Ten Days That Shook the World

ttee for

Novemb

kask, Nov

minal and absolutely inadmissible. In consequence, the Cossacks will lend all their support to the Provisional Government, which is a government of coalition. Because of these circumstances, and un

ATAMAN

Government of t

er-President Kerensk

of all the armed forces of the Russian Republic, declare that I am at the h

rough mistake or folly have answered the appeal of the traitors to t

ad in all regiments, b

r-President of

and Supre

KERE

y to the General in C

on

Detachments of Cronstadt sailors, and of the Semionovsky and Ismailovsky reg

quickly as possible. The Military Revolutiona

he neighbourhood, had indeed been surrounded by Cossacks and given up their arms; but it was not true that they had joined the Government troops. At this very moment

uthward had split hopelessly, bitterly into two factions-or three: the high command being on the side of Kerensky,

the same Muraviov who had organised the Death Battalions during the summer, and had once been heard to advise the Government that "it

ry Revolutionary Committee, directing that all shops and stores should open as usual, a

the postmen would not handle their mail. Only the Government wireless at Tsarskoye Selo launched half-hourly bulletins and manifestoes to the four corners of heaven; the Co

, which happened to be meeting there; in Kazan, a Military Revolutionary Committee arrested the local garrison staff and the Commissar of the Provisional Government; from far Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia, came news that the Soviets were in control of the Municipal institutions; at Moscow

he officers, yunkers and middle class generally were on the side of the Government-as were the bourgeois Cadets and the "moder

had ended by merely perpetuating the hollow structure of the old regime. Now, however, the Bolsheviki, in one night, had dissipated it, as one blows away smoke. Old Russia was no more

y the Ministries of Labour and of Supplies-the only t

oujours de l'audace…." At five in the morning the Red Guards entered the printing office of the City Government, confiscated thousands of copies of the Appeal-Protest of the Duma, and suppressed the official Municipal organ-the Viestnik Gorodskovo Samoupravleniya (Bulletin of t

the newspapers, will not keep the country in ignorance long. The country will

he steps stood boy-scouts and officers, distributing copies of the Soldatski Golos. A workman with a red band around his arm and a revolver in his hand stood trembling with rage and nervousness in the middle of a hostile throng at the foot of the stairs, demanding the surrender of the papers…. Nothing like this, I imagine, ever occurred

ards if Ivan the Te

pstairs the place was all commotion. Captain Gomberg was coming down the stairs. "They're going to dissolve the Duma," he said. "The Bolshevik Commissar is with the Mayor now.

respondents, French and British officers…. "The City Engineer pointed to them triumphantly. "The Embassies recognise the Duma as the o

s' Soviets, old Tsay-ee-kah, Central Army Committee, Tsentroflot, Menshevik, Socialist Revolutionary and Front group delegates from the Congress of Soviets, Central Committees of the Menshevik, Socialist Revolutionary, Populist

otes and E

tatorship of the proletariat, but against the proletariat. All those who have felt or kn

rue that certain generals in the provinces are attempting to profit by events in order to march on Petrograd with other designs, it is only one

hen citizens buying the Golos Soldata and newsboys sel

onger faith in the Revolution retire…. To establish a united

the Revolution shall be

dling eyes. There was not a singl

Weins

is firmly grouped in support of the Committee for Sal

hot discussion: were the Bolsheviki to be admitted to the new Government? Martov pleaded for their admission; after all, he said, they represented an important political party. Opinions were

have started civil war and opened the front to the

r of excluding both t

de

on with a young Social

e Democratic Confere

when Tseretelli and t

n the democra

e?" I as

or twenty years and more to submit now to the tyranny of the Dark People. Their methods are intolerable. But they have

oesn't the Land decree settle the

ur decree-it is the Socialist Revolutionary programme, intact! My party framed that policy, a

do you object? If it is the peasant

l immediately realise that it is all a trick-that these us

true that Kaledin

his hands with a sort

these Bolsheviki have

on against us. The R

tion i

ou defend th

st drop of our blood. But we won't coo

ad, and the Bolsheviki defend th

upport the Bolsheviki. Kaledin is the enemy of the Revolutio

efer-Kaledin or

blame. But listen-why should we talk of such things? Kerensky is coming…. Day after to-morrow we shall pass to the offensive…. Already Sm

ured automobile appeared around the corner of the Mikhailovsky, its guns sluing this way and that. Immediately the crowd began to run, as Petrograd crowds do, falling down and lying still in the street, piled in the gutters, heaped up behind telephone-poles. The car lumbered up to the steps of the Duma and a man

of people with armfuls of Soldatski Go

running into the r

. Everybody crowded around. "Get it printed-ge

er I am appointed commandant of the

ul to your oath I appeal; to you who have sworn to guard inviolable your oath of Cossack-I call upon you to save Petrograd from anarchy, from famine,

s, faithful to their duty, with the help of the Council of Cossacks, which has united under its command all the Cossacks and which, strong with the morale which reigns in its ranks, and acting in accordance with the will of the Russ

andalism and pillage, their crimes, the German mentality with which they regard Rus

me your delegates so that I may know who are traitors to their country

Red Guards. An officer strode in, a red band around his arm, demanding the Mayor. A fe

of the Duma!" he cr

ere halted. "All members of t

s the

g to arrest us-goi

s at the door-" so ra

od of impassioned speeches from members, and even from the galleries, responded. The freely-elected City Government could not be dissolved by any power; the Mayor's person and that of all the members were inviolable; the tyrants, the provoca

into any relations whatever with representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee or with the so-called Council of People's Commissars. Resolution, to a

ned to Smolny, and that the Military Revolutionary Committee said that no or

anov burst in through the

to dissolve the

a mistake. I told the Mayor this morni

f cyclists came riding, guns slung on their shoulders. They ha

ome from?" asked a fat old m

We came to support the Soviets

es. "Bolshevik gendarm

e muttered in my ear. "It's the beginning of the end of the Bolsheviki. Do you want to see t

egiment

e key to the situation; whoever controlled the brunnoviki controlled the city. "The Commissars of t

Which side the

r fight against the Bolsheviki. They will vote to

oom. Around dimly squatted the monstrous shapes of the armoured cars. One stood alone in the centre of the place, under the light, and round it were gathered some two thousand dun-colored soldiers, almost lost in the immensity of that imperial building. A dozen men, officers, chairmen of the Soldiers' Committees a

battles which will go down in history! What have we, soldiers, got to do with these squabbles of political parties? I will not say to you that the Provisional Government was a democratic Government; we want n

e great hall echoed to the

it be the Bolsheviki or this new Government, we will follow. Peace! We at the front cannot fight any longer. We cannot fight either Germans or Russians-" With that he leaped down, and a sort of confused

erensky!" shoute

ard to understand, to decide. They never moved, stood staring with a sort of terrible intentness at the speaker, their brows wrinkled with the eff

r. It was not their mood. For the moment they were lifted out of the ordinary run of common thoughts, thinking in

and an oboronotz, however much he talked of peace? Then a workman from Vasili Ostrov, but him they greeted with, "And are you going to give us peace, working-man?" Near us some men, ma

at and much gesticulation. The audience shouted to know what was the matter, and all the great mass toss

he midst of which the People's Commissar for Military Affairs clambered up the side of the car, helped by hands before and behind, pushed and pulled from below and above. Rising he st

! Shut up! Down with the traitor!" The whole place seethed and roared. Then it began to mov

"Who is whistling here?" The claque, rudely burs

y with fatigue. "I cannot speak well to you; I am s

' and Soldiers' Revolution, by the help of you and of all the rest of the brave comrades who have of you and of all the rest of the brave comrades who have hurle

gang. Kaledin is marching from the Don. Kerensky is coming from the front. Kornilov is raising the Tekhintsi to repeat his attempt of August. All these Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries who call upon you no

i, Socialist Revolutionaries, Cadets, Dumas, officers…. They tell us that their objects are good. On the other side are the workers, the soldie

g back of his words broke through the tired voice. At the end he totered, almost falling; a hundred hands rea

ose in favour should go to the right; those opposed, to the left. There was a moment of hesitation, a still expectancy, and then the crowd began to surge faster and faster, stumbling over one another, to the left, hundreds of big soldiers in a solid mass rushing acros

entreating. And then imaging the same in all the locals of every labour union, in the factories, the villages, on the battle-ships of the far-flung Russian fleets; think of the hundreds of thousands of Russian men star

first decree was on the presses, to be circulated in thousands through the c

ernment of the Russian

f Soviets of Workers'

peasant deputies, th

sars d

nt Assembly shall take place at th

Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, and soldiers' organisations on the front should

Government of the R

Council of Peop

R ULIAN

itself dissolved at all, but merely unable to continue its labours until it secured a new meeting-place. In the meanwhile, its Committee of Elders had determi

. A yunker who had been in the Winter Palace told a highly-coloured tale of the heroism of himself and his comrades, and disgraceful conduct of the Red Guards-all of which was devoutly believed. Somebody read a

he Ministry of Marine was deserted, and to beg him, for the sake of Russia, to take charge under the authority of the Council of People's Commissars; and the old seaman had consented…. Ker

ittees and the distribution of food-he presumed to define the limits of power of the free, independent, autonomous City Government! One member, shaking his fist, moved to cut off the food of the city if the Bolshevi

ready decided to submit to the orders of the Socialist Revolutionary party; the crews of the torp

stripped and tortured by the Bolshevik guards. One has gone mad. They are threatening to lynch the Ministers!" There was a whirlwind of indignation and horror, which only grew more viol

s' Government, which has abolished the death penalty, cannot permit such deeds. We demand that this sto

yor, sent to Peter Paul to investigate. As we followed them out, the Duma was appointing a

e lie the tombs of the Tsars, beneath the slender golden spire and the chimes, which, for months, continued to play Bozhe Tsaria Khrani[17] every day at noon…. The place was deser

d Save t

o Reed from Department of

Soviet Government to visit freely all priso

mis

ureau o

Novembe

.

grad,

te, roo

of Petrograd and Cronstadt, for the purpose of generally investigating the condition of the prisoners, and for thorough

erty had lost their lives or their reason in the days of the Tsar, where the Provisional Government had in turn

n; he was escorting a commission of "sabotazhniki" (sabotageurs) from the City Duma, who insisted that the yunkers were all being murdered. This seemed to amuse them very much. At one side of the room sat a bald-headed, dissipated-looking little man in a frock-coat and a rich fur coat, biting his mo

as arrested. I was crossing the Troitsky Bridge on my way home when two of these-of these-persons held me up. I was

aid a sailor. "

ho had brought the prisoner.

ailor. "What did you make a revolut

in the room where the Staff was having a meeting, and they heard a great many things. For example, they heard orders to bring the Gatchina yunkers to Petrograd by night, and an order for the Cossacks to be ready to march in the morning…. The principal points in the city were to be occupied before dawn. Then

all the Ministers were there. Ivan Pavlovitch told me what he had heard. It was half-past two in th

ommittee wasn't ready; they didn't know what to do; and pretty soon back came the order to let everybody go and not arrest anybody else. Well, we ran all the way to Smolny, and I guess we talked for

a, remembered all at once that there was lying in the meeting-room of the Uprava a machinegun which had been captured from the Germans. So he and I and another comrade went there. The Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries were having a meeting. Well, we opened the door and walked right in on them, as t

a side. So we broke in the doors and filtered up the different stairways one by one, or in little bunches. When we got to the top of the stairs the yunkers held

fficer with his arm in a sling, and deep circles of sleeplessness under h

ever, we don't want you, citizen. Apologies-" He opened the door and waved his arm for Count Tolstoy to leave. Several of th

o protest. The prisoners, they said, were getting the same food as the guards, when there wasn't eve

ained that rumours were going about that the yunkers were being tortured, and the lives of the Mi

just been compelled to wake them up-they were sure we were going to massacre them…. Most of the

to the Duma com

as pouring himself a

ut in the hall,"

or, in the feeble light of an oil lamp, gro

respondents. Will you please tell us offi

his face of ve

h occurred as the Ministers were being brought here, they have been treated with e

ack streets automobiles without lights flitted to and fro, and there was furtive activity in Fontanka 6, headquarters of the Peasants' Sov

utionary Committee flashed baleful fir