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.
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