Ten Days That Shook the World - John Reed (some good books to read TXT) 📗

must be treated as mutineers and traitors�.�

Birzhevya Viedomosti, October 28. �Now that the Bolsheviki have separated 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 punishable 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 occurred�.�

Novoye Vremya, November 1. �hellip; 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 smart�.

�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 frightful crime of the Bolsheviki against the Revolution is that they impute 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 can fulfil none of them; they lead the masses on a false trail, deceiving them as to the source of all their troubles�.

�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 insurrection. Every day these two papers commit in their columns actual crimes. Every day they urge pogroms�. Is that �the freedom of the press�?�

�The Government ought to defend itself and defend us. We have the right to insist that the Government machinery does not remain passive while the threat of bloody riots endangers the lives of its citizens�.�

4.

�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, published 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!

�No! They did not conspire. On the contrary, openly, audaciously, without mincing words, without dissimulating their intentions, they multiplied 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

�� 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�.

�All who are capable of sabotage, disorganisation, or disorder, all deserters, all slackers, all looters, should be forced to do auxiliary service in the rear of the Army�.

�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�.�

7.

EVENTS OF THE NIGHT, NOVEMBER 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 occupied 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 Exchange. 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

1.

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 with extraordinary powers for the reestablishment of order in Petrograd, in complete command of all civil and military authorities�.�

�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�.�

 

*

 

Appeal to the Population signed by Vice-Premier Konovalov, November 7th:

�Citizens! Save the fatherland, the republic and your freedom. Maniacs have raised a revolt against the only governmental power chosen by the people, the Provisional Government�.

�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 r�gime, 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 defence of its temporary authority, in the name of order and the happiness of all peoples�.�

 

*

 

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 Consituent 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 sent�.

�Let 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. Entering the meeting-room of the Staff, where Kishkin, Rutenburg, Paltchinski, 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 occupied by Red Guards�.

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�.

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{HT -ed.}

Leaving Petrograd in the morning of November 7th, Kerensky arrived by automobile at Gatchina, where he demanded a special train. Toward evening he was in Ostrov, Province of Pskov. The next morning, extraordinary session of the local Soviet of Workers� and Soldiers� Depulies, with participation of Cossack delegates�there being 6,000 Cossacks at Ostrov.

Kerensky spoke to the assembly, appealing for aid against the Bolsheviki, and addressed himself almost exclusively to the Cossacks. The soldier delegates protested.

�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, �I 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 inform 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 received by the Death Battalions stationed there.

Next day he took train for the SouthWest Front, and visited the Army Committee at headquarters. The Fifth