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
— "We penetrated at length to the gold and malachite chamber with crimson
brocade hangings where the Ministers had been in session all that day and night,
and where the shveitzari had betrayed them to the Red Guards. The long table
covered with green baize was just as they had left it, under arrest. Before each
empty seat was pen and ink and paper; the papers were scribbled 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
the sheet covered with absent-minded geometrical designs, as the writers sat
despondently listening while Minister after Minister proposed chimerical
schemes. I took one of these scribbled pages, in the hand writing of Konovalov,
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 communication with the Front and
with provincial Russia. The Bolsheviki had captured the Ministry of War early in
the morning, but 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, pouring out over the country a flood of appeals
and proclamations; and when he heard that the Palace had fallen, put on his hat
and walked calmly out of the building.....

Interested as we were, for a considerable time we didn't notice a change in the

attitude of the soldiers and Red Guards around us. As we strolled from room to
room a small group followed us, until by the time we reached the great picture- wer
gallery where we had spent the afternoon with the yunkers, about a hundred men
surged in after us. One giant of a soldier stood in our path, his face dark with
sullen suspicion.

[Graphic, page 104: Doodling by Konavalov, title follows]

Facsimile of the beginning of a proclamation, written in pencil by A.I. Konovalov,

Minister of Commerce and Industry in he Provisional Government, and then scratched
out as the hopelessness of the situation became more
and more evident. The geometrical figure beneath was probably idly drawn while the
Ministers were waiting for the end.

"Who are you?" he growled. "What are you doing here?" The others massed
slowly around, staring and beginning to mutter. "Provocatori!" I heard
somebody say, "Looters!" I produced our passes from the Military Revolutionary
Committee. The soldier took them gingerly, turned them upside down and
looked at them without comprehension. Evidently 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 cowpuncher 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.

"I'm the Commissar," he said to me. "Who are you? What 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 standing out on his

forehead. "1 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 door opening onto the
Neva quay, before which stood the usual committee going through pockets…
"You have narrowly escaped," he kept muttering, wiping his face.

"What happened to the Women's Battalion?" we asked

"Oh— the women!" He laughed. "They were all huddled up in a back room. We
had a terrible time deciding what to do with them-many were in hysterics, and
so on. So finally we marched them up to the Finland Station and put them on a
train for Levashovo, where they have a camp. (See App. IV, Sect. 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 littered
with broken stucco, from the comice 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, not 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 hundred people were grouped around the platform, where.
Skobelicy was speaking. He urged that the Committee of Public Safety be
expanded, so as to unite all the anti-Bolshevik elements 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, Avkesntiev were there, some of the insurgent Soviet delegates,
members of the Executive Committee of the Peasants Soviets, old
Prokopovitch, and even members of the Council of the Republic-among whom
Vinaver and other Cadets. Lieber cried that the convention of Soviets was not a
legal convention, that the old Tsay-ee-koh 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.
Soviets, the necessity of immediate transfer of land to the peasants and industrial
control to the workers. The Fifth Battalion of Cyclists, stationed at Tsarskoye, is
ours....

Then the delegate of the Third Cycle Battalion. In the midst of delirious
enthusiasm he told how the cycle corps had been ordered three days before from
the South-west front to the "defense of Petrograd." They suspected, however, the
meaning of the order; and at the station of Peredolsk were met by representatives
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, proposed to elect a special

committee to find a peaceful solution to the civil war. "There isn't any peaceful
solution!" bellowed the crowed. "Victory is the only solution!" The vote was
overwhelmingly against, and the Mensheviki Internationalists left the Congress
in a Whirlwind of Jocular insults. There was no longer any panic fear....
Kameniev from the platform shouted after them, "The Mensheviki
Internationalists claimed 'emergency' 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 Congress. 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 factions, and proceed to
the appeal to the workers, soldiers and peasants of all Russia:

TO WORKERS, SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS

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.

The Provisional Government is deposed. Most of the members of the

Provisional Government are already arrested.
The Soviet authority will at once propose an immediate democratic peace to all
nations, and an immediate truce on all fronts. It will assure the free transfer of
landlord, crown and monastery lands to the Land Committees, defend the
soldiers rights, enforcing 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 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 Government 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 Komilovitz-Kerensky, Kaledin and others, are endeavouring to lead troops

against Petrograd. Several regiments, deceived by Kerensky, have sided with the
insurgent People.

Soldiers! Make active resistance to the Kornilovitz-Kerensky! 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!" Pandemonium, men weeping, embracing each other.
"General Tchermissov has recognised the Committee-Commissar of the
Provisional Government Voitinsky has resigned!"

So. Lenin and the Petrograd workers had decided on insurrection, the Petrograd
Soviet had overthrown the Provisional Government, and thrust the coup d'etat
upon the Congress 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?

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....
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 Menshevikl, 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 sharing the Bolshevik

programme of dictatorship of the working-class, at first were reluctant to follow
the ruthless Bolshevik tactics. However, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries
remained in the Soviet Government, sharing the Cabinet portfolios, especially
that of Agriculture. They withdrew from the Government several times, but
always returned. As the peasants 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, Kalagayev.

b. Maximalists, An off-shoot of the Socialist Revolutionary porty 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 presidium is a presiding committee, composed of representatives of the

groups and political factions represented in the assembly, in proportion to their
numbers. The 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 factions, 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,

The crowd is extremely noisy, cheering or heckling speakers, over-riding the

plans of the presidium. Among the customary cries are: "Prosim! Please! Go
on!" "Pravilno!" or "Eto vierno! That's true! Right!" "Do volno! Enough!"
"Doloi! 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 Gosudarstvennyi Soviet. 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. have therefore limited the word to these
bodies, and wherever else it occurs have translated it "Council."

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
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
movement 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 influence 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 Committee
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 conventions 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 military
and naval service, Cooperatives, Nationalities, etc. Each of these conventions
elected a Central Committee, or a Central Executive Committee, to guard its
particular interests at the seat of Government. As the Provisional Government
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, Professor Millukov and other
Liberals established unions of professional 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 the Soviets of

Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. So called from the initials of its name.

Tsentroflot. "Centre-Fleet" the Central Fleet Committee.

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.

Tekhintsi. The so-called "Savage Division" in the army, made up of Mohametan

tribesmen from Central Asia, and personally devoted to General Komilov. The
Tekhintsi 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.
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 separately. 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 Executive 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 administrative 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 duma 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 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 influence 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 councils." 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 the soldiers generally corresponding to the work of the American Y. M.
These came for the most part from among the sons of the propertied classes.

Union of Officers. An organisation formed among the reactionary officers in the

army to combat politically the growing power of the Army Committees.

Knights of St. George. The Cross of St. George was awarded for distinguished
action in battle. Its holder automatically became a "Knight of St. George." The
predominant influence in the organisation was that of the supporters of the
military idea.

Peasants' Union. In 1905, the Peasants' Union was a revolutionary peasants'

organisation. In 1917, however, it had become the political expression of the
more prosperous 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, instead of the former
Russian Calendar, which was thirteen days 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
pronunciation.

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 Information Bureau in Petrograd, which reports all
important happenings, speeches and the comment of the Russian press. Of this I
have an almost complete file from the spring of 1917 to the end of January,
1918.

Besides the foregoing. I have in my possession almost every proclamation,

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 (See App. I, Sect. 2) in the factories were
fighting black-lists and lockouts. 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 committed 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 revolutionary martyrs rotted in
their stark Brotherhood Grave on Mars Field, that must be achieved Constituent
Assembly or no Constituent Assembly: Peace, Land, and Workers' Control of
Industry. The Constituent Assembly had been postponed and postponed would
probably be postponed again, until the people were calm enough perhaps to
modify their demands! At any rate, here were eight months of the Revolution
gone, and little enough to show for it.....

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 Government alternated between 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 opposition 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" Socialists and their leaders in
the Ministry, who considered it necessary 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
succeeded in establishing a Government of Coalition with the propertied classes;
and as a result, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries lost the confidence
of the people forever.

An article in Rabotchi Put (Workers' Way) about the middle of October, entitled
"The Socialist Ministers," expressed the feeling of the masses of the people
against the "moderate" Socialists:

Here is a list of their services. (See App. I, Sect. 3)

Tseretelli: disarmed the workmen with the assistance of General Polovtsev,

checkmated the revolutionary soldiers, and approved of capital punishment in
the army.

Skobeliev: commenced by trying to tax the capitalists 100% of their profits, and
finished—and finished by an attempt to dissolve 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 dissolution 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 Railway Workers.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ten Days That the World, by John Reed

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Title: Ten Days That Shook the World

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Redactor's Note: The book is composed of text, footnotes, and appendices. The
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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 Helsingfors, passed a resolution

which began as follows:

We demand the immediate removal from the ranks of the Provisional

Government of the "Socialist," the political adventurer-Kerensky, as one who
is scandalising and ruining the great Revolution, and with it the revolutionary
masses, by his shameless political blackmail on behalf of the bourgeoisie....

The direct result of all this was the rise of the Bolsheviki....

Since March, 1917, when the roaring torrents of workmen and soldiers beating
upon the Tauride Palace compelled the reluctant Imperial Duma to assume the
supreme power in Russia, it was the masses of the people, workers, soldiers and
peasants, which forced every change in the course of the Revolution. They
hurled the Miliukov Ministry down; it was their Soviet which proclaimed to the
world the Russian peace terms-"No annexations, no indemnities, and the right
of self-determination of peoples"; and again, in July, it was the spontaneous
rising 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, which 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 cry
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-German conspiracy were discovered to
be forgeries:[1] 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
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
Government decrees and orders, and the official Government publication of the
secret treaties and other documents discovered in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
when the Bolsheviki took it over.

Ten Days That Shook The World

Chapter I

Background

Toward 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, visiting 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 intelligentzia generally that the
Revolution had gone quite far enough, and lasted too long; that things should
settle down. This sentiment was shared by the dominant "moderate" Socialist
groups, the oborontsi (See App. 1, Sect. 1) Mensheviki and Socialist
Revolutionaries, who supported the Provisional Government of Kerensky.

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
The windows of Smolny were still ablaze, motors came and went, and around
the still-leaping fires the sentries huddled 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 delegates, 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 Commissar of the Winter
Palace.

Now occurred a dramatic interruption. A big peasant, his bearded face convulsed
with rage, mounted the platform and pounded with his fist on the presidium
table.

"We, Socialist Revolutionaries, insist upon the immediate release of the Socialist
Ministers arrested in the Winter Palace! 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 historical tomb of Liberty?" In
the uproar he pounded and yelled. Another delegate climbed up beside him, and
pointed at the presidium.

"Are the representatives of the revolutionary masses going to sit quietly here
while the Okhrana of the Bolsheviki tortures their leaders?"

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 oboronts and the faint-hearted have gone, and the whole task of
defending and saving the Revolution 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
Committee!" Wild cheers. "The Cycle Corps sent from the front has arrived at
Tsarskoye, and the are now with us; they recognise the power of the
to help go through the rest of the comrades. (See App. IV, Sect. 3)

Yunkers came out, in bunches of three or four. The committee seized upon
with an excess of zeal, accompanying the search with remarks like, "Ah, them
Provocators! Komilovists! 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. It was carefully noted down by the scribe,
and piled in the little room.... The yunkers were disarmed. "Now, will you take
up arms against the People any more?" demanded clamouring voices.

"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 us, two
women.)

"Pazhal'st', touarishtchi! Way, Comrades!" A soldier and a Red Guard appeared

in the door, waving the crowd aside, and other guards with fixed bayonets. After
them followed single file half a dozen men in civilian dress-the members 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 leamed how the people in the street wanted
to lynch them, and shots were fired-but the sailors brought them safely to
Peter-Paul....

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
a. Mensheviki. This party includes all shades of Socialists who believe that
society must progress by natural evolution toward Socialism, and that the
working-class must conquer 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.

c. 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 Government, 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 paragraph 5b). Among the leaders: Lenin, Trotzky, Lunatcharsky.

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, composed 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.