The introduction can be found here and Chapter One here.
The Revolution
For a whole century reaction and progress have struggled for power in
They woke the love of freedom in their compatriots, they woke their sense of justice and finally after a century of preparation the Russian people rose up and mustered under that flag which the heroes of liberty had long coloured with their blood. Under this standard they fought and threw off their yoke. There, where before signs of arch reaction could be seen, now fluttered the revolutionary red flag.
A new period has begun in Russian history. This is no
surprise to anyone who has been familiar with the last century of Russian history. The revolution has been digging itself in all this time. It is the
fruit of many excellent people's work. It sprang from Bakunin's
brotherly ideals, Herzen's love of freedom, Tolstoy's sense of justice and Kropotkin's
demands for cooperation.
No one should be surprised that obsolete and broken things shake
and fall, when these forces work together, when they set off they break out of
the fetters that have held them down. It has happened like Herzen said; Russia
couldn't stand half finished work. They have toppled more than the Tsar's throne.
They say that they will not stop before they have toppled the entire old,
obsolete system and raised a better one in its place. Experience will show
whether they succeed.
As already mentioned, the authorities and the rich were the moving spirit of Russia ’s
part in the world war. They planned to conquer new and capitalist countries for
the Russian empire. For example Galicia ,[1]
but winning Constantinople and the land around
the city played even more on their minds. The Russian authorities had long been
tempted to occupy the Bosporus and the Dardanelles .
They had often come close. Now they began to take it seriously.
The warmongers in Russia painted a golden picture of
the nation’s expected success from the war. But almost from the beginning
they went to greater lengths than the other warring nations to keep its true
causes from Russians. They never joined in with as much fiery zeal as the war
parties in Germany , England and France had managed to raise with
lies and flattery in their countries. But actually in Russia all the same tricks were
tried. The warmongers said how noble it was to shed blood for their country and that they didn't doubt that it would be tremendously successful, and said, “Russia ’s
god is powerful”.
Abroad the representatives of the
warring states stand as one. In Russia
it wasn't like that. There was a very small socialist party in the Assembly who
weren't fooled. It would not vote for more funds for the army and walked out of the Assembly.[2]
 |
| Tsar Nicholas II blesses the troops (not in original) |
The war went well for the
Russians in the first months. They captured all of Galicia
and though there would be huge shocks in East
Prussia , it didn't significantly diminish the
victories that they won over the Austrians. Russian politicians were
hopeful of the war’s outcome, and the cooperation between those in the Assembly and the authorities was generally good. But the course of the war turned
suddenly. In the spring of 1915 the forces
of the Central Powers launched an offensive on the eastern front and very
quickly Russia lost all of Galicia and large chunks of Poland . That's when the amity between the Assembly and the authorities fell apart.
The capitalists in the Assembly—the
Cadets[3]—attacked
the authorities for their fecklessness in all military production. Their anger
was particularly aimed at Sukhomlinov[4] Minister for War, despite their having approved of him when he began the war.
Now they blamed him most and were determined to get him sacked. First and
foremost he was blamed for the shortage of the army’s ammunition and the
disastrous results. But he was also guilty of corruption and everyone thought
his administration of the Ministry was so dire that a case was brought against
him very quickly.
All this was done by the Assembly which
the authorities had become a prominent player. So they decided to
practically rule without it and allow the Assembly to only sit briefly. Many of the MPs
took this badly and were not prepared to sit by in such troubled times. Recently
some had been very vocal about the need to change political structures and adopt
a fully representative government, so that the Ministry would be fully responsible
to the Assembly for its actions.
The Assembly's members were particularly clear on
this when it was recalled in February 1916. They repeatedly complained
that neither the Assembly nor the nation had any say over who was in government.
This in particular prevented good cooperation between the government and the
people. The government’s negligence was to blame for the country’s strength and
natural resources not being nearly as well used as they could have been. The Cadets in particular now attacked
the government. They were desperate for the war to carry on at full strength
because they expected to reap the rewards when the Central Powers were driven
into bankruptcy.
But the Russian government’s military
production was deeply flawed and it was equally suspected that it was considering
negotiating a separate peace with the Central Powers. Some said that the
government deliberately allowed the country to totter to incite riots so that
there would be an excuse to make peace. For this and much else, Milyukov,
leader of the Cadets, poured scorn on the government and particularly on the Prime
Minister Sturmer.[5]
Eventually Sturmer was forced to
resign at the end of November 1916. From then until the March[6] revolution
Protopopov[7], Interior
Minister was mostly in charge of the government. He was one of the vilest
reactionaries and hated by liberals. Protopopov continued to use violence
to make the Assembly clearly understand that the government could send it home if
it saw fit. Later he increased inspection of
newspapers and threatened to ban some of them. Finally the government committed
a crime in February 1917 by arresting 11 worker delegates in their armaments
production committee. These men had stood extremely well at their stations and
were entirely innocent. These actions appalled people and finally proved what
was said about the government—that it had long fulfilled its measure of
sins and was beyond people’s endurance.[8]
Around this time the outlook
wasn't great for Russians on the front and there seemed to many people very
little sense in carrying on the war as it had been fought so far. But though the war
had gone badly it became, if it were possible, even more sinister. Hunger worsened and spread widely
across the country, not because there was not enough food such as corn. But food had come to very few ports where it had been stockpiled since
the war began with almost nothing being moved out. The authorities were so
criminally negligent that they had not once moved these corn supplies to the cities and provinces that were faring worst. Now it was getting too late,
distribution was going so slowly that it wasn't easy to improve the situation
quickly and people were starving.
Out of this came the ruckus in the Assembly in the beginning of March 1917[9],
when Milyukov and Kerensky[10],
one of the workers’ leaders came together to reprimand the government. But it
didn't amount to much. While the Assembly was arguing,
hunger was starting to hurt so badly that it became serious even to people in Petrograd . From 5 March there were daily disturbances and
riots for bread. Wretched workers mostly took part but more than once soldiers
switched to their side.
 |
| Women march for bread and peace on International Women's Day March 1917 supported by soldiers (not in original) |
The Tsar, who was at the front,
was warned time and again of the danger of revolution but he was deaf to all such
warnings. He completely trusted the promises of Protopopov and his aides who
said that all riots and attempts at revolution could be suppressed with an iron
fist. But this time the authorities’ response was way off the mark.
The first thing that they did to
prevent more disturbances was to break up the Assembly. They announced on the 11
March that it would be suspended at least until 1 April. This
announcement immediately caused uproar in the city. Soldiers rushed out together
to fight the authorities. They opened the armouries and distributed weapons to
the people to generalise the uprising. Protopopov made a serious attempt to
suppress it but it was useless as the uprising quickly spread. At this the Assembly resolved to use
the revolution to topple the ministries and put something else in place and to
appoint men trusted by the majority of the Assembly.
Assembly President Rodzianko[11]
sent two telegrams, one after the other, to the Tsar to urge him to respect
the wishes of the Assembly and warn him of the likely consequences if he refused.
The Tsar didn't answer and it
has since come to light that he didn't see either of the telegrams. His
officials sat on them in the hope that they could suppress the revolution and
regain power as before. Besides, it seems that their side, who were most
powerful in the Assembly, such as the Cadets and other capitalists, had not
initially expected that the Tsar would be removed from the throne and the
Romanov dynasty would completely lose its grip on power.
But when it became known that
Rodzianko had got no answer to the telegrams sent, Assembly members thought that it was
impossible to hope that the Tsar would cooperate with them. They planned to allow the Tsar's brother, Grand Duke
Michael, to take power provisionally, preferably as regent for Alexis the heir
to the state. But whatever way, the Assembly had decided to blow away the old ministries.
Most ministers were arrested that day or later and slung in jail.
The next day, 12 March, the Assembly elected a Provisional Government[12] with
unrestrained joy. It was made up almost entirely of MPs representing the
capitalist parties. The Presidency went to Prince Lvov,[13]
one of the most respected Cadets who had previously been very active in
politics as a leader of the Association of District Councils and all its
activities[14].
Milyukov, one of the most determined warmongers in the Assembly was made Foreign
Minister; Military Minister was Guchkov and Kerensky Justice Minister. In
addition, two of the richest men in Russia were made ministers, Tereshchenko,
Finance Minister and Kornovalov[15] Trade
and Industry Minister.
 |
| The Provisional Government (not in original) |
It is remarkable that the
socialists had no part in the formation of this new government. Only one
workers’ representative, Kerensky, had a seat in it. Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
didn't have any representatives there. Of course the Bolsheviks were entirely
opposed to all coalition government and the Mensheviks thought it didn't go far
enough. They wanted the country to become a democracy immediately. But the socialists and workers
didn't plan to allow the fruits of the revolution to be stolen from the people.
That’s why that same day in Petrograd they
founded a workers’ council (soviet), which originally brought together just
workers’ representatives but later soldiers as well. The same kind of council
was later set up, gradually, across the country. At first the Mensheviks were
by far the majority in the Petrograd Council and one of their most decisive,
people, Chkheidze[16]
was made president.
The plan of the Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Council was to monitor every action of the Provisional Government,
drag all power in the capital into the hands of the workers and work to
establish peace as soon as possible. One of the first acts of the Council was
to issue an address to soldiers that urged them to vote for their own committee
to supervise all administrative and equipment issues particular to the forces. It
also declared that all orders that the Assembly issued
on these matters were to be considered invalid if they conflicted with the
decisions of the Workers’ Council.
Exhausted soldiers seized on these orders gladly because
they gave them hope and used the opportunity to get rid of the tyrannical restrictions
they faced. While army officers felt cheated and complained that all military
discipline would fail, soldiers no longer wanted to follow their orders. But is
it any wonder that exhausted and demoralised soldiers were unwilling to be slaughtered
for nothing?
What had they to gain if the war were to carry on, even if Russia
were to win? Nothing in the slightest! The war was not for their benefit but
for the relatively small group of politicians and capitalists. Because of the loathsome
greed and lust for power of these people millions of ordinary Russians had been
laid out on bloody fields. Wasn't it time to end to put an end to such
depravity?
Just as the Provisional Government took power in
Preparation would shortly be underway to convene a National Assembly that could agree a constitution for the country based on general suffrage. The announcement ended with the government stating that it would not use the war as an excuse to postpone its promised reforms.
While these momentous events were happening in the capital, Tsar Nicholas was at the front and it wasn't clear that he had had the slightest idea of the revolution before 13 or 14 March. He was stationed a short distance from the city of
In the evening of 15 March he was visited by two Assembly members who challenged him to hand over power to his son. This idea had occurred to the Tsar but it seemed to him ill advised to lay such a burden on his son’s shoulders, as young and weak as he was. So he asked that he be allowed to hand power to his brother, Grand Duke Michael. They agreed and the Tsar signed his name to it.
A few days later he was moved to Czarskoje Selo[18] and was held there with the Tsarina and their children. But later that summer the government decided to send them east to Tobolsk in
 |
| Nikulás II - in original |
Now Grand Duke Michael stood ready to take over government. But he did not want to tackle the problem as it stood, and declared that he would only take power if it was the will of the upcoming National Assembly. The likelihood that the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council would be influential probably discouraged him, however, republicans were in the overwhelming majority and therefore it was impossible to know how the country would be governed by the National Assembly.
After the government had rid itself of the Tsar it really
got down to work. The first task was to try to alleviate the most serious needs
of Petrograd and the other hardest hit cities.
The government was partly successful in that it got food moved to the cities
and great teams were gathered to see that it was distributed with the utmost
speed. Then it cleaned out the civil service across
the country and imposed its rule everywhere to make way for the adherents of
the new authorities.
What the Russian Provisional Government overwhelmingly wanted to change was the war. It wanted to use the entire nation’s strength to continue the war. Everyone in the government was agreed on that. But initially they discussed the reason to continue the war. Foreign Minister Milyukov wanted to continue the war ruthlessly until the Central Powers were utterly defeated and would have to bear whatever costs the Allies charged them. Then
Kerensky was the only man in the government, as yet, against this policy but he wanted to carry on the war till all enemy soldiers were thrown out of the country. Then the government would promote an agreement for a general peace without annexing land. Someone else was not on the Provisional Government’s side about this. The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council had made their position clear many times and had told the General Staff that peace should be agreed immediately. Here was the real difference between the Council and the Provisional Government. This was the basis of the titanic struggle between the two powers.
In the Provisional Government the capitalists were the overwhelming majority. They were obviously very concerned to spoil the influence of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council and get its followers to recognise the pre-eminence of the Provisional Government. In the Council the gradual socialists, Mensheviks were in the majority and wanted very much to work with the Provisional Government but could hardly follow its war policy and respond to the workers’ opposite position. Because of this Kerensky tried to come to an agreement.
The Council agreed that the war would continue until the soldiers of the Central Powers were expelled from
Poor Kerensky! History’s
judgement will be very hard on him for allowing himself be used to get the Council
to fail the people’s cause. But getting the Council’s
agreement to follow the Provisional Government didn't go quietly. The
Bolsheviks, who were the minority of the Council, fought with all their
strength against the idea of the war continuing. They had various good
advocates in the Council, though probably no-one better than Lenin who had
recently been allowed to come home to Russia and on arriving had joined
the leadership of the Bolsheviks. He demonstrated what an absurdity it would be for
workers to allow themselves to fight on. Were they to allow themselves to be
killed to satisfy the contemptible cravings for profit of Russian capitalists?
Was it their lot to shoot down their class-brothers, workers of other
countries?
“No, it’s not them that are our
enemies. It is the capitalists in our own and all other countries. It is
against these that you must fight.”
 |
| Russian troops wait for a German attack 1917 (not in original) |
What the Russian people needed first and foremost is peace
with the Central Powers, said the Bolsheviks. When that was achieved it would
be possible to concentrate fully on our domestic problems. There is great work
to do, they said. The capitalists and their parasites must be
overturned. The state, the nation, must take the land and expropriate the means
of production, seize the banks and undertake the supervision of all businesses,
all production. This was the only way to improve the conditions of the people.
But for this to succeed workers and soldiers would have to take power into
their own hands.
“Soldiers! Stop slaughtering your brothers in other countries!” said Pravda. “Don’t shed your blood and theirs for the capitalists. Refuse to fight and go home to till the land and alleviate the people’s distress!
“Workers! Stop working for the profiteers! Don’t let yourselves be used to feed the parasites! Take the factories into your own hands and run them in the name of the whole nation!”
But despite everything they did the Bolsheviks were not able to stop the war. This time the bourgeoisie—capitalists and Mensheviks were stronger and preparations were begun for an offensive at the front. Although the soldiers were forced to advance they were exhausted and tired of war. Military discipline had evaporated and officers complained bitterly about it. Soldiers were beginning to be convinced by the Bolsheviks’ persuasion. They started to refuse to fight.
The Military Minister, Guchkov,[19] was discouraged by all these problems and resigned in mid-May. And then none other than Kerensky was put in his place to recover military discipline and speak for the soldiers. His ability to do this was in many respects very good. He was a great orator. He had been and was still considered a workers’ leader. He had worked to get the Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council to follow the Provisional Government, and for this reason he now took on rousing the soldiers to a new offensive—new bloodshed.
At the same time as Kerensky was made Military Minister in Guchkov’s place he got the Council Mensheviks to join in the formation of this changing government. From now on the gradual socialists and the capitalist parties united to continue the war. The Mensheviks were ready to forget that it was overwhelmingly ordinary people who bore the brunt of the war. They were ready to forget that on their backs hung the heavy costs of the war, now and in the future.
Why should ordinary Russians fight? The government and the
ruling class said that it was holy to sacrifice their last drop of blood for
the fatherland. What was the fatherland worth in wartime? And was it really the
fatherland who demanded these precious sacrifices? Wasn't it just a rulers’
trick? Wasn't it transparent that patriotism had been used in all centuries as
bait to rouse the nation to horrifying acts of brutality, to get them to use the
most harrowing injustice? And so it still is. Kerensky and the Mensheviks took
the bait. The seduction of patriotism made them blind.
When Kerensky became Military Minister he threw himself into
the fight. He lived either in the capital or at the front and moved everyone
with his oratory.
“Soldiers, sailors and officers” he said in one of his
speeches. “I challenge you to muster all that you have! I will do what I can.
Help me to show other countries that Russia ’s army is still so powerful
that nothing can exhaust it. Demonstrate, soldiers, that you will defend Russia ’s
freedom from all attacks!”
Kerensky went crazy against all of the soldiers’ opposition.
“I have never known military discipline,” he said, “but I shall still create
iron discipline in the army!”
He refused to accept requests for leave from officers; nobody
might leave their troops; and he ordered the soldiers to obey their officers in
everything. If they didn't do it properly nothing would prevent the imposition
of military discipline[20].
With this speech, egging on and threats, Kerensky tried to drive the soldiers
to a new offensive. But it was doomed to failure because the soldiers had long
given up on the war and no threats could make them fight on.
The Bolsheviks did everything in their power to prevent this
offensive. They said that though Russia might be victorious in the
offensive, it couldn't in reality be anything but cursed by the
majority of the population. New victories could only strengthen the
capitalists’ regime; they could only consolidate the chains that the capitalist
oppressors had laid on the working class.
Because of all the years before the offensive - or at least the years that it failed - the government could not blow smoke in the
people's eyes and trap it in this new maze to
continue the war, burden itself unbearably and destroy all the ordinary people
of central Europe.
The offensive was to have begun 1 July. That day the people
in Petrograd called out by the Bolsheviks gathered
in the streets to protest against the continuation of the war. Red
revolutionary flags flew everywhere, and the crowd of people who followed them
shouted down the government of the bourgeoisie and demanded that the
offensive be stopped and that the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council take power.
But it was unsuccessful. The government sat tight and the offensive began as
planned.
The Bolsheviks though weren't discouraged. In mid-July they
began an uprising in Petrograd against the government
which temporarily became serious because soldiers in the city and from
Kronstadt sided with the people. Hard clashes grew in the streets and for
a while it looked as though the days of the capitalists' government were
numbered. But it got reinforcements and quickly suppressed the uprising. Many
of the leading Bolsheviks, including Trotsky and Lunarchevsky[21],
were arrested and thrown in jail. But they didn't get their accursed Lenin. He fled
to Finland
and for a while hid out there.
The government had won in the capital this time. But at the
same time it had invited defeat at the front. The offensive had failed badly as had been widely expected and now the military outlook was worse than ever.
In desperation the government’s followers tried to shovel blame for the defeats
onto the Bolsheviks and tried for a while to rouse people against them. Because they feared attacks on the bourgeoisie for these results, they had to take
special measures to discipline the soldiers and defeat the Bolsheviks, so that opposition to the war would eventually stop. And the decision that they took was
to make Kerensky head of the government and greatly increase his power.
The majority of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council fell for
it and Kerensky took office on 21 July. He went on to play an important role especially
in foreign affairs and the war. The Allied governments explained to him that
the Russian government should fully cooperate with them to continue the war and at home in Russia he must do all that he could to preach courage to the
nation, to get it to accept it all.
Early in August he published a speech to the people, in
which he said among other things, “Only a government backed enthusiastically by
the entire nation, authorities full of self-sacrifice can summon the strength
needed to expel all enemy troops from the homeland and work for Russia ’s
restoration. Fully conscious of the holy duty which rests on it, the government
must resolve to finish that fateful struggle upon which our gloriously noble nation
now depends”.
 |
| Kerensky - similar in original |
In this grim way he announced to the nation the government’s
plan to carry on the war whatever the cost. Things had gone so far that
Kerensky an old workers’ leader was foremost in the war party. He had completely
embraced it. Although many of the capitalists were unhappy with Kerensky saying
that he was a socialist and rebuking their leadership for working with such a
man, Milyukov said that this stemmed from a serious misunderstanding,
“Because it is precisely the bourgeoisie which has power and Kerensky
strives for its policies.”
Milyukov was right. Kerensky was no longer a working class
leader. He was now an employee of the capitalist s. Kerensky didn't think
that as the war stood the elections for the National Assembly
could go on. Either way he was in trouble because he didn't have the strong unanimous
support of the people needed at such a time when everything in Russia was
shaking at the front and at home too. This is why he decided to call a kind of national meeting in
Moscow late in
August. But before discussing that it’s only right to mention the one man that
was recently starting to make his mark in Russia and had a considerable
flurry of support.
This man was Kornilov.[22]
He had long been an army officer, had a fine reputation and had so much
influence over army commanders that Kerensky saw no one else likely to take
over military high command after the failed July offensive. Kornilov took over the
army on 1 August insisting that the government accept various proposals to
rebuild the army. One of these was that capital punishment should be reintroduced
to the army as before the March Revolution, so that it could be
disciplined and soldiers forced to obey their superiors. He also proposed that the
government give the army control of the railways behind the lines so that he
could have complete control of the movement of all goods to the army.
When it came to it Kerensky was no more impressed by this
proposal than various others that Kornilov suggested. Certainly death sentences
were reinstated in the army but it caused great resentment in the Petrograd Council. This was overall people’s greatest concern and
the most important unresolved matter when the national meeting began in Moscow on 27 August.
This meeting was so remarkable because it clearly showed that the Kerensky government’s sun was setting, that power was slipping from
the grasp of the capitalists. They were losing control of the country and
the spirit of revolution in the army was growing over their heads. The
administration more or less acknowledged this at the meeting. All their
troubles were compounded by a conspiracy for the Tsar. It failed and the
authorities arrested and held the most dangerous conspirators. But this couldn't
be more than a little consolation.
It couldn't solve the problems that it had to
listen to; that Riga ,
one of the biggest ports on the Baltic had fallen into the hands of the Germans,
that soldiers refused to fight, that they had risen up against their officers
and ran off in the night and that industry lay in ruins. No, all of this
just showed that the Kerensky government and indeed all such parties were past
their prime. At the conference Kerensky spoke first. It was immediately obvious
that he knew that the government was on shaky ground.
“All attempts”, he said, “made to use the conference to
attack the government will be crushed with blood and iron”. Kerensky complained
bitterly about all opposition to the government that had reached its high tide
among soldiers.
“But understand this. Those who have tried the limits of our
patience shall submit to a power that is no softer than the iron grip of the
Tsar’s government.”
Various ministers spoke describing the parlous state of the
economy and the country’s industries. Then Kornilov gave an ugly description of
the conditions in the army. Army officers were no longer in control, he said. It
was also unlikely that imminent starvation in some parts of the front would
subdue disorder and discontent because indiscipline in the army was spreading. And
on top of everything else shortages of the most vital military equipment were
getting worse. In the last year production of shells had fallen by 60 percent
and the aeroplanes needed to use them by 80 percent. Special measures would
have to be taken if it were not all to end horribly. At the end of the
conference everyone agreed with Kornilov about that.
But Kerensky was not satisfied with the outcome of the
conference. It was far from the support that he had expected. On the contrary,
it had shown that he and his government were fighting a losing battle to
restore the nation. Many people had become deeply unsatisfied with Kerensky though probably none more so than Kornilov. He even made it perfectly clear to
his friends. It appears that he and various others planned to change the
government and put in more energetic men. Kerensky was aware of this because between him and Kornilov
were various men trying to get them to co-operate. Kornilov for his part said
that he thought that the only way to bring order to the country and get the
better of Russia ’s
enemies was to establish a dictatorship backed by military force. But he denied
that he intended to do it himself. However, he absolutely insisted on his previous
demand to control the railways behind the front and get unlimited control over
all military activity.
 |
| Lavr Kornilov in 1916 - not in original |
Although both Kerensky and the Workers’ and Soldiers’
Council fiercely rejected these demands some of the ministers were warming to
them. One of them agreed to Kornilov sending send a regiment of soldiers to Petrograd to crush the Council’s opposition, particularly
the Bolsheviks because then the government would accept it. Kornilov took this advice but its outcome was totally
different from what was planned. The government took fright and Kerensky got
unlimited power to play his hand. He didn't hesitate and sent Kornilov a telegram
to immediately recall the troops and relinquish command of the military. Meanwhile,
Kerensky himself took over as chief of the military and appointed an old,
experienced general called Alekseyev.[23]
These measures took Kornilov by surprise and he reacted badly. So when Kerensky
saw that Kornilov was not going to obey, he announced that Kornilov was guilty
of treason and hostility to the revolution and was now expected to use force
against it.
Kornilov, however, didn't want to go off half-cocked, he
planned to take an army to Petrograd and make
up charges against Kerensky there. This civil war, however, only lasted a few
days. When push came to shove, Kornilov had precious little support and he had
to surrender to the government on 11 September. He was convicted of mutiny
before a revolutionary court and thrown in jail. Many of the politicians who
had followed him got the same treatment.
The victory over Kornilov gave Kerensky an opportunity to
appoint the government as he saw fit. He announced that Russia would become a republic, that
a five-member committee had been assigned all government administration for the
time being and Kerensky had become president of this committee. This new
government immediately declared that its priorities were to bring order to the
country and to continue the war with all its might.
But the tension in Kerensky's bow had become unbearable. His
eloquent and goading words no longer influenced people. The time was rapidly approaching when they refused to back him over the war. All the remarkable events of the
last weeks had also given the Bolsheviks wind under their wings. They were the
only political party that demanded peace immediately which increased their
following massively. The emergency across the country was so dire yet the Kerensky
government wanted to continue the war until its conclusion for the Allies and
the Central Powers.
How could the people continue to follow such a government?
No, it had to fall and the people were rallying under the Bolshevik flag so
that it would. They had to take over the government. They had to take over the
nation in the bottomless morass that the capitalist government had dragged it
into.
Of course the Bolsheviks were in the minority in the
Petrograd Council but their followers were growing with every day that passed. And
in various ways they were now very well placed. They controlled, for instance,
almost all the armoured vehicles in the capital and the country’s radio
transmitters were all in their hands. You may imagine that this would have made
their next move considerably easier. But most importantly the army was rapidly
turning to follow them and refused to continue the war.
Bolsheviks didn't take these forces for granted. They used
every opportunity to explain their policies to their followers. In the Petrograd Council they and the Mensheviks struggled for
power and for a while it was not clear who would come out strongest. About the
same time as the five-member government was set up, the Bolsheviks got a
resolution agreed in the Council that the bourgeoisie and all those that
had taken part in the Kornilov uprising should be stripped of their powers.
They pointed out the enormity of allowing these men, the seat of treachery to the revolution to be in risky positions.
It would form a new government made up of representatives of
workers and peasants; first Russia would become a republic, individual property
rights would be abolished and land put provisionally into the hands of the
peasants’ committees; industry and the distribution of products would come
under workers’ control; it would take all war profits into its own hands and impose
high taxes on large properties, to put an end to the disorder in all the
country’s industry. And lastly it would invalidate all the secret deals the old
imperial government had made with foreign states and challenge all warring
states to negotiate a just peace.
Mensheviks hated having been overruled at this meeting and
when the Council next met they had gathered their forces to overturn
this Bolshevik resolution and get another agreed. Although various schemes were
suggested it was decided to call a workers assembly in the capital to form a
new government in place of the government of the bourgeoisie. This
final resolution challenged all supporters of the revolution to support the
current government faithfully until the workers assembly came together to form
the new government.
 |
| Petrograd workers assembly 1917 - not in original |
President of the Council, Chkheidze and his biggest supporters were absolutely condemned by the radical socialists for
their behaviour and for a while it was the biggest row among the Council
members because Mensheviks and other supporters of the Kerensky government
were gradually losing followers in the Council. This was how the Bolsheviks
grew. First a few men from the Menshevik party switched sides but then the
majority of the Social Revolutionaries. So much so that Chkheidze felt he could
no longer continue as president of the Council and Trotsky, one of the main
leaders of the Bolsheviks took over.
Finally after a great struggle they were the absolute
majority in the Council. All this time they had fought so hard against the
bourgeois government, they had done everything in their power to overthrow the
regime, to end the war and achieve a government of the proletariat—a workers’
government.
Now they had control of the Council it was expected that the
days of the Kerensky government were numbered. The most momentous events were
about to happen. The government’s behaviour quickly showed that the Council’s
attitude to it had changed.
The Army Minister made it known that all military officers
would be purged of those who had opposed the revolution. By this and much else
the government showed that it was paying more attention to the Bolsheviks and
that it was fully aware that the Petrograd Workers’ Council wouldn't in future be as restrained as it had been recently.
Meanwhile a workers’ assembly met in the capital in the
beginning of October in agreement with the Petrograd Council. The assembly was
made up of representatives of all Workers’ Councils in Russia and it formed the basis for a new government. Mensheviks were in the majority in
the assembly and got it agreed, after a hard tussle with the Bolsheviks that on 9 October a
coalition government would form under Kerensky who was still
president.
In this government sat moderate socialists and capitalists
and yet Mensheviks expected it to solve all the country’s problems. The newly
formed government declared that it would make serious attempts to get a peace
treaty, a peace without land annexation but it added that it would also fully
co-operate with the other Allied governments. After which it was barely
credible that it meant to achieve this.
It said it would cap food prices to pull the country out of
its emergency and would speed up distribution of food. Everything would be done
to sort out industry and make deals and equality between employers and workers.
To increase government income it would fight for progressive taxation, property
tax and raise all indirect taxes. And finally it declared that the allocation
of land would be equalised but without compromising the property rights of
those who now possessed it.
The Bolsheviks and other radical socialists resented these
developments enormously. Had the success of the workers’ assembly been for
this? They asked. Were workers now to accept the war policy of Kerensky's
government, to allow it to work “in cooperation with the Allied governments”,
which obviously meant that it should be allowed to do what it wanted exactly as
before?
Was this assembly to work in “cooperation” with capitalists,
to work in future under their command and in their interests? Would it then
keep its promises this amalgam-government of “cooperation and equality” between
workers and employers, rather than common ownership of land, industry businesses
and workers’ control of it and the distribution of the products?
Wasn't it really just a way to allow the bourgeoisie and war mongers multiple seats in the government? Hadn't they shown for ages
that they neither could nor wanted to take a single measure to save the
country? It was not a minor point since there was little agreement
between the parties of the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks at the workers’ assembly.
There were enough Mensheviks there to form the majority and so they made their
move. But they and the bourgeoisie hadn't reckoned on the first vote
being for the upcoming National Assembly and that was because the workers’ assembly
had decided to call a provisional assembly in Petrograd
to support the government.
The bourgeoisie took this decision badly at first and said
they would have no part in such an institution, which would exist purely to restrain
the government’s actions. They were, however, eventually persuaded to have a
representative at this assembly like other parties on condition that the
government bore no responsibility for its actions and cooperation between
themselves and Mensheviks was managed on this basis.
But now the Bolsheviks had had enough. When the provisional
assembly first met on 30 October their leader Trotsky stood up and made serious
allegations against both the assembly and government. The government would favour the richer classes in every case, he said. Their involvement in the
dispute over land and the allocation of food would continually increase the
misery and anarchy caused by the war. The rich were going to let famine
strangle the revolution and National Assembly.
The government’s conduct in
foreign policy was equally criminal. Now when it had pushed the country to
fight for 40 months the government was talking about moving to Moscow and from there
carrying on the merciless killing and terror, instead of recognising that the
only hope of saving the Russian people was to agree peace as quickly as possible.
Instead of taking a lead in the governments of warring
countries to agree a just peace immediately, the government of the Cadets,
which contained many enemies of the revolution and Allied politicians were
determined to continue the war and send thousands of soldiers to their death
for nothing.
“We revolutionary socialists” continued Trotsky, “proclaim
that we want no part in policies of this treasonous government nor in the
assembly which is hostile to the revolution. The revolution is in imminent
danger. The moment that Wilhelm’s soldiers reach the capital, Kerensky's
government expects to flee to Moscow
and make that city the capital of opposition to the revolution. We expect
immediate measures to save our country. We demand peace at
once! All power to the workers and soldiers!”
When Trotsky had spoken, he and the other Bolsheviks walked
out of the meeting. The dice had been cast.
After this the Bolsheviks decided to take up arms against
the Kerensky government. They had to appoint resolute leaders, including Trotsky
and Lenin who had recently back from Finland to take part in the
leadership of the revolution.
Over the next few days the revolutionaries made all possible preparations and they proved to be relatively easy because throughout the country, especially in the cities, people were revolting against the regime that
had completely failed to solve the country's problems.
Famine was making its mark everywhere but nowhere as
seriously as in the largest cities. In Petrograd ,
the capital itself, the emergency had got so bad that people were fleeing in
large groups in the hope that they would find food in other places which wasn't
always possible. News spread of the phantom of hunger and far and
wide people were utterly defenceless before it.
This was the situation when Bolsheviks made their move in the capital.
The Council had elected a revolutionary committee to maximise its connections to the soldiers in the city. On 6 November Trotsky challenged the troops, in
the name of this committee, to obey no other orders but those signed by it. The
Kerensky government’s machinations would have failed utterly were such a
challenge to succeed and the government decided later that same day to arrest
the revolutionary committee and begin investigating it. This only poured oil on the fire so immediately revolution
rose through the city. That night Bolsheviks took over the telegraph office.
Overnight the uprising only grew. The troops sided with the revolutionaries
and before 7 November broke they had taken over all the railway stations and
banks in the city.
 |
| Lenin - similar in original |
All that day they fought for supremacy but it was easy to
see how the struggle would end. The Kerensky government could no longer cope
with anything and soon most ministers fell into the hands of
the Bolsheviks. Kerensky himself escaped from the city with difficulty.
Suddenly at 10 o'clock in the morning the revolutionary
committee announced that the old government was overthrown and the Workers’ Council had taken all power into its own hands.
In Moscow the revolution had
begun at the same time as in Petrograd but it
was a much tougher struggle there. In that week there were rough street battles
but the outcome there was the same as in the capital—the Bolsheviks won total
victory over the government’s supporters.
As soon as the Kerensky government had been driven from
power the Petrograd Council took the reins of government under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. There in the capital began the Union of Russian Workers Councils.
On 9 November it announced that it provisionally held supreme power on behalf
of the workers, peasants and soldiers who had made the revolution.
This announcement referred to the revolutionaries’
main policies. They intended to pursue the establishment of a just peace as
soon as possible. After that, they would turn to domestic matters, abolish individual
property rights over land so that peasants could use it; they would protect
workers’ rights and establish workers’ control over all production. A national assembly should be called shortly but otherwise workers’ councils across the
country would take charge of all the issues particular to the countryside and
regions. All peoples within the limits of Russia ’s empire had the right to rule
themselves.
At the end of the announcement the Council urged the army
to rally strongly to the support of the revolutionaries, to defend the
revolution attacked by both domestic counterrevolutionaries and foreign enemies.
The same day as this speech was published the Council contacted
the Allied ambassadors in Petrograd and the
Central Powers and urged the governments of all the warring nations to quickly negotiate
a just peace—peace without land annexation or military reparations. The
Council proposed that a three-month ceasefire should be negotiated immediately
and appealed to the powerful comradeship of workers particularly German,
English and French who had forced this issue.
Finally, the Council elected an executive committee until a final decree was made about the government of the country. Lenin
became president of this committee and Trotsky took on the acute problems connected to foreign policy.
At last the Bolsheviks had come to power in Russia . More
than half a year after the Russian Revolution began. The reaction and violence of
the monarchy and its representatives, the greedy and oppressive rich who had hindered
the spirit of the revolution were no longer in control.
The first victories of the revolution were achieved by workers—the urban proletariat.
They expected that these victories would make them free, that they would be relieved of burdens laid on them by other classes, that they would be well fed and secure to create a new and better life. But others were able to capitalise on this first victory—the rich who had by far the most MPs in the old Assembly. They blamed the monarchy for all privations and so were able to deflect their responsibility.
The first victories of the revolution were achieved by workers—the urban proletariat.
They expected that these victories would make them free, that they would be relieved of burdens laid on them by other classes, that they would be well fed and secure to create a new and better life. But others were able to capitalise on this first victory—the rich who had by far the most MPs in the old Assembly. They blamed the monarchy for all privations and so were able to deflect their responsibility.
The party of the rich took the Assembly into its own hands and
tried to use it to gain wealth and power to create a new country and new state.
This is why this party did everything they could to continue the world war
until the Central Powers capitulated. And the “money is everything” faction called on
the workers and peasants to follow them. It tried to tell them it was their
sacred duty to continue fighting. Some were duped by fine persuasion. Because
of this it took another six months for any significant attempt to improve the
conditions of ordinary people who starved and died for the profiteering and
financial interests of these people. But many people were not fooled,
mostly the Bolsheviks. They did everything they could to strengthen
their muscles. They waged six months of hard struggle before they could overthrow
the government of the rich and take power.
The November Revolution gave them power but also huge
problems because that “money is everything” had left the Russian people in a
disastrous condition—injured, exhausted, starved. The leadership of the
Bolsheviks had serious problems to satisfy the hunger, lift the heaviest
burdens and heals the wounds. What they had achieved was just a little of the
huge tasks ahead. In reality the revolution was just beginning.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] East Prussia
[2] The author appears not to
have heard of German Social Democrat Karl Liebknecht, Member of the Reichstag
who not only voted against the war budget (war credits) but went to prison for
organising anti-war protests. Liebknecht “handed in an explanation of his vote,
which the President of the Reichstag refused to allow to be read, nor was it
printed in the Parliamentary report. The President banned it on the pretext
that it would entail calls to order. The document was sent to the German Press,
but not one paper published it.” Read Karl Liebknecht’s speech against war
credits here, http://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/works/1916/future-belongs-people/ch06.htm
[4] Vladimir Aleksandrovich
Sukhomlinov, minister of war until 1915
[5] Boris Vladimirovich
Stürmer, 27 July 1848 – 9 Sept 1917
[6] Bylting í Rússlandi uses
the New Style Russian calendar—the Gregorian calendar—introduced in Russia by the
Bolsheviks in 1918 which added thirteen days to the Old Style Julian calendar. This is why the author refers to the revolutions in February and October as the March Revolution and the November Revolution. I have not altered the dates.
[7]
Alexander Dmitriyevich Protopopov 18 Dec 1866 – 27 Oct 1918, Interior
Minister Sept 1916 to Feb 1917
[8] A full measure of sin refers
to Genesis 15:16 in the Hebrew Bible, an idea reused in the Christian New
Testament
[9] A detailed timeline of
events in 1917 can be found at
www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/timeline/1917.htm
[10] Alexander Fyodorovich
Kerensky, 22 Apr 1881 – 11 June 1970
[11] Mikhail Vladimirovich
Rodzianko, 21 Feb 1859 – 24 Jan 1924
[12] The Provisional
Government was set up to organise elections for a national constituent assembly.
[13] Prince Georgy
Yevgenyevich Lvov, 2 Nov 1861 – 7 March 1925
[14] Lvov was
leader of the All-Russian Union of Zemstvos (District Councils) in 1915
and a member of a joint committee of Zemstvos and towns to help supply the
military and look after the war wounded.
[15] Mikhail Ivanovich
Tereshchenko, 18 March 1886 – 1 April 1956 & Alexander Ivanovich Konovalov,
17 Sept 1875 – 28 Jan 1949
[16] Nikolay Semyonovich
Chkheidze, also called Karlo Chkheidze or Nicolas Cheidze,
1864 – 13 June 1926
[17] 160 km from Petrograd
[18] “Tsar’s village”, the
town housing the imperial family’s residence 24 km south of Petrograd
[19] Alexander Ivanovich
Guchkov, 14 Oct 1862 – 14 Feb 1936
[20] Floggings for
disobedience etc.
[21] Anatoly
Vasilyevich Lunacharsky, 23 Nov 1875 – 26 Dec 1933, the first
Soviet People’s Commissar for culture and education.
[22] Lavr
Georgiyevich Kornilov 18 Aug 1870 – 13 Apr 1918.
[23] Mikhail
Vasiliyevich Alekseyev 3 Nov 1857 – 25 Sept 1918.
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