1 – 7 October 19171
- By Mark Sutcliffe
- •
- 16 Oct, 2017
- •
Appeal to the Provisional Government
from soldiers at the front, early October
We soldiers at the front have been in the trenches for more than three years
now. There is severe hunger here at the front. We get 1 lb of bread and 1 oz.
of meat. We walk around in tatters, like beggars. At night we sit by the barbed
wire for six hours at a stretch. We have lost the last shreds of our health,
while at home our families are going hungry on their two sotkas of land. We
soldiers at the front ask you comrades of the Provisional Government to put a
speedy end to the war. It would be good for you comrades of the Provisional
Government to do the fighting … Once more we demand a speedy peace from
you the Provisional Government, and if you don’t try to do this, Comrade
Kerensky, then in the near future we are going to throw down our rifles and
leave the front for the rear and destroy you, the Bourgeoisie.
(Mark D. Steinberg, Voices of Revolution, 1917, New Haven and London 2001)
1 October
Article in the newspaper Russkoe slovo
In Provisional Government circles the following interesting story is doing
the rounds, one that seems to characterize the current game of ministerial
musical chairs. Since the revolution there have been so many ministers that
even the leaders of the Provisional Government fail to recognize some of
them — as was witnessed by the following curious incident that took place a few
days ago. In the middle of a meeting of the Provisional Government the doors to
the Malachite Hall opened and in walked an unknown gentleman who took his place
at the table. The appearance of this stranger created a bit of a stir amongst
the members of the Provisional Government. A. I. Konovalov, who was chairing
the meeting, beckoned to A. Ya. Galperin, head of the government’s internal
affairs, and asked him to find out what the unknown gentleman was doing. To
Galperin’s question, the stranger announced that he was Comrade Orlov, minister
of provisions, and he was at the meeting in that capacity. The only minister
who knew Orlov, S. N. Prokopovich, was not present.
(‘Almost an anecdote’, Russkoe slovo)
3 October
On 3 October, the Russian General Staff evacuated Revel, the last bastion
between the front and the capital. The next day, accordingly, the government
sought advice on the evacuation of the executive and key industries — but not
of the Soviet — to Moscow. News of the discussions leaked out. There was a
storm: the bourgeoisie were indeed planning to abandon the city built for them
two centuries before. The city of bones. The Ispolkom forbade any such move
without its approval, and the unstable government shelved the idea. In this
ambience of perfidy, weakness and violence, Lenin took his campaign for
insurrection to the wider party.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai
Sukhanov
The shameful attempt at evacuating the Government to Moscow was taken up
with special fury. The plotters were betraying the revolutionary capital!
Incapable of defending it, they did not even want to do so…
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford 1955)
4 October
Announcement in the newspaper Vpered!
In October and November Ufa’s town slaughterhouse will carry out the
slaughter of 150–250 cattle every day, to meet the needs of the army, and for a
certain time the slaughter of sheep at an average of 600–800 a day; the whole
carcass of the cattle is to be sold: head and tongue, neck (entrails), legs
with skin and offal; and also the sheep carcass: head with skin and neck. To
this end on Wednesday 4 October there will an open market in the Office of the
region’s food production department (Surovskaya 32) at 2 o’clock.
(Vpered! (Ufa regional newspaper))
5 October
Diary entry of Louis de Robien, attaché at the French Embassy
The great families are obliged to part with their most precious mementoes,
in order to live. I went … to see Mme Narichkyn, who has a bust of
Marie-Antoinette which she wants the Louvre to buy. The chief lady-in-waiting
of the Court, having been unable to follow her Sovereigns to Siberia, has taken
refuge in a small apartment in Sergevska Street, where she received us very
graciously … With her Bourbon profile, she still looks like a daughter of
Louis XV and seems remarkably young … even though she saw the 1848
revolution in Paris and remembers that month of June quite well. The biscuit de
Sèvres bust which she showed us is quite exquisite. It was given by
Marie-Antoinette herself to Mme Narichkyn’s grandfather … It is a unique
example, all the others having been destroyed during the French Revolution, and
it would be highly desirable if the Versailles Museum or the Sèvres factory
could buy it, rather than it should one day grace the parlour of a
Transatlantic pork merchant.
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917–1918, London 1969)
Article in The Manchester
Guardian
The Rev J. Clare, of Petrograd, preached yesterday at the Central Hall,
Manchester. Mr. Clare said that today one of the commonest expressions was ‘Russia
has let us down’. But that he held to be a great mistake. We were being ‘let
down’ before the Revolution more seriously than many of them could imagine. If
the Revolution had not taken place, a false and treacherous peace would have
been arranged between Russia and Germany, which would have been far more
disastrous than the revolutionary outbreak. The Russian soldier had not let the
Allies down. On the contrary he had done the Allies a very real service by
putting an end to the treachery and corruption which existed in high places. No
doubt the Russian soldier was ignorant, foolish, and stupid in what he was
doing. The trouble was that the people were not quite ready for liberty.
(‘Russian Revolution: A Petrograd Observer’s Views’, The Manchester Guardian)
6 October
Diary entry of Joshua Butler Wright, Counselor of the American Embassy,
Petrograd
There is slowly developing a most interesting story of the Kornilov-Kerensky
affair which — notwithstanding apparent pressure and censorship — is also creeping
into the daily papers here and especially in Moscow. It is freely rumoured that
when the truth is known the story will rival the expose in the Dreyfus case in
France and that Kerensky is purposely postponing Kornilov’s trial as long as
possible. I have yet to find one sensible patriotic Russian either here or in
Moscow who looks upon Kornilov as at all a traitor, rather as a man who was
willing to sacrifice everything, even his reputation and perhaps his life to
saving his country from a humiliating and intolerable situation.
(Witness to Revolution: The Russian Revolution Diary and Letters of J. Butler
Wright, London 2002)
7 October
Letter to the Central Committee, Moscow Committee, Petrograd Committee and the
Bolshevik members of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets
Dear Comrades,
Events indicate our task so clearly to us that hesitation actually becomes a
crime. The agrarian movement is growing. The government is increasing its
savage repressions; sympathy with us is growing in the army … To hesitate is
a crime … If it is impossible to take power without an uprising, it is
necessary immediately to orientate upon an uprising … Even if Kerensky has
in the vicinity of Petrograd one or two cavalry corps, he will have to
surrender. The Petrograd Soviet may bide its time, while carrying on propaganda
in favour of the Moscow Soviet government. The slogan is: power to the Soviets,
land to the peasants, peace to the peoples, bread to the hungry. Victory is
assured, and there are nine chances out of ten that it will be bloodless. To
wait is a crime against the revolution.
Greetings, Lenin
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and Speeches
from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London 1938)
7 October 2017
As the anniversary of the October revolution approaches, Russia is
preoccupied with more contemporary concerns: today’s 65th birthday of President
Putin, marked country-wide by demonstrations in support of his most prominent
rival, Alexei Navalny. Although reports suggest that numbers are down on
previous protests, Navalny’s twitter feed shows large crowds with the comment
‘Again, nobody has turned up!’ Radio Free Europe reports that spoiler rallies
are being held in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg by groups of students
brandishing flags in support of Catalonian independence. Navalny himself is
behind bars having been sentenced to 20 days for organising unsanctioned
rallies. There will be some, many even, who hope for their own Great October
this year, but in the absence of widespread hunger or a deeply unpopular war,
it’s a vain hope.
Meanwhile, the BBC is getting into the revolutionary spirit with a series of programmes on TV and radio. On Radio 4 on Monday (9 October) Start the Week is focusing on the forces that led to revolution, in a discussion that includes Mikhail Zygar, one of Fontanka’s potential authors. On Tuesday 10 October BBC2 has Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution at 9pm which includes several authors quoted here. Details of all the broadcasts can be found at this link.
as per the Gregorian calendar. 5 November 2017
8 October
Letter from Lenin to the Bolshevik Comrades attending the Regional Congress of
the Soviets of the Northern Region
Comrades, Our revolution is passing through a highly critical period …
A gigantic task is being imposed upon the responsible leaders of our Party,
failure to perform which will involve the danger of a total collapse of the
internationalist proletarian movement. The situation is such that verily,
procrastination is like unto death … In the vicinity of Petrograd and in
Petrograd itself — that is where the insurrection can, and must, be decided on
and effected … The fleet, Kronstadt, Viborg, Reval, can and must advance
on Petrograd; they must smash the Kornilov regiments, rouse both the capitals,
start a mass agitation for a government which will immediately give the land to
the peasants and immediately make proposals for peace, and must overthrow
Kerensky’s government and establish such a government. Verily, procrastination
is like unto death.
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and Speeches
from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London 1938)
9 October
Report in The Times
The Maximalist [Bolshevik], M. Trotsky, President of the Petrograd Soviet,
made a violent attack on the Government, describing it as irresponsible and
assailing its bourgeois elements, ‘who,’ he continued, ‘by their attitude are
causing insurrection among the peasants, increasing disorganisation and trying
to render the Constituent Assembly abortive.’ ‘The Maximalists,’ he declared,
‘cannot work with the Government or with the Preliminary Parliament, which I am
leaving in order to say to the workmen, soldiers, and peasants that Petrograd,
the Revolution, and the people are in danger.’ The Maximalists then left the
Chamber, shouting, ‘Long live a democratic and honourable peace! Long live the
Constituent Assembly!’
(‘Opening of Preliminary Parliament’, The Times)
10 October
As Sukhanov left his home for the Soviet on the morning of the 10th, his
wife Galina Flakserman eyed nasty skies and made him promise not to try to
return that night, but to stay at his office … Unlike her diarist husband,
who was previously an independent and had recently joined the Menshevik left,
Galina Flakserman was a long-time Bolshevik activist, on the staff of Izvestia.
Unbeknownst to him, she had quietly informed her comrades that comings and
goings at her roomy, many-entranced apartment would be unlikely to draw
attention. Thus, with her husband out of the way, the Bolshevik CC came
visiting. At least twelve of the twenty-one-committee were there … There
entered a clean-shaven, bespectacled, grey-haired man, ‘every bit like a
Lutheran minister’, Alexandra Kollontai remembered. The CC stared at the
newcomer. Absent-mindedly, he doffed his wig like a hat, to reveal a familiar
bald pate. Lenin had arrived.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai
Sukhanov
Oh, the novel jokes of the merry muse of History! This supreme and decisive
session took place in my own home … without my knowledge … For such a
cardinal session not only did people come from Moscow, but the Lord of Hosts
himself, with his henchman, crept out of the underground. Lenin appeared in a
wig, but without his beard. Zinoviev appeared with a beard, but without his
shock of hair. The meeting went on for about ten hours, until about 3 o’clock
in the morning … However, I don’t actually know much about the exact
course of this meeting, or even about its outcome. It’s clear that the question
of an uprising was put … It was decided to begin the uprising as quickly
as possible, depending on circumstances but not on the Congress.
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford 1955)
11 October
British Consul Arthur Woodhouse in a letter home
Things are coming to a pretty pass here. I confess I should like to be out
of it, but this is not the time to show the white feather. I could not ask for
leave now, no matter how imminent the danger. There are over 1,000 Britishers
here still, and I and my staff may be of use and assistance to them in an
emergency.
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2017)
Memoir of Fedor Raskolnikov, naval
cadet at Kronstadt
The proximity of a proletarian rising in Russia, as prologue to the world
socialist revolution, became the subject of all our discussions in
prison … Even behind bars, in a stuffy, stagnant cell, we felt instinctively
that the superficial calm that outwardly seemed to prevail presaged an
approaching storm … At last, on October 11, my turn [for release]
came … Stepping out of the prison on to the Vyborg-Side embankment and
breathing in deeply the cool evening breeze that blew from the river, I felt
that joyous sense of freedom which is known only to those who have learnt to
value it while behind bards. I took a tram at the Finland Station and quickly
reached Smolny … In the mood of the delegates to the Congress of Soviets
of the Northern Region which was taking place at that time .. an unusual
elation, an extreme animation was noticeable … They told me straightaway
that the CC had decided on armed insurrection. But there was a group of
comrades, headed by Zinoviev and Kamenev, who did not agree with this decision
and regarded a rising a premature and doomed to defeat.
(F.F. Raskolnikov, Kronstadt and Petrograd in 1917, New York 1982, first
published 1925)
12 October
Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador to Russia
On [Kerensky] expressing the fear that there was a strong anti-Russian
feeling both in England and France, I said that though the British public was
ready to make allowances for her difficulties, it was but natural that they
should, after the fall of Riga, have abandoned all hope of her continuing to
take an active part in the war … Bolshevism was at the root of all the
evils from which Russia was suffering, and if he would but eradicate it he
would go down to history, not only as the leading figure of the revolution, but
as the saviour of his country. Kerensky admitted the truth of what I had said,
but contended that he could not do this unless the Bolsheviks themselves
provoked the intervention of the Government by an armed uprising.
(Sir George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia, London 1923)
13 October
Diary entry of Louis de Robien, attaché at the French Embassy
Kerensky is becoming more and more unpopular, in spite of certain grotesque
demonstrations such as this one: the inhabitants of a district in Central
Russia have asked him to take over the supreme religious power, and want to
make him into a kind of Pope as well as a dictator, whereas even the Tsar was
really neither one nor the other. Nobody takes him seriously, except in the
Embassy. A rather amusing sonnet about him has appeared, dedicated to the beds
in the Winter Palace, and complaining that they are reserved for hysteria
cases … for Alexander Feodorovich (Kerensky’s first names) and then
Alexandra Feodorovna (the Empress).
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917–1918, London 1969)
14 October 2017
The BBC2 semi-dramatisation of how the Bolsheviks took power, shown this week,
was a curious thing. Talking heads in the form of Figes, Mieville, Rappaport,
Sebag-Montefiore, Tariq Ali, Martin Amis and others were interspersed with
moody reconstructions of late-night meetings, and dramatic moments such as
Lenin’s unbearded return to the Bolshevik CC (cf Sukhanov above). The programme
felt rather staged and unconvincing, with a lot of agonised expressions and
fist-clenching by Lenin, but the reviewers liked it. Odd, though, that
Eisenstein’s storming of the Winter Palace is rolled out every time, with a
brief disclaimer that it’s a work of fiction and yet somehow presented as
historical footage. There’s a sense of directorial sleight of hand, as if the
rather prosaic taking of the palace desperately needs a re-write. In some
supra-historical way, Eisenstein’s version has become the accepted version.
John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World
, currently being
serialised on Radio 4, is also presented with tremendous vigour, and properly
so as the book is nothing if not dramatic. Historical truth, though, is often
as elusive in a book that was originally published — in 1919 — with an
introduction by Lenin. ‘Reed was not’, writes one reviewer, ‘an ideal observer.
He knew little Russian, his grasp of events was sometimes shaky, and his facts
were often suspect.’ Still, that puts him in good company, and Reed is
undoubtedly a good read.