27 August - 2 September 1917
- By Mark Sutcliffe
- •
- 02 Sep, 2017
- •
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai Sukhanov
Sunday, August 27th, marked the end of six months of revolution. It was a rather wretched jubilee … I went to the Petersburg Side to the Cirque Moderne, where Lunacharsky was giving a lecture on Greek art. A huge working-class audience was listening with great interest to the popular speaker and his unfamiliar stories. … The two of us … wandered about the streets and quays for a long time, talking about aesthetics and ‘culture’ … There was a breath of autumn already in the sky. The unforgettable summer was ending, and the sun set early in the sea. We could not sufficiently admire our marvellous Petersburg … The phone rang. Someone from Smolny: …’Kornilov is moving on Petersburg with troops from the front. He’s got an army corps. Things are being organized here…’ I dropped the receiver. In two minutes Lunacharsky and I had already left for Smolny.
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford 1955)
At a hasty cabinet meeting, [Kerensky] read out the transcript ‘proving’ Kornilov’s ‘treachery’. He demanded the astonished ministers grant him unlimited authority against the coming danger. The Kadets, deeply imbricated with the Kornilovite milieu, objected, but the majority gave Kerensky a free hand. They resigned as he requested, remaining only in caretaker capacities. Thus, at 4am on 27 August, the Second Coalition ended.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
28 August
Diary entry of Louis de Robien, attaché at the French Embassy
Last night I was called to the Embassy by telephone, with the news that General Kornilov had announced the fall of the provisional government and was marching on Petrograd … the facts of the situation [are these]: Kornilov had informed Kerensky through the intermediary of M. Lvov, that in view of the danger which threatened the country, he had decided to take over as dictator, and that he was offering him the office of Minister of Justice in the new government. Naturally, the vain and sensual petty lawyer, who believes himself to be the master of Russia because he sleeps in the Emperor’s bed, could not resign himself to taking his hand out of the till: he answered by having M. Lvov arrested and declaring Kornilov ‘a traitor to the fatherland’.
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917-1918 , London 1969)
29 August
Diary entry of Joshua Butler Wright, Counselor of the American Embassy, Petrograd
Rumour has it that many regiments are going over to Kornilov and that he is not far beyond Tsarskoye. It is undoubtedly the fact that the ‘counter-revolutionists’, or monarchists, are on his side too. Heavy detachments of troops in Champs de Mars.
(Witness to Revolution: The Russian Revolution Diary and Letters of J. Butler Wright, London 2002)
Report during a journey along the Volga river by Manchester Guardian correspondent
‘I say there is no hope for Russia till we have a dictator who can discipline these dogs, and stop all this anarchy,’ said a man in a general’s uniform to his neighbour, a well-dressed civilian. Both were sitting at a mahogany table, taking coffee and rolls. ‘Oh, yes, that’s quite true,’ said the civilian. ‘Before the Revolution the peasants on our estate used to work well, but then, of course, you always had to be there with the threat of force to drive them; I suppose it is just the same with the soldiers.’
(M. Philips Price, My Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution, London 1921)
Report in The Times
It is clear that such power as exists in Russia resides not
in the Provisional Government, but in the self-constituted and irresponsible
committees which have obtained control over the simple soldiery … The news of
the internal strife in Russia will be received with profound sorrow in this
country. The saddest feature of the situation is that M. Kerensky and General
Korniloff are both patriots, and both have the welfare of Russia deeply at
heart … In six months the Russian Army has been stripped of its generals as one
strips an artichoke, although many of them … were as ardent in support of the
Revolution as M. Kerensky himself.
(The Times, 29 August (11 September) 1917)
30 August
Report in The Times
Russia is at the point of civil war. Troops supporting
General Korniloff have moved on Petrograd, and, in order to delay them,
supporters of M. Kerensky and the Provisional Government are destroying the
railway lines converging on the capital. The ‘Savage Division’, once commanded
by Korniloff, are reported 30 miles from Petrograd.
(The Times, 30 August (12 September) 1917)
Here to meet them … were scores of emissaries. They came
from the Committee for Struggle, from district soviets, from factories,
garrisons, Tsentroflot, from the Naval Committee, the Second Baltic Crew. And
locals had come too. All stamping across the scrub and through the trees
towards that wheezing train. They came with agitation in mind. They came to beg
the Savage Division to resist being used for counterrevolution.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Letter to the Editor
Sir, As a personal friend of General Korniloff … may I thank you
for your leading article of this morning’s date? Those who label General
Korniloff as a traitor to his country are traitors themselves … As an
individual, he has a strong personality – the personality of a Cossack … I said
at that moment [Revolution], and I say again today, that Russia will be saved
by a strong, clean, straightforward individual, unswerved by all petty, passing
passions which temporarily influence the emotional mind. Such a man is General
Korniloff.
Yours very truly, Marjorie Colt Lethbridge, 15 Cambridge
Terrace, Hyde Park
(The Times, 30 August (12 September) 1917)
31 August
Letter to the Editor
Sir, A letter in your yesterday’s issue from Mrs Lethbridge
appears to suggest that General Korniloff is the sole patriot in Russia at the
present moment. The fact is that so far as genuine patriotism … is concerned,
there is absolutely no choice to be made between Korniloff and Kerensky … The
truth is that Kerensky and Korniloff are equally necessary for the salvation of
Russia. Each is incomplete without the other. They are two utterly unselfish
men both striving for the same goal, but along different paths.
Yours, Paul Dukes, 2 Bethune Avenue, Friern Barnet
(The Times, 31 August (13 September) 1917)
Diary entry of an anonymous Englishman
It is all over! Kornilov has failed. How it happened we
don’t know yet, but today he is to be brought to Petrograd under arrest. If he
had succeeded – as he ought to have done, once he had embarked on so important
an undertaking – we should have had order restored … The failure of Kornilov
has completely knocked me over, and yesterday I could not walk. I still foresee
an ocean of blood before order comes.
(The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Petrograd 1915-1917, New York 1919)
1 September
Diary entry of Joshua Butler Wright, Counselor of the American Embassy, Petrograd
Anarchy seems to stalk in the streets, for not only has the
government given the workmen arms in the recent trouble (about 40,000) but the
Soviet of Workmen and Soldiers’ Deputies informed the ministry last night that
they wished no Kadets in the ministry. Sober sense cannot but see complete
demoralization in the army and serious trouble in this city.
(Witness to Revolution: The Russian Revolution Diary and Letters of J. Butler Wright, London 2002)
2 September
Memoir of Fedor Raskolnikov, naval cadet at Kronstadt
The ‘Kornilov days’ constituted a Rubicon after which our
Party grew so strong that it was soon able to put on the agenda the decisive
proletarian attack. The Party’s standing among the workers increased with
fantastic speed. The very word ‘Bolshevik’, which after the July days had been
a swear-word, was now transformed into a synonym for an honest revolutionary,
the only dependable friend of the workers and peasants.
(F.F. Raskolnikov, Kronstadt and Petrograd in 1917, New York 1982, first published 1925)
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2 September 2017
In his memoir, Kerensky describes the defeat of Kornilov in pyrrhic terms: ‘The first
news of the approach of general Kornilov’s troops had much the same effect on
the people of Petrograd as a lighted match on a powder keg. Soldiers, sailors,
and workers were all seized with a sudden fit of paranoid suspicion. They
fancied they saw counterrevolution everywhere. Panic-stricken that they might
lose the rights they had only just gained, they vented their rage against all
the generals, landed proprietors, bankers and other “bourgeois” groups.’ The
resistance to Kornilov was led by the Bolsheviks with a momentum that carried them through to October. Lenin had demanded renewed radicalism: ‘Now is
the time for action; the
war against Kornilov must be conducted in a revolutionary way, by drawing the
masses in, by arousing them, by inflaming them (Kerensky is afraid of the masses, afraid of the people).’ As
for Kornilov, with his fellow conspirators he escaped from prison in November
1917 and became military commander of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army. He was
killed by a Soviet shell in April 1918.
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.