Ten Days That Shook The World (29 page)
All that night the commission wrangled, and all the next day, and the next night. Once before, on the 9th of November, there had been a similar effort at conciliation, led by Martov and Gorky; but at the approach of Kerensky and the activity of the Committee for Salvation, the right wing of the Mensheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries and Populist Socialists suddenly withdrew. Now they were awed by the crushing of the yunker rebellion...
Monday the 12th was a day of suspense. The eyes of all Russia were fixed on the grey plain beyond the gates of Petrograd, where all the available strength of the old order faced the unorganized power of the new, the unknown. In Moscow a truce had been declared; both sides parleyed, awaiting the result in the capital. Now the delegates to the Congress of Soviets, hurrying on speeding trains to the farthest reaches of Asia, were coming to their homes, carrying the fiery cross. In wide-spreading ripples news of the miracle spread over the face of the land, and in its wake towns, cities and far villages stirred and broke, Soviets and Military Revolutionary Committees against Dumas, Zemstvos and Government Commissars-Red Guards against White-street fighting and passionate speech.... The result waited on the word from Petrograd....
Smolny was almost empty, but the Duma was thronged and noisy. The old Mayor, in his dignified way, was protesting against the Appeal of the Bolshevik Councillors.
"The Duma is not a center of counter-revolution," he said, warmly. "The Duma takes no part in the present struggle between the parties. But at a time when there is no legal power in the land, the only center of order is the Municipal Self-Government. The peaceful population recognizes this fact; the foreign Embassies recognize only such documents as are signed by the Mayor of the town. The mind of a European does not admit of any other situation, as the Municipal self-government is the only organ which is capable of protecting the interests of the citizens. The City is bound to show hospitality, to all organizations which desire to profit by such hospitality, and therefore the Duma cannot prevent the distribution of any newspapers whatever within the Duma building. The sphere of our work is increasing, and we must be given full liberty of action, and our rights must be respected by both parties....
"We are perfectly neutral. When the Telephone Exchange was occupied by the yunkers Colonel Polkovnikov ordered the telephones to Smolny disconnected, but I protested, and the telephones were kept going...."
At this there was ironic laughter from the Bolshevik benches, and imprecations from the right.
"And yet," went on Schreider, "they look upon us as counter-revolutionaries and report us to the population. They deprive us of our means of transport by taking away our last motor-cars. It will not be our fault if there is famine in the town. Protests are of no use...."
Kobozev, Bolshevik member of the Town Board, was doubtful whether the Military Revolutionary Committee had requisitioned the Municipal automobiles. Even granting the fact, it was probably done by some unauthorised individual, in the emergency.
"The Mayor," he continued, "tells us that we must not make political meetings out of the Duma. But every Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary here talks nothing but party propaganda, and at the door they distribute their illegal newspapers, Iskri (Sparks), Soldatski Golos and Rabotchaya Gazeta, inciting to insurrection. What if we Bolsheviki should also begin to distribute our papers here? But this shall not be, for we respect the Duma. We have not attacked the Municipal Self-Government, and we shall not do so. But you have addressed an Appeal to the population, and we are entitled also to do so....
Followed him Shingariov, Cadet, who said that there could be no common language with those who were liable to be brought before the Attorney General for indictment, and who must be tried on the charge of treason.... He proposed again that all Bolshevik members should be expelled from the Duma. This was tabled, however, for there were no personal charges against the members, and they were active in the Municipal administration.
Then two Mensheviki Internationalists, declaring that the Appeal of the Bolshevik Councillors was a direct incitement to massacre. "If everything that is against the Bolsheviki is counter-revolutionary," said Pinkevitch, "then I do not know the difference between revolution and anarchy.... The Bolsheviki are depending upon the passions of the unbridled masses; we have nothing but moral force. We will protest against massacres and violence from both sides, as our task is to find a peaceful issue."
"The notice posted in the streets under the heading 'To the Pillory,' which calls upon the people to destroy the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries," said Nazariev, "is a crime which you, Bolsheviki, will not be able to wash away. Yesterday's horrors are but a preface to what you are preparing by such a proclamation.... I have always tried to reconcile you with the other parties, but at present I feel for you nothing but contempt!"
The Bolshevik Councillors were on their feet, shouting angrily, assailed by hoarse, hateful voices and waving arms....
Outside the hall I ran into the City Engineer, the Menshevik Gomberg and three or four reporters. They were all in high spirits.
"See!" they said. "The cowards are afraid of us. They don't dare arrest the Duma! Their Military Revolutionary Committee doesn't dare to send a Commissar into this building. Why, on the corner of the Sadovaya to-day, I saw a Red Guard try to stop a boy selling Soldatski Golos.... The boy just laughed at him, and a crowd of people wanted to lynch the bandit. It's only a few hours more, now. Even if Kerensky wouldn't come they haven't the men to run a Government. Absurd! I understand they're even fighting among themselves at Smolny!"
A Socialist Revolutionary friend of mine drew me aside. "I know where the Committee for Salvation is hiding," he said. "Do you want to go and talk with them?"
By this time it was dusk. The city had again settled down to normal-shop-shutters up, lights shining, and on the streets great crowds of people slowly moving up and down and arguing....
At Number 86 Nevsky we went through a passage into a courtyard, surrounded by tall apartment buildings. At the door of apartment 229 my friend knocked in a peculiar way. There was a sound of scuffling; an inside door slammed; then the front door opened a crack and a woman's face appeared. After a minute's observation she led us in-a placid-looking, middle-aged lady who at once cried, "Kyril, it's all right!" In the dining-room, where a samovar steamed on the table and there were plates full of bread and raw fish, a man in uniform emerged from behind the window-curtains, and another, dressed like a workman, from a closet. They were delighted to meet an American reporter. With a certain amount of gusto both said that they would certainly be shot if the Bolsheviki caught them. They would not give me their names, but both were Socialist Revolutionaries....
"Why," I asked, "do you publish such lies in your newspapers?"
Without taking offense the officer replied, "Yes, I know; but what can we do?" He shrugged. "You must admit that it is necessary for us to create a certain frame of mind in the people...."
The other man interrupted. "This is merely an adventure on the part of the Bolsheviki. They have no intellectuals. ... The Ministries won't work.... Russia is not a city, but a whole country.... Realizing that they can only last a few days, we have decided to come to the aid of the strongest force opposed to them-Kerensky-and help to restore order."
"That is all very well," I said. "But why do you combine with the Cadets?"
The pseudo-workman smiled frankly. "To tell you the truth, at this moment the masses of the people are following the Bolsheviki. We have no following-now. We can't mobilise a handful of soldiers. There are no arms available.... The Bolsheviki are right to a certain extent; there are at this moment in Russia only two parties with any force-the Bolsheviki and the reactionaries, who are all hiding under the coat-tails of the Cadets. The Cadets think they are using us; but it is really we who are using the Cadets. When we smash the Bolsheviki we shall turn against the Cadets...."
"Will the Bolsheviki be admitted into the new Government?"
He scratched his head. "That's a problem," he admitted. "Of course if they are not admitted, they'll probably do this all over again. At any rate, they will have a chance to hold the balance of power in the Constituent-that is, if there is a Constituent."
"And then, too," said the officer, "that brings up the question of admitting the Cadets into the new Government-and for the same reasons. You know the Cadets do not really want the Constituent Assembly-not if the Bolsheviki can be destroyed now." He shook his head. "It is not easy for us Russians, politics. You Americans are born politicians; you have had politics all your lives. But for us-well, it has only been a year, you know!"
"What do you think of Kerensky?" I asked.
"Oh, Kerensky is guilty of the sins of the Provisional Government," answered the other man. "Kerensky himself forced us to accept coalition with the bourgeoisie. If he had resigned, as he threatened, it would have meant a new Cabinet crisis only sixteen weeks before the Constituent Assembly, and that we wanted to avoid."
"But didn't it amount to that anyway?"
"Yes, but how were we to know? They tricked us-the Kerenskys and Avksentievs. Gotz is a little more radical. I stand with Tchernov, who is a real revolutionist.... Why, only to-day Lenin sent word that he would not object to Tchernov entering the Government.
"We wanted to get rid of the Kerensky Government too, but we thought it better to wait for the Constituent.... At the beginning of this affair I was with the Bolsheviki, but the Central Committee of my party voted unanimously against it-and what could I do? It was a matter of party discipline....
"In a week the Bolshevik Government will go to pieces; if the Socialist Revolutionaries could only stand aside and wait, the Government would fall into their hands. But if we wait a week the country will be so disorganized that the German imperialists will be victorious. That is why we began our revolt with only two regiments of soldiers promising to support us-and they turned against us.... That left only the yunkers...."
"How about the Cossacks?"
The officer sighed. "They did not move. At first they said they would come out if they had infantry support. They said moreover that they had their men with Kerensky, and that they were doing their part.... Then, too, they said that the Cossacks were always accused of being the hereditary enemies of democracy.... And finally, 'The Bolsheviki promise that they will not take away our land. There is no danger to us. We remain neutral.'"
During this talk people were constantly entering and leaving-most of them officers, their shoulder-straps torn off. We could see them in the hall, and hear their low, vehement voices. Occasionally, through the half-drawn portières, we caught a glimpse of a door opening into a bath-room, where a heavily-built officer in a colonel's uniform sat on the toilet, writing something on a pad held in his lap. I recognized Colonel Polkovnikov, former commandant of Petrograd, for whose arrest the Military Revolutionary Committee would have paid a fortune.
"Our program?" said the officer. "This is it. Land to be turned over to the Land Committees. Workmen to have full representation in the control of industry. An energetic peace program, but not an ultimatum to the world such as the Bolsheviki issued. The Bolsheviki cannot keep their promises to the masses, even in the country itself. We won't let them.... They stole our land program in order to get the support of the peasants. That is dishonest. If they had waited for the Constituent Assembly-"
"It doesn't matter about the Constituent Assembly!" broke in the officer. "If the Bolsheviki want to establish a Socialist state here, we cannot work with them in any event! Kerensky made the great mistake. He let the Bolsheviki know what he was going to do by announcing in the Council of the Republic that he had ordered their arrest....
"But what," I said, "do you intend to do now?"
The two men looked at one another. "You will see in a few days. If there are enough troops from the front on our side, we shall not compromise with the Bolsheviki. If not, perhaps we shall be forced to...."
Out again on the Nevsky we swung on the step of a streetcar bulging with people, its platforms bent down from the weight and scraping along the ground, which crawled with agonising slowness the long miles to Smolny.
Meshkovsky, a neat, frail little man, was coming down the hall, looking worried. The strikes in the Ministries, he told us, were having their effect. For instance, the Council of People's Commissars had promised to publish the Secret Treaties; but Neratov, the functionary in charge, had disappeared, taking the documents with him. They were supposed to be hidden in the British Embassy....
Worst of all, however, was the strike in the banks. "Without money," said Menzhinsky, "we are helpless. The wages of the railroad men, of the postal and telegraph employees, must be paid.... The banks are closed; and the key to the situation, the State Bank, is also shut. All the bank-clerks in Russia have been bribed to stop work....
"But Lenin has issued an order to dynamite the State Bank vaults, and there is a Decree just out, ordering the private banks to open to-morrow, or we will open them ourselves!"
The Petrograd Soviet was in full swing, thronged with armed men, Trotsky reporting:
"The Cossacks are falling back from Krasnoye Selo." (Sharp, exultant cheering.) "But the battle is only beginning. At Pulkovo heavy fighting is going on. All available forces must be hurried there....
