So it is said at
a conference of the high officers in command. Desertions reached 8,000 weekly
by mid-April.
As you can see, Mr. Marx is well read in the theory of revolutions. You can also see that, between the two of us, he's the leftist. Now we are starting a new series to commemorate the Russian Revolution: 100 Years Ago Today, in Russia. See the right-hand column below to learn how the posts are organized.
Marx's Theory of Revolutions
Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
March 30 – March 17, 1917: Lenin Writes
Lenin writes Pravda criticizing the defensist views
published there. He blamed Kamenev, not Stalin.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
March 28 – March 15, 1917: Pravda Turns Right
Stalin and
Kamenev take over as co-editors of Pravda.
They adopted, among other views, the defensist position taken by the Manifesto
of the Soviet the day before.
This was contrary
to Lenin’s views. Lenin considered the defeat of Russia the lesser of two
evils, the greater one being participation in an imperialist war, by and for
the capitalist classes of the belligerents.
A supplementary
post follows this one in the chronological order.
March 27 – March 14, 1917: A Manifesto
The Soviet issues
a manifesto “to the people of the whole world” declaring for peace without annexations
or indemnities. But until that should happen the war against Germany and her
allies was to continue. The manifesto had carried the Soviet unanimously.
Meanwhile Trotsky
left New York for Russia on a Norwegian vessel. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, he
was detained by officials of the British navy and held with the Germans in a
prisoner of war camp. His speeches there won the support of many of the
enlisted men, but drew the ire of the German officers, not to mention the
British commandant.
The soviets
pressured the Provisional Government to secure Trotsky’s release, with the
result to be seen in the sequel.
March 25 – March 12, 1917 Stalin arrives
Bolsheviks
released from detention in Siberia arrive in Petrograd by train. Stalin,
Kamenev, and Muranov were greeted by the local, mostly younger, leadership of
the party. Stalin deposed the local trio Molotov, Schliapnikov, and Zalutsky as
senior member of the 1912 Central Committee then named by Lenin.
Meanwhile, the
Provisional Government outlawed the death penalty, though it was later restored
in the army.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
March 23 – March 10, 1917: Eight-Hour Days
The Manufacturers
Association agrees to recognize the union shops and to limit the working day to
eight hours. They had little choice, as the Petrograd workers were simply
leaving the factories after eight hours of work. The same conditions prevailed
in Moscow; the Moscow Soviet there made them official some ten days later.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
March 22 – March 9, 1917: Under House Arrest
At the insistence of the Soviet, and against the recommendation of
Kerensky for exile to England, the tsar and his family are detained in the
Winter Palace. The soldiers would have preferred that he be held in the Peter
and Paul fortress.
The Council of
the United Nobility put its resources at the disposal of the Provisional
Government. This, coming immediately after the arrest of the tsar, completed
the realignment of big bourgeoisie and landowning elements from the autocracy
to the liberal-bourgeois government.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
March 21 – March 8, 1917: The Tsar Arrested
Kerensky, Justice Minister of the Provisional Government, declares
the tsar is “in my hands”; he wants to escort him to England. What really
happened is that the railroad workers would not let the tsar pass. A Menshevik
delegated by the Soviet placed the tsar under arrest at Moghilev, near the
front.
Meanwhile, the
Provisional Government declared amnesty for political prisoners, most of whom
had already been freed anyway.
Monday, March 20, 2017
March 20 – March 7, 1917: A Separate Peace?
The war continues
to be a problem for the Provisional Government. Making a separate peace is
discussed. But just two weeks later, Miliukov, the Foreign Minister, hatched a
plot to seize the Dardanelles by betraying Serbia.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
March 19 – March 6, 1917: A Declaration
The Provisional
Government issues a declaration promising to summon a Constituent Assembly and
to carry the war through to victory. Trotsky observes that neither promise meant
want it seemed to mean, nor indeed anything at all. The Provisional Government
hadn’t summoned the Constituent Assembly months later when the October
Revolution overtook it. The promise about the war was addressed more to Britain
and France than to the people of Russia; the Provisional Government wanted
business as usual with its allies of the Entente.
The Soviet voted
to appoint commissars to each regiment of the army. The soldiers were
gravitating towards the view that they would fight to defend the revolution, but
refuse to take the offensive. The defensist position was also that of a
majority of the Soviet, but not necessarily of the Bolsheviks.
From Switzerland,
Lenin cabled the Petrograd Bolsheviks advice on tactics. His “Letters
from Afar,”
opposing accommodation with the Provisional Government, began to appear in Pravda during this time.
March 18 – March 5, 1917: Pravda
First issue of Pravda, central organ of the Bolshevik
Party. By order of the Executive Committee of the Soviet, the workers printed
only those publications approved by the Soviet. That meant no more “right press”
for the time being; the decision was reversed some days later under pressure
from the bourgeoisie.
Among Pravda’s first editors was the left-Bolshevik
Molotov.
Meanwhile, the workers
returned to work under conditions, including eight-hour days, proposed by the Soviet.
Word of the revolution began filtering through to the soldiers at the front,
where the Bolshevik peace policy was not widely accepted.
Friday, March 17, 2017
March 17 – March 4, 1917: Dual Government
The Bolshevik
Central Committee states its opinion of the dual government shared by the
Soviet and the Provisional Government: the latter is counter-revolutionary. But
on the same day, the Petrograd committee of the Bolshevik party resolved not to
oppose the Provisional Government, contrary to the wishes of the Bolshevik
left, including the Vyborg workers.
In the spread of
the revolution through the armed forces, officers of the Baltic Fleet are
arrested or drowned.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
March 16 – March 3 1917: Right and Left Bolsheviks
The Provisional
Government next asks Grand Duke Michael to abdicate. He complies. The
revolution was announced to the world by radio.
The Bolshevik
leadership on the scene, Molotov and self-educated workers Schliapnikov and
Zalutsky formulated the party’s response to the measures of the bourgeois
liberal Provisional Government. There were still left and right Bolsheviks, with
“defensists,” who wanted to continue the war, on the right.
Among the left
Bolsheviks were the workers of the Vyborg district. They wanted to depose the
Provisional Government in favor of the Soviet. But this precariously balanced
“dual government,” as Trotsky calls it, was held together by mutual suspicions
in the weeks and months that followed.
Meanwhile
“compromisers” on the Executive Committee of the Soviet issued Order No. 2,
intended to annul Order No. 1 by limiting it to the Petrograd garrison. Order
No. 2 was ineffective, being ignored by the revolutionary soldiery.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
March 15 – March 2, 1917: The Tsar Abdicates
The tsar makes
one final offer to appoint a new cabinet of ministers. Rodzianko informed him
that, no, the question is now “the dynasty itself.” Having received the same
advice from his marshals, the tsar agreed. But the Provisional Committee did
not insist on getting rid of the whole dynasty. The deputies sent to meet with
the tsar returned with an abdication in favor of his brother the Grand Duke
Michael, as regent for his son Alexei. One of them said, “Long live the Emperor
Michael!” and was promptly arrested.
The Provisional
Committee completed its work for becoming a Provisional Government. Prince Lvov
was made head of state; Miliukov became Foreign Minister; Kerensky became
Minister of Justice. Kerensky was the only minister with any socialist
credentials whatsoever. Many ministers – of agriculture, of labor, for example
– came from among the big landowners and bourgeoisie. In other words, it
resembled Mr. Trump’s cabinet. So much so that the big bourgeois organ, the
Council of Trade and Industry, put its resources at the service of the Provisional
Government.
Meanwhile the
Bolshevik Central Committee resolved that the Provisional Government was
counter-revolutionary, but also not to oppose it.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
March 14 – March 1, 1917: The Provisional Committee and the Tsar
Rodzianko wants
to telegraph the tsar. Fearing arrest by the workers, he asked for an escort to
the telegraph office by deputies of the Soviet.
The Provisional
Committee, on the one hand, accepted the power to form the state that the
revolution had won, but on the other, continued to negotiate with the tsar.
Though the tsar’s ministers had been placed under arrest and brought before the
Duma, he nevertheless proposed a deal that would allow him to continue to fight
the war, while the Provisional Committee would administer all other government
functions. But it was too late for the tsar. Abdication was broached in an
exchange of telegrams that also made the situation in the capital clear to the
tsar. He may have offered to appoint new ministers; he definitely agreed to
submit the question of abdication to his marshals at the front.
For their part,
Miliukov and other bourgeois now being named or naming themselves ministers of
the Provisional Committee did not want to part with the monarchy entirely,
preferring to keep it in name as a shield against the revolution. But the
demand of the Soviet’s Executive Committee when it met with the Provisional
Committee was modest: only to be allowed to continue agitation among the
workers, soldiers, and peasants. The rest of the revolutionary program – land
reform, an end to the war, the eight-hour day, etc. – was not put on the table.
Even the Bolsheviks on the committee went along with this.
Meanwhile the
revolution is complete in Moscow, where the Moscow Soviet holds its first
session. It was also spreading to the provincial cities. At Novgorod, the mayor
made a speech in its favor; political prisoners are freed. The workers of
Samara and Saratov organized Soviets. The chief of police in Kharkov cried,
“Long Live the revolution!”
Back in Petrograd,
Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries of the Executive Committee issued Order
No. 1 for the benefit of the soldiers who had joined the revolution. It called
for each regiment to elect members to the soviets and to form regimental
committees of enlisted men. It also regulated control of weapons and social
interactions with officers, who in every case came from a different social
stratum than the peasant soldiery.
Monday, March 13, 2017
March 13 – February 28, 1917: The Provisional Committee and the Soviet
Neither the
leadership of the Progressive Bloc, including the socialist and communist
parties in the Duma, much less that of the Bolsheviks, attempts to lead the
establishment of the revolutionary state. That was left to the bourgeois
liberal parties under Rodzianko, Miliukov, and Kerensky.
The tsar was by
then trying to make his way back into Petrograd, from where the thoroughly
alarmed tsarina was trying to telegraph him. Neither the telegraphs nor the
railways were working for the imperial family by then; they were in the hands
of the workers and the Soviet. The tsarina’s telegrams were never sent; the
tsar was held up at a suburban station and eventually had to return to the
front. The Soviet had also closed down the monarchist press and began to print
its own newspaper Izvestia – “The
News of the Soviet.”
Troops sent earlier
from the front turned back of their own accord. The situation in the capital
was too completely lost for them to restore it.
Even the
Peter and Paul fortress
in the middle of the Neva River, hitherto undisturbed by the insurrection,
offered to surrender. Schlusselberg prison was also taken.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
March 12 – February 27, 1917: The Garrison Mutinies
The morning
starts quietly. The tsarina, relieved, telegraphed her husband to that effect.
But the workers were meeting at the factories and deciding to continue the
insurrection. They issued a declaration to the soldiers …
… but some of them
had already refused orders to march into the streets. Instead the regiment leading
the mutiny sent messages to the other regiments calling on them to join it. By
evening there was scarcely a battalion of loyal troops left to the commander of
the garrison, who nevertheless felt it his duty to declare martial law. Meanwhile
soldiers had helped the Vyborg workers destroy the police barracks. The Moscow
regiment armed some of the workers. They spread throughout the city in armored
cars, sacked the arsenal, freed the political prisoners, and arrested the
commander of the garrison.
Telegrams to the
tsar communicate alarm. Rodzianko thinks “the last hour has come,” but the tsar
says it’s nonsense. Troops from the front were dispatched to the capital. Golytsin
resigned but the tsar refused to appoint a replacement. When part of the Duma
assembled in the Tauride Palace (the Progressive Bloc held back), the tsar’s
edict of dissolution was revealed. Fearing to remain in session, the deputies
could only decide not to leave town quite yet. Miliukov addressed them, then
Kerensky warned that a crowd was approaching.
It was, led by
soldiers. As the assembly evaporates, Rodzianko’s motion to form a Provisional
Committee of the State Duma cannot be voted on, but this does not stop him from
forming it. In another part of the palace, by now occupied by soldiers and
workers, the revolution, with the help of leadership just released from the
prisons, formed the Soviet of Workers Deputies. The soldiers’ deputies were
added the following day. A Menshevik, Cheidze, was named president of the
Soviet and its Executive Committee.
The Soviet met
that evening amid chaos and ratified the membership of its self-appointed
Executive Committee. They assumed control of the distribution of food. In the
hours and days that followed, the Soviet occupied the State Bank, Mint,
Treasury and Printing Office; it took control of Petrograd’s postal and
telegraph services, the wireless, rail stations, and printing plants. It also
arrested those of the tsar’s ministers it could lay its hands on.
The same things
happened in Moscow. There were strikes and demonstrations. Soldiers came
forward asking how they could become part of the revolution. Political
prisoners were freed.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
March 11 – February 26, 1917: Countermeasures Fail
Overnight police arrest revolutionist leadership, including Molotov, Schliapnikov,
and Zalutsky of the Bolshevik Committee. The revolution goes on without them.
Workers have
gained physical control over parts of the city; all government apparatus in
those neighborhoods, including police stations, had been abandoned. The bridges
over the Neva being blocked, workers crossed into Petersburg on the ice. Police
were firing from concealed positions.
An alarmed tsarina
Alexandra, German by birth, telegraphs her husband from the imperial palace in
Petersburg. The Minister of War considered asking for troops from the front,
but decided to use firehoses instead. That tactic was unsuccessful.
The President of
the Duma, Rodzianko, asks the head of the Council of Ministers, Prince
Golytsin, to resign. The latter responds by revealing the tsar’s undated edict
dissolving the Duma.
Some of the
soldiers, or their officers, fired on the demonstrators. Chagrined that trainees
from their regiment had done so, a company of the Imperial Guards garrison
refuses orders. This was mutiny. Meanwhile the leaders of the Vyborg workers were
discussing whether to end the strike.
Friday, March 10, 2017
March 10 – February 25, 1917: General Strike
The strike in
Petrograd becomes general. By now, 240,000 workers have joined it. Even small
factories, and commerce generally, are affected.
The authorities
responded with another of their planned escalations, in which the city’s
military garrison forms line of battle and opens fire. The result was not at
all according to plan. The workers did not confront the soldiers. Rather, one
of them, cap in hand, asked the Cossacks to help against the police.
Reportedly, some Cossacks attacked the mounted police instead, and one of the
police was sabered.
Confrontation was
reserved for the police. To the soldiers, the women said, according to Trotsky,
“Put down your bayonets – join us.” With the result to be seen in the sequel.
Meanwhile the
tsar’s Minister of War telegraphs him about the strikes. Naturally the tsar
would like the disorders to be put down. The commander of the Petrograd
garrison threatened to send all workers who had registered for the draft to the
front – in three days. But the
situation would be very different by then.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
March 9 – February 24, 1917: The Strike Spreads
Two hundred
thousand workers, about half the industrial labor force, are on strike in
Petrograd. Among others, students joined them. The slogans cried for bread, but
also against tsarist autocracy and the war.
On the first day
of strikes, only police were sent to control the crowds. But on the second day,
the authorities took the second step in a long-planned escalation: they sent
Cossacks to drive the workers back with horses and whips. But the plan of the
tsar’s Council of Ministers failed. The Cossacks, instead of driving away the
workers, in some cases simply filed through them, or let them pass under their
horses. Nor did they fire on the workers, but some of them broke up police
formations that were. Trotsky says, “…one of them gave the workers a good
wink.”
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
March 8 – February 23, 1917: International Women’s Day
A strike by female
textile workers celebrating International Women’s Day begins the February Revolution.
The Women’s Day observance had been created in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America
to commemorate a strike by the Ladies Garment Workers the previous year.
The want of bread
continued to be an issue. Though the Bolsheviks had not called for strikes, the
women asked the metal workers of the Vyborg district to support theirs. Soon,
with the Bolshevik, Menshevik, and Social Revolutionary party machineries
behind them, 90,000 workers were in the streets. The demonstrations began on
the mainly industrial Vyborg side of the frozen Neva River. Later they poured
over to the Petersburg side, which held the imperial palace and the seats of
government.
Meanwhile, the
tsar Nicholas II is at the front with his marshals. He is not sent word of the
strikes until the third day.
At this time,
Lenin was an émigré in Berne, Switzerland, Trotsky in New York. Stalin, having
flunked the physical for induction into the Russian army, was held a political
prisoner in Krasnoyarsk on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
March 5 – February 20, 1917: Bakeries
The next day, people
ransack bakeries in several parts of Petrograd.
Saturday, March 4, 2017
March 4 – February 19, 1917: Bread
Within a few
days after rationing starts, people – mostly women – mass around Petrograd shops demanding bread.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
March 1 – February 16, 1917: Bread Rationing
Authorities issue
cards for rationing bread in Petrograd. Food shortages were widespread in
Russia during World War I. Not only had many agricultural workers been
conscripted into the armies, but the armies themselves still had to be fed.
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