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Abdication

On March 4, 1917 in the Mariinskiy Palace

a session of the new Russian government took place.

The following announcement was sent immediately to all the troops

at the front and in the rear:

“On March 2 of this year, Emperor Nicolay II

abdicated on behalf of himself and his son

in favour of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovitch.

On March 3, Mikhail Alexandrovitch refused to accept the highest power

until the Constituent Assembly approved the form of government

and appealed to the population to submit to the Temporary Government…”

Boris Valentinovitch Yakovenko

The Russian philosopher and revolutionary Boris Yakovenko went on writing his book

that became one of the first dedicated to the Russian revolution of 1917.

The History of the Russian Revolution. October. Episode Five

In March of 1917 the 300-year history

of the Imperial House of the Romanovs came to its end.

The coup d’état took place in Russia,

that came to be known as the February Revolution.

What will the new form of government in the state be?

Will be remained a monarchy or will it become a republic?

The deputies of the Constituent Assembly were to answer those questions.

The elections of those representatives of the people

were to be held around all the former Empire,

and then they had to meet in Petrograd to define the future of the state.

Before that, the power stayed in the hands of the so-called Temporary Government.

The Temporary Government was the highest executive and legislative body

of state power in Russia after the February Revolution.

The Temporary Government was functioning under the circumstances of diarchy,

together with the Petrograd Council of the Deputies from Workers and Soldiers.

The revolution became the reason for great joy

for many residents of the capital and other cities.

The air of freedom was so intoxicating

that they were often forgetting both the war and hunger.

During those days, nobody could believe

that the new power would last less than a year.

However, the reality was already reminding them about that,

and behind the facade of celebrations alarm and fear could be noticed.

The meetings were grey from the soldiers’ overcoats, the red banners were raised,

the posters with the revolutionary slogans hang everywhere,

people addressed each other as “citizen” or “comrade”

and sang revolutionary songs…

Mummy!

Together with the police officers and street cleaners

order and cleanness disappeared from the streets.

The revolutionary masses were making mess readily and happily –

now they were not afraid either of a shout or a fine or an arrest.

The foul language was heard everywhere.

Seeds became the main obsession, though.

All the pavements were covered with their husks

almost in all the cities of the Empire.

They were everywhere – at the military parades, in the rows of soldiers

and at the endless meetings. As a witness recalled,

the constant sound of the seeds being husked resembled a locust swarm.

Dad? Why aren’t you sleeping? Dad?

The contemporaries perceived that habit as something like a nervous disease

that demonstrated the fear of the future and a wish to get distracted,

to make oneself busy in the endless queues for bread and other food.

Italy, 1917

The meetings knew no end. Everybody was convening, and everybody,

in that form or another, was publishing resolutions,

greetings and support letters to the Temporary Government

and expressing the best wishes to its organizational activities.

The Temporary Government moved into the Mariinskiy Palace,

into the building of the former State Council.

During that spring, the leaders of the minds of the Russian society

and, first of all, of the intelligentsia were gathering there.

Nobody doubted the honesty and good intentions of the ministers.

However, the realization of their beautiful ideas was quite another matter.

The darkest worries of Emperor Nicolay II were coming true.

The Ambassador of France in Russia Maurice Paleologue wrote the following

about the new rulers:

“Not a single person who is at the power these days

has the political width of mind or decisiveness or bravery

demanded in such dire circumstances. The same expression of patriotism,

smartness and honesty. But they all look so tired from overwork and worries!

The task they have undertaken is clearly too much for them”.

Prince Georgiy Lvov became the chairman of the Temporary Government

and Minister of the Internal Affairs.

It’s a paradox that the Tsars from the House of the Romanovs

were replaced by a representative of an ancient Tsars’ dynasty of Rurik –

the Lvovs were the descendants of the antient princes of Smolensk and Yaroslavl.

A historian and writer Pavel Milyukov became the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The post of the military and naval minister was taken

by another favourite of the liberal society – Alexander Guchkov.

He was now responsible for the preparation of the Russian army

that for three years in a row had been fighting a very difficult war

that would go down in history as the First World War.

Mikhail Tereschenko, a large Ukrainian sugar producer, millionaire and patron

was appointed the Minister of Finances.

And Alexander Kerenskiy whose popularity continued to grow

became the Minister of Justice.

The Temporary Government dismissed all Tsar’s governors and vice-governors.

They were replaced by the commissars of provinces.

Censorship was legally banned, the national and religious limitations

of the freedom of movement, certain jobs and education cancelled.

A law on the freedom of meetings and unions was adopted.

It seemed to many that Russia was nearing the era of freedom,

equality and fraternity so patiently awaited by the Russian intelligentsia.

Nobody paid attention to weird actions and events

that accompanied the arrival of that new era.

People sang “Long Live the Temporary Government” in churches;

all over the country, the so-called Days of Freedom

or Holidays of Transfer to the New Regime were held.

The theatrical performances with orchestras

and military parades were organized in the cities.

Special masses on giving freedom to Russia were served.

Those incredible events sometimes lasted for ten hours in a row

and gathered huge crowds of people.

They were accompanied with collective singing of the revolutionary songs.

Sometimes those feasts looked like mass craze.

For example, in Lipetsk a specially made black coffin with a sign

“Eternal Curse at the Romanovs House”

was burnt in the street to the song of a chorus.

After the coffin had been burnt, the soldiers marched about the city

with music, red banners and revolutionary posters.

The Days of Freedom often coincided with the burials of people

who died during the street disturbances.

On March 23, on the Mars Field in Petrograd a few thousand people

marched in a mourning procession.

The coffins were lowered into huge common graves to the shots of the guns

from the Fortress of Peter and Pavel.

The representatives of the Temporary Government

also participated in the ceremonies.

The Military minister Guchkov

even kneeled in front of the graves and crossed himself.

The general atmosphere of excitement led to conflicts too.

At one such event in Kronstadt where a lot of officers were killed

during the days of the revolution, a seaman hit a priest shouting:

“We can’t do the revolution with God!”

Another seaman beat up a deacon

who dared offer the burial of the officers tortured by the seamen.

However, the monuments suffered the hardest blow.

In Bakhchisaray, the revolutionary soldiers performed a pogrom

at the Palace described in Pushkin’s poems and ruined a monument

to the 300-year anniversary of the Romanovs House.

In Feodosia, they glued the posters with the words “Shame”

to the monument to Alexander III who died over 20 years ago.

In the center of Kiev, a monument to the Prime-Minister of Russia Peter Stolypin

who died a tragic death was erected.

The monument was judged in court and sentenced to the execution.

The next day, a rope was thrown on the bronze Stolypin’s neck, and it was hung.

Then the sculpture was taken off from the monument

and driven away from the central square of Kiev.

Such acts made the street crowds gloat,

but the majority of the population was justly at a loss and scared.

People expected the new authorities to bring not just freedom but order too.

However, when the period of euphoria finished,

the chaos in the country only exacerbated. Partly, it was the government’s fault.

However, the parallel body of power, the Petrograd Council of the Deputies

from Workers and Soldiers played a much more significant part

in the destructive processes that engulfed the country.

The Council included both people who were organizing strikes in February

in the street of the cities (Gvozdev, Bogdanov) and the former deputy of the Duma

Skobelev, and other liberal socialists. Nicolay Tchkheidze headed the Council.

Nicolay Semenovitch Tchkheidze came from a noble Georgian family.

The deputy of the State Duma from the fraction of the Mensheviks.

Together with Gvozdev and Bogdanov,

became one of the organizers of the Petrograd Council of the Working Deputies.

As was the case with many others, he wasn’t actually elected to the Council.

He also headed the higher bodies of the Council.

The Council recognized the Temporary Government by the word only;

it started to fight it for the power in the country right away.

The Order no. 1 issued by the Council gave it the opportunity

to deprive the Temporary Government of the armed forces.

The Order no. 1 was issued by the Petrograd Council of the Deputies

from Workers and Soldiers on March 1, 1917.

The Order decreed to immediately form elected committees

from soldiers and seamen in the military units.

All the military men were now to report not to their officers

but to those committees.

Plus, the arms were taken away from the officers.

Any orders of the commandment were to be discussed by the committee

that was to deliver a decision whether to execute that order.

The circulation of the Order that was published was enormous – 9 mln copies.

The Order no. 1 stroke a destructive blow at the discipline in the army.

The soldiers were refusing to go into attacks and ignoring officers’ order.

The military units turned into gatherings of armed people.

The officers and war leaders were outraged.

Many of them were taking sides

with the counter-revolutionary forces and against the Councils.

In its fight with the power-in-effect the Council stooped to open demagogue

giving unrealizable promises both to the population and the soldiers

and blaming the Temporary Government for reactionary

and counter-revolutionary views.

At that, the Councils themselves didn’t bear any responsibility

for the state of affairs in the country.

However, the armed masses of people in the streets were for them,

so that was why their position was taken into account.

To control the activities of the Temporary Government,

the Petrograd Council formed the so-called Contact Commission

of the Executive Committee all the wishes of which

were immediately fulfilled by the Ministers.

A very dangerous diarchy was formed in Russia.

On the one hand, there was the Temporary Government,

on the other hand – the Councils.

The Government was the weakest side that was lagging behind in everything

and blamed for anything.

On the other hand, numerous political parties and groups were pressing

both on the Councils and on the Government.

The Bolsheviks were among the most aggressive.

They proved to be the most dangerous enemy of the Petrograd Council.

The Bolsheviks were an extreme wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Party

with Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) at the helm,

formed after its division

into the fractions of the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

With time, some Mensheviks took Lenin’s side too,

for example Lev Trotskiy and some others.

After the downfall of the monarchy,

an immense quantity of different parties and groups appeared in the country.

The cadets, socialist revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks

and different groups of the anarchists were the most influential.

The cadets were the only force out of all the pre-revolutionary parties

that kept some traces of influence.

They now changed the name into the Party of the People’s Freedom.

However, after the revolution the socialistic parties took control

over the minds of the major part of the population.

The socialist revolutionaries became the leaders.

In 1917, the party reached its record number – about 1 mln of people.

The Russian Social-Democratic Working Party of the Mensheviks was popular too.

The programs of the Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries were similar –

the division of land, the republican form of government

and the federative structure of Russia.

The socialist revolutionaries had a huge influence among the peasants

and the Mensheviks – among the workers.

The social-democratic working party of the Bolsheviks

didn’t exercise any significant influence in 1917.

Almost all its leaders were in exile, in emigration or in prisons.

The situation started to change after the amnesty.

The former prisoners solemnly left their prisons on two special trains.

Meetings, orchestras and red banners met them at railway stations.

The Bolsheviks started to arrive from abroad too.

In April, the leader of the Bolsheviks Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)

arrived in Petrograd from Switzerland

having passed the enemy Germany and neutral Sweden in a sealed wagon.

At the Finland railway station, honorary guards and Petrograd workers

who supported him met him. Lenin climbed up an armored car

and delivered a speech finishing it with the appeal:

“Long Love the Socialistic Revolution!”

He then went to the Bolsheviks’ headquarters

that was stationed in the estate

that previously belonged to Matilda Kshesinska, a famous ballerina.

There, Lenin appealed to his comrades to immediately start the preparation

for overthrowing the Temporary Government.

His words sounded fearfully radical.

However, even before Lenin arrived in Russia,

Kerenskiy said the prophetic words at the session of the government:

“Wait, Lenin himself is coming. That is when it’ll start in earnest”.

Kerenskiy was 11 years younger than Lenin.

They both came from the town of Simbirsk;

Vladimir Lenin graduated from a gymnasium headed by Kerenskiy’s father.

Kerenskiy knew a lot about Lenin, his energy

and his methods of the revolutionary struggle.

After his arrival, start in earnest it did.

The situation in which the Bolsheviks found themselves

after the February revolution was difficult.

Their influence on the workers and soldiers was insignificant.

The Bolsheviks weren’t represented

either in the Temporary Government, or in the Councils.

However, Lenin knew that the situation of his opponents was shaky too.

Therefore, he planned the following tactics.

On one hand, the Bolsheviks mercilessly criticized

any actions of the government and the Councils;

on the other, they spared no efforts to gain influence in the Councils,

take control over them; later they planned to use the soldiers and workers

who supported the Councils to arrest the Temporary Government and seize power.

To realize that program, they had a huge task of agitation

among the soldiers and workers ahead of them, and it demanded money.

As there were no television and radio at those times,

the main mass media were printed newspapers and leaflets)

as well as the speeches of the agitators at the meetings.

Those who could pay more for the printed materials

and outbid agitators and speakers at the meetings

would raise the ratings of their political party.

The Bolsheviks threw all their efforts and money into that work.

Some researchers believe that the material means

that the Bolsheviks were getting from Germany

as well as the printed materials published by the German and Swedish typographies

played a decisive part in that struggle.

Besides, the Bolsheviks were offering the highest wages to the agitators

for their speeches at the meetings.

Starting from the very beginning of the First World War,

Lenin was for the defeat of Russia in the war.

It let the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the German Secret Service

bet for Lenin’s Bolsheviks to help them throw Russia out of the war.

That would considerably ease the situation in Germany

that was fighting at the two fronts.

That’s why Germany permitted the transit of Lenin through its territory.

On April 8, one of the heads of the German secret service in Stockholm

sent a telegram to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Berlin:

“Lenin arrived in Russia safely. He is working just in the way we wanted him to”.

Germany didn’t spare money for the so-called “peaceful propaganda”

in the countries that were fighting against it.

According to the data of British historian Jonathan Smil,

by the end of 1917 Germany’s expenses for organization of disturbances in Russia

amounted to 30 million marks.

Still, the question of whether Germany was indeed financing the Bolsheviks

remains open to this day.

With every passing day, the influence of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd grew.

Soon, Lev Trotskiy returned to Russia from the United States of America.

Lev Davidovitch Trotskiy was a son of a large landowner David Bronstein.

Since his youth, he participated in the revolutionary movement,

studied Marxism and worked as a journalist.

During the Russian revolution of 1905-1907,

was one of the heads of the Petrograd Council,

was arrested and sentenced to an exile and settlement in Siberia.

However, he escaped on his way and emigrated.

After returning to Russia, Trotskiy was first the leader

of a small fraction of the so-called “inter-district Mensheviks”

who were for the coalition of the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks.

However, he was already tying his fate to Lenin and his Bolshevik party.

Right after coming to Russia, Trotskiy delivered a speech

at the Council of the Deputies from the Workers and Soldiers and stated:

“The Russian revolution is a prologue to the world revolution,

I believe that your next step will be the passing of the power

into the hands of the Councils of the Deputies from the Workers and Soldiers.”

Those words sounded like a declaration of war against the Temporary Government.

Meanwhile in mid-April the investigator of the extraordinary commission

of the Temporary Government Pavel Alexandrovitch Alexandrov

opened a criminal case against the Bolsheviks

on suspicions of their connections with the German secret services.

The pretext for that were some letters and telegrams sent by Lenin

and his comrades abroad and intercepted by the police.

The police planned to accuse them of espionage and cooperation with Germany

at three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Empire.

The investigators started to gather the materials.

The threat of arrest loomed over all the leading Bolsheviks.

The atmosphere in the country was becoming tenser and tenser.

The Temporary Government was losing the struggle

with the Petrograd Council but at the same time was concerned

about the possible attack from the counter-revolutionary forces,

first of all, the military. Mass cleansing started in the Russian army,

initiated primarily by the Military Minister Guchkov.

Each senior military officer was to undergo a special assessment

which was issued by Guchkov’s trusted people.

The military men called these docs “merzavki” – “foul papers”.

On the basis of those assessments, in March of 1917 alone

about 60% of the top commandment of the army lost their positions.

Among them were 8 commanders of the fronts and commanders of the army,

35 commanders of the corps

and 75 heads of the divisions.

It was absolutely inadmissible for the army in a state of a difficult war

and led to awful consequences at the fronts.

The commander of the 3rd cavalry corps Fedor Keller, Cavalry General,

the war hero nicknamed “the first sabre of Russia” was one of the first to go.

On March 6, Keller sent a telegram to the abdicated Emperor Nicolay II

with a request not to leave the throne.

The General refused to swear his allegiance to the Temporary Government claiming:

“I’m a Christian and I believe that it’s a sin to change allegiances”.

The telegram was intercepted and sent to Guchkov

who ordered that Keller should resign.

Keller Fedor Arturovitch, Cavalry General, the hero of the Russian-Turkish

and Russian-Japanese wars. Cavalier of the soldiers’ George Cross

and some other top awards of the Russian Empire.

In 1918, was defending Kiev from Petlyura’s forces

with a detachment of 30 officers.

He was taken prisoner and killed. He was the prototype of Colonel Nay-Turs

in of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guards”.

The government didn’t believe in the loyalty of the senior officers;

besides, it was scared that it would be blamed

for the betrayal of the revolution.

That was the reason why it listened to the demands of the soldiers.

The cleansing of the army was accompanied by arrests of the officers and reports.

They were accused not only of espionage, which was always a popular accusation

at the time of the wars, but also of the counter-revolutionary activities.

You’re arrested.

The newspapers were pouring oil into the fire –

first they scared the population with the impeding advance of the Germans

which could strangle the revolution and then swore

that the revolution wouldn’t retreat in the face of the Teuton bayonets

and wouldn’t give back achievements gained with blood.

That hysteria in the newspapers had its effect.

The Volyn Regiment arrived at the Tavria Palace

and demanded the war until the victorious end.

They held the posters and banners with the notes:

“Don’t forget your brothers in the trenches”, “The war until the victory”,

“Long love the Temporary Government

and the Council of the Deputies From the Workers and Soldiers”.

The other guard regiments like the Pavlovskiy, Semenovskiy

and Lithuanian held similar manifestations.

However, the situation in the army worsened with each passing day,

and it was impossible to remedy it with the meetings.

The mass cleansing of the commandment only exacerbated the situation.

The attempts to cancel Order no. 1 didn’t succeed.

Guchkov managed to make the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council

issue Order no. 2 which clarified that Order no. 1

applied to the rear units only.

However, the soldiers at the front wouldn’t listen to that.

The committees still discussed the orders of the commanders

and nobody fought for the restoration of the discipline.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Ussuriysk’s Kazak division

General Krymov arrived in Petrograd.

Before that, he was one of the leaders of the military opposition

that was plotting a coup together with Guchkov.

Guchkov appointed Krymov the commander of the 3rd cavalry corps

that was previously headed by Keller. Krymov came to the capital

to share his revolutionary plan of how to restore order

in the course of just two days and with only one division.

Lvov and Guchkov weren’t decisive enough to support that radical idea.

So, after getting a promotion Krymov went back to the front.

However, the idea of the military dictatorship in Russia

already took root in some minds.

Less than a month had passed since the Emperor’s abdication.

The elections of the deputies to the Constituent Assembly was to start.

That highest state body had to define the future form of government

and decide whether Russia should remain a monarchy or become a republic.

However, by that time the main political forces had formed

and entered the struggle for power:

the Temporary Government that wasn’t in a rush to hand it authority over

or convene the Constituent Assembly,

and the Council of the Deputies from the Workers and Soldiers

that reported to nobody.

The government and the councils consisted mostly of socialist revolutionaries and Mensheviks.

They were in effect the power.

The forces that wanted to seize the power opposed them,

namely the military that were ready to establish the military dictatorship

in the country, the Bolsheviks headed by Lenin, and other parties and forces.

The position of the Temporary Government that was criticized from all sides

was the most precarious. At the end of April it met its first serious crisis.

It was provoked by a diplomatic note of Milyukov

that seemingly wasn’t of any importance at all.

In that document addressed to Russia’s allies

and first of all, to France and Great Britain

the Minister for Foreign Affairs claimed the following:

“The Temporary Government will stick to the liabilities

undertaken regarding our allies”.

There was nothing counter-revolutionary in those words.

It wasn’t the first time that the Temporary Government said

that it supported the war until the victory.

That’s why it was taken aback by the reaction at Milyukov’s note.

As soon as the newspapers published the note, deserters and soldiers

of the reserve regiments who hadn’t been at the trenches even for a single day,

went out into the streets.

For them, Milyukov’s note meant one thing –

imminent departure to the front which they were trying to avoid by any means.

The members of the reserves whom the Bolsheviks supported

claimed that they did it to save the revolution.

In truth, it was another attempt to avoid going to the front.

The armed crowd encircled the Mariinsky Palace

where the Temporary Government was meeting.

The Ministers were close to panic. One of them even said:

“Maybe in a few hours we’ll all be in the “Kresty” or in the fortress”.

The session of the government was nearing its end

when General Kornilov came to the Palace.

Kornilov Lavr, Lieutenant General, a son of a common Kazak.

He served in Turkestan, carried out a couple of scout expeditions in the east.

During the First World War headed the 48th Infantry Division

and was nicknamed “Steel” for his bravery.

He was taken prisoner and managed to escape

after what he was appointed the commander of the corps.

Since March 1917, he was the commander of the troops

of the Petrograd military district.

The suppression of the revolt…

Kornilov suggested suppressing the advance with the armed force.

Kerenskiy answered the General: “Lavr Georgiyevitch…

Our force is our moral influence,

and to use the arms means to step on the former path

of the policy of violence, what I believe is impossible”.

…what I believe is impossible.

Meanwhile, the supporters of the government gathered by the Mariinskiy Palace too.

New slogans were heard: “The War until the victorious end”

and “Give Lenin back to Wilhelm”.

In the evening, a joint session of the Temporary Government

and the Petrograd Council took place

during which the socialists demanded to withdraw the note.

Milyukov refused. The very next day, the shootings started.

The exact number of victims is unknown, but it wasn’t great –

a couple of wounded and none dead.

However, the bloodless period of the Russian revolution was over.

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“Thus, on April 21, on the Neva Avenue the first victims of the feudal struggle

fell and the first drops of blood of the free Russian citizens

who came out into the streets to show their allegiance

to the new regime were spilled”.

Fearing the armed crowd, the government approved the resignation

of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Military Minister Guchkov.

Two politicians who spared no efforts to ensure the success of the revolution

lasted at their positions less than a month.

Soon General Kornilov left his post too and went back to the front.

The Temporary Government, despite having both the armed and the moral forces,

was too apprehensive to use them and lost.

In a result, the new Temporary Government was formed.

The sugar producer Mikhail Tereschenko became the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Kerenskiy’s positions strengthened immensely,

and he took over the key position of the Military Minister.

The peace that set in between the government and the Petrograd Council

was nearly ruined by the events in Kronstadt.

The local council proclaimed that it was the only authority in the city

and refused to recognize the Temporary Government.

However, that time the bloodbath was avoided, and the order restored.

Besides the internal political struggle, the increase of separatist movements

in different corners of the former Empire was another problem

challenging the Temporary Government.

The party “Dashnaktsyutun” (“Council”) in Armenia,

the party “Musavat” (“Equality”) in Azerbaijan,

the Union of the Highlanders of the Caucasus

and many other national organizations announced their nations

to have been oppressed and demanded as many rights as privileges as possible.

The Central Rada (“Council”) that convened in Kiev claimed

that Ukraine needed to be given autonomy.

During the first months of the revolution,

that body unexpectedly gained huge popularity,

and in mid-May a delegation from Kiev went to the capital.

The deputies demanded the Temporary Government

to recognize the Central Rada as the highest body of state power in Ukraine

and also grant Ukraine autonomy. The delegation got a refusal.

The government rebuked the first attack at the central power.

In Petrograd, the precarious era of agreement

between the Temporary Government and the Petrograd Council

consisting of the socialist revolutionaries and Mensheviks still existed.

The First All-Russia Meeting of the Councils that began

at the start of June adopted a resolution of trust to the Temporary Government.

At the same meeting, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee

of the Councils of the Deputies from the Workers and Soldiers

under the head of a Menshevik Nicolay Tchkheidze was formed.

According to the Meeting’s decision, a mass manifestation

was scheduled for June 18. About half a million people took part in it.

There the influence that Lenin’s party had gained

in the course of the last 2.5 months became evident.

The demonstration was walking shouting the Bolsheviks’ slogans.

The Council that was calling itself “the representative of people”

had just confirmed its trust to the Temporary Government.

However, the people went out into the streets with the slogans

“Shoo the Temporary Government and Ten Ministers the Capitalists!”

The socialist revolutionaries and the Mensheviks from the Petrograd Council

believed that there was only one way to stop the war – defeat the enemy.

However, the people were shouting “It’s time to stop the war!”,

“Pass all the power to the Councils!”.

The people were now evidently on the Bolsheviks’ side.

Lenin’s program of agitation of workers and soldiers proved effective.

Thanks to the populistic slogans and promises,

the Bolsheviks gained more and more influence on the people.

Due to that influence, they were close to taking control

over the Petrograd Council on a whole.

Despite the peaceful nature of the manifestations,

both the Council and the Temporary Government were alarmed.

The Military Minister Kerenskiy even got special authority

to suppress possible disturbances. There were no disturbances.

However, that situation seriously exacerbated

the problem of the groups of anarchists.

Anarchism, from the Greek word “anarchia” – “no power”,

is a teaching based on a theory of unlimited freedom

and equality of rights of all the people.

The anarchists denied the necessity of existence

of any type of social power and the state.

The movement wasn’t uniform and consisted of different groups, parties and circles.

The anarchists relied on the strength of their battle detachments.

Despite many illegal actions of the anarchists,

their ideas about the passing of the plants to the working people

were very popular among the workers.

By summer of 1917, the anarchists seized control

over some professional unions and organized the printing of newspapers.

They had an implacable stance regarding the war and the Temporary Government.

On June 5, the battle detachment of the anarchists illegally seized

the typography of the newspaper “The Russian Will”.

The attempts of the Petrograd Council to interfere were in vain.

The anarchists claimed that they wouldn’t recognize any Council.

The anarchists put a machine gun in the yard of the typography

and started printing the proclamations.

The Minister of Justice Pereverzev order the commander

of the Petrograd military district General Polovtsev to clear the typography.

After some resistance, the anarchists surrendered.

The invaders were taken out of the building to the applause of the street crowd.

General Polovtsev recalled:

“The public that filled all the adjacent streets

made a roaring ovation as if I seized Berlin”.

The government got scared of the armed actions

and tried to seize the headquarters of the anarchists

who settled in the summer estate of the former Tsar Minister Durnovo.

That attempt ended with protests and unrest.

The anarchists were shouting that the authorities were strangling the revolution.

Under that slogan, they ushered the workers for a demonstration,

and the authorities let the headquarters of the anarchists in peace.

The strikes started.

The rumours on possible introduction of the punitive operation

circulated in the streets.

In a couple of days, the anarchists seized the famous “Kresty” prison

and released six of their members.

Hundreds of the criminals used that to their benefit and escaped.

After that action, General Polovtsev had to get down to business again.

His soldiers penetrated the building of the summer cottage

and arrested 59 anarchists.

One of them died under unexplained circumstances.

The anarchists shouted to the Minister of Justice Pereverzev

who came to the place of the operation: “Mr. Minister, you’re a murderer!”

After all those actions that bordered on crimes General Polovtsev

and the Minister of Justice had to justify themselves

at the meeting of the Council for the alleged violence against the revolutionaries.

The perished anarchist was solemnly buried, and in some time,

all the arrested anarchists were released, as if nothing had happened.

The political life bordering on chaos and craze was boiling in Petrograd.

All the ministers and opposition members, Bolsheviks and anarchists

were solving their political tasks forgetting about the fact

that the country was in the state of war.

Cavalry General Alexei Brusilov was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the army.

He headed the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief

which reported to the Temporary Government and the Military Minister Kerenskiy.

The Petrograd Council and the soldiers’ committees also tried to press

on the commandment of the army.

In a result of all those influences and after the adoption of Order no. 1,

the discipline and the fighting spirit of the military men decreased.

Sometimes, they demonstrated complete indifference

to the military duty and their oaths.

By October, the army amounted to 10 million people

although only 20% from that number were actually at the front.

Meanwhile, the commandment was preparing for a grandioso advance.

In a case of success, the Austro-Hungarian Empire

would be thrown out of the war stage, and the German Eastern front

would be made to fight in defines and lose initiative.

Because of the revolution the advance that had been planned for April

was delayed because of the changes in the commandment of the army.

However, the soldiers didn’t want to fight at all.

The Military Minister Kerenskiy went to the front himself.

He gathered meetings, delivered speeches in front of the soldiers

and appealed to them to demonstrate the strength of the new revolutionary army.

The humorous people even nicknamed Kerenskiy

“the head of talking into something”.

Still, the Minister achieved his goal.

On June 18, after the heavy artillery preparation

the 11th and the 7th armies attacked,

directing their main blows towards Lvov.

It wasn’t the new Commander-in-Chief Brusilov who ordered to advance

but the Military Minister Kerenskiy.

The successful advance was to become his personal victory.

At first, the Russian troops were succeeding.

They seized three lines of the enemy trenches, took many prisoners and trophies.

The Germans were in shock – they didn’t expect that from the Russians.

However, later the advance stalled.

The front units bore huge losses

and the rest of the soldiers wanted neither to fight nor to die.

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“Many units started to escape in panic.

The entire divisions shamefully ran away

in front of the isolated companies of the enemy.

The demoralized units didn’t listen to orders and rushed to the east…”

The soldiers often refused to go to their positions

and even threatened to beat their officers up.

On July 2, the commander of the 22nd Grenadier Suvorov Regiment

Lieutenant Colonel Rykov was murdered

for the attempt to stop the escape from the front line.

The commander-in-chief of the front General Gutor immediately ordered

to disband the regiment but it didn’t help the situation.

Not all the units were running away from the front.

The 8th army of General Kornilov showed itself from the best side.

It managed to cover dozens of kilometres

and seize the enemy towns of Galitch and Kalush.

However, the general picture was dispiriting.

The Austrians and Germans who saw the weakness of the Russian troops

started the counter-attack. It was successful.

The Russian troops couldn’t hold their ground and retreated.

The army was turning into an uncontrollable crowd

that was wiping all the obstacles off its way, robbing and killing.

Mass deserting began.

The police were catching and hanging the deserters.

The crowds of the retreating troops walked

looking at the bodies of their comrades hanging from the trees and telegraph poles.

The last grandioso advance of the Russian army ended with a complete defeat.

Less than four months had passed after the victory of the revolution.

The soldiers were retreating. The army was virtually non-existent.

The politicians in the rear were leading the country to a new catastrophe…