grain is scarce. The 
 majority of the peasants will not be with you, for you cannot 
 give them the machinery they need. Fuel and other primary | 
 necessities are almost impossible to procure... . | 
 
 “As for peace, that will be even more difficult. The Allies 
 refused to talk with Skobeliev. They will never accept the 
 proposition of a peace conference from you. You will not 
 be recognised either in London and Paris, or in Berlin. .. - 
 
 “You cannot count on the effective help of the proletariat 
 of the Allied countries, because in most countries it is very 
 far from the revolutionary struggle; remember, the Allied de- 
 mocracy was unable even to convoke the Stockholm Confer- 
 ence. Concerning the German Social Democrats, I have just 
 talked with Comrade Goldenberg, one of our delegates to 
 Stockholm; he was told by the representatives of the Extreme 
 Left that revolution in Germany was impossible during the 
 war... 2? Here interruptions began to come thick and fast. 
 but Avilov kept on. 
 
 “The isolation of Russia will fatally result either in the 
 defeat of the Russian Army by the Germans, and the patching 
 up of a peace between the Austro-German coalition and thé 
 Franco-British coalition at the expense of Russia—or in 
 
 separate peace with Germany. 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD 14a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 el are forming in all the cities of Russia. .. . 
 
 _ “No one party can conquer these enormous difficulties. 
 The majority of the people, supporting a government of 
 Socialist coalition, can alone accomplish the Revolution. . . .” 
 _ He then read the resolution of the two factions: 
 
 i Recognising that for the salvation of the conquests of the 
 Revolution it is indispensable immediately to constitute a govern- 
 ment based on the revolutionary democracy organised in the So- 
 viets of Workers,’ Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, recognising 
 reover that the task of this government is the quickest possible 
 Pisinment of peace, the transfer of the land into the hands of the 
 grarian committees, the organisation of control over industrial 
 roduction, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly on the 
 date decided, the Congress appoints an executive committee to con- 
 stitute such a government after an agreement with the groups of the 
 democracy which are taking part in the Congress. 
 
 M4 
 
 “ In spite of the revolutionary exaltation of the triumphant 
 crowd, Avilov’s cool tolerant reasoning had shaken them. To- 
 ward the end, the cries and hisses died away, and when he 
 finished there was even some clapping. 
 
 ,  Karelin followed him—also young, fearless, whose sincerity 
 mo one doubted—for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, the 
 party of. Maria Spiridonova, the party which almost alone 
 followed the Bolsheviki, and which represented the revolution- 
 my peasants. 
 
 - “Qur party has refused to enter the Council of People’s 
 BR issars because we do not wish forever to separate our- 
 3 Ives from the part of the revolutionary army which left the 
 Congress, a separation which would make it impossible for 
 us to serve as intermediaries between the Bolsheviki and the 
 other groups of the democracy. . . . And that is our princi- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
142 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 pal duty at this moment. We cannot sustain any Barer nt 
 except a government of Socialist coalition. ... 7 
 “We protest, moreover, against the tyrannical conduct of | 
 the Bolsheviki. Our Commissars have been driven from their | 
 posts. Our only organ, Znamia Truda (Banner of Labour), 
 was forbidden to appear yesterday. . 
 “The Central Duma is forming a peveatn Committee for 
 Salvation of Country and Revolution, to fight you. Already 
 you are isolated, and your Government is without the support 
 of a single other democratic group. .. .” 
 And now Trotzky stood upon fe aa tribune, confident | 
 and dominating, with that sarcastic expression about his 
 mouth which was almost a sneer. He spoke, in a ringing 
 voice, and the great crowd rose to him. | 
 “These considerations on the dangers of isolation of our 
 party are not new. On the eve of insurrection our fatal | 
 defeat was also predicted. Everybody was against us; only 
 a faction of the Socialist Revolutionaries of the left was with 
 us in the Military Revolutionary Committee. How is it that| 
 we were able to overturn the Government almost without blood-| 
 shed? ... That fact is the most striking proof that we 
 were not isolated. In reality the Provisional Government was 
 isolated; the democratic parties which march against us were 
 isolated, are isolated, and forever cut off from the proletariat! 
 “They speak of the necessity for a coalition. There 1s 
 only one coalition possible—the coalition of the workers, sol- 
 diers and poorest peasants; and it is our party’s honour to 
 have realised that coalition. . . . What sort of coalition did 
 Aviloy mean? A coalition with thine who supported the Gov- 
 ernment of Treason to the People? Coalition doesn’t always) 
 add to strength. For example, could we have organised the 
 insurrection with Dan and Avksentiev in our ranks?” Roars 
 of laughter. 
 “Avksentiev gave little bread. Will a coalition with the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
- PLUNGING AHEAD 143 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 oborontsi furnish more? Between the peasants and Avksen- 
 tiev, who ordered the arrest of the Land Committees, we choose 
 the peasants! Our Revolution will remain the classic revolu- 
 tion of history. . 
 
 “They accuse us Not repelling an agreement with the other 
 democratic parties. But is it we who are to blame? Or must 
 _we, as Karelin put it, blame it on a ‘misunderstanding’? No, 
 _ comrades. When a party in full tide of revolution, still 
 wreathed in powder-smoke, comes to say, ‘Here is the Power— 
 take it!"—and when those to whom it is offered go over to the 
 | enemy, that is not a misunderstanding . . . that is a declara- 
 | tion of pitiless war. And it isn’t we Yeah have declared 
 mwar.... 
 
 _ “Avilov menaces us with failure of our peace efforts—if 
 #we remain ‘isolated.’ I repeat, I don’t see how a coalition 
 with Skobeliev, or even Terestchenko, can help us to get 
 jpeace! Avilov tries to frighten us by the threat of a peace 
 at our expense. And I answer that in any case, if Europe 
 ‘continues to be ruled by the imperialist bourgeoisie, revolu- 
 tionary Russia will inevitably be lost. 
 
 i “There are only two alternatives; me the Russian Revo- 
 lution will create a revolutionary movement in Europe, or the 
 ‘European powers will destroy the Russian Revolution!’ 
 
 | They greeted him with an immense crusading acclaim, 
 ‘kindling to the daring of it, with the thought of championing 
 ‘mankind. And from that moment there was something con- 
 ‘scious and decided about the insurrectionary masses, in all 
 ‘their actions, which never left them. 
 
 ‘ But on the other side, too, battle was taking form. 
 
 ‘Kameniev recognised a delegate from the Union of Railway 
 ‘Workers, a hardfaced, stocky man with an attitude of implac- 
 able hostility. He threw a bombshell. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ) 
 ' “In the name of the strongest organisation in Russia I 
 ‘demand the right to speak, and I say to you: the Vikzhel 
 
 4 
 
 
 
\44 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD| 
 
 charges me to make known the decision of the Union conce 1 
 ing the constitution of Power. The Central Committee re- | 
 fuses absolutely to support the Bolsheviki if they persist i f 
 isolating themselves from the whole democracy of Russia!’ 
 Immense tumult all over the hall. \ 
 
 “Jn 1905, and in the Kornilov days, the Railway Workers 
 were the best defenders of the Revolution. But you did not 
 invite us to your Congress—” Cries, “It was the old T'say-ee- 
 kah which did not invite you!” The orator paid no atten- 
 tion. “We do not recognise the legality of this Congress; 
 since the departure of the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolu- 
 tonaries there is not a legal quorum. ... The Union sup- 
 ports the old Tsay-ee-kah, and declares that the Congress has. 
 no right to elect a new Committee... . | 
 
 “The Power should be a Socialist and revolutionary Power, 
 responsible before the authorised organs of the entire revolu- 
 tionary democracy. Until the constitution of such a power, 
 the Union of Railway Workers, which refuses to transport. 
 counter-revolutionary troops to Petrograd, at the same time 
 forbids the execution of any order whatever without the con- 
 sent of the Vikzhel. The Vikzhel also takes into its hands the 
 entire administration of the railroads of Russia.” 
 
 At the end he could hardly be heard for the furious storm) 
 of abuse which beat upon him. But it was a heavy blow— 
 that could be seen in the concern on the faces of the presidium. | 
 Kameniev, however, merely answered that there could be no) 
 doubt of the legality of the Congress, as even the quorum 
 established by the old T'say-ee-kah was exceeded—in spite of 
 the secession of the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolution-| 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; 
 
 tt OE - 
 
 aries... - 
 Then came the vote on the Constitution of Power, which 
 carried the Council of People’s Commissars into office by an) 
 enormous majority. ... a | 
 i} 
 
 ' 
 r af 
 -. 
 
PLUNGING AHEAD | 145 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sioa Seti 
 
 i The election of the new Tsay-ce-kah, the new parliament of 
 the Russian Republic, took barely fifteen minutes. Trotzky an- 
 a its composition: 100 members, of which 70 Bolsheviki. 
 . As for the peasants, and the seceding factions, places were 
 lo be reserved for them. “We welcome into the Government all 
 parties and groups which will adopt our programme,” ended 
 Trotzky. 
 _ And thereupon the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets 
 was dissolved, so that the members might hurry to their homes 
 in the four corners of Russia and tell of the great hap- 
 oenings.... 
 
 It was almost seven when we woke the sleeping conductors 
 ind motor-men of the street-cars which the Street-Railway 
 Workers’ Union always kept waiting at Smolny to take the 
 Soviet delegates to their homes. In the crowded car there 
 vas less happy hilarity than the night before, I thought. 
 Many looked anxious; perhaps they were saying to themselves, 
 ‘Now we are masters, how can we do our will?” 
 
 ' At our apartment-house we were held up in the dark by 
 m armed patrol of citizens and carefully examined. The 
 Juma’s proclamation was doing its work. . . 
 
 _ The landlady heard us come in, and stumbled out in a pink 
 ‘uk wrapper. 
 
 ' “The House Committee has again asked that you take 
 Tour turn on guard-duty with the rest of the men,” she said. 
 
 _ “What’s the reason for this guard-duty?” 
 
 ' To protect the house and the women and children.” 
 
 _ “Who from?” 
 
 “Robbers and murderers.” 
 
 > “But suppose there came a Commissar from the Military 
 evolutionary Committee to search for arms?” 
 
 
 

 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 
 
 Fripay, November 9th. ... 
 
 
 
 Novotcherkask, November 8th. 
 
 In view of the revolt of the Bolsheviki, and their attempt to 
 lepose the Provisional Government and to seize the power in 
 Petrograd . - the Cossack Government declares that it considers 
 shese acts eitinal and absolutely inadmissible. In consequence, 
 the Cossacks will lend all their support to the Provisional Govern- 
 nent, which is a government of coalition. Because of these cir- 
 tumstances, and until the return of the Provisional Government 
 © power, and the restoration of order in Russia, I take upon 
 nyself, beginning November 7th, all the power in that which 
 ‘oncerns the region of the Don. 
 
 : Signed: Araman Karepin 
 
 : President of the Government of the 
 Cossack Troops. 
 
 Prikaz of the Minister-President Kerensky, dated at 
 ratchina: 
 
 
 
 I, Minister-President of the Provisional Government, and Su- 
 eme Commander of all the armed forces of the Russian Republic, 
 eclare that I am at the head of regiments from the Front who 
 ave remained faithful to the fatherland. 
 
 I order all the troops of the Military District of Petrograd, 
 tho through mistake or folly have answered the appeal of the 
 raitors to the country and the Revolution, to return to their duty 
 ithout delay. 
 
 
 
 sacar im a ae aie a 
 
 4 347 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 148 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 This order shall be read in all regiments, battalions and 
 squadrons. Sa . a 
 Signed: Minister-President of the Provisional 
 Government and Supreme Commander — 
 A. F. Kerensxy. 
 
 Telegram from Kerensky to the General in Command of — 
 the Northern Front: 1 
 
 The town of Gatchina has been taken by the loyal regiments 1 
 without bloodshed. Detachments of Cronstadt sailors, and of the | 
 Semionovsky and Ismailovsky regiments, gave up their arms without 
 resistance and joined the Government troops. , i 
 
 I order all the designated units to advance as quickly as possible. i 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee has ordered its troops to 
 
 retreat. ... 
 
 Gatchina, about thirty kilometers south-west, had fallen’ 
 during the night. Detachments of the two regiments men- 
 tioned——not the sailors—while wandering captainless in the 
 neighbourhood, had indeed been surrounded by Cossacks and 
 given up their arms; but it was not true that they had joined 
 the Government troops. At this very moment crowds of 
 them, bewildered and ashamed, were up at Smolny trying to 
 explain. They did not think the Cossacks were so near. . « + 
 They had tried to argue with the Cossacks. .. . 
 
 Apparently the greatest confusion prevailed along the 
 revolutionary front. The garrisons of all the little towns 
 southward had split hopelessly, bitterly into two factions—Oor 
 three: the high command being on the side of Kerensky, i 
 default of anything stronger, the majority of the rank an 
 fle with the Soviets, and the rest unhappily wavering. 
 
 Hastily the Military Revolutionary Committee appointec 
 to command the defence of Petrograd an ambitious regulai 
 Army captain, Muraviov; the same Muraviov who had orga 
 ssed the Death Battalions during the summer, and had one! 
 

 
 
 
 
 _ THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 149 
 
 een heard to advise the Government that “it was too lenient 
 with the Bolsheviki; they must be wiped out.” A man of 
 military mind, who admired power and audacity, perhaps sin- 
 ‘cerely. . 
 
 | Beate my door when I came down in the morning were 
 posted two new orders of the Military Revolutionary Com- 
 mittee, directing that all shops and stores should open as 
 sual, and that all empty rooms and apartments should be 
 put at the disposal of the Committee. . . . 
 
 For thirty-six hours now the Bolsheviki had been cut off 
 ‘rom provincial Russia and the outside world. The railway 
 nen and telegraphers refused to transmit their despatches, the 
 sostmen would not handle their mail. Only the Government 
 vireless at ‘T’sarskoye Selo launched half-hourly bulletins and 
 manifestoes to the four corners of heaven; the Commissars of 
 Sinolny raced the Commissars of the City Duma on speeding 
 ‘rains half across the earth; and two aeroplanes, laden with 
 dropaganda, fled high up toward the Front. . 
 
 _ But the eddies of insurrection were Mirena through 
 Russia with a swiftness surpassing any human agency. Hel- 
 -ingfors Soviet passed resolutions of support; Kiev Bolsheviki 
 vaptured the arsenal and the telegraph station, only to be 
 Iriven out by delegates to the Congress of Cossacks, which 
 Ripon to be meeting there; in Kazan, a Military Revolu- 
 onary Committee arresied the local garrison staff and 
 he Commissar of the Provisional Government; from far 
 snoyarsk, in Siberia, came news that the Soviets were in 
 ‘ontrol of the Municipal institutions; at Moscow, where the 
 jituation was aggravated by a great strike of leather-workers 
 ‘none side, and a threat of general lock-out on the other, the 
 joviets had voted overwhelmingly to support the action of 
 he Bolsheviki in Petrograd. . . . Already a Military Revolu- 
 lonary Committee was Fariebignan gs 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 150 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Everywhere the same thing happened. The common sol 
 djers and the industrial workers supported the Soviets by « 
 vast majority; the officers, ywnkers and middle class generally 
 were on the side of the Government—as were the bourgeois 
 Cadets and the “moderate” Socialist parties. In all these 
 towns sprang up Committees for Salvation of Country and 
 Revolution, arming for civil war... - | 
 
 Vast Russia was in a state of solution. As long ago as . 
 1905 the process had begun; the March Revolution had mere- 
 ly hastened it, and giving birth to a sort of forecast of the 
 new order, had ended by merely perpetuating the hollow 
 structure of the old régime. Now, however, the Bolsheviki, in 
 one night, had dissipated it, as one blows away smoke. Old 
 Russia was no more; human society flowed molten in primal 
 heat, and from the tossing sea of flame was emerging the class 
 struggle, stark and pitiless—and the fragile, soniy cola 
 crust of new planets... . } 
 
 In Petrograd sixteen Ministries were on strike, led by the 
 Ministries of Labour and of Supplies—the only two created 
 by the all-Socialist Government of August. af 
 
 If ever men stood alone the “handful of Bolsheviki” appa - 
 ently stood alone that grey chill morning, with all storms: 
 towering over them.t Back against the wall, the uilitaah 
 Revolutionary Committee struck—for its life. “De Vaudace, 
 encore de l'audace, et toujours de Paudace. ...?  Attvem 
 the morning the Red Guards entered the printing office a 
 the City Government, confiscated thousands of copies of th 
 Appeal-Protest of the Duma, and suppressed the oi 
 Municipal organ—the Viestnik Gorodskovo Samoupravleniya 
 (Bulletin of the Municipal Self-Government). All the bour 
 geois newspapers were torn from the presses, even the Golos 
 Soldata, journal of the old T say-ee-kah—which, howeve 
 
 
 
 1 All references in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter Vv 
 
 See page 341. 
 
 
 
THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 
 
 -nanging its name to Soldatski Golos, appeared in 
 \f a hundred thousand copies, bellowing rage and | 
 
 
 
 The men who began their stroke of treachery in the night, who 
 ‘ave suppressed the newspapers, will not keep th® country in ignor- 
 ‘ace long. The country will know the truth! It will appreciate 
 ‘nu, Messrs. the Bolsheviki! We shall see! ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | As we came down the 
 -hole street before the Du 
 le. Here and there s} 
 ayonetted rifles, each 
 -en and women—cle; 
 naking their fists 
 eps stood boy-sg 
 aldatski Golos. 
 aod a revolver 
 orvousness in t 
 
 cy a little after midday the 
 ilding was crowded with peo- 
 d Guards and sailors, with 
 ounded by about a hundred 
 8 shopkeepers, tchinovniki— 
 
 wes and menaces. On the 
 istributing copies of the 
 red band around his arm 
 embling with rage and 
 throng at the foot of 
 be papers. . . . Noth- 
 
 tory. On one side 
 
 .e stairs, dema: 
 ig like this, I i 
 handful of \ 
 
 eir hands, re) 
 
 
 
 iers, with arms in 
 
 
 
 nsurrection—and per- 
 ntic mob made up of the 
 
 
 
 ‘nd of peopl Bidewalks of Fifth Avenue at 
 on-time, sn shouting, “Traitors |! Provoca- 
 rs! Oprite, 
 
 The door ded by students and officers with 
 
 site arm-ba in red, “Militia of the Committee of 
 If a dozen boy-scouts came and went. 
 as all commotion. Captain Gomberg 
 stairs. ‘“‘They’re going to dissolve the 
 Bolshevik Commissar is with the Mayor 
 top Riazanov came hurrying out. 
 the Duma recognise the Council 
 
 Me Terrible, 17th century. 
 

 
 
 N DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 \Commissars, and the Mayor had given him a flat 
 
 
 
 refusal. “Se’ 
 
 In the offices a great babbling crowd, hurrying, shouting, 
 gesticulating—Government officials, intellectuals, journalists, | 
 foreign correspondents, French and British officers. . . . The 
 City Engineer pointed to them triumphantly. “The Embas- 
 nly power now,” he explained. | 
 
 nd robbers it is only a ques- 
 99 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sies recognise the Duma as thi 
 “For these Bolshevik murdere} 
 tion of hours. All Russia is 
 
 In the Alexander Hall a m 
 for Salvation. Fillipovsky 1 
 in the tribune, reporting, to i 
 
 torus. 60 es 
 eeting of the Committee| 
 and Skobeliev again) 
 lause, new adhesions| 
 Peasants’ Soviets,| 
 sentroflot, Men-| 
 group delegates| 
 ees of the Men- 
 rialist parties, 
 
 to the Committee; Execi 
 old T'say-ee-kah, Central 
 shevik, Socialist Revolut 
 from the Congress of So 
 shevik, Socialist Revo 
 ‘“Yedinstvo” group, 
 stvos, Municipaliti 
 Council of the Russia 
 
 eratives, Zem- 
 nions, Vikzhel, 
 s.0 Merchants’ 
 and Manufacturers’ Ass 
 
 “; . ; The power of the 
 but a dictatorship—and not | 
 tariat, but against the proletaria ho have fell 
 or know how to feel revolutionary | 
 for the defence of the Revolution. . 
 
 “The problem of the day is not o der harmles:| 
 irresponsible demagogues, but to fight the counter) 
 
 ocratic power, 
 
 revolution. . . . If. rumours are true tha 
 
 
 
 the provinces are attempting to profit 
 march on Petrograd with other de 
 proof that we must establish a solig 
 
 * See Notes and Explanations. 
 
 
 
_ THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 153 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Otherwise, troubles with the Right will follow troubles 
 ik rom the Left. 
 ©The garrison Hot Petrograd cannot remain indifferent when 
 citizens buying the Golos Soldata and newsboys selling the 
 i Rabotchaya Gazeta are arrested in the streets. ... 
 | “The hour of resolutions has passed. . . . Let those who 
 yhave no longer faith in the Revolution retire. . . . To estab- 
 ‘lish a united power, we must again restore the prestige of the 
 Revolution. . . . 
 | “Let us swear that either the Revolution shall be saved— 
 vor we shall perish!” 
 , The hall rose, cheering, with kindling eyes. There was not 
 a single proletarian anywhere in sight... . 
 _ Then Weinstein: 
 “We must remain calm, and not act until public opinion is 
 firmly grouped in support of the Committee for Salvation— 
 .then we can pass from the defensive to action!” 
 , The Vikzhel representative announced that his organisa- 
 ‘tion was taking the initiative in forming the new Government, 
 and its delegates were now discussing the matter with Smolny. 
 . Followed a hot discussion: were the Bolsheviki to be 
 
 admitted to the new Government? Martov pleaded for their 
 admission ; after all, he said, they represented an important 
 political party. Opinions were very much divided upon this, 
 the right wing Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, as well 
 as the Populist Socialists, the Cooperatives and the bourgeois 
 lements being bitterly against. . . 
 | “They have betrayed Russia,” one speaker said. “They 
 aave started civil war and opened the front to the Germans. 
 Phe Bolsheviki must be mercilessly crushed. . . .” 
 _ Skobeliev was in favor of excluding bet the Bolsheviki 
 nd the Cadets. 
 
 _ We got into conversation with a young Socialist Revolu- 
 ee who had walked out of the Democratic Conference to- 
 
 is 
 
154 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD nh. 
 
 gether with the Bolahvaies that night when Tseretelli an 
 the “compromisers” forced Coalition upon the democracy of 
 Russia. q 
 “You here?” I asked him. | s 
 His eyes flashed fire. “Yes!” lie cried. “TI left the Cons | 
 gress with my party Wednesday night. I have not risked my 
 life for twenty years and more to submit now to the tyranny © 
 of the Dark People. Their methods are intolerable. But 
 they have not counted on the peasants. . . . When the peas- 
 ants begin to act, then it is a question of minutes before the | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 are done for.” 
 “But the peasants—will they act? Doesn’t the Land del | 
 eree settle the peasants? What more do they want?” i 
 “Ah, the Land decree!” he said furiously. “Yes, do you. 
 know what that Land decree is? It is our decree—it is the | 
 Socialist Revolutionary programme, intact! My party framed 
 that policy, after the most careful compilation of the wisi 
 of the peasants themselves. It is an outrage... .” 
 “But if it is your own policy, why do you object? If it 
 is the peasants’ wishes, why will they oppose rir h f 
 “You don’t understand! Don’t you see that the peasants 
 will immediately realise that it is all a trick—that these 
 usurpers have stolen the Socialist Revolutionary programme?” 
 I asked if it were true that Kaledin was marching north. 
 He nodded, and rubbed his hands with a sort of bitter satis- 
 faction. “Yes. Now you see what these Bolsheviki have 
 done. They have raised the counter-revolution against us. 
 The Revolution is lost. The Revolution is lost.” | 
 “But won’t you defend the Revolution?” 
 “Of course we will defend it—to the last drop of our! 
 blood. But we won’t cooperate with the Bolsheviki in any 
 
 way. ate 
 
 “But if Kaledin comes to Petrograd, and the Bolshevik 
 defend the city. Won’t you join with them?” 
 
_ THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 155 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ “Of course not. We will defend the city also, but we won’t 
 ‘support the Bolsheviki. Kaledin is the enemy of the Revolu- 
 tion, but the Bolsheviki are equally enemies of the Revolution.” 
 _ Which do you prefer—Kaledin or the Bolsheviki?” 
 _ “It is not a question to be discussed!” he burst out impa- 
 tiently. “I tell you, the Revolution is lost. And it is the 
 Bolsheviki who are to blame. But listen—why should we talk 
 of such things? Kerensky is coming. ... Day after to- 
 morrow we shall pass to the offensive. . . . Already Smolny 
 has sent delegates inviting us to form a new Government. But 
 we have them now—they are absolutely impotent. ... We 
 shall not cooperate... .” 
 Outside there was a shot. We ran to the windows. A Red 
 Guard, finally exasperated by the taunts of the crowd, had 
 shot into it, wounding a young girl in the arm. We could see 
 her being lifted into a cab, surrounded by an excited throng, 
 the clamour of whose voices floated up to us. As we looked, 
 suddenly an armoured automobile appeared around the corner 
 of the Mikhailovsky, its guns sluing this way and that. Im- 
 nediately the crowd began to run, as Petrograd crowds do, 
 falling down and lying still in the street, piled in the gutters, 
 aeaped up behind telephone-poles. The car lumbered up to 
 the steps of the Duma and a man stuck his head out of the 
 curret, demanding the surrender of the Soldatsk; Golos. The 
 doy-scouts jeered and scuttled into the building. After a 
 ‘moment the automobile wheeled undecidedly around and went 
 pif up the Nevsky, while some hundreds of men and women 
 vicked themselves up and began to dust their clothes. . . . 
 Inside was a prodigious running-about of people with arm- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘uls of Soldatski Golos, looking for places to hide them. . . . 
 
 _ A journalist came running into the room, waving a paper. 
 _ “Here’s a proclamation from Krasnov!” he cried. Every- 
 yody crowded around. “Get it printed—get it printed quick, 
 ind around to the barracks!” 
 
 2 
 
 
 
? 
 _} 
 
 : oY 
 156 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 4 
 | ¢ 
 
 By the order of the Supreme Commander I am appointed com- 
 mandant of the troops concentrated under Petrograd. 
 
 Citizens, soldiers, valorous Cossacks of the Don, of the Kuban, 
 of the Transbaikal, of the Amur, of the Yenissei, to all you who 
 have remained faithful to your oath I appeal; to you who have 
 sworn to guard inviolable your oath of Cossack—I call upon you 
 to save Petrograd from anarchy, from famine, from tyranny, and 
 to save Russia from the indelible shame to which a handful of 
 ignorant men, bought by the gold of Wilhelm, are trying to sub- 
 mit her. : 
 
 The Provisional Government, to which you swore fidelity in the 
 great days of March, is not overthrown, but by violence expelled 
 from the edifice in which it held its meetings. However the 
 Government, with the help of the Front armies, faithful to their 
 duty, with the help of the Council of Cossacks, which has united 
 under its command all the Cossacks and which, strong with the 
 morale which reigns in its ranks, and acting in accordance with 
 the will of the Russian people, has sworn to serve the country as 
 its ancestors served it in the Troublous Times of 1612, when the 
 Cossacks of the Don delivered Moscow, menaced by the Swedes, th 
 Poles, and the Lithuanians. Your Government still exists. ... 
 
 The active army considers these criminals with horror an 
 contempt. Their acts of vandalism and pillage, their crimes, th 
 German mentality with which they regard Russia—stricken dow 
 but not yet surrendered—have alienated from them the entir 
 people. 
 
 Citizens, soldiers, valorous Cossacks of the garrison of Petro 
 
 
 
 grad; send me your delegates so that I may know who are traitor 
 to their country and who are not, that there may be avoided ar 
 effusion of innocent blood. 
 
 Almost the same moment word ran from group to grou} 
 that the building was surrounded by Red Guards. An office: 
 strode in, a red band around his arm, demanding the Mayo 
 A few minutes later he left and old Schreider. came out of hi 
 office, red and pale by turns. 
 
u. ‘THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION nd 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | A special meeting of the Duma!” Be cried. “Immedi- 
 ely’ Pe 
 In the big hall proceedings were halted. ‘All members of 
 he Duma for a special meeting!” 
 _ “What’s the matter?” 
 “TY don’t know—going to arrest us—going to dissolve the 
 ' Duma—arresting members at the door—” so ran the excited 
 ee comments. 
 In the Nicolai Hall there was barely room to stand. The 
 “Mayor announced that troops were stationed at all the doors, 
 prohibiting all exit and entrance, and that a Commissar had 
 threatened arrest and the dispersal of the Municipal Duma. 
 1 A flood of impassioned speeches from members, and even from 
 ‘the galleries, responded. The freely-elected City Government 
 could not be dissolved by any power; the Mayor’s person and 
 ‘that of all the members were inviolable; the tyrants, the provo- 
 “cators, the German agents should never be recognised; as for 
 these threats to dissolve us, let them try—only over our dead 
 bodies shall they seize this chamber, where like the Roman 
 se nators of old we await with dignity the coming of the 
 Goths. 
 ; Resolution, to inform the Dumas and Zemstvos of all Rus- 
 “8 sia by telegraph. Resolution, that it was impossible for the 
 N ayor or the Chairman of the Duma to enter into any rela- 
 tions whatever with representatives of the Military Revolu- 
 1 tionary Committee or with the so-called Council of People’s 
 ‘Commissars. Resolution, to address another appeal to the 
 Population of Petrograd to stand up for the defence of their 
 “eected town government. Resolution, to remain in perma- 
 “Tent session. 
 _ In the meanwhile one member arrived with the information 
 at he had telephoned to Smolny, and that the Military Revo- 
 : lonary Committee said that no orders had been given to 
 surround the Duma, that the troops would be withdrawn. .. . 
 if 
 
 My 
 i 
 
| : | a) 
 158 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD | 
 
 As we went downstairs Riazanov burst in through the 
 front door, very agitated. | 
 
 “Are you going to dissolve the Duma?” I asked. 
 
 “My God, no!” he answered. “It is all a mistake. I told. 
 the Mayor this morning that the Duma would be left 
 
 93 
 
 
 
 
 alone. .. - 
 
 Out on the Nevsky, in the deepening dusk, a long double 
 file of cyclists came riding, guns slung on their shoulders. 
 They halted, and the crowd pressed in and deluged them with 
 questions. 
 
 “Who are you? Where do you come from!” asked a fat 
 old man with a cigar in his mouth. 
 
 “Twelfth Army. From the front. We came to support 
 the Soviets against the damn’ bourgeoisie!” 
 
 “Ah!? were furious cries. “Bolshevik gendarmes! Bol- 
 shevik Cossacks!’ 
 
 A little officer in a leather coat came running down th 
 steps. “The garrison is turning!” he muttered in my ear. 
 “It’s the beginning of the end of the Bolsheviki. Do you wan 
 to see the turn of the tide? Come on!” He started at 
 half-trot up the Mikhailovsky, and we followed. 
 
 “What regiment is it?” 
 
 “The brunnoviki. . . .° Here was indeed serious trouble 
 The brunnoviki weze the Armoured Car troops, the key to 
 the situation; whoever controlled the brunnoviki controlled th 
 city. “The Commissars of the Committee for Salvation 
 and the Duma have been talking to them. ‘There’s a meetm 
 on to decide... .” 
 
 “Decide what? Which side they’ll fight on?” 
 
 “Qh, no. That’s not the way to do it. They'll never 
 fight against the Bolsheviki. ‘They will vote to remain neutra 
 —and then the ywnkers and Cossacks r2 
 
 The door of the great Mikhailovsky Riding-School yawnec 
 blackly. Two sentinels tried to stop us, but we brushed b 
 
 
 

 
 _ THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION | 159 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ur iedly, deaf to their indignant expostulations. Inside only 
 = a single arc-light burned dimly, high up near the roof of the 
 enormous hall, whose lofty pilasters and rows of windows 
 “vanished in the gloom. Around dimly squatted the mon- 
 ) strous shapes. of the armoured cars. One stood alone in the 
 ce entre of the place, under the light, and round it were gathered 
 = some two thousand dun-colored soldiers, almost lost in the 
 ‘mmensity of that imperial building. A dozen men, officers, 
 chairmen of the Soldiers’ Committees and speakers, were 
 (pe rched on top of the car, and from the central turret a 
 » soldier was speaking. This was Khanjunov, who had been 
 / president of last summer’s all-Russian Congress of Brunnoviki. 
 ! lithe, handsome figure in his leather coat with lieutenant’s 
 | shoulder-straps, he stood pleading eloquently for neutrality. 
 “It is an awful thing,” he said, “for Russians to kill their 
 | Russian brothers. There must not be civil war between sol- 
  diers who stood shoulder to shoulder against the Tsar, and 
 ‘conquered the foreign enemy in battles which will go down 
 r history! What have we, soldiers, got to do with these 
 eaabbles of political parties? I will not say to you that 
 the Provisional Government was a democratic Government ; 
 e want no coalition with the bourgeoisie—no. But we 
 must have a Government of the united democracy, or Russia 
 is lost! With such a Government there will be no need for 
 i¢ aval war, and the killing of brother by brother!” 
 ‘ This sounded reasonable—the great hall echoed to the 
 rash of hands and voices. 
 
 A soldier climbed up, his face white and strained. “Com- 
 Hides! ’’ he cried, “I came from the Rumanian front, to urg- 
 ren ly tell you all: there must be peace! Peace at once! 
 
 “this new Government, we will follow. Peace! We at the 
 front cannot fight any longer. We cannot fight either Ger- 
 nans or Russians ” With that he leaped down, and a 
 
 
 
I 
 
 160 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 1 
 sort of confused agonised sound rose up from all that surging 
 mass, which burst into something like anger when the next 
 speaker, a Menshevik oboronetz, tried to say that the war 
 must go on until the Alhes were victorious. 
 
 “You talk like Kerensky! shouted a rough voice. 
 
 A Duma delegate, pleading for neutrality. Him they 
 listened to, muttering uneasily, feeling him not one of them. 
 Never have I seen men trying so hard to understand, to decide. 
 They never moved, stood staring with a sort of terrible intent- 
 ness at the speaker, their brows wrinkled with the effort of 
 thought, sweat standing out on their foreheads; great giants 
 of men with the innocent clear eyes of children and the faces 
 of epic warriors. ... a 
 
 Now a Bolshevik was speaking, one of their own men, vi0- 
 lently, full of hate. They liked him no more than the other. 
 It was not their mood. For the moment they were lifted out 
 of the ordinary run of common thoughts, thinking in terms of 
 Russia, of Socialism, the world, as if it depended on them 
 whether the Revolution were to live or die. . - . 
 
 Speaker succeeded speaker, debating amid tense silence 
 roars of approval, or anger: should we come out or not? 
 
 
 
 
 
 Khanjunoy returned, persuasive and sympathetic. But wasn’ 
 he an officer, and an oboronotz, however much he talked of 
 peace? Then a workman from Vasili Ostrov, but him they 
 greeted with, “And are you going to give us peace, working- 
 man?” Near us some men, many of them officers, formed a 
 sort of claque to cheer the advocates of Neutrality. They 
 kept shouting, “Khanjunov! Khanjunov!” and whistled mm 
 sultingly when the Bolsheviki tried to speak. 
 
 Suddenly the committeemen and officers on top of the auto: 
 mobile began to discuss something with great heat and mucl 
 gesticulation. The audience shouted to know what was thy 
 matter, and all the great mass tossed and stirred. A soldie 
 
 | 
 ‘ 
 df ¢ 
 
ti ah th 
 | ares Uy 4 
 
 x A ) 
 oy 
 
 P THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION _161 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 eld. i hack by one of the officers, wrenched himself loose and 
 eld up his hand. 
 “Comrades!” he cried, “Comrade Krylenko is here and 
 wants to speak to us.” An outburst of cheers, whistlings, yells 
 of “Prosim! Prosim! Doloi! Go ahead! Go ahead! 
 , mr with him!” in the midst of which the People’s Commissar 
 for Military Affairs clambered up the side of the car, helped 
 by hands before and behind, pushed and pulled from below 
 and above. Rising he stood for a moment, and then walked 
 i on the radiator, put his hands on his hips and looked 
 around smiling, a squat, short- -legged figure, bare-headed, with- 
 ol t insignia on his uniform. 
 _ The claque near me kept up a fearful shouting, “Khan- 
 unov! We want Khanjunov! Down with him! Shut up! 
 Down with the traitor!’ The whole place seethed and 
 oared. Then it began to move, like an avalanche bearing 
 own upon us, great black- browed men forcing their way 
 through. 
 _ “Who is breaking up our meeting?” they shouted. “Who 
 is whistling here?” The claque, rudely burst asunder, went 
 lying—nor did it gather again... . 
 _ “Comrade soldiers!’ began Krylenko, in a voice husky with 
 atigue. “I cannot speak well to you; I am sorry; but I have 
 ot had any sleep for four nights. 
 3 P “TI don’t need to tell you that I am a soldier. I don’t need 
 te tell you that I want peace. What I must say is that the 
 Bolshevik party, successful in the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Revo- 
 pion, by the help of you and of all the rest of the brave 
 comrades who have hurled down forever the power of the 
 blood- -thirsty bourgeoisie, promised to offer peace to all the 
 peoples, and that has already been done—to-day!? Tumultu- 
 ous applause. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' “You are asked to remain neutral—to remain neutral while 
 ‘the yunkers and the Death Battalions, who are never neutral, 
 D 
 
162 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 7 
 
 shoot us down in the streets and bring back to Petrograd 
 Kerensky—or perhaps some other of the gang. Kaledin is 
 marching from the Don. Kerensky is coming from the front. 
 Kornilov is raising the T'ekhintst to repeat his attempt of 
 August. All these Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries 
 who call upon you now to prevent civil war—how have they 
 retained the power except by civil war, that civil war which 
 has endured ever since last July, and in which they constantly 
 stood on the side of the bourgeoisie, as they do now? 
 
 “How can I persuade you, if you have made up your minds? 
 The question is very plain. On one side are Kerensky, Kale- 
 din, Kornilov, the Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries, 
 Cadets, Dumas, officers. .. .- They tell us that their objects 
 are good. On the other side are the workers, the soldiers and 
 sailors, the poorest peasants. The Government is in your 
 hands. You are the masters. Great Russia belongs to you. 
 Will you give it back?” 
 
 While he spoke, he kept himself up by sheer evident effort 
 of will, and as he went on the deep sincere feeling back 0 
 his words broke through the tired voice. At the end he tot- 
 tered, almost falling; a hundred hands reached up to hel 
 him down, and the great dim spaces of the hall gave back th 
 surf of sound that beat upon him. 
 
 Khanjunov tried to speak again, but ‘Vote! Vote! 
 Vote!” they cried. At length, giving in, he read the resolu 
 tion: that the brunnoviki withdraw their representative from 
 the Military Revolutionary Committee, and declare their neu 
 trality in the present civil war. All those in favour shoulc 
 go to the right; those opposed, to the left. There was 
 moment of hesitation, a still expectancy, and then the crow¢ 
 began to surge faster and faster, stumbling over one another 
 to the left, hundreds of big soldiers in a solid mass rushing 
 across the dirt floor in the faint light... . Near us abou 
 fifty men were left stranded, stubbornly in favour, and ev 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION __168 
 
 “as the high roof shook under the shock of victorious roaring, 
 K hey turned and rapidly walked out of the building—and, 
 Ma ome of them, out of the Revolution. .. . 
 
 i _ Imagine this struggle being repeated in every barracks of 
 ‘the city, the district, the whole front, all Russia. Imagine 
 he sleepless Krylenkos, watching the regiments, hurrying from 
 ‘place to place, arguing, threatening, entreating. And then 
 ‘imagine the same in all the locals of every labour union, in the 
 factories, the villages, on the battle-ships of the far-flung Rus- 
 lan fleets; think of the hundreds of thousands of Russian men 
 faring up at speakers all over the vast country, workmen, 
 easants, soldiers, sailors, trying so hard to understand and 
 ‘to choose, thinking so intensely—and deciding so unanimously 
 at the end. So was the Russian Revolution. . . . 
 
 urculated in thousands through the city streets that night, 
 and shipped in bales by every train southward and east: 
 
 * 
 "L 
 
 Up at Smolny the new Council of People’s Commissars was 
 idle. Already the first decree was on the presses, to be 
 
 7 In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic, chosen 
 ly the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 
 } 
 
 | 
 Jeputies with participation of peasant deputies, the Council of 
 eople’s Commissars decrees: 
 
 : ; 
 
 i 1. The elections for the Constituent Assembly shall take place 
 te the date determined upon—November 12. 
 _ 2. All electoral commissions, organs of local self-government, 
 
 ioviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, and soldiers’ 
 car on the front should make every effort to assure free 
 
 ¥ 
 
 nd regular elections at the date determined upon. 
 _ In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic, 
 
 | The President of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 a Viapimir Utianov—Lenun. 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 3 In the Municipal building the Duma was in full blast. A 
 tember of the Council of the Republic was talking as we 
 
; 
 
 164 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 came in. The Council, he said, did not consider itself dis- 
 solved at all, but merely unable to continue its labours until 
 ++ secured a new meeting-place. In the meanwhile, its Com- 
 mittee of Elders had determined to enter en masse the Com- 
 mittee for Salvation... . This, I may remark parenthet- 
 ically, is the last time history mentions the Council of the 
 Russian Republic... - 
 
 Then followed the customary string of delegates from the 
 Ministries, the Vikzhel, the Union of Posts and Telegraphs, 
 for the hundredth time reiterating their determination not t 
 work for the Bolshevik usurpers. A yunker who had been in 
 the Winter Palace told a highly-coloured tale of the heroism of 
 himself and his comrades, and disgraceful conduct of the Re 
 Guards—all of which was devoutly believed. Somebody rea 
 aloud an account in the Socialist Revolutionary paper Narod. 
 which stated that five hundred million rubles’ worth of damag 
 had been done in the Winter Palace, and describing in great de: 
 tail the loot and breakage. 
 
 From time to time couriers came from the telephone wit 
 news. The four Socialist Ministers had been released fro 
 prison. Krylenko had gone to Peter-Paul to tell Admir. 
 Verderevsky that the Ministry of Marine was deserted, and t 
 beg him, for the sake of Russia, to take charge under t 
 authority of the Council of People’s Commissars; and the ol 
 seaman had consented... - Kerensky was advancing nort 
 from Gatchina, the Bolshevik garrisons falling back befor 
 him. Smolny had issued another decree, enlarging the powe 
 of the City Dumas to deal with food supplies. 
 
 This last piece of insolence caused an outburst of fur; 
 He, Lenin, the usurper, the tyrant, whose Commissars h 
 seized the Municipal garage, entered the Municipal war 
 houses, were interfering with the Supply Committees and t 
 distribution of food—he presumed to define the limits of pow 
 of the free, independent, autonomous City Government! O 
 
 
 
ee 
 
 | THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION _165 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ember, shaking his fist, moved to cut off the food of the city 
 if the Bolsheviki dared to interfere with the Supply Com- 
 jmittees. . . . Another, representative of the Special Supply 
 r Jommittee, reported that the food situation was very grave, 
 and asked that emissaries be sent out to hasten food trains. 
 ie Diedonenko announced dramatically that the garrison 
 was wavering. The Semionovsky regiment had already decided 
 0 submit to the orders of the Socialist Revolutionary party; 
 ‘the crews of the torpedo-boats on the Neva were shaky. Seven 
 members were at once appointed to continue the propa- 
 ganda... . 
 
 | Then the old Mayor stepped into the tribune: “Comrades 
 and citizens! I have just learned that the prisoners in Peter- 
 Paul are in danger. Fourteen yunkers of the Pavlovsk school 
 have been stripped and tortured by the Bolshevik guards. 
 One has gone mad. They are threatening to lynch the Minis- 
 fers! There was a whirlwind of indignation and horror, which 
 only grew more violent when a stocky little woman dressed in 
 grey demanded the floor, and lifted up her hard, metallic voice. 
 This was Vera Slutskaya, veteran revolutionist and Bolshevik 
 member of the Duma. 
 
 ib “That is a lie and a provocation!” she said, unmoved at 
 the torrent of abuse. “The Workers’ and Peasants’ Govern- 
 nent, which has abolished the death penalty, cannot permit 
 u h deeds. We demand that this story be investigated, at 
 nee; if there is any truth in it, the Government will take ener- 
 yetic measures !” 
 
 « A commission composed of members of all parties was im- 
 ned lately appointed, and with the Mayor, sent to Peter- 
 aul to investigate. As we followed them out, the Duma was 
 pointing another commission to meet Kerensky—to try 
 
 a 
 
 d avoid bloodshed when he entered the capitalinig: 
 
 B 
 f 
 . 
 
 ey 
 oo ' 
 
 t was midnight when we bluffed our way past the guards 
 
 . 
 
a 
 
 166 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 at the gate of the fortress, and went forward under the fain 
 glimmer of rare electric lights along the side of the church 
 where lie the tombs of the Tsars, beneath the slender golden 
 spire and the chimes, which, for months, continued to play Bozhe 
 _ Tsarva Khrani* every day at noon... . The place was de- 
 
 Kouuccaps 
 [napnearo Ynasnenia go° 
 MOB® 3aKnwueHif : 
 meonycRd 
 Em Cardaor7 r.e 
 
 Ww. e L?.. ee * , 
 Ipeqcranurenw AwepukaHCREXS ConianucTuiecks 
 
 Cmonbunt ‘ , 
 Ternorpaas .UMos : rasers 0 H-Y PALY, Bo sch micTa Sekie 
 
 Mucrary?s,Koun.t 56.° 
 ee uenin tr: Hetporpage u Kpoxurera, JAA OOMAre SOHaq 
 KoMfeniA MOMOMOHiA SAKNWUCHHUXD W mapoKaro oomec@ 
 
 peHHaro GCBSAOMIEHIA Bb HSIARB MpeKpaseniA TaseT 
 
 
 
 
 oul= 
 
 
 
 
 LA, Cexrperta 
 
 Pass from the Department of Prisons of the Soviet Government to visit freel. 
 all prisons of Petrograd and Cronstadt. 
 
 (Translation) 
 ‘Commissar 
 Chief Bureau of Prisons 
 6th of November, 1917. 
 No. 213 
 Petrograd, Smolny 
 Institute, room No. 56— 
 PASS 
 To the representative of the American Socialist press, JOHN Reep, to visit al 
 places of confinement in the cities of Petrograd and Cronstadt, for the purpose o 
 generally investigating the condition of the prisoners, and for thorough social infor 
 
 mation for the purpose of stopping the flood of newspaper lies against democracy. 
 Chief Commissar 
 
 Secretary 
 serted; in most of the windows there were not even lights 
 Occasionally we bumped into a burly figure stumbling alon; 
 
 in the dark, who answered questions with the usual, “Ya nm 
 
 znayu.” 
 On the left loomed the low dark outline of Trubetskoi B 
 
 tion, that living grave in which so many martyrs of libert 
 *“God save the Tsar.” 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION © 167 
 
 i ad lost their lives or their reason in the days of the Tsar, 
 ‘where the Provisional Government had in turn shut up the 
 Ministers of the Tsar, and now the Bolsheviki had shut up 
 ‘the Ministers of the Provisional Government. 
 
 _ A friendly sailor led us to the office of the commandant, 
 “ir a little house near the Mint. Half a dozen Red Guards, 
 ‘sailors and soldiers were sitting around a hot room full of 
 ‘smoke, in which a samovar steamed cheerfully. They wel- 
 pees us with great cordiality, offering tea. The comman- 
 Pdant was not in; he was escorting a commission of “sabotazh- 
 miki” (sabotageurs) from the City Duma, who insisted that the 
 wnkers were all being murdered. This seemed to amuse them 
 ery much. At one side of the room sat a bald-headed, dis- 
 pated-looking little man in a frock-coat and a rich fur coat, 
 biting his moustache and staring around him like a cornered 
 wat. He had just been arrested. Somebody said, glancing 
 zarelessly at him, that he was a Minister or something. ... 
 The little man didn’t seem to hear it; he was evidently terri- 
 
 ‘ied, although the occupants of the room showed no animosity 
 
 vhatever toward him. 
 
 , % I went across and spoke to him in French. “Count Tol- 
 itoy,” he answered, bowing stiffly. “I do not understand why 
 | arrested. I was crossing the Troitsky Bridge on my 
 my home when two of these—of these—persons held me up. 
 Was a Commissar of the Provisional Government attached 
 0 the General Staff, but in no sense a member of the Gov- 
 \rnment. . . .” 
 
 i “Let him go,” said a sailor. ‘“He’s harmless. . . .” 
 
 | 
 
 
 
  *No,” responded the soldier who had brought the pris- 
 mer. “We must ask the commandant.” 
 
 , “Oh, the commandant!” sneered the sailor. “What did 
 | u make a revolution for? To go on obeying officers?” 
 
 aA praporshtchik of the Pavlovsky regiment was telling us 
 ow the insurrection started. “The polk (regiment) was on 
 
 
 
 
 
Pi 
 
 168 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 duty at the General Staff the night of the 6th. Some of m; 
 
 comrades and I were standing guard; Ivan Pavlovitch and an- | 
 
 other man—lI don’t remember his name—well, they hid behind 
 the window-curtains in the room where the Staff was having a 
 meeting, and they heard a great many things. For example, 
 they heard orders to bring the Gatchina yunkers to Petrograd 
 by night, and an order for the Cossacks to be ready to march in 
 the morning. . . . The principal points in the city were to be 
 occupied before dawn. Then there was the business of opening 
 the bridges. But when they began to talk about surrounding 
 Smolny, then Ivan Pavlovitch couldn’t stand it any longer. 
 That minute there was a good deal of coming and going, so he 
 
 slipped out and came down to the guard-room, leaving the: 
 
 other comrade to pick up what he could. 
 
 “J was already suspicious that something was going on. 
 
 Automobiles full of officers kept coming, and all the Ministers 
 were there. Ivan Pavlovitch told me what he had heard. It 
 was half-past two in the morning. The secretary of the regi 
 mental Committee was there, so we told him and asked what 
 to do. | 
 
 “ ‘Arrest everybody coming and going! he says. So W 
 began to do it. In an hour we had some officers and a coupl 
 of Ministers, whom we sent up to Smolny right away. But 
 the Military Revolutionary Committee wasn’t ready; the 
 didn’t know what to do; and pretty soon ‘back came the orde 
 to let everybody go and not arrest anybody else. Well, w 
 ran all the way to Smolny, and I guess we talked for an how 
 before they finally saw that it was war. It was five o’cloc 
 when we got back to the Staff, and by that time most 0 
 them were gone. But we got a few, and the garrison was 
 on the march... .” 
 
 A Red Guard from Vasili Ostrov described in great detai 
 what had happened in his district on the great day of th 
 rising. “We didn’t have any machine-guns over there,” b 
 
 2 i 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ) ‘THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 169 
 
 Ia aid, laughing, “and we couldn’t get any from Smolny. Com 
 } rade Zalkind, who was a member of the U prava (Central 
 (Bureau) of the Ward Duma, remembered all at once that 
 here was lying in the meeting-room of the U prava a machine- 
 un which had been captured from the Germans. So he and 
 and another comrade went there. The Mensheviki and So- 
 alist Revolutionaries were having a meeting. Well, we opened 
 the door and walked right in on them, as they sat around the 
 :table—twelve or fifteen of them, three of us. When they saw 
 “us they stopped talking and just stared. We walked right 
 across the room, uncoupled the machine-gun; Comrade Zalkind 
 ‘picked up one part, I the other, we put them on our shoulders 
 and walked out—and not a single man said a word!” 
 
 / “Do you know how the Winter Palace was captured ?” 
 asked a third man, a sailor. “Along about eleven o’clock we 
 found out there weren’t any more yunkers on the Neva. side. 
 50 we broke in the doors and filtered up the different stairways 
 "me by one, or in little bunches. When we got to the top of 
 the stairs the yunkers held us up and took away our guns. 
 
 ‘Still our fellows kept coming up, little by little, until we had 
 & majority. Then we turned around and took away the 
 yunkers’ guns... .” 
 
 / Just then the commandant entered—a merry-looking young 
 lon-commissioned officer with his arm in a sling, and deep 
 
 sircles of sleeplessness under his eyes. His eye fell first on 
 
 whe prisoner, who at once began to explain. 
 
 Py “Oh, yes,” interrupted the other. “You were one of the 
 
 ‘ommittee who refused to surrender the Staff Wednesday af- 
 
 ernoon. However, we don’t want you, citizen. Apologies—*” 
 
 |de opened the door and waved his arm for Count Tolstoy to 
 
 eave. Several of the others, especially the Red Guards, grum- 
 
 led protests, and the sailor remarked triumphantly, “Vot/ 
 
 there! Didn’t I say so?” 
 
 | Two soldiers now engaged his attention. They had been 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
7 
 
 170 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 elected a committee of the fortress garrison to protest. Th 
 prisoners, they said, were getting the same food as the guards, 
 when there wasn’t even enough to keep a man from being hun- 
 gry. “Why should the counter-revolutionists be treated so 
 well?” 1 
 
 “We are revolutionists, comrades, not bandits,” answered | 
 the commandant. He turned to us. We explained that ru- 
 mours were going about that the ywnkers were being tortured, 
 and the lives of the Ministers threatened. Could we perhaps 
 see the prisoners, so as to be able to prove to the world 2 
 
 “No,” said the young soldier, irritably. “I am not going 
 to disturb the prisoners again. I have just been compelled | 
 to wake them up—they were sure we were going to massacre 
 them. . . . Most of the yuwnkers have been released anyway, 
 and the rest will go out to-morrow.” He turned abruptly 
 away. 
 
 “Could we talk to the Duma commission, then?” 
 
 The commandant, who was pouring himself a glass of tea, 
 nodded. “They are still out in the hall,” he said carelessly. 
 
 Indeed they stood there just outside the door, in the feeble 
 light of an oil lamp, grouped around the Mayor and talking 
 excitedly. 
 
 “Mr. Mayor,” I said, “we are American correspondents. 
 Will you please tell us officially the result of your investiga- 
 tions?” 
 
 He turned to us his face of venerable dignity. 
 
 “There is no truth in the reports,” he said slowly. “Ex- 
 cept for the incidents which occurred as the Ministers were 
 being brought here, they have been treated with every consid- 
 
 eration. As for the yunkers, not one has received the slightest 
 93 
 
 
 
 BGT. 1 -)- 
 
 Up the Nevsky, in the empty after-midnight gloom, an Ir 
 terminable column of soldiers shuffled in silence—to battle with 
 Kerensky. In dim back streets automobiles without lights 
 
 
 
 ai 
 ai 
 

 
 0 ¢ (School of Engineers) ; the Duma was illuminated 
 
 Fee a 
 
 et n Smolny Institute the Military Revolutionary Commit- 
 
 e flashed baleful fire, pounding like an over-loaded dyna- 
 
 of the Peseenite Soviet, in a certain i etonent 
 building on the Nevsky, and in the Injinierny 
 
 
 
 
 } 
 
4 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 
 Sarurpay, November 10th... . 
 
 Citizens ! 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee declares that it will not 
 tolerate any violation of revolutionary order. . 
 
 Theft, brigandage, assaults and attempts at massacre will be 
 severely punished. .. . 
 
 Following the example of the Paris Commune, the Committee 
 will destroy without mercy any looter or instigator of dis- 
 
 order. ... 
 
 Quiet lay the city. Not a hold-up, not a robbery, not eve 
 a drunken fight. By night armed patrols went through th 
 silent streets, and on the corners soldiers and Red Guard 
 squatted around little fires, laughing and singing. In the day- 
 time great crowds gathered on the sidewalks listening to in- 
 terminable hot debates between students and soldiers, busines 
 men and workmen. | 
 
 Citizens stopped each other on the street. 
 
 “The Cossacks are coming?” 
 
 BEN One ee fs 
 
 ‘What's the latest?” 
 
 “J don’t know anything. Where’s Kerensky?” 
 
 “They say only eight versts from Petrograd. ... Is i 
 true that the Bolsheviki have fled to the battleship Avrora?’ 
 
 99 
 
 
 
 “They say sO... . 
 Are ce 172 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ss" THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 173 
 
 _ Only the walls screamed, and the few newspapers ; denuncia- 
 ' tion, appeal, decree. . . . 
 
 ! An enormous poster carried the hysterical manifesto of the 
 Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets: 
 
 ! - - - They (the Bolsheviki) dare to say that they are supported 
 Lt y the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, and that they are speaking on 
 “behalf of the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies... . s 
 
 fi Let all working-class Russia know that this is a LIE, AND THAT 
 ALL THE WORKING PEASANTS—in the person of—the exEecurive com- 
 MITTEE OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN SOVIETS OF PEASANTS’ DEPUTIES—refutes 
 I with indignation all participation of the organised peasantry in this 
 ‘criminal violation of the will of the working-classes. . . . 
 _ From the Soldier Section of the Socialist Revolutionary 
 ‘party: 
 _ The insane attempt of the Bolsheviki is on the eve of collapse. 
 ‘The garrison is divided. . . . The Ministries are on strike and 
 bread is getting scarcer. All factions except the few Bolsheviki 
 have left the Congress. The Bolsheviki are alone. . 
 
 : We call upon all sane elements to group themselves around the 
 ‘Committee for Salvation of Country and Revolution, and to pre- 
 _ Pare themselves seriously to be ready at the first call cf the Central 
 
 Ceding to the force of bayonets, the Council of the Republic 
 has been obliged to separate, and temporarily to interrupt its meet- 
 
 The usurpers, with the words “Liberty and Socialism” on their 
 ps, have set up a rule of arbitrary violence. They have arrested 
 e members of the Provisional Government, closed the newspapers, 
 zed the printing-shops. . . . This power must be considered the 
 emy of the people and the Revolution; it is necessary to do battle 
 h it, and to pull it down. ... 
 
3 
 
 1744 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 The Council of the Republic, until the resumption of its la-_ 
 bours, invites the citizens of the Russian Republic to group them- 
 selves around the. . . local Committees for Salvation of Country ‘ 
 and Revolution, which are organising the overthrow of the Bolshe-— 
 viki and the creation of a Government capable of leading the 
 country to the Constituent Assembly. 
 
 Dielo Naroda said: 
 
 A revolution is a rising of all the people. .. .« But here what 
 have we? Nothing but a handful of poor fools deceived by Lenin 
 and Trotzky. . . . Their decrees and their appeals will simply add 
 to the museum of historical curiosities. .. . 
 
 And Narodnoye Slovo (People’s Word—Populist Socialist) : 
 
 ‘Workers’ and Peasants’ Government?” That is only a pipe- 
 dream; nobody, either in Russia or in the countries of our Allies, 
 will recognise this “Government”—or even in the enemy coun- 
 tries. . 
 
 The bourgeois press had temporarily disappeared. . . - 
 
 Pravda had an account of the first meeting of the new 
 Tsay-ce-kah, now the parliament of the Russian Soviet Repub- 
 lic. Miliutin, Commissar of Agriculture, remarked that the 
 Peasants’ Executive Committee had called an All-Russian 
 Peasant Congress for December 13th. 
 
 “But we cannot wait,” he said. “We must have the back- 
 ing of the peasants. I propose that we call the Congress 0 
 Peasants, and do it immediately. . . ” The Left Socialis 
 Revolutionaries agreed. An Appeal to the Peasants of Rus 
 sia was hastily drafted, and a committee of five elected to carry 
 out the project. 
 
 The question of detailed plans for distributing the land 
 and the question of Workers’ Control of Industry, were post 
 poned until the experts working on them should submit a re 
 port. 
 
 
 
_ THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 175 
 
 i 
 
 Three decrees! were read and approved: first, Lenin’s 
 “General Rules For the Press,” ordering the suppression of all 
 newspapers inciting to resistance and disobedience to the new 
 Government, inciting to criminal acts, or deliberately pervert- 
 ing the news; the Decree of Moratorium for House-rents ; and 
 the Decree Establishing a Workers’ Militia. Also orders, one 
 giving the Municipal Duma power to requisition empty apart- 
 nents and houses, the other directing the unloading of freight- 
 ears in the railroad terminals, to hasten the distribution of 
 aecessities and to free the badly-needed rolling-stock. . . . 
 
 | Two hours later the Executive Committee of the Peasants? 
 
 “ 
 
 Soviets was sending broadcast over Russia the following tele- 
 
 tram: 
 
 
 
 
 
 The arbitrary organisation of the Bolsheviki, which is called 
 ‘Bureau of Organisation for the National Congress of Peasants,” 
 § inviting all the Peasants’ Soviets to send delegates to the Congress 
 t Petrograd... . 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies 
 eclares that it considers, now as well as before, that it would be 
 | oe to take away from the provinces at this moment the 
 | 
 
 
 
 orces necessary to prepare for elections to the Constituent Assem- 
 ly, which is the only salvation of the working-class and the coun- 
 
 Ty. ‘Ve confirm the date of the Congress of Peasants, Decem- 
 ver 13'h. | 
 
 At the Duma all was excitement, officers coming and going, 
 he Mayor in conference with the leaders of the Committee 
 ‘or Salvation. A Councillor ran in with a copy of Kerensky’s 
 ‘roclamation, dropped by hundreds from an aeroplane low- 
 ying down the Nevsky, which threatened terrible vengeance 
 n y who did not submit, and ordered soldiers to lay down 
 reicla i* and assemble immediately in Mars Field. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ Tiowister-President had taken Tsarskoye Selo, we were 
 Re T in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter VII. See 
 age Sy 2! 
 
176 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ~ | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 told, and was already in the Petrograd campagna, five miles 
 away. He would enter the city to-morrow—in a few hours. 
 The Soviet troops in contact with his Cossacks were said to 
 be going over to the Provisional Government. ‘Tchernov was 
 somewhere in between, trying to organise the “neutral” troops 
 into a force to halt the civil war. 
 
 In the city the garrison regiments were leaving the Bolshe 
 viki, they said. Smolny was already abandoned... . All 
 the Governmental machinery had stopped functioning. The 
 employees of the State Bank had refused to work under Com- 
 missars from Smolny, refused to pay out money to them. 
 All the private banks were closed. ‘The Ministries were on 
 strike. Even now a committee from the Duma was makin 
 the rounds of business houses, collecting a fund? to pay the 
 salaries of the strikers... . 
 
 Trotzky had gone to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 
 ordered the clerks to translate the Decree on Peace int 
 foreign languages; six hundred functionaries had hurled theiz 
 resignations in his face... . Shliapnikov, Commissar of La 
 bour, had commanded all the employees of his Ministry to returr 
 to their places within twenty-four hours, or lose their places anc 
 their pension-rights; only the door-servants had responded 
 _. . Some of the branches of the Special Food Supply Com 
 mittee had suspended work rather than submit to the Bolshe 
 viki. . . . In spite of lavish promises of high wages and bet 
 ter conditions, the operators at the ‘Telephone Excthang' 
 would not connect Soviet headquarters. . > 
 
 The Socialist Revolutionary Party had voted to expel a. 
 members who had remained in the Congress of Soviets}, an 
 all who were taking part in the insurrection. . .. 
 
 News from the provinces. Moghilev had declared affain: 
 the Bolsheviki. At Kiev the Cossacks had overth t 
 Soviets and arrested all the insurrectionary leaders. | 
 viet and garrison of Luga, thirty thousand strong; 
 
THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 17% 
 
 
 
 s loyalty to the Provisional Government, and appealed to all 
 Russia to rally around it. Kaledin had dispersed all Soviets 
 ‘and Unions in the Don Basin, and his forces were moving 
 ‘north. . 
 
 Said 3 a Pei entative of the Railway Workers: “Yester- 
 day we sent a telegram all over Russia demanding that war 
 yetween the political parties cease at once, and insisting 
 m the formation of a coalition Socialist Government. Other- 
 wise we shall call a strike to-morrow night. . . . In the morn- 
 
 
 
 ‘ng there will be a meeting of all factions to conan the ques- 
 ‘ion. The Bolsheviki seem anxious for an agreement. ./ 
 “If they last that long!” laughed the City Baie a 
 ‘stout, ruddy man. 
 | As we came up to Smolny—not abandoned, but busier 
 chan ever, throngs of workers and soldiers running in and out, 
 ind doubled guards everywhere—we met the reporters for 
 ‘he bourgeois and “moderate” Socialist papers. 
 ly “Threw us out!” cried one, from Volia Naroda, “Bonch- 
 3ruevitch came down to the Press Bureau and told us to leave! 
 Said we were spies!” They all began to talk at once: “In- 
 ‘ult! Outrage! Freedom of the press!” 
 In the lobby were great tables heaped with stacks of ap- 
 els, proclamations and orders of the Military Revolution- 
 Ty Committee. Workmen and soldiers staggered past, carry- 
 ‘ag them to waiting automobiles. 
 
 One began: 
 
 | 
 : TO THE PILLORY! 
 
 | In this tragic moment through which the Russian masses are 
 ving, the Mensheviki and their followers and the Right Socialist 
 vevolutionaries have betrayed the working-class. They have en- 
 Sted on the side of Kornilov, Kerensky and Savinkov. . . 
 
 _ They are printing orders of the traitor Kerensky and creating 
 
 
 
 ‘panic in the city, spreading the most ridiculous rumours of 
 
 yi 
 , 
 
 hical victories by that renegade. . . . 
 
178 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 Citizens! Don’t believe these false rumours. No power can 
 defeat the People’s Revolution. . . . Premier Kerensky and his 
 followers await speedy and well- snseeea punishment. . | 
 
 We are putting them in the Pillory. We are shana thea | 
 to the enmity of all workers, soldiers, sailors and peasants, on whom 
 they are trying to rivet the ancient chains. They will never be 
 able to wash from their bodies the stain of the people’s hatred | 
 and contempt. 
 
 Shame and curses to the traitors of the People! ... 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee had moved into 
 larger quarters, room 17 on the top floor. Red Guards were | 
 at the door. Inside, the narrow space in front of the railing: 
 was crowded with well-dressed persons, outwardly respectful 
 but inwardly full of murder—bourgeois who wanted permits | 
 for their automobiles, or passports to leave the city, among 
 them many foreigners. . . . Bill Shatov and Peters were on 
 duty. ‘They suspended all other business to read us the latest 
 bulletins. 
 
 The One Hundred Seventy-ninth Reserve Regiment offers its 
 unanimous support. Five thousand stevedores at the Putiloy 
 wharves greet the new Government. Central Committee of the 
 Trade Unions—enthusiastic support. The garrison and 
 squadron at Reval elect Military Revolutionary Committees to 
 cooperate, and despatch troops. Military Revolutionary Com- 
 mittees control in Pskov and Minsk. Greetings from the Soviets 
 of Tsaritzin, Rovensky-on-Don, Tchernogorsk, Sevastopol. 
 
 The Finland Division, the new Committees of the 
 Fifth and Twelfth Armies, offer allegiance. . . . 
 
 From Moscow the news is uncertain, Troops of the Mili- 
 tary Revolutionary Committee occupy the strategic points of 
 the city; two companies on duty in the Kremlin have gone 
 over to the Soviets, but the Arsenal is in the hands of Colonel 
 Diabtsev and his ywnkers. The Military Revolutionary Commit- 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 ‘ 
 ¥ ; 
 jm i 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 178 
 
 \ ee demanded arms for the workers, and Riabtsev parleyed with 
 _ them until this morning, when suddenly he sent an ultimatum to 
 the Committee, ordering Soviet troops to surrender and the 
 Committee to disband. Fighting has begun. . . . 
 ‘ In Petrograd the Staff submitted to Smolny’s Commissars 
 at once. The Lsentroflot, refusing, was stormed by Dybenko 
 Land a company of Cronstadt sailors, and a new T'sentroflot set 
 ‘up, supported by the Baltic and the Black Sea battleships. ... 
 But beneath all the breezy assurance there was a chill pre- 
 monition, a feeling of uneasiness in the air. Kerensky’s Cos- 
 sacks were coming fast; they had artillery. Skripnik, Sec. 
 ‘retary of the Factory-Shop Committees, his face drawn and 
 yellow, assured me that there was a whole army corps of them, 
 but he added, fiercely, “They’ll never take us alive! Petrov- 
 sky laughed weariedly, “To-morrow maybe we'll get a sleep— 
 along one... .” Lozovsky, with his emaciated, red-bearded 
 ‘face, said, “What chance have we? All alone. . . . A mob 
 against trained soldiers!” 
 4 South and south-west the Soviets had fled before Kerensky, 
 and the garrisons of Gatchina, Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo were 
 Hivided halt voting to remain neutral, the rest, without offi- 
 wers, falling back on the capital in the wildest disorder. 
 In the halls they were pasting up bulletins: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 4 FROM KRASNOYE SELO, NOVEMBER 10TH, 8 A.M. 
 
 _ Lo be communicated to all Commanders of Staffs, Commanders 
 i Chief, Commanders, everywhere and to all, all, all. 
 
 i The ex-Minister Kerensky has sent a deliberately false tele- 
 ‘fam to every one everywhere to the effect that the troops 
 f revolutionary Petrograd have voluntarily surrendered their arms 
 ond joined the armies of the former Government, the Government 
 f Treason, and that the soldiers have been ordered by the Military 
 tevolutionary Committee to retreat. The troops of a free people 
 0 not retreat nor do they surrender. 
 
 
 
 
 
4 
 
 180 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Our troops have left Gatchina in order to avoid bloodshed 
 between themselves and their mistaken brother-Cossacks, and in 
 order to take a more convenient position, which is at present so 
 strong that if Kerensky and his companions in arms should even | 
 increase their forces ten times, still there would be no cause for 
 anxiety. The spirit of our troops is excellent. 
 
 In Petrograd all is quiet. | 
 Chief of the Defence of Petrograd and the Petrograd District, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Muraviov. 
 
 ‘As we left the Military Revolutionary Committee Antonov 
 entered, a paper in his hand, looking like a corpse. 
 “Send this,” said he. | 
 
 TO ALL DISTRICT SOVIETS OF WORKERS DEPUTIES AND FACTORY- — 
 
 SHOP COMMITTEES 
 
 Order 
 
 The Kornilovist bands of Kerensky are threatening the ap- 
 proaches to the capital. All the necessary orders have been given 
 to crush mercilessly the counter-revolutionary attempt against the 
 people and its conquests. j 
 
 The Army and the Red Guard of the Revolution are in need 
 
 of the immediate support of the workers. 
 
 We ORDER THE WARD SOVIETS AND FACTORY-SHOP COMMITTEES: 
 
 1. To move out the greatest possible number of workers fo 
 the digging of trenches, the erection of barricades and reinforcing| 
 of wire entanglements. | 
 
 9. Wherever it shall be necessary for this purpose to stop work 
 at the factories this shall be done immediately. | 
 
 3. All common and barbed wire available must be assembled, 
 and also all implements for the digging of trenches and the erection 
 of barricades. 
 
 4. All available arms must be taken. 
 
 5. THE STRICTEST DISCIPLINE IS TO BE OBSERVED, AND EVERY ON#) 
 Fad ql 
 
 i) 
 Al 
 
THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 181 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IST BE READY TO SUPPORT THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION BY ALL 
 ANS. 
 
 ; Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 Deputies, 
 People’s Commissar Leon Trorzxy. 
 
 Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee, 
 Commander in Chief Popvoisxy. 
 
 As we came out into the dark and gloomy day all around 
 the grey horizon factory whistles were blowing, a hoarse and 
 1ervous sound, full of foreboding. By tens of thousands the 
 vorking-people poured out, men and women; by tens of thou- 
 ands the humming slums belched out their dun and miserable 
 ordes. Red Petrograd was in danger! Cossacks! South and 
 outhwest they poured through the shabby streets toward the 
 Moskovsky Gate, men, women and children, with rifles, picks, 
 paces, rolls of wire, cartridge-belts over their working clothes. 
 . Such an immense, spontaneous outpouring of a city never 
 a seen! They rolled along torrent-like, companies of soldiers 
 iorne with them, guns, motor-trucks, wagons—the revolution- 
 ‘ry proletariat defending with its breast the capital of the 
 Vorkers’ and Peasants’ Republic! 
 Before the door of Smolny was an automobile. <A slight 
 1an with thick glasses magnifying his red-rimmed eyes, his 
 Beech a painful effort, stood leaning against a mud-guard 
 ith his hands in the pockets of a shabby raglan. A great 
 earded sailor, with the clear eyes of youth, prowled restlessly 
 bout, absently toying with an enormous blue-steel revolver, 
 ‘hich never left his hand. These were Antonov and Dybenko. 
 Some soldiers were trying to fasten two military bicycles 
 nthe running-board. The chauffeur violently protested; the 
 namel would get scratched, he said. True, he was a Bolshe- 
 ik, and the automobile was commandeered from a bourgeois ; 
 tue, the bicycles were for the use of orderlies. But the chauf- 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 182 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 . So the bicycle 
 
 feur’s professional pride was revolted. . . 
 were abandoned... - 5 
 
 The People’s Commissars for War and Marine were going 
 to inspect the revolutionary front—wherever that was. Could a} 
 we go with them? Certainly not. The automobile only held |; 
 five—the two Commissars, two orderlies and the chauffeur. 
 However, a Russian acquaintance of mine, whom I will call | 
 Trusishka, calmly got in and sat down, nor could any argument | 
 dislodge him. . - - | 
 
 I see no reason to doubt Trusishka’s story of the journey. |! 
 As they went down the Suvorovsky Prospect some one mene ; 
 tioned food. They might be out three or four days, in a coun- | 
 try indifferently well provisioned. ‘They stopped the car. }} 
 Money? The Commissar of War looked through his pockets— | 
 he hadn’t a kopek. The Commissar of Marine was broke. So’ 
 was the chauffeur. Trusishka bought the provisions. . - - 
 
 Just as they turned into the Nevsky a tire blew out. 
 
 “What shall we do?” asked Antonov. | 
 
 “Commandeer another machine!” suggested Dybenko, way-| 
 ing his revolver. Antonov stood in the middle of the street} 
 and signalled a passing machine, driven by a soldier. | 
 
 “J want that machine,” said Antonov. 
 
 “You won’t get it,” responded the soldier. 
 
 ‘Do you know who I am?” Antonov produced a paper}, 
 upon which was written that he had been appointed Command-} 
 er-in-Chief of all the armies of the Russian Republic, and tha : 
 every one should obey him without question. | 
 
 “J don’t care if you’re the devil himself,’ said the soldier.) 
 hotly. “This machine belongs to the First Machine-Gun 
 Regiment, and we’re carrying ammunition in it, and you can’t 
 
 have it. ee vr . $ a 
 
 The difficulty, however, was solved by the appearance 0 
 an old battered taxi-cab, flying the Italian flag. (In time 0 
 trouble private cars were registered in the name of foreigi! 
 
THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 183; 
 
 
 
 
 consulates, so as to be safe from requisition.) From the in- 
 | erior of this was dislodged a fat citizen in an expensive fur 
 ‘coat, and the party continued on its way. 
 
 Be Arrived at Narvskaya Zastava, about ten miles out, An- 
 H ‘ tonov called for the commandant of the Red Guard. He was 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : ‘had dug trenches and were waiting for the Creueees 
 
 ) “Everything all right here, comrade?” asked Antonov. 
 “Everything perfect, comrade,” answered the commandant. 
 “The troops are in excellent spirits. . . . Only one thing— 
 owe have no ammunition. .. .” 
 
 _ “In Smolny there are two billion rounds,” Antonov told 
 phim. “I will give you an order.” He felt in his pockets. 
 “Has any one a piece of paper?” 
 
 H = Dybenko had none—nor the couriers. Trusishka had to 
 ‘offer his note-book. .. . 
 
 | “Devil! I have no pencil! cried Antonoy. “Who's got a 
 pencil?” Needless to say, Trusishka had the only pencil in 
 ‘the crowd. 
 
 __ We who were left behind made for the Tsarskoye Selo sta- 
 ‘tion. Up the Nevsky, as we passed, Red Guards were march- 
 ng, all armed, some with bayonets and some without. The 
 Parly twilight of winter was falling. Heads up they tramped 
 ‘n the chill mud, irregular lines of four, without music, with- 
 ut drums. A red flag crudely lettered in gold, “Peace! 
 tLand!” floated over them. They were very young. The 
 expression on their faces was that of men who know they are 
 fyoing to die... . Half-fearful, half-contemptuous, the 
 browds on the sidewall watched them pass, in hateful 
 iilence. . . . 
 
 | At the railroad station nobody knew just where Kerensky 
 \vas, or where the front lay. Trains went no further, how- 
 er than Tsarskoye. 
 
 
 
TnonnnTeusupt Roomate 
 DELPOIPADEHASD COLD 
 
 PABOHUXD 4 COMBAT 
 RENYTATOBb 
 
 BoeuHoii Orabab 
 
 een See 
 
 28 OKTAOpPA MJ e& 
 
 Sle. YIVCPOBBEEAID 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 Hactosmee yaAeoToRbpemie Aano EpeAcTapnTe 
 Auepnxancroh Couiaan = Aemoxpatin Wnrepua si ont. 
 anoty Topapmay QJROHY PHAD. Bb TOMbs ' 
 Boenno = Peper iomANi Konntetr Terep 1yprevars 
 Conbra fa.ounxh x Conaatoemxn JensTaTow: cpea: a 
 OTASRAB> yb Hpabe Quo -ogMaro npohsAa HO Gale 
 Chnepnomy OpoMTy Bb WhesikXh ocabroMIZeniA Mex 
 AMCPUKAMORNXE ToRapHMelh murepaationasneTos O% | 
 
 . = 
 
 cofuTiamun Sh Looct{ye 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CACHIGTEKSS ‘ 
 
 CexpeTapy:<. . I 372 po 
 
 This pass was issued upon the recommendation of Trotzky three days after the 
 Bolshevik Revolution. It gives me the right of free travel to the Northern front—and 
 an added note on the back extends the permission to all fronts. It will be noticed 
 that the text speaks of the Petersburg, instead of the Petrograd Soviet; it was the fashior 
 among thorough-going internationalists to abolish all names which smacked of “pa 
 triotism’”’; but at the same time, it would not do to restore the “Saint.” . . « 
 
 (Translation) 
 
 Executive Committee 
 Petrograd Soviet of 
 Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 Deputies 
 Military Section 
 28th October, 1917 
 No. 1435 
 CERTIFICATE 
 The present certificate is given to the representative of the American Socia’ 
 Democracy, the internationalist comrade Joun Reep. The Military Revolutionary 
 Committee of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies gives him the 
 right of free travel through the entire Northern front, for the purpose of reporting 
 
 to our American comrades-internationalists concerning events in Russia. a 
 For the President 
 
 For the Secretary — 
 184 | 
 
ff 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 185 
 
 
 
 _ Our car was full of commuters and country people going 
 home, laden with bundles and evening papers. The talk was 
 all of the Bolshevik rising. Outside of that, however, one 
 would never have realised that civil war was rending mighty 
 Russia in two, and that the train was headed into the zone of 
 battle. Through the window we could see, in the swiftly-deep- 
 ening darkness, masses of soldiers going along the muddy road 
 toward the city, flinging out their arms in argument. A 
 freight-train, swarming with troops and lit up by huge bon- 
 ires, was halted on a siding. That was all. Back along the 
 Jat horizon the glow of the city’s lights faded down the night. 
 A street-car crawled distantly along a far-flung suburb. .. . 
 Tsarskoye Selo station was quiet, but knots of soldiers 
 ‘tood here and there talking in low tones and looking uneasily 
 lfown the empty track in the direction of Gatchina. I asked 
 ‘ome of them which side they were on. “Well,” said one, “we 
 lon’t exactly know the rights of the matter. . . . There is 
 10 doubt that Kerensky is a provocator, but we do not consider 
 t right for Russian men to be shooting Russian men.” 
 
 In the station commandant’s office was a big, jovial, bearded 
 ommon soldier, wearing the red arm-band of a regimental 
 ommittee. Our credentials from Smolny commanded immedi- 
 te respect. He was plainly for the Soviets, but bewildered. 
 
 “The Red Guards were here two hours ago, but they went 
 way again. A Commissar came this morning, but he returned 
 > Petrograd when the Cossacks arrived.” 
 
 “The Cossacks are here then?” 
 
 He nodded, gloomily. “There has been a battle. The Cos- 
 acks came early in the morning. They captured two or three 
 undred of our men, and killed about twenty-five.” 
 
 _ “Where are the Cossacks?” 
 _ “Well, they didn’t get this far. I don’t know just where 
 ley are. Off that way. ...” He waved his arm vaguely 
 
 a. 
 
3 
 
 186 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 We had dinner—an excellent dinner, better and cheaper 
 than could be got in Petrograd—in the station restaurant. — 
 Nearby sat a French officer who had just come on. foot fro n 
 Gatchina. All was quiet there, he said. Kerensky held the © 
 town. ‘Ah, these Russians,” he went on, “they are origin I! 
 What a civil war! Everything except the fighting!” " 
 
 We sallied out into the town. Just at the door of the 
 station stood two soldiers with rifles and bayonets fixed. They 
 were surrounded by about a hundred business men, Govern- 
 ment officials and students, who attacked them with passionate | 
 argument and epithet. The soldiers were uncomfortable and 
 hurt, like children unjustly scolded. ‘ 
 
 A tall young man with a supercilious expression, dressed. 
 ‘n the uniform of a student, was leading the attack. i 
 
 “You realise, I presume,” he said insolently, “that by 
 taking up arms against your brothers you are making your 
 selves the tools of murderers and traitors?” ’ 
 
 “Now brother,” answered the soldier earnestly, you don’t 
 understand. There are two classes, don’t you see, the prole 
 tariat and the bourgeoisie. We 2 7 
 
 “Qh, I know that silly talk!” broke in the student rudely, 
 “A bunch of ignorant peasants like you hear somebody bawl-| 
 ing a few catch-words. You don’t understand what they 
 mean. You just echo them like a lot of parrots.” The crowd 
 laughed. “I’m a Marxian student. And I tell you that this 
 isn’t Socialism you are fighting for. It’s just plain pro-Ger-| 
 man anarchy !” | 
 
 “Oh, yes, I know,” answered the soldier, with sweat drip- 
 ping from his brow. “You are an educated man, that is easy; 
 
 to see, and I am only a simple man. But it seems to me—— 
 “I suppose,” interrupted the other contemptuously, “thal 
 
 you believe Lenin is a real friend of the proletariat?” | 
 “Yes, I do,” answered the soldier, suffering. 
 “Well, my friend, do you know that Lenin was sent throug} 
 
 z 
 i 
 
 
 
' _ THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 187 
 Germany in a closed car? Do you know that Lenin took money 
 from the Germans?” 
 
 Well, I don’t know much about that,” answered the sol- 
 lier stubbornly, “but it seems to me that what he says is 
 vhat I want to hear, and all the simple men like me. Now there 
 ire two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat fi 
 
 _ “You are a fool! Why, my friend, I spent two years in 
 3chliisselburg for revolutionary activity, when you were still 
 ‘hooting down revolutionists and singing ‘God Save the Tsar? 
 My name is Vasili Georgevitch Panyin. Didn’t you ever hear 
 of me?” 
 
 _ “Ym sorry to say I never did,” answered the soldier with 
 wmility. “But then, I am not an educated man. You are 
 yrobably a great hero.” 
 
 * said the student with conviction. “And I am op- 
 vosed to the Bolsheviki, who are destroying our Russia, our 
 ree Revolution. Now how do you account for that?” 
 
 _ The soldier scratched his head. “I can’t account for it 
 t all,” he said, grimacing with the pain of his intellectual 
 rocesses. ““I’o me it seems perfectly simple—but then, I’m 
 ot well educated. It seems like there are only two classes, the 
 roletariat and the bourgeoisie yi 
 
 _ “There you go again with your silly formula!’ cried the 
 tudent. 
 
 ie) <6 
 
 
 
 “7 am,’ 
 
 
 
 
 
 | only two classes,” went on the soldier, doggedly. 
 ‘And whoever isn’t on one side is on the other . . .” 
 
 We wandered on up the street, where the lights were few and 
 ar between, and where people rarely passed. A threatening 
 lence hung over the place—as of a sort of purgatory be- 
 ween heaven and hell, a political No Man’s Land. Only the 
 arber shops were all brilliantly lighted and crowded, and a 
 ne formed at the doors of the public bath; for it was Sat- 
 tday night, when all Russia bathes and perfumes itself. 
 haven’t the slightest doubt that Soviet troops and Cos- 
 
 » 
 a 
 
 va 
 
 ‘ te 
 
 " 
 
4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 188 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD a 1 
 | | 4 
 sacks mingled in the places where these ceremonies were per: 
 formed. | | a 
 The nearer we came to the Imperial Park, the more de- 
 serted were the streets. A frightened priest pointed out the 
 headquarters of the Soviet, and hurried on. It was in the 
 wing of one of the Grand Ducal palaces, fronting the Park. 
 The windows were dark, the door locked. A soldier, lounging 
 about with his hands in the top of his trousers, looked us up 
 and down with gloomy suspicion. ‘The Soviet went away two 
 days ago,” said he. “Where?” A shrug. “Nié snayw. I 
 don’t know.” 1 
 A little further along was a large building, brightly illumi- | 
 nated. From within came a sound of hammering. While we | 
 were hesitating, a soldier and a sailor came down the street, | 
 hand in hand. I showed them my pass from Smolny. “Are | 
 you for the Soviets?” I asked. They did not answer, bul | 
 looked at each other in a frightened way. : | 
 “What is going on in there?” asked the sailor, pointing 
 to the building. 7h 
 “J don’t know.” | 
 Timidly the soldier put out his hand and opened the door | 
 a crack. Inside a great hall hung with bunting and ever- 
 greens, rows of chairs, a stage being built. i 
 A stout woman with a hammer in her hand and her mouth 
 full of tacks came out. “What do you want?” she asked. 
 
 “Js there a performance to-night?” said the sailor, ner- | 
 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 
 1 
 
 vously. 
 “There will be private theatricals Sunday night,” she an- 
 
 swered severely. “Go away.” j 
 We tried to engage the soldier and sailor im conversation, 
 
 but they seemed frightened and unhappy, and drew off imto 
 the darkness. 7) 
 
 We strolled toward the Imperial Palaces, along the edge 
 
 of the vast, dark gardens, their fantastic pavilions and orna 
 4 
 
 | 
 
 
 
‘ 
 
 e THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 189 
 ‘mental bridges looming uncertainly in the night, and soft water 
 splashing from the fountains. At one place, where a ridicus 
 lous iron swan Spat unceasingly from an artificial grotto, we 
 ‘were suddenly aware of observation, and looked up to encoun 
 ‘ter the sullen, suspicious gaze of half a dozen gigantic armed 
 ‘soldiers, who stared moodily down from a grassy terrace. I 
 
 4 
 
 ‘climbed up to them. “Who are you?” T asked. 
 “We are the guard,” answered one. They all looked very 
 lepressed, as undoubtedly they were, from weeks and weeks 
 ‘of all-day all-night argument and debate. 
 “Are you Kerensky’s troops, or the Soviets’ ?” 
 
 There was silence for a moment, as they looked uneasily 
 ‘at each other. Then, “We are neutral,” said he. 
 | We went on through the arch of the huge Ekaterina Pal- 
 ‘ace, into the Palace enclosure itself, asking for headquarters. 
 A sentry outside a door in a curving white wing of the Palace 
 said that the commandant was inside, 
 / Ina graceful, white, Georgian room, divided into unequal 
 arts by a two-sided fire-place, a group of officers stood anx- 
 ously talking. They were pale and distracted, and evidently 
 aadn’t slept. To one, an oldish man with a white beard, his 
 imiform studded with decorations, who was pointed out as the 
 Solonel, we showed our Bolshevik papers, 
 _ He seemed surprised. “How did you get here without. 
 veing killed?” he asked politely. “It is very dangerous in the 
 treets just now. Political passion is running very high in 
 Tsarskoye Selo. There was a battle this morning, and there 
 vill be another to-morrow morning. Kerensky is to enter the 
 ‘own at eight o’clock.” 
 _ “Where are the Cossacks?” 
 “About a mile over that way.” He waved his arm, 
 “And you will defend the city against them?” 
 _ “Oh dear no.” He smiled. “We are holding the city for 
 ferensky.” Our hearts sank, for our passes stated that we 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 h 
 
“i 
 “7 ia 
 
 199 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 were revolutionary to the core. The Colonel cleared his throat. 
 “About those passes of yours,” he went on. “Your lives will 
 be in danger if you are captured. Therefore, if you want to 
 see the battle, I will give you an order for rooms in the offi- 
 cers’ hotel, and if you will come back here at seven o’clock in. 
 the morning, I will give you new passes.” ! 
 “So you are for Kerensky?” we said. 
 “Well, not exactly for Kerensky.” The Colonel hesitated 
 You see, most of the soldiers in the garrison are Bolsheviki, 
 and to-day, after the battle, they all went away in the direc- | 
 tion of Petrograd, taking the artillery with them. You might 
 say that none of the soldiers are for Kerensky; but some at 
 them just don’t want to fight at all. The officers have almost — 
 all gone over to Kerensky’s forces, or simply gone away. | 
 We are—ahem—in a most difficult position, as you see. - - a 
 We did not believe that there would be any battle... . 
 The Colonel courteously sent his orderly to escort us to the | 
 railroad station. He was from the South, born of French immi- 
 grant parents in Bessarabia. “Ah,” he kept saying, “it is not | 
 the danger or the hardships I mind, but being so long, three } 
 
 99 a 
 
 7 
 
 eS 
 ¢ 
 
 years, away from my mother. ... 
 
 Looking out of the window of the train as we sped through | 
 the cold dark toward Petrograd, I caught glimpses of clumps | 
 of soldiers gesticulating in the light of fires, and of clusters | 
 of armoured cars halted together at cross-roads, the chauffeurs: 
 hanging out of the turrets and shouting to each other. . - + 
 
 All the troubled night over the bleak flats leaderless bands | 
 of soldiers and Red Guards wandered, clashing and confused, 
 and the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Commi 
 
 hurried from one group to another, trying to organise a d 
 
 fence. ... 
 
 Back in town excited throngs were moving in tides up ap 
 down the Nevsky. Something was in the air, From the wa { 
 
 y a 
 
ie 
 ' - ‘THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT 191 
 ¥ 
 
 ‘saw Railway station could be heard far-off cannonade. In the 
 yunker schools there was feverish activity. Duma members 
 went from barracks to barracks, arguing and pleading, nar- 
 rating fearful stories of Bolshevik violence—massacre of the 
 yunkers i in the Winter Palace, rape of the women soldiers, the 
 shooting of the girl before the Duma, the murdcr of Prince 
 Tumanoy. ... In the Alexander Hall of the Duma building 
 the Pommittec for Salvation was in special session; Commis- 
 3ars came and went, running. . All the journalists expelled 
 from Smolny were there, in Hien spirits. They did not believe 
 our report of conditions‘in Tsarskoye. Why, everybody knew 
 chat T'sarskoye was in Kerensky’s hands, and that the Cos- 
 sacks were now at Pulkovo. A committee was being elected 
 so meet Kerensky at the railway station in the morning. .. . 
 One confided to me, in strictest secrecy, that the counter- 
 revolution would begin at midnight. He showed me two proc- 
 vamations, one signed by Gotz and Polkovnikov, ordering the 
 yunker schools, soldier convalescents in the hospitals, and the 
 nights of St. George to mobilise on a war footing and wait 
 or orders from the Committee for Salvation; the other from 
 she Committee for Salvation itself, which read as follows: 
 
 To the Population of Petrograd! 
 _ Comrades, workers, soldiers and citizens of revolutionary Petro- 
 grad! 
 
 The Bolsheviki, while appealing for peace at the front, are in- 
 iting to civil war in the rear. 
 Do not listen to their provocatory appeals! 
 Do not dig trenches! 
 _ Down with the traitorous barricades! 
 Lay down your arms! 
 
 Soldiers, return to your barracks! 
 
 The war begun in Petrograd—is the death of the Revolution! 
 _ In the name of liberty, land, and peace, unite around the Com- 
 aittee for Salvation of Country and Revolution! 
 
 } 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ay owt ae . 
 
 192 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 As we left the Duma a company of Red Guards, stern-f ace 7 
 and desperate, came marching down the dark, deserted street | 
 with a dozen prisoners—members of the local branch of the 
 lution in their headquarters. .. . : 
 
 A soldier, accompanied by a small boy with a pail of paste, 
 was sticking up great flaring notices: ¢ 
 
 By virtue of the present, the city of Petrograd and its suburbs 
 are declared in a state of siege. All assemblies or meetings in 
 the streets, and generally in the open air, are forbidden until further — 
 mobile horns, shouts, distant shots. The city stirred uneasily 
 wakeful. 
 
 orders. 
 | 
 
 In the small hours of the morning a company of yunkers 
 
 : 
 
 N. Popvoisxy, President of the Militar: 
 Revolutionary Committee. 
 
 As we went home the air was full of confused sound—auto 
 
 disguised as soldiers of the Semionovsky Regiment, presented” 
 themselves at the Telephone Exchange just before the how 
 of changing guard. They had the Bolshevik password, and 
 took charge without arousing suspicion. A few minutes later 
 Antonov appeared, making a round of inspection. Him they 
 captured and locked in a small room. When the relief came 
 it was met by a blast of rifle-fire, several being killed. 4 
 
 Counter-revolution had begun... . 
 
 . 
 
 
 

 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 COUNTER-REVOLUTION 
 _ Nexr morning, Sunday the 11th, the Cossacks entered 
 Tsarskoye Selo, Kerensky + himself riding a white horse and all 
 the church-bells clamouring. From the top of a little hill 
 outside the town could be seen the golden spires and many- 
 coloured cupolas, the sprawling grey immensity of the capital 
 spread along the dreary plain, and beyond, the steely Gulf 
 of Finland. 
 | There was no battle. But Kerensky made a fatal blunder. 
 |At seven in the morning he sent word to the Second Tsarskoye 
 Selo Rifles to lay down their arms. The soldiers replied that 
 shey would remain neutral, but would not disarm. Kerensky 
 gave them ten minutes in which to obey. This angered the 
 soldiers : for eight months they had been soverntis themselves 
 oy committee, and this smacked of the old régime... . A 
 ‘ew minutes later Cossack artillery opened fire on the barracks, 
 silling eight men. From that moment there were no more 
 neutral” soldiers in Tsarskoye. . . . 
 
 Petrograd woke to bursts of rifle-fire, and the tramping 
 hunder of men marching. Under the high dark sky a cold 
 vind smelt of snow. At dawn the Military Hotel and the 
 Telegraph Agency had been taken by large forces of yunkers, 
 nd bloodily recaptured. The Telephone Station was besieged 
 y sailors, who lay behind barricades of barrels, boxes and tin 
 References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter VIII. See 
 age 343. 
 
 ‘a IOP : 
 -_ 
 
194 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 4 . 
 
 sheets in the middle of the Morskaya, or sheltered themselval 
 at the corner of the Gorokhovaya and of St. Isaac’s Square, — 
 shooting at anything that moved. Occasionally an automo- 
 bile passed in and out, flying the Red Cross flag. The sailors 
 let it pass. ... 
 Albert Rhys Williams was in the Telephone Exchange. He > 
 went out with the Red Cross automobile, which was ostensibly _ 
 full of wounded. After circulating about the city, the car 
 went by devious ways to the Mikhailovsky yunker school, head- | 
 quarters of the counter-revolution. A French officer, in the 
 court-yard, seemed to be in command. ... By this means 
 ammunition and supplies were conveyed to the Telephone Ex-_ 
 change. Scores of these pretended ambulances acted as cou- 
 riers and ammunition trains for the yunkers. 
 Five or six armoured cars, belonging to the disbanded | 
 British Armoured Car Division, were in their hands. As 
 Louise Bryant was going along St. Isaac’s Square one came | 
 rolling up from the Admiralty, on its way to the Telephone 
 Exchange. At the corner of the Gogolia, right in front of her, 
 the engine stalled. Some sailors ambushed behind wood-piles 
 began shooting. The machine-gun in the turret of the thing 
 slewed around and spat a hail of bullets indiscriminately into 
 the wood-piles and the crowd. In the archway where Miss 
 Bryant stood seven people were shot dead, among them two 
 little boys. Suddenly, with a shout, the sailors leaped up and 
 rushed into the flaming open; closing around the monster, 
 they thrust their bayonets into the loop-holes, again and again, 
 yelling. . . The chauffeur pretended to be wounded, and they 
 let him go free—to run to the Duma and swell the tale of 
 Bolshevik atrocities. . . . Among the dead was a British offi- 
 BAT ls ie 
 Later the newspapers told of another French officer, cap- 
 tured in a yunker armoured car and sent to Peter-Paul. The 
 
 French Embassy promptly denied this, but one of the City 
 
 
 
COUNTER-REVOLUTION 195 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘ouncillors told me that he himself had procured the officer’s 
 release from prison. 
 Whatever the official attitude of the Allied Embassies, 
 Individual French and British officers were active these days, 
 even to the extent of giving advice at executive sessions of the 
 - Committee for Salvation. 
 ‘4 All day long in every quarter of the city there were skir- 
 -mishes between yunkers and Red Guards, battles between ar- 
 -moured cars. . . . Volleys, single shots and the shrill chatter 
 ; - of a aac be heard, far and near. The iron shut- 
 ‘ters of the shops were drawn, but business still went on. Even 
 the moving-picture shows, all outside lights dark, played to 
 ‘crowded houses. The street-cars ran. The telephones were all 
 working; when you called Central, shooting could be plainly 
 ‘heard over the wire. . . . Smolny was cut off, but the Duma 
 ‘and the Committee for Salvation were in constant communica- 
 tion with all the ywnker schools and with Kerensky at Tsars- 
 Bb ve. 
 
 _ At seven in the morning the Vladimir yunker school was 
 ‘visited by a patrol of soldiers, sailors and Red Guards, who 
 gave the yunkers twenty minutes to lay down their arms. The 
 ‘ultimatum was rejected. An hour later the yunkers got ready 
 ‘to march, but were driven back by a violent fusillade from the 
 ‘corner of the Grebetskaya and the Bolshoy Prospekt. Soviet 
 troops surrounded the building and opened fire, two armoured 
 ‘ears cruising back and forth with machine guns raking it. 
 ‘The yunkers telephoned for help. The Cossacks replied that 
 they dare not come, because a large body of sailors with two 
 ‘cannon commanded their barracks. The Pavlovsk school was 
 ‘surrounded. Most of the Mikhailov yunkers were fighting 
 in the streets. 
 
 | At half-past eleven three field-pieces arrived. Another de- 
 ‘mand to surrender was met by the yunkers shooting down two 
 
 t 
 
 j | the Soviet delegates under the white flag. Now began a 
 
 
 
 
 
ee 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 196 ‘TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 real bombardment. Great holes were torn in the walls of the 
 school. The yunkers defended themselves desperately ; shout= 
 ing waves of Red Guards, assaulting, crumpled under the with- | 
 ering blast. . . . Kerensky telephoned from Tsarskoye to re- | 
 fuse all parley with the Military Revolutionary Committee. ey 
 
 Frenzied by defeat and their heaps of dead, the Soviet | 
 troops opened a tornado of steel and flame against the bat- 
 tered building. Their own officers could not stop the terrible 
 bombardment. A Commissar from Smolny named Kirilov tried - 
 to halt it; he was threatened with lynching. The Red Guards’ 
 blood was up. | , 
 
 At half-past two the yunkers hoisted a white flag; they | 
 would surrender if they were guaranteed protection. This | 
 was promised. With a rush and a shout thousands of soldiers | 
 and Red Guards poured through windows, doors and holes in 
 the wall. Before it could be stopped five yunkers were beaten 
 and stabbed to death. The rest, about two hundred, were 
 taken to Peter-Paul under escort, in small groups so as to 
 avoid notice. On the way a mob set upon one party, killing 
 eight more yunkers. . . . More than a hundred Red Guards | 
 and soldiers had fallen. . . . 
 
 Two hours later the Duma got a telephone message that: 
 the victors were marching toward the Injimerny Zamok—the 
 Engineers’ school. A dozen members immediately set out to 
 distribute among them armfuls of the latest proclamation of, 
 the Committee for Salvation. Several did not come back. 
 . . . All the other schools surrendered without resistance, and 
 the yunkers were sent unharmed to Peter-Paul and Cron- 
 Stadt. ..°. 
 
 The Telephone Exchange held out until afternoon, whenj 
 a Bolshevik armoured car appeared, and the sailors stormec 
 the place. Shrieking, the frightened telephone girls ran to ane 
 fro; the yunkers tore from their uniforms all distinguishing 
 marks, and one offered Williams anything for the loan of his) 
 
 a 
 
 } 
 
~COUNTER-REVOLUTION 197 
 
 
 
 
 Overcoat, as a disguise. . . . “They will massacre us! They 
 wul massacre us!’ they cried, for many of them had given 
 their word at the Winter Palace not to take up arms against 
 che People. Williams offered to mediate if Antonov were re- 
 eased. This was immediately done; Antonov and Williams 
 nade speeches to the victorious sailors, inflamed by their many 
 Jead—and once more the yunkers went free... . All but a 
 “ew, who in their panic tried to flee over the roofs, or to hide 
 n the attic, and were found and hurled into the street. 
 
 _ Tired, bloody, triumphant, the sailors and workers 
 ‘warmed into the switchboard room, and finding so many 
 oretty girls, fell back in an embarrassed way and fumbled with 
 awkward feet. Not a girl was injured, not one insulted. 
 ‘rightened, they huddled in the corners, and then, finding 
 hemselves safe, gave vent to their spite. “Ugh! The dirty, 
 gnorant people! The fools!” ... The sailors and Red 
 yuards were embarrassed. “Brutes! Pigs!” shrilled the girls, 
 adignantly putting on their coats and hats. Romantic had 
 en their experience passing up cartridges and dressing the 
 vounds of their dashing young defenders, the yunkers, many 
 f them members of noble families, fighting to restore their 
 ‘loved Tsar! These were just common workmen, peasants, 
 ‘Dark People.” ... 
 
 - The Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee, 
 ttle Vishniak, tried to persuade the girls to remain. He was 
 fusively polite. “You have been badly treated,” he said. 
 ‘The telephone system is controlled by the Municipal Duma. 
 ‘ou are paid sixty rubles a month, and have to work ten 
 Surs and more. . . . From now on all that will be changed. 
 ‘he Government intends to put the telephones under control 
 f{ the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Your wages will be 
 an ediately raised to one hundred and fifty rubles, and your 
 rking-hours reduced. As members of the working-class you 
 uld be happy 2 
 
 
 
 
 
3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 198 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK ‘THE WORLD 
 
 Members of the working-class indeed! Did he mean * 
 infer that there was anything in common between these—these 
 animals—and us? Remain? Not if they offered a thousand 
 rubles! . .. Haughty and spiteful the girls left the place. . 
 
 The employees of the building, the line-men and labourers 
 —they stayed. But the switch-boards must be operated—the 
 telephone was vital... . Only half a dozen trained operators 
 were available. Volunteers were called for; a hundred re- 
 sponded, sailors, soldiers, workers. The six girls scurried 
 backward and forward, instructing, helping, scolding. ... 
 So, crippled, halting, but gotng, the wires slowly began to 
 hum. The first thing was to connect Smolny with the barracks 
 and the factories ; the second, to cut off the Duma and the yun- 
 ker schools. . . . Late in. the afternoon word of it spread 
 through the city, and hundreds of bourgeois called up to scream, 
 “Fools! Devils! How long do you think you will last? Wait 
 till the Cossacks come!” 
 
 Dusk was already falling. On the almost deserted Nevsky 
 swept by a bitter wind, a crowd had gathered before th 
 Kazan Cathedral, continuing the endless debate; a few work 
 men, some soldiers and the rest shop-keepers, clerks and th 
 
 like. 
 
 “But Lenin won’t get Germany to make peace 1? cme 
 one. 
 
 A violent young soldier replied. “And whose fault is it 
 Your damn Kerensky, dirty bourgeois! To hell with Ke 
 rensky! We don’t want him! We want Lenin. . . .” 
 
 Outside the Duma an officer with a white arm-band wa 
 tearing down posters from the wall, swearing loudly. On 
 read: 
 
 To the Population of Petrograd! 
 
 At this dangerous hour, when the Municipal Duma ought to us 
 
 every means to calm the population, to assure it bread and oth 
 necessities, the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and the Cadets, foi 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 COUNTER-REVOLUTION 199 
 
 | getting their duty, have turned the Duma into a counter-revolu- 
 tionary meeting, trying to raise part of the population against the 
 rest, so as to facilitate the victory of Kornilov-Kerensky. Instead 
 of doing their duty, the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and the 
 I Cadets have transformed the Duma into an arena of political attack 
 9 pon the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, 
 against the revolutionary Government of peace, bread and liberty. 
 
 Citizens of Petrograd, we, the Bolshevik Municipal Councillors 
 elected by you—we want you to know that the Right Socialist Revo- 
 » lutionaries and the Cadets are engaged in counter-revolutionary 
 | action, have forgotten their duty, and are leading the population to 
 famine, to civil war. We, elected by 183,000 votes, consider it our 
 duty to bring to the attention of our constituents what is going on 
 in the Duma, and declare that we disclaim all responsibility for the 
 | but inevitable consequences. .. . 
 
 ) Far away still sounded occasional shots, but the city lay 
 quiet, cold, as if exhausted by the violent spasms which had 
 
 nd. Even the truculent Duma seemed a little stunned. One 
 jafter another the Commissars reported—capture of the Tele- 
 phone Exchange, street-fighting, the taking of the Vladimir 
 school. . . . “The Duma,” said Trupp, “is on the side of the 
 ‘democracy in its struggle against arbitrary violence; but in 
 jany case, whichever side wins, the Duma will always be against 
 /lynchings and torture. .. .” 
 
 Pe Konovski, Cadet, a tall old man with a cruel face: “When 
 the troops of the legal Government arrive in Petrograd, they 
 ‘will shoot down these insurgents, and that will not be lynch- 
 
 ya 
 
 “ing!” Protests all over the hall, even from his own party. 
 a Here there was doubt and depression. The counter-revo- 
 lution was being put down. The Central Committee of the 
 
 Socialist Revolutionary party had voted lack of confidence in 
 its officers; the left wing was in control; Avksentiev had re- 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
; 
 
 
 
 200 ‘TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 signed. A courier reported that the Committee of Welcome 
 sent to meet Kerensky at the railway station had been ar-— 
 rested. In the streets could be heard the dull rumble of dis- — 
 tant cannonading, south and southwest. Still Kerensky did 
 not come... .- | | 
 
 Only three newspapers were out—Pravda, Dielo Naroda 
 and Novaya Zhizn. All of them devoted much space to the new 
 “coalition” Government. The Socialist Revolutionary paper 
 demanded a Cabinet without either Cadets or Bolsheviki. 
 Gorky was hopeful; Smolny had made concessions. A purely | 
 Socialist Government was taking shape—all elements except 
 the bourgeoisie. As for Pravda, it sneered : 
 
 We ridicule these coalitions with political parties whose most 
 prominent members are petty journalists of doubtful reputation; _ 
 our “coalition” is that of the proletariat and the revolutionary Army 
 with the poor peasants... . 
 
 On the walls a vainglorious announcement of the Vikzhel, 
 threatening to strike if both sides did not compromise: 
 
 The conquerors of these riots, the saviours of the wreck of 
 our country, these will be neither the Bolsheviki, nor the Committee 
 for Salvation, nor the troops of Kerensky—but we, the Union of 
 Railwaymen.... 
 
 Red Guards are incapable of handling a complicated busi- 
 ness like the railways; as for the Provisional Government, it. 
 has shown itself incapable of holding the power... « | 
 
 We refuse to lend our services to any party which does not act 
 by authority of . . . a Government based on the confidence of all 
 the democracy... - | 
 
 Smolny thrilled with the boundless vitality of inexhaus- 
 tible humanity in action. | 
 
 al he? 
 a 
 
ee 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ COUNTER-REVOLUTION 201 
 _ In Trade Union headquarters Lozovsky introduced me to 
 a delegate of the Railway Workers of the Nicolai line, who 
 
 aid that the men were holding huge mass- meetings, condemn- 
 
 ing the action of their leaders. 
 
 _ “All power to the Soviets! he cried, pounding on the 
 table. “The oborontst in the Central Committee are playing 
 Kornilov’s game. They tried to send a mission to the Stavka, 
 but we arrested them at Minsk. - Our branch has de- 
 ended an All-Russian foratntenn! a they refuse to call 
 it. ens 
 
 A The same situation as in the Soviets, the Army Commit- 
 tees. One after another the various democratic organisations, 
 all over Russia, were cracking and changing. The Coopera- 
 tives were torn by internal struggles ; the meetings of the 
 ‘Peasants’ Executive broke up in stormy wrangling; even 
 among the Cossacks there was trouble... . 
 
 _ On the top floor the Military Revolutionary Committee 
 was in full blast, striking and slacking not. Men went in, 
 fresh and vigorous; night and day and night and day they 
 threw themselves into the terrible machine; and came out 
 limp, blind with fatigue, hoarse and filthy, to fall on the floor 
 and sleep. . . . The Committee for Salvation had been out- 
 ilawed. Great piles of new proclamations 2 littered the floor: 
 
 
 
 . The conspirators, who have no support among the garrison 
 or the Be oe class, above all counted on the suddenness of their 
 attack. Their plan was discovered in time by Sub-Lieutenant 
 Blagonravov, thanks to the revolutionary vigilance of a soldier of 
 the Red Guard, whose name shall be made public. At the centre 
 of the plot was the Committee for Salvation. Colonel Polkoynikov 
 Was in command of their forces, and the orders were signed by Gotz, 
 former member of the Provisional Government, allowed at liberty 
 m his word of honour... . 
 
 _ Bringing these facts to the attention of the Petrograd popula- 
 dion, the Military Revolutionary Committee orders the arrest of all 
 
 
 
902 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 concerned in the conspiracy, who shall be tried before the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal... . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 at 
 
 From Moscow, word that the yunkers and Cossacks had — 
 surrounded the Kremlin and ordered the Soviet troops to lay 
 down their arms. The Soviet forces complied, and as they | 
 were leaving the Kremlin, were set upon and shot down. Small 
 forces of Bolsheviki had been driven from the Telephone and 
 Telegraph offices; the yunkers now held the centre of the city. © 
 _ . . But all around them the Soviet troops were mustering. — 
 Street-fighting was slowly gathering way; all attempts at com- 
 promise had failed. . . . On the side of the Soviet, ten thou- 
 sand garrison soldiers and a few Red Guards; on the side of © 
 the Government, six thousand yunkers, twenty-five hundred | 
 Cossacks and two thousand White Guards. | 
 
 The Petrograd Soviet was meeting, and next door the new 
 Tsay-ee-kah, acting on the decrees and orders * which came 
 down in a steady stream from the Council of People’s Commis- 
 sars in session upstairs; on the Order in Which Laws 
 Are to be Ratified and Published, Establishing an Eight-- 
 hour Day for Workers, and Lunatcharsky’s “Basis for @ 
 System of Popular Education.” Only a few hundred people 
 were present at the two meetings, most of them armed. Smolny 
 was almost deserted, except for the guards, who were busy at 
 the hall windows, setting up machine-guns to command the 
 flanks of the building. 
 
 In the T'say-ee-kah a delegate of the Vikzhel was speaking: 
 
 “We refuse to transport the troops of either party... - 
 We have sent a committee to Kerensky to say that if he con- 
 tinues to march on Petrograd we will break his lines of com- 
 munication. . . .” 
 
 He made the usual plea for a conference of all the So- 
 cialist parties to form a new Government. ... 
 
 Kameniev answered discreetly. The Bolsheviki would be 
 
COUNTER-REVOLUTION 203 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 very glad to attend the conference. The centre of gravity, 
 “however, lay not in composition of such a Government, but in 
 . acceptance of the programme of the Congress of Soviets. 
 . The Tsay-ee-kah had deliberated on the declaration made 
 by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats 
 Internationalists, and had accepted the proposition of pro- 
 portional representation at the conference, even including 
 delegates from the Army Committees and the Peasants’ So- 
 iviets. . . . 
 In the great hall, Trotzky recounted the events of the day. 
 ' “We offered the Viadimir yunkers a chance to surrender,” 
 he said. “We wanted to settle matters without bloodshed. 
 ‘But now that blood has been spilled there is only one way— 
 ‘pitiless struggle. It would be childish to think we can win 
 ‘by any other means. . . . The moment is decisive. Everybody 
 ‘must cooperate with the Military Revolutionary Commit- 
 itee, report where there are stores of barbed wire, benzine, guns. 
 
 - 
 ‘ 
 
 i 
 
 - . . We’ve won the power; now we must keep it!” 
 
 | The Menshevik Yoffe tried to read his party’s declara- 
 ‘tion, but Trotzky refused to allow “a debate about principle.” 
 _ “Our debates are now in the streets,” he cried. ‘The de- 
 ‘cisive step has been taken. We all, and I in Pa take 
 ‘the responsibility for what is happening. . 
 
 Soldiers from the front, from Gatchina, told their stories. 
 ‘One from the Death Battalion, Four Hundred Eighty-first Ar- 
 ‘tillery: “When the trenches hear of this, they will cry, ‘This 
 is our Government!’”? A yunker from Peterhof said that he and 
 two others had refused to march against the Soviets; and when 
 his comrades had returned from the defence of the Winter Pal- 
 ‘ace they appointed him their Commissar, to go to Smolny and 
 offer their services to the real Revolution. . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Then Trotzky again, fiery, indefatigable, giving orders, 
 answering questions. 
 | _ “The petty bourgeoisie, in order to defeat the workers, 
 
 ; 
 
5 
 
 904 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 soldiers and peasants, would combine with the devil himself!” 
 he said once. Many cases of drunkenness had been remarked — 
 the last two days. “No drinking, comrades! No one must — 
 be on the streets after eight in the evening, except the regular . 
 guards. All places suspected of having stores of liquor | 
 should be searched, and the liquor destroyed.* No mercy to | 
 the sellers of liquor... .” qt 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee sent for the dele- 
 gation from the Viborg section; then for the members from 
 Putilov. They clumped out hurriedly. 
 “For each revolutionist killed,” said Trotzky, “we shall kili 
 five counter-revolutionists !” j 
 Down-town again. The Duma brilliantly illuminated and | 
 great crowds pouring in. In the lower hall wailing and cries 
 of grief; the throng surged back and forth before the bulletin- | 
 board, where was posted a list of yunkers killed in the day’s } 
 fighting—or supposed to be killed, for most of the dead af- | 
 terward turned up safe and sound. . . . Up in the Alexander } 
 Hall the Committee for Salvation held forth. The gold and } 
 red epaulettes of officers were conspicuous, the familiar faces | 
 of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary intellectuals, the } 
 hard eyes and bulky magnificence of bankers and diplomats, 
 officials of the old régime, and well-dressed women. . - | 
 The telephone girls were testifying. Girl after girl came 
 to the tribune—over-dressed, fashion-aping little girls, with} 
 pinched faces and leaky shoes. Girl after girl, flushing with 
 pleasure at the applause of the “nice” people of Petrograd, 
 of the officers, the rich, the great names of politics—girl after 
 girl, to narrate her sufferings at the hands of the proletariat, 
 and proclaim her loyalty to all that was old, established and 
 powerful. ... 
 The Duma was again in session in the Nicolai Hall. The 
 Mayor said hopefully that the Petrograd regiments were 
 ashamed of their actions; propaganda was making headway-} 
 ! 
 
 .' 
 

 
 MPURASS I 2. 
 
 | Ore Hovarrem re. Seamcnoro pes. Honka BeéMb AoMOBbIMG KomuTeraM 
 HT H IPOR OHS Rocemestkaro Ocrpoea. 
 
 | Bypsuyasia wa6pana nopnuili cnoco6e GopbObi cb nponerapiarom, 
 | Ota Bb pasHbixt 4aCcTAXd ropofa yCTpOHNa OpOMHbie BHHHbIe CKManb! 
 : " HaTaMKHBaeTb Ha HUXb CONT, CTaparch BAHOMDb BHECTH paCKONd. 
 ‘Bp pane! Pesontouionnon apmin. 
 
 | Tipuxastisaetca scbmb gomosbimt Komutetamb 8b 3-Xb uac, 
 cpoxe no packneitxé storo MpHkaza COOOWHTS NHYHO HW CeKpeETHO 
 , 06 HMBIOWNXCA y HAxe SAMACAXb BHHA Mpencéaar. Monk. Kom.. 
 0B. Dunnangce. nonka. 
 
 | (lvya, He HCNOMHHBWIA >TOFO NpHkasa, 6ypyTS 
 /apecTosatis! 4 npegarib! camomy BESTOWWAZHOMY 
 CYDY, a UMYWJECTBO UXb 6yners KOHDUCKO- 
 'BAHO, OOHapyxKeHHbIe Ke 3anacbl BHA OypyTD 
 
 ' B3PbIBATbCA ZNHAMUTOMb 
 
 uepesn 2 uaca nocnt npezynpenzenina, 
 'wOo mente pbuutenbubia Mbpbi, Kak HaMb NOKazaNb 
 -onbirs, HE NPHBORATS Kb KeNaHHOH Ub. 
 
 | O6eaensemt, to ocoObixs npenynpexpeniii 
 
 (Mepend Havanom® B3pbiBa He Oyners. 
 
 Homeosed KOMHTeTS 18. GMRESHACKETO GORRA. 
 ___ Revolutionary law and order. A proclamation of the Finland Regiment, in De- 
 cember, 1917, announcing desperate remedies for “wine pogroms.” For translation 
 +See Appendix 5. 
 
 ° 205 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
—W 
 
 4 ; : wi 
 
 206 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 _. . Emissaries came and went, reporting horrible deeds by _ 
 the Bolsheviki, interceding to save the yunkers, busily investi- — 
 gating... . | 
 
 “The Bolsheviki,’? said Trupp, “will be conquered by 
 moral force, and not by bayonets... .” 
 
 Meanwhile all was not well on the revolutionary front. 
 The enemy had brought up armoured trains, mounted with 
 cannon. The Soviet forces, mostly raw Red Guards, were 
 without officers and without a definite plan. Only five thou- 
 sand regular soldiers had joined them; the rest of the garri- 
 son was either busy suppressing the yunker revolt, guarding 
 the city, or undecided what to do. At ten in the evening Lenin — 
 addressed a meeting of delegates from the city regiments, who 
 voted overwhelmingly to fight. A Committee of five soldiers 
 was elected to serve as General Staff, and in the small hours | 
 of the morning the regiments left their barracks in full battle 
 array... . Going home I saw them pass, swinging along 
 with the regular tread of veterans, bayonets in perfect align- | 
 ment, through the deserted streets of the conquered city... « 
 
 At the same time, in the headquarters of the Vikzhel 
 dewn on the Sadovaya, the conference of all the Socialist par- 
 ties to form a new Government was under way. Abramovitch, 
 for the centre Mensheviki, said that there should be neither 
 conquerors nor conquered—that bygones should be bygones. 
 _ . . In this were agreed all the left wing parties. Dan, speak- 
 ing in the name of the right Mensheviki, proposed to the 
 Bolsheviki the following conditions for a truce: The Red 
 Guard to be disarmed, and the Petrograd garrison to be placed 
 at the orders of the Duma; the troops of Kerensky not to 
 fire a single shot or arrest a single man; a Ministry of all the 
 Socialist parties except the Bolshevikt. For Smolny Riazanov 
 and Kameniev declared that a coalition ministry of all par- 
 ties was acceptable, but protested at Dan’s proposals. The 
 Socialist Revolutionaries were divided ; but the Executive Com- 
 
 
 
wre 
 
 _ COUNTER-REVOLUTION 207 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : rn ittee of the Peasants’ Soviets and the Populist Socialists 
 flatly refused to admit the Bolsheviki. . . . After bitter quar- 
 relling a commission was elected to ne up a workable 
 jgplan, ... 
 All that night the commission wrangled, and all the next 
 “day, and the next night. Once before, on the 9th of Novem- 
 ber, there had been a similar effort at conciliation, led by 
 (Plextor and Gorky; but at the approach of Kerensky and 
 ‘the activity of the Committee for Salvation, the right wing 
 ie the Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries and Populist So- 
 | cialists suddenly withdrew. Now they were awed by the crush- 
 es of the yunker rebellion. . . . 
 
 wee Seas es 
 
 i _ Monday the 12th was a day of suspense. The eyes of all 
 Russia were fixed on the grey plain beyond the gates of Petro- 
 grad, where all the available strength of the old order faced 
 "the unorganised power of the new, the unknown. In Moscow 
 a truce had been declared; both sides parleyed, awaiting the 
 Yesult in the capital. Now the delegates to the Congress of 
 ‘ oviets, hurrying on speeding trains to the farthest reaches of 
 Asia, were coming to their homes, carrying the fiery cross. 
 ) In wide-spreading ripples news of the miracle spread over the 
 i face of the land, and in its wake towns, cities and far villages 
 ‘ “stirred and broke, Soviets and Military Revolutionary Com- 
 “mittees against Dumas, Zemstvos and Government Commissars 
 —Red Guards against White—street fighting and passionate 
 ) speech. . . . The result waited on the word from Petrograd.... 
 ie EB iiny was almost empty, but the Duma was thronged 
 ‘and noisy. The old Mayor, in his dignified way, was pro- 
 t testing against the Appeal of the Bolshevik Councillors. 
 
 “The Duma is not a centre of counter-revolution,” he said, 
 warmly. “The Duma takes no part in the present struggle 
 ‘between the parties. But at a time when there is no legal 
 “power in the land, the only centre of order is the Municipal 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
_ 
 
 q 
 
 908 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 Self-Government. The peaceful population recognises this. 
 fact; the foreign Embassies recognise only such documents as 
 are signed by the Mayor of the town. The mind of a Euro- 
 pean does not admit of any other situation, as the Municipal 
 self-government is the only organ which is capable of pro- 
 tecting the interests of the citizens. The City is bound to 
 show hospitality to all organisations which desire to profit 
 by such hospitality, and therefore the Duma cannot prevent 
 the distribution of any newspapers whatever within the Duma 
 building. The sphere of our work is increasing, and we must — 
 be given full liberty of action, and our rights must be re- 
 spected by both parties... . : 
 
 “We are perfectly neutral. When the Telephone Ex- | 
 change was occupied by the yunkers Colonel Polkovnikov or-_ 
 dered the telephones to Smolny disconnected, but I protested, — 
 and the telephones were kept going. . - .” | 
 
 At this there was ironic laughter from the Bolshevik | 
 benches, and imprecations from the right. 
 
 “And yet,’ went on Schreider, “they look upon us as 
 counter-revolutionaries and report us to the population. They 
 deprive us of our means of transport by taking away our last 
 motor-cars. It will not be our fault if there is famine in the 
 town. Protests are of no use... .” 
 
 Kobozev, Bolshevik member of the Town Board, was doubt- 
 ful whether the Military Revolutionary Committee had requi- | 
 sitioned the Municipal automobiles. Even granting the fact, 
 it was probably done by some unauthorised individual, in the 
 emergency. 
 
 “The Mayor,” he continued, “tells us that we-must not 
 make political meetings out of the Duma. But every Men- 
 shevik and Socialist Revolutionary here talks nothing but 
 party propaganda, and at the door they distribute their ille- 
 gal newspapers, Iskri (Sparks), Soldatski Golos and Rabot- 
 chaya Gazeta, inciting to insurrection. What if we Bol] 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 _ viki should also begin to distribute our papers here? But this 
 | shall not be, for we respect the Duma. We have not attacked 
 a he Municipal Self-Government, and we shall not do so. But 
 “you have addressed an Appeal to the population, and we are 
 ' entitled also to do so... .” 
 Followed him Shingariov, Cadet, who said that there could 
 be no common language with those who were liable to be 
 | brought before the Attorney General for indictment, and who 
 ‘Must be tried on the charge of treason. ... He proposed 
 again that all Bolshevik members should be expellid from the 
 Duma. This was tabled, however, for there were no personal 
 | charges against the members, and they were active in the Muni- 
 cipal administration. 
 \ Then two Mensheviki Internationalists, declaring that the 
 Appeal of the Bolshevik Councillors was a direct incite- 
 “ment to massacre. “If everything that is against the Bolshe- 
 viki is counter-revolutionary,” said Pinkevitch, “then I do 
 (not know the difference between revolution and anarchy. . 
 \ The Bolsheviki are depending upon the passions of the ine 
 ‘dled masses; we have nothing but moral force. We will pro- 
 test against massacres and violence from both sides, as our 
 | task i 1s to find a peaceful issue.” 
 
 _ The notice posted in the streets under the heading ‘To 
 ‘the Pillory,’ which calls upon the people to destroy the Men- 
 ‘sheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries,” said Nazariev, “is a 
 crime which you, Bolsheviki, will not be able to wash away. 
 Yesterday’s horrors are but a preface to what you are pre- 
 by such a proclamation. . . . I have always tried to 
 ‘Reconcile you with the other puntied! Bik at present I feel for 
 you nothing but contempt!” 
 _ The Bolshevik Councillors were on their feet, shouting an- 
 y, assailed by hoarse, hateful voices and waving arms. . . 
 Outside the hall I ran into the City Engineer, the Menshe- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oe 
 
 
 
 COUNTER-REVOLUTION 209 
 
 iY 
 
ad 
 
 2910 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 vik Gomberg and three or four reporters. They were all in 
 high spirits. oi 
 
 “See!” they said. “The cowards are afraid of us. They 
 don’t dare arrest the Duma! Their Military Revolutionary 
 Committee doesn’t dare to send a Commissar into this build- 
 ing. Why, on the corner of the Sadovaya to-day, I saw a 
 Red Guard try to stop a boy selling Soldatski Golos. .. - 
 The boy just laughed at him, and a crowd of people wanted 
 to lynch the bandit. It’s only a few hours more, now. Even 
 if Kerensky wouldn’t come they haven’t the men to run a 
 Government. Absurd! I understand they’re even fighting 
 among themselves at Smolny !” 
 
 A Socialist Revolutionary friend of mine drew me aside. | 
 “I know where the Committee for Salvation is hiding,” he said. 
 “Do you want to go and talk with them?” 
 
 By this time it was dusk. The city had again settled down 
 to normal—shop-shutters up, lights shining, and on the streets 
 great crowds of people slowly moving up and down and argu- 
 Waist <= | 
 At Number 86 Nevsky we went through a passage into a 
 courtyard, surrounded by tall apartment buildings. At 
 the door of apartment 229 my friend knocked in a peculiar’ 
 way. ‘There was a sound of scuffling; an inside door slammed ; 
 then the front door opened a crack and a woman’s face ap 
 peared. After a minute’s observation she led us in—a placid 
 looking, middle-aged lady who at once cried, “Kyril, it’s al 
 right!” . In the dining-room, where a samovar steamed on the 
 table and there were plates full of bread and raw fish, a man 17 
 uniform emerged from behind the window-curtains, and an; 
 
 
 
 
 other, dressed like a workman, from a closet. They were de 
 lighted to meet an American reporter. With a certain amoun 
 of gusto both said that they would certainly be shot if -th 
 Bolsheviki caught them. They would not give me their name 
 but both were Socialist Revolutionaries. .. .- 
 
COUNTER-REVOLUTION 211 
 
 “Why,” I asked, “do you publish such lies in your news- 
 pers?” 
 
 Without taking offence the officer replied, “Yes, I know; 
 but what can we do?” He shrugged. ‘You must admit that 
 it is necessary for us to create a certain frame of mind in 
 _the people... .” 
 
 _ The other man interrupted. “This is merely an adventure 
 'on the part of the Bolsheviki. They have no intellectuals, 
 1... The Ministries won’t work. . . . Russia is not a city, 
 but a whole country. . . . Realising that they can only last 
 ‘a few days, we have decided to come to the aid of the strongest 
 ‘force opposed to them—Kerensky—and help to restore or- 
 der.” 
 
 _ “That is all very well,” I said. “But why do you combine 
 with the Cadets?” 
 
 | The pseudo-workman smiled frankly. “To tell you the 
 truth, at this moment the masses of the people are following 
 ‘the Bolsheviki. We have no following—now. We can’t mo- 
 bilise a handful of soldiers. There are no arms available. . eb 
 ‘The Bolsheviki are right to a certain extent; there are at 
 ‘this moment in Russia only two parties with any force—the 
 Bolsheviki and the reactionaries, who are all hiding under the 
 coat-tails of the Cadets. The Cadets think they are using 
 us; but it is really we who are using the Cadets. When we 
 (smash the Bolsheviki we shall turn against the Cadets. . . .” 
 | “Will the Bolsheviki be admitted into the new Govern- 
 ment?” 
 
 ii He scratched his head. “That’s a problem,” he admitted. 
 “Of course if they are not admitted, they’ll probably do this 
 all over again. At any rate, they will have a chance to hold 
 the balance of power in the Constituent—that is, if there és 
 . Constituent.” 
 
 _ “And then, too,” said the officer, “that brings up the 
 lestion of admitting the Cadets into the new Government— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
f 
 / 
 
 912 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 3 , rte ae 
 
 and for the same reasons. You know the Cadets do not really 
 want the Constituent Assembly—not if the Bolsheviki can " } 
 destroyed now.” He shook his head. “It is not easy for us | 
 Russians, politics. You Americans are born politicians ; you 
 have had politics all your lives. But for us—well, it has only 
 been a year, you know!” 
 
 “What do you think of Kerensky?”? I asked. 
 
 “Oh, Kerensky is guilty of the sins of the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment,” answered the other man. “Kerensky himself forced 
 us to accept coalition with the bourgeoisie. If he had re~ 
 signed, as he threatened, it would have meant a new Cabinet 
 crisis only sixteen weeks before the Constituent Assembly, and | 
 that we wanted to avoid.” 
 
 “But didn’t it amount to that anyway?” | 
 
 “Yes, but how were we to know? They tricked us—the | 
 Kerenskys and Avksentievs. Gotz is a little more radical. I 
 stand with T’chernov, who is a real revolutionist. . . . Why, 
 only to-day Lenin sent word that he would not object to 
 Tchernov entering the Government. 
 
 “We wanted to get rid of the Kerensky Government too, 
 but we thought it better to wait for the Constituent. . ... At 
 the beginning of this affair I was with the Bolsheviki, but the 
 Central Committee of my party voted unanimously against 
 ‘and what could I do? It was a matter of party disci-| 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pline. .- - 
 “In a week the Bolshevik Government will go to pieces; if 
 the Socialist Revolutionaries could only stand aside and wait, 
 the Government would fall into their hands. But if we wait a 
 week the country will be so disorganised that the German im- 
 perialists will be victorious. ‘That is why we began our revol 
 with only two regiments of soldiers promising to support us— 
 and they turned against us... - That left only the 
 yunkers. . 
 “How about the Cossacks?” 
 
COUNTER-REVOLUTION DTM CEES 
 
 
 
 The officer sighed. “They did not move. At first they said | 
 they would come out if they had infantry support. They said 
 ‘Moreover that they had their men with Kerensky, and that they 
 “were doing their part. . . . Then, too, they said that the Cos- 
 sacks were always accused of being the hereditary enemies of 
 democracy. - -. And finally, ‘The Bolsheviki promise that 
 they will not take away our land. There is no danger to us. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 We remain neutral.’ ” 
 
 During this talk people were constantly entering and leay- 
 ing—most of them officers, their shoulder-straps torn off. We 
 ‘could see them in the hall, and hear their low, vehement voices. 
 Occasionally, through the half-drawn portiéres, we caught a 
 glimpse of a door opening into a bath-room, where a heavily- 
 built officer in a colonel’s uniform sat on the toilet, writing 
 something on a pad held in his lap. I recognised Colonel 
 Polkovnikov, former commandant of Petrograd, for whose 
 arrest the Military Revolutionary Committee would have paid 
 2 fortune. | 
 
 “Our programme?” said the officer. “This is jt. Land to 
 ve turned over to the Land Committees. Workmen to have 
 
 . 
 
 gh representation in the control of industry. An energetic 
 
 
 
 yeace programme, but not an ultimatum to the world such 
 ts the Bolsheviki issued. The Bolsheviki cannot keep their 
 romises to the masses, even in the country itself. We won’t 
 at them. . . . They stole our land programme in order to get 
 he support of the peasants. That is dishonest. If they had 
 raited for the Constituent Assembly es 
 
 _ “It doesn’t matter about the Constituent Assembly !”? broke 
 1 the officer. “If the Bolsheviki want to establish a Socialist 
 tate here, we cannot work with them in any event! Kerensky 
 lade the great mistake. He let the Bolsheviki know what he 
 as going to do by announcing in the Council of the Republic 
 iat he had ordered their arrest. . . .” 
 
 - “But what,” I said, “do you intend to do now?” 
 a 
 
 
 
 = 
 
. 
 
 914 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD — oi | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The two men looked at one another. ‘You will see in a 
 few days. If there are enough troops from the front on our — 
 side, we shall not compromise with the Bolsheviki. If not, per- 
 haps we shall be forced to... .” | 
 
 Out again on the Nevsky we swung on the step of a street- 
 car bulging with people, its platforms bent down from the 
 weight and scraping along the ground, which crawled with 
 agonising slowness the long miles to Smolny. 
 
 Meshkovsky, a neat, frail little man, was coming down the 
 hall, looking worried. The strikes in the Ministries, he told us, 
 were having their effect. For snstance, the Council of People’s — 
 Commissars had promised to publish the Secret Treaties; but_ 
 Neratov, the functionary in charge, had disappeared, taking the 
 documents with him. They were supposed to be hidden in the 
 British Embassy... - - | 
 
 Worst of all, however, was the strike in the banks. “With- 
 out money,” said Menzhinsky, “we are helpless. The wages 
 of the railroad men, of the postal and telegraph employees, 
 must be paid. . . . The banks are closed; and the key to the 
 
 situation, the State Bank, is also shut. All the bank-clerks 
 in Russia have been bribed to stop WOrk: .<\)a5 
 “But Lenin has issued an order to dynamite the State Bank 
 vaults, and there is a Decree just out, ordering the private 
 banks to open to-morrow, or we will open them ourselves Ce 
 The Petrograd Soviet was in full swing, thronged with 
 armed men, Trotzky reporting: 
 “The Cossacks are falling back from Krasnoye Selo.” 
 (Sharp, exultant cheering.) ‘But the battle is only beginning: 
 At Pulkovo heavy fighting is going on. All available forces 
 must be hurried there. . - 
 “From Moscow, bad news. The Kremlin is in the hands 0! 
 the yunkers, and the workers have only a few arms. The resul 
 depends upon Petrograd. 
 “At the front, the decrees on Peace and Land are pr 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 COUNTER-REVOLUTION 215 
 
 | v bine great enthusiasm. Kerensky is flooding the trenches 
 / with tales of Petrograd burning and bloody, of women and 
 children massacred by the Bolsheviki. But no one believes 
 
 | “The cruisers Oleg, Avrora and Respublica are anchored 
 in the Neva, their guns trained on the approaches to the 
 fmbys 6.5.” 
 | “Why aren’t you out there with the Red Guards?” shouted 
 (a rough voice. 
 » “I’m going now!” answered Trotzky, and left the platform. 
 His face a little paler than usual, he passed down the side of 
 ‘the room, surrounded by eager friends, and hurried out to the 
 ‘waiting automobile. 
 ' Kameniev now spoke, describing the proceedings of the 
 |Teconciliation conference. The armistice conditions proposed 
 by the Mensheviki, he said, had been contemptuously rejected. 
 Even the branches of the Railwaymen’s Union had voted 
 against such a proposition. 
 | “Now that we’ve won the power and are sweeping all Rus- 
 sia,” he declared, “all they ask of us are three little things: 
 1. To surrender the power. 2. To make the soldiers con- 
 tinue the war. 3. To make the peasants forget about the 
 ae ay 
 , Lenin Pei for a moment, to answer the accusations 
 Ne the Socialist Revolutionaries: 
 
 “They charge us with stealing their land programme. . . . 
 If that is so, we bow to them. It is good enough for us. . . .” 
 __ So the meeting roared on, leader after leader explaining, 
 exhorting, arguing, soldier after soldier, workman after work- 
 | ‘man, standing up to speak his mind and his heart. . The 
 /audience flowed, changing and renewed continually. Reon time 
 to time men came in, yelling for the members of such and 
 
 such a detachment, to go to the front; others, relieved, 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 
3 
 
 216 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 wounded, or coming to Smolny for arms and equipment, poured 
 Bs 05 
 It was almost three o’clock in the morning when, as we left 
 the hall, Holtzman, of the Military Revolutionary Committee, 
 came running down the hall with a transfigured face. 
 
 “It’s all right!” he shouted, grabbing my hands. “Tele- 
 gram from the front. Kerensky is smashed! Look at this!” 
 
 He held out a sheet of paper, scribbled hurriedly in pencil, 
 and then, seeing we couldn’t read it, he declaimed aloud: 
 
 Pulkovo. Staff. 2.10 a.m. | 
 
 The night of October 30th to 31st will go down in history. | 
 The attempt of Kerensky to move counter-revolutionary troops 
 against the capital of the Revolution has been decisively repulsed. 
 Kerensky is retreating, we are advancing. The soldiers, sailors 
 and workers of Petrograd have shown that they can and will with 
 arms in their hands enforce the will and authority of the democ- 
 racy. The bourgeoisie tried to isolate the revolutionary army. 
 Kerensky attempted to break it by the force of the Cossacks. Both 
 plans met a pitiful defeat. 
 
 The grand idea of the domination of the worker and peasant 
 democracy closed the ranks of the army and hardened its will. 
 All the country from now on will be convinced that the Power of 
 the Soviets is no ephemeral thing, but an invincible fact. ... The 
 repulse of Kerensky is the repulse of the land-owners, the bour- 
 geoisie and the Kornilovists in general. The repulse of Kerensky is 
 the confirmation of the right of the people to a peaceful free life, 
 to land, bread and power. The Pulkovo detachment by its valor- 
 ous blow has strengthened the cause of the Workers’ and Peasants’ 
 Revolution. There is no return to the past. Before us are strug: 
 gles, obstacles and sacrifices. But the road is clear and victory 
 is certain. 
 
 Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Power can be proud of 
 their Pulkovo detachment, acting under the command of Colone. 
 Walden. Eternal memory to those who fell! Glory to the war 
 
 
 

 
 
 _COUNTER-REVOLUTION 217 
 
 lors of the Revolution, the soldiers and the officers who were faith- 
 to the People! 
 
 Long live revolutionary, popular, Socialist Russia! 
 In the name of the Council, 
 
 L. Trorzxy, People’s Commissar. . 
 
 4. 
 ; 
 
 Driving'-home across Znamensky Square, we made out an 
 anusual crowd in front of the Nicolai Railway Station. Sey- 
 oral thousand sailors were massed there, bristling with rifles. 
 
 : Standing on the steps, a member of the Vikzhel was plead-. 
 ng with them. 
 
 _ “Comrades, we cannot carry you to Moscow. We are 
 neutral. We do not carry troops for either side. We cannot 
 wake you to Moscow, where already there is terrible civil 
 var. . a 
 
 All the seething Square roared at him; the sailors began 
 ‘0 surge forward. Suddenly another door was flung wide; in 
 t stood two or three brakeman, a fireman or so. 
 
 j “This way, comrades!” cried one. “We will take you to 
 
 foscow—or Viadivostok, if you like! Long live the Revolu- 
 ion!” 
 

 
 CHAPTER IX 
 VICTORY 
 
 Order Number I 
 
 To the Troops of the Pulkovo Detachment. 
 November 13, 1917. 38 minutes past 9 a. m. 
 After a cruel fight the troops of the Pulkovo detachment com- 
 pletely routed the counter-revolutionary forces, who retreated from 
 their positions in disorder, and under cover of Tsarskoye Selo fell | 
 back toward Pavlovsk II and Gatchina. | 
 - Qur advanced units occupied the northeastern extremity of 
 Tsarskoye Selo and the station Alexandrovskaya. The Colpinno 
 detachment was on our left, the Krasnoye Selo detachment to our 
 right. 
 I ordered the Pulkovo forces to occupy Tsarskoye Selo, to for- 
 tify its approaches, especially on the side of Gatchina. 
 Also to pass and occupy Pavlovskoye, fortifying its southern 
 side, and to take up the railroad as far as Dno. 
 The troops must take all measures to strengthen the positions 
 occupied by them, arranging trenches and other defensive works. 
 They must enter into close liaison with the detachments of 
 Colpinno and Krasnoye Selo, and also with the Staff of the Com- 
 mander in Chief for the Defence of Petrograd. 
 Signed, 
 
 
 
 Commander in Chief aver all Forces acting against 
 the Counter-revolutionary Troops of Kerensky, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Muraviov. 
 
 Tuesday morning. But how is this? Only two days agi 
 the Petrograd campagna was full of leaderless bands, wander 
 218 i 
 

 
 
 VICTORY 219 | 
 
 F g eanlesety without food, without artillery, without a plan. 
 
 What had fused that disorganised mass of undisciplined Red 
 ards, and soldiers without officers, into an army obedient 
 i o its own elected high command, tempered to meet and break 
 the assault of cannon and Cossack cavalry? 4 
 
 ‘a People in revolt have a way of defying military precedent. 
 
 The ragged armies of the French Revolution are not forgot- 
 } 
 
 fF 
 
 } 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 ten—Valmy and the Lines of Weissembourg. Massed against 
 the Soviet forces were ywnkers, Cossacks, land- -owners, nobility, 
 | Black Hundreds—the T'sar come again, Okhrana and Siberian 
 ' chains; and the vast and terrible menace of the Germans. 
 ‘Victory, i in the words of Carlyle, meant “Apotheosis and Mil- 
 lennium without end!” 
 
 ' Sunday night, the Commissars of the Military Revolution- 
 |ary Committee returning desperately from the field, the gar- 
 ween of Petrograd elected its Committee of Five, its Battle 
 | Staff, three soldiers and two officers, all certified free from 
 "counter-revolutionary taint. Colonel Muraviov, ex-patriot, 
 _Was in command—an efficient man, but to be carefully watched. 
 At Colpinno, at Obukhovo, at Pulkovo and Krasnoye Selo were 
 formed provisional detachments, increased in size as the strag- 
 Hers came in from the surrounding country—mixed soldiers, 
 /sailors and Red Guards, parts of regiments, infantry, cavalry 
 : and artillery all together, and a few armoured cars. 
 
 | Day broke, and the pickets of Kerensky’s Cossacks came in 
 ‘touch. Scattered rifle-fire, summons to surrender. Over the 
 bleak plain on the cold quiet air spread the sound of battle, 
 falling upon the ears of roving bands as they gathered about 
 ‘their little fires, waiting. . . . So it was beginning! They 
 | made toward the battle; and the worker hordes pouring out 
 along the straight roads quickened their pace. . . . Thus upon 
 all the points of attack automatically honorees angry human 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ 2 References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter IX. See: 
 lage 350. 
 
3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 999 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 swarms, to be met by Commissars and assigned positions, or 
 work to do. This was their battle, for their world; the of- 
 ficers in command were elected by them. For the moment that 
 incoherent multiple will was one will... . 
 
 Those who participated in the fighting described to me how 
 the sailors fought until they ran out of cartridges, and then 
 stormed; how the untrained workmen rushed the charging Cos- 
 sacks and tore them from their horses; how the anonymous 
 hordes of the people, gathering in the darkness around the 
 battle, rose like a tide and poured over the enemy. . . - Before 
 midnight of Monday the Cossacks broke and were fleeing, leav- 
 ing their artillery behind them, and the army of the pro- 
 letariat, on a long ragged front, moved forward and rolled into 
 Tsarskoye, before the enemy had a chance to destroy the 
 great Government wireless station, from which now the Com- 
 missars of Smolny were hurling out to the world paeans of 
 triumph... . 
 
 TO ALL SOVIETS OF WORKERS AND SOLDIERS DEPUTIES 
 
 The 12th of November, in a bloody combat near Tsarskoye 
 Selo, the revolutionary army defeated the counter-revolutionary 
 troops of Kerensky and Kornilov. In the name of the Revolution- 
 ary Government I order all regiments to take the offensive against 
 the enemies of the revolutionary democracy, and to take all meas- 
 ures to arrest Kerensky, and also to oppose any adventure which 
 might menace the conquests of the Revolution and the victory of 
 the proletariat. | 
 
 Long live the Revolutionary Army! 
 
 . Moraviov. 
 
 News from the provinces... . 
 At Sevastopol the local Soviet had assumed the power; 8 
 huge meeting of the sailors on the battleships in the harbour 
 had forced their officers to line up and swear allegiance to the 
 new Government. At Nizhni Novgorod the Soviet was in com 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 VICTORY Qa) 
 
 | rol, From Kazan came reports of a battle in the streets, 
 | yunkers and a brigade of artillery against the Bolshevik gar- 
 jerison. .-. . 
 
 bE _ Desperate fighting had broken out again in Moscow. The 
 \ _yunkers and White Guards held the Kremlin and the centre 
 Yi of the town, beaten upon from all sides by the troops of the 
 | Military Revolutionary Committee. The Soviet artillery was 
 ) stationed in Skobeliey Square, bombarding the City Duma 
 | building, the Prefecture and the Hotel Metropole. The cobble- 
 | stones of the Tverskaya and Nikitskaya had been torn up 
 | for trenches and barricades. A hail of machine-gun fire swept 
 | the quarters of the great banks and commercial houses. There 
 4 were no lights, no telephones ; the bourgeois population lived in 
 | the cellars. . . . The last bulletin said that the Military Revo- 
 i lutionary Bekninittes had delivered an ultimatum to the Com- 
 | mittee of Public Safety, demanding the immediate surrender of 
 | the Kremlin, or bombardment would follow. 
 
 “Bombard the Kremlin?” cried the ordinary citizen. “They 
 dare not!” 
 
 From Vologda to Chita in far Siberia, from Pskov to 
 / Sevastopol on the Black Sea, in great cities and little vil- 
 | lages, civil war burst into flame. From thousands of factories, 
 | peasant communes, regiments and armies, ships on the wide 
 i sea, greetings poured into Petrograd—greetings to the Goy- 
 /ernment of the People. 
 
 _ The Cossack Government at Novotcherkask telegraphed to 
 | Kerensky, “The Government of the Cossack troops innings the 
 
 bithe Republic to come, if possible, to Novotcherkask, he we 
 Can organise m common the struggle against the Bolsheviki.” 
 | In Finland, also, wee were stirring. The Soviet of 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘ewe oad Tne 
 
 RS ETRP, | fer Ae 
 
 4 ik 7" .. my 
 eae 
 
 ggg TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 armed resistance to its orders, would be severely rep 28 ad. 
 At the same time the Finnish Railway Union called a country- — 
 wide general strike, to put into operation the laws passed by 
 the Socialist Diet of June, 1917, dissolved by Kerensky...- | 
 
 : 
 I 
 
 Early in the morning I went out to Smolny. Going up 
 the long wooden sidewalk from the outer gate I saw the firs 
 thin, hesitating snow-flakes fluttering down from the grey, 
 windless sky. “Snow!” cried the soldier at the door, grinning — 
 with delight. “Good for the health!” Inside, the long, gloomy 
 halls and bleak rooms seemed deserted. No one moved in 
 the enormous pile. A deep, uneasy sound came to my ears, 
 looking around, I noticed that everywhere on the floor, alon 
 the walls, men were sleeping. Rough, dirty men, workers 
 soldiers, spattered and caked with mud, sprawled alone or i 
 heaps, in the careless attitudes of death. Some wore ragged 
 bandages marked with blood. Guns and cartridge-belts were 
 scattered about. . . . The victorious proletarian army! | 
 
 In the upstairs buffet so thick they lay that one could 
 hardly walk. The air was foul. Through the clouded windows 
 a pale light streamed. A battered samovar, cold, stood on the 
 counter, and many glasses holding dregs of tea. Beside them 
 lay a copy of the Military Revolutionary Committee’s last 
 bulletin, upside down, scrawled with painful hand-writing. It 
 was a memorial written by some soldier to his comrades fallen 
 in the fight against Kerensky, just as he had set it down before 
 falling on the floor to sleep. The writing was blurred with 
 
 what looked like tears. ... 
 
 4 
 
 ‘oF. er 
 
 Alexei Vinogradov 
 D. Maskvin 
 
 S. Stolbikov 
 
 A. Voskressensky 
 D. Leonsky 
 
 D. Preobrazhensky 
 
 Le 
 
 
 
aitei ~ . VICTORY 223 — 
 
 __ V. Laidansky 
 
 : M. Berchikoy 
 
 __. These men were drafted into the Army on November 15th, 
 1916. Only three are left of the above. 
 
 ; Mikhail Berchikov 
 
 Alexei Voskressensky 
 
 Dmitri Leonsky 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * * SN HS HS 
 Sleep, warrior eagles, sleep with peaceful soul. 
 You have deserved, our own ones, happiness and 
 Eternal peace. Under the earth of the grave 
 You have straitly closed your ranks. Sleep, Citizens! 
 
 _ Only the Military Revolutionary Committee still func- 
 tioned, unsleeping. Skripnik, emerging from the inner room, 
 said that Gotz had been arrested, but had flatly denied sign- 
 i ing the proclamation of the Committee for Salvation, as had 
 _Avksentiev; and the Committee for Salvation itself had repu- 
 diated the Appeal to the garrison. There was still disafiec- 
 | tion among the city regiments, Skripnik reported; the Volhyn- 
 ‘sky Regiment had refused to fight against Kerensky. 
 
 Several detachments of “neutral” troops, with T’chernoy at 
 stheir head, were at Gatchina, trying to persuade Kerensky 
 \to halt his attack on Petrograd. 
 
 } Skripnik laughed. “There can be no ‘neutrals’ now,” he 
 psaid. “We’vye won!” His sharp, bearded face glowed with an 
 ‘almost religious exaltation. ‘More than sixty delegates have 
 Jarrived from the Front, with assurances of support by all 
 the armies except the troops on the Rumanian front, who 
 shave not been heard from. The Army Committees have sup- 
 pressed all news from Petrograd, but we now have a regular 
 ‘system Gf couriers, . . .” 
 
 _ Down in the front hall Kameniev was just entering, worn 
 out by the all-night session of the Conference to Form a New 
 Government, but happy. “Already the Socialist Revolution- 
 
 ; 
 , 
 ; 
 
 
 
we 
 
 Y ‘ 
 
 224 'TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 aries are inclined to admit us into the new Government,” he 
 told me. “The right wing groups are frightened by the Revo- 
 lutionary Tribunals; they demand, in a sort of panic, that we — 
 dissolve them before going any further. . . . We have ace 
 
 t 
 #4 
 i 
 \ 
 : 
 
 WARS 
 Boenno-Pepomnw- 
 
 nionnaro Komm- 
 TeTa. 
 
 Cosira, Pou C.n- YROCTOBSPERIE. 
 
 ; 6 917 re . 
 2 wonspaul9l7 t Jlano cie aypHanuéraus Hsw-lopxcxol cogienutrz-. 
 
 AN 1969 “weckof# mpeccu Jany PUTS 85 romb,¥ro TeKcTs wenerpe 
 ui mpocmorpius [paamrenscrsoms HapoqHuxS Rpmucceposs 
 
 a mpensTorsiai KS ormpansenin Be uMbeTCA,6 Tarixe | 
 mpegnaraerca Bcauecky copBlicTBoBbers eA OTnpaBseHin i 
 
 7 
 
 10 HASsHAVeHI4. 
 
 
 
 Order given me at Staff headquarters by command of the Council of People’s 
 Commissars, to transmit the first despatch out of Perograd after the November Revo- 
 lution, over the Government wires to America. 
 
 (Translation) 
 STAFF 
 Military Revolutionary 
 Committee 
 Sov. W. & S. D. 
 2 November, 1917 
 No. 1860 
 CERTIFICATE 
 Is given by the present to the journalist of the New York Socialist press JouN 
 Reep, that the text of the telegram (herewith) has been examined by the Government 
 of People’s Commissars, and there is no objection to its transmission, and also it is 
 recommended that all cooperate in every way to transmit same to its destination, 
 For the Commander in Chief, ANTONOV 
 Chief of Staff, Viap. Boncu-BruEvITcH 
 
 cepted the proposition of the Vikzhel to form a homogeneous 
 Socialist Ministry, and they’re working on that now. You 
 see, it all springs from our victory. When we were down, 
 they wouldn’t have us at any price; now everybody’s in favour 
 of some agreement with the Soviets. . . . What we need is a 
 
 < 
 
 | 
 { 
 
 
 

 
 VICTORY 995. 
 
 | really decisive victory. Kerensky wants an armistice, but he’l! 
 | have to surrender.” . . .” 
 4 That was the temper of the Bolshevik leaders. To a 
 : foreign journalist who asked Trotzky what statement he had 
 _ to make to the world, Trotzky replied: “At this moment the 
 : only statement possible is the one we are making through the 
 - mouths of our cannon!” | 
 | But there was an undercurrent of real anxiety in the tide 
 _of victory; the question of finances. Instead of opening the 
 _ banks, as had been ordered by the Military Revolutionary 
 t Committee, the Union of Bank Employees had held a meeting 
 and declared a formal strike. Smolny had demanded some 
 thirty-five millions of rubles from the State Bank, and the cash- 
 ler had locked the vaults, only paying out money to the repre- 
 sentatives of the Provisional Government. The reactionaries 
 _ were using the State Bank as a political weapon; for instance, 
 when the Vikzhel demanded money to pay the salaries of the 
 employees of the Government railroads, it was told to apply 
 to Smolny.... 
 I went to the State Bank to see the new Commissar, a red- 
 haired Ukrainean Bolshevik named Petrovitch. He was trying 
 ‘to bring order out of the chaos in which affairs had been 
 left by the striking clerks. In all the offices of the huge place 
 perspiring volunteer workers, soldiers and sailors, their tongues 
 sticking out of their mouths in the intensity of their effort, 
 ‘were poring over the great ledgers with a bewildered air. ... 
 The Duma building was crowded. There were still isolated 
 cases of defiance toward the new Government, but they were 
 | rare. ‘The Central Land Committee had appealed to the 
 Peasants, ordering them not to recognise the Land Decree 
 passed by the Congress of the Soviets, because it would cause 
 confusion and civil war. Mayor Schreider announced that be- 
 ‘cause of the Bolshevik insurrection, the elections to the Con- 
 “stituent Assembly would have to be indefinitely postponed. 
 
226 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ~ 4 
 
 Two questions seemed to be uppermost in all minds, chose 
 by the ferocity of the civil war; first, a truce to the bloodshed*— 
 second, the creation of a new Government. There was no 
 longer any talk of “destroying the Bolsheviki”—and very little 
 about excluding them from the Government, except from the 
 Populist Socialists and the Peasants’ Soviets. Even the Cen- 
 tral Army Committee at the Stavka, the most determined enemy 
 of Smolny, telephoned from Moghilev: “If, to constitute the 
 new Ministry, it is necessary to come to an understanding with 
 the Bolsheviki, we agree to admit them in a minority to the Cab- 
 inet.” } 
 
 Pravda, ironically calling attention to Kerensky’s “humani- | 
 tarian sentiments,” published his despatch to the Committee 
 for Salvation: : 
 
 In accord with the proposals of the Committee for Salvation 
 and all the democratic organisations united around it, I have halted 
 all military action against the rebels. A delegate of the Commit- 
 tee has been sent to enter into negotiations. Take all measures 
 to stop the useless shedding of blood. 
 
 The Vikzhel sent a telegram to all Russia: 
 
 The Conference of the Union of Railway Workers with the 
 representatives of both the belligerent parties, who admit the neces- 
 sity of an agreement, protest energetically against the use of politi- 
 cal terrorism in the civil war, especially when it is carried on be- 
 tween different factions of the revolutionary democracy, and de-. 
 clare that political terrorism, in whatever form, is in contradiction 
 to the very idea of the negotiations for a new Government. .. . 
 
 Delegations from the Conference were sent to the Front, to 
 Gatchina. In the Conference itself everything seemed on the 
 point of final settlement. It had even been decided to 
 elect a Provisional People’s Council, composed of about four 
 hundred members—seventy-five representing Smolny, seventy- 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ss Anadacrh Cams 
 
 
 
 tua 20 Kon. 
 
 
 
 —BOATVHY, 
 
 URASOURH H ISCOHKH JA Sted MpASbIBHAN Bo3pacTa 
 SAE PDUHAD Jal DTH MPHSDIBHAN BOSPACTA 
 
 Kax® onn napctsosang, — “ro HK 
 
 : 08 Peopasn Agmusucr). 
 
 | <Barao gto nog Mowranol: .. 
 Bspovems, sro Tare ¢SANEBRTS YG 
 He rozacs sa seywme® cussod, 
 Ai xowy sass pasexezars, 
 
 © Cras TERD rOmoRa, 
 ‘Tons , FEO ACPMECE, 
 Ore upanaema, spavo cnsz0, 
 
 [ 
 - Haxetra name pevace, 
 Voupabrecs wy roasacasl., 
 
  nomao, nomao 
 
 : 
 y 
 
 Popular leaflet sold i 
 ‘hymes and jokes about t 
 aalled, “How THE Boorz 
 
 Tenepb NGI0 Th, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 RaTypaaseo, FATS EriaKAIt Ae sRASIE. 
 
 A @ 8B Ty DOpy =B Hamel eanacre 
 HOBBIC OPHULTS Hb BNECTR a BCAKiA TaN 
 cis Bava OpseETs ma cassy Poccia, 
 
 10 8) e) ais) 0.6) ie 0/010 G0 6 6.4. cies 
 
 CKAZO4KA, 
 
 3a mepoarma mMopmm, 
 
 Dporapt aeda na sewurb 
 
 Kart crapans e& ommome cond 
 ¥ ecropmyyema vpn can; 
 Crapmift ponw8 G.urs 
 
 Cpeam®@ Cua expa eroposs, 
 By, a tponit dsurs—Yepnoss, 
 Qrors Tapers Oburs pocemif, 
 Bosadere» npo rpyas réaco.reil, | 
 Ha Geparncxi® wanevars 
 
 Ome resemy e2gesarn, 
 
 cee eee ew oeer 
 
 Bs toll rasore& riers o uxph, 
 Caovoses, Gens omp, rocnoaa, 
 Dopsomenem., xors nyxa. 
 Beat aero Poccia ecrena, 
 Th LK6pmsesbr? eaceneRm, 
 Y, & OvoT! AGuORDETS 
 forosos Oss pars. 
 Upsxsram Bt Poceim Gtrcrpo, 
 Tlosarmtca xo semractpa, 
 Cram crparom yupagnats 
 Crore scummy paagbants, 
 Cram apGnmens 7 2Cb-2pOBh, 
 Y ceanrs, y.. axymepoxr, 
 Caovors, maore reaanrL care 
 Beraymans y sobre eprom, 
 
 “+06 
 
 n the streets just after the Bolshey 
 he defeated bourgeoisie and the 
 HUI (Bourceorsre) Lost tHE Power.” 
 
 227 
 
 TyTh apyrie apnonrertaza, 
 
 Boe sowam w mycromaau., 
 
 Ml eosaeeca, Borome zai 
 Teuoxpars CoanaGepaaws 
 
 Ki 00 cobera, no vectu 
 
 Crass spanmrs ack-ro asrécrh, 
 Kro saepegs, KTo xwurca Screw, 
 Ocumatemo, xoTs saa, 
 
 e. | ee bee cae 
 
 — 8, aa, subcro Purs, 
 F-2, OCU amas ars, roc- 
 
 Gain, 4a. 
 
 Tyrs a aw tare echrs crpaman, echr. 
 eTpaiars, 
 
 A noroar, Spamzocs Ghuzats, cpamnocs 
 Gioxars. la 
 
 Beumam Meh smcro, yxacao “EcTO, 
 VekaCkO Sern), 
 
 Ds ma oc cme emuacrpa, rob saacts 
 uuBACTpa? 
 
 All-ail-adl-nAl., 
 
 
 
 
 paci&Banum, — “Are 
 
 Y novo ecrs w% coparé manvers, 
 Tlycts pomomers mise KOTS MADOCTS 
 B aa vowoms mee mpeqers: 
 Xors 8b simelkyap, @ro-aah—wrey 
 f were. 
 
 Sawer, i 
 meee, eet esr. 
 
 Eco xe Ohome morae-to 
 +Kunx cospz0 m Gorero, 
 A reeeps satis ux. xpal: 
 Xors xomact, ga cowapail.. 
 
 AOIEH SHTROAEBY 
 
 Yepuoss. 
 (ie moanes «Cwonems caruBt ug 
 
 Croners cassrit rony6ouexs, 
 Crofers om> 5» Aem a HOT, 
 
 “eo #8 STyTR moan, Lopuoe, 
 “iro cubrovea ago w08- 
 
 Or. myvems or, meoro 
 
 Kesum g ko pags cavoll. 
 
 fixwa, n-ne ae crapanca, 
 
 Flay xpeersasesn, oe exprars, 
 
 Mi reneps, yous, 2 \stca 
 
 Crate HS HYwCHS BiTh, AO Me 
 Ha pyoré moe reson, 
 
 Xeon come, 2a wm op. 
 UpsArbaorenemt ceOpeat 
 Cuspaqoaosy Mapa 
 
 -na, a-ag ne crapancs, 
 
 Fi-as «pecTasuansh Be coyeael 
 A veceps Caw mocaaaca: 
 
 Crea% uporeneas mrk, 86 eeTahe 
 
 Aprynosy, 
 
 Axb, Th, 1012, Mon none, 
 Jiona Ohanaxa,—~ 
 
 hisoro cabanay uw avs rORR, 
 Bose wyprane 
 
 Ulean Gestpeserno Ky CO 000R ay 
 Oponaes wae scuect, 
 
 ik insurrection, containing 
 “moderate” Socialist leaders. 
 
. 
 
 f 
 
 998 +='TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 five the old T'say-ce-kah, and the rest split up among the Town 
 Dumas, the Trade Unions, Land Committees and political par- 
 ties. ‘T'chernov was mentioned as the new Premier. Lenin and | 
 Trotzky, rumour said, were to be excluded. . . . . 
 
 About noon I was again in front of Smolny, talking with 
 the driver of an ambulance bound for the revolutionary front. 
 Could I go with him? Certainly! He was a volunteer, @ 
 University student, and as we rolled down the street shouted 
 over his shoulder to me phrases of execrable German: “Also, 
 gut! Wir nach die Kasernen zu essen gehen!’ I made out | 
 that there would be lunch at some barracks. 
 
 On the Kirotchnaya we turned into an immense court- 
 yard surrounded by military buildings, and mounted a dark | 
 stairway to a low room lit by one window. Ata long wooden | 
 table were seated some twenty soldiers, eating shtcht (cabbage — 
 soup) from.a great tin wash-tub with wooden spoons, and talk- | 
 ing loudly with much laughter. 
 
 “Welcume to the Battalion Committee of the Sixth Reserve 
 Engineers’ Battalion!” cried my friend, and introduced me as 
 an American Socialist. Whereat every one rose to shake my 
 
 hand, and one old soldgr put his arms around me and gave 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 me a hearty kiss. en spoon was produced and I took 
 nother tub, full of kasha, was 
 
 ck bread, and of course the inevit- 
 
 my place at the 
 brought in, a huge 
 able tea-pots. At. 
 about America: Was it tr 
 
 one began asking me questions 
 that people in a free country sold | 
 their votes for money? If so, how did they get what they | 
 wanted? How about this “Tammany”? Was it true that in 
 a free country a little group of people could control a 
 whole city, and exploited it for their personal benefit? . Why 
 did the people stand it? Even under the Tsar such things 
 could not happen in Russia; true, here there was always graft, 
 but to buy and sell a whole city full of people! And in @ 
 
 
 

 
 
 VICTORY 229 
 
 free country! Had the people no revolutionary feeling? I 
 tried to explain that in my country people tried to change 
 _ things by law. 
 a “of course,” nodded a young sergeant, named Baklanov, 
 _who spoke French. “But you have a highly developed capital- 
 ist class? Then the capitalist class must control the legisla- 
 _tures and the courts. How then can the people change things ? 
 ‘Iam open to conviction, for I do not know your country; but 
 to me it is incredible... .” 
 
 i I said that I was going to Tsarskoye Selo. “T, too,” said 
 'Baklanov, suddenly. “And I—and I ” The whole roomful 
 ‘decided on the spot to go to Tsarskoye Selo. 
 
 ) Just then came a knock on the door. It opened, and in 
 ‘it stood the figure of the Colonel. No one rose, but all shouted 
 ja greeting. “May I come in?” asked the Colonel. “Prosim!/ 
 Prosim!” they answered heartily. He entered, smiling, a tall, 
 distinguished figure in a goat-skin cape embroidered with gold. 
 “I think I heard you say that you were going to Tsarskoye 
 Selo, comrades,” he said. “Could I go with you?” 
 
 Baklanov considered. “I do not think there js anything to 
 be done here to-day,” he answered. “Yes, comrade, we shall 
 be very glad to have you.” The Colonel thanked him and sat 
 down, filling a glass of tea. 
 
 ' In a low voice, for fear of wounding the Colonel’s pride, 
 Baklanoy explained to me. “You see, I am the chairman of 
 the Committee. We control the Battalion absolutely, except 
 ‘n action, when the Colonel is delegated by us to command. 
 fn action his orders must be obeyed, but he is strictly respon- 
 sible to us. In barracks he must ask our permission before 
 waking any action... . You might call him our Executive 
 W@iicer. . . .” 
 
 ¥ Arms were distributed to us, revolvers and rifles—‘we 
 night meet some Cossacks, you know”—and we al] piled into 
 ‘he ambulance, together with three great bundles of newspapers 
 
 % 
 
 
 
[— 
 ye 
 
 230 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 for the front. Straight down the Liteiny we rattled, and along 
 the Zagorodny Prospekt. Next to me sat a youth with the 
 shoulder-straps of a Lieutenant, who seemed to speak all 
 European languages with equal fluency. He was a member of 
 the Battalion Committee. 
 
 “JT am not a Bolshevik,” he assured me, emphatically. “My 
 family is a very ancient and noble one. I, myself, am, you 
 might say, a Cadet. . . hi | 
 “But how ?? I hegan, bewildered. 
 
 “Oh, yes, I am a member of the Committee. I make no 
 
 
 
 secret of my political opinions, but the others do not mind, — 
 because they know I do not believe in opposing the will of 
 the majority... . I have refused to take any action in the 
 present civil war, however, for I do not believe in taking up 
 arms against my brother Russians. . . .” 
 
 “Provocator! Kornilovitz!” the others cried at him gaily, | 
 slapping him on the shoulder. . . . | 
 
 Passing under the huge grey stone archway of the Moskov- 
 sky Gate, covered with golden hieroglyphics, ponderous Im- 
 perial eagles and the names of Tsars, we sped out on the wide 
 straight highway, grey with the first light fall of snow. It was 
 thronged with Red Guards, stumbling along on foot toward the 
 revolutionary front, shouting and singing; and others, grey- 
 faced and muddy, coming back. Most of them seemed to be 
 mere boys. Women with spades, some with rifles and bando- 
 Jeers, others wearing the Red Cross on their arm-bands—the 
 bowed, toil-worn women of the slums. Squads of soldiers 
 marching out of step, with an affectionate jeer for the Red 
 Guards; sailors, grim-looking; children with bundles of food for 
 their fathers and mothers; all these, coming and going, trudged 
 through the whitened mud that covered the cobbles of the high: 
 way inches deep. We passed cannon, jingling southward with 
 their caissons; trucks bound both ways, bristling with armec 
 men; ambulances full of wounded from the direction of the bat: 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 LEROY: VICTORY | 231 | 
 
 tle, and once a peasant cart, creaking slowly along, in which sat 
 "a. white-faced boy bent over his shattered stomach and scream- 
 ing monotonously. In the fields on either side women and old 
 "men were digging trenches and stringing barbed wire entangle- 
 - ments. 
 
 Back northward the clouds rolled away dramatically, and 
 “the pale sun came out. Across the flat, marshy plain Petrograd 
 -glittered. To the right, white and gilded and coloured bulbs 
 and pinnacles ; to the left, tall chimneys, some pouring out 
 black smoke; and beyond, a lowering sky over Finland. On 
 
 each side of us were churches, monasteries. . . . Occasionally 
 F monk was visible, silently watching the pulse of the pro- 
 { letarian army throbbing on the road. 
 
 | At Pulkovo the road divided, and there we halted in the 
 midst of a great crowd, where the human streams poured from 
 4 hree directions, friends meeting, excited and congratulatory, 
 ie escribing the battle to one another. A row of houses facing 
 ' the cross-roads was marked with bullets, and the earth was 
 _ trampled into mud half a mile around. The fighting had been 
 ous here... .In the near distance riderless Cossack 
 Morses circled hungrily, for the grass of the piain had died 
 long ago. Right in front of us an awkward Red Guard was 
 trying to ride one, falling off again and again, to the child- 
 like delight of a thousand rough men. 
 
 4 The left road, along which the remnants of the Cossacks 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ad retreated, led up a little hill to a hamlet, where 
 
 mere was a glorious view of the immense plain, grey 
 : a windless sea, tumultuous clouds towering’ over, and 
 -the imperial city disgorging its thousands along all the roads. 
 Far over to the left lay the little hill of Kranoye Selo, the 
 | parade-ground of the Imperial Guards’ summer camp, and the 
 4tmperial Dairy. In the middle distance nothing broke the flat 
 monotony but a few walled monasteries and convents, some 
 
_ 
 
 } ong \ bE OTR Yo oO 
 ‘ 
 
 
 
 
 
 932 "TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 a 
 7 
 “ 
 
 ‘solated factories, and several large buildings with unkempt 
 grounds that were asylums and orphanages. . - - | % 
 
 “Here,” said the driver, as we went on over a barren hill, — 
 “here was where Vera Slutskaya died. Yes, the Bolshevik 
 member of the Duma. It happened early this morning. She 
 was in an automobile, with Zalkind and another man. ‘There 
 was a truce, and they started for the front trenches. They were 
 talking and laughing, when all of a sudden, from the armoured 
 train in which Kerensky himself was riding, somebody saw — 
 the automobile and fired a cannon. The shell struck Vera 
 Slutskaya and killed her. . . ae ‘ 
 
 And so we came into Tsarskoye, all bustling with the swag- 
 sering heroes of the proletarian horde. Now the palace where the — 
 Soviet had met was a busy place. Red Guards and sailors filled | 
 the court-yard, sentries stood at the doors, and a stream of cou- | 
 riers and Commissars pushed in and out. In the Soviet room 
 a samovar had been set up, and fifty or more workers, soldiers, 
 sailors and officers stood around, drinking tea and talking at 
 the top of their voices. In one corner two clumsy-handed 
 workingmen were trying to make a multigraphing machine go. 
 At the centre table, the huge Dybenko bent over a map, mark- 
 ing out positions for the troops with red and blue pencils. In 
 his free hand he carried, as always, the enormous blue- 
 steel revolver. Anon he sat himself down at a typewriter and 
 pounded away with one finger ; every little while he would pause, 
 pick up the revolver, and lovingly spin the chamber. 
 
 A couch lay along the wall, and on this was stretched 
 a young workman. ‘Two Red Guards were bending over 
 him, but the rest of the company did not pay any atten- 
 tion. In his breast was a hole; through his clothes fresh blood 
 came welling up with every heart-beat. His eyes were closed, 
 and his young, bearded face was greenish-white. Faintly and 
 slowly he still breathed, with every breath sighing, “Mir boudit! 
 Mir boudit! (Peace is coming! Peace is coming!)” 
 
 % 
 
VICTORY 233. 
 
 
 
 q Dybenko looked up as we came in. “Ah,” he said to 
 _ Baklanovy. “Comrade, will you go up to the Commandant’s 
 ' headquarters and take charge? Wait; I will write you 
 iy credentials.” He went to the See and slowly picked out 
 4 the letters. 
 ' ‘The new Commandant of Tsarskoye Selo and I went toward 
 | the Ekaterina Palace, Baklanov very excited and important. 
 i In the same ornate, white room some Red Guards were rum- 
 _ maging curiously around, while my old friend, the Colonel, 
 ih stood by the window biting his moustache. He greeted me like 
 _ a long-lost brother. At a table near the door sat the French 
 _ Bessarabian. The Bolsheviki had ordered him to remain, and 
 _ continue his work. 
 
 “What could I do?” he muttered. “People like myself 
 _ cannot fight on either side in such a war as this, no matter how 
 i much we may instinctively dislike the dictatorship of the 
 | mob. . I only regret that I am so far from my mother in 
 i SBessarabia! Ue 
 : Baklanoy was formally taking over the office from the 
 i. Commandant. “Here,” said the Colonel nervously, “are the 
 
 4 keys to the desk.” 
 
 A Red Guard interrupted. ‘“Where’s the money?” he 
 DS asked rudely. The Colonel seemed surprised. “Money ? 
 a Money? Ah, you mean the chest. There it is,” said the 
 — Colonel, “just as I found it when I took possession three days 
 i go. Keys?” ‘The Colonel shrugged. “I have no keys.” 
 
 i The Red Guard sneered knowingly. “Very convenient,” he 
 
 said. 
 
 —— 
 
 x32 
 
 ss “Let us open the chest,” said Baklanov. “Bring an axe. 
 
 ye Here is an American comrade. Let him smash the chest open, 
 fend write down what he finds there.” 
 
 ; a swung the axe. The wooden chest was empty. 
 
 de “Let’s arrest him,” said the Red Guard, venomously. “He 
 
 5s ip 
 
 . 
 
. ila 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 934 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 is Kerensky’s man. He has stolen the money and given it to” 
 Kerensky.”’ | 
 Baklanov did not want to. “Oh, no,” he said. “It was | 
 the Kornilovitz before him. He is not to blame. | ; 
 “The devil! cried the Red Guard. “He is Kerensky’s — 
 man, I tell you. If yow won’t arrest him, then we will, and 
 we'll take him to Petrograd and put him in Peter-Paul, where 
 he belongs!” At this the other Red Guards growled assent. 
 With a piteous glance at us the Colonel was led away... .- 
 
 Down in front of the Soviet palace an auto-truck was going 
 to the front. Half a dozen Red Guards, some sailors, and a 
 soldier or two, under command of a huge workman, clambered © 
 in, and shouted to me to come along. Red Guards issued from 
 headquarters, each of them staggering under an arm-load of 
 small, corrugated-iron bombs, filled with grubit—which, they 
 say, is ten times as strong, and five times as sensitive as dyna- 
 mite; these they threw into the truck. A three-inch 
 cannon was loaded and then tied onto the tail of the truck 
 with bits of rope and wire. 
 
 We started with a shout, at top speed of course; the heavy 
 truck swaying from side to side. The cannon leaped from one 
 wheel to the other, and the grubit bombs went rolling back 
 and forth over our feet, fetching up against the sides of the 
 car with a crash. 
 
 The big Red Guard, whose name was Vladimir Nicolaie- 
 vitch, plied me with questions about America. “Why did 
 America come into the war? Are the American workers 
 ready to throw over the capitalists? What is the situation in 
 the Mooney case now? Will they extradite Berkman to San 
 Francisco?” and others, very difficult to answer, all delivered 
 in a shout above the roaring of the truck, while we 
 held on to each other and danced amid the caroming bombs. 
 
 Occasionally a patrol tried to stop us. Soldiers ran out 
 

 
 
 VICTORY — 935 
 
 into the road before us, shouted “Shtoi!” and threw up their 
 _ guns. | 
 a _ We paid no attention. “The devil take you!” cried the 
 _ Red Guards. “We don’t stop for anybody! We’re Red 
 - Guards!” And we thundered imperiously on, while Vladimir 
 Nicolaievitch bellowed to me about the internationalisation of 
 _ the Panama Canal, and such matters. .. . 
 About five miles out we saw a squad of sailors marching 
 | back, and slowed down. 
 } ““Where’s the front, brothers?” 
 i The foremost sailor halted and scratched his head. “This 
 ‘ morning,” he said, “it was about half a kilometer down the 
 f road. But the damn thing isn’t anywhere now. We walked 
 _ and walked and walked, but we couldn’t find it.” 
 
 : They climbed into the truck, and we proceeded. It must 
 | have been about a mile further that Vladimir Nicolaievitch 
 it cocked his ear and shouted to the chauffeur to stop. 
 | “Firing! he said. ‘Do you hear it?’? For a moment dead 
 _ silence, and then, a little ahead and to the left, three shots in 
 _rapid succession. Along here the side of the road was heavily 
 wooded. Very much excited now, we crept along, speaking 
 _ in whispers, until the truck was nearly opposite the place 
 where the firing had come from. Descending, we spread out, 
 and every man carrying his rifle, went stealthily into the 
 _ forest. 
 
 Two comrades, meanwhile, detached the cannon and slewed 
 _ it around until it aimed as nearly as possible at our backs. 
 
 : It was silent in the woods. The leaves were gone, and the 
 | tree-trunks were a pale wan colour in the low, sickly autumn 
 a sun. Not a thing moved, except the ice of little woodland 
 | pools shivering under our feet. Was it an ambush? 
 
 _ We went uneventfully forward until the trees began to 
 _ thin, and paused. Beyond, in a little clearing, three soldiers 
 . around a small fire, perfectly oblivious. 
 
7 
 
 936 'TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Vladimir Nicolaievitch stepped forward. “Zrq’zouitye, 
 comrades!” he greeted, while behind him one cannon, twenty — 
 
 rifles and a truck-load of grubit bombs hung by a hair. The © 
 
 soldiers scrambled to their feet. 
 “What was the shooting going on around here?” 
 One of the soldiers answered, looking relieved, “Why we 
 
 were just shooting a rabbit or two, comrade... .” 
 
 The truck hurtled on toward Romanov, through the bright, | 
 
 empty day. At the first cross-roads two soldiers ran out in 
 front of us, waving their rifles. We slowed down, and stopped. 
 ‘‘Passes, comrades!” 
 The Red Guards raised a great clamour. “We are Red 
 Guards. We don’t need any passes. . . . Go on, never mind 
 them !”” 
 
 But a sailor objected. “This is wrong, comrades. We 
 
 must have revolutionary discipline. Suppose some counter- i] 
 
 revolutionaries came along in a truck and said: ‘We don’t 
 need any passes?? The comrades don’t know you.” 
 
 At this there was a debate. One by one, however, the 
 sailors and soldiers joined with the first. Grumbling, each 
 Red Guard produced his dirty bumaga (paper). All were alike 
 except mine, which had been issued by the Revolutionary Staff 
 at Smolny. The sentries declared that I must go with them. 
 The Red Guards objected strenuously, but the sailor who had 
 spoken first insisted. “This comrade we know to be a true 
 comrade,” he said. “But there are orders of the Commit- 
 tee, and these orders must be obeyed. That is revolutionary 
 discipline. . . .” 
 
 In order not to make any trouble, I got down from the 
 truck, and watched it disappear careening down the road, all 
 the company waving farewell. The soldiers consulted in low 
 tones for a moment, and then led me to a wall, against which 
 
 7: | 
 ~ 
 
 Se 
 
 
 

 
 VICTORY 287 
 
 
 
 _ they placed me. It flashed upon me suddenly; they were going 
 ~ to shoot me! 
 
 4 In all three directions not a human being was in sight. 
 The only sign of life was smoke from the chimney of a datchya, 
 ; a rambling wooden house a quarter of a mile up the side road. 
 _ The two soldiers were walking out into the road. Desperately 
 I ran after them. 
 
 ( “But comrades! See! Here is the seal of the Military 
 } Revolutionary Committee!” 
 
 They stared stupidly at my pass, then at each other. 
 
 }) “It is different from the others,” said one, sullenly. ‘“We 
 ii cannot read, brother.” 
 
 I took him by the arm. “Come!” I said. “Let’s go to 
 _ that house. Some one there can surely read.” They hesi- 
 _ tated. “No,” said one. The other looked me over. “Why 
 | not??? he muttered. “After all, it is a serious crime to kill an 
 
 innocent man.” 
 
 We walked up to the front door of the house and knocked. 
 A short, stout woman opened it, and shrank back in alarm, 
 _ babbling, “I don’t know anything about them! I don’t know 
 a anything about them!” One of my guards held out the pass. 
 She screamed. “Just to read it, comrade.” Hesitatingly she 
 took the paper and read aloud, swiftly: 
 
 ee eee 
 - i ee 1. 
 
 te TS 
 
 The bearer of this pass, John Reed, is a representative of the 
 American Social-Democracy, an internationalist. . . . 
 
 SIR IA at 
 
 Out on the road again the two soldiers held another con- 
 
  sultation. “We must take you to the Regimental Committee,” 
 
 ‘f they said. In the fast-deepening twilight we trudged along 
 the muddy road. Occasionally we met squads of soldiers, who 
 _ stopped and surrounded me with looks of menace, handing my 
 
 : pass around and arguing violently as to whether or not I should 
 
 be killed. .. . 
 
 ii It was dark when we came to the barracks of the Second 
 
 
 
— 
 
 + 
 
 938 'TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tsarskoye Selo Rifles, low sprawling buildings huddled along 
 the post-road. A number of soldiers slouching at the entrance ~ 
 asked eager questions. A spy? A provocator? We mounted 
 a winding stair and emerged into a great, bare room with a — 
 huge stove in the centre, and rows of cots on the floor, where | 
 about a thousand soldiers were playing cards, talking, | 
 singing, and asleep. In the roof was a jagged hole made by 
 Kerensky’s cannon... . | 
 
 I stood in the doorway, and a sudden silence ran among — 
 the groups, who turned and stared at me. Of a sudden they 
 began to move, slowly and then with a rush, thundering, with — 
 faces full of hate. “Comrades! Comrades!” yelled one of my | 
 guards. “Committee! Committee!? The throng halted, | 
 banked around me, muttering. Out of them shouldered a lean 
 youth, wearing a red arm-band. t 
 
 “Who is this?” he asked roughly. The guards explained. 
 “Give me the paper!’ He read it carefully, glancing at me | 
 with keen eyes. Then he smiled and handed me the pass. 
 “Comrades, this is an American comrade. I am Chairman of 
 the Committee, and I welcome you to the Regiment. . . .” A 
 sudden general buzz grew into a roar of greeting, and they 
 pressed forward to shake my hand. 
 
 “You have not dined? Here we have had our dinner. You 
 shall go to the Officers’ Club, where there are some who speak 
 your language. .. .” 
 
 He led me across the court-yard to the door of another 
 building. An aristocratic-looking youth, with the shoulder- 
 straps of a Lieutenant, was entering. The Chairman presented 
 me, and shaking hands, went back. 
 
 “T am Stepan Georgevitch Morovsky, at your service,” said 
 the Lieutenant, in perfect French. From the ornate entrance= 
 hall a ceremonial staircase led upward, lighted by glittering 
 lustres. On the second floor billiard-rooms, card-rooms, a li- 
 brary opened from the hall. We entered the dining-room, at 
 
 4 
 
VICTORY | 939 
 
 
 
 | long table in the centre of which sat about twenty officers in 
 _ full uniform, wearing their gold- and silver-handled swords, the 
 
 ribbons and crosses of Imperial decorations. All rose politely 
 as I entered, and made a place for me beside the Colonel, a 
 
 | Parze, impressive man with a grizzled beard. Orderlies were 
 
 ._ deftly serving dinner. The atmosphere was that of any of- 
 
 _ficers’ mess in Europe. Where was the Revolution? 
 
 “You are not Bolsheviki?” I asked Morovsky. 
 
 A smile went around the table, but I caught one or two 
 glancing furtively at the orderly. 
 
 } “No,” answered my friend. “There is only one Bolshevik 
 | officer i in this regiment. He is in Petrograd to-night. The 
 Colonel is a Menshevik. Captain Kherloy there is a Cadet. 
 a myself am a Socialist Revolutionary of the right wing. 
 a should say that most of the officers in the Army are not Bol- 
 | sheviki, but like me they believe in democracy; they believe 
 that they must follow the soldier-masses. fe 
 
 Dinner over, maps were brought, and the Colonel spread 
 
 them out on the table. The rest crowded around to see. 
 
 “Here,” said the Colonel, pointing to pencil marks, “were 
 i our positions this morning. Vladimir Kyrilovitch, where is 
 | your company?” 
 
 Captain Kherloy pointed. ‘According to orders, we occu- 
 pied the position along this road. Karsavin relieved me at five 
 _o’clock. a 
 Just then the door of the room opened, and there entered 
 
 the Chairman of the Regimental Committee, with another sol- 
 dier. They joined the group behind the Colonel, peering at 
 | the map. 
 | _ “Good,” said the Colonel. “Now the Cossacks have fallen 
 back ten kilometres in our sector. I do not think it is neces- 
 )sary to take up advanced positions. Gentlemen, for to-night 
 “you will hold the present line, strengthening the positions 
 
 44 9 
 r 
 1 LB 
 
 am 
 
 
 
 
 
; 
 
 940 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “If you please,” interrupted the Chairman of the Regi- 
 mental Committee. “The orders are to advance with all speed, 
 and prepare to engage the Cossacks north of Gatchina in the 
 morning. A crushing defeat 1s necessary. Kindly make the 
 proper dispositions.” | 
 
 There was a short silence. The Colonel again turned to. 
 the map. “Very well,” he said, in a different voice. “Stepan 
 » Rapidly tracing lines with 
 
 
 
 Georgevitch, you will please 
 a blue pencil, he gave his orders, while a sergeant made short- 
 hand notes. The sergeant then withdrew, and ten minutes — 
 later returned with the orders typewritten, and one carbon 
 copy. The Chairman of the Committee studied the map with - 
 a copy of the orders before him. ) 
 
 “All right,” he said, rising. Folding the carbon copy, he | 
 put it in his pocket. Then he signed the other, stamped it 
 ‘with a round seal taken from his pocket, and presented it to 
 the Colonel. . . . 
 
 Here was the Revolution! 
 
 I returned to the Soviet palace in Tsarskoye in the Regi- 
 mental Staff automobile. Still the crowds of workers, sol- 
 diers and sailors pouring in and out, still the choking press of 
 trucks, armoured cars, cannon before the door, and the shout- 
 ing, the laughter of unwonted victory. Half a dozen Red 
 Guards forced their way through, a priest in the middle. This 
 was Father Ivan, they said, who had blessed the Cossacks when 
 they entered the town. I heard afterward that he was 
 Biotin s ior 
 
 Dybenko was just coming out, giving rapid orders right 
 and left. In his hand he carried the big revolver. An auto 
 mobile stood with racing engine at the kerb. Alone, he climbed 
 in the rear seat, and was off—off to Gatchina, to conquer Ker- 
 
 ensky. 
 
VICTORY Q41 
 
 eae 
 
 Toward nightfall he arrived at the outskirts of the town, 
 and went on afoot. What Dybenko told the Cossacks nobody 
 knows, but: the fact is that General Krasnoy and his staff and 
 _several thousand Cossacks surrendered, and advised Kerensky 
 to do the same. 5 
 
 As for Kerensky—I reprint here the deposition made by 
 General Krasnov on the morning of November 14th: 
 
 “Gatchina, November 14, 1917. To-day, about three o’clock 
 (A. M.), I was summoned by the Supreme Commander (Keren- 
 
 
 
 sky). He was very agitated, and very nervous. 
 
 _ “ ‘General,’ he said to me, ‘you have betrayed me. Your Cos- 
 sacks declare categorically that they will arrest me and deliver 
 me to the sailors.’ 
 
 » “Yes, I answered, ‘there is talk of it, and I know that you 
 have no sympathy anywhere.’ 
 
 ' “ ‘But the officers say the same thing.’ 
 
 j “*Yes, most of all it is the officers who are discontented with 
 you.’ 
 _ “What shall I do? I ought to commit suicide!’ 
 
 a ““If you are an honorable man, you will go immediately to 
 | Petrograd with a white flag, you will present yourself to the Mili- 
 | tary Revolutionary Committee, and enter into negotiations as Chief 
 _of the Provisional Government.’ 
 
 | ‘All right. I will do that, General.’ 
 
 _ “‘T will give you a guard and ask that a sailor go with you.’ 
 ; ““No, no, not a sailor. Do you know whether it is true that 
 
 { 
 
 ge benko is ere t’ 
 x 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “*I don’t know who Dybenko is.’ 
 “He is my enemy. 
 “There is nothing to do. If you play for high stakes you 
 e know how to take a chance.’ 
 “*Yes. I'll leave to-night!’ 
 ““Why? That would be a flight. Leave calmly and openly, 
 
‘5 
 ' 
 
 4 * 
 
 942 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Very well. But you must give me a guard on which I can 
 count.’ | | 
 “T went out and called the Cossack Russkov, of the Tenth 
 Regiment of the Don, and ordered him to pick out ten Cossacks to 
 accompany the Supreme Commander. Half an hour later the 
 Cossacks came to tell me that Kerensky was not in his quarters, 
 
 that he had run away. i | 
 
 “T gave the alarm and ordered that he be searched for, sup- 
 posing that he could not have left Gatchina, but -he could not be 
 
 foand.-. <<" 
 
 And so Kerensky fled, alone, “disguised in the uniform of a 
 sailor,’ and by that act lost whatever popularity he had re- 
 tained among the Russian masses. . - ay 
 
 7 
 
 I went back to Petrograd riding on the front seat of an 
 auto truck, driven by a workman and filled with Red Guards. | 
 We had no kerosene, so our lights were not burning. The 
 road was crowded with the proletarian army going home, - 
 and new reserves pouring out to take their places. Immense 
 trucks like ours, columns of artillery, wagons, loomed up in 
 the night, without lights, as we were. We hurtled furiously 
 on, wrenched right and left to avoid collisions that seemed 
 inevitable, scraping wheels, followed by the epithets of pedes- 
 trians. | 
 
 Across the horizon spread the glittering lights of the cap- 
 ital, immeasurably more splendid by night than by day, like 
 a dike of jewels heaped on the barren plain. | 
 
 The old workman who drove held the wheel in one hand, 
 while with the other he swept the far-gleaming capital in an 
 exultant gesture. : 
 
 “Mine!” he cried, his face all alight. “All mine now! 
 
 429 
 
 My Petrograd 
 
 ay 
 | 
 e 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 if 
 
 a 
 
 MOSCOW 
 
 Tue Military Revolutionary Committee, with a fierce in- 
 pont, followed up its victory: 
 
 ) November 14th. 
 
 To all Army, corps, divisional and regimental Committees, to all 
 ‘Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, to all, all, 
 all. 
 
 ( Conforming to the agreement between the Cossacks, yunkers, 
 ‘soldiers, sailors and workers, it has been decided to arraign Alex- 
 ander Feodorvitch Kerensky before a tribunal of the people. We 
 demand that Kerensky be arrested, and that he be ordered, in the 
 name of the organisations hereinafter mentioned, to come immedi- 
 ately to Petrograd and present himself to the tribunal. 
 
 Signed, 
 
 The Cossacks of the First Division of Ussuri 
 Cavalry; the Committee of Yunkers of the 
 Petrograd detachment of Franc-Tireurs; the 
 delegate of the Fifth Army. 
 
 People’s Commissar Dysrenxo. 
 
 The Committee for Salvation, the Duma, the Central Com- 
 
 mittee of the Socialist Revolutionary party—proudly claim- 
 ing Kerensky as a member—all passionately protested that he 
 could only be held responsible to the Constituent Assembly. 
 ' On the evening of November 16th I watched two thousand 
 Red Guards swing down the Zagorodny Prospekt behind a 
 pes band playing the Marseillaise—and how appropriate 
 | 243 
 
044 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 +t sounded—with blood-red flags over the dark ranks of work-_ | 
 men, to welcome home again their brothers who had defended — 
 “Red Petrograd.” In the bitter dusk they tramped, men and 
 women, their tall bayonets swaying; through streets faintly — 
 lighted and slippery with mud, between silent crowds of 
 bourgeois, contemptuous but fearful... .- ry 
 
 All were against them—business men, speculators, investors, 
 land-owners, army Officers, politicians, teachers, students, pro- — 
 fessional men, shop-keepers, clerks, agents. ‘The other Sociala} 
 ist parties hated the Bolsheviki with an implacable hatred. On | 
 the side of the Soviets were the rank and file of the workers, — 
 the sailors, all the undemoralised soldiers, the landless peas-. H 
 ants, and a few—a very few—intellectuals. .- .- al 
 
 From the farthest corners of great Russia, whereupon 
 desperate street-fighting burst like a wave, news of Kerensky’s 
 defeat came echoing back the immense roar of proletarian | 
 victory. Kazan, Saratov, Novgorod, Vinnitza—where the 
 streets had run with blood; Moscow, where the Bolsheviki had 
 turned their artillery against the last strong-hold of the bour- 
 geoisie—the Kremlin. | 
 
 “They are bombarding the Kremlin!” The news passed | 
 from mouth to mouth in the streets of Petrograd, almost with 
 a sense of terror. Travellers from “white and shining little | 
 mother Moscow” told fearful tales. ‘Thousands killed; the | 
 Tverskaya and the Kuznetsky Most in flames; the church of 
 Vasili Blazheiny a smoking ruin; Usspensky Cathedral crum- | 
 - pling down; the Spasskaya Gate of the Kremlin tottering; the’ 
 Duma burned to the ground.’ 
 
 Nothing that the Bolsheviki had done could compare with 
 this fearful blasphemy in the heart of Holy Russia. To the| 
 ears of the devout sounded the shock of guns crashing in the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter fe See 
 page 353. 
 
MOSCOW 245 
 
 Mas of the Holy Orthodox Church, and pounding to dust 
 "the sanctuary of the Russian nation. 
 
 On November 15th, Lunatcharsky, Commissar of Educa- 
 tion, broke into tears at the session of the Council of People’s 
 ~Commissars, and rushed from the room, crying, “I cannot 
 ‘stand it! I cannot bear the monstrous destruction of beauty 
 and tradition, .. .” 
 
 _ That afternoon his letter of resignation was published in 
 
 the newspapers: 
 
 | I have just been informed, by people arriving from Moscow, 
 ‘what has happened there. 
 _ The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, the Cathedral of the 
 ‘Assumption, are being bombarded. The Kremlin, where are now 
 gathered the most important art treasures of Petrograd and of Mos- 
 -cow, is under artillery fire. There are thousands of victims. 
 : The fearful struggle there has reached a pitch of bestial fe- 
 ‘rocity. 
 
 _ What is left? What more can happen? 
 ‘J cannot bear this. My cup is full. I am unable to endure these 
 ‘horrors. It is impossible to work under the pressure of thoughts 
 ‘which drive me mad! 
 | That is why I am leaving the Council of People’s Commissars. 
 _ I fully realise the gravity of this decision. But I can bear no 
 ‘more. . . ' 
 
 That same day the White Guards and yunkers in the Krem- 
 ‘lin surrendered, and were allowed to march out unharmed. 
 'The treaty of peace follows: 
 
 1. The Committee of Public Safety ceases to exist. 
 
 2. The White Guard gives up its arms and dissolves. The 
 officers retain their swords and regulations side-arms. In the 
 ‘Military Schools are retained only the arms necessary for instruc- 
 ‘tion; all others are surrendered by the yunkers. The Military 
 Revolutionary Committee guarantees the liberty and inviolability 
 of the person. 
 
 7 
 vi 
 4 
 
 \ ee 
 
; - 
 
 046 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD| 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3. To settle the question of disarmament, as set forth i 1 
 section 2, a special commission is appointed, consisting of repre- — 
 sentatives from all organisations which took part in the peace | 
 negotiations. | . 
 
 4. From the moment of the signature of this peace treaty, ' 
 both parties shall immediately give order to cease firing and halt — 
 all military operations, taking measures to ensure punctual obe- . 
 dience to this order. | 
 
 5. At the signature of the treaty, all prisoners made by the 
 two parties shall be released. 
 
 For two days now the Bolsheviki had been in control of the 
 city. The frightened citizens were creeping out of their cel- 
 lars to seek their dead; the barricades in the streets were 
 being removed. Instead of diminishing, however, the stories 
 of destruction in Moscow continued to grow. ... And it 
 was under the influence of these fearful reports that we decided 
 to go there. | 
 
 Petrograd, after all, in spite of being for a century the 
 seat of Government, is still an artificial city. Moscow is real | 
 Russia, Russia as it was and will be; in Moscow we would get 
 the true feeling of the Russian people about the Revolution. 
 Life was more intense there. 
 
 For the past week the Petrograd Military Revolutionary 
 Committee, aided by the rank and file of the Railway Workers, 
 had seized control of the Nicolai Railroad, and hurled train- 
 load after trainload of sailors and Red Guards south-|} 
 west. . . . We were provided with passes from Smolny, with- 
 out which no one could leave the capital. .. . When the 
 train backed into the station, a mob of shabby soldiers, 
 all carrying huge sacks of eatables, stormed the doors, smashed 
 the windows, and poured into all the compartments, filling 
 up the aisles and even climbing onto the roof. Three of us 
 managed to wedge our way into a oe but almost. 
 immediately about twenty soldiers entered. . There was | 
 
 { 
 
Ie BS 
 ' | MOSCOW 24% 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 room for only four people; we argued, expostulated, and the 
 conductor joined us—but the soldiers merely laughed. Were 
 they to bother about the comfort of a lot of boorzhui ( bour- 
 geois) ? We produced the passes from Smolny; instantly the 
 ‘soldiers changed their attitude. 
 
 “Come, comrades,” cried one, “these are American tovar- 
 ishtchi. They have come thirty thousand versts to see our 
 Revolution, and they are naturally tired... .” 
 
 With polite and friendly apologies the slates began to 
 leave. Shortly afterward we heard them breaking into a 
 ‘compartment occupied by two stout, well-dressed Russians, 
 who had bribed the conductor and locked their door. 
 
 __ About seven o’clock in the evening we drew out of the sta- 
 ‘tion, an immense long train drawn by a weak little locomotive 
 burning wood, and stumbled along slowly, with many stops. 
 The soldiers on the roof kicked with their heels and sang’ 
 whining peasant songs; and in the corridor, so jammed that 
 it was impossible to pass, violent political debates raged all 
 might long. Occasionally the conductor came through, as a 
 matter of habit, looking for tickets. He found very few except 
 ‘ours, and after a half-hour of futile wrangling, lifted his arms 
 
 
 
 despairingly and withdrew. The atmosphere was stifling, full 
 i? smoke and foul odours; if it hadn’t been for the broken 
 windows we would doubtless have smothered during the night. 
 4 In the morning, hours late, we looked out upon a snowy 
 world. It was bitter cold. About noon a peasant woman 
 got on with a basket-full of bread-chunks and a great can of 
 duke warm coffee-substitute. From then on until dark there 
 was nothing but the packed train, jolting and stopping, and 
 occasional stations where a ravenous mob swooped down on 
 the scantily-furnished buffet and swept it clean. . . . At one 
 of these halts I ran into Nogin and Rykov, the seceding 
 _ who were returning to Moscow to put their 
 
 
 
 . 
 1 
 
 4 
 

 
 
 
 
 248 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 grievances before their own Soviet ;* and further along was | 
 Bukharin, a short, red-bearded man with the eyes of a fanatic 
 —‘“more Left than Lenin,” they said of him. | 
 Then the three strokes of the bell and we made a rush for 
 the train, worming our way through the packed and noisy 
 aisle. . . . A good-natured crowd, bearing the discomfort 
 with Pr aorous patience, interminably arguing about every- 
 thing from the situation in Petrograd to the British Trade- 4 
 Union system, and disputing loudly with the few boorshut — 
 who were on board. Before we reached Moscow almost every i 
 car had organised a Committee to secure and distribute food, i 
 and these Committees became divided into political ‘econ 
 who wrangled over fundamental principles. | 
 The station at Moscow was deserted. We went to tha ) 
 office of the Commissar, in order to arrange for our return | 
 tickets. He was a sullen youth with the shoulder-straps of 
 a Lieutenant; when we showed him our papers from Suen 
 he lost his temper and declared that he was no Bolshevik, 
 that he represented the Committee of Public Safety. . . Tay 
 was characteristic—in the general turmoil attending the con- 
 quest of the city, the chief railway station had been forgotten | 
 by the victors. ... a 
 Not a cab in sight. A few blocks down the street, how- | 
 ever, we woke up a grotesquely-padded tzvostchik asleep up- | 
 right on the box of his little sleigh. “How much to the centre 
 of the town?” | 
 He scratched his head. “The barini won’t be able to find | 
 a room in any hotel,” he said. “But D’ll take you around for 
 a hundred rubles. . . .” Before the Revolution it cost two! | 
 We objected, but he simply shrugged his shoulders. “It takes | 
 a good deal of courage to drive a sleigh nowadays,” he went | 
 on. We could not beat him down below fifty. . . . As we sped | 
 along the silent, snowy half-lighted streets, ne recoil his: | 
 * See Chapter XI. TF 
 
 ane 
 
 
 
 a} 
 a} 
 
MOSCOW 249 
 
 adventures during the six days’ fighting. “Driving along, or 
 ; waiting for a fare on the corner,” he said, “all of a sudden 
 _ pooff! a cannon ball exploding here, pooff! a cannon ball there, 
 ratt-ratt! a machine-gun. . . . I gallop, the devils shooting 
 all around. I get to a nice quiet street and stop, doze a little, 
 _ pooff! another cannon ball, ratt-ratt. . . . Devils! Devils! 
 Devils! Brrr!” 
 i In the centre of the town the snow-piled streets were quiet 
 _ with the stillness of convalescence. Only a few arc-lights were 
 burning, only a few pedestrians hurried along the side-walks. 
 / An icy wind blew from the great plain, cutting to the bone. 
 _ At the first hotel we entered an office illuminated by two can- 
 dies. 
 
 “Yes, we have some very comfortable rooms, but all the 
 _ windows are shot out. If the gospodin does not mind a little 
 | Birenvair.’.).. 27° 
 _ Down the Tverskaya the shop-windows were broken, and 
 ‘there were shell-holes and torn-up paving stones in the 
 ‘street. Hotel after hotel, all full, or the proprietors still so 
 frightened that all they could say was, “No, no, there is no 
 ,room! There is no room!” On the main streets, where the 
 great banking-houses and mercantile houses lay, the Bolshevik 
 artillery had been indiscriminately effective. As one Soviet 
 - official told me, “Whenever we didn’t know just where the 
 jgunkers ee White Guards were, we bombarded their pocket- 
 books. 
 ; At the ‘i Hotel National they finally took us in; for we 
 were foreigners, and the Military Revolutionary Committee had 
 | promised to protect the dwellings of foreigners. . . . On the 
 : floor the manager showed us where shrapnel oe shat- 
 
 
 
 
 
 tered several windows. “The animals!” said he, shaking his 
 fist at imaginary Bolsheviki. “But wait! Their time will come; 
 in just a few days now their ridiculous Government will fall, 
 and then we shall make them suffer !” 
 
 a 
 
7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 950 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD iS 
 
 We dined at a vegetarian restaurant with the enticing 
 name, “I Eat Nobody,” and Tolstoy’s picture prominent — 
 on the walls, and then sallied out into the streets. 
 
 The headquarters of the Moscow Soviet was in the palace ; 
 of the former Governor-General, an imposing white building ~ 
 fronting Skobeliev Square. Red Guards stood sentry at the 
 door. At the head of the wide, formal stairway, whose walls — 
 were plastered with announcements of committee-meetings and — 
 addresses of political parties, we passed through a series of ; 
 lofty ante-rooms, hung with red-shrouded pictures in gold — 
 frames, to the splendid state salon, with its magnificent crystal 
 lustres and gilded cornices. A low-voiced hum of talk, under- 
 laid with the whirring bass of a score of sewing machines, ay 
 filled the place. Huge bolts of red and black cotton cloth — 
 were unrolled, serpentining across the parqueted floor and 
 over tables, at which sat half a hundred women, cutting and 
 sewing streamers and banners for the Funeral of the Revolu- — 
 tionary Dead. The faces of these women were roughened and — 
 scarred with life at its most difficult; they worked now sternly, | 
 many of them with eyes red from weeping. . . . The losses of 
 the Red Army had been heavy. 
 
 At a desk in one corner was Rogov, an intelligent, bearded 
 man with glasses, wearing the black blouse of a worker. He 
 snvited us to march with the Central Executive Committee 
 in the funeral procession next morning. . - . | 
 
 “Jt is impossible to teach the Socialist Revolutionaries and 
 the Mensheviki anything!” he exclaimed. “They compromise 
 from sheer habit. Imagine! They proposed that we hold a 
 joint funeral with the yunkers!” 
 
 Across the hall came a man in a ragged soldier-coat and 
 shapka, whose face was familiar; I recognised Melnichansky, 
 whom I had known as the watch-maker George Melcher in 
 Bayonne, New Jersey, during the great Standard Oil strike. 
 Now, he told me, he was secretary of the Moscow Metal-Work- 
 
 a 
 
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 3 
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 251 
 
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 ovide a basis for the requisition of clothin 
 
 For translation see Appendix 3. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE BOURGEOISIE 
 _ Distributed to all bourgeois households in Moscow by the Moscow Military Revo- 
 
 
 
 
 
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i 
 
 952 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ers’ Union, and a Commissar of the Military Revolutionary | 
 Committee during the fighting. .. - a 
 
 “You see me!” he cried, showing his decrepit clothing. 7 
 “J was with the boys in the Kremlin when the yunkers came at 
 the first time. ‘They shut me up in the cellar and swiped — 
 my overcoat, my money, watch and even the ring on my 
 finger. This is all I’ve got to wear!” 4 
 
 From him I learned many details of the bloody six-day © 
 battle which had rent Moscow in two. Unlike in Petrograd, 7 
 in Moscow the City Duma had taken command of the yunkers i 
 and White Guards. Rudnev, the Mayor, and Minor, presi- i 
 
 dent of the Duma, had directed the activities of the Committee i 
 of Public Safety and the troops. Riabtsev, Commandant of i 
 the city, a man of democratic instincts, had hesitated about — 
 opposing the Military Revolutionary Committee; but the Du- 
 ma had forced him. . . . It was the Mayor who had urged — 
 the occupation of the Kremlin; “They will never dare fire 
 on you there,” he said. . . . a 
 
 One garrison regiment, badly demoralised by long inactiv- | 
 ity, had been approached by both sides. The regiment held 
 a meeting to decide what action to take. Resolved, that the | 
 regiment remain neutral, and continue its present activities— | 
 which consisted in peddling rubbers and sunflower seeds! 
 
 “But worst of all,” said Melnichansky, “we had to organ= | 
 ‘se while we were fighting. The other side knew just what it 
 wanted; but here the soldiers had their Soviet and the workers | 
 theirs. . . . There was a fearful wrangle over who should be | 
 Commander-in-chief ; some regiments talked for days before 
 they decided what to do; and when the officers suddenly de- 
 serted us, we had no battle-staff to give orders. . - ee 
 
 Vivid little pictures he gave me. On a cold grey day he | 
 had stood at a corner of the Nikitskaya, which was swept by 
 blasts of machine-gun fire. A throng of little boys were | 
 gathered there—street waifs who used to be newsboys. Shrill, | 
 
 ¢ : 
 
MOSCOW 253 
 
 excited as if with a new game, they waited until the firing 
 
 ' slackened, and then tried to run across the street. . . . Many 
 
 
 
 _were killed, but the rest dashed backward and forward, laugh- 
 ing, daring each other. . 
 
 Late in the evening I went to the Dvorianskoye Sobranie— 
 
 | the Nobles’ Club—where the Moscow Bolsheviki were to meet 
 _and consider the report of Nogin, Rykov and the others who 
 had left the Council of People’s Commissars. 
 
 The meeting-place was a theatre, in which, under the old ré- 
 
 _gime, to audiences of officers and glittering ladies, amateur pres- 
 entations of the latest French comedy had once taken place. 
 
 At first the place filled with the intellectuals—those who 
 
 _ lived near the centre of the town. Nogin spoke, and most of 
 _his listeners were plainly with him. It was very late before 
 the workers arrived; the working-class quarters were on the 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 i ee ee ADM... 5 ae et 
 ao 
 
 outskirts of the town, and no street-cars were running. But 
 
 about midnight they began to clump up the stairs, in groups 
 _of ten or twenty—big, rough men, in coarse clothes, fresh from 
 _ the battle-line, where they had fought like devils for a week, 
 seeing their comrades fall all about them. 
 
 Scarcely had the meeting formally opened before Nogin 
 
 - was assailed with a tempest of jeers and angry shouts. In 
 
 vain he tried to argue, to explain; they would not listen. He 
 
 had left the Council of People’s Commissars; he had deserted 
 ‘i 
 
 his post while the battle was raging. As for the bourgeois 
 press, here in Moscow there was no more bourgeois press; even 
 
 the City Duma had been dissolved.4 Bukharin stood up, say- 
 age, logical, with a voice which plunged and struck, plunged 
 ‘and struck. . . . Him they listened to with shining eyes. 
 
 Resolution, to support the action of the Council of People’s 
 ‘Commissars, passed by overwhelming majority. So spoke 
 
 ’ Mos cow. 7“ 28 @ 
 
 Late in the night we went through the empty streets and 
 
 under the Iberian Gate to the great Red Square in front of 
 
 a 
 
sor — 
 
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 BeenHe-pesernui OHMare® 
 
 
 
 t Pass to the Kremlin, issued by the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee 
 just after the capture of the Kremlin by the Bolsheviki. 
 
 (Translation) 
 Military-Revolutionary Committee 
 attached to the 
 Moscow Soviet of 
 Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 
 Deputies 
 Moscow, Tverskaya, p 
 House of the former 
 
 Governor General 
 November 10, 1917 
 No. 2092 % 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ke 
 
 , 
 ! 
 4 
 
 f 
 ; 
 
 eg 
 TO THE COMMANDANT OF THE CITY OF MOSCOW | 
 By this the Military Revolutionary Committee requests to give a pass for the 
 purpose of investigating the Kremlin, to the representatives of the American Socialigg | 
 party attached to the Socialist press, comrades Reed and Bryant. ; 
 Chief of the Military Revolutionary Committee H 
 For the Secretary — 
 
 
 
 EA 
 
MOSCOW 255 
 
 the Kremlin. The church of Vasili Blazheiny loomed fantastic, 
 _ its bright-coloured, convoluted and blazoned cupolas vague in 
 _the darkness. There was no sign of any damage. . . . Along 
 one side of the square the dark towers and walls of the Krem- 
 lin stood up. On the high walls flickered redly the light of 
 hidden flames; voices reached us across the immense place, 
 _and the sound of picks and shovels. We crossed over. 
 Mountains of dirt and rock were piled high near the 
 base of the wall. Climbing these we looked down into two 
 _Inassive pits, ten or fifteen feet deep and fifty yards long, 
 | where hundreds of soldiers and workers were digging in the 
 | light of huge fires. 
 | A young student spoke to us in German. “The Brother- 
 _hood Grave,” he explained. ‘To-morrow we shall bury here 
 five hundred proletarians who died for the Revolution.” 
 | He took us down into the pit. In frantic haste swung 
 the picks and shovels, and the earth-mountains grew. No 
 one spoke. Overhead the night was thick with stars, and the 
 _ ancient Imperial Kremlin wall towered up immeasurably. 
 *“Here in this holy place,” said the student, “holiest of 
 all Russia, we shall bury our most holy. Here where 
 , are the tombs of the Tsars, our Tsar—the People—shall 
 sleep. .. .” His arm was in a sling, from a bullet-wound 
 gained in the fighting. He looked at it. “You foreigners 
 look down on us Russians because so long we tolerated a 
 ' medieval monarchy,” said he. “But we saw that the Tsar 
 
 
 
 _ was not the only tyrant in the world; capitalism was worse, 
 
 and in all the countries of the world capitalism was Emper- 
 99 
 
 — 
 
 or. ... Russian revolutionary tactics are best... . 
 
 As we left, the workers in the pit, exhausted and running 
 with sweat in spite of the cold, began to climb wearily out. 
 Across the Red Square a dark knot of men came hurrying. 
 They swarmed into the pits, ie up the tools and began 
 | digging, digging, without a word. 
 
 4 
 \ aa 
 a 
 
 =>. 
 
 
 
i 
 
 256 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 So, all the long night volunteers of the People relieved 
 each other, never halting in their driving speed, and the cold. 
 light of the dawn laid bare the great Square, white with snow, 
 and the yawning brown pits of the Brotherhood GURY quite 
 finished. J 
 
 We rose before sunrise, and hurried through the dark - | 
 streets to Skobeliev Square. In all the great city not a human 
 being could be seen; but there was a faint sound of stirring, © 
 far and near, like a deep wind coming. In the pale half-light : 
 a little group of men and women were gathered before the — 
 Soviet headquarters, with a sheaf of gold- -lettered red son 
 __the Central Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviets. It © 
 grew light. From afar the vague stirring sound deepened and 
 became louder, a steady and tremendous bass. ‘The city was 
 rising. We set out down the Tverskaya, the banners flapping 
 overhead. The little street chapels along our way were locked 
 and dark, as was the Chapel of the Iberian Virgin, which each 
 new T'sar used to visit before he went to the Kremlin to al : 
 himself, and which, day or night, was always open and crowded, 
 and brilliant with the candles of the devout gleaming on the | 
 gold and silver and jewels of the ikons. Now, for the first time — 
 since Napoleon was in Moscow, they say, the candles wen 
 
 
 
 out. 
 The Holy Orthodox Church had withdrawn the light of its . 
 countenance from Moscow, the nest of irreverent vipers who 
 had bombarded the Kremlin. Dark and silent and cold were | 
 the churches; the priests had disappeared. There were no 
 popes to officiate at the Red Burial, there had been no sacra- | 
 ment for the dead, nor were any prayers to be said over the 
 grave of the blasphemers. Tikhon, Metropolitan of Moscow, | 
 was soon to excommunicate the Soviets. .. . 
 Also the shops were closed, and the propertied classes | 
 stayed at home—but for other reasons. This was the Day % 4 
 
 oh | 
 a” ¢ 
 
MOSCOW ‘. 257 
 
 the People, the rumour of whose coming was thunderous as 
 surf. 
 | pa caas through the Iberian Gate a human river was 
 “flowing, and the vast Red Square was spotted with people, 
 ‘thousands of them. I remarked that as the throng passed the 
 ‘Iberian Chapel, where always before the passerby had crossed 
 himself, they did not seem to notice it. 
 
 We forced our way through the Henle mass packed near 
 
 -the Kremlin wall, and stood upon one of the dirt-mountains. 
 
 
 
 | Already several men were there, among them Muranov, the 
 ‘soldier who had been elected Commandant of Moscow—a tall, 
 _simple-looking, bearded man with a gentle face. 
 
 I Through all the streets to the Red Square the torrents 
 _of people poured, thousands upon thousands of them, all with 
 
 the look of the poor and the toiling. A military band came 
 
 marching up, playing the Internationale, and spontaneously the 
 . song caught and spread like wind-ripples on a sea, slow and 
 solemn. From the top of the Kremlin wall gigantic ban- 
 ners unrolled to the ground; red, with great letters in gold 
 and in white, saying, “Martyrs of the Beginning of World 
 Social Revolution,” and “Long Live the Brotherhood of 
 “Workers of the World.” 
 
 A bitter wind swept the Square, lifting the banners. Now 
 from the far quarters of the city the workers of the different — 
 factories were arriving, with their dead. They could be seen 
 coming through the Gate, the blare of their banners, and the 
 dull red—like blood—of the coffins they carried. These were 
 rude boxes, made of unplaned wood and daubed with crimson, 
 borne high on the shoulders of rough men who marched with 
 tears streaming down their faces, and followed by women 
 
 who sobbed and screamed, or walked stiffly, with white, dead 
 | faces. Some of the coffins were open, the lid carried behind 
 _ them; others were covered with gilded or silvered cloth, or 
 
258 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 had a soldier’s hat nailed on the top. There were many 
 wreaths of hideous artificial flowers... - ig 
 
 Through an irregular lane that opened and closed again 
 the procession slowly moved toward us. Now through the 
 Gate was flowing an endless stream of banners, all shades of 
 red, with silver and gold lettering, knots of crepe hanging — 
 from the top—and some Anarchist flags, black with white 
 ‘letters. The band was playing the Revolutionary Funeral 
 March, and against the immense singing of the mass of people, | 
 standing uncovered, the paraders sang hoarsely, choked with 
 sobs. ... } 
 
 Between the factory-workers came companies of soldiers 
 with their coffins, too, and squadrons of cavalry, riding at 
 salute, and artillery batteries, the cannon wound with red 
 and black—forever, it seemed. Their banners said, “Long 
 live the Third International!” or “We Want an Honest, Gen- — 
 eral, Democratic Peace!” at 
 
 Slowly the marchers came with their coffins to the entrance ~ 
 of the grave, and the bearers clambered up with their burdens — 
 and went down into the pit. Many of them were women— 
 squat, strong proletarian women. Behind the dead came other 
 women—women young and broken, or old, wrinkled women 
 making noises like hurt animals, who tried to follow their sons — 
 and husbands into the Brotherhood Grave, and shrieked when 
 compassionate hands restrained them. The poor love each — 
 other so! ay 
 
 All the long day the funeral procession passed, coming in 
 by the Iberian Gate and leaving the Square by way of the - 
 Nikolskaya, a river of red banners, bearing words of hope and — 
 brotherhood and stupendous prophecies, against a back-ground | 
 of fifty thousand people,—under the eyes of the world’s | 
 workers and their descendants forever... - | 
 
 One by one the five hundred coffins were laid in the pits. 
 Dusk fell, and still the banners came drooping and fluttering, | 
 
 | 
 
j | MOSCOW 259 
 
 "the an played the Funeral March, and the huge assemblage 
 chanted. In the leafless branches of the trees above the grave 
 the wreaths were hung, like strange, multi-coloured blossoms. 
 Two hundred men began to shovel in the dirt. It rained dully 
 _ down upon the coffins with a thudding sound, audible beneath 
 . the singing. . 
 
 = The its. c came out. The last banners passed, and the 
 f last moaning women, looking back with awful intensity as they 
 ] went. Slowly from the great Square ebbed the proletarian 
 mide... . 
 
 1 I suddenly realised that the devout Russian people no 
 longer needed priests to pray them into heaven. On earth they 
 _were building a kingdom more bright than any heaven had to 
 
 I offer, and for which it was a glory to die. . . « 
 
 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 
 
 DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLES OF RUSSIA 2 
 
 _. . The first Congress of Soviets, in June of this year, pro- 
 elaimed the right of the peoples of Russia to self-determination. 
 The second Congress of Soviets, in November last, confirmed © 
 this inalienable right of the peoples of Russia more decisively and | 
 definitely. | ‘ 
 Executing the will of these Congresses, the Council of Peo- | 
 ple’s Commissars has resolved to establish as a basis for its activity | 
 in the question of Nationalities, the following principles: | 
 (1) The equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia. 
 (2) The right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determina- | 
 tion, even to the point of separation and the formation of an inde- | 
 pendent state. 
 (3) The abolition of any and all national and national- 
 religious privileges and disabilities. 
 (4) The free development of national minorities and ethno- | 
 graphic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia. | 
 Decrees will be prepared immediately upon the formation of 
 
 a Commission on Nationalities. 
 
 In the name of the Russian Republic, 
 People’s Commissar for Nationalities 
 Yussov DsuGAsHvILI-STALIN 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars 
 V. Uxianov (Lenin) 
 
 The Central Rada at Kiev immediately declared Ukraine an | 
 independent Republic, as did the Government of Finland, | 
 
 1 References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter XI. | 
 See page 355. 
 260 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _  —s THE CONQUEST OF POWER 261 
 
 _ through the Senate at Helsingfors. Independent “Govern- 
 _ ments” spring up in Siberia and the Caucasus. The Polish 
 Chief Military Committee swiftly gathered together the Polish 
 | _ troops in the Russian army, abolished their Committees and 
 established an iron discipline. . . . 
 
 _ All these “Governments” and “movements” had two char- 
 _ acteristics in common; they were controlled by the propertied 
 / classes, and they feared and detested Bolshevism. . . 
 
 _ Steadily, amid the chaos of shocking change, the Council 
 a of People’s Commissars hammered at the scaffolding of the 
 Socialist order. Decree on Social Insurance, on Workers’ 
 ” Control, Regulations for Volost Land Committees, Abolition 
 _ of Ranks and Titles, Abolition of Courts and the Creation of 
 People’s Tribunals. . . .? 
 
 | ql Army after army, fleet after fleet, sent deputations, “joy- 
 _ fully to greet the new Government of the People.” 
 
 In front of Smolny, one day, I saw a ragged regiment just 
 come from the trenches. The soldiers were drawn up before 
 _ the great gates, thin and grey-faced, looking up at the build- 
 | ing as if God were in it. Some pointed out the Imperial eagles 
 2 over the door, laughing. . .. Red Guards came to mount 
 guard. All the soldiers turned to look, curiously, as if they 
 a had heard of them but never seen them. They laughed good- 
 - naturedly and pressed out of line to slap the Red Guards on 
 _ the back, with half-joking, half-admiring remarks. .. . 
 
 _ The Provisional Government was no more. On November 
 15th, in all the churches of the capital, the priests stopped 
 | . praying forit. But as Lenin himself told the T'say-ee-kah, that 
 _ was “only the beginning of the conquest of power.” Deprived 
 of arms, the opposition, which still controlled the economic life 
 of the country, settled down to organise disorganisation, with 
 all the Russian genius for cooperative action—te obstruct, crip- 
 ple and discredit the Soviets. 
 
 The strike of Government employees was well organised, 
 
3 
 
 
 
 
 262 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 financed by the banks and commercial establishments. Every © 
 move of the Bolsheviki to take over the Government apparatus 
 was resisted. 
 
 Trotzky went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the func- 
 Honaries refused to recognise him, locked themselves in, and 
 when the doors were forced, resigned. He demanded the keys — 
 of the archives; only when he brought workmen to force the 
 locks were they given up. ‘Then it was discovered that Neratov, — 
 former assistant Foreign Minister, had disappeared with the 3 
 Secret Treaties. ... 
 
 Shliapnikov tried to take possession of the Ministry of 
 Labour. It was bitterly cold, and there was no one to light 
 the fires. Of all the hundreds of employees, not one would 
 show him where the office of the Minister was. . - « | 1 
 
 Alexandra Kollontai, appointed the 13th of November 
 Commissar of Public Welfare—the department of charities and 
 public institutions—was welcomed with a strike of all but | 
 forty of the functionaries in the Ministry. Immediately the 
 poor of the great cities, the inmates of institutions, were 
 plunged in miserable want: delegations of starving cripples, of 
 orphans with blue, pinched faces, besieged the building. With 
 tears streaming down her face, Kollontai arrested the strikers 
 until they should deliver the keys of the office and the safe; 
 when she got the keys, however, it was discovered that the for- 
 mer Minister, Countess Panina, had gone off with all the 
 funds, which she refused to surrender except on the order of | 
 the Constituent Assembly.* 
 
 In the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Supplies, _ 
 the Ministry of Finance, similar incidents occurred. And the 
 employees, summoned to return or forfeit their positions and | 
 their pensions, either stayed away or returned to sabotage. . - + 
 Almost all the intelligentzia being anti-Bolshevik, there was 
 nowhere for the Soviet Government to recruit new staffs. . . - 
 
 The private banks remained stubbornly closed, with a back 
 
 = 
 
 
 
 - 
 iy 
 
_ THE CONQUEST OF POWER 263 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ] door open for speculators. When Bolshevik Commissars en- 
 4 tered, the clerks left, secreting the books and removing the 
 _ funds. All the employees of the State Bank struck except the 
 a clerks in charge of the vaults and the manufacture of money, 
 __who refused all demands from Smolny and privately paid out 
 __ huge sums to the Committee for Salvation and the City Duma. 
 < Twice a Commissar, with a company of Red Guards, 
 _ came formally to insist upon the delivery of large sums for 
 i Government expenses. The first time, the City Duma members 
 _and the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary leaders were 
 _ present in imposing numbers, and spoke so gravely of the con- 
 ~ sequences that the Commissar was frightened. The second time 
 _ he arrived with a warrant, which he proceeded to read aloud in 
 q due form; but some one called his attention to the fact that it 
 had no date and no seal, and the traditional Russian respect for 
 2 “documents” forced him again to withdraw. .. . 
 
 The officials of the Credit Chancery destroyed their books, 
 so that all record of the financial relations of Russia with for- 
 _ eign countries was lost. 
 
 _ The Supply Committees, the administrations of the Munici- 
 _ pal-owned public utilities, either did not work at all, or sabot- 
 aged. And when the Bolsheviki, compelled by the desperate 
 needs of the city population, attempted to help or to control 
 the public service, all the employees went on strike imme- 
 diately, and the Duma flooded Russia with telegrams about 
 Bolshevik “violation of Municipal autonomy.” 
 
 At Military headquarters, and in the offices of the Ministries 
 _ of War and Marine, where the old officials had consented to 
 _ work, the Army Committees and the high command blocked the 
 _ Soviets in every way possible, even to the extent of neglecting 
 _ the troops at the front. The Vikzhel was hostile, refusing to 
 _ transport Soviet troops; every troop-train that left Petrograd 
 / was taken out by force, and railway officials had to be arrested 
 
9¢4 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ' 
 
 % 
 
 each time—whereupon the Vikzhel threatened an immediate — 
 general strike unless they were released... . 
 
 Smolny was plainly powerless. The newspapers said that 
 all the factories of Petrograd must shut down for lack of fuel 
 in three weeks; the Vikzhel announced that trains must cease 
 running by December first; there was food for three days only 
 
 in Petrograd, and no more coming in; and the Army on the | 
 Front was starving. . .. The Committee for Salvation, the 
 various Central Committees, sent word all over the country, — 
 exhorting the population to ignore the Government decrees. 
 And the Allied Embassies were either coldly indifferent, or 
 openly hostile... . 
 
 The opposition newspapers, suppressed one day and re- 
 appearing next morning under new names, heaped bitter sar- 
 casm on the new regime.> Even Novaya Zhizn characterised _ 
 it as “a combination of demagoguery and impotence.” | 
 
 From day to day (it said) the Government of the People’s Com- 
 missars sinks deeper and deeper into the mire of superficial haste. 
 Having easily conquered the power... the Bolsheviki can not | 
 make use of it. 
 
 Powerless to direct the existing mechanism of Government, 
 they are unable at the same time to create a new one which might 
 work easily and freely according to the theories of social experi- 
 menters. 
 
 Just a little while ago the Bolsheviki hadn’t enough men to 
 run their growing party—a work above all of speakers and writ- 
 ers; where then are they going to find trained men to execute the 
 diverse and complicated functions of government? 
 
 The new Government acts and threatens, it sprays the country 
 with decrees, each one more radical and more “socialist” than the 
 last, But in this exhibition of Socialism on Paper—more likely 
 designed for the stupefaction of our descendants—there appears 
 neither the desire nor the capacity to solve the immediate prob- 
 lems of the day! 
 
 
 
a 
 
 — »~ a. = = elie 
 (SES Oe ae 
 
 Ss 
 
 ae 
 
 See 
 
 
 
 ars 
 
 ro 
 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 265 
 
 Meanwhile the Vikzhel’s Conference to Form a New Govern- 
 
 "ment continued to meet night and day. Both sides had already 
 
 agreed in principle to the basis of the Government; the com- 
 
 _ position of the People’s Council was being discussed; the Cabi- 
 _net was tentatively chosen, with Tchernov as Premier; the Bol- 
 
 sheviki were admitted in a iarge minority, but Lenin and 
 Trotzky were barred. The Central Committees of the Men- 
 shevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties, the Executive Com- 
 
 _ mittee of the Peasants’ Soviets, resolved that, although unalter- 
 
 ably opposed to the “criminal politics” of the Bolsheviki, they 
 would, “in order to halt the fratricidal bloodshed,” not oppose 
 their entrance into the People’s Council. 
 
 The flight of Kerensky, however, and the astounding success 
 
 _ of the Soviets everywhere, altered the situation. On the 16th, 
 _in a meeting of the T'say-ee-kah, the Left Socialist Revolutiona- 
 
 ries insisted that the Bolsheviki should form a coalition Govern- 
 ment with the other Socialist parties; otherwise they would 
 
 _ withdraw from the Military Revolutionary Committee and the 
 
 _ Tsay-ee-kah, Malkin said, “The news from Moscow, where our 
 
 = ses = ; 
 
 | 
 ae apd tat = SS 
 a 
 
 
 
 _ comrades are dying on both sides of the barricades, determines 
 
 us to bring up once more the question of organisation of power, 
 and it is not only our right to do so, but our duty. . . . We 
 have won the right to sit with the Bolsheviki here within the 
 walls of Smolny Institute, and to speak from this tribune. 
 After the bitter internal party struggle, we shall be obliged, 
 if you refuse to compromise, to pass to open battle out- 
 side. . . . We must propose to the democracy terms of an 
 acceptable compromise. . . .” 
 
 After a recess to consider this ultimatum, the Bolsheviki 
 
 _ returned with a resolution, read by Kameniev: 
 
 The T'say-ee-kah considers it necessary that there enter into the 
 ae roment representatives of all the Socialist parties composing 
 the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies who rec- 
 
y 
 
 266 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 ognise the conquests of the Revolution of November 7th—that is 
 to say, the establishment of a Government of Soviets, the decrees — 
 on peace, land, workers’ control over industry, and the arming of — 
 the working-class. The Tsay-ee-kah therefore resolves to propose — 
 negotiations concerning the constitution of the Government to all | 
 
 parties of the Soviet, and insists upon the following conditions as a 
 basis: 
 The Government is responsible to the T’say-ee-kah. The Tsay- 
 
 ee-kah shall be enlarged to 150 members. To these 150 delegates — 
 
 of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies shall be added 
 75 delegates of the Provincial Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, 80 
 
 from the Front organisations of the Army and Navy, 40 from the © 
 
 Trade Unions (25 from the various All-Russian Unions, in 
 
 proportion to their importance, 10 from the Vikzhel, and 5 from — 
 
 the Post and Telegraph Workers), and 50 delegates from the So- 
 cialist groups in the Petrograd City Duma. In the Ministry it- 
 
 self, at least one-half the portfolios must be reserved to the Bolshe- 
 viki. The Ministries of Labour, Interior and Foreign Affairs must — 
 
 be given to the Bolsheviki. The command of the garrisons of Pet- 
 rograd and Moscow must remain in the hands of delegates of 
 the Moscow and Petrograd Soviets. 
 
 The Government undertakes the systematic arming of the work- 
 ers of all Russia. 
 
 It is resolved to insist upon the candidature of comrades Lenin 
 and Trotzky. 
 
 Kameniev explained. ‘The so-called ‘People’s Council,’ ” 
 
 he said, “proposed by the Conference, would consist of about 
 
 420 members, of which about 150 would be Bolsheviki. Besides, 
 there would be delegates from the counter-revolutionary old 
 Tsay-ee-kah, 100 members chosen by the Municipal Dumas— 
 Kornilovtsi all; 100 delegates from the Peasants’ Soviets— 
 appointed by Avksentiev, and 80 from the old Army Commit- 
 tees, who no longer represent the soldier masses. | 
 
 “We refuse to admit the old T'say-ee-kah, and also the rep- 
 resentatives of the Municipal Dumas. The delegates from the 
 
 ae i 
 
 q 
 
 o 
 
 
 
aS 
 
 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 267 
 
 Peasants’ Soviets shall be elected by the Congress of Peasants, 
 which we have called, and which will at the same time elect a 
 _ new Executive Committee. The proposal to exclude Lenin and 
 _ Trotzky is a proposal to decapitate our party, and we do not 
 accept it. And finally, we see no necessity for a ‘People’s 
 Council’ anyway ; the Soviets are open to all Socialist parties, 
 _and the T'say-ee-kah represents them in their real proportions 
 among the masses. .. .” : 
 
 Karelin, for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, declared 
 that his party would vote for the Bolshevik resolution, reserv- 
 ing the right to modify certain details, such as the representa- 
 _ tion of the peasants, and demanding that the Ministry of 
 a be reserved for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. 
 _ This was agreed to. 
 
 Later, at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, Trotzky an- 
 __ swered a question about the formation of the new Government: 
 
 “I don’t know Ree about that. I am not taking part 
 _in the negotiations. . . . However, I don’t think that they are 
 of great importance... .” 
 
 That night there was great uneasiness in the Conference. 
 5 The delegates of the City Duma withdrew. 
 
 But at Smolny itself, in the ranks of the Bolshevik party, 
 a formidable opposition to Lenin’s policy was growing. On 
 ; the night of November 17th the great hall was packed and 
 $ ominous for the meeting of the T'say-ee-kah. 
 , 
 
 re Sa a ee — ae 
 aa salt = 
 
 ~ ie 
 
 a — 
 
 ann 
 
 ’ Bee 
 oe 
 SEx5 
 
 rE 
 
 ‘ntti =. 
 
 Larin, Bolshevik, declared that the moment of elections to 
 
 i away with “political terrorism.” 
 
 | “The measures taken against the freedom of the press 
 
 should be modified. They had their reason during the struggle, 
 but now they have no further excuse. The press should be 
 
 7 - free, except for appeals to riot and insurrection.” 
 
 ; In a storm of hisses and hoots from his own party, Larin 
 
 ‘ offered the following resolution: 
 
 
 
eee 
 
 968 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 The decree of the Council of People’s Commissars concerning 
 
 the Press is herewith repealed. 
 
 Measures of political repression can only be employed sub- 
 ject to decision of a special tribunal, elected by the T'say-ee-kah 
 proportionally to the strength of the different parties represented ; 
 and this tribunal shall have the right also to reconsider measures 
 of repression already taken. 
 
 This was met by a thunder of applause, not only from the | 
 
 Left Socialist Revolutionaries, but also from a part of the Bol- 
 sheviki. 
 
 Avanessov, for the Leninites, hastily proposed that the 
 question of the Press be postponed until after some com- 
 promise between the Socialist parties had been reached. Over- 
 whelmingly voted down. 
 
 “The revolution which is now being accomplished,” went 
 on Avanessov, “has not hesitated to attack private property; 
 and it is as private property that we must examine the question ~ ) 
 of the Press... .” | 
 
 Thereupon he read the official Bolshevik resolution: 
 
 The suppression of the bourgeois press was dictated not only 
 by purely military needs in the course of the insurrection, and for 
 the checking of counter-revolutionary action, but it is also neces- 
 sary as a measure of transition toward the establishment of a new 
 régime with regard to the Press—a régime under which the capi- 
 talist owners of printing-presses and of paper cannot be the all-— 
 powerful and exclusive manufacturers of public opinion. 
 
 We must further proceed to the confiscation of private printing 
 plants and supplies of paper, which should become the property 
 of the Soviets, both in the capital and in the provinces, so that 
 the political parties and groups can make use of the facilities of 
 printing in proportion to the actual strength of the ideas they rep- 
 resent——in other words, proportionally to the number of their con- 
 
 
 
 stituents. 
 The reéstablishment of the so-called “freedom of the press,” 
 

 
 
 
 < eS es 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 i EE el 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 people. 
 
 At FS 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 269 
 
 _ the simple return of printing presses and paper to the capitalists, 
 
 —poisoners of the mind of the people—this would be an inadmis- 
 
 j _ sible surrender to the will of capital, a giving up of one of the 
 most important conquests of the Revolution; in other words, it 
 _ would be a measure of unquestionably counter-revolutionary char- 
 acter. 
 
 Proceeding from the above, the T'say-ee-kah categorically re- 
 
 jects all propositions aiming at the reéstablishment of the old 
 régime in the domain of the Press, and unequivocally supports the 
 
 point of view of the Council of People’s Commissars on this ques-~ 
 tion, against pretentions and ultimatums dictated by petty bour- 
 geois prejudices, or by evident surrender to the interests of the 
 
 _ counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie. 
 
 The reading of this resolution was interrupted by ironical 
 shouts from the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, and bursts of 
 indignation from the insurgent Bolsheviki. Karelin was on 
 
 his feet, protesting. ‘Three weeks ago the Bolsheviki were the 
 | most ardent defenders of the freedom of the Press. . . The 
 _ arguments in this resolution suggest singularly the point of 
 
 view of the old Black Hundreds and the censors of the Tsarist 
 
 régime—for they also talked of ‘poisoners of the mind of the 
 999 
 
 Trotzky spoke at length in favour of the resolution. He 
 
 | distinguished between the Press during the civil war, and 
 _ the Press after the victory. ‘During civil war the right to 
 
 use violence belongs only to the oppressed. ...” (Cries of 
 
 “Who's the oppressed now? Cannibal!’’). 
 
 “The victory over our adversaries is not yet achieved, and 
 the newspapers are arms in their hands. In these condi- 
 tions, the closing of the newspapers is a legitimate measure 
 of defence. . . .” Then passing to the question of the Press 
 after the victory, Trotzky continued: 
 
 “The attitude of Socialists on the question of freedom 
 of the Press should be the same as their attitude toward the 
 
— 
 
 +7 
 
 270 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 freedom of business. . . . The rule of the democracy which | 
 
 is being established in Russia demands that the domination _ 
 of the Press by private property must be abolished, just as 
 the domination of industry by private property... - The © 
 power of the Soviets should confiscate all printing-plants.” — 
 
 (Cries, “Confiscate the printing-shop of Pravda!) 
 
 “The monopoly of the Press by the bourgeoisie must be — 
 abolished. Otherwise it isn’t worth while for us to take the © 
 power! Each group of citizens should have access to print- | 
 shops and paper. .. . The ownership of print-type and of © 
 paper belongs first to the workers and peasants, and only © 
 
 afterwards to the bourgeois parties, which are in a minor- 
 ity... . The passing of the power into the hands of the 
 
 Soviets will bring about a radical transformation of the — 
 essential conditions of existence, and this transformation will | 
 necessarily be evident in the Press. ... If we are going to — 
 nationalise the banks, can we then tolerate the financial jour- 
 nals? The old régime must die; that must be understood 
 
 once and for all... .” Applause and angry cries. 
 
 Karelin declared that the T'say-ee-kah had no right to pass — 
 
 upon this important question, which should be left to a 
 special committee. Again, passionately, he demanded that 
 the Press be free. 
 
 Then Lenin, calm, unemotional, his forehead wrinkled, as 
 he spoke slowly, choosing his words; each sentence falling like 
 a hammer-blow. “The civil war is not yet finished; the enemy 
 is still with us; consequently it is impossible to abolish the 
 measures of repression against the Press. 
 
 “We Bolsheviki have always said that when we reached a 
 position of power we would close the bourgeois press. To 
 tolerate the bourgeois newspapers would mean to cease being 
 a Socialist. When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark 
 time; one must always go forward—or go back. He who 
 
 | 
 1 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 ‘THE CONQUEST OF POWER Qn] 
 
 ] now talks about the ‘freedom of the Press’ goes backward, and 
 ¢ halts our headlong course toward Socialism. 
 
 a “We have thrown off the yoke of capitalism, just as the 
 _ first revolution threw off the yoke of Tsarism. If the first 
 1 , revolution had the right to suppress the Monarchist papers, 
 _ then we have the right to suppress the bourgeois press. It is 
 _ impossible to separate the question of the freedom of the 
 i Press from the other questions of the class struggle. We 
 _ have promised to close these newspapers, and we shall do it. 
 
 
 
 _ The immense majority of the people is with us! 
 
 \ “Now that the insurrection is over, we have absolutely 
 1 no desire to suppress the papers of the other Socialist par- 
 ties, except inasmuch as they appeal to armed insurrec- 
 / tion, or to disobedience to the Soviet Government. How- 
 - ever, we shall not permit them, under the pretence of free- 
 _ dom of the Socialist press, to obtain, through the secret sup- 
 | port of the bourgeoisie, a monopoly of printing-presses, ink 
 _ and paper. . . . These essentials must become the property 
 * of the Soviet Government, and be apportioned, first of all, 
 _ to the Socialist parties in strict proportion to their voting 
 a strength. .. .” 
 
 ; Then the vote. The resolution of Larin and the Left 
 _ Socialist Revolutionaries was defeated by 31 to 22; the Lenin 
 motion was carried by 34 to 24. Among the minority were 
 ii ; the Bolsheviki Riazanov and Lozovsky, who declared that it 
 was impossible for them to vote against any restriction on 
 the freedom of the Press. 
 
 Upon this the Left Socialist Revolutionaries declared they 
 _ could no longer be responsible for what was being done, and 
 withdrew from the Military Revolutionary Committee and all 
 , other positions of executive responsibility. 
 
 7 Five members—Nogin, Rykov, Miliutin, Teodorovitch and 
 7 Shiapnikov—resigned from the Council of People’s Com- 
 
 _ missars, declaring: 
 
: y : x % J ee ; S 
 
 
 
 972. TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 We are in favour of a Socialist Government composed of all 
 the parties in the Soviets. We consider that only the creation of 
 
 such a Government can possibly guarantee the results of the heroic 
 
 struggle of the working-class and the revolutionary army. Out- | 
 side of that, there remains only one way: the constitution of a 
 purely Bolshevik Government by means of political terrorism. | 
 This last is the road taken by the Council of People’s Commissars. i | 
 We cannot and will not follow it. We see that this leads directly 
 to the elimination from political life of many proletarian organi- 
 sations, to the establishment of an irresponsible régime, and to the © 
 destruction of the Revolution and the country. We cannot take © 
 the responsibility for such a policy, and we renounce before the — 
 Tsay-ee-kah our function as People’s Commissars. 
 
 Other Commissars, without resigning their positions, signed — 
 the declaration—Riazanov, Derbychev of the Press Department, | 
 Arbuzov, of the Government Printing-plant, Yureniev, of the _ 
 Red Guard, Feodorov, of the Commissariat of Labour, and La- 
 rin, secretary of the Section of Elaboration of Decrees. 
 
 At the same time Kameniev, Rykov, Miliutin, Zinoviev 
 and Nogin resigned from the Central Committee of the Bol-— 
 shevik party, making public their reasons: 
 
 
 
 _. . The constitution of such a Government (composed of all 
 the parties of the Soviet) is indispensable to prevent a new flow | 
 of blood, the coming famine, the destruction of the Revolution by 
 the Kaledinists, to assure the convocation of the Constituent As- 
 sembly at the proper time, and to apply effectively the programme ‘ 
 adopted by the Congress of Soviets. . . . ‘ 
 
 We cannot accept the responsibility for the disastrous policy of 
 the Central Committee, carried on against the will of an enormous 
 majority of the proletariat and the soldiers, who are eager to see 
 the rapid end of the bloodshed between the different political par- 
 ties of the democracy. . . . We renounce our title as members of 
 the Central Committee, in order to be able to say openly our opin- 
 ion to the masses of workers and soldiers. . . . { 
 
 » 
 ' 
 
 We leave the Central Committee at the moment of victory; we 
 
 2 
 a - 
 7 
 
THE CONQUEST OF POWER 273 
 
 
 
 ; cannot calmly look on while the policy of the chiefs of the Central 
 _ Committee leads toward the loss of the fruits of victory and the 
 bP _ crushing of the proletariat. . 
 
 The masses of the workers, the soldiers of the garrison, 
 - stirred restlessly, sending their delegations to Smolny, to the 
 Conference for Formation of the New Government, where the 
 Bircak i in the ranks of the Bolsheviki caused the liveliest joy. 
 
 if But the answer of the Leninites was swift and ruthless. 
 
 _Shliapnikov and Teodorovitch submitted to party discipline 
 
 _ and returned to their posts. Kameniev was stripped of his 
 
 | powers as president of the T'say-ee-kah, and Sverdlov elected in 
 
 _ his place. Zinoviev was deposed as president of the Petro- 
 gered Soviet. On the morning of the 5th, Pravda contained 
 a ferocious proclamation to the people of Russia, written by 
 MiLenin, which was printed in hundreds of thousands of copies, 
 | posted on the walls everywhere, and distributed over the face 
 
 4 of Russia. 
 
 ee 
 
 __ The second All-Russian Congress of Soviets gave the ma- 
 _jority to the Bolshevik party. Only a Government formed by this 
 party can therefore be a Soviet Government. And it is known to 
 all that the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party, a few hours 
 before the formation of the new Government and before proposing 
 | the list of its members to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in- 
 a vited to its meeting three of the most eminent members of the Left 
 Socialist Revolutionary group, comrades Kamkov, Spiro and Kare- 
 
 
 
 lin, and asxep ruem to participate in the new Government. We 
 regret infinitely that the invited comrades refused; we consider 
 | their refusal inadmissible for revolutionists and champions of the 
 _ working-class; we are willing at any time to include the Left So- 
 ) cialist Revolutionaries in the Government; but we declare that, as 
 the party of the majority at the second All-Russian Congress of 
 Soviets, we are entitled and spounp before the people to form a 
 . Government. .'. . 
 
 . Comrades! Several members of the Central Committee 
 
 
 
, all 2 ed et 
 
 ov, TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 of our party and the Council of People’s Commissars, Kameniev, 
 Zinoviev, Nogin, Rykov, Miliutin and a few others left yesterday, — 
 
 November 17th, the Central Committee of our party, and the last 
 three, the Council of People’s Commissars. . . . 
 The comrades who left us acted like deserters, because they 
 
 not only abandoned the posts entrusted to them, but also disobeyed — 
 the direct instructions of the Central Committee of our party, to 
 the effect that they should await the decisions of the Petrograd and — 
 Moscow party organisations before retiring. We blame decisively 7 
 such desertion. We are firmly convinced that all conscious work- 
 ers, soldiers and peasants, belonging to our party or sympathising © 
 
 with it, will also disapprove of the behaviour of the deserters. . .. — 
 
 Remember, comrades, that two of these deserters, Kameniev and 
 Zinoviev, even before the uprising in Petrograd, appeared as de- | 
 serters and strike-breakers, by voting at the decisive meeting of 
 the Central Committee, October 23d, 1917, against the insurrec- i 
 
 tion; and even arrer the resolution passed by the Central Com- 
 
 mittee, they continued their campaign at a meeting of the party 
 workers. . . . But the great impulse of the masses, the great hero-— 
 sm of millions of workers, soldiers and peasants, in Moscow, Pet- 
 rograd, at the front, in the trenches, in the villages, pushed aside 
 
 the deserters as a railway train scatters saw-dust. .. . 
 
 Shame upon those who are of little faith, who hesitate, who 
 doubt, who allow themselves to be frightened by the bourgeoisie, 
 
 or who succumb before the cries of the latter’s direct or indirect 
 
 accomplices! There is NoT A SHADOW of hesitation in the MAssES _ 
 
 of Petrograd, Moscow, and the rest of Russia. ... 
 
 _. . We shall not submit to any ultimatums from small groups — 
 of intellectuals which are not followed by the masses, which are © 
 
 PRACTICALLY only supported by Kornilovists, Savinkovists, yunkers, 
 and so forth... . 
 
 The response from the whole country was like a blast 
 of hot storm. The insurgents never got a chance to “say 
 openly their opinion to the masses of workers and soldiers.” 
 Upon the T'say-ee-kah rolled in like breakers the ‘ierce popular 
 
 condemnation of the “deserters.” For days Smolny was” 
 
 
 
i. 
 sat: , 
 1 - 
 
 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 275 
 
 _ thronged with angry delegations and committees, from the 
 ; front, from the Volga, from the Petrograd factories. ‘Why 
 _ did they dare leave the Government? Were they paid by the 
 bourgeoisie to destroy the Revolution? They must return and 
 4 submit to the decisions of the Central Committee!” 
 1 Only in the Petrograd garrison was there still uncertainty. 
 7 A great soldier meeting was held on November 24th, addressed 
 2 by representatives of all the political parties. By a vast 
 Majority Lenin’s policy was sustained, and the Left Socialist 
 Revolutionaries were told that they must enter the govern- 
 | -.. See next page. 
 | The Mensheviki delivered a final ultimatum, demanding 
 _ that all Ministers and yunkers be released, that all newspapers 
 "be allowed full freedom, that the Red Guard be disarmed and 
 ii the garrison put under command of the Duma. To this Smolny 
 answered that all the Socialist Ministers and also all but a 
 _very few yunkers had been already set free, that all newspapers 
 were free except the bourgeois press, and that the Soviet would 
 " remain in command of the armed forces. . . . On the 19th the 
 Moa Force to Form a New Government disbanded, and the 
 _ Opposition one by one slipped away to Moghilev, where, under 
 the wing of the General Staff, they continued to form Govern- 
 ‘ment after Government, until the end... . 
 : _ Meanwhile the Bolsheviki had been undermining the power 
 “of the Vikzhel. An appeal of the Petrograd Soviet to all 
 | ee workers called upon them to force the Vikzhel to 
 surrender its powers. On the 15th, the T'say-ee-kah, follow- 
 "ing its procedure toward the peasants, called an All-Russian 
 
 Congress of Railway Workers for December 1st; the Vikzhel 
 
 
 
 
 
 immediately called its own Congress for two weeks later. On 
 November 16th, the Vikzhel members took their seats in the 
 ‘Tsay-ee-kah. On the night of December 2d, at the opening ses- 
 - sion of the All-Russian Congress of Railway Workers, the T say- 
 
 e. 
 
HY BOTPERY O ROC TLTUED, 
 
 BaumMaHirto BCBXhb pasounx’b 
 H BCBX'B COAAATDB. 
 
 
 
 
 1-ro Hoa6pa sb ray6s [peoSpamescraro noika cocTonZoch upesBHdaiiHoe coOpauie 
 mperctaButesell BCBXD uacteii erporpaackaro rapHHu3oHa. 
 
 Co6panie sto O50 co3BaHO 10 uuniiaTass Ipeobpamencraru a Cemenosckaro HOIROBS © 
 yaa obcyajenia Bompoca 0 TOM, Kakia COMiacNCTHUeCKia NapTin CTOATS 38 COBBTCKY!O BAacTh, 
 Eakin NPOTABD copbrckoli BiacTH, Raia CTOATS 38 HApONd, Rakif UPOTHBb Hero, H BOSMORHO IH i 
 coraamenic. y 
 
 Ha co6panie 6110 mpursamenbt npeactaparerx Weurpazbuaro Vicnoaznntrespuaro Romu- 
 neta Conbtonb, Topogcno# ay»hl. ApKCeHTbeBCKarO EpecthsHckaro coBSTa H BCBXS DOLUTAIE- 
 CEHXD napriii orb SombWeBUKOBD AO HAPOAAEIX> CONIAXHCTOBS BEIIOWTeIbHO. 
 
 Tlocad yoararo o6cymaenis, 3acayManb pbag Bebxb napTifl w oprannzaniti, co6panie 10 
 pansnionun GoabWUACTBOM TOA0COBD ppzsHato, YT TOAbEO CoubmennKa H SbBLIC BC-BPH 
 CTOATS 3a Hapoxb, & BCB OcTASbHHA NapTin TORRO UPHEPHIBAOTCA LO3yHTOMD corgzamenia Aid 
 Toro, UTOOH IUMUT HApoyb ThXB gaBoeRaHif, ROTOpHa Onn cxblaubl Bb ABH BeauEOH OB- 
 raOppcrof paboueli a coagaTcrol peBor1onin. 
 
 Born Texcrh pesosronin, UpmHaTo Hd STO codpanin Ierporpagcnaro rapHH3oHa 61 
 rosocomb upoTus> 1 upz 12 BosxepmaBmUxce: 4 | 
 
 te | 
 
 Tapeuzonmee coGpasie, coaRammoa HO guamtlarHe’ Bpe- 
 oGpamenthare H COMICHORCHATS RGNHOBb, BhICMyuasb pew 
 eTaBRTeneh Bcbxb comlanHCTHICthENh naprili H oGmecTBeH- 
 HDIND Oprasnzauifi mo Bompety 6 cOrnamenin MOWHTHYCCHEKD 
 HapTii, HAXORNTb ITS. | 
 
 1) penmcrarnnTenu HenTpamnearo HicnommmrenbHaro Komie 
 Tera COBSTOBD (2-To CO3biBa), MpeRCTaBHTCIM papTins 601bmIeBR: 
 KOBb H WKBLIXD 3C-9POBb ONPSASicCHHO 3afBHIH, ATO OHH 3a 
 BIACTh COBETOBS, 3a MCKPCThI O 3OMTE, MHP HW KOHTpOIS Hab 
 TIpOHZRONCTEOMb HM UTO Ha STOR WEATOOPME OHH MonycKaloTS 
 corkamenie CaulaincTHuCcKkhxh april. x 
 
 2) RETO Me BPeMA MpeACTABMTCAM APYTHXb napTi# (9c-9POBB 
 H MCHLINCEMKOBD) BiH He pa OTBETA HI NPHMO 3aHBHI 
 "WTO OHH MPOTHBS COBSTCKON BACT HB MDOTHBD RCKPCTOBh O 
 
 cee 
 
 3eMIS, MHDS 4 KOHTPONB: 
 Bb BHAY sere coBbimanie MOcTahoBIAacrs: 
 
 1) Bbirecmu pbsakoe nopuuanie mbmMp napmismd, komopbia, npukpbisaaseb 
 AOSYHTOMD Coraameris, Ha CAaMOMb Abab xomamb copspamb szapoeBania, AoObiinbis 
 HAPOAOMD Bb ANH okmaGpbckoii peBoarouin. ; : 
 
 2) Bbpasuimb noanoe AaoBbpie Llenmpaabnomy Vicnoanumeabnomy Komumemy 
 n Copbmy Hapoanbixy Komuccapobb W o6buamb nMd NOANYIO noaaepokky. } 
 
 Bb moske Bpema coOpanie HaXxOAHMb HeOBXOAMMbIMd, umMoGbi MOBaDpNUIM absbie 
 sc-spbi BCMYyNMAN Bb COCMABb Hapoanaro ITpabumeabcmsa. 
 
 Conhmanie mpexcTasnTorzexy BOHHCEEX®S 
 yacrex IerporpayzcHharo rapuu3zo0za. 
 
 Trscrpedia Kortium, Neworpar, Ceiazire ox, 6, 006, mare. 
 
 Announcement, posted on the walls of Petrograd, of the result of a meeting of 
 
 representatives of the garrison regiments, called to consider the question of forming @ 
 new Government. For translation see Appendix 6. 
 
 276 ‘ 
 
 § 
 ay 
 ‘ 
 ’ t 
 “~ iw ¢ 
 
: me ‘ 
 t _-—s—s§s THE CONQUEST OF POWER aT7 
 
 4 ee-kah formally offered the post of Commissar of Ways and 
 ~ Communications to the Vikzhel—which accepted. . . . 
 , Having settled the question of power, the Bolsheviki turned 
 _ their attention to problems of practical administration. First 
 of all the city, the country, the Army must be fed. Bands 
 _ of sailors and Red Guards scoured the warehouses, the rail- 
 _ way terminals, even the barges in the canals, unearthing and 
 confiscating thousands of poods* of food held by private 
 speculators. Emissaries were sent to the provinces, where 
 with the assistance of the Land Committees they seized the 
 ' store-houses of the great grain-dealers. Expeditions of sailors, 
 f: heavily armed, were sent out in groups of five thousand, to 
 __ the South, to Siberia, with roving commissions to capture cities 
 fk still held by the White Guards, establish order, and get food. 
 _ Passenger traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railroad was sus- 
 _ pended for two weeks, while thirteen trains, loaded with bolts 
 _ of cloth and bars of iron assembled by the Factory-Shop Com- 
 ~ mittees, were sent out eastward, each in charge of a Commissar, 
 _ to barter with the Siberian peasants for grain and pota- 
 - toes. Team 
 : Kaledin being in possession of the coal-mines of the Don, 
 i the fuel question became urgent. Smolny shut off all electric 
 7 lights in theatres, shops and restaurants, cut down the number 
 of street cars, and confiscated the private stores of fire-wood 
 ' held by the fuel-dealers. . . . And when the factories of Petro- 
 , grad were about to close down for lack of coal, the sailors of 
 , the Baltic Fleet turned over to the workers two hundred thou- 
 sand poods from the bunkers of battle-ships. . . . 
 | i Toward the end of November occurred the “wine-pog- 
 - roms * ”—]ooting of the wine-cellars—beginning with the plun- 
 - dering of the Winter Palace vaults. For days there were drun- 
 ken soldiers on the streets. . . . In all this was evident the hand 
 _ of the counter-revolutionists, who distributed among the regi- 
 PA pood is thirty-six pounds. 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ ai 
 
as 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ovg TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 ments plans showing the location of the stores of liquor. The — 
 Commissars of Smolny began by pleading and arguing, which | 
 did not stop the growing disorder, followed by pitched bat- | 
 tles between soldiers and Red Guards... . Finally | the — 
 Military Revolutionary Committee sent out companies of — 
 sailors with machine-guns, who fired mercilessly upon the 
 rioters, killing many; and by executive order the wine-cellars 
 were invaded by Committees with hatchets, who smashed the — 
 bottles—or blew them up with dynamite. .. . 
 
 Companies of Red Guards, disciplined and well-paid, were 
 on duty at the headquarters of the Ward Soviets day and 
 night, replacing the old Militia. In all quarters of the city 
 small elective Revolutionary Tribunals were set up by the 
 
 wa RR 8 
 
 workers and soldiers to deal with petty crime. .. . 
 
 The great hotels, where the speculators still did a thriving 
 business, were surrounded by Red Guards, and the speculators 
 thrown into jail.2 ... 
 
 Alert and suspicious, the working-class of the city con-- 
 stituted itself a vast spy system, through the servants prying — 
 into bourgeois households, and reporting all information to — 
 the Military Revolutionary Committee, which struck with an_ 
 iron hand, unceasing. In this way was discovered the Mon-— 
 
 x ee ht ei i RR Rs aan Nh NRE 
 re : 
 
 ce 
 
 archist plot led by former Duma-member Purishkevitch and a 
 group of nobles and officers, who had planned an officers’ up-_ 
 rising, and had written a letter inviting Kaledin to Petro- 
 grad.° ... In this way was unearthed the conspiracy of 
 the Petrograd Cadets, who were sending money and recruits — 
 to Kaledin. ... 
 
 Neratov, frightened at the outburst of popular fury pro~ 
 voked by his flight, returned and surrendered the Secret 
 Treaties to Trotzky, who began their publication in Pravda, 
 scandalising the world... . 
 
 The restrictions on the Press were increased by a decree” 
 making advertisements a monopoly of the official Govern: 
 
 af 
 4 
 

 
 
 
 PoC, Weesm BA NS 
 
 ie BGS 
 
 ae i 
 
 co el (raed far bx 
 aril, ‘ 
 
 1) Toporh MeTporpaa' ooLasneyh Ho otqEHoNs 
 NONOKCHIH, 
 
 yi 
 
 
 
 —- 2) Beaxia co6pania, mutuurn, cCGopnma u 
 _ J.f. Ha yauuaxd Wu nioWwag_Axb BocnpeLaetca. 
 
 | 3) Flonbitkn pa3rpomosb BHHHDIXD norpe- 
 | DOBD, CKNaL0Bb, 3aB0f08b, NaBOKb, MarazH- 
 _ HOBb, YGCTHbIXb KBGPTHPb H Npou. u T.n. Gy- 
 
 - AyTb Npexpauaembi_nynemetHbimb orHeMb 
 _ 6e3b BCAKaro NpeAynpexKzenia. 
 
 te 4) Romorsimt> KOmETeTam», wuBeiqananrh, ABOPHERANT 
  & manngla sarbeaetca Bb GezycnoBHy!0 CON3aHHOCTh HORRep- 
 _ MIBBATb Canibili CTpOMakimli MOPAROXd Bb ROMaXd, WLOPaKd 
 _ +B Ha YRaNaXdb, NPHICMT> BOpoOTa H MORES ALI KOMOBD AONMHB! 
 ie eon eee Bb 9 4aC. BeYepa BH OTHPSIBATLEA Bb 7 Wal. YTB. 
 
 ilo § Yat. Beiepa BbINYCKATh TONbHO HWNbECBD NONb KOR- 
 ‘THOME ROMOELIKD HOMATeTORD. 
 
 + 5S) BHHOBEDIG Bb pa3snayb, npokaKns’ anu nploGpbrenia 
  BSCHEXEXD CHEPTHDIND HAMHTROBD, 2 TAXKIC Bb HAPYMICHIN nyE- 
 
 _ &TOBD Z-ro H 4-ro GyAYT> HEMENNEHHO apeCTORabi KH HOLBEp- 
 _FHYTbI CamMomy THEKOMY HanasaHilo. 
 
 Metporpand.6-ro meKa6pa, 3 “aca HOU. 
 
 | Homarer to Gopnié ch morpomamu mpa HcnommmrTersrem 
  Homereri Copira Pafowx: a -Congatcrexs Jenytarest. 
 
 Tusarse$is dicctine, Derporpam, Cala aap, 6 co}, mm, 
 
 Bolshevik order. A proclamation of the Committee to Fight against Pogroms, 
 attached to the Petrograd Soviet. For translation see Appendix 11, 
 
 ; 
 , 
 oe aplenty Nap 
 
280 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ~ i 
 
 ment newspaper. At this all the other papers suspended rt 
 tion as a protest, or disobeyed ‘the law and were closed. oh 
 Only three weeks later did they finally submit. i 
 Still the strike of the Ministries went on, still the sabotage 
 of the old officials, the stoppage of normal economic life. 
 Behind Smolny was only the will of the vast, unorganised — 
 popular masses; and with them the Council of People’s Com- — 
 missars dealt, directing revolutionary mass-action against its 
 enemies. In eloquent proclamations,'? couched in simple words 
 and spread over Russia, Lenin explained the Revolution, urged — 
 the people to take the power into their own hands, by force to ; 
 break down the resistance of the propertied classes, by force — 
 to take over the institutions of Government. Revolutionary — 
 order. Revolutionary discipline! Strict accounting and 
 control! No strikes! No loafing! i 
 On the 20th of November the Military Revolutionary — 
 
 Committee issued a warning: 
 
 The rich classes oppose the power of the Soviets—the Govern- : 
 ment of workers, soldiers and peasants. Their sympathisers halt 
 the work of the employees of the Government and the Duma, incite 
 strikes in the banks, try to interrupt communication by the rail- 
 ways, the post and the telegraph. .. . 
 
 We warn them that they are playing with fire. The country 
 and the Army are threatened with famine. To fight against it, the 
 regular functioning of all services is indispensable. The Workers’ _ 
 and Peasants’ Government is taking every measure to assure the _ 
 country and the Army all that is necessary. Opposition to these 
 measures is a crime against the People. We warn the rich classes 
 and their sympathisers that, if they do not cease their sabotage and ‘ 
 their provocation in halting the transportation of food, they will 
 be the first to suffer. They will be deprived of the right of re- 
 ceiving food. All the reserves which they possess will be requi- 
 sitioned. The property of the principal criminals will be confis- 
 cated. 
 
 We have done our duty in warning those who play with fire. — 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ry 
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 BCEMb pabouvwMb 
 TMETPOreagra! 
 
 - Toxapamsl Pesomonta noGimpaern—penemouia woGbamna. 
 
 
 
 Ben BnacTh nepewna Rb Hawn Com’: Tranrp. Mepabin neg bim ta: 
 
 MbIAs TPy Aubin. hago pasnabeTh £9 ROHLaChOMNecHHYy NO YMepear 
 gio, Hage OGE2NC4NTS MOMHCe TOPMICCTEO Halen CTPeMmme: 
 
 pismo. PaGoulli nmacch POmMmenh, OCH3aNb PNORBHTD Bb 3TH ABH 
 
 BCNHUAHWIYIO BRIZCMKKY fi BLIHOCKHBOCTh, 
 uToGh! oGnerunTD Hozcmy Hapoquemy Mpasatrenmncrsy Cosb- 
 TOBb BbInonHeHie BCLXD saqat». Ha STHXD MC RUAN) GyNyTb 
 H30aHbI HOBbIC ZaKOHb! HO p26quemy BOMpOty A Bb TOM 
 SECS OLRENIb H3b C2MbIKD FOPSLIND 32aN0Nb O paboreMd 
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 -—-SaflacTORKH H BbICTYMNeHIA PadOHHXh Match Bb 
 HleTpernais Tenefs TOKO B5eLATb. 
 
 Mxi mpocumt Bach HeMeqtHHO. UpeKpaTaT, BCh 9kOHOMHACCKIA H TiomRTHICCKIA 
 eaGacToRKH, BCLMb CTaTb Ha paOoTy H NpOH3SBORUTL CC BL DOAHOMB nopasyKs. Pa6ora 
 Ha 3anosAax’b M BO BCAXD Npemnpintiax® neo6xomama HOROMY UpacuTesBcTBy CoBhToBs, 
 WOTOMY TO BCAkKOe pascTpolicrRo paGoTh cosqaerh JIA BAC HOBLIA SaTpyqueHia 
 KOTOPHIXt u 63% TOFS OBOmBHO. Bob KB cRdemy Mébcty. 
 
 Jlyamiee cpexctag WoAepuaTh HOBOC MpaBuTemKCTBO CoBbTORBb BS STH AHE— 
 
 pCHOJHAA CBOE WB10. 
 
 flo S0PABeTBYCT TRORTST BRINCDRKA MponeTaplaral Ma 3qpaBcrByerD 
 rosantonial | 
 
 Merporpaxzcnisz Cosirs FP. = C. Jf. 
 
 Mlerporpaxycniz CossTrs UMpodecciozaszz 
 2 5IxB Corw3z03B. 
 
 Mlourpaznnirm CosaTs PaspetH0-3an07- 
 CKEXS KFlomurTrerTross. 
 
 —_—_—_—_ eee 
 {anorpadia «Kom sia. Nerporpans, Caine en. 6. co6 soma 
 
 Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet, the Petrograd Council of Professional Unions, 
 and the Petrograd Council of Factory Shop Committees, to the Workers of Petro. 
 grad, urging them to work hard and not to strike. For translation see Appendix 13, 
 
 281 
 
982 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD _ 
 
 We are convinced that in case decisive measures become neces- 4 
 sary, we shall be solidly supported by all workers, soldiers, and 
 peasants. 
 
 On the 22d of November the walls of the city were placarded 
 with a sheet headed “zxTRAORDINARY COMMUNICATION” : 
 
 The Council of People’s Commissars has received an urgent 
 telegram from the Staff of the Northern Front... . 
 
 “There must be no further delay; do not let the arn die of 
 hunger; the armies of the Northern Front have not received a crust 
 of bread now for several days, and in two or three days they will 
 not have any more biscuits—which are being doled out to them — 
 from reserve supplies until now never touched. . . . Already dele- 
 gates from all parts of the Front are talking of a necessary re- — 
 moval of part of the Army to the rear, foreseeing that in a few 
 days there will be headlong flight of the soldiers, dying from hun- 
 ger, ravaged by the three years’ war in the trenches, sick, insufh- 
 ciently clothed, bare-footed, driven mad by superhuman misery.” 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee brings this to the notice 
 of the Petrograd garrison and the workers of Petrograd. The sit- 
 uation at the Front demands the most urgent and decisive measures. — 
 
 . Meanwhile the higher functionaries of the Government insti- 
 tutions, banks, railroads, post and telegraph, are on strike and ~ 
 impeding the work of the Government in supplying the Front with 
 provisions. . . . Each hour of delay may cost the life of thousands — 
 of soldiers. The counter-revolutionary functionaries are the most 
 dishonest criminals toward their hungry and dying brethren on the — 
 Front:.*.. - | | 
 
 The Minrrary Revotutionary CoMMITTEE GIVES THESE CRIMI-_ 
 NALS A LAST WARNING. In event of the least resistance or oppo- — 
 sition on their part, the harshness of the measures which will be 
 adopted against them will correspond to the seriousness of their 
 crime... . 
 
 The masses of workers and soldiers responded by a savage 
 tremor of rage, which swept all Russia. In the capital the 
 
 
 
ve oe "~ 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 283 
 
 
 
 
 
 Beret and bank employees got out hundreds of proclama- 
 14 
 | tions and appeals,'* protesting, defending themselves, such as 
 ae this | one: 
 TO THE ATTENTION OF ALL CITIZENS. 
 THE STATE BANK Is CLOSED! 
 
 WwHy? 
 
 _ ecatise the violence exercised by the Bolsheviki against the 
 a - State Bank has .made it impossible for us to work. The first act 
 ty of the People’s Commissars was to DEMAND TEN MILLION RUBLES, 
 ; E and on November 27th THEY DEMANDED TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS, 
 . without any indication as to where this money was to go. 
 
 . . - We functionaries cannot take part in plundering the peo- 
 
 ee 
 : ee vroperty. We stopped work. 
 _  Crrizens! The money in the State Bank is yours, the people’s 
 | 4 _ money, acquired by your labour, your sweat and blood. Crrizens! 
 _Save the people’s property from robbery, and us from violence, 
 and we > Shall immediately resume work. 
 
 : | , EMPLOYEES OF THE State Bank. 
 
 From the Ministry of Supplies, the Ministry of Finance, 
 
 i from the Special Supply Committee, declarations that the 
 i _ Military Revolutionary Committee made it impossible for 
 eS _the employees to work, appeals to the population to support 
 
 - them against Smolny. . . . But the dominant worker and sol- 
 
 _ dier did not believe them; it was firmly fixed in the popular 
 
 
 
 : mind that the She were sabotaging, starving the Army, 
 | starving the people. . . . In the long bread lines, which as 
 | formerly stood in the iron winter streets, it was not the Gov- 
 _ ernment which was blamed, as it had been under Kerensky, but 
 - the tchinovniki, the sabotageurs; for the Government was their 
 age cament, their Soviets—and the functionaries of the Minis- 
 ' tries were against it. 
 a At the centre of all this opposition was the Duma, and 
 | - its militant organ, the Committee for Salvation, protesting 
 1 - against all the decrees of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 
 
 
984 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 voting again and again not to recognise the Soviet Govern- 
 ment, openly cooperating with the new counter-revolutionary 
 “Governments” set up at Moghilev. . . . On the 17th of No- 
 vember, for example, the Committee for Salvation addressed 
 “all Municipal Governments, Zemstvos, and all democratic and 
 revolutionary organisations of peasants, workers, soldiers and 
 other citizens,” in these words: . 
 
 Do not recognise the Government of the Bolsheviki, and strug- 
 gle against it. 
 
 Form local Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolu- 
 tion, who will unite all democratic forces, so as to aid the All- 
 Russian Committee for Salvation in the tasks which it has set 
 TEIGIE ro hei. 
 
 Meanwhile the elections for the Constituent Assembly in 
 Petrograd’® gave an enormous plurality to the Bolsheviki; 
 so that even the Mensheviki Internationalists pointed out that 
 the Duma ought to be re-elected, as it no longer represented 
 the political composition of the Petrograd population. .. .- 
 ‘At the same time floods of resolutions from workers’ organisa- 
 tions, from military units, even from the peasants in the sur- 
 rounding country, poured in upon the Duma, calling it 
 “counter-revolutionary, Kornilovitz,” and demanding that it 
 resign. The last days of the Duma were stormy with the — 
 bitter demands of the Municipal workers for decent living 
 wages, and the threat of strikes. .. . | | 
 
 On the 23d a formal decree of the Military Revolutionary — 
 
 Committee dissolved the Committee for Salvation. On the — 
 
 29th, the Council of People’s Commissars ordered the dissolu- 
 tion and re-election of the Petrograd City Duma: | 
 
 In view of the fact that the Central Duma of Petrograd, 
 elected September 2d, . . . has definitely lost the right to repre- 
 sent the population of Petrograd, being in complete disaccord 
 ‘with its state of mind and its aspirations . . . and in view of tlic 
 fact that the personnel of the Duma majority, although having 
 
 
 

 
 
 — 
 
 Son aS ae a ne an ee a ge ee eee 
 Pah a =epse —— 
 ee fe ee eee =" - Pa ae 
 
 Sa 
 
 <= 
 
 ee 
 Ss. 
 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF POWER 285 
 
 io P oat all political following, continues to make use of its preroga- 
 
 -_ tives to resist in a counter-revolutionary manner the will of the 
 b _ workers, soldiers and peasants, to sabotage and obstruct the nor- 
 _ mal work of the Government—the Council of People’s Commissars 
 - considers it its duty to invite the population of the capital to pro- 
 - nounce judgment on the policy of the organ of Municipal autonomy. 
 
 To this end the Council of People’s Commissars resolves: 
 
 (1) To dissolve the Municipal Duma; the dissolution to take 
 
 effect November 30th, 1917. 
 
 (2) All functionaries elected or appointed by the present 
 
 Duma shall remain at their posts and fulfil the duties confided to 
 
 them, until their places shall be filled by representatives of the new 
 Duma. 
 (3) All Municipal employees shall continue to fulfil their 
 
 _ duties; those who leave the service of their own accord shall be 
 
 considered discharged. 
 
 (4) The new elections for the Municipal Duma of Petrograd 
 are fixed for December 9th, 1917. ... 
 
 (5) The Municipal Duma of Petrograd shall meet December 
 
 ‘11th, 1917, at two o'clock. 
 
 (6) Those who disobey this decree, as well as those who in- 
 
 _ tentionally harm or destroy the property of the Municipality, shall 
 
 be immediately arrested and brought before the Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunals.... 
 
 The Duma met defiantly, passing resolutions to the effect 
 that it would ‘‘defend its position to the last drop of its 
 
 blood,” and appealing desperately to the population to save 
 
 their “own elected City Government.” But the population 
 
 _ remained indifferent or hostile. On the 3lst Mayor Schreider 
 
 and several members were arrested, interrogated, and released. 
 That day and the next the Duma continued to meet, inter- 
 rupted frequently by Red Guards and sailors, who politely 
 requested the assembly to disperse. At the meeting of De- 
 cember 2d, an officer and some sailors entered the Nicolai 
 
986 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Hall while a member was speaking, and ordered the members 
 to leave, or force would be used. They did so, protesting to 
 the last, but finally ‘‘ceding to violence.” | 
 
 The new Duma, which was elected ten days later, and for 
 which the “Moderate” Socialists refused to vote, was almost 
 entirely Bolshevik. .. . 
 
 There remained several centres of dangerous opposition, 
 such as the “republics” of Ukraine and Finland, which were 
 showing definitely anti-Soviet tendencies. Both at Hels- 
 ingfors and at Kiev the Governments were gathering troops 
 which could be depended upon, and entering upon campaigns 
 of crushing Bolshevism, and of disarming and expelling Rus- 
 sian troops. The Ukrainean Rada had taken command of 
 all southern Russia, and was furnishing Kaledin reinforce- — 
 ments and supplies. Both Finland and Ukraine were beginning © 
 secret negotiations with the Germans, and were promptly rec- 
 ognised by the Allied Governments, which loaned them huge 
 sums of money, joining with the propertied classes to 
 create counter-revolutionary centres of attack upon Soviet — 
 Russia. In the end, when Bolshevism had conquered in both | 
 these countries, the defeated bourgeoisie called in the Germans — 
 to restore them to power... . | 
 
 But the most formidable menace to the Soviet Government ~ 
 was internal and two-headed—the Kaledin movement, and the ~ 
 Staff at Moghilev, where General Dukhonin had assumed — 
 command. | 
 
 The ubiquitous Muraviov was appointed commander of — 
 the war against the Cossacks, and a Red Army was recruited ri 
 from among the factory workers. Hundreds of propagandists 
 were sent to the Don. The Council of People’s Commissars 
 issued a proclamation to the Cossacks,’ explaining what the 
 Soviet Government was, how the propertied classes, the tehim 
 ovniki, landlords, bankers and their allies, the Cossack princes, 
 land-owners and Generals, were trying to destroy the Revolu- 
 
 
 
ae, 
 
 
 
 SS ys oe 
 a 
 
 yas See GE 
 
 = fo 
 
 
 
 
 ? 
 
 3 SA eee 
 
 Oro Komecin no Hapoysiony Oopazosaxivo ipa 
 | _ Tlearnpanbuoli Fopoycrod yur 
 
 ' 
 I 
 
 f * 
 ~ 
 
 Tosapnun pabovie 1 paboTHMubi! 
 
 Sa HBCKONBKO fue fo mpasqauna Ouina oipanxena 
 gadacTOBKa yIalMMH TopoACKAX® YIHAHMTS. Jualia Oe- 
 SaMHCh Ha CTOPOHS Oypxyasia upoTuBD padovaro a 
 apectnancxaro [pasnresersa. 
 
 Topapams, opranusyiire poyuTembchiec KOMETeTH # 
 
 | BHOCHTe pesOMONin UpoTush 3a0acTOBKH yiallExs. 
 | O6pamaiirech Bt paitonane Copbri: Patowxn a Cox- 
 — garcxaxn Jlenyraross, mpodeccionamaue cowsnt, pa- 
 | Gpwo-sanoxcHie H LaprTilimnie KOMETETH Ch ‘Wpep.te- 
 | meniem ycTpamsath MaTHHTH upoTecta. Ycrpamnaiire 
  COGCTRCHHLIME CHUAN CNHE H pasBnetenia Aa TbTeE, 
 
 Tpedyiire BosoOnoneHia 3aHATii mocrh UpasqeMka BS 
 
 CPOKb, KoTopsti yxamert Wextpamzas yua 
 Topapaum, yxpbuasiire ceon moskyin BD ABT Bapoy- 
 
 Haro o6pasonania, macTamBaiiT’. Ha KOHTpONS nponeTay- 
 
  « CKEX'S Oprannsalii wan’ MKONOL. 
 
 
 
 Komuccia no Hapodxomy Ospasobanito 
 npn Uenapanxoi Topodckoli Dymt. 
 
 Proclamation of the Commission on Public Education attached to the City Duma, 
 concerning the strike of school-teachers, just before the Christmas holidays. The 
 Duma had been re-elected, and was composed almost entirely of Bolsheviki. For 
 translation see Appendix 17. 
 
 287 
 
, 
 
 988 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 tion, and prevent the couaeen ion of their wealth by the 
 people. 
 
 On November 27th a committee of Cossacks came to Smolny 
 to see Trotzky and Lenin. They demanded if it were true 
 that the Soviet Government did not intend to divide the 
 Cossack lands among the peasants of Great Russia? “No,” 
 answered ‘Trotzky. The Cossacks deliberated for a while. 
 “Well,” they asked, “does the Soviet Government intend to 
 confiscate the estates of our great Cossack land-owners and 
 divide them among the working Cossacks?” To this Lenin 
 replied. ‘That,” he said, “is for you todo. We shall support 
 the working Cossacks in all their actions. . . . The best way 
 to begin is to form Cossack Soviets; you will be given repre- 
 sentation in the T'say-ee-kah, and then it will be your Govern- 
 Mien te LOO... (27? 
 
 The Cossacks departed, thinking hard. ‘Two weeks later 
 General Kaledin received a deputation from his troops. “Will — 
 you,” they asked, “promise to divide the great estates of the 
 Cossack landlords among the working Cossacks?” 
 
 “Only over my dead body,” responded Kaledin. A month 
 later, seeing his army melt away before his eyes, Kaledin 
 blew out his brains. And the Cossack movement was no 
 INDLEL)) V:eie 
 
 Meanwhile at Moghilev were gathered the old T'say-ee-kah 
 the “moderate”? Socialist leaders—from Avksentiev to Tcher- 
 nov—the active chiefs of the old Army Committees, and the 
 reactionary officers. The Staff steadily refused to recognise — 
 the Council of People’s Commissars. It had united about it 
 the Death Battalions, the Knights of St. George, and the — 
 Cossacks of the Front, and was in close and secret touch with ~ 
 the Allied military attachés, and with the Kaledin movement 
 and the Ukrainean Rada. . . . 
 
 The Allied Governments had made no reply to the Peace — 
 
 
 
THE CONQUEST OF POWER 289 
 
 _ decree of November 8th, in which the Congress of Soviets 
 had asked for a general armistice. 
 
 On November 20th Trotzky addressed a note to the Allied 
 Ambassadors: an 
 
 
 
 7 Che can ian eee 
 ee eS ee 
 . . ~~ - Se ee 
 2 ee ee 
 
 i c 
 
 I have the honour to inform you, Mr. Ambassador, that the 
 All-Russian Congress of Soviets . . . on November 8th constituted 
 a new Government of the Russian Republic, in the form of the 
 Council of People’s Commissars. The President of this Govern- 
 ment is Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin. The direction of Foreign Affairs 
 has been entrusted to me, as People’s Commissar for F oreign Af- 
 PAihs. 4.7, « 
 
 In drawing your attention to the text, approved by the All- 
 Russian Congress, of the proposition for an armistice and a demo- 
 cratic peace without annexations or indemnities, based on the right 
 of self-determination of peoples, I have the honour to request you to 
 
 A. 
 
 
 
 SSS eS ee 
 
 a 
 = ss 
 ones 
 
 —- 
 eR emo = 
 = 5 
 
 i 
 
 - 
 te a 
 as => ae 
 
 eS 
 
 s 
 — 
 
 
 
 _ consider that document as a formal proposal of an immediate armis- 
 tice on all fronts, and the opening of immediate peace negotiations; 
 a proposal which the authorised Government of the Russian Repub- 
 lic addresses at the same time to all the belligerent peoples and 
 their Governments. 
 
 _ Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the profound assurance of the 
 
 ee Seeing ap RS 
 SSeS SS Se 
 
 esteem of the Soviet Government toward your people, who cannot 
 but wish for peace, like all the other peoples exhausted and drained 
 by this unexampled butchery... . 
 
 _ The same night the Council of People’s Commissars tele- 
 - graphed to General Dukhonin: 
 
 
 
 . The Council of People’s Commissars considers it indis- 
 ee without delay to make a formal proposal of armistice to 
 all the powers, both enemy and Allied. A declaration conforming 
 to this decision has been sent by the Commissar for Foreign Af- 
 
 The Council of People’s Commissars orders you, Citizen Com- 
 
 
 
 fairs to the representatives of the Allied powers at Petrograd. 
 ' 
 i 
 
 mander, . . . to propose to the enemy military authorities imme- 
 diately to cease hostilities, and enter into negotiations for peace. 
 
4 ‘ 
 
 290 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 In charging you with the conduct of these preliminary pourparlers, 
 the Council of People’: Commissars orders you: 
 
 1. To inform the Council by direct wire immediately of any 
 and all steps in the pourparlers with the representatives of the 
 enemy armies. 
 
 2. Not to sign the act of armistice until it has bien passed 
 upon by the Council of People’s Commissars. 
 
 The Allied Ambassadors received Trotzky’s note with con- 
 temptuous silence, accompanied by anonymous interviews in — 
 the newspapers, full of spite and ridicule. The order to — 
 Dukhonin was characterised openly as an act of treason. . . . 
 
 As for Dukhonin, he gave no sign. On the night of 
 November 22nd he was communicated with by telephone, and 
 asked if he intended to obey the order. Dukhonin answered 
 that he could not, unless it emanated from “a Government 
 sustained by the Army and the country.” 
 
 By telegraph he was immediately dismissed from the 
 post of Supreme Commander, and Krylenko appointed in his’ 
 place. Following his tactics of appealing to the masses, 
 Lenin sent a radio to all regimental, divisional and corps 
 Committees, to all soldiers and sailors of the Army and the 
 Fleet, acquainting them with Dukhonin’s refusal, and order- © 
 ing that “the regiments on the front shall elect delegates te 
 begin negotiations with the enemy detachments opposite their 
 positions. g? 
 
 On the 23d, the military attachés of the Allied nations, © 
 acting on instructions from their Governments, presented a — 
 note to Dukhonin, in which he was solemnly warned not 
 to “violate the conditions of the treaties concluded between the 
 Powers of the Entente.” The note went on to say that if a 
 separate armistice with Germany were concluded, that act 
 “would result in the most serious consequences” to Russia. 
 This communication Dukhonin at once sent out to all the — 
 soldiers’ Committees. . . .| 
 
THE CONQUEST OF POWER 291 
 
 Next morning Trotzky made another appeal to the 
 _ troops, characterising the note of the Allied representatives 
 ‘4 as a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of Russia, 
 _ and a bald attempt “to force by threats the Russian Army 
 and the Russian people to continue the war in execution 
 of the treaties concluded by the Tsar. .. .” 
 
 : From Smolny poured out proclamation after proclama- 
 _ tion,!® denouncing Dukhonin and the counter-revolutionary 
 officers about him, denouncing the reactionary politicians 
 } gathered at Moghilev, rousing, from one end of the thousand- 
 __ mile Front to the other, millions of angry, suspicious soldiers. 
 Hf And at the same time Krylenko, accompanied by three detach- 
 b ments of fanatical sailors, set out for the Stavka, breathing 
 | threats of vengeance,”° and received by the soldiers everywhere 
 i with tremendous ovations—a triumphal progress. The Cen- 
 | 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ie tral Army Committee issued a declaration in favour of Duk- 
 _ honin; and at once ten thousand troops moved upon Mog- 
 ® hiley. ... 
 
 Y On December 2d the garrison of Moghilev rose and seized 
 : the city, arresting Dukhonin and the Army Committee, and 
 | going out with victorious red banners to meet the new Supreme 
 : Commander. Krylenko entered Moghilev next morning, to 
 | find a howling mob gathered about the railway-car in which 
 
 Dukhonin had been imprisoned. Krylenko made a speech in 
 which he implored the soldiers not to harm Dukhonin, as he 
 
 _ was to be taken to Petrograd and judged by the Revolutionary 
 
 _ Tribunal. When he had finished, suddenly Dukhonin him- 
 
 self appeared at the window, as if to address the throng. 
 
 - But with a savage roar the people rushed the car, and falling 
 upon the old General, dragged him out and beat him to death 
 
 _ on the platform... . 
 | So ended the revolt of the Stavka.... 
 | _ Immensely strengthened by the collapse of the last im- 
 | portant stronghold of hostile military power in Russia, the 
 e 
 \ 
 
992 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 Soviet Government began with confidence the organisation of 
 the state. Many of the old functionaries flocked to its banner, 
 and many members of other parties entered the Government 
 service. The financially ambitious, however, were checked by 
 the decree on Salaries of Government Employees, fixing the 
 salaries of the People’s Commissars—the highest—at five hun- — 
 dred rubles (about fifty dollars) a month. . . . The strike of 
 Government Employees, led by the Union of Unions, collapsed, 
 deserted by the financial and commercial interests which had 
 been backing it. The bank clerks returned to their jobs. . . . 
 
 With the decree on the Nationalisation of Banks, the 
 formation of the Supreme Council of People’s Economy, the 
 putting into practical operation of the Land decree in the 
 villages, the democratic reorganisation of the Army, and the 
 sweeping changes in all branches of the Government and of life, 
 —with all these, effective only by the will of the masses of © 
 workers, soldiers and peasants, slowly began, with many mis- 
 takes and hitches, the moulding of proletarian Russia. 
 
 Not by compromise with the propertied classes, or with 
 the other political leaders; not by conciliating the old Govern- 
 ment mechanism, did the Bolsheviki conquer. the power. Nor 
 by the organized violence of a small clique. If the masses all 
 over Russia had not been ready for insurrection it must have 
 failed. The only reason for Bolshevik success lay in their accom- 
 plishing the vast and simple desires of the most profound — 
 strata of the people, calling them to the work of tearing down 
 and destroying the old, and afterward, in the smoke of falling — 
 ruins, cooperating with them to erect the frame-work of the 
 NeW. 2 « o 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 
 
 THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 
 
 
 
 Ir was on November 18th that the snow came. In the 
 _ morning we woke to window-ledges heaped white, and snow- 
 | flakes falling so whirling thick that it was impossible to see 
 7 - ten feet ahead. The mud was gone; in a twinkling the gloomy 
 _ city became white, dazzling. The droshki with their padded 
 ' coachmen turned into sleighs, bounding along the uneven 
 i street at headlong speed, their drivers’ beards stiff and fro- 
 zen. ... In spite of Revolution, all Russia plunging dizzily 
 
 Se 0 
 
 into the unknown and terrible future, joy swept the city with 
 the coming of the snow. Everybody was smiling; people ran 
 into the streets, holding out their arms to the soft, falling 
 
 thee eS 
 ea ee 
 
 
 
 flakes, laughing. Hidden was all the greyness; only the gold 
 and coloured spires and cupolas, with heightened barbaric 
 splendour, gleamed through the white snow. 
 
 Even the sun came out, pale and watery, at noon. The 
 
 - Seems = 
 
 colds and rheumatism of the rainy months vanished. The life 
 of the city grew gay, and the very Revolution ran swifter. . . 
 
 SRO 
 
 I sat one evening in a traktir—a kind of lower-class inn 
 _—across the street from the gates of Smolny; a low-ceilinged, 
 loud place called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” much frequented by 
 _ Red Guards. They crowded it now, packed close around the 
 ' Jittle tables with their dirty table-cloths and enormous china 
 _ tea-pots, filling the place with foul cigarette-smoke, while the 
 _ harassed waiters ran about crying “Seichass! Seichass! In 
 aminute! Right away!” 
 
 In one corner sat a man in the uniform of a captain, 
 
 293 
 
 =i ee eee 
 
 
 
 
 
294 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD me 
 
 addressing the nse which. interrupted him at creey ee 
 
 words. | 
 
 “You are no better than mnrdeiaees > he dried “<Shoot- 
 
 ing down your Russian brothers on the streets!” | 
 *“When did we do that?” asked a worker. 
 “Last Sunday you did it, when the yunkers 
 ““Well, didn’t they shoot us?” One man exhibited his arm 
 
 in a sling. ‘‘Haven’t I got something to remember them by, 
 
 the devils?” 7 
 The captain shouted at the top of his voice. “You should 
 
 
 
 remain neutral! You should remain neutral! Who are you 
 to destroy the legal Government? Who is Lenin? A Ger- 
 
 93 
 
 
 
 man 
 “Who are you? A counter-revolutionist! A provocator !” ve 
 they bellowed at him. 
 When he could make himself heard the captain stood up. 
 
 f 
 
 “All right!” said he. ‘You call yourselves the people of 
 
 Russia. But you’re not the people of Russia. The Pena 
 
 
 
 are the people of a Wait until the peasants 
 “Yes,” they cried, “wait until the peasants speak. We 
 
 know what the peasants will say. . . . Aren’t they working- — 
 
 men like ourselves?” 
 In the long run, everything depended upon the peasants. 
 
 While the peasants had been politically backward, still they — 
 had their own peculiar ideas, and they constituted more than © 
 eighty per cent of the people of Russia. The Bolsheviki had — 
 a comparatively small following among the peasants; and a per-_ 
 manent dictatorship of Russia by the industrial workers was im- 
 
 possible. . . . The traditional peasant party was the Socialist 
 Revolutionary party; of all the parties now supporting the 
 Soviet Government, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were 
 the logical inheritors of peasant leadership—and the Left 
 
 Socialist Revolutionaries, who were at the mercy of the organ- 
 

 
 
 THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 295 
 
 ised city proletariat, desperately needed the backing of the 
 peasants... . 
 
 Meanwhile Smolny had not neglected the peasants. After 
 the Land decree, one of the first actions of the new Tsay-ee-kah 
 had been to call a Congress of Peasants, over the head of the 
 | Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets. A few days 
 later was issued detailed Regulations for the Volost (Township) 
 _ Land Committees, followed by Lenin’s “Instruction to Peas- 
 
 ants,” * which explained the Bolshevik revolution and the new 
 Government in simple terms; and on November 16th, Lenin and 
 _ Miliutin published the “Instructions to Provincial Emissaries,” 
 of whom thousands were sent by the Soviet Government into 
 the villages. 
 
 Se ae 
 
 PSS 
 
 So 
 mee sets a 
 
 rs aero 
 
 Flea 
 
 
 
 = 
 
 
 
 1. Upon his arrival in the province to which he is accred- 
 _ ited, the emissary should call a joint meeting of the Central Ex- 
 ecutive Committees of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peas- 
 ants’ Deputies, to whom he should make a report on the agrarian 
 _ laws, and then demand that a joint plenary session of the Soviets 
 _ be summoned... . 
 
 2. He must study the aspects of the agrarian problem in the 
 _ province. 
 
 a. Has the land-owners’ property been taken over, and if so, 
 in what districts? 
 _ b. Who administers the confiscated land—the former proprie- 
 tor, or the Land Committees? 
 
 ec. What has been done with the agricultural machinery and 
 with the farm-animals? 
 
 8. Has the ground cultivated by the peasants been augmented? 
 
 4. How much and in what respect does the amount of land 
 “how under cultivation differ from the amount fixed by the Gov- 
 ernment as an average minimum? 
 
 5. The emissary must insist that, after the peasants have 
 ‘received the land, it is imperative that they increase the amount 
 of cultivated land as quickly as possible, and that they hasten the 
 
 _ * References in this chapter refer to the Appendix to Chapter XII. See 
 page 371. 
 
 —— 
 
 See ee PD 
 5 ee TSS 
 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 age 
 
 eS At gee 
 
 Se ieee a 
 PAO 
 
 6 8 a eet 
 
 Stee eed 
 
 a —— = so mmm lle ae ee ee 
 3 0 See eo ee err ee = Se Oe ee 5 
 
 ee 
 
296 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 sending of grain to the cities, as the only means of avoiding famine. 
 
 6. What are the measures projected or put into effect for 
 the transfer of land from the land-owners to the Land Commit- 
 tees and similar bodies appointed by the Soviets? | 
 
 7. It is desirable that agricultural properties well appointed 
 and well organised should be administered by Soviets composed — 
 of the regular employees of those properties, under the direction | 
 of competent agricultural scientists. 
 
 All through the villages a ferment of change was going 
 on, caused not only by the electrifying action of the Land 
 decree, but also by thousands of revolutionary-minded peasant- 
 soldiers returning from the front. . These men, especially, 
 welcomed the call to a Congress of Peasant 
 
 Like the old T'say-ee-kah in the matter of the second Con- 
 gress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviets, the Executive Commit- 
 tee tried to prevent the Peasant Congress summoned by Smolny. 
 And like the old T'say-ee-kah, finding its resistance futile, the 
 Executive Committee sent frantic telegrams ordering the elec- 
 tion of Conservative delegates. Word was even spread among the 
 peasants that the Congress would meet at Moghilev, and. 
 some delegates went there; but by November 23d about four 
 hundred had gathered in Petrograd, and the party caucuses 
 had begun. 
 
 The first session took place in the Alexander Hall of the 
 Duma building, and the first vote showed that more than half 
 of all the delegates were Left Socialist Revolutionaries, while 
 the Bolsheviki controlled a bare fifth, the conservative Social- 
 ist Revolutionaries a quarter, and all the rest were united only 
 in their opposition to the old Executive Committee, dominated 
 by Avksentiev, Tchaikovsky and Peshekhonov. . . . 
 
 The great hall was jammed with people and shaken with 
 continual clamour; deep, stubborn bitterness divided the 
 delegates into angry groups. ‘To the right was a sprinkling 
 

 
 
 
 THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 2907 
 
 __ of officers’ epaulettes, and the patriarchal, bearded faces of 
 lt : the older, more substantial peasants; in the centre were a few 
 h | peasants, non-commissioned officers, and some soldiers; and on 
 _ the left almost all the delegates wore the uniforms of common 
 : soldiers. ‘These last were the young generation, who had 
 been serving in the army. ... The galleries were thronged 
 : with workers—who, in Russia, still remember their peasant 
 2 origin. ... 
 
 Unlike the old T'say-ee-kah, the Executive Committee, in 
 
 _ opening the session, did not recognise the Congress as official; 
 the official Congress was called for December 13th; amid a hur- 
 _ ricane of applause and angry cries, the speaker declared that 
 J : this gathering was merely “Extraordinary Conference”. .. : 
 
 But the “Extraordinary Conference” soon showed its attitude 
 
 toward the Executive Committee by electing as presiding officer 
 
 _ Maria Spiridonova, leader of the Left Socialist Revolution- 
 
 aries. 
 
 
 
 - Most of the first day was taken up by a violent debate as 
 
 : to whether the representatives of Volost Soviets should be 
 _ seated, or only delegates from the Provincial bodies; and just 
 _ as in the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Congress, an overwhelming 
 
 majority declared in favour of the widest possible representa- 
 tion. Whereupon the old Executive Committee left the 
 eet. isc! 
 Almost immediately it was evident that most of the dele- 
 gates were hostile to the Government of the People’s Commis- 
 sars. Zinoviev, attempting to speak for the Bolsheviki, was 
 hooted down, and as he left the platform, amid laughter, there 
 
 were cries, ‘“There’s how a People’s Commissar sits in a mud- 
 
 puddle !” 
 
 “We Left Socialist Revolutionaries refuse,” cried Nazariev, 
 a delegate from the Provinces, “to recognise this so-called 
 Workers’ and Peasants’ Government until the peasants are 
 
29g TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 represented in it. At present it is nothing but a dictator. 
 ship of the workers. . . . We insist upon the formation of a 
 new Government which will represent the entire democracy!” 
 
 The reactionary delegates shrewdly fostered this feeling, 
 declaring, in the face of protests from the Bolshevik benches, 
 that the Council of People’s Commissars intended either to 
 control the Congress or dissolve it by force of arms—an 
 announcement which was received by the peasants with Bakes 
 of fury. . 
 
 On the third day Lenin suddenly mounted the tribune; for 
 ten minutes the room went mad. ‘Down with him!” they 
 shrieked. ‘We will not listen to any of your People’s Cemmis- 
 sars! We don’t recognise your Government!” 
 
 Lenin stood there quite calmly, gripping the desk with 
 both hands, his little eyes thoughtfully surveying the tumult 
 beneath. Finally, except for the right side of the hall, the 
 demonstration wore itself out somewhat. 
 
 “J do not come here as a member of the Council of 
 People’s Commissars,” said Lenin, and waited again for the 
 noise to subside, “but as a member of the Bolshevik faction, 
 duly elected to this Congress.” And he held his credentials 
 up so that all might see them. . | 
 
 ‘““However,” he went on, in an unmoved voice, “nobody 
 will deny that the present Government of Russia has been 
 formed by the Bolshevik party—” he had to wait a moment, — 
 “so that for all purposes it is the same thing. . . .” Here the — 
 right benches broke into deafening clamour, but the centre and 
 left were curious, and compelled silence. 
 
 Lenin’s argument was simple. ‘Tell me frankly, you peas- 
 ants, to whom we have given the lands of the pomieshtchiki; do 
 you want now to prevent the workers from getting control of 
 industry? ‘This is class war. The pomieshtchiki of course 
 oppose the peasants, and the manufacturers oppose the work- 
 

 
 _ THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 299 
 
 
 
 
 | ers. Are you going to allow the ranks of the proletariat to 
 __ be divided? Which side will you be on? 
 
 j “We, the Bolsheviki, are the party of the proletariat—of 
 _ the peasant proletariat as well as the industrial proletariat. 
 i We, the Bolsheviki, are the protectors of the Soviets—of the 
 ie Peasants’ Soviets as well as those of the Workers and Sol- 
 * diers. ‘The present Government is a Government of Soviets; 
 _ we have not only invited the Peasants’ Soviets to join that 
 i; Government, but we have also invited representatives of the 
 _ Left Socialist Revolutionaries to enter the Council of People’s 
 _ Commissars.... 
 
 “The Soviets are the most perfect representatives of the 
 people—of the workers in the factories and mines, of the 
 _ workers in the fields. Anybody who attempts to destroy the 
 - Soviets is guilty of an anti-democratic and counter-revolu- 
 he tionary act. And I serve notice here on you, comrades Right 
 _ Socialist Revolutionaries—and on you, Messrs. Cadets—that 
 if the Constituent Assembly attempts to destroy the Soviets, 
 ' we shall not permit the Constituent Assembly to do this 
 thing!” 
 
 On the afternoon of November 25th Tchernov arrived in 
 
 hot haste from Moghilev, summoned by the Executive Com- 
 mittee. Only two months before considered an extreme revo- 
 _ lutionist, and very popular with the peasants, he was now 
 ~ ¢alled to check the dangerous drift of the Congress toward 
 | the Left. Upon his arrival Tchernov was arrested and taken 
 to Smolny, where, after a short conversation, he was re- 
 leased. 
 
 His first act was to bitterly rebuke the Executive Com- 
 mittee for leaving the Congress. They agreed to return, and 
 Tchernov entered the hall, welcomed with great applause by 
 the majority, and the hoots and jeers of the Bolsheviki. 
 
 “Comrades! I have been away. I participated in the 
 
300 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD > 
 
 Conference of the Twelfth Army on the question of calling 
 a Congress of all the Peasant delegates of the armies of the 
 Western Front, and I know very little about the insurrection 
 which occurred here——” | 
 
 Zinoviev rose in his seat, and shouted, “Yes, you were 
 away—for a few minutes!” Fearful tumult. Cries, “Down | 
 with the Bolsheviki!” | 
 
 Tchernov continued. ‘The accusation that I helped lead 
 an army on Petrograd has no foundation, and is entirely false. 
 Where does such an accusation come from? Show me the 
 source !” 
 
 Zinoviev: “Izviestia and Dielo Naroda—your own ‘paper 
 —that’s where it comes from!”? 
 
 T'chernov’s wide face, with the small eyes, waving hair and 
 greyish beard, became red with wrath, but he controlled him- 
 self and went on. “I repeat, I know practically nothing about 
 what has happened here, and I did not lead any army except 
 this army, (he pointed to the peasant delegates), which I am 
 largely responsible for bringing here!” Le and shouts 
 of “Bravo!” 
 
 “Upon my return I visited Smolny. No such accusation’ 
 was made against me there. . . . After a brief conversation 
 I left—and that’s all! Let any one present make such an 
 accusation !”’ ea 
 
 An uproar followed, in which the Bolsheviki and some of — 
 the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were on their feet all at 
 once, shaking their fists and yelling, and the rest of the assem- — 
 bly tried to yell them down. 4 
 
 “This is an outrage, not a session!” cried Tchernov, and 
 he left the hall; the meeting was adjourned because of the 
 noise and disorder... . | 
 
 Meanwhile, the question of the status of the Executive 
 Committee was agitating all minds. By declaring the assem- 
 

 
 THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 301 
 
 __ bly “Extraordinary Conference,” it had been planned to block 
 
 _ the reelection of the Executive Committee. But this worked 
 both ways; the Left Socialist Revolutionists decided that if 
 
 _ the Congress had no power over the Executive Committee, then 
 
 _ the Executive Committee had no power over the Congress. 
 i On November 25th the assembly resolved that the powers of 
 ; the Executive Committee be assumed by the Extraordinary 
 
 | Conference, in which only members of the Executive who had 
 been elected as delegates might vote. . . . 
 
 : ‘The next day, in spite of the bitter opposition of the 
 _ Bolsheviki, the resolution was amended to give all the members 
 t of the Executive Committee, whether elected as delegates or 
 _ not, voice and vote in the assembly. 
 
 i On the 27th occurred the debate on the Land question, 
 ‘ which revealed the differences between the agrarian programme 
 _ of the Bolsheviki and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. 
 
 _ Kolchinsky, for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, outlined 
 the history of the Land question during the Revolution. The 
 first Congress of Peasants’ Soviets, he said, had voted a precise 
 and formal resolution in favour of putting the landed estates 
 _ immediately into the hands of the Land Committees. But the 
 ' _ directors of the Revolution, and the bourgeois in the Govern- 
 ment, had insisted that the question could not be solved until 
 _ the Constituent Assembly met. . . . The second period of the 
 Revolution, the period of “compromise,” was signalled by the 
 - entrance of Tchernov into the Cabinet. The peasants were 
 convinced that now the practical solution of the Land question 
 would begin; but in spite of the imperative decision of the 
 _ first Peasant Congress, the reactionaries and conciliators in 
 | 
 
 
 
 _ the Executive Committee had prevented any action. This 
 policy provoked a series of agrarian disorders, which appeared 
 as the natural expression of impatience and thwarted energy 
 on the part of the peasants. The peasants understood the 
 
 
 
7 
 302 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 exact meaning of the Revolution—they tried to turn words 
 into action. ... } area 
 
 “The recent events,” said the orator, “do not indicate a 
 simple riot, or a ‘Bolshevik adventure,’ but on the contrary, 
 a real popular rising, which has been greeted with sympathy 
 by the whole country.... 
 
 “The Bolsheviki in general took the correct attitude 
 toward the Land question; but in recommending that the 
 peasants seize the land by force, they committed a profound 
 error. . . . From the first days, the Bolsheviki declared that 
 the peasants should take over the land ‘by revolutionary mass- 
 action.” This is nothing but anarchy; the land can be taken 
 over in an organised manner. . . . For the Bolsheviki it was — 
 important that the problems of the Revolution should be 
 solved in the quickest possible manner—but the Bolsheviki 
 were not interested in how these problems were to be solved. . . . — 
 
 “The Land decree of the Congress of Soviets is identical | 
 in its fundamentals with the decisions of the first Peasants’ 
 Congress. Why then did not the new Government follow the 
 tactics outlined by that Congress? Because the Council of 
 People’s Commissars wanted to hasten the settlement of the — 
 Land question, so that the Constituent Assembly would have — 
 nothing to do. . | 
 
 “But also the Government saw that it was necessary to 
 adopt practical measures, so without further reflection, it 
 adopted the Regulations for Land Committees, thus creating 
 a strange situation; for the Council of People’s Commissars — 
 abolished private property in land, but the Regulations 
 drawn up by the Land Committees are based on private 
 property. . . . However, no harm has been done by that; for — 
 the Land Committees are paying no attention to the Soviet de- 
 crees, but are putting into operation their own practical — 
 decisions—decisions based on the will of the vast majority of 
 the peasants. ... . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 _ THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 303 
 
 “These Land Committees are not attempting the legislative 
 
 fi solution of the Land question, which belongs to the Con- 
 _stituent Assembly alone. . . . But will the Constituent Assem- 
 _ bly desire to do the will of pie Russian peasants? Of that we 
 
 cannot be sure. . . . All we can be sure of is that the revolu- 
 tionary determination of the peasants is now aroused, and that 
 
 _ the Constituent will be forced to settle the Land question the 
 way the peasants want it settled. . . . The Constituent As- 
 
 39 
 
 sembly will not dare to break with the will of the people. . . . 
 Followed him Lenin, listened to now with absorbing in- 
 
 _ tensity. “At this moment we are not only trying to solve the 
 _ Land question, but the question of Social Revolution—not 
 
 only here in Russia, but all over the world. The Land ques- 
 tion cannot be solved independently of the other problems of 
 
 _the Social Revolution. . . . For example, the confiscation of 
 
 the landed estates will provoke the resistance not only of Rus- 
 
 sian land-owners, but also of foreign capital—with whom the 
 
 great landed properties are connected through the intermediary 
 of the banks. ... 
 “The ownership of the land in Russia is the basis for 
 
 : immense oppression, and the confiscation of the land by the 
 | peasants is the most important step of our Revolution. But 
 
 it cannot be separated from the other steps, as is clearly 
 
 | manifested by the stages through which the Revolution has 
 ie had to pass. The first stage was the crushing of autocracy 
 and the crushing of the power of the industrial capitalists 
 _ and land-owners, whose interests are closely related. The sec- 
 ond stage was the strengthening of the Soviets and the political 
 ~ compromise with the bourgeoisie. ‘The mistake of the Left 
 D Socialist Revolutionaries lies in the fact that at that time 
 _ they did not oppose the policy of compromise, because they 
 _ held the theory that the consciousness of the masses was not 
 _ yet fully developed. ... 
 
 “If Socialism can only be realised when the intellectual 
 
2 
 
 304 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see 
 Socialism for at least five hundred years. . . . The Socialist 
 political party—this is the vanguard of the working-class; it 
 must not allow itself to be halted by the lack of education of 
 the mass average, but it must lead the masses, using the Soviets 
 as organs of revolutionary initiative... . But in order to 
 lead the wavering, the comrades Left Socialist Revolutionaries 
 themselves must stop hesitating... . | 
 
 “In July last a series of open breaks began between the — 
 popular masses and the ‘compromisers’; but now, in Novem- 
 ber, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries are still holding out. their 
 hand to Avksentiev, who is pulling the people with his little — 
 finger. . . . If Compromise continues, the Revolution disap- 
 pears. No compromise with the bourgeoisie is possible; its 
 power must be absolutely crushed... . 
 
 “We Bolsheviki have not changed our Land programme; we 
 have not given up the abolition of private property in the 
 land, and we do not intend to do so. We adopted the Regula- 
 tions for Land Committees,—which are not based on private — 
 property at all—because we want to accomplish the popular 
 will in the way the people have themselves decided to do it, 
 so as to draw closer the coalition of all the elements who are 
 fighting for the Social Revolution. ) 
 
 “We invite the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to enter that 
 coalition, insisting, however, that they cease looking backward, 
 and that they break with the ‘conciliators’ of their party. . . - | 
 
 “As far as the Constituent Assembly is concerned, it is 
 true, as the preceding speaker has said, that the work of the © 
 Constituent will depend on the revolutionary determination of | 
 the masses. I say, ‘Count on that revolutionary determina- 
 tion, but don’t forget your gun!’ ” | | 
 
 Lenin then read the Bolshevik resolution: 
 
 The Peasants’ Congress, fully supporting the Land decree of 
 November 8th . . . approves of the Provisional Workers’ and Peas- 
 
_ ‘THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 805 
 
 
 
 
 - ants’ Government of the Russian Republic, established by the 
 _ second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 _ Deputies. 
 
 f The Peasants’ Congress . . . invites all peasants unanimously 
 ~ to sustain that law, and to apply it immediately themselves; and 
 at the same time invites the peasants to appoint to posts and posi- 
 ‘ tions of responsibility only persons who have proved, not by words 
 __ but by acts, their entire devotion to the interests of the exploited 
 . peasant-workers, their desire and their ability to defend these in- 
 ¥ _terests against all resistance on the part of the great land-owners, 
 iy the capitalists, their partisans and accomplices. 
 
 % 
 
 The Peasants’ Congress, at the same time, expresses its con- 
 _viction that the complete realisation of all the measures which 
 make up the Land decree can only be successful through the tri- 
 umph of the Workers’ Social Revolution, which began November 
 7th, 1917; for only the Social Revolution can accomplish the defi- 
 nite transfer, without possibility of return, of the land to the peas- 
 ant-workers, the confiscation of model farms and their surrender 
 to the peasant communes, the confiscation of agricultural machin- 
 _ ery belonging to the great land-owners, the safe-guarding of the 
 t interests of the agricultural workers by the complete abolition of 
 _ wage-slavery, the regular and methodical distribution among all 
 i regions of Russia of the products of agriculture and industry, and 
 the seizure of the banks (without which the possession of land by 
 _ the whole people would be impossible, after the abolition of pri- 
 _ vate property), and all sorts of assistance by the State to the 
 _ workers. ... 
 
 For these reasons the Peasants’ Congress sustains entirely the 
 _ Revolution of November 7th . .. as a social revolution, and ex- 
 presses its unalterable will to put into operation, with whatever 
 - modifications are necessary, but without any hesitation, the social 
 _ transformation of the Russian Republic. 
 
 The indispensable conditions of the victory of the Social Revo- 
 lution, which alone will secure the lasting success and the com- 
 plete realisation of the Land decree, is the close union of the peas- 
 ant-workers with the industrial working-class, with the proletariat 
 of all advanced countries. From now on, in the Russian Republic, 
 
 eee 
 
3806 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 all the organisation and administration of the State, from top to 
 bottom, must rest on that union. That union, crushing all at- 
 tempts, direct or indirect, open or dissimulated, to return to the 
 policy of conciliation with the bourgeoisie—conciliation, damned 
 by experience, with the chiefs of bourgeois polities—can alone in- 
 sure the victory of Socialism throughout the world. .. . 
 
 The reactionaries of the Executive Committee no longer — 
 dared openly to appear. Tchernov, however, spoke several 
 times, with a modest and winning impartiality. He was invited 
 to sit on the platform. . . . On the second night of the Con- 
 gress an anonymous note was handed up to the chairman, re- 
 questing that Tchernov be made honorary President. Ustinov 
 read the note aloud, and immediately Zinoviey was on his feet, 
 screaming that this was a trick of the old Executive Com- 
 mittee to capture the convention; in a moment the hall was 
 one bellowing mass of waving arms and angry faces, on both 
 sides. . . . Nevertheless, Tchernov remained very popular. 
 
 In the stormy debates on the Land question and the Lenin 
 resolution, the Bolsheviki were twice on the point of quitting 
 the assembly, both times restrained by their leaders. . . . It 
 seemed to me as if the Congress were hopelessly deadlocked. 
 
 But none of us knew that a series of. secret conferences 
 were already going on between the Left Socialist Revolution- 
 aries and the Bolsheviki at Smolny. At first the Left Socialist 
 Revolutionaries had demanded that there be a Government 
 composed of all the Socialist parties in and out of the Soviets, 
 to be responsible to a People’s Council, composed of an equal 
 number of delegates from the Workers’ and Soldiers? organisa- 
 tion, and that of the Peasants, and completed by representa- 
 tives of the City Dumas and the Zemstvos; Lenin and Trotzky 
 were to be eliminated, and the Military Revolutionary Com- 
 mittee and other repressive organs dissolved. 
 
 Wednesday morning, November 28th, after a terrible all- 
 night stryggle, an agreement was reached. The T'say-ee-kah, 
 
 “a 
 
 “~ 
 

 
 
 
 — 
 
 THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 307 
 
 e composed of 108 members, was to be augumented by 108 
 _members elected proportionally from the Peasants’ Congress; 
 
 by 100 delegates elected directly from the Army and the 
 
 Fleet; and by 50 representatives of the Trade Unions 
 
 (35 from the general Unions, 10 Railway Workers, and 5 
 from the Post and Telegraph Workers). The Dumas and 
 Zemstvos were dropped. Lenin and Trotzky remained in the 
 Government, and the Military Revolutionary Committee con- 
 
 _ tinued to function. 
 
 The sessions of the Congress had now been removed to 
 
 _ the Imperial Law School building, Fontanka 6, headquarters of 
 
 the Peasants’ Soviets. There in the great meeting-hall the 
 
 delegates gathered on Wednesday afternoon. The old Execu- 
 
 tive Committee had withdrawn, and was holding a rump con- 
 
 vention of its own in another room of the same building, made 
 _up of bolting delegates and representatives of the Army Com- 
 - mittees. 
 
 Tchernov went from one meeting to the other, keeping a 
 watchful eye on the proceedings. He knew that an agreement 
 
 _ with the Bolsheviki was being discussed, but he did not know 
 _ that it had been concluded. 
 
 _ He spoke to the rump convention. “At present, when 
 everybody is in favour of forming an all-Socialist Govern- 
 
 _ ment, many people forget the first Ministry, which was not 
 
 a coalition Government, and in which there was only one 
 
 _ Socialist—Kerensky ; a Government which, in its time, was very 
 _ popular. Now people accuse Kerensky; they forget that he 
 
 was raised to power, not only by the Soviets, but also by the 
 popular masses... . 
 
 “Why did public opinion change toward Kerensky? The 
 savages set up gods to which they pray, and which they punish 
 if one of their prayers is not answered. . . . That is what 
 is happening at this moment. . . . Yesterday Kerensky; to- 
 day Lenin and Trotzky; another to-morrow. ... 
 
$08 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 “We have proposed to both Kerensky and the Bolsheviki 
 to retire from the power. Kerensky has accepted—to-day he — 
 announced from his hiding-place that he has resigned as 
 Premier; but the Bolsheviki wish to retain the Pony and 
 they do not know how to use it. 
 
 “Tf the Bolsheviki succeed, or “if they fail, the fate of 
 Russia will not be changed. ‘The Russian villages under- 
 stand perfectly what they want, and they are now carrying © 
 out their own measures. . . . The villages will save us in the 
 end.5 55.7? | 
 
 In the meanwhile, in the great hall Ustinov had announced 
 the agreement between the Peasants’ Congress and Smolny, 
 received by the delegates with the wildest joy. Suddenly 
 Tchernov appeared, and demanded the floor. 
 
 “T understand,” he began, “that an agreement is being 
 concluded between the Peasants’ Congress and Smolny. Such 
 an agreement would be illegal, seeing that the true Congress 
 of Peasants’ Soviets does not meet until next week. 
 
 “Moreover, I want to warn you now that the Bolsheviki 
 will never accept your demands. . . .” 
 
 He was interrupted by a great burst of laughter; and 
 realising the situation, he left the platform and the room, 
 taking his popularity with him... . : 
 
 Late in the afternoon of Thursday, November 16th, the 
 Congress met in extraordinary session. There was a holiday — 
 feeling in the air; on every face was a smile... . The re-— 
 mainder of the business before the assembly was hurried 
 through, and then old Nathanson, the white-bearded dean of 
 the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries, his voice trem- 
 bling and tears in his eyes, read the report of the “wedding” 
 of the Peasants’ Soviets with the Workers’ and Soldiers’ 
 Soviets. At every mention of the word “union” there was 
 ecstatic applause. . . . At the end Ustinov announced the ar- 
 
 4 
 
‘THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 309 
 
 
 
 ‘rival of a delegation from Smolny, accompanied by representa- 
 "tives of the Red Army, greeted with a rising ovation. One 
 _ after another a workman, a soldier and a sailor took the floor, 
 _ hailing them. 
 
 _ hen Boris Reinstein, delegate of the American Socialist 
 Labor Party: “The day of the union of the Congress of 
 _ Peasants and the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies 
 ® is one of the great days of the Revolution. The sound of it will 
 _ ring with resounding echoes throughout the whole world—in 
 e Paris, in London, and across the ocean—in New York. This 
 union will fill with happiness the hearts of all toilers. 
 
 “A great idea has triumphed. The West, and America, 
 expected from Russia, from the Russian proletariat, some- 
 thing tremendous. . . . The proletariat of the world is wait- 
 ing for the Russian Revolution, waiting for the great things 
 
 99 
 
 sion eee eet a Te om th ene ye i ANF, 
 ES Oe oe I ee i, VT 
 
 _ that it is accomplishing... . 
 Sverdlov, president of the T'say-ee-kah, greeted them. And 
 with the shout, “Long live the end of civil war! Long live 
 the United Democracy!” the peasants poured out of the 
 _ building. 
 
 It was already dark, and on the ice-covered snow glittered 
 
 xa iS 
 
 Hs pete ae: 
 
 _ the pale light of moon and star. Along the bank of the canal 
 were drawn up in full marching order the soldiers of the 
 Pavlovsky Regiment, with their band, which broke into the 
 
 _ Marseillaise. Amid the crashing full-throated shouts of the 
 
 soldiers, the peasants formed in line, unfurling the great red 
 
 _ banner of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peas- 
 ants’ Soviets, embroidered newly in gold, “Long live the union 
 of the revolutionary and toiling masses!” Following were 
 
 _ other banners; of the District Soviets—of Putilov Factory, 
 
 which read, “We bow to this flag in order to create the 
 
 _ brotherhood of all peoples!” 
 
 i From somewhere torches appeared, blazing orange in the 
 
 . night, a thousand times reflected in the facets of the ice, 
 
1 
 
 310 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD 
 
 streaming out smokily over the throng as it moved down the 
 bank of the Fontanka singing, between crowds that stood in | 
 astonished silence. 
 
 “Long live the Revolutionary Army! Long live the Red 
 Guard! Long live the Peasants!” 
 
 So the great procession wound through the city, ane 
 and unfurling ever new red banners lettered in gold. Two old 
 peasants, bowed with toil, were walking hand in hand, their 
 faces illumined with child-like bliss. 
 
 “Well,” said one, “I’d like to see them take away our land 
 again, now!” 
 
 Near Smolny the Red Guard was lined up on both sides of — 
 the street, wild with delight. The other old peasant spoke 
 to his comrade, “I am not tired,” he said. “I walked on air 
 all the way!” 
 
 On the steps of Smolny about a hundred Workers’ and 
 Soldiers’ Deputies were massed, with their banner, dark against 
 the blaze of light streaming out between the arches. Like a 
 wave they rushed down, clasping the peasants in their arms and 
 kissing them; and the procession poured in through the great 
 door and up the stairs, with a noise like thunder. . . . 
 
 In the immense white meeting-room the T'say-ee-kah was 
 waiting, with the whole Petrograd Soviet and a thousand spec- 
 tators beside, with that solemnity which attends great con- 
 scious moments in history. 
 
 Zinoviev announced the agreement with the Peasants’ Céad 
 gress, to a shaking roar which rose and burst into storm as the ~ 
 sound of music blared down the corridor, and the head of 
 the procession came in. On the platform the presidium rose 
 and made place for the Peasants’ presidium, the two embracing; 
 behind them the two banners were intertwined against the 
 white wall, over the empty frame from which the Tsar’s picture 
 had been torn... . 
 
THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS dll 
 
 
 
 Then opened the “triumphal session.” After a few words 
 of welcome from Sverdlov, Maria Da cle slight, pale, 
 with spectacles and hair drawn flatly down, and the air of 
 Pa New England school-teacher, took the tribune—the most 
 loved and the most powerful woman in all Russia. 
 os . Before the workers of Russia open now horizons 
 : which tory has never known. . . . All workers’ movements 
 in the past have been defeated. But the present movement 
 is international, and that is why it is invincible. There is 
 i no force in the world which can put out the fire of the Revo- 
 lution! The old world crumbles down, the new world be- 
 gins... .” 
 4 Then Trotzky, full of fire: “I wish you welcome, com- 
 _rades peasants! You come here not as guests, but as masters 
 
 “of this house, which holds the heart of the Russian Revolution. 
 The will of millions of workers is now concentrated in this 
 hall. . . . There is now only one master of the Russian land: 
 the union of the workers, soldiers and peasants. .. .” 
 
 — With biting sarcasm he went on to speak of the Allied 
 diplomats, till then contemptuous of Russia’s invitation to an 
 armistice, which had been accepted by the Central Powers. 
 
 “A new humanity will be born of this war. . . . In this 
 hall we swear to workers of all lands to remain at our revo- 
 | lutionary post. If we are broken, then it will be in defending 
 our flag. sees 
 y Krylenko followed him, explaining the situation at the 
 front, where Dukhonin was preparing to resist the Council 
 of People’s Commissars. “Let Dukhonin and those with him 
 understand well that we shall not deal gently with those who 
 bar the road to peace!” 
 
 Dybenko saluted the assembly in the name of the Fleet, and 
 Krushinsky, member of the Vikzhel, said, “From this moment, 
 when the union of all true Socialists is realised, the whole army 
 
 j | 
 
312 TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD > 
 
 of railway workers places itself absolutely at the disposition 
 of the revolutionary democracy!” And Lunatcharsky, almost 
 weeping, and Proshian, for the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, 
 and finally Saharashvili, for the United Social Democrats 
 Internationalists, composed of members of the Martov’s and. 
 of Gorky’s groups, who declared: | 
 
 “We left the T'say-ee-kah because of the uncompromising 
 policy of the Bolsheviki, and to force them to make concessions 
 in order to realise the union of all the revolutionary democ- 
 racy. Now that that union is brought about, we consider it 
 a sacred duty to take our places once more in the Tsay-ee- 
 kah. . . . We declare that all those who have withdrawn from 
 the T'say-ee-kah should now return.” | | 
 
 Stachkov, a dignified old peasant of the presidium of the 
 Peasants’ Congress, bowed to the four corners of the room. 
 “T greet you with the christening of a new Russian life and 
 freedom !”’ 
 
 Gronsky, in the name of the Polish Social Democracy ; 
 Skripnik, for the Factory-Shop Committees; Tifonoy, for the 
 Russian soldiers at Salonika; and others, interminably, speak- 
 ing out of full hearts, with the happy eloquence of hopes 
 fulfilled. 
 
 It was Rintes in the night when the following resolution was 
 put and passed unanimously: 
 
 “The T'say-ee-kah, united in extraordinary session with the 
 Petrograd Soviet and the Peasants’ Congress, confirms the 
 Land and Peace decrees adopted by the second Congress of 
 Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, and also the decree 
 on Workers’ Control adopted by the T'say-ee-kah. | 
 
 “The joint session of the T'say-ee-kah and the Peasants? 
 Congress expresses its firm conviction that the union of 
 workers, soldiers and peasants, this fraternal union of all 
 the workers and all the exploited, will consolidate the power 
 conquered by them, that it will take all revolutionary measures 
 
's 
 4 THE PEASANTS’ CONGRESS 313 
 to hasten the passing of the power into the hands of the 
 _ working-class in other countries, and that it will assure in 
 _this manner the lasting accomplishment of a just peace and 
 _the victory of Socialism.” * 
 
: Wt 
 weal 
 i 
 
 one 
 
 i iy 40 
 bo aH Di: f . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sede Ct Wa A Ol 
 Cane RAGAN Le 
 
 aah yi 
 { vu fits hy f 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I 
 
 t 
 _Oborontsi—“Defenders.” All the “moderate” Socialist groups adopted 
 
 or were given this name, because they consented to the continuation of 
 __ the war under Allied leadership, on the ground that it was a war of 
 _ National Defence. The Bolsheviki, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, the 
 _ Mensheviki Internationalists (Martov’s faction), and the Social Democrats 
 _Internationalists (Gorky’s group) were in favour of forcing the Allies to 
 _ declare democratic war-aims, and to offer peace to Germany on those 
 (acerms,’. . .. 
 
 he WAGES AND COST OF LIVING BEFORE AND DURING THE REVOLUTION 
 
 The following tables of wages and costs were compiled, in October, 
 ' 1917, by a joint Committee from the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and 
 _ the Moscow section of the Ministry of Labour, and published in Novaya 
 _ Zhizn, October 26th, 1917: 
 
 if Wages Per Day—(Rubles and kopeks) 
 
 
 
 ier, Trade July 191} July 1916 August 1917 
 _ Carpenter, Cabinet-maker......... 1.60 — 2. 4, — 6. 8.50 
 
 LE 1.30 — 1.50 3. — 3.50 
 
 mviason, plasterer.................. 1.70 — 2.35 4. —6. 8. 
 
 ee rainter, upholsterer .............-. 1.80 — 2.20 3. — 5.50 8. 
 Er 1 —2@.25 4. —5. 8.50 
 Bihimmey-BWeep................... 1.50 — 2. 4. — 5.50 7.50 
 MMi ae 3... ........-. £9019. s 3.50.6. 9. 
 
 a 1. —1.50 2.50 — 4.50 8. 
 
 In spite of numerous stories of gigantic advances in wages immediately 
 - following the Revolution of March, 1917, these figures, which were pub- 
 _ lished by the Ministry of Labour as characteristic of conditions all over 
 _ Russia, show that wages did not rise immediately after the Revolution, 
 _ but little by little. On an average, wages increased slightly more than 
 ~ 500 per cent... . 
 
 t But at the same time the value of the ruble fell to less than one-third 
 _ its former purchasing power, and the cost of the necessities of life increased 
 enormously. 
 
 i. The following table was compiled by the Municipal Duma of Moscow, 
 where food was cheaper and more plentiful than in Petrograd: 
 
 Cost of Food—(Rubles and kopeks) 
 
 i August 1914 August 1917 % Increase 
 _ Black bread..... ae eae (Fund) 0234 12 330 
 m White bread.......<.....- a 05 20 300 
 | ES Deke a 6s a 22 1.10 400 
 MMMM 4's ssn asks vos * 26 2.15 27 
 MiPork....s--...-- ma) 4 23 2. 770 
 BMETIDIE Ge. ccc swine sens =< s Mi .06 52 767 
 MESON Ny cs cieine eases i 40 3.50 754 
 MNMTOT ORL Nc ig asiccieees Cn 248 3 20 557 
 RE ee ale ks a os (Doz.) .30 1.60 443 
 OC A (Krushka) 07 40 471 
 
 On an average, food increased in price 556 per cent, or 51 per cent more 
 _ than wages. 
 
 
 
 Ot 
 
316 APPENDIX. q 
 
 As for the other naceetee the price of feeee increntan’ tremendously. | 
 
 The following table was compiled by the Economic section of the Moscow © 
 Soviet of Workers’. Deputies, and accepted as correct by the Ministry of } 
 Supplies of the Provisional Government. 
 
 Cost of Other Necessities—(Rubles and kopeks) 
 August 1914 August 1917 % Increase — 
 
 4 
 : 
 
 RRO sieictcterete stae-cis-s oy wits 's (Arshin) ll 1.40 1173 
 RSOLEOI CIOL Do isis ew belek ns .15 2. 1233 
 Dress Goods............. S 12. 40. 1900 
 Soper Ot 2.) des. i 6. 80. 1233 
 Wien BOCK fo. beg ok Sus (Pair) 12. 144. 1097 
 
 PMO LARLDOR. Ole. eo sy ss 20. 400. 1900 
 MAATCMPS ieee eet ce, oss (Pair) 2.50 15. 500 
 Men’s Clothing........... (Suit) 40. 400. - 455. 900 -— 1109 
 earner. (Fund) 4.50 18.0 300 
 ASSOC ah ae ots cs as ves os {Carton) .10 .50 400 
 PELE he se sos (Pood) 4.50 40. 780 
 CO (Vedro) 1.70 11. 5AT | 
 EO ay ae (Pood) 8.50 100. 1076 ; 
 OR UREI OE ys oa oss a ose 50's (Fund) .30 4.50 1400° X 
 Bite Wy OOU.), .- «>.> ..<+ ss (Load) 10. 120. 1100 4 
 RPRIEOOR LUIS SS. 5 aise Ste pes .80 13. 1525 ; 
 Sundry Metal Ware....... j be 20. 1900 ; 
 
 On an average, the above categories of necessities increased about 
 1,109 per cent in price, more than twice the increase of salaries. The differ- 
 ence, of course, went into the pockets of speculators and merchants. 
 
 In September, 1917, when I arrived in Petrograd, the average daily 
 wage of a skilled industrial worker—for example, a steel-worker in the 
 Putilov Factory—was about 8 rubles. At the same time, profits were enor- 
 mous. . . . I-was told by one of the owners of the Thornton Woollen Mills, 
 an English concern on the outskirts of Petrograd, that while wages had 
 increased about 300 per cent in his factory, his profits had gone up 900 
 per cent. 
 
 3. 
 THE SOCIALIST MINISTERS 
 
 The history of the efforts of the Socialists in the Provisional Government 
 of July to realise their programme in coalition with the bourgeois ae : 
 is an illuminating example of class struggle in politics. Says Lenin, im 
 explanation of this phenomenon: 
 
 “The capitalists, . .. seeing that the position of the Government waa 
 untenable, resorted to a method which since 1848 has been for decades. 
 practised by the capitalists in order to befog, divide, and finally overpower 
 the working-class. ‘This method is the so-called ‘Coalition Ministry,’ com- . 
 posed of bourgeois and of renegades from the Socialist camp. fi 
 
 “In those countries where political freedom and democracy have existed ~ 
 side by side with the revolutionary movement of the workers—for example 
 in England and France—the capitalists make use of this subterfuge, and 
 very successfully too. The ‘Socialist’ leaders, upon entering the Ministries, 
 invariably prove mere figure-heads, puppets, simply a shield for the capi- — 
 talists, a tool with which to defraud the workers. The ‘demiocratic’ and 
 ‘republican’ capitalists in Russia set in motion this very same scheme. The 
 Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviki fell victim to it, and on June Ist 
 
 a ‘Coalition’ Ministry, with the participation of Tchernov, Tseretelli, Sko- — 
 belisy, Avksentiev, Savinkov, Zarudny and Nikitin became an eccompiag 
 fact... .’—Prob*ms of the Revolution. . 
 
 ; 
 ; 
 7 
 ; 
 
APPENDIX 317 
 
 A. 
 SEPTEMBER MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN MOSCOW 
 ___ In the first week of October, 1917, Novaya Zhizn published the following 
 _ comparative table of election results, pointing out that this meant the bank- 
 _ruptcy of the policy of Coalition with the propertied classes. “If civil war 
 
 can yet be avoided, it can only be done by a united front of all the revolu- 
 oy democracy... .” 
 
 
 
 i. Elections for the Moscow Central and Ward Dumas 
 
 hy June 1917 September 1917 
 - Socialist Revolutionaries........... 58 Members 14 Members 
 Mis ies sok. ee see Rep 5 ESO eke 
 ES 12 - 4 < 
 A eae 11 3 AT are 
 
 ; | 5. 
 
 ; GROWING ARROGANCE OF THE REACTIONARIES 
 
 i September 18th. The Cadet Shulgin, writing in a Kiev newspaper, said 
 that the Provisional Government’s declaration that Russia was a Republic 
 _ constituted a gross abuse of its powers. “We cannot admit either a Repub- 
 _ lic, or the present Republican Government. ... And we are not sure that 
 - we want a Republic in Russia... .” 
 October 23d. At a meeting of the Cadet party held at Riazan, M. 
 - Dukhonin declared, “On March Ist we must establish a Constitutional Mon- 
 _-archy. We must not reject the legitimate heir to the throne, Mikhail 
 _ Alexandrovitch... .” 
 October 27th. Resolution passed by the Conference of Business Men 
 
 at Moscow: 
 
 “The Conference .. . insists that the Provisional Government take the 
 following immediate measures in the Army: 
 
 _ 4, Forbidding of all political propaganda; the Army must be out of 
 _ politics. 
 : “Q, Propaganda of antinational and international ideas and _ theories 
 deny the necessity for armies, and hurt discipline; it should be forbidden, 
 and all propagandists punished... . 
 
 _ 3. The function of the Army Committees must be limited to economic 
 questions exclusively. All their decisions should be confirmed by their supe- 
 rior officers, who have the right to dissolve the Committees at any time... . 
 _ +4, The salute to be reestablished, and made obligatory. Full reestab- 
 _ lishment of disciplinary power in the hands of officers, with right of review 
 of sentence... . 
 
 . “5. Expulsion from the Corps of Officers of those who dishonour it by 
 participating in the movement of the soldier-masses, which teaches them 
 - disobedience. . . . Reestablishment for this purpose of the Courts of 
 Honor.... 
 E “6. The Provisional Government should take the necessary measures 
 to make possible the return to the army of Generals and other officers un- 
 justly discharged under the influence of Committees, and other irrespon- 
 
 sible organisations. .. .” 
 
 . APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II 
 
 7 1. 
 
 4 The Kornilov revolt is treated in detail in my forthcoming volume, 
 _ ®*Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” The responsibility of Kerensky for the situ- 
 _ ation which gave rise to Kornilov’s attempt is now pretty clearly estab- 
 - lished. Many apologists for Kerensky say that he knew of Kornilov’s plans, 
 

 
 
 318 | APPENDIX, 
 
 and by a trick drew him out prematurely, and then crushed him. Even 
 Mr. A. J. Sack, in his book, “The Birth of the Russian Democracy,” says: 
 
 “Several things ... are almost certain. The first is that Kerensky knew 
 about the movement of several detachments from the Front toward Petro- — 
 grad, and it is possible that as Prime Minister and Minister of War, reality 
 ing the growing Bolshevist danger, he called for them... .” 
 
 The only flaw in that argument is that there was no “Bolshevist dan-— 
 ger” at that time, the Bolsheviki still being a powerless minority in 7 
 Soviets, and their leaders in jail or hiding. : 
 
 2. 
 DEMOCRATIC CONFERENCE 
 When the Democratic Conference was first proposed to Kerensky, he 
 suggested an assembly of all the elements in the nation—“the live forces,” 
 as he called them—including bankers, manufacturers, land-owners, and 
 representatives of the Cadet party. The Soviet refused, and drew up the — 
 following table of representation, which Kerensky agreed to: 
 
 100 delegates. . . All-Russian Soviets Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies 
 
 Soa 
 
 ee 
 
 100 _... All-Russian Soviets Peasants’ Deputies 
 50 a ....Provincial Soviets Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies 
 50 .... Peasants’ District Land Committees 
 100 EY .... Trade Unions 
 84 4 ....Army Committees at the Front 
 150 S .... Workers’ and Peasants’ Cooperative Societies 
 20 - ....Railway Workers’ Union 
 10 a ...-Post and Telegraph Workers’ Union 
 20 vr .... Commercial Clerks 
 15 rf .... Liberal Professions—Doctors, Lawyers, Journalists, etc. 
 50 or ...-Provincial Zemstvos 
 59 a ....Nationalist Organisations—Poles, Ukraineans, etc. 
 
 This proportion was altered twice or three times. The final disposition _ 
 of delegates was: 
 
 300 delegates. . . All-Russian Soviets Workers’, Soldiers’ & Peasants’ Deputies 
 
 
 
 300 ne  .Cooperative Societies 
 
 300 ff ....Municipalities 4 
 150 a ....Army Committees at the Front / 
 150 Mg ....Provincial Zemstvos P| 
 200 m .... Trade Unions ; | 
 100 ny ....Nationalist Organisations ; , 
 SOO oe sas ....several small groups : 4 
 
 3. 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE SOVIETS IS ENDED 
 
 On September 28th, 1917, Izviestia, organ of the Tsay-ee-kah, publishe 
 an article which said, speaking of the last Provisional Ministry: 
 “At last a truly democratic government, born of the will of all rl 
 
 
 
 of the Russian people, the first rough form of the future liberal parlia- 
 mentary régime, has been formed. Ahead of us is the Constituent As- 
 sembly, which will solve all questions of fundamental law, and whose com~ 
 position will be essentially democratic. The function of the Soviets is at an — 
 end, and the time is approaching when they must retire, with the oa | 
 of the revolutionary machinery, from the stage of a free and victorious 
 people, whose weapons shall hereafter be the peaceful ones of politica L 
 action.” 
 
 The leading article of Izviestia for October 23d was called, “The Crisis in 
 the Soviet Organisations.” It began by saying that travellers reported a 
 lessening activity of local Soviets everywhere. “This is natural.” said the 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 APPENDIX 319 
 
 _ writer. “For the people are becoming interested in the more permanent 
 
 legislative organs—the Municipal Dumas and the Zemstvos. .. . 
 “In the important centres of Petrograd and Moscow, where the Soviets 
 were best organised, they did not take in all the democratic elements. ... 
 
 The majority of the intellectuals did not participate, and many workers 
 
 also; some of the workers because they were politically backward, others 
 because the centre of gravity for them was in their Unions. ... We can- 
 not deny that these organisations are firmly united with the masses, whose 
 everyday needs are better served by them... . 
 
 “That the local democratic administrations are being energetically or- 
 ganised is highly important. The City Dumas are elected by universal 
 suffrage, and in purely local matters have more authority than the Soviets. 
 Not a single democrat will see anything wrong in this... . 
 
 “, . - Elections to the Municipalities are being conducted in a better and 
 more democratic way than the elections to the Soviets. ... All classes are 
 represented in the Municipalities. ... And as soon as the local Self-Govy- 
 ernments begin to organise life in the Municipalities, the réle of the local 
 Soviets naturally ends. ... 
 
 “, . - There are two factors in the falling off of interest in the Soviets. 
 The first we may attribute to the lowering of political interest in the masses; 
 the second, to the growing effort of provincial and local governing bodies 
 to organise the building of new Russia. ... The more the tendency lies 
 
 ‘in this latter direction, the sooner disappears the significance of the 
 
 Soviets. ... 
 
 “We ourselves are being called the ‘undertakers’ of our own organisa- 
 tion. In reality, we ourselves are the hardest workers in constructing the 
 new Russia... . 
 
 “‘When autocracy and the whole bureaucratic régime fell, we set up the 
 Soviets as a barracks in which all the democracy could find temporary 
 shelter. Now, instead of barracks, we are building the permanent edifice 
 of a new system, and naturally the people will gradually leave the barracks 
 for more comfortable quarters.” 
 
 A. 
 TROTZKY'S SPEECH AT THE COUNCIL OF THE RUSSIAN REPUBLIC 
 
 “The purpose of the Democratic Conference, which was called by the 
 Tsay-ee-kah, was to do away with the irresponsible personal government 
 which produced Kornilov, and to establish a responsible government which 
 would be capable of finishing the war, and ensure the calling of the Con- 
 stituent Assembly at the given time. In the meanwhile, behind the back of 
 the Democratic Conference, by trickery, by deals between Citizen Kerensky, 
 the Cadets, and the leaders of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary 
 parties, we received the opposite result from the officially announced pur- 
 pose. A power was created around which and in which we have open and 
 secret Kornilovs playing leading parts. The irresponsibility of the Gov- 
 
 _ ernment is offically proclaimed, when it is announced that the Council of 
 
 Saar = 
 
 the Russian Republic is to be a consultative and not a legislative body. 
 In the eighth month of the Revolution, the irresponsible Government cre- 
 ates a cover for itself in this new edition of Bieligen’s Duma. 
 
 “The propertied classes have entered this Provisional Council in a pro- 
 portion which clearly shows, from elections all over the country, that many 
 of them have no right here whatever. In spite of that the Cadet party, 
 which until yesterday wanted the Provisional Government to be respon- 
 sible to the State Duma—this same Cadet party secured the independence 
 of the Government from the Council of the Republic. In the Constituent 
 Assembly the propertied classes will no doubt have a less favourable posi- 
 tion than they have in this Council, and they will not be able to be irre- 
 sponsible to the Constituent Assembly. 
 
820 _ APPENDIX 
 
 . “If the propertied classes were really getting ready for the Constituent 
 
 Assembly six weeks from now, there could be no reason for establishing 
 the irresponsibility of the Government at this time. The whole truth is 
 that the bourgeoisie, which directs the policies of the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment, has for its aim to break the Constituent Assembly. At present 
 this is the main purpose of the propertied classes, which control our entire 
 national policy—external and internal. In the industrial, agrarian and 
 supply departments the politics of the propertied classes, acting with the 
 Government, increases the natural disorganisation caused by the war. The 
 propertied classes, which are provoking a peasants’ revolt! The propertied 
 classes, which are provoking civil war, and openly hold their course on the 
 bony hand of hunger, with which they intend to overthrow the Revolution 
 and finish with the Constituent Assembly ! 
 
 “No less criminal also is the international policy of the bourgeoisie and 
 its Government. After forty months of war, the capital is threatened with 
 mortal danger. In reply to this arises a plan to move the Government to 
 Moscow. The idea of abandoning the capital does not stir the indignation 
 of the bourgeoisie. Just the opposite. It is accepted as a natural part 
 of the general policy designed to promote counter-revolutionary conspiracy. 
 - - + Instead of recognising that the salvation of the country lies in con- 
 cluding peace, instead of throwing openly the idea of immediate peace to 
 all the worn-out peoples, over the heads of diplomats and imperialists, and 
 making the continuation of the war impossible,—the Provisional Govern- 
 ment, by order of the Cadets, the Counter-Revolutionists and the Allied 
 Imperialists, without sense, without purpose and without a plan, con- 
 tinues to drag on the murderous war, sentencing to useless death new hun- 
 dreds of thousands of soldiers and sailors, and preparing to give up Petro- 
 grad, and to wreck the Revolution. At a time when Bolshevik soldiers and 
 sailors are dying with other soldiers and sailors as a result of the mistakes 
 and crimes of others, the so-called Supreme Commander (Kerensky) con- 
 tinues to suppress the Bolshevik press. The leading parties of the Council 
 are acting as a voluntary cover for these policies. 
 
 “We, the faction of Social Democrats Bolsheviki, announce that with 
 this Government of Treason to the People we have nothing in common. 
 We have nothing in common with the work of these Murderers of the 
 People which goes on behind official curtains. We refuse either directly 
 
 or indirectly to cover up one day of this work. While Wilhelm’s troops 
 
 are threatening Petrograd, the Government of Kerensky and Korniloy is 
 preparing to run away from Petrograd and turn Moscow into a base of 
 counter-revolution ! 
 
 “We warn the Moscow workers and soldiers to be on their guard. Leav- 
 ing this Council, we appeal to the manhood and wisdom of the workers, 
 peasants and soldiers of all Russia. Petrograd is in danger! The Revolu- 
 tion is in danger! The Government has increased the danger—the ruling 
 
 classes intensify it. Only the people themselves can save themselves and the | 
 
 country. 
 
 “We appeal to the people. Long live immediate, honest, democratic 
 peace! All power to the Soviets! All land to the people! Long live the 
 Constituent Assembly !” . 
 
 5. 
 THE “NAKAZ TO SKOBELIEV 
 Resumé 
 
 di 
 
 (Passed by the Tsay-ee-kah and given to Skobeliev as an instruction for _ 
 
 the representative of the Russian Revolutionary democracy at the Paris 
 Conference. ) 
 
 The peace treaty must be based on the principle, “No annexations, no — 
 
 indemnities. the right of self-determination of peoples.” 
 
APPENDIX. B91 
 
 Territorial Problems 
 
 (1) _:«~Evacuation of German troops from invaded Russia. Full right 
 of self-determination to Poland, Lithuania and Livonia. 
 (2) For Turkish Armenia autonomy, and later complete self-determi- 
 _ nation, as soon as local Governments are established. 
 (8) _ The question of Alsace-Lorraine to be solved by a plebiscite, after 
 
 the withdrawal of all foreign troops. 
 
 _ (4) Belgium to be restored. Compensation for damages from an inter- 
 national fund. 
 
 (5) Serbia and Montenegro to be restored, and aided by an _inter- 
 
 national relief fund. Serbia to have an outlet on the Adriatic. Bosnia 
 
 ~ and Herzegovina to be autonomous. 
 
 (6) The disputed provinces in the Balkans to have provisional auton- 
 _ omy, followed by a plebiscite. 
 (7) ~Rumania to be restored, but forced to give complete self- 
 _ determination to the Dobrudja. . . . Rumania must be forced to execute the 
 clauses of the Berlin Treaty concerning the Jews, and recognise them as 
 Rumanian citizens. 
 
 (8) In Italia Irridenta a provisional autonomy, followed by a ple- 
 _ biscite to determine state dependence. 
 -. (9) The German colonies to be returned. 
 (10) Greece and Persia to be restored. 
 
 Freedom of the Seas 
 All straits opening into inland seas, as well as the Suez and Panama 
 
 - Canals, are to be neutralised. Commercial shipping to be free. The right 
 
 _ of privateering to be abolished. The torpedoing of commercial ships to 
 _ be forbidden. 
 S, Indemnities 
 
 _ All combatants to renounce demands for any indemnities, either direct 
 or indirect—as, for instance, charges for the maintenance of prisoners. 
 
 . _ Indemnities and contributions collected during the war must be refunded. 
 
 Economic Terms 
 
 _ Commercial treaties are not to be a part of the peace terms. Every 
 country mus %e independent in its commercial relations, and must not 
 be obliged to, or prevented from, concluding an economic treaty, by the 
 “Treaty of Peace. Nevertheless, all nations should bind themselves, by the 
 Peace Treaty, not to practise an economic blockade after the war, nor to 
 
 form separate tariff agreements. The right of most favoured nation must 
 
 
 
 be given to all countries without distinction. 
 
 Guarantees of Peace 
 
 Peace is to be concluded at the Peace Conference by delegates elected 
 by the national representative institutions of each country. The peace terms 
 are to be confirmed by these parliaments. 
 
 Secret diplomacy is to be abolished; all parties are to bind themselves 
 not to conclude any secret treaties. Such treaties are declared in contra- 
 diction to international law, and void. All treaties, until confirmed by the 
 parliaments of the different nations, are to be considered void. 
 
 Gradual disarmament both on land and sea, and the establishment of 
 a militia system. The “League of Nations” advanced by President Wilson 
 may become a valuable aid to international law, provided that (a), all 
 nations are to be obliged to participate in it with equal rights, and (b), 
 international politics are to be democratised. 
 
322 APPENDIX 
 
 Ways to Peace 
 
 The Allies are to announce immediately that they are willing to open 
 peace negotiations as soon as the enemy powers declare their consent to 
 the renunciation of all forcible annexations. 
 
 The Allies must bind themselves not to begin any peace negotiations, 
 nor to conclude peace, except in a general Peace Conference with the par- 
 ticipation of delegates from all the neutral countries. 
 
 All obstacles to the Stockholm Socialist Conference are to be removed, 
 and passports are to be given immediately to all delegates of parties and 
 organisations who wish to participate. . 
 
 (The Executive Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets also issued a nakaz, 
 which differs little from the above.) 
 
 6. 
 PEACE AT RUSSIA’S EXPENSE 
 
 The Ribot revelations of Austria’s peace-offer to France; the so-called 
 “Peace Conference” at Berne, Switzerland, during the summer of 1917, in 
 which delegates participated from all belligerent countries, represent- 
 ing large financial interests in all these countries; and the attempted 
 negotiations of an English agent with a Bulgarian church dignitary; 
 all pointed to the fact that there were strong currents, on both 
 sides, favourable to patching up a peace at the expense of Russia. In 
 my next book, “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk,” I intend to treat this matter 
 at some length, publishing several secret documents discovered in the Min- 
 istry of Foreign Affairs at Petrograd. 
 
 7. 
 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS IN FRANCE 
 
 Official Report of the Provisional Government. 
 
 “From the time the news of the Russian Revolution reached Paris, Rus- 
 sian newspapers of extreme tendencies immediately began to appear; and 
 these newspapers, as well as individuals, freely circulated among the soldier 
 masses and began a Bolshevik propaganda, often spreading false news which 
 appeared in the French journals. In the absence of all official news, and of 
 precise details, this campaign provoked discontent among the soldiers. ‘The 
 result was a desire to return to Russia, and a hatred toward the officers. 
 
 “Finally it all turned into rebellion. In one of their meetings, the sol- 
 diers issued an appeal to refuse to drill, since they had decided to fight 
 no more. It was decided to isolate the rebels, and General Zankievitch 
 ordered all soldiers loyal to the Provisional Government to leave the camp 
 of Courtine, and to carry with them all ammunition. On June 25th the 
 order was executed; there remained at the camp only the soldiers who said 
 they would submit ‘conditionally’ to the Provisional Government. The sol- 
 diers at the camp of Courtine received several times the visit of the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Russian Armies abroad, of Rapp, the Commissar of 
 the Ministry of War, and of several distinguished former exiles who wished 
 to influence them, but these attempts were unsuccessful, and finally Com- 
 missar Rapp insisted that the rebels lay down their arms, and, in sign of 
 
 
 
 submission, march in good order to a place called Clairvaux. The order 
 
 was only partially obeyed; first 500 men went out, of whom 22 were ar- 
 rested; 24 hours later about 6,000 followed. . . . About 2,000 re- 
 mained. . 
 
 “It was decided to increase the pressure; their rations were diminished, ~ 
 their pay was cut off, and the roads toward the village of Courtine were 
 guarded by French soldiers. General Zankievitch, having discovered that a — 
 Russian artillery brigade was passing through France, decided to form 4 
 
 mixed detachment of infantry and artillery to reduce the rebels. A depu- 
 
 ‘et 
 

 
 
 
 o 
 
 APPENDIX 323 
 
 tation was sent to the rebels; the deputation returned several hours later, con- 
 
 vinced of the futility of the negotiations. On September Ist General Zan- 
 
 _ kievitch sent an ultimatum to the rebels demanding that they lay down 
 their. arms, and menacing in case of refusal to open fire with artillery 
 _ if the order was not obeyed by September 3d at 10 o'clock. 
 
 “The order not being executed, a light fire of artillery was opened on the 
 place at the hour agreed upon. Eighteen shells were fired, and the rebels 
 were warned that the bombardment would become more intense. In_ the 
 
 ‘night of September 3d 160 men surrendered. September Ath the artillery 
 
 bombardment recommenced, and at 11 o’clock, after 36 shells had been 
 
 fired, the rebels raised two white flags and began to leave the camp without 
 
 arms. By evening 8,300 men had surrendered. 150 soldiers who remained in 
 the camp opened fire with machine-guns that night. The 5th of September, 
 to make an end of the affair, a heavy barrage was laid on the camp, and 
 our soldiers occupied it little by little. The rebels kept up a heavy fire 
 with their machine-guns. September 6th, at 9 o’clock, the camp was entirely 
 occupied. . . . After the disarmament of the rebels, 81 arrests were 
 PROG. cs: - 
 
 Thus the report. From secret documents discovered in the Ministry of 
 
 Foreign Affairs, however, we know that the account is not strictly accurate. 
 
 The first trouble arose when the soldiers tried to form Committees, as their 
 comrades in Russia were doing. They demanded to be sent back to Russia, 
 which was refused; and then, being considered a dangerous influence in 
 France, they were ordered to Salonika. They refused to go, and the battle 
 followed. . . . It was discovered that they had been left in camp without 
 officers for about two months, and badly treated, before they became rebel- 
 
  lious. All attempts to find out the name of the “Russian artillery brigade” 
 _ which had fired on them were futile; the telegrams discovered in the Minis- 
 
 try left it to be inferred that French artillery was used...) : 
 After their surrender, more than two hundred of the mutineers were shot 
 
 Din cold blood. 
 
 8. 
 } TERESTCHENKO'S SPEECH (Resumé) 
 “| . The questions of foreign policy are closely related to those of 
 
 national defence. . . . And so, if in questions of national defence you 
 
 think it is necessary to hold session in secret, also in our foreign policy we 
 are sometimes forced to observe the same secrecy... - 
 “German diplomacy attempts to influence public opinion... . There- 
 
 fore the declarations of directors of great democratic organisations who 
 
 talk loudly of a revolutionary Congress, and the impossibility of another 
 
 _ winter campaign, are dangerous. . . . All these declarations cost human 
 fe - lives... . 
 
 “J wish to speak merely of governmental logic, without touching the 
 questions of the honour and dignity of the State. From the point of view of 
 logic, the foreign policy of Russia ought to be based on a real compre- 
 hension of the interests of Russia. . . . These interests mean that it is 
 impossible that our country remain alone, and that the present alignment of 
 
 forces with us, (the Allies), is satisfactory... . All humanity longs 
 
 _ for peace, but in Russia no one will permit a humiliating peace which would 
 
 
 
 violate the State interests of our fatherland!” 
 
 The orator pointed out that such a peace would for long years, if not 
 for centuries, retard the triumph of democratic principles in the world, and 
 would inevitably cause new wars. 
 
 “All remember the days of May, when the fraternisation on our Front 
 threatened to end the war by a simple cessation of military operations, and 
 lead the country to a shameful separate peace. . . and what efforts it 
 
 was necessary to use to make the soldier masses at the front understand 
 
324 APPENDIX - 
 
 that it was not by this method that the Russian State must end the war and 
 guarantee its interest... .” | | ar 
 
 He spoke of the miraculous effect of the July offensive, what strength 
 it gave to the words of Russian ambassadors abroad, and the despair in 
 Germany caused by the Russian victories. And also, the disillusionment in 
 Allied countries which followed the Russian defeat... .. : 
 
 “As to the Russian Government, it adhered strictly to the formula of 
 May, ‘No annexations and no punitive indemnities.’ We consider it essen- 
 tial not only to proclaim the self-determination of peoples, but also to re- 
 nounce imperialist aims. . . .” | . 
 
 Germany is continually trying to make peace. The only talk in Germany 
 is of peace; she knows she cannot win. 
 
 “I reject the reproaches aimed at the Government which allege that 
 Russian foreign policy does not speak clearly enough about the aims of 
 the war... ... 
 
 “Tf the question arises as to what ends the Allies are pursuing, it is in- _ 
 
 dispensable first to demand what aims the Central Powers have agreed 
 upon... . 
 
 “The desire is often heard that we publish the details of the treaties 
 which bind the Allies; but people forget that, up to now, we do not know 
 the treaties which bind the Central Powers. .. .” 
 
 Germany, he said, evidently wants to separate Russia from the West by — 
 
 a series of weak buffer-states. . 
 
 “This tendency to strike at the vital interests of Russia must be 
 checked.';..°. 
 
 “And will the Russian democracy, which has inscribed on its banner 
 the rights of nations to dispose of themselves, allow calmly the continua- 
 tion of oppression upon the most civilised peoples (in Austria-Hungary) ? 
 
 “Those who fear that the Allies will try to profit by our difficult situation, 
 
 to make us support more than our share of the burden of war, and to 
 solve the questions of peace at our expense, are entirely mistaken. . . . 
 Our enemy looks upon Russia as a market for its products. The end of 
 the war will leave us in a feeble condition, and with our frontier open the 
 flood of German products can easily hold back for years our industrial 
 development. Measures must be taken to guard against this... . 
 _ “IT say openly and frankly: the combination of forces which unites us 
 to the Allies is favourable to the interests of Russia. . . . It is therefore 
 important that our views on the questions of war and peace shall be in 
 accord with the views of the Allies as clearly and precisely as possible... . 
 To avoid all misunderstanding, I must say frankly that Russia must pre- 
 sent at the Paris Conference one point of view. . .” 
 
 He did not want to comment on the nakaz to Skobeliev, but he referred 
 to the Manifesto of the Dutch-Scandinavian Committee, just published in 
 Stockholm. ‘This Manifesto declared for the autonomy of Lithuania and 
 
 Livonia; “but that is clearly impossible,” said Terestchenko, “for Russia’ — 
 
 must have free ports on the Baltic all the year round... . 
 
 “In this question the problems of foreign policy are also closely related 
 to interior politics, for if there existed a strong sentiment of unity of all 
 great Russia, one would not witness the repeated manifestations, every- 
 where, of a desire of peoples to separate from the Central Government. . .. 
 Such separations are contrary to the interests of Russia, and the Russian 
 delegates cannot raise the issue... .” 
 
 9, 
 THE BRITISH FLEET (étc.) 
 
 At the time of the naval battle of the Gulf of Riga, not only the 
 
 Bolsheviki, but also the Ministers of the Provisional Government, con= — 
 
a , 
 
 
 
 APPENDIX 325 
 
 sidered that the British Fleet had deliberately abandoned the Baltic, as one 
 
 indication of the attitude so often expressed publicly by the British press, 
 _ and semi-publicly by British representatives in Russia, “Russia’s finished ! 
 _ No uge bothering about Russia !” 
 
 See interview with Kerensky (Appendix 13). 
 GENERAL GuRKO was a former Chief of Staff of the Russian armies 
 
 under the Tsar. He was a prominent figure in the corrupt Imperial Court. 
 
 After the Revolution, he was one of the very few persons exiled for his 
 
 _ political and personal record. The Russian naval defeat in the Gulf of 
 - Riga coincided with the public reception, by King George in London, of 
 4 General Gurko, a man whom the Russian Provisional Government considered 
 
 dangerously pro-German as well as reactionary! 
 oat 10. 
 APPEALS AGAINST INSURRECTION 
 
 To Workers and Soldiers 
 
 “Comrades! The Dark Forces are increasingly trying to call forth in 
 Petrograd and other towns Disorpers anp Pogroms. Disorder is necessary 
 to the Dark Forces, for disorder will give them an opportunity for crush- 
 
 } ing the revolutionary movement in blood. Under the pretext of establish- 
 
 ing order, and of protecting the inhabitants, they hope to establish the dom- 
 
 - ination of Kornilov, which the revolutionary people succeeded in sup- 
 
 pressing not long ago. Woe to the 1 atl hs if these hopes are realised! The 
 triumphant counter-revolution will destroy the Soviets and the Army Com- 
 mittees, will disperse the Constituent Assembly, will stop the transfer of 
 the land to the Land Committees, will put an end to all the hopes of the 
 
 B : people for a speedy peace, and will fill all the prisons with revolutionary 
 - soldiers and workers. 
 
 “In their calculations, the counter-revolutionists and Black Hundred 
 
 _ leaders are counting on the serious discontent of the unenlightened part of 
 
 
 
 the people with the disorganisation of the food-supply, the continuation of 
 the war, and the general difficulties of life. They hope to transform every 
 
 _ demonstration of soldiers and workers into a pogrom, which will frighten 
 
 the peaceful population and throw it into the arms of the Restorers of 
 
 . Law and Order. 
 
 “Under such conditions every attempt to organise a demonstration in 
 
 _ these days, although for the most laudable object, would be a crime. All 
 
 conscious workers and soldiers who are displeased with the policy of the 
 Government wil! only bring injury to themselves and to the Revolution if 
 
 } they indulge in demonstrations. 
 
 “THEREFORE THE Tsay-ee-kah aSKS ALL WORKERS NOT TO OBEY ANY CALLS 
 TO DEMONSTRATE. 
 
 “Workers AND Sotprers! Do nor YIELD To provocation! REMEMBER 
 YOUR DUTY TO YOUR COUNTRY AND To THE RevotuTion! Do Nor BREAK THE 
 UNITY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY FRONT BY DEMONSTRATIONS WHICH ARE BOUND 
 TO BE UNSUCCESSFUL!” 
 
 The Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’ and 
 Soldiers’ Deputies (Tsay-ee-kah) 
 * * x * 
 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party 
 THE DANGER IS NEAR! 
 To All Workers and Soldiers 
 (Read and Hand to Others) 
 Comrades Workers and Soldiers! 
 
 “Our country is in danger. On account of this danger our freedom 
 
 and our Revolution are passing through difficult days. The enemy is at 
 
326 APPENDIX 
 
 the gates of Petrograd. The disorganisation is growing with every hour. 
 It becomes more and more difficult to obtain bread for Petrograd. All, all 
 from the smallest to the greatest, must redouble their efforts, must en- 
 deavour to arrange things properly. . . . We must save our country, save 
 freedom. . . . More arms and provisions for the Army! Bread—for the 
 great cities. Order and organisation in the country. . 
 
 “And in these terrible critical days rumours creep about that SomEwHERE 
 a demonstration is being prepared, that Some One is calling on the sol- 
 diers and workers to destroy revolutionary peace and order. . . . Rabotchi 
 Put, the newspaper of the Bolsheviki, is pouring oil on the flames: it is 
 flattering, trying to please the unenlightened people, tempting the workers 
 and soldiers, urging them on against the Government, promising them moun- 
 tains of good things. . . . The confiding, ignorant men believe, they do not 
 reason. . . . And from the other side come also rumours—rumours that the 
 Dark Forces, the friends of the Tsar, the German spies, are rubbing their 
 hands with glee. They are ready to join the Bolsheviki, and with them fan 
 the disorders into civil war. 
 
 “The Bolsheviki and the ignorant soldiers and workers seduced by them 
 cry senselessly: ‘Down with the Government! All power to the Soviets? 
 And the Dark servants of the Tsar and the spies of Wilhelm will egg them 
 on; ‘Beat the Jews, beat the shopkeepers, rob the markets, devastate the 
 shops, pillage the wine stores! Slay, burn, rob? 
 
 “And then will begin a terrible confusion, a war between one part of the 
 people and the other. All will become still more disorganised, and perhaps 
 once more blood will be shed on the streets of the capital. And then— 
 what then? 
 
 “Then, the road to Petrograd will be open to Wilhelm. Then, no bread 
 will come to Petrograd, the children will die of hunger. Then, the Army at 
 the front will remain without support, our brothers in the trenches will be 
 delivered to the fire of the enemy. Then, Russia will lose all prestige in 
 other countries, our money will lose its value; everything will be so dear as 
 to make life impossible. Then, the long awaited Constituent Assembly will 
 be postponed—it will be impossible to convene it in time. And then— 
 Death to the Revolution, Death to our Liberty. . . 
 
 “Is it this that you want, workers and soldiers? No! If you do not, 
 then go, go to the ignorant people seduced by the betrayers, and tell them 
 the whole truth, which we have told you! 
 
 “Let all know that Every MAN WHO IN THESE TERRIBLE DAYS CALLS ON YOU 
 TO COME OUT IN THE STREETS AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT, IS EITHER A SECRET 
 SERVANT OF THE T'saR, A PROVOCATOR, OR AN UNWISE ASSISTANT OF THE ENEMIES 
 OF THE PEOPLE, OR A PAID spy oF WiILHELM! 
 
 “Every conscious worker revolutionist, every conscious peasant, every 
 revolutionary soldier, all who understand ‘what harm a demonstration or @ 
 revolt against the Government might cause to the people, must join together 
 and not allow the enemies of the people to destroy our freedom.” 
 
 The Petrograd Electoral Commitiee of the Mensheviki-oboronist. 
 
 II. 
 THE MEETINGS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE DEALING WITH THE UPRISING 
 
 Enrror’s Nore: A number of errors crept into John Reed’s account of 
 the meeting of the Central Committee of October 23. In fact Reed, who 
 naturally had to depend upon others for information regarding the dis-_ 
 cussions and decisions at meetings of the Central Committee which, par- 
 ticularly on account of Lenin’s presence, were highly conspirative, has in 
 mind two different meetings held on the eve of the uprising—October 23 
 and 29. We give below a resumé of the official minutes of the two meet-— 
 
APPENDIX 327 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ ings of the Central Committee which give a true account of what actually 
 _ transpired. 
 
 _ The official minutes of the two meetings of the Central Committee 
 _ are reprinted in full in the appendices of Book II, Toward the Seizure 
 _ of Power, by V. 1. Lenin (Volume XXI of Collected Works). This volume 
 _ contains other documentary material dealing with the preparations of the 
 _ uprising as well as all of Lenin’s writings and speeches during the entire 
 _ period from the July Days to the seizure of power and the establishment 
 ; of the Soviet Government. 
 
 A perusal of the minutes of the meeting of October 23 will show that 
 of the twelve attending, only Kamenev and Zinoviev yoted against Lenin’s 
 _ resolution that “an armed uprising is inevitable and the time perfectly 
 _ Tipe” and that at the meeting of October 29 which made the final decisions 
 _ on the question of the uprising and which had a wider representation (the 
 _ one John Reed probably has in mind), 20 voted for Lenin’s proposal, two 
 _ against and three abstained. Here again it was only Kamenev and 
 ' Zinoviev of the leading members of the Central Committee of the Bol- 
 ‘ oad Party who opposed decisive action at that time. 
 
 Resumé of the Minutes of Session of C.C. of R.S.-D.L.P., October 23 
 
 a Present: Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Sverdlov, Uritsky, 
 ' Dzerzhinsky, Kollontai, Bubnov, Sokolnikov, lomov, Chairman: -Sverdlov. 
 | _ The order of business was Rumanian front, Lithuanians, Minsk and north- 
 _ ern front, present situation, regional Congress and evacuation of troops. 
 
 ¥ Lenin reported on “the present situation,” pointing out that “po- 
 _ litically, the situation has become entirely ripe for the transfer of power” 
 _ and that the time has come to pay serious attention to the technical side 
 ' of the question of seizing power and of undertaking decisive action. 
 _ Other comrades discussed the situation in Moscow, Petrograd and through- 
 _ out Russia. Lenin’s resolution, declaring that “the armed uprising is on 
 e the order of the day” and calling upon “all the organizations of the party 
 _ to act accordingly” was voted upon. Ten voted for the resolution, two 
 _ against. A Political Bureau of the C.C. was established consisting of 
 q ‘Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Sokolnikov and Bubnov. 
 
 Reswmé of the Meeting of October 29 
 
 _ _ This was a joint meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks, 
 _ Executive Commission of the Petrograd Committee, the Military Organi- 
 e zation, representatives of the Petrograd Soviet, trade unions, factory com- 
 _ mittees, railroad workers, and the Petrograd Regional Committee. Sverd- 
 _ lov was chairman. 
 
 Lenin read the resolution adopted at the last meeting of the Central 
 4 Committee and again analyzed the situation, concluding: “From a political 
 _ analysis of the class struggle, both in Russia and in Europe, follows the 
 _ necessity of a most decisive, most active policy, which can be only an 
 _ armed uprising.” The representatives of the various organizations then 
 _ reported on the situation in the various localities from the point of view 
 _ of organizing the armed uprising. Lenin replied to the arguments of 
 _ Milyutin and Shotman that the Party is not yet ready to start the up- 
 _ rising, by pointing | out that precisely “now we have particular chances 
 of retaining power.” After other comrades had spoken in favor of the 
 . resolution, Zinoviev and Kamenev again spoke in opposition. Stalin 
 eb replied, declaring that “what is offered by Kamenev and Zinoviev objec- 
 _ tively leads to the possibility for the counter-revolution to organize its 
 forces.” He spoke in favor of choosing the day of the uprising, after 
 
328 pee APPENDIX 
 
 pointing out the ripeness of the situation. After further disenssion; Lenin 
 proposed the following resolution: “The meeting heartily greets and fully 
 supports the resolution of the Central Committee. It calls upon all the 
 organizations and all the workers and soldiers to prepare the armed up- 
 rising most energetically, in every way, to support the organ which the 
 Central Committee is creating for the purpose, and expresses full confi- 
 dence that the Central Committee and the Soviet will in due time indicate 
 the favourable moment and the most expedient methods for an offensive.” 
 Twenty voted for this resolution, two against and three abstained. After 
 various amendments were proposed and rejected, a further vote was taken 
 on the resolution with the result: 19 for, two against, 4 abstaining. 
 
 The C.C. continued in session alone and elected a military revolutionary 
 centre, to become a part of the revolutionary committee of the Soviet, 
 and consisting of Sverdlov, Stalin, Bubnov, Uritsky and Dzerzhinsky. 
 
 12, 
 MILIUKOV’s SPEECH (Resumé) 
 
 “Every one admits, it seems, that the defence of the country is our 
 principal task, and that, to assure it, we must have discipline in the Army 
 and order in the rear. To achieve this, there must be a power capable 
 of daring, not only by persuasion, but also by force. . . . The germ of 
 all our evils comes from the point of view, original, truly Russian, concern- 
 ing foreign policy, which passes for the Internationalist point of view. | 
 
 “The noble Lenin only imitates the noble Keroyevsky when he holds 
 that from Russia will come the New World which shall resuscitate the 
 aged West, and which will replace the old banner of doctrinary Socialism 
 by the new direct action of starving masses—and that will push humanity 
 forward and force it to break in the doors of the social paradise. 
 
 These men sincerely believed that the decomposition of Russia would 
 bring about the decomposition of the whole capitalist régime. Starting from 
 that point of view, they were able to commit the unconscious treason, in 
 wartime, of calmly telling the soldiers to abandon the trenches, and instead 
 of fighting the external enemy, creating internal civil war and attacking 
 the proprietors and capitalists.... 
 
 Here Miliukov was interrupted by furious cries from the Left, demand- 
 ing what Socialist had ever advised such action. : 
 
 “Martov says that only the revolutionary pressure of the proletariat 
 can condemn and conquer the evil will of imperalist cliques and break down 
 the dictatorship of these cliques. . . . Not by an accord between Govern- 
 ments for a limitation of armaments, but by the disarming of these Gov- 
 ernments and the radical democratisation of the military system. . . .” 
 
 He attacked Martov viciously, and then turned on the Mensheviki and 
 Socialist Revolutionaries, whom he accused of entering the Government 
 as Ministers with the avowed purpose of carrying on the class- 
 struggle! 
 
 “The Socialists of Germany and of the Allied countries contemplated 
 these gentlemen with ill-concealed contempt, but they decided that it was 
 for Russia, and sent us some apostles of the Universal Conflagration. . . . 
 
 “The formula of our democracy is very simple; no foreign policy, na 
 art of diplomacy, an immediate democratic peace, a declaration to the 
 Allies, ‘We want nothing, we haven’t anything to fight with! And then our 
 adversaries will make the same declaration, and the brotherhood of peoples 
 will be accomplished !”’ 
 
 Miliukov took a fling at the Zimmerwald Manifesto, and declared that 
 even Kerensky has not been able to escape the influence of “that unhappy 
 document which will forever be your indictment.” He then attacked 
 Skobeliev, whose position in foreign assemblies, where he would appear as a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
= =—S—*=<“<s—s*s« APPENDIX $29 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Russian delegate, yet opposed to the foreign policy of his Government, 
 _ would be so strange that people would say, “What’s that gentleman car- 
 trying, and what shall we talk to him about?” As for the nakaz, Miliukov 
 said that he himself was a pacifist; that he believed in the creation of an 
 _ International Arbitration Board, and the necessity for a limitation of arma- 
 _ ments, and parliamentary control over secret diplomacy, which did not mean 
 the abolition of secret diplomacy. 
 _ As for the Socialist ideas in the nakaz, which he called “Stockholm 
 _ ideas”—peace without victory, the right of self-determination of peoples, 
 and renunciation of the economic war— 
 Bs “The German successes are directly proportionate to the successes. 
 _ of those who call themselves the revolutionary democracy. I do not wish to 
 _ say, ‘to the successes of the Revolution,’ because I believe that the defeats 
 . of the revolutionary democracy are victories for the Revolution. ‘ 
 _ “The influence of the Soviet seaders abroad is not unimportant. One had 
 _ only to listen to the speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to be con- 
 ' vinced that, in this hall, the influence of the revolutionary democracy on 
 _ foreign policy is so strong, that the Minister does not dare to speak face 
 ' to face with it about the honour and dignity of Russia! 
 _ “We can see, in the nakaz of the Soviets, that the ideas of the Stock- 
 _ holm Manifesto have been elaborated in two directions—that of Utopian- 
 ism, and that of German interests. 73 
 '__ Interrupted by the angry cries of the Left, and rebuked by the Presi- 
 ' dent, Miliukov insisted that the proposition of peace concluded by popular 
 oe assemblies, not by diplomats, and the proposal to undertake peace nego- 
 _tiations as soon as the enemy had renounced annexations, were pro-German. 
 Recently Kuhlman said that a personal declaration bound only him who 
 - made it... . “Anyway, we will imitate the Germans before we will imitate 
 _ the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. . . .” 
 ____ The sections treating of the independence of Lithuania and Livonia were 
 symptoms of nationalist agitation in different parts of Russia, supported, 
 | said Miliukov, by German money. . . . Amid bedlam from the Left, he 
 contrasted the clauses of the nakaz concerning Alsace-Lorraine, Rumania, 
 . and Serbia, with those treating of the nationalities in Germany and Austria. 
 _ The nakaz embraced the German and Austrian point of view, said Miliukov. 
 = Passing to Terestchenko’s speech, he contemptuously accused him of 
 being afraid to speak the thought in his mind, and even afraid to think in 
 - terms of the greatness of Russia. The Dardanelles must belong to Rus- 
 Bsia. . 
 in “You are continually saying that the soldier does not know why he is 
 . fighting, and that when he does know, he’ll fight. . . . It is true that the 
 soldier doesn’t know why he is fighting, but now you have told him that 
 | there is no reason for him to fight, that we have no national interests, and 
 | that we are fighting for alien ends. . . 
 _ Paying tribute to the Allies, who, he said, with the assistance of America, 
 ‘| “will yet save the cause of humanity,” he ended: 
 “Long live the light of humanity, the advanced democracies of the 
 _ West, who for a long time have been travelling the way we now only begin 
 to enter, with ill-assured and hesitating steps! Long live our brave Allies! e 
 
 
 
 13. 
 INTERVIEW WITH KERENSKY 
 
 _ The Associated Press man tried his hand. “Mr. Kerensky,” he began, 
 “in England and France people are disappointed with the Revolution—— 
 ; “Yes, I know,” interrupted Kerensky, quizzically. “Abread the Revo- 
 lution is no longer fashionable!” 
 “What is your explanation of why the Russians have stopped fighting?” 
 
330 _ . APPENDIX 
 
 “That is a foolish question to ask.” Kerensky was annoyed. “Russia 
 entered the war first of all the Allies, and for a long time she bore the 
 whole brunt of it. Her losses have been inconceivably greater than those of 
 all the other nations put together. Russia has now the right to demand of 
 the Allies that they bring greater force of arms to bear.” He stopped for 
 a moment and stared at his interlocutor. ‘You are asking why the Rus- 
 sians have stopped fighting, and the Russians are asking where is the British 
 fleet—with German battle-ships in the Gulf of Riga?” Again he ceased 
 suddenly, and as suddenly burst out. “The Russian Revolution hasn’t failed 
 and the revolutionary Army hasn’t failed. It is not the Revolution which 
 caused disorganisation in the army—that disorganisation was accomplished 
 years ago, by the old régime. Why aren’t the Russians fighting? I will 
 tell you. Because the masses of the people are economically exhausted,— 
 and because they are disillusioned with the Allies!” 
 
 The interview of which this is an excerpt was cabled to the United States, 
 and in a few days sent back by the American State Department, with a 
 demand that it be “altered.” This Kerensky refused to do; but it was done 
 by his secretary, Dr. David Soskice—and, thus purged of all offensive refer- 
 ences to the Allies, was given to the press of the world... . 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III 
 1. 
 
 RESOLUTION OF THE FACTORY-SHOP COMMITTEES 
 
 Workers’ Control 
 
 1. (See page 43.) . 
 
 2. The organisation of Workers’ Control is a manifestation of the 
 same healthy activity in the sphere of industrial production, as are party 
 organisations in the sphere of politics, trade unions in employment, Coop- 
 eratives in the domain of consumption, and literary clubs in the sphere of 
 culture. a 
 
 3. ‘The working-class has much more interest in the proper and uninter- 
 rupted operation of factories . . . than the capitalist class. Workers’ 
 Control is a better security in this respect for the interests of modern so- 
 ciety, of the whole people, than the arbitrary will of the owners, who are 
 guided only by their selfish desire for material profits or political privileges. 
 Therefore Workers’ Control is demanded by the proletariat not only in their 
 own interest, but in the interest of the whole country, and should be sup- 
 ported by the revolutionary peasantry as well as the revolutionary Army. 
 
 4, Considering the hostile attitude of the majority of the capitalist class 
 toward the Revolution, experience shows that proper distribution of raw 
 materials and fuel, as well as the most efficient management of factories, is 
 impossible without Workers’ Control. 
 
 5. Only Workers’ Control over capitalist enterprises, cultivating the 
 workers’ conscious attitude toward work, and making clear its social mean- 
 ing, can create conditions favourable to the development of a firm self- 
 discipline in labour, and the development of all labour’s possible productivity. 
 
 6. The impending transformation of industry from a war to a peace 
 basis, and the redistribution of labour all over the country, as well as 
 among the different factories, can be accomplished without great dis- 
 turbances only by means of the democratic self-government of the workers 
 themselves. . . . Therefore the realisation of Workers’ Control is an indis- 
 pensable preliminary to the demobilisation of industry. 
 
 7. In accordance with the slogan proclaimed by the Russian Sociat 
 Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviki), Workers’ Control on a national 
 scale, in order to bring results, must extend to all capitalist concerns, and noy 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 APPENDIX 331 
 
 be organised accidentally, without system; it must be well-planned, and not 
 separated from the industrial life of the country as a whole. 
 
 _ 8. The economic life of the country—agriculture, industry, commerce 
 _and transport—must be subjected to one unified plan, constructed so as to 
 _ satisfy the individual and social requirements of the wide masses of the 
 _ people; it must be approved by their elected representatives, and carried out 
 _ under the direction of these representatives by means of national and local 
 organisations. 
 
 _ 9. That part of the plan which deals with land-labour must be carried 
 _ out under supervision of the peasants’ and land-workers’ organisations; 
 _ that relating to industry, trade and transport operated by wage-earners, by 
 _ means of Workers’ Control; the natural organs of Workers’ Control 
 _ inside the industrial plant will be the Factory-Shop and similar Commit- 
 _ tees; and in the labour market, the Trade Unions. 
 
 . 10. The collective wage agreements arranged by the Trade Unions for 
 _ the majority of workers in any branch of labour, must be binding on all the 
 _ owners of plants employing this kind of labour in the given district. 
 
 Xi 11, Employment bureaus must be placed under the control and manage- 
 _ ment of the Trade Unions, as class organisations acting within the limits of 
 _ the whole industrial plan, and in accordance with it. 
 
 _ 12, Trade Unions must have the right, upon their own initiative, to 
 _ begin legal action against all employers who violate labour contracts or 
 ' labour legislation, and also in behalf of any individual worker in any branch 
 _ of labour. 
 
 ~ 13. On all questions relating to Workers’ Control over production, distri- 
 _ bution and employment, the Trade Unions must confer with the workers 
 _ of individual establishments through their Factory-Shop Committees. 
 
 _ 14. Matters of employment and discharge, vacations, wage scales, refusal 
 _ of work, degree of productivity and skill, reasons for abrogating agree- 
 _ ments, disputes with the administration, and similar problems of the in- 
 _ ternal life of the factory, must be settled exclusively according to the find- 
 _ ings of the Factory-Shop Committee, which has the right to exclude from 
 _ participation in the discussion any members of the factory administration. 
 
 , 15. The Factory-Shop Committee forms a commission to control the 
 _ supplying of the factory with raw materials, fuel, orders, labour power 
 _ and technical staff (including equipment), and all other supplies and ar- 
 ' rangements, and also to assure the factory’s adherence to the general indus- 
 _ trial plan. The factory administration is obliged to surrender to the organs 
 _ of Workers’ Control, for their aid and information, all data concerning the 
 business; to make it possible to verify this data, and to produce the books 
 ' of the company upon demand of the Factory-Shop Committee. 
 
 iF 16. Any illegal acts on the part of the administration discovered by 
 _ the Factory-Shop Committees, or any suspicion of such illegal acts, which 
 _ cannot be investigated or remedied by the workers alone, shall be referred 
 to the district central organisation of Factory-Shop Committees charged 
 ' with the particular branch of labour involved, which shall discuss the matter 
 ' with the institutions charged with the execution of the general industrial 
 _ plan, and find means to deal with the matter, even to the extent of con- 
  fiscating the factory. 
 
 .. 17. The union of the Factory-Shop Committees of different concerns 
 ' must be accomplished on the basis of the different trades, in order to facili- 
 ' tate control over the whole branch of industry, so as to come within the 
 i general industrial plan; and so as to create an effective plan of distribution 
 - among the different factories of orders, raw materials, fuel, technical and 
 ' labour power; and also to facilitate cooperation with the Trade Unions, 
 _ which are organised by trades. 
 
 18. The central city councils of Trade Unions and Factory-Shop 
 ' Committees represent the proletariat in the corresponding provincial and 
 
332 — . APPENDIX 
 
 local institutions formed to elaborate and carry out the general industrial 
 plan, and to organise economic relations between the towns and the villages. 
 (workers and peasants). They also possess final authority for the man- 
 agement of Factory-Shop Committees and Trade Unions, so far as Workers’ 
 Control in their district is concerned, and they shall issue obligatory: regu- 
 lations concerning workers’ discipline in the routine of production—which 
 ~egulations, however, must be approved by vote of the workers themselves. 
 
 Q, 
 THE BOURGEOIS PRESS ON THE BOLSHEVIKI 
 
 Russkaya Volia, October 28. “The decisive moment approaches. .. . 
 It is decisive for the Bolsheviki. Either they will give us . . . a second 
 edition of the events of July 16-18, or they will have to admit that with their 
 plans and intentions, with their impertinent policy of wishing to separate 
 themselves from everything consciously national, they have been definitely 
 HELCOLEC. sa. \p. 
 
 “What are the chances of Bolshevik success? 
 
 “It is difficult to answer that question, for their principal support is 
 the . . . ignorance of the popular masses. They speculate on it, they work 
 upon it by a demagogy which nothing can stop... . , 
 
 “The Government must play its part in this affair. Supporting itself 
 morally by the Council of the Republic, the Government must take a 
 clearly-defined attitude toward the Bolsheviki. .. . ; 
 
 “And if the Bolsheviki provoke an insurrection against the legal power, 
 and thus facilitate the German invasion, they must be treated as mutineers 
 POC VETAt es a teks 
 
 Birzhevya Viedomosti, October 28. “Now that the Bolsheviki have sep- 
 arated themselves from the rest of the democracy, the struggle against 
 them is very much simpler—and it is not reasonable, in order to fight against 
 Bolshevism, to wait until they make a manifestation. The Government 
 should not even allow the manifestation... . | 
 
 “The appeals of the Bolsheviki to insurrection and anarchy are acts pun- 
 ishable by the criminal courts, and in the freest countries, their authors 
 would receive severe sentences. For what the Bolsheviki are carrying on 
 is not a political struggle against the Government, or even for the power; 
 it is propaganda for anarchy, massacres, and civil war. This propaganda 
 must be extirpated at its roots; it would be strange to wait, in order to 
 begin action against an agitation for pogroms, until the pogroms actually 
 COC UNT Cy ia) ay, 
 
 Novoye Vremya, November 1. “. . . Why is the Government excited 
 only about November 2d (date of calling of the Congress of Soviets), and 
 not about September 12th, or October 3d? 
 
 “This is not the first time that Russia burns and falls in ruins, and 
 that the smoke of the terrible conflagration makes the eyes of our Allies 
 SIDAT L.'s wane 
 
 “Since it came to power, has there been a single order issued by the 
 Government for the purpose of halting anarchy, or has any one attempted 
 to put out the Russian conflagration? 
 
 “There were other things to do... . 
 
 “The Government turned its attention to a more immediate problem. It 
 crushed an insurrection (the Kornilov attempt) concerning which every one 
 is now asking, ‘Did it ever exist?” 
 
 3. 
 MODERATE SOCIALIST PRESS ON THE BOLSHEVIKI 
 
 Dielo Naroda, October 28 (Socialist Revolutionary). “The most fright- 
 ful crime of the Bolsheviki against the Revolution is that they impute 
 
APPENDIX 833 
 
 exclusively to the bad intentions of the revolutionary Government all the 
 calamities which the masses are so cruelly suffering; when as a matter of 
 fact these calamities spring from objective causes. 
 _ “They make golden promises to the masses, knowing in advance that they 
 ean fulfil none of them; they lead the masses on a false trail, deceiving 
 | them, as to the source of all their troubles. tase 
 “The Bolsheviki are the most dangerous enemies of the Revolution. . . .” 
 Dien, October 30 (Menshevik). “Is this really ‘the freedom of the 
 press’? Every day Novaya Rus and Rabotchi Put openly incite to insur- 
 rection. Every day these two papers commit in their columns actual 
 crimes. Every day they urge pogroms. . . . Is that ‘the freedom of 
 _ the press’? th 
 “The Government ought to defend itself and defend us. We have the 
 right to insist that the Government machinery does not remain passive 
 . while ane threat of bloody riots endangers the lives of its citizens. . . .” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 “YEDINSTVO” 
 
 __ Plekhanov’s paper, Yedinstvo, suspended publication a few weeks after 
 the Bolsheviki seized the power. Contrary to popular report, Yedinstvo was 
 _ not suppressed by the Soviet Government; an announcement in the last 
 number admitted that it was unable to continue because there were too few 
 _ subscribers. ... 
 
 5. 
 WERE THE BOLSHEVIKI CONSPIRATORS? 
 
 ; “The French newspaper Entente of Petrograd, on November 15th, pub- 
 lished an article of which the following is a part: 
 
 _ “The Government of Kerensky discusses and hesitates. The Government. 
 
 _ of Lenin and Trotzky attacks and acts. 
 
 “This last is called a Government of Conspirators, but that is wrong. 
 
 _ Government of usurpers, yes, like all revolutionary Governments which 
 
 ! triumph over their adversaries. Conspirators—no! 
 
 _ _ “Not They did not conspire. On the contrary, openly, audaciously, 
 
 _ without mincing words, without dissimulating their intentions, they multi- 
 
 _ plied their agitation, intensified their propaganda in the factories, the 
 
 _ barracks, at the Front, in the country, everywhere, even fixing in advance 
 the date of their taking up arms, the date of their seizure of the 
 
 power... . 
 
 “They—conspirators? Never... .” 
 
 6. 
 APPEAL AGAINST INSURRECTION 
 
 From the Central Army Committee 
 
 4 « .. Above everything we insist upon the inflexible execution of the 
 : organised will of the majority of the people, expressed by the Provisional 
 Government in accord with the Council of the Republic and the Tsay-ee-kah, 
 as organ of the popular power. 
 “Any demonstration to depose this power by violence, at a moment when 
 a Government crisis will infallibly create disorganisation, the ruin of 
 _the country, and civil war, will be considered by the Army as a counter- 
 revolutionary act, and repressed by force of arms. . . 
 “The interests of private groups and classes should be submitted to a 
 single interest—that of augmenting industrial production, and distributing 
 the necessities of life with fairness... . 
 
334 APPENDIX 
 
 “All who are capable of sabotage, disorganisation, or disorder, all de- 
 serters, all slackers, all looters, should be forced to do auxiliary service in 
 the rear of the Army... . HEN ; RN 
 
 “We invite the Provisional Government to form, out of these violators 
 of the people’s will, these enemies of the Revolution, labour detachments 
 to work in the rear, on the Front, in the trenches under enemy fire. . . .” 
 
 as 
 EVENTS OF THE NIGHT, NAVEMBER 6TH 
 
 Toward evening bands of Red Guards began to occupy the printing- 
 shops of the bourgeois press, where they printed Rabotchi Put, Soldat, and 
 various proclamations by the hundred thousand. The City Militia was 
 ordered to clear these places, but found the offices barricaded, and armed 
 men defending them. Soldiers who were ordered to attack the print-shops 
 refused. 
 
 About midnight a Colonel with a company of yunkers arrived at the 
 club “Free Mind,” with a warrant to arrest the editor of Rabotchi Put. 
 Immediately an enormous mob gathered in the street outside and threatened 
 to lynch the yunkers. The Colonel thereupon begged that he and the yunkers 
 be arrested and taken to Peter-Paul prison for safety. This request was 
 granted. 
 
 At 1 A. M. a detachment of soldiers and sailors from Smolny occu- 
 pied the Telegraph Agency. At 1.35 the Post Office was occupied. Toward 
 morning the Military Hotel was taken, and at’5 o’clock the Telephone Ex- 
 change. At dawn the State Bank was surrounded. And at 10 A. M. a 
 cordon of troops was drawn about the Winter Palace. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV 
 i; 
 EVENTS OF NOVEMBER 7TH 
 
 From 4 A. M. until dawn Kerensky remained at the Petrograd Staff 
 Headquarters, sending orders to the Cossacks and to the yunkers in the 
 Officers’ Schools in and around Petrograd—all of whom answered that they 
 were unable to move. 
 
 Colonel Polkovnikov, Commandant of the City, hurried between the 
 Staff and the Winter Palace, evidently without any plan. Kerensky gave 
 an order to open the bridges; three hours passed without any action, and 
 then an officer and five men went out on their own initiative, and putting © 
 to flight a picket of Red Guards, opened the Nicolai Bridge. Immediately 
 after they left, however, some sailors closed it again. 
 
 Kerensky ordered the print-shop of Rabotchi Put to be occupied. The 
 officer detailed to the work was promised a squad of soldiers; two hours 
 later he was promised some yunkers; then the order was forgotten. 
 
 An attempt was made to recapture the Post Office and the Telegraph 
 Agency; a few shots were fired, and the Government troops announced 
 that they would no longer oppose the Soviets. 
 
 To a delegation of yunkers Kerensky said, “As chief of the Provisional 
 Government and as Supreme Commander I know nothing, I cannot advise 
 you; but as a veteran revolutionist, I appeal to you, young revolutionists, to 
 remain at your posts and defend the conquests of the Revolution.” 
 
 Orders of Kishkin, November 7th: 
 
 “By decree of the Provisional Government . . . I am invested witk 
 extraordinary powers for the reestablishment of order in Petrograd, in 
 complete command of all civil and military authorities. . . .” 
 
 * * * * 
 
APPENDIX 835 
 
 D “In accordance with the powers conferred upon me by the Provisional 
 Government, I herewith relieve from his functions as Commandant of 
 _the Petrograd Military District Colonel George Polkovnikov. . . .” 
 
 * * * * 
 
 a Pape to the Population signed by Vice-Premier Konovalov, Novem- 
 er $ 
 
 “Citizens! Save the fatherland, the republic and your freedom. Mani- 
 
 _ acs have raised a revolt against the only governmental power chosen by the 
 
 _ people, the Provisional Government... . 
 
 hi “The members of the Provisional Government fulfil their duty, remain 
 
 at their post, and continue to work for the good of the fatherland, the 
 
 _ reestablishment of order, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, 
 
 _ future sovereign of Russia and of all the Russian peoples... . 
 
 \ “Citizens, you must support the Provisional Government. You must 
 
 _ strengthen its authority. You must oppose these maniacs, with whom are 
 
 _ joined all enemies of liberty and order, and the followers of the Tsarist 
 régime, in order to wreck the Constituent Assembly, destroy the conquests 
 
 _ of the Revolution, and the future of our dear fatherland... . 
 
 _ “Citizens! Organise around the Provisional Government for the de- 
 
 _ fence of its temporary authority, in the name of order and the happiness 
 of all peoples... .” 
 
 E BS : * % ab % 
 
 Proclamation of the Provisional Government. 
 
 “The Petrograd Soviet . . . has declared the Provisional Government 
 
 _ overthrown, and has demanded that the Governmental power be turned 
 
 over to it, under threat of bombarding the Winter Palace with the cannon 
 _ of Peter-Paul Fortress, and of the cruiser Avrora, anchored in the Neva. 
 
 “The Government can surrender its authority only to the Constituent 
 Assembly; for that reason it has decided not to submit, and to demand aid 
 
 _ from the population and the Army. A telegram has been sent to the Stavka; 
 
 and an answer received says that a strong detachment of troops is being 
 
 B® sent...’. . 
 
 
 
 . “Tet the Army and the People reject the irresponsible attempts of the 
 _ Bolsheviki to create a revolt in the rear... .” 
 
 About 9 A. M. Kerensky left for the Front... . 
 
 Toward evening two soldiers on bicycles presented themselves at the Staff 
 
 _ Headquarters, as delegates of the garrison of Peter-Paul Fortress. Enter- 
 
 _ ing the meeting-room of the Staff, where Kishkin, Rutenburg, Paitchinski, 
 
 - General Bagratouni, Colonel Paradielov and Count Tolstoy were gathered, 
 
 _ they demanded the immediate surrender of the Staff; threatening, in case 
 
 _ of refusal, to bombard headquarters. . . . After two panicky conferences 
 
 ’ the Staff retreated to the Winter Palace, and the headquarters were occu- 
 
 pied by Red Guards... . 
 
 1 Late in the afternoon several Bolshevik armoured cars cruised around 
 
 ' the Palace Square, and Soviet soldiers tried unsuccessfully to parley with 
 the yunkers... . 
 
 . Firing on the Palace began about 7 o’clock in the evening.) 3). 
 
 ‘a At 10 P. M. began an artillery bombardment from three sides, in which 
 
 - most of the shells were blanks, only three small shrapnels striking the 
 
 _ facade of the Palace... . 
 
 2. 
 KERENSKY IN FLIG 
 
 Leaving Petrograd in the morning of November ‘th, Kerensky arrived 
 by automobile at Gatchina, where he demanded a special train. Toward 
 evening he was in Ostrov, Province of Pskov. The next morning, extraor- 
 
336 APPENDIX 
 
 dinary session of the local Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, with 
 participation of Cossack delegates—there being 6,000 Cossacks at Ostrov. 
 Kerensky spoke to the assembly, appealing for aid against the Bolshe- 
 
 viki, and addressed himself almost exclusively to the Cossacks. The soldier 
 
 delegates protested. s 
 
 “Why did you come here?” shouted voices. Kerensky answered, “To 
 ask the Cossacks’ assistance in crushing the Bolshevik insurrection!” At 
 this there were violent protestations, which increased when he continued, 
 “T broke the Kornilov attempt, and I will break the Bolsheviki!’ The 
 noise became so great that he had to leave the platform... . 
 
 The soldier deputies and the Ussuri Cossacks decided to arrest Kerensky, 
 but the Don Cossacks prevented them, and got him away by train... . 
 A Military Revolutionary Committee, set up during the day, tried to in- 
 
 form the garrison of Pskov; but the telephone and telegraph lines were 
 
 cut... . 
 
 Kerensky did not arrive at Pskov. Revolutionary soldiers had cut the 
 railway line, to prevent troops being sent against the capital. On the night 
 of November 8th he arrived by automobile at Luga, where he was well re- 
 ceived by the Death Battalions stationed there. 
 
 Next day he took train for the South-West Front, and visited the Army 
 Committee at headquarters. The Fifth Army, however, was wild with 
 enthusiasm over the news of the Bolshevik success, and the Army Committee 
 was unable to promise Kerensky any support. ; 
 
 From there he went to the Stavka, at Moghilev, where he ordered ten 
 regiments from different parts of the Front to move against Petrograd. The 
 soldiers almost unanimously refused; and those regiments which did start 
 halted on the way. About five thousand Cossacks finally followed him... . 
 
 3. 
 LOOTING OF THE WINTER PALACE 
 
 I do not mean to maintain that there was no looting in the Winter 
 Palace. Both after and before the Winter Palace fell, there was consider- 
 able pilfering. The statement of the Socialist Revolutionary paper Narod, 
 and of members of the City Duma, to the effect that precious objects to 
 the value of 500,000,000 rubles had been stolen, was, however, a gross 
 exaggeration. 
 
 The most important art treasures of the Palace—paintings, statues, 
 tapestries, rare porcelains and armories,—had been transferred to Moscow 
 during the month of September; and they were still in good order in the 
 
 basement of the Imperial Palace there ten days after the capture of the 
 
 Kremlin by Bolshevik troops. I can personally testify to this... . 
 Individuals, however, especially the general public, which was allowed 
 to circulate freely through the Winter Palace for several days after its 
 
 capture, made away with table silver, clocks, bedding, mirrors and some — 
 
 odd vases of valuable porcelain and semi-precious stone, to the value of 
 about $50,000. 
 
 The Soviet Government immediately created a special commission, com-~ 
 posed of artists and archeologists, to recover the stolen objects. On No- 
 vember ist two proclamations were issued: 
 
 “Cimizens oF Pertrocrap! 
 
 “We urgently ask all citizens to exert every effort to find whatever 
 possible of the objects stolen from the Winter Palace in the night of 
 November 7-8, and to forward them to the Commandant of the Winter 
 Palace. 
 
 “Receivers of stolen goods, antiquarians, and all who are proved to be 
 
APPENDIX 337 
 
 hiding such objects will be held legally responsible and punished with all 
 _ Severity. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Commissars for the Protection of Museums. 
 and Artistic Collections, 
 “G. Yatmanov, B. Manpersaum.” 
 * * * 
 
 “To RecimenTAL AND Feet Commirrers 
 
 _ “In the night of November 7-8, in the Winter Palace, which is the in- 
 fae property of the Russian people, valuable objects of art were 
 _ Stolen. 
 : “We urgently appeal to all to exert every effort, so that the stolen 
 objects are returned to the Winter Palace. 
 ao “Commissars ... 
 “G. Yarmanov, B. Manperpaum.” 
 
 About half the loot was recovered, some of it in the baggage of for- 
 _ eigners leaving Russia. 
 _-__ A conference of artists and archxologists, held at the suggestion of 
 Smolny, appointed a commission to make an inventory of the Winter 
 Palace treasures, which was given complete charge of the Palace and of all 
 _ artistic collections and State museums in Petrograd. On November 16th 
 _ the Winter Palace was closed to the public while the inventory was being 
 ® made... .. 
 _ _ During the last week in November a decree was issued by the Council of 
 _ People’s Commissars, changing the name of the Winter Palace to “People’s 
 _ Museum,” entrusting it to the complete charge of the artistic-archeolog- 
 _ ical commission, and declaring that henceforth all Governmental activities 
 _ within its walls were prohibited... . 
 
 4. 
 RAPE OF THE WOMEN’S BATTALION 
 
 Immediately following the taking of the Winter Palace all sorts of 
 
 sensational stories were published in the anti-Bolshevik press, and told 
 in the City Duma, about the fate of the Women’s Battalion defending the 
 Palace. It was said that some of the girl-soldiers had been thrown from 
 _ the windows into the street, most of the rest had been violated, and many 
 _ had committed suicide as a result of the horrors they had gone through. 
 _ The City Duma appointed a commission to investigate the matter. On 
 _ November 16th the commission returned from Levashovo, headquarters 
 | of the Women’s Battalion. Madame Tyrkova reported that the girls had 
 _ been at first taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment, and that 
 _ there some of them had been badly treated; but that at present most of 
 _ them were at Levashovo, and the rest scattered about the city in private 
 ' houses. Dr. Mandelbaum, another of the commission, testified drily that 
 - none of the women had been thrown out of the windows of the Winter 
 ' Palace, that none were wounded, that three had been violated, and that one 
 _ had committed suicide, leaving a note which said that she had been “disap- 
 pointed in her ideals.” 
 
 On November 21st the Military Revolutionary Committee officially dis- 
 - solved the Women’s Battalion, at the request of the girls themselves, who 
 _ returned to civilian clothes. 
 
 * In Louise Bryant’s book, “Six Red Months in Russia,” there is an inter- 
 _ esting description of the girl-soldiers during this time. 
 
338 . APPENDIX 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V 
 1. 
 
 APPEALS AND PROCLAMATIONS 
 
 From the Military Revolutionary Committee, November 8 
 “To All Army Committees and All Soviets of Soldiers’ Deputies. 
 
 “The Petrograd garrison has overturned the Government of Kerensky, — 
 
 which had risen against the Revolution and the People. ... In sending 
 this news to the Front and the country, the Military Revolutionary Com- 
 mittee requests all soldiers to keep vigilant watch on the conduct of offi- 
 cers. Officers who do not frankly and openly declare for the Revolution 
 should be immediately arrested as enemies. 
 
 “The Petrograd Soviet interprets the programme of the new Government. 
 
 as: immediate proposals of a general democratic peace, the immediate 
 transfer of great landed estates to the peasants, and the honest convo- 
 cation of the Constituent Assembly. The people’s revolutionary Army 
 
 must not permit troops of doubtful morale to be sent to Petrograd. Act — 
 
 by means of arguments, by means of moral suasion—but if that fails, halt 
 the movement of troops by implacable force. | 
 “The present order must be immediately read to all military units of 
 every branch of the service. Whoever keeps the knowledge of this order 
 from the soldier-masses . . . commits a serious crime against the Revolu- 
 tion, and will be punished with all the rigour of revolutionary law. 
 “Soldiers! For peace, bread, land, and popular government !” 
 
 * * * * 
 
 “To All Front and Rear Army, Corps, Divisional, Regimental and Company 
 Committees, and All Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ 
 Deputies. 
 
 “Soldiers and Revolutionary Officers! 
 
 “The Military Revolutionary Committee, by agreement with the majority 
 of the workers, soldiers, and peasants, has decreed that General Kornilov 
 and all the accomplices of his conspiracy shall be brought immediately to 
 Petrograd, for incarceration in Peter-Paul Fortress and arraignment before 
 a military revolutionary court-martial. ... 
 
 “All who resist the execution of this decree are declared by the Com- 
 mittee to be traitors to the Revolution, and their orders are herewith 
 declared null and void.” , 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee Attached to the Petrograd | 
 
 Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 “To all Provincial and District Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peas- 
 ants’ Deputies. 
 
 “By resolution of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, all arrested 
 members of Land Committees are immediately set free. ‘The Commissars 
 who arrested them are tc be arrested. 
 
 “From this moment all power belongs to the Soviets. The Commissars 
 of the Provisional Government are removed. The presidents of the various 
 local Soviets are invited to enter into direct relations with the revolutionary 
 Government.” 
 
 Military Revolutionaru Committee. 
 
APPENDIX 339 
 
 2, 
 PROTEST OF THE MUNICIPAT, DUMA 
 
 f “The Central City Duma, elected on the most democratic principles, has 
 _ undertaken the burden of managing Municipal affairs and food supplies at 
 _ the time of the greatest disorganisation. At the present moment the Bol- 
 _ shevik party, three weeks before the elections to the Constituent Assembly, 
 _ and in spite of the menace of the external enemy, having removed by armed 
 _ force the only legal revolutionary authority, is making an attempt against 
 _ the rights and independence of the Municipal Self-Government, demand- 
 _ ing submission to its Commissars and its illegal authority. 
 
 _ “In this terrible and tragic moment the Petrograd City Duma, in the 
 i face of its constituents, and of all Russia, declares loudly that it will not 
 submit to any encroachments on its rights and its independence, and will 
 » remain at the post of responsibility to which it has been called by the will 
 _ of the population of the capital. 
 
 . “The Central City Duma of Petrograd appeals to all Dumas and 
 _ Zemstvos of the Russian Republic to rally to the defence of one of the 
 _ greatest conquests of the Russian Revolution—the independence and in- 
 _ violability of popular self-government.” 
 
 
 
 
 3. 
 
 LAND DECREE—PEASANTS “NAKAZ” 
 
 
 
 a 
 The Land question can only be permanently settled by the general 
 _ Constituent Assembly. 
 ' The most equitable solution of the Land question should be as fol- 
 _ lows: 
 ‘. 1. The right of private ownership of land is abolished forever; land 
 _ cannot be sold, nor leased, nor mortgaged, nor alienated in any way. All 
 _ dominical lands, lands attached to titles, lands belonging to the Emperor’s 
 _ cabinet, to monasteries, churches, possession lands, entailed lands, private 
 _ estates, communal lands, peasant free-holds, and others, are confiscated 
 _ without compensation, and become national property, and are placed at the 
 _ disposition of the workers who cultivate them. 
 Those who are damaged because of this social transformation of the 
 _ rights of property are entitled to public aid during the time necessary for 
 _ them to adapt themselves to the new conditions of existence. 
 . 2. All the riches beneath the earth—ores, oil, coal, salt, etc.—as well 
 as forests and waters having a national importance, become the exclusive 
 ' property of the State. All minor streams, lakes and forests are placed in 
 _ the hands of the communities, on condition of being managed by the local 
 organs of government. 
 3. All plots of land scientifically cultivated—gardens, plantations, 
 ' nurseries, seed-plots, green-houses, and others—shall not be divided, but 
 _ transformed into model farms, and pass into the hands of the State or of the 
 _ community, according to their size and importance. 
 Buildings, communal lands and villages with their private gardens and 
 
 their orchards remain in the hands of their present owners; the dimensions 
 _ of these plots and the rate of taxes for their use shall be fixed by law. 
 - 4. All studs, governmental and private cattle-breeding and bird-breed- 
 _ ing establishments, and others, are confiscated and become national property, 
 and are transferred either to the State or to the community, according to 
 _ their size and importance. 
 y All questions of compensation for the above are within the competence 
 - of the Constituent Assembly. 
 
 _ §. All inventoried agricultural property of the confiscated lands, ma- 
 
 
 
 Sues 
 = 
 
340 APPENDIX 
 chinery and live-stock, are transferred without compensation to the State 
 or the community, according to their quantity and importance. 
 
 The confiscation of such machinery or live-stock shall not apply to the 
 
 small properties of peasants. a4 
 6. The right to use the land is granted to all citizens, without distinc- 
 
 tion of sex, who wish to work the land themselves, with the help of their | 
 
 families, or in partnership, and only so long as they are able to work. 
 No hired labour is permitted. ee 
 
 In the event of the incapacity for work of a member of the commune 
 for a period of two years, the commune shall be bound to render him 
 assistance during this time by working his land in common. 
 
 Farmers who through old age or sickness have permanently lost the 
 capacity to work the land themselves, shall surrender their land and receive 
 instead a Government pension. 
 
 7. The use of the land should be equalised—that is to say, the land 
 
 shall be divided among the workers according to local conditions, the unit 
 
 of labour and the needs of the individual. 
 The way in which land is to be used may be individually determined 
 
 upon: as homesteads, as farms, by communes, by partnerships, as will be- 
 
 decided by the villages and settlements. 
 
 8. Ali land upon its confiscation is pooled in the general People’s Land 
 Fund. Its distribution among the workers is carried out by the local and 
 central organs of administration, beginning with the village democratic 
 
 organisations and ending with the central provincial institutions—with the 
 
 exception of urban and rural cooperative societies. 
 The Land Fund is subject to periodical redistribution according to the 
 
 increase of population and the development of productivity and rural © 
 
 economy. 
 
 In case of modification of the boundaries of allotments, the original — 
 
 centre of the allotment remains intact. 
 The lands of persons retiring from the community return to the Land 
 Fund; providing that near relatives of the persons retiring, or friends 
 
 designated by them, shall have preference in the redistribution of these 
 
 lands. 
 When lands are returned to the Land Fund, the money expended for 
 
 manuring or improving the land, which has not been exhausted, shall be 
 reimbursed. 
 
 If in some localities the Land Fund is insufficient to satisfy the local 
 population, the surplus population should emigrate. 
 
 The organisation of the emigration, 
 viding of emigrants with the necessary machinery and live-stock, shall be 
 
 the business of the State. 
 The emigration shall be carried out in the following order: first, the 
 
 peasants without land who express their wish to emigrate; then the unde-— 
 
 sirable members of the community, deserters, etc., and finally, by drawing 
 lots on agreement. 
 
 All which is contained in this nakaz, being the expression of the indis- 
 putable will of the great majority of conscious peasants of Russia, is de- 
 clared to be a temporary law, and until the convocation of the Constituent 
 Assembly, becomes effective immediately so far as is possible, and in some 
 parts of it gradually, as will be determined by the District Soviets of 
 Peasants’ Deputies. 
 
 4. 
 THE LAND AND DESERTERS 
 
 The Government was not forced to make any decision concerning the 
 rights of deserters to the land. The end of the war and the demobilisation 
 of the army automatically removed the deserter problem. ..- aa 
 
 also the costs thereof, and the pro-- 
 
 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 a 
 
ears APPENDIX 341 
 
 5. 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ _ ‘Yhe Council of People’s Commissars was at first composed entirely of 
 
 _ Bolsheviki. This was not entirely the fault of the Bolsheviki, however. 
 On November 8th they offered portfolios to members of the Left Socialist 
 _ Kevolutionaries, who declined. See page 273. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI 
 i 
 APPEALS AND DENUNCIATIONS 
 
 _ _ Appeal to all Citizens and to the Military Organisations of the So- 
 _ cialist Revolutionary Party. 
 . “The senseless attempt of the Bolsheviki is on the eve of complete fail- 
 ure. The garrison is disaffected. ...The Ministries are idle, bread is 
 _ lacking. All factions except a handful of Bolsheviki have left the Con- 
 _ gress of Soviets. The Bolsheviki are alone! Abuses of all sorts, acts of 
 _ vandalism and pillage, the bombardment of the Winter Palace, arbitrary 
 ze arrests—all these crimes committed by the Bolsheviki have aroused against 
 them the resentment of the majority of the sailors and soldiers. The 
 _ Tsentroflot refuses to submit to the orders of the Bolsheviki. .. . 
 __ .“We call upon all sane elements to gather around the Committee for 
 _ Salvation of Country and Revolution; to take serious measures to be ready, 
 _at the first call of the Central Committee of the Party, to act against the 
 _counter-revolutionists, who will doubtless attempt to profit by these troubles 
 _ provoked by the Bolshevik adventure, and to watch closely the external 
 enemy, who also would like to take advantage of this opportune moment 
 when the Front is weakened... .” 
 gs The Military Section of the Central Committee of 
 the Socialist Revolutionary Party. 
 
 * * * *% 
 
 Fg 
 
 ne 
 
 From Pravda: 
 
 “What is Kerensky? 
 
 “A usurper, whose place is in Peter-Paul prison, with Kornilov and 
 - Kishkin. 
 
 __ “A criminal and a traitor to the workers, soldiers and peasants, who 
 _ believed in him. 
 
 _ “Kerensky? A murderer of soldiers! 
 
 “Kerensky? A public executioner of peasants! 
 
 “Kerensky? A strangler of workers! 
 
 
 
 h “Such is the second Kornilov who now wants to butcher Liberty !” 
 
 a APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII 
 
 ! 7 
 
 Z TWO DECREES 
 
 e On the Press 
 
 ___ In the serious decisive hour of the Revolution and the days immediately 
 
 _ following it, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee is compelled to 
 
 adopt a series of measures against the counter-revolutionary press of all 
 shades. 
 
342 - APPENDIX 
 
 Immediately on all sides there are cries that the new Socialist authority 
 
 is in this violating the essential principles of its own programme by an 
 attempt against the freedom of the press. 
 
 The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government calls the attention of the 
 population to the fact that in our country, behind this liberal shield, is 
 hidden the opportunity for the wealthier classes to seize the lion’s share of 
 the whole press, and by this means to poison the popular mind and bring 
 confusion into the consciousness of the masses. . 
 
 Every one knows that the bourgeois press is one of the most powerful 
 weapons of the bourgeoisie. Especially in this critical moment, when the 
 new authority of the workers and peasants is in process of consolidation, 
 it is impossible to leave it in the hands of the enemy, at a time when it is 
 not less dangerous than bombs and machine-guns. This is why temporary 
 
 and extraordinary measures have been adopted for the purpose of stop- | 
 ping the flow of filth and calumny in which the yellow and green press 
 
 would be glad to drown the young victory of the people. 
 As soon as the new order is consolidated, all administrative measures 
 
 against the press will be suspended; full liberty will be given it within | 
 
 the limits of responsibility before the law, in accordance with the broadest 
 and most progressive regulations... . 
 
 Bearing in mind, however, the fact that any restrictions of the freedom | 
 of the press, even in critical moments, are admissible only within the bounds | 
 
 of necessity, the Council of People’s Commissars decrees as follows: 
 
 1. The following classes of newspapers shall be subject to closure: | 
 
 (a) Those inciting to open resistance or disobedience to the Workers’ and 
 
 Peasants’ Government; (b) Those creating confusion by obviously and | 
 deliberately perverting the news; (c) Those inciting to acts of a criminal | 
 
 character punishable by the laws. 
 
 2. The temporary or permanent closing of any organ of the press shall 
 be carried out only by virtue of a resolution of the Council of People’s 
 Commissars. 
 
 3. The present decree is of a temporary nature, and will be revoked by 
 a special ukaz when normal conditions of public life are re-established. 
 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 Vuiapimir Unranov (LENIN). 
 
 * * * % 
 
 On Workers’ Militia 
 
 1. All Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies shall form a Workers’ 
 Militia. 
 
 2. This Workers’ Militia shall be entirely at the orders of the Soviets 
 of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. 
 
 3. Military and civil authorities must render every assistance in arm- 
 ing the workers and in supplying them with technical equipment, even to 
 the extent of requisitioning arms belonging to the War Department of 
 the Government. | 
 
 4, This decree shall be promulgated by telegraph. 
 
 Petrograd, November 10, 1917. | 
 People’s Commissar of the Interior. 
 
 A. I. Ryxov. 
 
 This decree encouraged the formation of companies of Red Guards all 
 over Russia, which became the most valuable arm of the Soviet Government 
 in the ensuing civil war. 
 
 en eres 
 
 
 
APPENDIX 343 
 
 2, 
 
 THE STRIKE FUND 
 
 
 
 t The fund for the striking Government employees and bank clerks was 
 ‘ subscribed by banks and business houses of Petrograd and other cities, 
 
 _ and also by foreign corporations doing business in Russia. All who con- 
 ‘ sented to strike against the Bolsheviki were paid full wages, and in some 
 
 __ cases their pay was increased. It was the realisation of the strike fund 
 » contributors that the Bolsheviki were firmly in power, followed by their 
 refusal to pay strike benefits, which finally broke the strike. 
 
 hs : APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII 
 ee | 1. 
 KERENSKY’S ADVANCE 
 
 x On November 9th Kerensky and his Cossacks arrived at Gatchina, where 
 _ the garrison, hopelessly split into two factions, immediately surrendered. 
 _ The members of the Gatchina Soviet were arrested, and at first threatened 
 _ with death; later they were released on good behaviour. 
 __._._ The Cossack advance-guards, practically unopposed, occupied Pavlovsk, 
 _ Alexandrovsk and other stations, and reached the outskirts of Tsarskoye 
 _ Selo next morning—November 10th. At once the garrison divided into three 
 _ groups—the officers, loyal to Kerensky; part of the soldiers and non-com- 
 _ missioned officers, who declared themselves “neutral”; and most of the rank 
 - and file, who were for the Bolsheviki. The Bolshevik soldiers, who were 
 _ without leaders or organisation, fell back toward the capital. The local 
 _ Soviet also withdrew to the village of Pulkovo. 
 _ From Pulkovo six members of the Tsarskoye Selo Soviet went with an 
 _ automobile-load of proclamations to Gatchina, to propagandise the Cos- 
 _ sacks. They spent most of the day going around Gatchina from one Cos- 
 _ sack barracks to another, pleading, arguing and explaining. Toward eve- 
 _ hing some officers discovered their presence and they were arrested and 
 _ brought before General Krasnov, who said, “You fought against Kornilov; 
 now you are opposing Kerensky. I’ll have you all shot!” 
 After reading aloud to them the order appointing him commander-in- 
 _ chief of the Petrograd District, Krasnov asked if they were Bolsheviki. 
 _ They replied in the affirmative—upon which Krasnov went away; a short 
 _ time later an officer came and set them free, saying that it was by order 
 _ of General Krasnov.... 
 é In the meanwhile delegations continued to arrive from Petrograd; from 
 _ the Duma, the Committee for Salvation, and, last of all, from the Vikzhel. 
 _ The Union of Railway Workers insisted that some agreement be reached 
 iy to halt the civil war, and demanded that Kerensky treat with the Bolshe- 
 _ viki, and that he stop the advance on Petrograd. In case of refusal, the 
 _ Vikzhel threatened a general strike at midnight of November 11th. 
 ‘ Kerensky asked to be allowed to discuss the matter with the Socialist 
 _ Ministers and with the Committee for Salvation. He was plainly undecided. 
 : On the 11th Cossack outposts reached Krasnoye Selo, from which the 
 _ local Soviet and the heterogeneous forces of the Military Revolutionary 
 _ Committee precipitately retired, some of them surrendering. . .. That 
 night they also touched Pulkovo, where the first real resistance was 
 "encountered... . | 
 Cossacks deserters began to dribble into Petrograd, declaring that Ke- 
 _ rensky had lied to them, that he had spread broadcast over the front proc- 
 meamations which said that Petrograd was burning, that the Bolsheviki 
 
 if 
 
B44 _  sAPPENDEX. “| 
 
 had invited the Germans to come in, and that they were murdering women 
 and children and looting indiscriminately... . 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee immediately sent out some dozens 
 of “agitators,” with thousands of printed appeals, to inform the Cossacks 
 of the real situation. ... . 
 
 2. 
 PROCLAMATIONS OF THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE 
 
 “To All Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. 
 
 “The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peas- 
 ants’ Deputies charges the local Soviets immediately to take the most 
 energetic measures to oppose all counter-revolutionary anti-Semitic dis- 
 turbances, and all pogroms of whatever nature. The honour of the workers’, 
 peasants’ and soldiers’ Revolution cannot tolerate any disorders... . | 
 
 “The Red Guard of Petrograd, the revolutionary garrison and the sailors 
 have maintained complete order in the capital. | 
 
 ‘“‘Workers, soldiers, and peasants, everywhere you should follow the 
 example of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd. 
 
 “Comrades soldiers and Cossacks, on us falls the duty of keeping real _ 
 revolutionary order. | 
 
 “All revolutionary Russia and the whole world have their eyes on 
 
 bP] | 
 you. ... ‘ y 5 ‘ 
 
 “The All-Russian Congress of Soviets decrees: 
 
 “To abolish capital punishment at the Front, which was reintroduced by 
 Kerensky. | 
 
 “Complete freedom of propaganda is to be re-established in the country. 
 All soldiers and revolutionary officers now under arrest for so-called polit- 
 ical ‘crimes’ are at once to be set free.” 
 
 * * * * 
 
 “The ex-Premier Kerensky, overthrown by the people, refuses to sub- 
 mit to the Congress of Soviets and attempts to struggle against the legal 
 Government elected by the All-Russian Congress—the Council of People’s 
 Commissars. The Front has refused to aid Kerensky. Moscow has rallied 
 to the new Government. In many cities (Minsk, Moghiley, Kharkov) the 
 power is in the hands of the Soviets. No infantry detachment consents 
 to march against the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, which, in accord 
 with the firm will of the Army and the people, has begun peace negotia- 
 tions and has given the land to the peasants.... | 
 
 “We give public warning that if the Cossacks do not halt Kerensky, 
 who has deceived them and is leading them against Petrograd, the revo- 
 lutionary forces will rise with all their might for the defence of the pre- 
 cious conquests of the Revolution—Peace and Land. 
 
 “Citizens of Petrograd! Kerensky fled from the city, abandoning the 
 authority to Kishkin, who wanted to surrender the capital to the Germans; 
 Rutenburg, of the Black Band, who sabotaged the Municipal Food Supply; 
 and Paltchinsky, hated by the whole democracy. Kerensky has fled, aban- 
 doning you to the Germans, to famine, to bloody massacres. The revolting 
 people have arrested Kerensky’s Ministers, and you have seen how the order 
 and supplying of Petrograd at once improved. Kerensky, at the demand 
 of the aristocrat proprietors, the capitalists, speculators, marches against 
 you for the purpose of giving back the land to the land-owners, and con- 
 tinuing the hated and ruinous war. = 
 
 “Citizens of Petrograd! We know that the great majority of you are 
 in favour of the people’s revolutionary authority, against the Kornilovtsi 
 led by Kerensky. Do not be deceived by the lying declarations of the . 
 impotent bourgeois conspirators, who will be pitilessly crushed. ei 
 
 2 ! 
 
 
 

 
 APPENDIX 345 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Workers, soldiers, peasants! We call upon you for revolutionary de-. 
 _votion and discipline. 
 
 “Millions of peasants and soldiers are with us. 
 
 “The victory of the people’s Revolution is assured!” 
 
 3. 
 ACTS OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS 
 
 _ In this book I am giving only such decrees as are in my opinion perti-- 
 -hent to the Bolshevik conquest of power. The rest belong to a detailed 
 account of the Structure of the Soviet State, for which I have no place: 
 in this work. This will be dealt with very fully in the second volume,. 
 now in preparation, “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” 
 i Concerning Dwelling-Places 
 1. The independent Municipal Self-Governments have the right to. 
 ' sequestrate ali unoccupied or uninhabited dwelling-places. 
 _ 2. The Municipalities may, according to laws and arrangements estab- 
 lished by them, install in all available lodgings citizens who have no place 
 _ to live, or who live in congested or unhealthy lodgings. 
 ___ 3. The Municipalities may establish a service of inspection of dwelling- 
 _ places, organise it and define its powers. 
 __ 4, The Municipalities may issue orders on the institution of House 
 eo define their organisation, their powers and give them juridical 
 _ authority. 
 | 5. The Municipalities may create Housing Tribunals, define their powers. 
 and their authority. 
 6. This decree is promulgated by telegraph. 
 4 People’s Commissar of the Interior, 
 
 A. I. Ryxov. 
 
 Seniee: 
 
 = 
 
 * * * * 
 
 DSS PRS aE ES 
 
 On Social Insurance 
 
 —*, 
 
 ae om, 
 
 The Russian proletariat has inscribed on its banners the promise of* 
 
 complete Social Insurance of wage-workers, as well as of the town and 
 village poor. The Government of the Tsar, the proprietors and the capi- 
 _talists, as well as the Government of coalition and conciliation, failed to 
 | realise the desires of the workers with regard to Social Insurance. 
 
 _ The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, relying upon the support of’ 
 ‘the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, announces to. 
 
 the working-class of Russia and to the town and village poor, that it will 
 ‘immediately prepare laws on Social Insurance based on the formulas pro- 
 
 _ posed by the Labour organisations: 
 
 - 1. Insurance for all wage-workers without exception, as well as for all 
 
 urban and rural poor. 
 
 "2. Insurance to cover all categories of loss of working capacity, such 
 
 as illness, infirmities, old age, childbirth, widowhood, orphanage, and un- 
 
 _ employment. 
 
 _ 8. All the costs of insurance to be charged to employers. 
 
 ie 4: Compensation of at least full wages in all loss of working capacity 
 
 ' and unemployment. 
 
 _ §. Complete workers’ self-government of all Insurance institutions. 
 
 In the name of the Government of the Russian Republic, 
 
 The People’s Commissar of Labour, 
 
 ALEXANDER SHLIAPNIKOV. 
 
 
 
 S ® * we 
 
‘xe ° 
 
 3.46 - APPENDIX 
 
 On Popular Education 
 Citizens of Russia! 
 
 With the insurrection of November 7th the working masses have won 
 
 for the first time the real power. 
 The All-Russian Congress of Soviets has temporarily transferred this 
 
 power both to its Executive Committee and to the Council of People’s — 
 
 Commissars. 
 
 By the will of the revolutionary people, I have been appointed People’s 
 Commissar of Education. 
 
 The work of guiding in general the people’s education, inasmuch as it 
 remains with the central government, is, until the Constituent Assembly 
 meets, entrusted to a Commission on the People’s Education, whose chair- 
 man and executive is the People’s Commissar. 
 
 Upon what fundamental propositions will rest this State Commission ? 
 How is its sphere of competence determined? 
 
 The General Line of Educational Activity: Every genuinely democratic 
 power must, in the domain of education, in a country where illiteracy and 
 ignorance reign supreme, make its first aim the struggle against this dark- 
 ness. It must acquire in the shortest time universal literacy, by organis- 
 ing a network of schools answering to the demands of modern pedagogics ; 
 it must introduce universal, obligatory and free tuition for all, and estab- 
 lish at the same time a series of such teachers’ institutes and seminaries 
 as will in the shortest time furnish a powerful army of people’s teachers 
 so necessary for the universal instruction of the population of our bound- 
 less Russia. 
 
 Decentralisation: The State Commission on People’s Education is by 
 no means a central power governing the institutions of instruction and 
 education. On the contrary, the entire school work ought to be transferred 
 to the organs of local self-government. The independent work of the 
 workers, soldiers and peasants, establishing on their own initiative cultural 
 educational organisations, must be given full autonomy, both by the State 
 centre and the Municipal centres. 
 
 The work of the State Commission serves as a link and helpmate to 
 organise resources of material and moral support to the Municipal and 
 private institutions, particularly to those with a class-character established 
 by the workers. 
 
 The State Committee on People’s Education: A whole series of in- 
 valuable law projects was elaborated from the beginning of the Revolu- 
 tion by the State Committee for People’s Education, a tolerably demo- 
 cratic body as to its composition, and rich in experts. The State Com- 
 mission sincerely desires the ‘collaboration of this Committee. 
 
 It has addressed itself to the bureau of the Committee, with the request 
 at once to convoke an extraordinary session of the Committee for the ful- 
 filment of the following programme: 
 
 1. The revision of rules of representation in the Committee, in the 
 sense of greater democratisation. 
 
 2, The revision of the Committee’s rights in the sense of widening 
 them, and of converting the Committee into a fundamental State institute 
 for the elaboration of law projects calculated to reorganise public in- 
 struction and education in Russia upon democratic principles. 
 
 3. The revision, jointly with the new State Commission, of the laws 
 already created by the Committee, a revision required by the fact that in 
 editing them the Committee had to take into account the bourgeois spirit 
 of previous Ministries, which obstructed it even in this its narrowed 
 form. 
 
 After this revision these laws will be put into effect without any bureau- 
 aratic red tape, in the revolutionary order. 
 
 
 

 
 APPENDIX BAT 
 
 The Pedagogues and the Societists: The State Commission welcomes 
 pedagogues to the bright and honourable work of educating the people 
 
 _ —the masters of the ccuntry. 
 
 _No one measure in the domain of the people’s education ought to be 
 
 i adopted by any power without the attentive deliberation of those who 
 
 represent the pedagogues. 
 
 On the other hand, a decision cannot by any means be reached exclu- 
 sively through the cooperation of specialists. This refers as well to re- 
 forms of the institutes of general education. 
 
 The cooperation of the pedagogues with the social forces—this is how 
 the Commission will work both in its own constitution, in the State Com- 
 mittee, and in all its activities. 
 
 As its first task the Commission considers the improvement of the 
 
 _ teachers’ status, and first of all of those very poor though almost most 
 
 _ important contributors to the work of culture—the elementary school 
 
 teachers. Their just demands ought to be satisfied at once and at any cost. 
 The proletariat of the schools has in vain demanded an increase of salary 
 
 _ to one hundred rubles per month. It would be a disgrace any longer to 
 
 keep in poverty the teachers of the overwhelming majority of the Russian 
 people. 
 But a real democracy cannot stop at mere literacy, at universal ele- 
 
 mentary instruction. It must endeavour to organise a uniform secular 
 
 school of several grades. The ideal is, equal and if possible higher edu- 
 cation for all the citizens. So long as this idea has not been realised for 
 
 all, the natural transition through all the schooling grades up to the uni- 
 
 versity—a transition to a higher stage—must depend entirely upon the 
 pupil’s aptitude, and not upon the resources of his family. 
 
 The problem of a genuinely democratic organisation of instruction is 
 particularly difficult in a country impoverished by a long, criminal, imperi- 
 
 -alistic war; but the workers who have taken the power must remember 
 
 that education will serve them as the greatest instrument in their struggle 
 for a better lot and for a spiritual growth. However needful it may be 
 to curtail other articles of the people’s budget, the expenses on education 
 must stand high. A large educational budget is the pride and glory of 
 a nation. The free and enfranchised peoples of Russia will not forget 
 
 this. 
 
 The fight against illiteracy and ignorance cannot be confined to a thor- 
 ough establishment of school education for children and youths. Adults, 
 
 - too, will be anxious to save themselves from the debasing position of a 
 
 man who cannot read and write. The school for adults must occupy a 
 conspicuous place in the general plan of popular instruction. 
 
 Instruction and Education: One must emphasise the difference between 
 instruction and education. 
 
 Instruction is the transmission of ready knowledge by the teacher to 
 his pupil. Education is a creative process. The personality of the indi- 
 vidual is being “educated” throughout life, is being formed, grows richer 
 in content, stronger and more perfect. 
 
 The toiling masses of the people—the workmen, the peasants, the sol- 
 diers—are thirsting for elementary and advanced instruction. But they 
 
 are also thirsting for education. Neither the government nor the intel- 
 _ lectuals nor any other power outside of themselves can give it to them. 
 - The school, the book, the theatre, the museum, etc., may here be only aids. 
 
 +A 
 
 They have their own ideas, formed by their social position, so different 
 _ from the position of those ruling classes and intellectuals who have hith- 
  erto created culture. They have their own ideas, their own emotions, their 
 
 own ways of approaching the problems of personality and society. The 
 
 _ city labourer, according to his own fashion, the rural toiler according to his, 
 
 % will each build his clear world-conception permeated with the class-idea 
 me, 
 
348 - APPENDIX 
 2 8 % || 
 of the workers. There is no more superb or beautiful phenomenon than 
 the one of which our nearest descendants will be both witnesses and par- — 
 ticipants: The building by collective Labour of its own general, rich and 
 free soul. 
 
 Instruction will surely be an important but not a decisive element. 
 What is more important here is the criticism, the creativeness of the 
 masses themselves; for science and art have only in some of their parts 
 a general human importance. They suffer radical changes with every 
 far-reaching class upheaval. . 
 
 Throughout Russia, particularly among the city labourers, but also among — 
 the peasants, a powerful wave of cultural educational movement has arisen; 
 workers’ and soldiers’ organisations of this. kind are multiplying rapidly. | 
 To meet them, to lend them support, to clear the road before them, is the 
 first task of a revolutionary and popular government in the domain of 
 democratic education. | 
 
 The Constituent Assembly will doubtless soon begin its work. It alone 
 ean permanently establish the order of national and social life in our 
 country, and at the same time the general character of the organisation 
 of popular education. 
 
 Now, however, with the passage of power to the Soviets, the really 
 democratic character of the Constituent Assembly is assured. The line 
 which the State Commission, relying upon the State Committee, will fol- 
 low, will hardly suffer any modification under the influence of the Con- 
 stituent Assembly. Without pre-determining it, the new People’s Gov- | 
 ernment considers itself within its rights in enacting in this domain a series 
 of measures which aim at enriching and enlightening as soon as possible 
 the spiritual life of the country. 
 
 The Ministry: The present work must in the interim proceed through © 
 the Ministry of the People’s Education. Of all the necessary alterations. 
 in its composition and construction the State Commission will have charge, 
 elected by the Executive Committee of the Soviets and the State Com- — 
 mittee. Of course the order of State authority in the domain of the peo- 
 ple’s education will be established by the Constituent Assembly. Until 
 then, the Ministry must play the part of the executive apparatus for both 
 the State Committee and the State Commission for People’s Education. 
 
 The pledge of the country’s safety lies in the cooperation of all its vital 
 and genuinely democratic forces. 
 
 We believe that the energetic effort of the working people and of the 
 honest enlightened intellectuals will lead the country out of its painful 
 crisis, and through complete democracy to the reign of Socialism and the 
 brotherhood of nations. 
 
 
 
 People’s Commissar on Education, 
 A. V. LuNACHARSKY. — 
 
 * * * * 
 
 On the Order in Which the Laws Are to be Ratified and Published. 
 
 1. Until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the enacting 
 and publishing of laws shall be carried out in the order decreed by the 
 present Provisional Workmen’s and_ Peasants’ Government, elected by the 
 All-Russian Congress of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. 
 
 2. Every bill is presented for consideration of the Government by 
 the respective Ministry, signed by the duly authorised People’s Commis- 
 sar; or it is presented by the legislative section attached to the Govern- 
 ment, signed by the chief of the section. y 
 
 3. After its ratification by the Government, the decree in its final edi- 
 tion, in the name of the Russian Republic, is signed by the president of 
 the Council of People’s Commissars, or for him by the People’s cman 
 
APPENDIX 349 
 
 
 
 who presented it for the consideration of the Government, and is then 
 _ published. 
 
 4 The date of publishing it in the official “Gazette of the Provisional 
 _ Workmen’s and Peasants’ Government,” is the date of its becoming law. 
 
 _ 5. In the decree there may be appointed a date, other than the date 
 of publication, on which it shall become law, or it may be promulgated. 
 by telegraph; in which case it is to be regarded in every locality as be- 
 coming law upon the publication of the telegram. 
 
 6. The promulgation of legislative acts of the government by the State 
 Senate is abolished. The Legislative Section attached to the Council of 
 People’s Commissars issues periodically a collection of regulations and 
 orders of the government which possess the force of law. 
 
 _ % The Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’, Peas- 
 _ ants’, and Soldiers’ Deputies (Tsay-ee-kah) has at all times the right to 
 cancel, alter or annul any of the Government decrees. 
 
 _ Im the name of the Russian Republic, the President of the Council of 
 _ People’s Commissars, 
 ne V. Utranov-Lenin. 
 
 4, 
 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 
 
 Order Issued by the Military Revolutonary Committee 
 
 1. Until further order the production of alcohol and alcoholic 
 _ drinks is prohibited. 
 ; 2. It is ordered to all producers of alcohol and alcoholic drinks to in-- 
 _ form not later than on the 27th inst. of the exact site of their stores. 
 3. All culprits against this order will be tried by a Military Revolu- 
 tionary Court. 
 Tue Mirirary RevoLurionary CoMMITTEE. 
 
 5. 
 
 ORDER NO. 2 
 
 From the Committee of the Finland Guard Reserve Regiment to all: 
 House Committees and to the citizens of Vasili Ostrov. 
 
 The bourgeoisie has chosen a very sinister method of fighting against 
 
 the proletariat; it has established in various parts of the city huge wine 
 
 depots, and distributes liquor among the soldiers, in this manner attempt- 
 ing to sow dissatisfaction in the ranks of the Revolutionary army. 
 
 It is herewith ordered to all house committees, that at 3 o’clock, the time: 
 set for posting this order, they shall in person and secretly notify the 
 President of the Committee of the Finland Guard Regiment, concerning 
 
 the amount of wine in their premises. 
 
 _ Those who violate this order will be arrested and given trial before a 
 merciless court, and their property will be confiscated, anu the stock of 
 wine discovered will be 
 
 BLOWN UP WITH DYNAMITE 
 ; 2 hours after this warning, 
 - because more lenient measures, as experience has shown, do not bring the: 
 _ desired results. 
 _ REMEMBER, THERE WILL BE NO OTHER WARNING BEFORE THE EXPLOSIONS. 
 " Regimental Committee of the Finland Guard Regiment. 
 
350 . APPENDIX 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IX 
 1, 
 
 MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE. BULLETIN No. 2 
 
 November 12th, in the evening, Kerensky sent a proposition to the revo- 
 lutionary troops—“to lay down their arms.” Kerensky’s men opened ar- 
 tillery fire. Our artillery answered and compelled the enemy to be silent. 
 The Cossacks assumed the offensive. 'The deadly fire of the sailors, the 
 Red Guards and the soldiers forced the Cossacks to retreat. Our ar- 
 moured cars rushed in among the ranks of the enemy. The enemy is 
 fleeing. Our troops are in pursuit. The order has been given to arrest 
 Kerensky. Tsarskoye Selo has been taken by the revolutionary troops. 
 
 The Lettish Riflemen: The Military Revolutionary Committee has re- 
 ceived precise information that the valiant Lettish Riflemen have arrived 
 from the Front and taken up a position in the rear of Kerensky’s bands. 
 
 From the Staff of the Military Revolutionary Committee 
 
 The seizure of Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo by Kerensky’s detachments 
 is to be explained by the complete absence of artillery and machine-guns 
 in these places, whereas Kerensky’s cavalry was provided with artillery 
 from the beginning. The last two days were days of enforced work for 
 our Staff, to provide the necessary quantity of guns, machine-guns, field 
 telephones, etc., for the revolutionary troops. When this work—with the 
 energetic assistance of the District Soviets and the factories (the Putilov 
 Works, Obukhov and others)—was accomplished, the issue of the ex- 
 pected encounter left no place for doubt: on the side of the revolutionary 
 troops there was not only a surplus in quantity and such a powerful 
 material base as Petrograd, but also an enormous moral advantage. All 
 the Petrograd regiments moved out to the positions with tremendous en- 
 thusiasm. The Garrison Conference elected a Control Commission of five 
 soldiers, thus securing a complete unity between the commander in chief 
 and the garrison. At the Garrison Conference it was unanimously decided 
 to begin decisive action. 
 
 The artillery fire on the 12th of November developed with extraordinary 
 force by 3 P.M. The Cossacks were completely demoralised. A parlia- 
 mentarian came from them to the staff of the detachment at Krasnoye Selo, 
 and proposed to stop the firing, threatening otherwise to take “decisive” 
 measures. He was answered that the firing would cease when Kerensky 
 laid down his arms. 
 
 In the developing encounter all sections of the troops—the sailors, 
 soldiers and the Red Guards—showed unlimited courage. ‘The sailors 
 continued to advance until they had fired all their cartridges. The num- 
 ber of casualties has not been established yet, but it is larger on the 
 part of the counter-revolutionary troops, who experienced great losses 
 through one of our armoured cars. ; 
 
 Kerensky’s staff, fearing that they would be surrounded, gave the order 
 to retreat, which retreat speedily assumed a disorderly character. By 
 11-12 P.M., Tsarskoye Selo, including the wireless station, was entirely 
 occupied by the troops of the Soviets. The Cossacks retreated towards 
 Gatchina and Colpinno. 
 
 The morale of the troops is beyond all praise. ‘The order has been 
 given to pursue the retreating Cossacks. From the Tsarskoye Selo sta- 
 tion a radio-telegram was sent immediately to the Front and to all local 
 Soviets throughout Russia. Further details will be communicated.... j 
 
 % 
 
 
 
APPENDIX 351 
 
 2, 
 EVENTS OF THE 13TH IN PETROGRAD 
 - Three regiments of the Petrograd garrison refused to take any part in 
 
 _ the battle against Kerensky. On the morning of the 13th they summoned 
 _ to a joint conference sixty delegates from the Front, in order to find some 
 _ way to stop the civil war. This conference appointed a committee to go 
 _ and persuade Kerensky’s troops to lay down their arms. They proposed 
 - to ask the Government soldiers the following questions: (1) Will the 
 _ soldiers and Cossacks of Kerensky recognise the Tsay-ee-kah as the re- 
 _ pository of Governmental power, responsible to the Congress of Soviets? 
 
 (2) Will the soldiers and Cossacks accept the decrees of the second Con- 
 gress of Soviets? (3) Will they accept the Land and Peace decrees? (4) 
 Will they agree to cease hostilities and return to their units? (5) Will 
 
 ‘ they consent to the arrest of Kerensky, Krasnov and Savinkov? 
 
 “At the meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, Zinoviev said, “It would be 
 foolish to think that this committee could finish the affair. The enemy 
 can only be broken by force. However, it would be a crime for us not 
 to try every peaceful means to bring the Cossacks over to us.... What 
 we need is a military victory. ... The news of an armistice is prema- 
 
 _ ture. Our Staff will be ready to conclude an armistice when the enemy 
 
 
 
 
 
 ean no longer do any harm... . 
 
 “At present, the influence of our victory is creating new political con- 
 ditions. ... To-day the Socialist Revolutionaries are inclined to admit 
 the Bolsheviki into the new Government. ... A decisive victory is indis- 
 pensable, so that those who hesitate will have no further hesitation. .. .” 
 
 At the City Duma all attention was concentrated on the formation of 
 the new Government. In many factories and barracks already Revolution- 
 ary Tribunals were operating, and the Bolsheviki were threatening to set 
 
 up more of these, and try Gotz and Avksentiev before them. Dan pro- 
 
 posed that an ultimatum be sent demanding the abolition of these Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunals, or the other members of the Conference would immedi- 
 
 ‘ately break off all negotiations with the Bolsheviki. 
 
 Shingariov, Cadet, declared that the Municipality ought not to take 
 
 part in any agreement with the Bolsheviki. . . . “Any agreement with the 
 maniacs is impossible until they lay down their arms and recognise the 
 authority of independent courts of law... .” 
 
 Yartsev, for the Yedinstvo group, declared that any agreement with 
 
 ‘the Bolsheviki would be equivalent to a Bolshevik victory. ... 
 
 Mayor Schreider, for the Socialist Revolutionaries, stated that he was 
 opposed to all agreement with the Bolsheviki... . “As for a Government, 
 that ought to spring from the popular will; and since the popular will 
 has been expressed in the municipal elections, the popular will which can 
 
 create a Government is actually concentrated in the Duma... .” 
 
 After other speakers, of which only the representative of the Mensheviki 
 Internationalists was in favour of considering the admission of the Bolshe- 
 viki into the new Government, the Duma voted to continue its representa- 
 tives in the Vikzhel’s conference, but to insist upon the restoration of the 
 Provisional Government before everything, and to exclude the Bolsheviki 
 from the new power.... 
 
 3. 
 TRUCE. KRASNOV’S ANSWER TO THE COMMITTEE FOR SALVATION 
 
 “In answer to your telegram proposing an immediate armistice, the 
 Supreme Commander, not wishing further futile bloodshed, consents to 
 enter into negotiations and to establish relations between the armies of 
 the Government and the insurrectionists. He proposes to the General Staff 
 
352 _ APPENDIX 
 ' 
 
 of the insurrectionists to recall its regiments to Petrograd, to declare the 
 line Ligovo-Pulkovo-Colpinno neutral, and to allow the advance-guards of — 
 the Government cavalry to enter Tsarskoye Selo, for the purpose of estab- 
 lishing order. The answer to this proposal must be placed in the hands of © 
 our envoys before eight o’clock to-morrow morning. : 
 Krasnov.” 
 
 4A. 
 EVENTS AT TSARSKOYE SELO 
 
 On the evening that Kerensky’s troops retreated from Tsarskoye Selo, 
 some priests organised a religious procession through the streets of the © 
 town, making speeches to the citizens in which they asked the people to ~ 
 support the rightful authority, the Provisional Government. When the 
 Cossacks had retreated, and the first Red Guards entered the town, wit- 
 nesses reported that the priests had incited the people against the Soviets, 
 and had said prayers at the grave of Rasputin, which lies behind the 
 Imperial Palace. One of the priests, Father Ivan Kutchuroyv, was ar- 
 rested and shot by the infuriated Red Guards. ... 
 
 Just as the Red Guards entered the town the electric lights were shut 
 off, plunging the streets in complete darkness. The director of the electric 
 light plant, Lubovitch, was arrested by the Soviet troops and asked why 
 he had shut off the lights. He was found some time later in the room 
 where he had been imprisoned with a revolver in his hand and a bullet- 
 hole in his temple. 
 
 The Petrograd anti-Bolshevik papers came out next day with head- 
 lines, “Plekhanov’s temperature 39 degrees!” Plekhanov lived at Tsarskoye 
 Selo, where he was lying ill in bed. Red Guards arrived at the house and 
 searched it for arms, questioning the old man. 
 
 “What class of society do you belong to?” they asked him. 
 
 “I am a revolutionist,’” answered Plekhanov, “who for forty years has 
 devoted his life to the struggle for liberty” 
 
 “Anyway,” said a workman, “you have now sold yourself to the bour- 
 geoisie!” 
 
 The workers no longer knew Plekhanov, pioneer of the Russian Social 
 Democracy ! 
 
 5. 
 APPEAL OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT 
 
 “The detachments at Gatchina, deceived by Kerensky, have laid down ~ 
 their arms and decided to arrest Kerensky. That chief of the counter- — 
 revolutionary campaign has fled. The Army, by an enormous majority, has — 
 pronounced in favour of the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, and 
 of the Government which it has created. Scores of delegates from the 
 Front have hastened to Petrograd to assure the Soviet Government of the 
 Army’s fidelity. No twisting of the facts, no calumny against the revo- 
 lutionary workers, soldiers, and _ peasants, has been able to defeat the 
 People. The Workers’ and Soldiers’ Revolution is victorious. .. . 
 
 “The Tsay-ee-kah appeals to the troops which march under the flag of 
 the counter-revolution, and invites them immediately to lay down their 
 arms—to shed no longer the blood of their brothers in the interests of a 
 handful of land-owners and capitalists. The Workers’, Soldiers’ and 
 Peasants’ Revolution curses those who remain even for a moment under 
 the flag of the People’s enemies... . . 
 
 “Cossacks! Come over to the rank of the victorious People! Railway- 
 men, postmen, telegraphers—all, all support the new Government of the 
 People!” - % 
 
 
 
ee... a 
 Se te 
 < L 
 
 
 
 APPENDIX 353 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X 
 t: 
 
 DAMAGE TO THE KREMLIN 
 
 I myself verified the damage to the Kremlin, which I visited immedi- 
 ately after the bombardment. The Little Nicolai Palace, a building of no 
 particular importance, which was occupied occasionally by receptions of 
 
 _ one of the Grand Duchesses, had served as barracks for the yunkers, It 
 
 was not only bombarded, but pretty well sacked; fortunately there was 
 nothing in it of particular historical value. 
 
 _ .Usspensky Cathedral had a shell-hole in one of the cupolas, but except 
 for a few feet of mosaic in the ceiling, was undamaged. The frescoes on 
 the porch of Blagovestchensky Cathedral were badly damaged by a shell. 
 Another shell hit the corner of Ivan Veliki. Tchudovsky Monastery was 
 hit about thirty times, but only one shell went through a window into the 
 interior, the others breaking the brick window-moulding and the roof- 
 cornices. 
 
 _ The clock over the Spasskaya Gate was smashed. Troitsky Gate was 
 battered, but easily reparable. One of the lower towers had lost its brick 
 spire. 
 
 _ The church of St. Basil was untouched, as was the great Imperial Pal- 
 ace, with all the treasures of Moscow and Petrograd in its cellar, and the 
 crown jewels in the Treasury. These places were not even entered. 
 
 2, 
 LUNATCHARSKY’S DECLARATION 
 
 “Comrades! You are the young masters of the country, and although 
 now you have much to do and think about, you must know how to defend 
 your artistic and scientific treasures. 
 
 “Comrades! That which is happening at Moscow is a horrible, irrep- 
 arable misfortune.... The People in its struggle for the power has 
 mutilated our glorious capital. 
 
 “It is particularly terrible in these days of violent struggle, of destruc- 
 
 _ tive warfare, to be Commissar of Public Education. Only the hope of the 
 
 victory of Socialism, the source of a new and superior culture, brings me 
 
 -- comfort. On me weighs the responsibility of protecting the artistic wealth 
 
 of the people. ... Not being able to remain at my post, where I had no 
 influence, I resigned. My comrades, the other Commissars, considered this 
 resignation inadmissible. I shall therefore remain at my post.... And 
 moreover, I understand that the damage done to the Kremlin is not as 
 serious as has been reported... . 
 
 “But I beg you, comrades, to give me your support. ... Preserve for 
 yourselves and your descendants the beauty of our land; be the guardians 
 of the property of the People. 
 
 “Soon, very soon, even the most ignorant, who have been held in igno- 
 
 - rance so long, will awake and understand what a source of joy, strength 
 
 and wisdom is art... .” 
 
B54 APPENDIX. 
 
 oe Nitta 
 
 8. 
 
 Shag ee 
 
 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE BOURGEOISIE 
 
 —_—s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ward).oi2 Family Name. 0045 2.22). e's Ss see House Committee 
 DN ete hoe A ; 
 Address. . . Christian Name........ Profession. .... Nossa ia yi aks Sa 
 pie Se 
 Sex Age Supriies on Hanp | 
 ; | Ready Miao mee . 
 Textiles Arshins Clovhen Pieces 
 Monthly Average For Underwear..|........ OvERCOATS: rant ae 
 Betty Ea Met Uae Winter ........]... att 
 Income | Expenditures For Suits). i. 2A eas Sarre . eee a 
 ap RO ees GILL Sos se ao eateries as bale ece 
 For Overcoats...|........ ; 
 Dresses and Suits]...... oe 
 Underwear .....|...... an 
 Shoes ... 2-2 chs eRe eeen 
 Monthly Rent Rubbers). Pe), Gaia 
 See HENTANEE 9 SPST AOAVISESDERNGIOMER PLGA? the we Ste PROPEM BIP EY 
 Apt. Room 
 
 
 
 I the undersigned declare that the data given above is true, and that I 
 have not received this card elsewhere. 
 SPPUALUIES ssid s s oelelwre ake OKs wee Meet : 
 (Signature of leaseholder) . 
 Moscow,,. .. ss « « coeistere na Wi 
 (Seal of the House Committee.) — 
 
 4. 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY FINANCIAL MEASURE 
 
 Order 
 
 In virtue of the powers vested in me by the Military Revolutionary Com- 
 mittee attached to the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, 
 I decree: 
 
 1. All banks with branches, the Central State Savings Bank with 
 branches, and the savings banks at the Post and Telegraph offices are to be 
 opened beginning November 22nd, from 11 A. M. to 1 P. M. until further 
 order. 
 
 2. On current accounts and on the books of the savings banks, pay- 
 ments will be made by the above mentioned institutions, of not more than 
 150 rubles for each depositor during the course of the next week. 
 
 3. Payments of amounts exceeding 150 rubles a week on current ac- 
 counts and savings banks books, also payments on other accounts of all 
 kinds will be allowed during the next three days—November 22nd, 23d, and 
 24th, only in the following cases: a) 
 
 
 
 a 3 
 - © 
 
APPENDIX 355 
 
 SSeS 
 
 _ (a) On the accounts of military organisations for the satisfaction of 
 their needs; 
 
 (b) For the payment of salaries of employees and the earnings of 
 workers according to the tables and lists certified by the Factory Com- 
 -mittees or Soviets of Employees, and attested by the signatures of the Com- 
 _missars, or the representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and 
 the district Military Revolutionary Committees. 
 
 4. Not more than 150 rubles are to be paid against drafts; the re- 
 -maining sums are to be entered on current account, payments on which are 
 _to be made in the order established by the present decree. 
 
 _. §. All other banking operations are prohibited during these three days. 
 
 6. The receipt of money on all accounts is allowed for any amount. 
 
 .%, The representatives of the Finance Council for the certification of 
 the authorisations indicated in clause 3 will hold their office in the build- 
 _ing of the Stock Exchange, Ilyinka Street, from 10 A. M. to 2 P. M. 
 . 8. The Banks and Savings Banks shall send the totals of daily cash 
 ' operations by 5 P. M. to the headquarters of the Soviet, Skobeliev Square, 
 _to the Military Revolutionary Committee, for the Finance Council. 
 
 9. All employees and managers of credit institutions of all kinds 
 who refuse to comply with this decree shall be responsible as enemies of 
 the Revolution and of the mass of the population, before the Revolutionary 
 - Tribunals. Their names shall be published for general information. 
 
 10. For the control of the operations of Branches of the Savings Banks 
 
 and Banks within the limits of this decree, the district Military Revolu- 
 tionary Committees shall elect three representatives and appoint their 
 place of business. 
 
 Fully-authorised Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee, 
 
 S. SHEVERDIN-MAKSIMENKO. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI 
 a; 
 LIMITATIONS OF THIS CHAPTER 
 
 This chapter extends over a period of two months, more or less. It 
 covers the time of negotiations with the Allies, the negotiations and armis- 
 tice with the Germans, and the beginning of the Peace negotiations at 
 Brest-Litovsk, as well as the period in which were laid the foundations of 
 the Soviet State. 
 
 However, it is no part of my purpose in this book to describe and in- 
 terpret these very important historical events, which require more space. 
 They are therefore reserved for another volume, ‘‘Korniloy to Brest- 
 Litovsk.” 
 
 In this chapter, then, I have confined myself to the Soviet Government’s 
 attempts to consolidate its political power at home, and sketched its suc- 
 cessive conquests of hostile domestic elements—which process was tempo- 
 rarily interrupted by the disastrous Peace of Brest-Litovsk. 
 
 2. 
 
 PREAMBLE—DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLES OF RUSSIA 
 
 | The October Revolution of the workers and peasants began under the 
 common banner of Emancipation. 
 The peasants are being emancipated from the power of the land- 
 
 _ owners, for there is no longer the landowner’s property right in the land— 
 ‘4 
 

 
 856 APPENDIX: 
 
 it has been abolished. The soldiers and sailors are being emancipated from 
 the power of autocratic generals, for generals will henceforth be elective 
 and subject to recall. The workingmen are being emancipated from the — 
 whims and arbitrary will of the capitalists, for henceforth there will be 
 established the control of the workers over mills and factories. Every-— 
 thing living and capable of life is being emancipated from the hateful 
 shackles. " 
 There remain only the peoples of Russia, who have suffered and are 
 suffering oppression and arbitrariness, and whose emancipation must im- 
 mediately be begun, whose liberation must be effected resolutely and 
 definitely. 
 During the period of Tsarism the peoples of Russia were systematically 
 incited against one another. The result of such a policy are known: mas- 4 
 sacres and pogroms on the one hand, slavery of peoples on the other. | 
 There can be and there must be no return to this disgraceful policy. 
 Henceforth the policy of a voluntary and honest union of the peoples of — 
 Russia must be substituted. Pa 
 In the period of imperialism, after the March revolution, when the 
 power was transferred into the hands of the Cadet bourgeoisie, the naked 
 policy of provocation gave way to one of cowardly distrust of the peoples — 
 of Russia, to a policy of fault-finding, of meaningless “freedom” and — 
 “equality” of peoples. The results of such a policy are known: the growth 
 of national enmity, the impairment of mutual confidence. ‘ 
 An end must be put to this unworthy policy of falsehood and distrust, 
 of fault-finding and provocation. Henceforth it must be replaced by an 
 open and honest policy leading to the complete mutual confidence of the peo- — 
 ples of Russia. Only as the result of such a trust can there be formed an 
 honest and lasting union of the peoples of Russia. Only as the result of 
 such a union can the workers and peasants of the peoples of Russia be 
 cemented into one revolutionary force able to resist all attempts on the 
 part of the imperialist-annexationist bourgeoisie. 
 
 ne 
 
 alegre ala a 
 eR Eee ON or een 
 
 3. 
 DECREES 
 
 On the Nationalisation of the Banks 
 
 In the interest of the regular organisation of the national economy, of 
 the thorough eradication of bank speculation and the complete emancipation — 
 of the workers, peasants, and the whole labouring population from the ex- — 
 ploitation of banking capital, and with a view to the establishment of a 
 single national bank of the Russian Republic which shall serve the real — 
 interests of the people and the poorer classes, the Central Executive Com-_ 
 mittee (Tsay-ee-kah) resolves: 
 
 1. The banking business is declared a state monopoly. | 
 
 2, All existing private joint-stock banks and banking offices are merged 
 in the State Bank. 
 
 3. The assets and liabilities of the liquidated establishments are 
 taken over by the State Bank. 
 
 4. The order of the merger of private banks in the State Bank is- 
 to be determined by a special decree. 
 
 5. The temporary administration of the affairs of the private banks is. 
 entrusted to the board of the State Bank. 
 
 6. The interests of the small depositors will be safeguarded. y 
 
 “% % % % ue) d 
 
 = 
 
APPENDIX 357 
 
 On the Equality of Rank of All Military Men | 
 In realisation of the wiil of the revolutionary people regarding the 
 
 ‘prompt and decisive abolition of all remnants of former inequality in the 
 
 Army, the Council of People’s Commissars decrees: 
 1. All ranks and grades in the Army, beginning with the rank of 
 
 Corporal and ending with the rank of General, are abolished. The Army 
 
 of the Russian Republic consists now of free and equal citizens, bearing 
 
 _the honourable title of Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army. 
 
 2. All privileges connected with the former ranks and grades, also all 
 
 _ outward marks of distinction, are abolished. 
 
 SEE 
 
 ‘3. All addressing by titles is abolished. . 
 4, All decorations, orders, and other marks of distinction are abolished. 
 5. With the abolition of the rank of officer, all separate officers’ or- 
 ganisations are abolished. 
 . Note.—Orderlies are left only for headquarters, chanceries, Committees 
 and other Army organisations. 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 Vu. Unranov (Lenin). 
 People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, 
 N. Kryienxo. 
 People’s Commissar for Military Affairs, 
 N. Popvoisxy. 
 Secretary of the Council, 
 
 N. Gorgvunov. 
 * x * ¥ 
 
 On the Elective Principle and the Organisation of Authority in the Army 
 1. The army serving the will of the toiling people is subject to its 
 
 _ supreme representative—the Council of People’s Commissars. 
 
 2. Full authority within the limits of military units and combinations 
 is vested in the respective Soldiers’ Committees and Soviets. 
 
 3. Those phases of the life and activity of the troops which are already 
 under the jurisdiction of the Committees are now formally placed in their 
 direct control. Over such branches of activity which the Committees cannot 
 assume, the control of the Soldiers’ Soviets is established. 
 
 _ 4, ‘The election of commanding Staff and officers is introduced. All 
 commanders up to the commanders of regiments, inclusive, are elected by 
 general suffrage of squads, platoons, companies, squadrons, batteries, 
 divisions (artillery, 2-3 batteries), and regiments. All commanders higher 
 than the commander of a regiment, and up to the Supreme Commander, 
 inclusive, are elected by congresses or conferences of Committees. 
 
 Note.—By the term “conference” must be understood a meeting of the 
 
 “respective Committees together with delegates of committees one degree lower 
 
 in rank. (Such as a “conference” of Regimental Committees with delegates 
 
 from Company Committees.—Author.) 
 
 5. The elected commanders above the rank of commander of regiment 
 must be confirmed by the nearest Supreme Committee. 
 
 Note. In the event of a refusal by a Supreme Committee to confirm an 
 
 elected commander, with a statement of reasons for such refusal, a commander 
 
 elected by the lower Committee a second time must be confirmed. 
 
 6. The commanders of Armies are elected by Army congresses. Com- 
 
 ‘manders of Fronts are e’ected by congresses of the respective Fronts. 
 
 7. To posts of a technical character, demanding special knowledge or 
 
 _ other practical preparation, namely: doctors, engineers, technicians, telegraph 
 
 D> 
 
* SC ae 
 
 358 _ APPENDIX 
 
 and wireless operators, aviators, automobilists, etc., only such persons as 
 possess the required special knowledge may be elected, by the Committees 
 of the units of the respective services. 
 8. Chiefs of Staff must be chosen from among persons with special 
 military training for that post. 
 9. ‘All other members of the Staff are appointed by the Chief of Staff, 
 and confirmed by the respective congresses. 
 
 Note.—All persons with special training must be listed in a special list. 
 
 10. The right is reserved to retire from the service all commanders 
 on active service who are not elected by the soldiers to any post, and who 
 consequently are ranked as privates. 
 
 11. All other functions beside those pertaining to the command, with 
 the exception of posts in the economic departments, are filled by appoint-— 
 ment of the respective elected commanders. 
 
 12. Detailed instructions regarding the elections of the commanding 
 Staff will be published separately. 
 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars. 
 
 Vi. Unranov (Lenny). 
 People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, 
 
 N. KryLenko. 
 People’s Commissar for Military Affairs, 
 
 N. Popvoisky. 
 Secretary of the Council, 
 
 N. Gorsunov. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 On the Abolition of Classes and Titles 
 
 1. All classes and class divisions, all class privileges and delimitations, 
 all class organisations and institutions and all civil ranks are abolished. 
 
 2. All classes of society (nobles, merchants, petty bourgeois, etc.), and 
 all titles (Prince, Count and others), and all denominations of civil rank 
 (Privy State Councillor, and others), are abolished, and there is established 
 the general denomination of Citizen of the Russian Republic. 
 
 3. The property and institutions of the classes of nobility are trans- 
 ferred to the corresponding autonomous Zemstvos. 
 
 4. The property of merchant and bourgeois organisations is transferred 
 immediately to the Municipal Self-Governments. 
 
 5. All class institutions of any sort, with their property, their rules of 
 procedure, and their archives, are transferred to the administration of the 
 Municipalities and Zemstvos. 
 
 6. All articles of existing laws applying to these matters are herewith 
 repealed. 
 
 7. ‘The present decree becomes effective on the day it is published and 
 applied by the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. 
 
 The present decree has been confirmed by the Tsay-ee-kah at the meet- 
 ing of November 23d, 1917, and signed by: 
 
 President of the Tsay-ee-kah, 
 SVERDLOV. 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 Vu. Untanov (Lenin). 
 Executive of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 V. Boncu-BrveEvitcu. 
 Secretary of the Council, 
 N. Gorsunov. 
 
 * * * 
 
Poe APPENDIX 359 
 
 & 
 <n 
 
 
 
 - On December 3d the Council of People’s Commissars resolved “to reduce 
 the salaries of functionaries and employees in all Government institutions 
 ‘ and establishments, general or special, without exception.” 
 
 ; To begin with, the Council fixed the salary of a People’s Commissar 
 at 500 rubles per month, with 100 rubles additional for each grown member 
 of the family incapable of work... . 
 
 | This was the highest salary paid to any Government official. . . . 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 Countess Panina was arrested and brought to trial before the first 
 | Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal. The trial is described in the chapter on 
 . “Revolutionary Justice” in my forthcoming volume, “Kornilov to Brest- 
 | Litovsk.” The prisoner was sentenced to “return the money, and then he 
 liberated to the public contempt.” In other words, she was set free! 
 
 i 
 { 
 
 5. 
 RIDICULE OF THE NEW REGIME 
 
 ' From Drug Naroda (Menshevik), November 18th: 
 “The story of the ‘immediate peace’ of the Bolsheviki reminds us of a 
 _ joyous moving-picture film. . . . Neratov runs—Trotzky pursues; Neratov 
 . climbs a wall, 'Trotzky too; Neratov dives into the water—Trotzky follows; 
 ' Neratov climbs onto the roof—Trotzky right behind him; Neratov hides 
 _ under the bed—and Trotzky has him! He has him! Naturally, peace is im- 
 _ mediately signed.... 
 . ‘All is empty and silent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The 
 couriers are respectful, but their faces wear a caustic expression. ... 
 “How about arresting an ambassador and signing an armistice or a 
 Peace Treaty with him? But they are strange folk, these ambassadors. 
 They keep silent just as if they had heard nothing. Hola, hola, Eng- 
 land, France, Germany! We have signed an armistice with you! Is it 
 possible that you know nothing about it? Nevertheless, it has been pub- 
 lished in all the papers and posted on all the walls. On a Bolshevik’s word 
 of honour, Peace has been signed. We’re not asking much of you; you just 
 have to write two words... . 
 “The ambassadors remain silent. The Powers remain silent. All is 
 empty and silent in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 “‘Tisten” says Robespierre-Trotzky to his assistant Marat-Uritzky, ‘run 
 over to the British Ambassador’s, tell him we’re proposing peace! 
 “‘Go yourself,” says Marat-Uritzky. ‘He’s not receiving’ 
 “Telephone him, then.’ 
 “‘T’ve tried. The receiver’s off the hook.’ 
 “Send him a telegram.’ 
 *“Lalid,” 
 Well, with what result? 
 “Marat-Uritzky sighs and does not answer. Robespierre-Trotzky spits 
 furiously into the corner... . 
 “‘Tisten, Marat” recommences Trotzky, after a moment. ‘We must 
 absolutely show that we’re conducting an active foreign policy. How can 
 _we do that?’ 
 “<Taunch another decree about arresting Neratov,’ answers Uritzky, 
 _with a profound air. 
 i “ ‘Marat, you’re a blockhead!’ cries Trotzky. All of a sudden he arises, 
 _ terrible and majestic, looking at this moment like Robespierre. 
 “Write, Uritzky? he says with severity. ‘Write a letter to the British 
 _ ambassador, a registered letter with receipt demanded. Write! I also will 
 write! The peoples of the world await an immediate peace? 
 
 ' 
 i 
 j 
 
360 APPENDIX ; 
 7 
 
 ve 
 
 “In the enormous and empty Ministry of Foreign Affairs are to be 4 
 heard only the sound of two typewriters. With his own hands Trotzky is — 
 conducting an active foreign policy... .” 
 
 6. 
 ON THE QUESTION OF AN AGREEMENT 
 
 To the Attention of All Workers and All Soldiers. . 
 
 November 11th, in the club of the Preobrazhensky Regim ut, was held © 
 an extraordinary meeting of representatives of all the units of the Petro- 
 grad garrison. 
 
 The meeting was called upon the initiative of the Preobrazhensky and 
 Semionovsky Regiments, for the discussion of the question as to which © 
 Socialist parties are for the power of the Soviets, which are against, 
 which are for the people, which against, and if an agreement between them 
 is possible. 
 
 The representatives of the T'say-ee-kah, of the Municipal Duma, of the 
 Avksentiev Peasants’ Soviets, and of all the political parties from the 
 Bolsheviki to the Populist Socialists, were invited to the meeting. 
 
 After long deliberation, having heard the declarations of all parties and 
 organisations, the meeting by a tremendous majority of votes agreed that 
 only the Bolsheviki and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries are for the peo- 
 ple, and that all the other parties are only attempting, under cover of 
 seeking an agreement, to deprive the people of the conquests won in the 
 days of the great Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolution of November. 
 
 Here is the text of the resolution carried at this meeting of the Petro- 
 grad garrison, by 61 votes against 11, and 12 not voting: 
 
 “The garrison conference, summoned at the initiative of the Semion- 
 ovsky and Preobrazhensky Regiments, on hearing the representatives of all 
 the Socialist parties and popular organisations on the question of an ~ 
 agreement between the different political parties finds that: 
 
 “1. The representatives of the Tsay-ee-kah, the representatives of the 
 Bolshevik party and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, declared definitely 
 that they stand for a Government of the Soviets, for the decrees on Land, 
 Peace and Workers’ Control of Industry, and that upon this platform they 
 are willing to agree with all the Socialist parties. 
 
 “2. At the same time the representatives of the other parties (Men- 
 sheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries) either gave no answer at all, or de- 
 clared simply that they were opposed to the power of the Soviets and 
 against the decrees on Land, Peace and Workers’ Control. 
 
 “In view of this the meeting resolves: ; 
 
 ““*]. To express severe censure of all parties which, under cover of an 
 agreement, wish practically to annul the popular conquests of the Revolu- 
 tion of November, 
 
 “2. To express full confidence in the Tsay-ee-kah and the Council of 
 People’s Commissars, and to promise them complete support.’ 
 
 “At the same time the meeting deems it necessary that the comrades 
 Left Socialist Revolutionaries should enter the People’s Government.” 
 
 7 
 WINE “POGROMS” 
 
 It was afterward discovered that there was a regular organisation, 
 maintained by the Cadets, for provoking rioting among the soldiers. There 
 would be telephone messages to the different barracks, announcing that wine 
 was being given away at such and such an address, and when the soldiers 
 
 arrived at the spot an individual would point out the location of the 
 cellar, ... 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 APPENDIX 861 
 
 The Council of People’s Commissars appointed a Commissar for the 
 Fight Against Drunkenness, who, besides mercilessly putting down the 
 ' wine riots, destroyed hundreds of thousands of bottles of liquor. The 
 _ Winter Palace cellars, containing rare vintages valued at more than five 
 - million dollars, were at first flooded, and then the liquor was removed to 
 _ Cronstadt and destroyed. 
 
 __In this work the Cronstadt sailors, “flower and pride of the revolutionary 
 forces,” as Trotzky called them, acquitted themselves with iron self- 
 discipline. . . «: 
 
 8. 
 
 SPECULATORS 
 
 Two orders concerning them: 
 | Council of People’s Commissars 
 To the Military Revolutionary Committee 
 
 The disorganisation of the food supply created by the war, and the lack 
 of system, is becoming to the last degree acute, thanks to the speculators, 
 - marauders and their followers on the railways, in the steamship offices, for- 
 . warding offices, etc. 
 
 Taking advantage of the nation’s greatest misfortunes, these criminal 
 spoliators are playing with the health and life of millions of soldiers and 
 workers, for their own benefit. 
 
 Such a situation cannot be borne a single day longer. 
 
 The Council of People’s Commissars proposes to the Military Revo- 
 lutionary Committee to take the most decisive measures towards the up- 
 rooting of speculation, sabotage, hiding of supplies, fraudulent detention 
 of cargoes, etc. 
 
 All persons guilty of such actions shall be subject, by special orders 
 of the Military Revolutionary Committee, to immediate arrest and confine- 
 ment in the prisons of Cronstadt, pending their arraignment before the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal. 
 
 All the popular organisations are invited to cooperate in the struggle 
 against the spoliators of food supplies. 
 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissaries. 
 V. Unianov (LEntn). 
 
 Accepted for execution, 
 
 Military Revolutionary Committee attached to the 
 C. EB. C. of the Soviets of W. & S. Deputies. 
 Petrograd, Nov. 23d, 1917. 
 
 * * * = 
 
 To All Honest Citizens 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee Decrees: 
 
 Spoliators, marauders, speculators, are declared to be enemies of the 
 People. ... 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee proposes to all public organi- 
 sations, to all honest citizens: to inform the Military Revolutionary Com- 
 mittee immediately of all cases of spoliation, marauding, speculation, which 
 become known to them. 
 
 The struggle against this evil is the business of all honest people. 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee expects the support of all to 
 whom the interests of the People are dear. 
 
362 APPENDIX q 
 
 The Military Revolutionary Committee will be merciless in pursuit of 
 speculators and marauders. 
 
 aa 
 = 
 
 Tye Mitrrary Revo.tutionary CoMMITTEE. 
 Petrograd, Dec. 2d, 1917. 
 
 “ 
 oe 
 
 9. 
 PURISHKEVITCH’S LETTER TO KALEDIN 
 
 “The situation at Petrograd is desperate. The city is cut off from the _ 
 outside world and is entirely in the power of the Bolsheviki. . . . People — 
 are arrested in the streets, thrown into the Neva, drowned and imprisoned 
 without any charge. Even Burtzev is shut up in Peter-Paul fortress, 
 under strict guard. 
 
 “The organisation at whose head I am is working without rest to unite — 
 all the officers and what is left of the yunker schools, and to arm them. 
 The situation cannot be saved except by creating regiments of officers and | 
 yunkers. Attacking with these regiments, and having gained a first success, 
 we could later gain the aid of the garrison troops; but without that first 
 success it is impossible to count on a single soldier, because thousands of — 
 them are divided and terrorised by the scum which exists in every regiment. 
 Most of the Cossacks are tainted by Bolshevik propaganda, thanks to the 
 strange policy of General Dutoy, who allowed to pass the moment when by 
 decisive action something could have been obtained. The policy of negotia- 
 tions and concessions has borne its fruits: all that is respectable is perse- 
 cuted, and it is the plebe and the criminals who dominate—and nothing can 
 be done except by shooting and hanging them. 
 
 “We are awaiting you here, General, and at the moment of your arrival, 
 we shall advance with all the forces at our disposal. But for that we must 
 establish some communication with you, and before all, clear up the fol- 
 lowing points: 
 
 “(1) Do you know that in your name all officers who could take part in 
 the fight are being invited to leave Petrograd on the pretext of joining you? 
 
 *“(2) About when can we count on your arrival at Petrograd? We 
 should like to know in order to coordinate our actions. 
 
 “In spite of the criminal inaction of the conscious people here, which - 
 allowed the yoke of Bolshevism to be laid upon us—in spite of the extra- 
 ordinary pig-headedness of the majority of officers, so difficult to organise— — 
 we believe in spite of all that Truth is on our side, and that we shall con- 
 quer the vicious and criminal forces who say that they are acting for 
 motives of love of country and in order to save it. Whatever comes, we 
 shall not permit ourselves to be struck down, and shall remain firm until 
 the end.” ‘ 
 
 Purishkevitch, being brought to trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal, — 
 was given a short prison term... . 
 
 ANT GRIT AE 5 Lie I min 
 
 10. 
 DECREE ON THE MONOPOLY OF ADVERTISEMENTS 
 
 1. The printing of advertisements, in newspapers, books, bill-boards, 
 kiosks, in offices and other establishments is declared to be a State 
 monopoly. 
 
 2. Advertisements may only be published in the organs of the Pro- 
 visional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government at Petrograd, and in the organs 
 of local Soviets. 
 
 3. The proprietors of newspapers and advertising offices, as well as- 
 all employees of such establishments, should remain at their posts until the — 
 transfer of the advertisement business to the Government... superin- — 
 tending the uninterrupted continuation of their houses, and turning over to 
 
APPENDIX 363 
 
 the Soviets all private advertising and the sums received therefor, as well 
 as all accounts and copy. 
 | 4. All managers of publications and businesses dealing with paid 
 advertising, as well as their employees and workers, shall agree to hold 
 a City Congress, and to join, first the City Trade Unions, and then the 
 _ All-Russian Unions, to organise more thoroughly and justly the adver- 
 _tising business in the Soviet publications, as well as to prepare better 
 _ rules for the public utility of advertising. 
 8. All persons found guilty of having concealed documents or money, 
 _or having sabotaged the regulations indicated in paragraphs 3 and 4, will 
 _ be punished by a sentence of not more than three years’ imprisonment, and 
 all their property will be confiscated. 
 | 6. The paid insertion of advertisements . . . in private publications, 
 or under a masqued form, will also be severely penalised. 
 | %. Advertising offices are confiscated by the Government, the owners 
 being entitled to compensation in cases of necessity. Small proprietors, 
 _ depositors and stock-holders of the confiscated establishments will be reim- 
 ' bursed for all moneys held by them in the concern. 
 8. All buildings, officers, counters, and in general every establishment 
 ' doing a business in advertising, should immediately inform the Soviet of 
 - Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies of its address, and proceed to the transfer 
 _ of its business, under penalty of the punishment indicated in paragraph 6. 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 Vi. Unranov (Lenry). 
 People’s Commissar for Public Instruction, 
 A. V. LunatcHaRsKY. 
 Secretary of the Council, 
 N. Gorsunov. 
 
 11. 
 OBLIGATORY ORDINANCE 
 
 1. The city of Petrograd is declared to be in a state of siege. 
 
 2, All assemblies, meetings and congregations on the streets and squares 
 are prohibited. 
 
 3. Attempts to loot wine-cellars, warehouses, factories, stores, business 
 premises, private dwellings, etc., etc., will be stopped by machine-gun fire 
 without warning. 
 
 4. House Committees, doormen, janitors and Militiamen are charged 
 with the duty of keeping strict order in all houses, courtyards and in the 
 streets, and house-doors and carriage-entrances must be locked at 9 o’clock 
 in the evening, and opened at 7 o’clock in the morning. After 9 o’clock in 
 the evening only tenants may leave the house, under strict control of the 
 House Committees. 
 
 5. Those guilty of the distribution, sale or purchase of any kind of 
 alcoholic liquor, and also those guilty of the violation of sections 2 and 4, 
 will be immediately arrested and subjected to the most severe punishment. 
 
 Petrograd, 6th of December, 3 o’clock in the night. 
 
 Committee to Fight Against Pogroms, attached to the Executive 
 Committee of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. 
 
 12. 
 
 TWO PROCLAMATIONS 
 
 Lenin, To the People of Russia: 
 
 “Comrades workers, soldiers, peasants—all toilers! 
 
 “The Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolution has won at Petrograd, at 
 Moscow. . . . From the Front and the villages arrive every day, every 
 
364 APPENDIX , 4 
 
 
 
 hour, greetings to the new Government. . . . The victory of the Revolu- | 
 tion . . . is assured, seeing that it is sustained by the majority of the 
 people. at 
 
 “It is entirely understandable that the proprietors and the capitalists, _ . 
 the employees and functionaries closely allied with the bourgeoisie—in a 
 word, all the rich and all those who join hands with them—regard the new 
 Revolution with hostility, oppose its success, threaten to halt the activity of 
 the banks, and sabotage or obstruct the work of other establishments. . . . 
 Every conscious worker understands perfectly that we cannot avoid this’ 
 hostility, because the high officials have set themselves against the People and 
 do not wish to abandon their posts without resistance. But the working- — 
 classes are not for one moment afraid of that resistance. The majority of — 
 the people are for us. For us are the majority of the workers and the 
 oppressed of the whole world. We have justice on our side. Our ultimate 
 victory is certain. . yi 
 
 “The resistance of the capitalists and high officials will be broken. No- 
 one will be deprived of his property without a special law on the nationali- _ 
 sation of banks and financial syndicates. This law is in preparation. Not — 
 a worker will lose a single kopek; on the contrary, he will be assisted. _ 
 Without at this moment establishing the new taxes, the new Government — 
 considers one of its primary duties to make a severe accounting and control — 
 on the reception of taxes decreed by the former régime... . 
 
 “Comrades workers! Remember that you yourselves direct the Gov- 
 ernment. No one will help you unless you organise yourselves and take — 
 into your own hands the affairs of the State. Your Soviets are now the — 
 organs of governmental power... . Strengthen them, establish a severe 
 revolutionary control, pitilessly crush the attempts at anarchy on the part of 
 drunkards, brigands, counter-revolutionary yunkers and Kornilovists. 
 
 “Establish a strict control over production and the accounting for prod- 
 ucts. Arrest and turn over to the Revolutionary Tribunal of the People 
 every one who injures the property of the People, by sabotage in produc- 
 tion, by concealment of grain-reserves, reserves of other products, by — 
 retarding the shipments of grain, by bringing confusion into the railroads, — 
 the posts and the telegraphs, or in general opposing the great work of 
 bringing Peace and transferring the Land to the peasants. .. . 
 
 ‘Comrades workers, soldiers, peasants—all toilers! 
 
 “Take immediately all local power into your hands. . . . Little by 
 little, with the consent of the majority of peasants, we shall march firmly 
 and unhesitatingly toward the victory of Socialism, which will fortify the 
 advance-guards of the working-class of the most civilised esuntries, and — 
 give to the peoples an enduring peace, and free them from every slavery — 
 and every exploitation.” ; 
 
 OR eth a 
 
 ts eet 
 
 
 
 13. 
 
 “To All Workers of Petrograd! 
 
 “Comrades! The Revolution is winning—the revolution has won. All 
 the power has passed over to our Soviets. The first weeks are the most 
 difficult ones. The broken reaction must be finally crushed, a full triumph 
 must be secured to our endeavours. The working-class ought to—must— — 
 show in these days THE GREATEST FIRMNESS AND ENDURANCE, in order to 
 facilitate the execution of all the aims of the new People’s Government of 
 Soviets. In the next few days decrees on the Labour question will be issued, 
 and among the very first will be the decree on Workers’ Control over the 
 production and regulation of Industry. 
 
 “STRIKES AND DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE WORKER MASSES IN PETROGRAD 
 NOW CAN ONLY DO HARM. . 
 
 “We ask you to cease immediately all economic and poiitical strikes, to 
 
APPENDIX. | 365, 
 
 - take up your work, and do it in perfect order. The work in the factories: 
 
 and all the industries is necessary for the new Government of Soviets. 
 because any interruption of this work will only create new difficulties for- 
 
 us, and we have enough as it is. All to your places. 
 
 “The best way to support the new Government of Soviets in these: 
 
 ; days—is by doing your job. 
 
 “lLoNG LIVE THE IRON FIRMNESS OF THE PROLETARIAT! LOoNG LIVE THE 
 
 REVOLUTION !” 
 
 Petrograd Soviet of W. & 8S. D. 
 Petrograd Council of Trade Unions. 
 Petrograd Council of Factory-Shop Committees. 
 
 14, 
 APPEALS AND COUNTER-APPEALS 
 
 From the Employees of the State and priwate Banks 
 To the Population of Petrograd: 
 
 *Comrades workers, soldiers and citizens! 
 “The Military Revolutionary Committee in an ‘extraordinary notice’ is 
 accusing the workers of the State and private banking and other institutions 
 
 of ‘impeding the work of the Government, directed towards the ensuring of 
 
 the Front with provisions.’ 
 
 “Comrades and citizens, do not believe this calumny, brought against 
 us, who are part of the general army of labour. 
 
 “However difficult it be for us to work under the constant threat of 
 interference by acts of violence in our hard-working life, however de- 
 pressing it be to know that our Country and the Revolution are on the 
 verge of ruin, we, nevertheless, all of us, from the highest to the lowest, 
 employees, artelshtchiki, counters, labourers, couriers, etc., are continuing to 
 fulfil our duties which are connected with the ensuring of provisions and 
 
 - munitions to the Front and country. 
 
 “Counting upon your lack of information, comrades workers and soldiers, 
 in questions of finance and banking, you are being incited against workers 
 like yourselves, because it is desirable to divert the responsibility for the 
 starving and dying brother-soldiers at the Front from the guilty persons 
 to the innocent workers who are accomplishing their duty under the burden 
 of general poverty and disorganisation. 
 
 -“RemempBer, WorKeERS AND Soxupiers! THE EMPLOYEES HAVE ALWAYS 
 STOOD UP FOR AND WILL ALWAYS STAND UP FOR THE INTERESTS OF THE TOILING 
 
 PEOPLE, PART OF WHICH THEY ARE THEMSELVES, AND NOT A SINGLE KOPEK NEC- 
 
 ESSARY FOR THE FroNT AND THE WORKERS HAS EVER BEEN DETAINED AND WILL 
 NOT BE DETAINED BY THE EMPLOYEES. 
 
 “From November 6th to November 23d, i.e., during 17 days, 500 million 
 rubles were dispatched to the Front, and 120 millions to Moscow, besides 
 the sums sent to other towns. 
 
 “Keeping guard over the wealth of the people, the master of which 
 can be only the Constituent Assembly, representing the whole nation, the 
 employees refuse to give out money for purposes which are unknown to 
 them. 
 
 “Do NoT BELIEVE THE CALUMNIATORS CALLING YOU TO TAKE THE LAW INTO 
 YOUR OWN HANDS!” 
 
 Central Board of the All-Russian Union of Employees 
 of the State Bank. 
 
 Central Board of the All-Russian Trade Union of Employees 
 of Credit Institutions. 
 
 * * * * 
 
366 APPENDIX 
 
 To the Population of Petrograd. 
 
 “Cyrizens: Do not believe the falsehood which irresponsible people are 
 
 trying to suggest to you by spreading terrible calumnies against the em- ~ 
 
 ployees of the Ministry of Supplies and the workers in other Supply 
 
 organisations who are labouring in these dark days for the salvation of — 
 
 Russia. Citizens! In posted placards you are called upon to lynch us, we 
 
 are accused falsely of sabotage and strikes, we are blamed for all the woes — 
 and misfortunes that the people are suffering, although we have been striv- . 
 ing indefatigably and uninterruptedly, and are still striving, to save the © 
 
 Russian people from the horrors of starvation. Notwithstanding all that 
 
 we are bearing as citizens of unhappy Russia, we have not for one hour — 
 
 abandoned our heavy and responsible work of supplying the Army and 
 population with provisions. 
 
 “The image of the Army, cold and hungry, saving our very existence 
 
 by its blood and its tortures, does not leave us for a single moment. 
 
 “Citizens! If we have survived the blackest days in the life and history 
 of our people, if we have succeeded in preventing famine in Petrograd, © 
 if we have managed to procure to the suffering army bread and forage by © 
 means of enormous, almost superhuman, efforts, it is because we have — 
 
 honestly continued and are still continuing to do our work... . 
 
 “To the ‘last warning’ of the usurpers of the power we reply: It is not 
 for you who are leading the country to ruin to threaten us who are doing 
 ali we can not to allow the country to perish. We are not afraid of threats; 
 
 before us stands the sacred image of tortured Russia. We will continue 
 
 our work of supplying the Army and the people with bread to our last 
 
 efforts, so long as you will not prevent us from accomplishing our duty 1 
 to our country. In the contrary case the Army and the people will stand ~ 
 
 before the horrors of famine, but the responsibility therefor belongs to 
 the perpetrators of violence. 
 Executive Committee of the Employees of the 
 Ministry of Supplies. . 
 
 * * * * 
 
 To the Tchinovniki (Government Officials). 
 
 It is notified hereby, that all officials and persons who have quitted © 
 
 the service in Government and public institutions or have been dismissed 
 for sabotage or for having failed to report for work on the day fixed, 
 and who have nevertheless received their salary paid in advance for the 
 
 time they have not served, are bound to return such salary not later than on . 
 
 November 27th, 1917, to those institutions where they were in service. 
 In the event of this not being done, these persons will be rendered 
 
 answerable for stealing the Treasury’s property and tried by the Military iT 
 
 Revolutionary Court. 
 The Military-Revolutionary Committee. 
 December 7th, 1917. 
 
 * * * 
 
 From the Special Board for the Supplies 
 
 CrT1zENS 
 
 “The conditions of our work for the supplying of Petrograd are 
 getting more and more difficult every day. 
 
 “The interference with our work—which is so ruinous to our business— | 
 of the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee is still con- — 
 
 tinuing. 
 “Trem Arsrrrary Acts, their annulling of our orders, May Lean To a 
 CATASTROPHE. 
 
 5 
 
 te 
 
 
 
 2 
 % 
 4% 
 

 
 
 
 APPENDIX | gen 
 
 “Seals have been affixed to one of the cold storages where the meat and 
 _ butter destined for the population are kept, and we cannot regulate the 
 temperature so THAT THE PRODUCTS WOULD NOT BE SPOILT. 
 
 | “Qne carload of potatoes and one carload of cabbages have been seized 
 and carried away no one knows where to. 
 
 “Cargoes which are not liable to requisition (khalva) are requisitioned 
 by the Commissars and, as was the case one day, five boxes of khalva were 
 seized by the Commissar for his own use. 
 | “Wr ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO DISPOSE OF OUR sTorAGES, Where the self- 
 appointed Commissars do not allow the cargoes to be taken out, and ter- 
  rorise our employees, threatening them with arrest. 
 
 “Ayy, THAT IS GOING ON IN PETROGRAD IS KNOWN IN THE PROVINCES, AND 
 _FRoM THE Don, FRroM SIBERIA, FROM VoRONEZH AND OTHER PLACES PEOPLE 
 ARE REFUSING TO SEND FLOUR AND BREAD. 
 
 “TiIs CANNOT GO ON MUCH LONGER. 
 
 “The work is simply falling out of our hands. 
 
 “Our purty is to let the population know of this. 
 
 ' “To the last possibility we will remain on guard of the interests of 
 _ the population. 
 
 | “Wr WILL DO EVERYTHING TO AVOID THE ONCOMING FAMINE, BUT IF UNDER 
 | PHESE DIFFICULT CONDITIONS OUR WORK IS COMPELLED TO STOP, LET THE PEOPLE 
 | KNOW THAT IT IS NOT OUR FAULT... .” 
 
 * * * * 
 
 15. 
 
 ELECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY IN PETROGRAD 
 
 | There were nineteen tickets in Petrograd. The results are as follows, 
 published November 30th: 
 
 ; Party Vote 
 Populist Socialists... .....ese eee eeeeereeeceees pose YS 
 PE, eg sale ainieic o edhe cheleitind apiece sessed eos 245,006 
 Christian Democrats.........ceeceeeeererereereee 3,707 
 vc ohh dicis wlan bie wlela uvloasic nse seeeens 424,027 
 Socialist Universalists. .......-2-eeseeceeeeeteretee 158 
 S. D. and S. R. Ukrainean and Jewish Workers.....-. 4,219 
 League of Women’s Rights.......-.-.--++seeereeee 5,310 
 Socialist Revolutionaries (oborontst)......++++++++++5 4,696 
 Left Socialist Revolutionaries.......--.--+seeeeeeees 152,230 
 League of the People’s Development......--+-+++++> 385 
 Radical Democrats. ....... cece e eee e ree teeereeee 413 
 Orthodox Parishes. .........--2--ceeeer ec rerereee? 24,139 
 Feminine League for Salvation of Country........--- 318 
 Independent League of Workers, Soldiers, Peasants... 4,942 
 Christian Democrats (Catholic). .....----+++eeerees 14,382 
 Unified Social Democrats. .......-0e eee ee er eerteee 11,740 
 TE iio cc sears aciess siapar seuss esis es 17,427 
 Vedinstvo group........-eeccescccecccsecssserccee® 1,823 
 League of Cossack Troops. ...-.-sseeeeereerreeeces 6,712 
 
 16. 
 
 FROM THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS TO THE TOILING COssACKS 
 
 “Brothers-Cossacks. 
 
 “You are being deceived. You are being incited against the People. 
 You are told that the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Depu- 
 ties are your enemies, that they want to take away your Cossack land, your 
 Cossack ‘liberty’ Don’t believe it, Cossacks... - Your own Generals and 
 landowners are deceiving you, in order to keep you in darkness and slavery. 
 
368 nee APPENDIX | j 
 
 We, the Council of People’s Commissars, address ourselves to you, Cossacks 
 with these words. Read them attentively and judge yourselves which is th 
 truth and which is cruel deceit. The life and service of a Cossack were 
 always bondage and penal servitude. At the first call of the authorities a 
 Cossack always had to saddle his horse and ride out on campaign. All his 
 military equipment a Cossack had to provide with his own hardly earned 
 means. A Cossack is on service, his farm is going to rack and ruin. Is 
 such a condition fair? No, it must be altered for ever. Tue Cossacks 
 MUST BE FREED FROM BONDAGE. ‘The new People’s Soviet power is willing 
 to come to the assistance of the toiling Cossacks. It is only necessary that 
 the Cossacks themselves should resolve to abolish the old order, that they 
 should refuse submission to their slave-driver officers, land-owners, rich 
 men, that they should throw off the cursed yoke from their necks. Arise, © 
 Cossacks! Unite! The Council of People’s Commissars calls upon you to. \ 
 enter a new, fresh, more happy life. i 
 “In November and December in Petrograd there were All-Russian Con- iT 
 gresses of Soviets of Soldiers’, Workers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. These — 
 Congresses transferred all the authority in the different localities into the i 
 hands of the Soviets, ie., into the hands of men elected by the People. 
 From now on there must be in Russia no rulers or functionaries who 
 command the People from above and drive them. The People create the 
 authority themselves. A General has no more rights than a soldier. All — 
 are equal. Consider, Cossacks, is this wrong or right? We are calling — 
 upon you, Cossacks, to join this new order and to create your own Soviets — 
 of Cossacks’ Deputies. To such Soviets all the power must belong in thei 
 different localities. Not to hetmans with the rank of General, but to the — 
 elected representatives of the toiling Cossacks, to your own ‘trustworthy - s 
 reliable men. ' 
 “The All-Russian Congresses of Soldiers’, Workers’, and Peasants’ Depu- | 
 ties have passed a resolution to transfer all landowners’ land into the pos- — 
 session of the toiling people. Is not that fair, Cossacks? ‘The Kornilovs, | 
 Kaledins, Dutovs, Karaulovs, Bardizhes, all defend with their whole souls — 
 the interests of the rich men, and they are ready to drown Russia in blood i 
 if only the lands remain in the hands of the landowners. But you, the — 
 toiling Cossacks, do not you suffer yourselves from poverty, oppression and — 
 lack of land? How many Cossacks are there who have more than 4-5 — 
 dessiatins per head? But the landowners, who have thousands of dessiatins 
 of their own land, wish besides to get into their hands the lands of the — 
 Cossack Army. According to the new Soviet laws, the lands of Cossack 
 landowners must pass without compensation into the hands of the Cossack 
 workers, the poorer Cossacks. You are being told that the Soviets wish 
 to take away your lands from you. Who is frightening you? The rich — 
 Cossacks, who know that the Soviet aurHoriry wisHEs To transfer the land- — 
 owners’ lands to you. Choose then, Cossacks, for whom will you stand: for — 
 the Kornilovs and Kaledins, for the Generals and rich men, or for the 
 Soviets of Peasants’, Soldiers’, Workers’ and Cossacks’ Deputies. 4 
 “Tue Councit or Propie’s Commissars elected by the All-Russian Con- 
 gresS HAS PROPOSED TO ALL NATIONS AN IMMEDIATE ARMISTICE AND AN 
 HONOURABLE DEMOCRATIC PEACE WITHOUT LOSS OR DETRIMENT TO ANY NATION. 
 All the capitalists, landowners, Generals-Kornilovists have risen against the — 
 peaceful policy of the Soviets. The war was bringing them profits, power, — 
 distinctions. And to you, Cossack privates? You were perishing without 
 reason, without purpose, like your brothers-soldiers and sailors. It will soon 
 be three years and a half that this accursed war has gone on, a war devised — 
 by the capitalists and landowners of all countries for their own profit, their 
 world robberies. To the toiling Cossacks the war has only brought ruin — 
 and death. The war has drained all the resources from Cossack farm life. © 
 The only salvation for the whole of our countrv and for the Cossacks in 
 
 
 
 
 
 eT ee 
 
 
 
 
 
—_ 
 
 7 
 
 ' 
 \ 
 
 APPENDIX ir 369 
 
 -particular is a prompt and honest peace. The Council of People’s Commis- 
 sars has declared to all Governments and peoples: We do not want 
 other people’s property, and we do not wish to give away our own. Peace 
 
 ‘without annexations and without indemnities. Every nation must decide 
 
 its own fate. ‘There must be no oppressing of one nation by another. 
 
 _ Such is the honest, democratic, People’s peace which the Council of People’s 
 
 Commissars is proposing to all Governments, to all peoples, allies and 
 
 \ enemies. And the results are visible: Own THE Russ1AN FRONT AN ARMISTICE 
 | IAS BEEN -CONCLUDED. - 
 
 ee 
 
 “The soldier’s and the Cossack’s blood is not flowing there any more. 
 
 Now, Cossacks, decide: do you wish to continue this ruinous, senseless, 
 criminal slaughter? Then support the Cadets, the enemies of the people, 
 
 support Tchernov, Tseretelli, Skobeliev, who drove you into the offensive of 
 July 1st; support Kornilov, who introduced capital punishment for soldiers 
 and Cossacks at the front. Bur 1F you WISH A PROMPT AND HONEST PEACE, 
 THEN ENTER THE RANKS OF THE Soviets AND SUPPORT THE CoUNCIL OF 
 Propie’s ComMMIssaARs. 
 
 ~ “Your fate, Cossacks, lies in your own hands. Our common foes, the 
 landowners, capitalists, officers-Kornilovists, bourgeois newspapers, are 
 deceiving you and driving you along the road to ruin. In Orenburg, Dutov 
 
 has arrested the Soviet and disarmed the garrison. Kaledin is threatening 
 
 the Soviets in the province of the Don. He has declared the province 
 
 | to be in a state of war and is assembling his troops. Karaulov is shooting 
 the local tribes in the Caucasus. The Cadet bourgeoisie is supplying them 
 
 with its millions. Their common aim is to suppress the People’s Soviets, 
 to crush the workers and peasants, to introduce again the discipline of the 
 
 . whip in the army, and to eternalise the bondage of the toiling Cossacks. 
 
 “Our revolutionary troops are moving to the Don and the Ural in 
 order to put an end to this criminal revolt against the people. The com- 
 manders of the revolutionary troops have received orders not to enter into 
 any negotiations with the mutinous Generals, to act decisively and merci- 
 lessly. 
 
 “Cossacks! On you depends now whether your brothers’ blood is to flow 
 still. We are holding out our hand to you. Join the whole people against 
 its enemies. Declare Kaledin, Kornilov, Dutov, Karaulov and all their 
 aiders and abettors to be the enemies of the people, traitors and betrayers. 
 Arrest them with your own forces and turn them over into the hands of 
 the Soviet authority, which will judge them in open and public Revolution- 
 ary Tribunal. Cossacks! Form Soviets of Cossacks’ Deputies. Take into 
 your toil-worn hands the management of all the affairs of the Cossacks. 
 Take away the lands of your own wealthy landowners. Take over their 
 grain, their inventoried property and live-stock for the cultivation of the 
 lands of the toiling Cossacks, who are ruined by the war. 
 
 “Forward, Cossacks, to the fight for the common cause of the people! 
 
 “Long live the toiling Cossacks! 
 
 “Jong live the union of the Cossacks, the soldiers, peasants and workers! 
 
 “Tong live the power of the Soviets of Cossacks’, Soldiers’, Workers’ 
 and Peasants’ Deputies. 
 
 “Down with the war! Down with the landowners and the Kornilovist- 
 Generals ! 
 
 “Long live Peace and the Brotherhood of peoples!” 
 
 Council of People’s Commissars. 
 
 17. 
 
 From tHe CoMMISSION ON Pustic EpucaTION ATTACHED TO THE CENTRAL 
 Ciry Duma 
 
 “Comrades Workingmen and Workingwomen ! 
 “A few days before the holidays, a strike has been declared by the 
 

 
 370 APPENDIX 
 
 ‘ - 
 teachers of the public schools. The teachers side with the bourgeoisie. 
 against the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government. ' 
 
 “Comrades, organise parents’ committees and pass resolutions agaui f 
 the strike of the teachers. Propose to the Ward Soviets of Workers’ and 
 
 Soldiers’ Deputies, the Trade Unions, the Factory-Shop and Party Com- 
 mittees, to organise protest meetings. Arrange with your own resources 
 Christmas trees and entertainments for the children, and demand the 
 opening of the schools, after the holidays, at the date which will be set by 
 the Duma. ~ Ss 
 “Comrades, strengthen your position in matters of public education, 
 insist on the control of the proletarian organisations over the schools.” ; 
 Commission on Public Education attached to the Central City Duma. — 
 
 18, | . : 
 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT ne | 
 
 
 
 
 
 The notes issued by Trotzky to the Allies and to the neutral powers, ‘us 
 well as the note of the Allied military Attachés to General Dukhoniri, — 
 are too voluminous to give here. Moreover they belong to another phase of — 
 the history of the Soviet Republic, with which this book has nothing to do— _ 
 the foreign relations of the Soviet Government. This I treat at length in the 
 
 next volume, “Kornilov to Brest-Litovsk.” 
 
 
 
 
 19. 
 APPEALS TO TH® FRONT AGAINST DUKHONIN 
 
 “. . . The struggle for peace has met with the resistance of the bour- ~ 
 geoisie and the counter-revoiutionary Generals. . . . From the accounts af 
 in the newspapers, at the Stavka of former Supreme Commander Dukhonin 
 are gathering the agents and allies of the bourgeoisie, Verkhovski, Avksen-_ 
 tiev, Tchernov, Gotz, Tseretelli, etc. It seems even that they want to form a 
 new power against the Soviets. ay 
 
 “Comrades soldiers! All the persons we have mentioned have been 
 Ministers already. They have acted in accord with Kerensky and the bour- — 
 geoisie. They are responsible for the offensive of July Ist and for the pro- — 
 longation of the war. They promised the land to the peasants and then } 
 arrested the Land Committees. They reestablished capital punishment for 
 soldiers. ‘They obey the orders of French, English and American finan-— 
 CIOTAI ss is .; 
 
 “General Dukhonin, for having refused to obey orders of the Council — 
 of People’s Commissars, has been dismissed from his position as Supreme — 
 Commander. ... For answer he is circulating among the troops the note — 
 from the Military Attachés of the Allied imperialist Powers, and attempt- — 
 ing to provoke a counter-revolution. .. . 7 
 
 “Do not obey Dukhonin! Pay no attention to his provocation! Watch 
 him and his group of counter-revolutionary Generals carefully. .. .” ; 
 
 
 
 20. 
 FROM KRYLENKO 
 Order Number Two 
 
 “ . . The ex-Supreme Commander, General Dukhonin, for having op- 
 posed resistance to the execution of orders, for criminal action susceptible — 
 of provoking a new civil war, is declared enemy of the People. All persons 
 who support Dukhonin will be arrested, without respect to their social or — 
 political position or their past. Persons equipped with special authority 
 will operate these arrests. I charge General Manikhovsky with the execu- 
 tion of the above-mentioned dispositions. . . .” 
 
eens 
 
 ie Peete APPENDIX 311 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XII 
 T 
 
 INSTRUCTION TO PEASANTS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 In answer to the numerous enquiries coming from peasants, it is hereby 
 ‘ explained that the whole power in the country is from now on held by the 
 | Soviets of the Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. The Workers’ 
 Revolution, after having conquered in Petrograd and in Moscow, is now 
 conquering in all other centres of Russia. The Workers’ and Peasants’ 
 Government safeguards the interests of the masses of peasantry, the poor- 
 est of them; it is with the majority of peasants and workers against the 
 landowners, and against the capitalists. 
 
 Bence the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, and before all the District 
 Soviets, and subsequently those of the Provinces, are from now on and 
 vntil the Constituent Assembly meets, full-powered bodies of State au- 
 thority in their localities. All landlords’ titles to the land are cancelled by 
 ' the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. A decree regarding the land 
 has already been issued by the present Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ 
 | Government. On the basis of the above decree all lands hitherto belonging 
 to landlords now pass entirely and wholly into the hands of the Soviets of 
 » Peasants’ Deputies. The Volost (a group of several villages forms a 
 _Volost) Land Committees are immediately to take over all land from the 
 landlords, and to keep a strict account over it, watching that order be main- 
 -eained, and that the whole estate be well guarded, seeing that from now 
 on all private estates become public property and must therefore be pro- 
 _ tected by the people themselves. 
 
 __ All orders given by the Volost Land Committees, adopted with the assent 
 of the District Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies, in fulfilment of the decrees 
 | issued by the revolutionary power, are absolutely legal and are to be forth- 
 
 with and irrefutably brought into execution. _ 
 
 The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government appointed by the second All- 
 Russian Congress of Soviets has received the name of the Council of Peo- 
 ple’s Commissars. 
 
 “The Council of People’s Commissars summons the Peasants to take the 
 whole power into their hands in every locality. 
 
 The workers will in every way absolutely and entirely support the 
 
 easants, arrange for them all that is required in connection with machines 
 and tools, and in return they request the peasants to help with the trans- 
 port of grain. 
 
 { 
 
 President of the Council of People’s Commissars, 
 V. Unranov (Lenrn). 
 Petrograd, November 18th, 1917. 
 
 2. 
 
 The full-powered Congress of Peasants’ Soviets met about a week later, 
 and continued for several weeks. Its history is merely an expanded version 
 of the history of the “Extraordinary Conference.” At first the great ma- 
 jority of the delegates were hostile to the Soviet Government, and supported 
 ' the reactionary wing. Several days later the assembly was supporting the 
 ‘ moderates with Tchernov. And several days after that the vast majority 
 | of the Congress were voting for the faction of Maria Spiridonova, and 
 sending their representatives into the Tsay-ee-kah at Smolny. ... The 
 ' Right Wing then walked out of the Congress and called a Congress of ita 
 own, which went on, dwindling from day to day, until it finally dis- 
 solved. ..-. 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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