Ten Days That Shook The World (8 page)

Then arose a rough workman, his face convulsed with rage. "I speak for the Petrograd proletariat," he said, harshly. "We are in favor of insurrection. Have it your own way, but I tell you now that if you allow the Soviets to be destroyed, we're through with you!" Some soldiers joined him.... And after that they voted again-insurrection won....

However, the right wing of the Bolsheviki, led by Riazanov, Kameniev and Zinoviev, continued to campaign against an armed rising. On the morning of October 31st appeared in Rabotchi Put the first installment of Lenin's "Letter to the Comrades," (See App. II, Sect. 11) one of the most audacious pieces of political propaganda the world has ever seen. In it Lenin seriously presented the arguments in favor of insurrection, taking as text the objections of Kameniev and Riazonov.

"Either we must abandon our slogan, 'All Power to the Soviets,' " he wrote, "or else we must make an insurrection. There is no middle course...."

That same afternoon Paul Miliukov, leader of the Cadets, made a brilliant, bitter speech (See App. II, Sect. 12) in the Council of the Republic, branding the Skobeliev nakaz as pro-German, declaring that the "revolutionary democracy" was destroying Russia, sneering at Terestchenko, and openly declaring that he preferred German diplomacy to Russian.... The Left benches were one roaring tumult all through....

On its part the Government could not ignore the significance of the success of the Bolshevik propaganda. On the 29th joint commission of the Government and the Council of the Republic hastily drew up two laws, one for giving the land temporarily to the peasants, and the other for pushing an energetic foreign policy of peace. The next day Kerensky suspended capital punishment in the army. That same afternoon was opened with great ceremony the first session of the new "Commission for Strengthening the Republican Régime and Fighting Against Anarchy and Counter-Revolution"-of which history shows not the slightest further trace.... The following morning with two other correspondents I interviewed Kerensky (See App. II, Sect. 13)-the last time he received journalists.

"The Russian people," he said, bitterly, "are suffering from economic fatigue-and from disillusionment with the Allies! The world thinks that the Russian Revolution is at an end. Do not be mistaken. The Russian Revolution is just beginning...." Words more prophetic, perhaps, than he knew.

Stormy was the all-night meeting of the Petrograd Soviet the 30th of October, at which I was present. The "moderate" Socialist intellectuals, officers, members of Army Committees, the Tsay-ee-kah, were there in force. Against them rose up workmen, peasants and common soldiers, passionate and simple.

A peasant told of the disorders in Tver, which he said were caused by the arrest of the Land Committees. "This Kerensky is nothing but a shield to the pomieshtchiki (landowners)," he cried. "They know that at the Constituent Assembly we will take the land anyway, so they are trying to destroy the Constituent Assembly!"

A machinist from the Putilov works described how the superintendents were closing down the departments one by one on the pretext that there was no fuel or raw materials. The Factory-Shop Committee, he declared, had discovered huge hidden supplies.

"It is a provocatzia," said he. "They want to starve us-or drive us to violence!"

Among the soldiers one began, "Comrades! I bring you greetings from the place where men are digging their graves and call them trenches!"

Then arose a tall, gaunt young soldier, with flashing eyes, met with a roar of welcome. It was Tchudnovsky, reported killed in the July fighting, and now risen from the dead.

"The soldier masses no longer trust their officers. Even the Army Committees, who refused to call a meeting of our Soviet, betrayed us.... The masses of the soldiers want the Constituent Assembly to be held exactly when it was called for, and those who dare to postpone it will be cursed-and not only platonic curses either, for the Army has guns too...."

He told of the electoral campaign for the Constituent now raging in the Fifth Army. "The officers, and especially the Mensheviki and the Socialist Revolutionaries, are trying deliberately to cripple the Bolsheviki. Our papers are not allowed to circulate in the trenches. Our speakers are arrested-"

"Why don't you speak about the lack of bread?" shouted another soldier.

"Man shall not live by bread alone," answered Tchudnovsky, sternly....

Followed him an officer, delegate from the Vitebsk Soviet, a Menshevik oboronetz. "It isn't the question of who has the power. The trouble is not with the Government, but with the war.... and the war must be won before any change-" At this, hoots and ironical cheers. "These Bolshevik agitators are demagogues!" The hall rocked with laughter. "Let us for a moment forget the class struggle-" But he got no farther. A voice yelled, "Don't you wish we would!"

Petrograd presented a curious spectacle in those days. In the factories the committe-rooms were filled with stacks of rifles, couriers came and went, the Red Guard [*] drilled.... In all the [* See Notes and Explanations]

barracks meetings every night, and all day long interminable hot arguments. On the streets the crowds thickened toward gloomy evening, pouring in slow voluble tides up and down the Nevsky, fighting for the newspapers.... Hold-ups increased to such an extent that it was dangerous to walk down side streets.... On the Sadovaya one afternoon I saw a crowd of several hundred people beat and trample to death a soldier caught stealing.... Mysterious individuals circulated around the shivering women who waited in queue long cold hours for bread and milk, whispering that the Jews had cornered the food supply-and that while the people starved, the Soviet members lived luxuriously....

At Smolny there were strict guards at the door and the outer gates, demanding everybody's pass. The committee-rooms buzzed and hummed all day and all night, hundreds of soldiers and workmen slept on the floor, wherever they could find room. Upstairs in the great hall a thousand people crowded to the uproarious sessions of the Petrograd Soviet....

Gambling clubs functioned hectically from dusk to dawn, with champagne flowing and stakes of twenty thousand rubles. In the center of the city at night prostitutes in jewels and expensive furs walked up and down, crowded the cafés....

Monarchist plots, German spies, smugglers hatching schemes....

And in the rain, the bitter chill, the great throbbing city under grey skies rushing faster and faster toward-what?

Chapter 3: 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 contempt....

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 capital....

In Kharkov thirty thousand coal miners organized, adopting the preamble of the I. W. W. constitution: "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common." Dispersed 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, Orlov, with plenary powers, to settle the trouble. Orlov was hated by the miners. But the Tsay-ee-kah not only supported his appointment, but refused to demand that the Cossacks be recalled from the Don Basin....

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 Government Commissar the Municipal Duma called in troops from 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 Russia....

In Petrograd was ending a regional Congress of Soviets of 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 (See App. III, Sect. 1) declared emphatically for the Soviets, and continued significantly,

After liberating themselves politically from Tsardom, the working-class wants to see the democratic régime triumphant in the sphere of its productive activity. This is best expressed by Workers' Control over industrial production, which naturally arose in the atmosphere of economic decomposition created by the criminal policy of the dominating classes....

The Union of Railwaymen was demanding the resignation of Liverovsky, Minister of Ways and Communications....

In the name of the Tsay-ee-kah, Skobeliev insisted that the nakaz be presented at the Allied Conference, and formally protested against the sending of Terestchenko to Paris. Terestchenko offered to resign....

General Verkhovsky, unable to accomplish his reorganization of the army, only came to Cabinet meetings at long intervals....

On November 3d Burtzev's Obshtchee Dielo came out with great headlines:

Citizens! Save the fatherland!

I have just learned that yesterday, at a meeting of the Commission for National Defence, Minister of War General Verkhovsky, one of the principal persons responsible for the fall of Kornilov, 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.

"You might think," said Terestchenko, "that we were in a madhouse!"

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!

Kerensky, Terestchenko and Nekrassov must immediately answer us concerning the words of Verkhovsky.

Citizens, arise!

Russia is being sold!

Save her!

What Verkhovsky really said was that the Allies must be pressed to offer peace, because the Russian army could fight no longer....

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 suppressed....

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 organization and the press; really, to make a demonstration of strength. Suddenly it was announced that on the same day the Cossacks would hold a Krestny Khod-Procession of the Cross-in honor of the Ikon of 1612, through whose miraculous intervention Napoleon had been driven from Moscow. The atmosphere was electric; a spark might kindle civil war. The Petrograd Soviet issued a manifesto, headed "Brothers-Cossacks!"

You, Cossacks, are being incited against us, workers and soldiers. This plan of Cain is being put into operation by our common enemies, the oppressors, the privileged classes-generals, bankers, landlords, former officials, former servants of the Tsar.... We are hated by all grafters, rich men, princes, nobles, generals, including your Cossack generals. They are ready at any moment to destroy the Petrograd Soviet and crush the Revolution....

On the 4th of November somebody is organizing a Cossack religious procession. It is a question of the free consciousness of every individual whether he will or will not take part in this procession. We do not interfere in this matter, nor do we obstruct anybody.... However, we warn you, Cossacks! Look out and 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 and slaughter the Jews, shop-keepers, Socialist leaders....

On one side the Monarchist press, inciting to bloody repression-on the other Lenin's great voice roaring, "Insurrection!.... We cannot wait any longer!"

Even the bourgeois press was uneasy. (See App. III, Sect. 2) Birjevya Viedomosti (Exchange Gazette) called the Bolshevik propaganda an attack on "the most elementary principles of society-personal security and the respect for private property."

[Graphic page-46 Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet]

Appeal of the Petrograd Soviet to the Cosacks to call off their Krestny Khod-the religious procession planned for November 4th (our calendar). "Brothers-Cossacks!" it begins. "The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies addresses you."

But it was the "moderate" Socialist journals which were the most hostile. (See App. III, Sect. 3) "The Bolsheviki are the most dangerous enemies of the Revolution," declared Dielo Naroda. Said the Menshevik Dien, "The Government ought to defend itself and defend us." Plekhanov's paper, Yedinstvo (Unity) (See App. III, Sect. 4), called the attention of the Government to the fact that the Petrograd workers were being armed, and demanded stern measures against the Bolsheviki.