Ten Days that Shook the World — 15 - The Conquest of Power, Part 2

… 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 _Tsay-ee-kah_ rolled in like breakers the fierce popular condemnation of the “deserters.

” For days Smolny was 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 submit to the decisions of the Central Committee!

” Only in the Petrograd garrison was there still uncertainty.

A great soldier meeting was held on November 24th, addressed 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 government….

_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 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 Conference 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 Government after Government, until the end….

[Graphic, page 276: Meeting announcement] 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 a new Government.

For translation see App.

XI, Sect.

6. Meanwhile the Bolsheviki had been undermining the power of the _Vikzhel.

_ An appeal of the Petrograd Soviet to all railway workers called upon them to force the _Vikzhel_ to surrender its powers.

On the 15th, the _Tsay-ee-kah,_ following 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 session of the All-Russian Congress of Railway Workers, the _Tsay-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 railway 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, heavily armed, were sent out in groups of five thousand, to the South, to Siberia, with roving commissions to capture cities still held by the White Guards, establish order, and _get food.

_ Passenger traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railroad was suspended for two weeks, while thirteen trains, loaded with bolts of cloth and bars of iron assembled by the Factory-Shop Committees, were sent out eastward, each in charge of a Commissar, to barter with the Siberian peasants for grain and potatoes….

Kaledin being in possession of the coal-mines of the Don, the fuel question became urgent.

Smolny shut off all electric 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 Petrograd were about to close down for lack of coal, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet turned over to the workers two hundred thousand _poods_ from the bunkers of battle-ships….

Toward the end of November occurred the “wine-pogroms” (See App.

XI,

Sect.

7)—looting of the wine-cellars—beginning with the plundering of the Winter Palace vaults.

For days there were drunken soldiers on the streets….

In all this was evident the hand of the counter-revolutionists, who distributed among the regiments 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 battles 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 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.

(See App.

XI, Sect.

8)…

Alert and suspicious, the working-class of the city constituted 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 Monarchist plot led by former Duma-member Purishkevitch and a group of nobles and officers, who had planned an officers’ uprising, and had written a letter inviting Kaledin to Petrograd.

(See App.

XI, Sect.

9)….

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 provoked by his flight, returned and surrendered the Secret Treaties to Trotzky, who began their publication in _Pravda,_ scandalising the world….

[Graphic, page 279: Proclamation] Bolshevik order.

A proclamation of the Committee to Fight against Pogroms, attached to the Petrograd Soviet.

For translation see App.

XI,

Sect.

11. The restrictions on the Press were increased by a decree (See App.

XI,

Sect.

10) making advertisements a monopoly of the official Government newspaper.

At this all the other papers suspended publication as a protest, or disobeyed the law and were closed….

Only three weeks later did they finally submit.

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 Commissars dealt, directing revolutionary mass-action against its enemies.

In eloquent proclamations, (See App.

XI, Sect.

12) 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!

[Graphic, page 281: Appeal to work hard] Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet, the Petrograd Council of Professional Unions, and the Petrograd Council of Factory Shop Committees, to the Workers of Petrograd, urging them to work hard and not to strike.

For translation see App.

XI, Sect.

13. On the 20th of November the Military Revolutionary Committee issued a warning: The rich classes oppose the power of the Soviets—the Government 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 railways, 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 receiving food.

All the reserves which they possess will be requisitioned.

The property of the principal criminals will be confiscated.

We have done our duty in warning those who play with fire.

We are convinced that in case decisive measures become necessary, 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 “EXTRAORDINARY 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 Army 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 delegates from all parts of the Front are talking of a necessary removal of part of the Army to the rear, foreseeing that in a few days there will be headlong flight of the soldiers, dying from hunger, ravaged by the three years’ war in the trenches, sick, insufficiently 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 situation at the Front demands the most urgent and decisive measures.

… Meanwhile the higher functionaries of the Government institutions, 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 MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE GIVES THESE CRIMINALS A LAST WARNING.

In event of the least resistance or opposition 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 Government and bank employees got out hundreds of proclamations and appeals (See App.

XI,

Sect.

14), protesting, defending themselves, such as this one: TO THE ATTENTION OF ALL CITIZENS.

THE STATE BANK IS CLOSED!

WHY?

Because the violence exercised by the Bolsheviki against the State Bank has made it impossible for us to work.

The first act of the People’s Commissars was to DEMAND TEN MILLION RUBLES, 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 people’s property.

We stopped work.

CITIZENS!

The money in the State Bank is yours, the people’s money, acquired by your labour, your sweat and blood.

CITIZENS!

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, from the Special Supply Committee, declarations that the Military Revolutionary Committee made it impossible for the employees to work, appeals to the population to support them against Smolny….

But the dominant worker and soldier did not believe them; it was firmly fixed in the popular mind that the employees 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 Government_ which was blamed, as it had been under Kerensky, but the _tchinovniki,_ the sabotageurs; for the Government was _their_ Government, _their_ Soviets—and the functionaries of the Ministries were against it….

At the centre of all this opposition was the Duma, and its militant organ, the Committee for Salvation, protesting against all the decrees of the Council of People’s Commissars, voting again and again not to recognise the Soviet Government, openly cooperating with the new counter-revolutionary “Governments” set up at Moghilev….

On the 17th of November, 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 struggle against it.

Form local Committees for Salvation of Country and Revolution, who will unite all democratic forces, so as to aid the All-Russian Committee for Salvation in the tasks which it has set itself….

Meanwhile the elections for the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd (See App.

XI, Sect.

15) 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’ organisations, from military units, even from the peasants in the surrounding 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 dissolution 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 represent the population of Petrograd, being in complete disaccord with its state of mind and its aspirations … and in view of the fact that the personnel of the Duma majority, although having lost all political following, continues to make use of its prerogatives to resist in a counter-revolutionary manner the will of the workers, soldiers and peasants, to sabotage and obstruct the normal work of the Government—the Council of People’s Commissars considers it its duty to invite the population of the capital to pronounce 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 intentionally harm or destroy the property of the Municipality, shall be immediately arrested and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunals….

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 31st Mayor Schreider and several members were arrested, interrogated, and released.

That day and the next the Duma continued to meet, interrupted frequently by Red Guards and sailors, who politely requested the assembly to disperse.

At the meeting of December 2d, an officer and some sailors entered the Nicolai 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 Helsingfors 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 Russian troops.

The Ukrainean Rada had taken command of all southern Russia, and was furnishing Kaledin reinforcements and supplies.

Both Finland and Ukraine were beginning secret negotiations with the Germans, and were promptly recognised 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.

[Graphic, page 287: Education Proclamation] Proclamation of the Commission of 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 App.

XI, Sect.

17. The ubiquitous Muraviov was appointed commander of the war against the Cossacks, and a Red Army was recruited 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, (See App.

XI, Sect.

16) explaining what the Soviet Government was, how the propertied classes, the _tchin ovniki,_ landlords, bankers and their allies, the Cossack princes, land-owners and Generals, were trying to destroy the Revolution, and prevent the confiscation 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_ to do.

We shall support the working Cossacks in all their actions….

The best way to begin is to form Cossacks Soviets; you will be given representation in the _Tsay-ee-kah,_ and then it will be _your_ Government, too….

” 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 more….

Meanwhile at Moghilev were gathered the old _Tsay-ee-kah_ the “moderate” Socialist leaders—from Avksentiev to Tchernov—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 attachès, and with the Kaledin movement and the Ukrainean Rada….

The Allied Governments had made no reply to the Peace 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: (See App.

XI, Sect.

18) 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 Government is Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin.

The direction of Foreign Affairs has been entrusted to me, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs….

In drawing your attention to the text, approved by the All-Russian Congress, of the proposition for an armistice and a democratic peace without annexations or indemnities, based on the right of self-determination of peoples, I have the honour to request you to consider that document as a formal proposal of an immediate armistice on all fronts, and the opening of immediate peace negotiations; a proposal which the authorised Government of the Russian Republic addresses at the same time to all the belligerent peoples and their Governments.

Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the profound assurance of the 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 telegraphed to General Dukhonin: … The Council of People’s Commissars considers it indispensable 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 Affairs to the representatives of the Allied powers at Petrograd.

The Council of People’s Commissars orders you, Citizen Commander,… to propose to the enemy military authorities immediately to cease hostilities, and enter into negotiations for peace.

In charging you with the conduct of these preliminary pourparlers, the Council of People’s 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 been passed upon by the Council of People’s Commissars.

The Allied Ambassadors received Trotzky’s note with contemptuous 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 ordering that “the regiments on the front shall elect delegates to begin negotiations with the enemy detachments opposite their positions….

” On the 23d, the military attaches 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….

Next morning Trotzky made another appeal to the troops, characterising the note of the Allied representatives 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 proclamation, (See App.

XI,

Sect.

19) 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.

And at the same time Krylenko, accompanied by three detachments of fanatical sailors, set out for the _Stavka,_ breathing threats of vengeance, (See App.

XI, Sect.

20) and received by the soldiers everywhere with tremendous ovations—a triumphal progress.

The Central Army Committee issued a declaration in favour of Dukhonin; and at once ten thousand troops moved upon Moghilev….

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 himself 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 important stronghold of hostile military power in Russia, the 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 hundred 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 mistakes 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 Government 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 accomplishing 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….