23-29 July 1917
- By Mark Sutcliffe
- •
- 29 Jul, 2017
- •
In the aftermath of the July events, Lvov resigned and
Kerensky took over the prime ministership, with wide-ranging powers. He offered
Kornilov command of the armed forces. He also ordered that units that had participated in the
mutiny be disarmed and the garrison reduced. Pravda and other Bolshevik publications were barred from the front.
Yet despite these energetic steps, Kerensky feared a right-wing, monarchist
coup more than a repetition of a Bolshevik putsch. Appeasing the Soviet, he
failed to deal the Bolsheviks the coup de grace they expected. This saved them:
later on Trotsky would write that ‘fortunately our enemies had neither
sufficient logical consistency nor determination’.
(Richard Pipes, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution, London 1995)
23 July
Diary entry of Joshua Butler Wright, Counselor of the American Embassy, Petrograd
We are still without a government although it now transpires
that Kerensky, at a meeting of representatives of practically all parties, will
be petitioned to form a cabinet of his own choosing … The complete change in
Kerensky’s attitude is typical of these extraordinary times. He it is who was
at first an idealist, an ultra-Socialist, and contributed more to the
demoralization in the army than any one person by countenancing the lack of
salute from men to officers and the abolition of the death penalty for
desertion. He now has become a conservative, has broken with the Council of
Soldiers and Workmen, has assumed the powers almost of a dictator, has restored
the salute and the death penalty, and is now sleeping in the Winter Palace in
the bed of Emperor Alexander II!!
(Witness to Revolution: The Russian Revolution Diary and Letters of J. Butler Wright, London 2002)
25 July
It took several attempts, but on 25 July Kerensky at last
managed to inaugurate the second Coalition Government. It was made up now of
nine socialist ministers, a slight majority, but all except Chernov came from
their parties’ right wings. In addition, and crucially, they entered cabinet as
individuals, not as representatives of those parties, or of the Soviet. In fact
the new government … did not recognise Soviet authority. Dual power was done.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Diary of Nicholas II
A new Provisional Government has been formed with Kerensky
at its head. Let’s see whether he can do any better. The first task is to
re-establish discipline in the army and revive its morale, as well as bringing
some order to the internal situation in Russia!
(Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, London 1996)
26 July
Late on 26 July, in a private hall in Vyborg, 150 Bolsheviks
from across Russia came together [for the Sixth Congress]. They assembled in a
state of extreme tension and semi-illegality, rudderless, their leaders
imprisoned or on the run. Two days after the start of their meeting, the
government banned assemblies deemed harmful to security or the war, and the
congress quietly relocated to a worker’s club in the south-west suburbs.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai Sukhanov
By the end of July a new Bolshevik congress had met. It was
already a ‘united’ conference where the party of Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev
formally coalesced with the group of Trotsky, Lunacharsky and Uritsky. The
leaders couldn’t attend – they could only inspire the congress from afar. But
somehow things were managed even without them.
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford 1955)
Diary entry of Louis de Robien, attaché at the French Embassy
Everyone is interested in the battalions of women soldiers
who exercise in the courtyard of the Paul Palace on the Fontanka … people talk
of the ‘heroism of the Russian women’ and they get all excited about it … as
for myself, I feel that is rather unpleasant histrionics. As far as fighting
goes these women can only be thinking of the rough-and-tumble!
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917-1918, London 1969)
27 July
Resolution of a meeting of workers in twenty-seven small
enterprises from the Peterhof district of Petrograd
On the Crisis of the Authority and the Current Moment
Recognizing the extremely critical condition of the Russian
Revolution … we, workers from the small enterprises of the Peterhof district …
consider it our duty to state: 1. The new coalition ‘combination’ of the
Provisional Government is frankly doomed to failure and to a new downfall in
the near future … 3. We demand the immediate repeal of the shameful
introduction of the death penalty. If the penalty has been repealed for
Nicholas the Bloody and his gang, then shame on those who would reinstate it
for the revolutionary soldier.
(Mark D. Steinberg, Voices of Revolution, 1917, New Haven and London 2001)
28 July
Diary of Nicholas II
A wonderful day; enjoyed our walk. After lunch we learned
from Benckendorff that we are not being sent to the Crimea, but to some remote
provincial town three or four days’ journey to the east! Where exactly they
haven’t said – even the commandant doesn’t know. And we were all counting on a
long stay in Livadia!
(Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, London 1996)
Diary entry of Alexander Benois, artist and critic
Got up at 5. A wonderful morning. A blue-grey mist hovered
over the lake … I’m reading Bismarck and increasingly convinced of the vanity of all political vanities. On
the one hand, how do we get by without them? And on the other, how can we
believe a word they say?
(Alexander Benois, Diary 1916-1918, Moscow 2006)
29 July
Diary entry of an anonymous Englishman
The Emperor and his family are still at Tsarskoe Selo; no
one knows the reason of the postponement of their journey to Siberia. He was
told about it and made no objection. It is true that the Empress can’t walk,
but I doubt that being the cause … Want of bread brought on the Revolution, and
the same may bring a counter-revolution. There is nothing to eat: I suffer most
from the absence of butter.
(The Russian Diary of an Englishman, Petrograd 1915-1917, New York 1919)
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29 July 2017
So Benois is reading Bismarck. Nicholas II seems to enjoy comic novels like Daudet’sTartarin de Tarascon. Not sure what Kerensky is reading but probably something rather energetic and improving. Lenin, of course, will be deep into Marxist theory. ‘If you want to know the people around you,’ Stalin is said to have said, ‘find out what they read.’ Meanwhile, in Petrograd and on the front, Bolshevik newspapers such as Soldatskaia pravda were being suppressed, though quite a few copies got through disguised as letters. A.F. Ilin-Genevsky, who was on the editorial board of Soldatskaia pravda, described how the paper ‘had to be made appropriate for an ill-prepared and little-educated reading public … Highfalutin words were absolutely taboo. In order to give the articles a form best suited to soldiers, we almost always changed the articles which we had written, to be simplified if need be … We took into account the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Army consisted of peasants in soldiers’ uniforms.’ Perhaps in his reading tastes, the ordinary soldier at the front was rather closer to the deposed tsar than to the leader of the Bolsheviks.
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.