10-16 September 1917
- By Mark Sutcliffe
- •
- 16 Sep, 2017
- •
A large section of the propertied classes preferred the
Germans to the Revolution – even to the Provisional Government – and didn’t
hesitate to say so. In the Russian household where I lived, the subject of
conversation at the dinner-table was almost invariably the coming of the
Germans, bringing ‘law and order’ … One evening I spent at the house of a
Moscow merchant; during tea we asked the eleven people at the table whether
they preferred ‘Wilhelm or the Bolsheviki’. The vote was ten to one for
Wilhelm.
(John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World, New York 1919)
11 September
Diary entry of Joshua Butler Wright, Counselor of the American Embassy, Petrograd
Of the German offensive against this capital I have at the
moment no fear. Of the results of the ineptitude of the Provisional Government,
the possible outbreak of disorder, the probable riots that might then ensue, I
have some fear – or if not fear at least I feel that we should be prepared for
such eventualities.
(Witness to Revolution: The Russian Revolution Diary and Letters of J. Butler Wright, London 2002)
Diary entry of Louis de Robien, attaché at the French Embassy
At dinner last night with Prince Gorchakov everybody was
very pessimistic. M. Narichkin, who came in during the evening, said that peace
must be made at all costs by giving the Germans everything they want. The whole
of Russia basically thinks the same as he does: but there are still people who
dare not say so.
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917-1918, London 1969)
12 September
Letter from Lenin to the Central Committee and and the Petrograd and Moscow Committees of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Why must the Bolsheviks assume power now? Because the
impending surrender of Petrograd will render our chances a hundred times less
favourable. And while the army is headed by Kerensky and Co. it is not in our
power to prevent the surrender of Petrograd … A separate peace between the
British and German imperialists must be prevented, and can be prevented, but
only by quick action … It would be naïve to wait for a ‘formal’ majority for
the Bolsheviks; no revolution ever waits for that. Kerensky and Co. are not
waiting either; they are preparing to surrender Petrograd … Power must be
assumed in Moscow and Petrograd at once (it does not matter which begins; even
Moscow may begin); we shall win absolutely and unquestionably.
V.I. Lenin, ‘The Bolsheviks Must Assume Power’, in The
Russian Revolution: Writings and Speeches from the February Revolution to the
October Revolution, London 1938)
As for Kamenev’s and Zinoviev’s suggestion that the party
await a popular mandate from the Second Congress of Soviets, [Lenin] dismissed
it as ‘naïve’: ‘no revolution waits for that’. The Central Committee was far
from convinced: according to Trotsky, none of its members favoured an immediate
insurrection.
(Richard Pipes, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution, London 1995)
13 September
Diary entry of an anonymous Englishman
Yesterday to Tsarskoye Selo to wish the Grand Duke Boris
‘Good-bye and Good Luck.’ He was very sad, and said, ‘You are my last link with
civilisation.’ On my return, went to the Embassy to thank His Excellency and
Lady Georgina for their infinite kindness to me during my sojourn in Russia.
This morning left Petrograd at 7.30 for England.
(The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Petrograd 1915-1917, New York 1919)
14 September
Interview given by Kerensky to Le Figaro, reported in the Times
I maintain hope and confidence that the country will revive.
The time has come when we are going to reclimb the slope, and we shall get to
the top … we have attracted to our front rather more than half the total forces
of the Central Empires. We had to bear a tremendous effort on the part of the
enemy, but we have pulled ourselves together, and we shall do everything to
face the formidable necessities of the situation in order to attain the success
of our Armies ... The enemy has made skilful use of the circumstances in order
to throw suspicion on our faithfulness and loyalty as an ally. Only the German Press
could have spoken of a separate peace. Russia will never make a separate peace.
No man would ever consent to put his signature to such a treaty. Such an idea
must be excluded alike from the hopes of our enemies and the fears of our
Allies.
(‘Russia will never make a separate peace’, The Times)
15 September
Report in the Times
The military section of the Soviet has voted a motion
demanding the dissolution of the so-called ‘shock’ battalions for the following
reasons:- (1) From the point of view of principle it is inadmissible that there
should be in the Army groups of privileged solders who arrogate to themselves
the right to die for the liberty of the country, when the right belongs to all
soldiers. (2) The ‘shock’ battalions place the Russian Army in the position of
an Army which refuses to defend liberty. (3) The ‘shock’ battalions diminish
the capacity of the Army by creating, on the one side, a category of heroes,
and, on the other, a mass of conscienceless soldiers.
(‘Soviet’s Objections to “Shock” Battalions’, The Times)
16 September
A Prekaz [Order]
has been circulated; it directs that, in the event of withdrawal from Roumanian
territory, Russian soldiers are strictly forbidden to ill-treat the peasantry,
or to steal from them. Another Prekaz,
this time from the Roumanian High Command, forbids all sale of foodstuffs to
the Russians. I must admit that my sympathies lie with the Roumanians; the
Russians are really bad allies, they have lived so long in Galicia, where they
considered everything theirs by right … The newspapers hint that Kerensky may
resign, as so many people – including some of his own supporters – are
advocating a military dictatorship.
(Florence Farmborough, Nurse at the Russian Front: A Diary 1914-18, London 1974)
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16 September 2017
For most of the year the Russian press has been fairly
underwhelmed, it appears, by the centenary of the Revolution. But a new film, Matilda, about Nicholas II’s
relationship with the ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, has unleashed a media
storm this week. A young Duma member, Natalya Poklonskaya, is leading the attack, saying
that anyone who watches this ‘blasphemy’ is complicit in its offence against
the Orthodox faith (Nicholas having been canonised in 2000). Even Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky
has weighed in, though since the film isn’t on general release until October,
it seems unlikely that many have seen it. It’s interesting that a few seamy
scenes of the last Emperor and his mistress are portrayed as an attack on the
church and somehow, by association, the government. In 1917, postcards
depicting the deposed Emperor engaged in all kinds of unmentionable acts were
part of governmental strategy to vilify his regime. Hard to get one’s head round, but sometimes
it seems that contemporary Russia is far more in thrall to tsarist nostalgia than
the democratic ideals that were still fighting for life exactly a century ago.
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.