Notes from Louise Bryant Six Red Months in Russia [written 1917].
Bryant was the political co-worker and lover of John Reed. In this little memoir she
gives her thumbnail impressions about Lenin, the Bolsheviks and the early days of
Soviet Power.
The workingmen demand, above all, frankness and the unpowdered truth. An address by
Lenin is, therefore, as direct, unsentimental and full of facts as a statement to a
board of directors by an exec of an American corporation. ..The Russians of today...
are close to the earth and striving for the stars. Lenins calm, majestic as a
Chinese Buddhas. The Lenins ... had become accustomed to privations long before the
revolution, had lived in the meanest quarters of every city they visited, occupy as
a rule only one room, where they ate, slept, studied and carried on their
revolutionary work. Lenin more interested in America than in any other country. We
must make friends with America- for the thousanss of tractors, railway engines,
cars etc we need. Lenin will flay an opponent in debate and walk out of the hall
arm-in-arm with him. Every man in Lenins cabinet, except Trotsky and Chicherin had
worked with him +20 years- they are his disciples. Us editors always asked Louise
Bryant to get Lenin to keep a diary. Non vanity- Lenin in real distress when he
had to sit for Clair Sheridan to do his bust. Angelica Balabanova said
revolutionaries should not waster their time in such a way; but Lenin only sat for a
few hrs , and worked through. After the revolution Lenin only had time to attend
the theatre once- he went to see Yelena Suchachova in 12th Night.
Lenin also went in for hunting and horseback riding. 6 months after October Lenin
said if they crush us now they can never efface the fact that have been. The idea
will go on. During the Civil-War when Red-Army morale fell very low and even the
trusted Lettish sharpshooters guarding the Kremlin grew discouraged- the enemy was
at the gates of Peter. They began to drink the wine in the Kremlin cellars. One
night Lenin came down to barracks and, wordlessly, felt in the soldiers pockets,
finding several vodka bottles he smashed them on the cobblestones, still without a
word. The soldiers were so shamed they never drank on duty again. Bryant talks of
the legendary significance which the blockade bestowed on Lenin. One of his best
friends and advisers was his sister Anna. In Moscow after the revolution, Lenin and
Krupskaya lived in two small rooms, simply furnished, with piles of books scattered
about and pot-plants. Lenin always jumps out to greet visitors to his office,
smiling and shaking hands warmly. When you are seated he draws up another chair
leans forward and begins to talk as if there was nothing else to do in the
world...Loves to tell and to hear stories. About Kamenev, Bryant said: he has the
genial manners of an American small-town politician. He [Kamenev] is with Zinoviev,
and these are the weakest members of Lenins government; he still has middle class
consciousness.
Zinoviev : short, heavily-built, flabby; strongly sectarian, vain- the most
photographed man in Russia. Kamenev guilty of petty corruption- eg giving away
sable-fur coats (state property) to beautiful women: both Kamenev and Zinoviev are
tolerated because of the sheer shortage of talent.
Pyotr Stuchka - a Latvian, close friend of Lenin, and his adviser. Drafted the First
Soviet constitution. Drafted the First laws on marriage, sex equality etc; aged 70,
felt he was too old and conservative, so invited 5 young women revolutionists to his
office and they drafted the (very liberated!) laws on marriage. He said for
centuries, women have been oppressed, they have been the victims of prejudice,
superstition and the selfish desires of men- now the new marriage laws should even
give them an advantage over men to compensate.
Rykov - serene, good-humoured, though terribly persecuted before revolution (7 years
in Siberian solitary (!) confinement): resembles Lenin, and his natural successor.
Dzerzhinsky: tall, noticeably delicate, slender white hands, long straight nose,
pale countenance and the drooping eyelids of the over-bred and super-refined; health
wrecked by 11 years in a Warsaw prison, where he learnt a habit of self-effacement,
even abasement, he is totally devoted to Lenin. Dzerzhinsky is incorruptible, and
is determined to save revolution by the Red Terror and Cheka if necessary.
Bill Shatov: the anarchist who returned from the States and joined the Bolshevik
revolution, becoming Piters Chief of Police. Now violently opposed to the
Anarchists, during a spate of serious robberies, Shatov arrested every so-called
Anarchist, holding them 2 weeks without trial- during which not a single robbery
took place! At the trial he released all the anarchists who actually knew something
about the subject [ie, anarchist philosophy]- the rest were charged. Shatov said
that anyway anarchists are the most difficult of all groups during a revolution:
nearly every Soviet officials life is threatened, and there were two actual goes at
Lenin.
Bryants first glimpse of the Red army: great giants of men, mostly workers and
peasants, in old, dirt-coloured uniforms from which every emblem of Tsardom had been
carefully removed. Brass buttons with the imperial insignia, gold and silver
epaulettes, decorations- all replaced by a simple armband or a bit of red cloth
(21-22). Nobody salutes. At all the stns little knots of soldiers talking and
arguing. Women without cosmetics- the rouge sticks, French perfumes, powders,
hair-dye, brilliantine- all thrown away. On the first days of the February
revolution The crowd raised a man on their shoulders when they saw the Cossacks
coming. And the man shouted, if you have come to destroy the revolution, shoot me
first, and the Cossacks had cried We do not shoot our brothers. Some of the old
people who remembered how long the Cossacks had been our enemies almost went mad
with joy (soldiers story).The shops had no food or warm clothes but were full of
flowers, corsets, dog-collars, false hair. Reason: there were no fashionable women
left to wear corsets and wigs (most people kept hair short- fear of disease-carrying
lice). Fancy jewel-studded dog collars not appropriate either. And the Petrograd
bourgeoisie had had expensive tastes in hot-house flowers- orchids, white lilacs
etc.
Outside the hotels stood dejected flunkeys with bedraggled peacock feathers in
little round hats, waiting for the grand carriages with their eminent passengers who
never arrived. On the other hand, inside the restaurants waiters had become
egalitarian and every table bore a small sign: Just because a man must make his
living by being a waiter do not insult him by offering him a tip. After the fall of
Riga (sold by Kornilov) Bryant reports this story as probably true: many Russian
POWs were trundled on a Sunday to services at which the Kaiser appeared in person
and made a speech, calling the Bolshevik rank and file dogs who had killed Russian
officers, those brave and gallant gentlemen. The officers he freed, the rank and
file starved, or were put to hard labour, or flogged. Later hundreds of thousands of
such tubercular POWs returned to Russia. In his speech the Kaiser enjoined them to
pray for the government of Alexander III, not the present disgraceful government.
After the October revolution, the trams were not running and there was no
electricity or water for weeks at a time. The Nevsky was still always crowded with
promenaders, its theatres and cinemas kept going, and there was much night life. The
cafes were always full. At one table would be found a soldier with fur cap over one
ear, a Red-Guard in rags, a Cossack in a gold and black uniform, earrings, silver
chains on neck...Before the revolution prostitutes had had to carry a yellow ticket
but now the trade was no longer recognised.
Many former prostitutes became nurses or sanitarki. Petrograd was decked out in
flagsall of them red. The statue of Catherine the Great before the Alexandrinsky
Bridge had a red flag hung on her sceptre. Great blotches marked the places where
imperial insignia had been ripped from buildings. Overall ruledKing Hunger. The
Smolny with its little convent stood on the rivers northern flank. Cavernous dark
hallways with here and there a flickering light. On the polished white floors where
the daughters of Russias aristocracy had once tripped, now thousands of soldiers,
sailors and factory-workers tramped in muddy boots. On the ground floor a great mess
hall was now covered with rough trestle tables, where great throngs of friendly
people came and went; anyone who was poor was welcomed for a meal of cabbage soup
and black bread. The Bolshevik leaders from Trotsky down would frequent the place
and talk to allbut not Lenin, who held aloof, remote, and did not appear except at
big meetings. In the former classrooms typewriters clicked incessantly.
[At the moment of the October rising] Smolny was alive 24 hours a day. All the
Bolshevik leaders overworked, haggard. In the great white hall, with graceful
columns and silver candelabra, delegates to Soviet came from all Russia. Straight
from the trenches, the factory floor, the field. A speech by a soldier: A tired,
emaciated little soldier mounts the rostrum. He is covered with mud from head to
foot and with old blood stains. Comrades! Ive come from where men are digging
their graves and calling them trenches...Somethings got to be done! The officers
wont work with the soldiers Committees, the soldiers are starving and the Allies
wont have a conference. I tell you, somethings got to be done, or the soldiers are
going home! The peasants spoke in religious terms about the land they would die
for, and would no longer wait to claim; the workers talked of sabotage in factories
by the owners... On 26 October 2 mile parade of peasants who came from the
All-Russian Peasants Congress to show support. In Room 17 of Smolny the
Military-Revolutionary-Committee met. It was headed by Lazarimov, an 18-year old
boy. In the corridors were stacks of lit which people grabbed by the bundle. Weary
soldiers slept in the halls and unused rooms. Machine guns stuck out of the windows;
rifles stacked against walls among the lit. Armoured cars in the yard, engines
racing to keep warm. The tramway workers kept the line from Smolny open even till 4
am when meetings usually ended; in heavy snow falls, men and women from the Vyborg
cleared snow from the line, which often only had one tram working.
Lenin on Trotsky (after the Brest peace): [He is] a man who blinds himself with
revolutionary phrases. At the time of Brest a whole division of Bolshevik troops
was
rounded up by Austrian troops, on the Rumanian front, while sp-called fraternising
was going on. Trotsky in Brest ordered the arrest of the Rumanian ambassador in
Petrograd. Next day the corps diplomatique- 39 diplomats- presented themselves at
Smolny to protest to Lenin, who thought for a wonderful moment that theyd come to
recognise the Soviet government. Lenin good-humouredly agreed to release the
Rumanian ambassador, and shook hands with all 39, who departed, only later to
discover the Bolsheviks had then ordered the arrest of the King of Rumania
instead... (147)
On the Soviets: the Soviet is an organ of direct proportional representation based
on small units of the population with one representative per 500 people. Equal
suffrage, secret ballot, right of recall. The Soviets not elected at regular
intervals, but delegates can be recalled by electors any time. The Soviets are based
directly on the workers in the factories, peasants in fields, soldiers in trenches.
Every town has a joint Soviet of Soldiers and Workers Deputies. Provinces,
counties, villages all have Peasants Soviets, and wards in towns. The
All-Russian-Congress-of-Soviets is made up of delegates from provinces. (provincial
soviets, 1 representative per 25,000). The All-Russian Soviet meets approximately
once each 3 months. It elects a Central Executive Committee (CEC) which acts as a
parliament. Has about 300 members.
The soviets are not simply a territorial representation but also a class body (58)
and its representatives are drawn mainly the working class. From the February
revolution the Soviets were the real source of legitimacy for both the Provisional
Governments. These fell when they were no longer tolerated by the Soviets.
The Democratic-Congress at the Alexandrinsky. This [counter-revolutionary attempt]
lasted just two weeks. Mme Kerensky sat in a gallery, a visitor, dressed all in
black, pale and wistful. She was only heard once, when a Bolshevik orator was making
a lengthy denunciation of the Provisional Government and she exclaimed Da volna!-
Enough!. [after fall of Provisional Government Mme Kerensky goes into the streets,
and is arrested for tearing down Bolshevik posters; released when the guard found
out who she was.]
Tsereteli, oriental-looking but in a sharp business suit, consumptive, health broken
by 7 years hard labour in Siberia. Trotsky like a Marat, vehement, serpent-like,
convincing, brilliant oratory, stinging, both hated and loved. Kamenev expressed his
opinions in a mild way. Impressions of the Congress: the Kadets, once a liberal
party, had become the sanctuary of Black Hundreds, aristos and whites for whom
liberalism itself was a crime, but could openly come out now for monarchy etc,
privilege. Kadets now the only non-socialist party; the Bolsheviks at the Congress
wanted it thrown out of Provisional Government coalition for that reason. The Soviet
CEC called the Congress after Kornilov affair. 1600 delegates came for all over
Russia.
September: wet, cold. On the stage of the Alexandrinsky sat the entire Petrograd
Soviet and congress presidium. Represented were all political organisations, co-ops,
Soviets, Trade Unions, liberal professions (doctors and lawyers etc), national
minorities etc; a unique gathering of representatives of the 180 million people of
the Russian empire. Hanging from the boxes were revolutionary banners and streamers.
In the gold, ivory and crimson colour scheme were great grey patches where imperial
insignia ripped from walls. Kerensky made a brilliant speech, received an ovation,
appeared in his plain brown soldiers suit, no decorations or epaulettes, avoided the
rostrum, spoke as a common man, as tovarishch. But although the hostile crowd was
temporarily won over, did not answer the real questions about his own involvement in
Kornilov affair.
Long the Democratic Republic and the Revolutionary Army! he ended; Long Live
Kerensky! the crowd replied. It was the last ovation Kerensky got.
There were 23 elected womens representatives at Congress, notably Maria
Spiridonova. A preparliament was supposed to follow the Congress. A vote at Congress
told this preparliament to issue appeal to peoples of world reaffirming the Soviets
call for peace without annexations or indemnities. A Bolshevik resolution called
for a new government of coalition of all parties, but without Cadets. This was the
reef on which the Congress was to founder and drag down with it not just Kerensky
and the Provisional Government, but all of old Russia of private property and
privilege, which was to now plunge into an abyss.
For delegates now heard of Kerenskys plan for a new cabinet with Cadet ministers-
virulently ant-socialist ones. Kerensky appealed to the Presidium for support, and
Tsereteli, Dan, and Gotz spoke again and again to the Congress on need for a
coalition with the bourgeoisie. Lunacharsky and Kamenev spoke against the resolution
and accused Tsereteli of altering words surreptitiously from that agreed by
Presidium. Then the latter exploded: The next time I deal with the Bolsheviki I
shall insist on having a notary and 2 secretaries!. Nogin shouted that Tsereteli
had 5 minutes to retract; result was a Bolshevik walkout. Uproar; men ran into the
hallways, pleading, weeping (69). The atmosphere completely changed. Spridonova got
up and told the peasant that vote for a coalition meant they would be cheated of the
land, and her words were met by a sullen, ominous roar.
As I watched this change it came to me... it meant civil war, it meant a great
swinging of the masses to the banners of the Bolsheviki, it meant new leaders pushed
to the surface who would do the bidding of the people and old leaders hurled into
oblivion, it meant the beginning of class struggle and the end of political
revolution... (70). But the coalition was voted for by a small majority.
The Preparliament met in the shabby old hall of the Petrograd Duma on 23 September.
It was dominated by the Mensheviks, and Chkheidze was elected president.
An index of drift to right was its decision to discuss the future constitution in
secret session- this was furiously opposed by the Bolsheviki, the Left SRs, and the
Menshevik Internationalists. During the secret session Tsereteli arrived from the
Winter palace to report on the coalition, the result of which would be entry of 100
bourgeois reps to every 120 representatives of the democracy into the preparliament,
soon to be renamed the Council of the Russian Republic. Stormy, violent debates on
such matters as restoration of the death penalty in the army, coalition, dissolution
of the Duma, a threatened railway strike, the land question (the preparliament
rejected, amid terrible acrimony, an immediate handing over of land to peasants Land
Committees).
A new revolution, deeper and in every way more significant than the first, hung
like a thundercloud over Russia. The Council held weeks of futile sessions. On the
first evening, the Bolsheviks withdrew, accusing the propertied classes of
dominating the Council and of being out to ruin the Revolution. Subsequently, the
Council was divided into two hostile camps- Mensheviki, Menshevik Internationalists,
Right and Left SRs on one side, the Cadets on other. The left heaped recriminations
on the right, the right screamed abuse at the Left. Meanwhile the Bolsheviks gained
strength hugely, the cry All power to Soviets grew. Kerensky made numerous
impassioned speeches which had no effect at all. He was received coldly and listened
to with indifference; the Cadets ostentatiously reading the papers.
In one of the last of these appearances at the Maarinsky Palace Kerensky was so
overcome with sense of hopelessness that he rushed from rostrum back to his seat,
weeping openly. Bryant says Council might still have been saved had a long-promised
Allied Conference of War Aims been held but with the now-famous speech of British
minister Bonar-Law (refusing a peace of no annexations) the Councils last shred of
credibility evaporated. Starving Russia was now left to face another winter of
hopeless war.
Bryant adds there was no doubt that when the 2nd Congress of Soviets met on 25
October [eve of the Revolution], that that tremendously powerful body would demand
immediate action on the burning issues, and if the Provisional Government also
refused to act, there was no doubt they would then take power.
This was all obviously true- why else did old VTSiK try to stop it meeting?
Kerensky believed that he ought to prevent this meeting by any means possible, even
by force of arms. But he was out of touch with the popular mood; the masses were
now solidly pro-Bolshevik.
23 October: Kerensky orders arrest of members of the Military Revolutionary
Committee (MRC). Soldiers of the Pavlovsk regiment hid in the General Staff quarters
and heard officers make plans for dispersal of Soviet Congress next day. The
Regiment began arresting the General Staff instead. Next day--the afternoon of the
24--there was a strange sight in the square before the Maarinsky Palace. Soldiers
and sailors were guarding the little bridges over the Moika river, there was a great
crowd of sailors at the palace door, barricades.
Rumours fly that the Council is to be arrested. A big Kronstadt sailor goes into the
great chamber and booms out: 'No more Council! Go along home!
End of council.
2 pm. As soon as the Council is abolished by a lone sailor, Bryant, together with
John Reed and Albert Rhys Williams, another American, go inside the Winter Palace.
Junkers are everywhere.
Kerensky has fled, no-one knows where. The Provisional Government ministers are
still inside. Outside in the palace grounds, women of Kerensky's Death Battalions
have turned the winter wood pile into barricades. A small man with a huge wooden
camera and tripod appears, and sets up the equipment in the nomansland between the
defenders of order inside and the proletarian insurrectionaries outside.
At Smolny a bitter debate between Menshevik/SRs and the Left SRs and Bolsehviki is
spilling out of halls into the corridors. A Menshevik speaker suddenly announces
that the cruiser Aurora has begun shelling the hapless Provisional Government and
that all the Menshevik/SR delegates will go forthwith unarmed to die with the
Provisional Government, an announcement which causes consternation to appear on the
faces of many Menshevik/SR delegates who thus learn of their impending martyrdom.
Some do leave; the soldiers stand aside as they pass, laughing and slapping one
another on the back the while. Lorries trundle out of Smolny crowded with soldiers
and loaded with leaflets and proclamations to scatter to the populace. People
scramble over the cobbles for leaflets.
They read: Citizens! The Provisional Government is deposed. State power has passed
into the organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies.
At 2 am next morning Bryant and the others come across the Menshevik/SR martyrs,
with wives, friends and bourgeois Duma delegates, about 200 in all. They are arguing
with the sailors guarding the entrances to the Winter Palace. Let us pass! Let us
sacrifice ourselves! they criy, wholly without conviction. Only a few sailors bar
the way. One says Go home and take poison; but dont expect to die here; its not
allowed.
What will you do if we suddenly push forward? asks a Menshevik.
Spank you answers a sailor, but we wont kill one of you, damnit!
At the Winter Palace the junkers have surrendered, and the Provisional Government
ministers are being dragged forth from broom cupboards and odd rooms where theyd
hidden and to which Palace staff guide the revolutionary soldiers and sailors. All
who leave are searched, besieging Bolsheviks and bourgeois ministers and servants
alike. The Palace is stuffed full of treasures; while two soldiers search people, a
young Bolshevik is saying, Comrades this is the peoples palace. This is our
palace. Do not steal from the people... Do not disgrace the people. And a row of
shame-faced soldiers, simple peasants in uniform, laid out their booty: the broken
handle of a Chinese sword; a wax candle, a coat hanger, a blanket, a worn cushion...
Back at the City Duma the would-be martyrs, who had decided after all, not to
sacrifice themselves to switchmen, now frothing with indignation, have formed
themselves into a Committee for the Salvation of the Country and the Revolution.
The Constituent Assembly.
Bryant is good on this. Method of Russian elections: to vote for a party and a
programme; list of candidates is drawn up by CC of each party. Constituent Assembly
lists were drawn up in September; elections held in November; assembly is called in
January 1918. SR party splits after the list is drawn up; majority of SR rank and
file go to Left-SRs, but CC move to right and its list ditto. Elections are held two
weeks after the Bolshevik revolution, while the peasantry is still moving left. As
the wave of Bolshevism spreads over the country the cry All power to Soviets!
spreads with it; by January the peasants had the land; the Constituent Assembly had
nothing more to offer in any case. The Kadets were present in the Constituent
Assembly.
The Constituent Assembly opened at 8 am on a cold January morning; there is a tense
atmosphere. The Tauride Palace is jammed with people. Many of the delegates and
platform party carry guns. Viktor Chernov, the discredited SR who had voted for
Coalition at the Democratic-Congress, is elected President. Hissed and booed by
Lenin when he speaks. Tsereteli the only one listened to by both sides- Bryant
likens him to Lincoln and says he towered above Kerensky. Sverdlov opens Constituent
Assembly by reading the Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited
People.
At 2 am, it is put to vote--defeated. The Bolsheviks then read out a statement
denouncing the Constituent Assembly whose SR majority was actually directing the
fight of the bourgeoisie against the workers revolution and was really a bourgeois
counter-revolutionary party.
As in the time of Kerensky, [it] makes concessions to the people, promises them
everything, but in reality has decided to fight against the Soviet government,
against the socialist measures giving the land and its wealth to the peasants
without compensation, nationalising the banks, and cancelling the national debt.
As the Bolsheviks said, the great majority of the toiling people of Russia demand
that the Constituent Assembly recognise Soviet power and the results of the Great
October Socialist Revolution. The Bolsheviks now withdraw. The Constituent Assembly
rump then proceeds, in one hour, to pass a fundamental constitutional law--which
among other things calls for the confiscation of landed property without
compensation and the nationalisation of land, and for an immediate peace. It thus
accepts the reality of popular desires and expectations, while still rejecting the
concrete historical form in which theyd been realised. At 4 am, a Kronstadt sailor
on guard at the Tauride said to the assembly All the good people have gone, why don
t you go? The guards want to get some sleep. The Constituent Assembly duly
disperses, never to meet again.
Antonov-Ovseenko: the first Bolshevik Minister of War; had various experiences; as
battles swirled to and fro in Petrograd in the days after 25 October, junkers
recaptured the telephone exchange by impersonating the Bolsheviki and pretending to
be a change of guard; a few hours later they were themselves besieged and captured
by the Regimental Guards. In the meantime, Antonov-Ovseenko had walked in
unannounced, been arrested by the junkers, and sat in a corner reading Dostoevsky
until liberated. The next day he set off in a car for the outskirts of Petrograd
where Red Guards were digging in against counter-revolutionary Cossacks. The car
broke down and Antonov-Ovseenko and his party set off on foot, but soon flagged down
a car returning from the front. Antonov-Ovseenko told the driver he would have to
requisition vehicle; the soldier (characteristic lack of respect for authority) said
no, the car is needed to get ammunition supplies for the 1st Machine Gun Regiment:
They dont need any more men, they need bullets. Antonov-Ovseenko (seriously):
But I am the Minister of War. Excellent! said the soldier. Youre the very man
I need!, says the soldier and invites the Minister to sign a requisition for
ammunition supplies, which he does, saying And now, how about the car?
Oh no; we already agreed about that replies the soldier, setting off at once in
the direction of Smolny. Later, they commandeered the car of a fleeing bourgeois,
but then discovered they had no food either. Going to a grocery store nearby, they
made some purchases and then discovered that neither the War Minister nor any of his
officers and aides had any money; an American journalist in the party had to pay.
The armoured cars: Kerensky sent them racing up and down the streets, sirens
howling, to terrify the populace; on their flanks was lettered in red the name of a
Tsar; the names of all the ancient rulers flash by in a terrible procession. It was
as though they had come back from the dead to curse the new order. (153).
Angelica Balabanova said to Bryant: Women have to go through such a tremendous
struggle before they are free in their own minds that freedom is more precious to
them than to men. (169)
Maria Spiridonova: Left-SR leader (who turned against the Bolsheviki). She knew
several languages, was elected president of 1st and 2nd All-Russia Peasant
Congresses, and chair of EC of Peasants Soviet; universally called by the soldiers
and sailors 'dear comrade and not just ordinary tovarishch. She was still only in
early thirties, frail and delicate seeming, had spent 11 years in Siberian exile for
murder of Lupenovsky, a sadistic Governor of Tambov.
After her arrest, Spiridonova was beaten and thrown naked by Cossacks into a
dungeon. Refused to confess names of accomplices. Tortured by having her hair pulled
out and cigarette burns over whole body. For two days and nights she was passed
around the Cossacks and gendarmes. Savaged, comatose, in this condition she was
sentenced to death; later commuted to life imprisonment, but Spiridonova was not
conscious of reprieve either; still delirious and near death anyway.
She returned from exile after February revolution. She made a point to Bryant that
in the years before the revolution, of the scores and hundreds sent to exile, most
years there was the same number of women as men, or even, more women.
The Red-Guards do battle; on a snow-swept morning, 25 degrees below zero, thousands
upon thousands of people, in thin, tattered clothes, white pinched faces, men,
women, even children, pouring forth from the factories and working class quarters to
repel Kerenskys Cossacks. With infinite courage, infinite faith they marched out
untrained and unequipped to meet the traditional bullies of Russia, the paid
fighters, the paid enemies of freedom.
But the Bolsheviks also beat the Cossacks politically- the Decree on Land, it said,
does not apply to Cossacks. But there are great Cossack landed estates, and
Cossack land-hunger; there are rich and poor Cossacks. An agitation for land began
and grew till a delegation representing thousands of Don Cossacks went to (white)
General Kaledin , their Hetman, and demanded that the land be divided as it was in
Soviet-controlled areas.
Kaledin said That will happen only over my dead body, they deserted, and he shot
himself.
Moscow: the Kremlin, beautiful beyond description, lit up by a long line of
sputtering torches stuck upon poles beside the north wall. Before it, after the six
days of fighting it took the Bolsheviks to win Moscow, a huge trench, hundreds of ft
long, is dug out of the frozen ground. The tall figures of soldiers, the smaller,
gaunt figures of factory workers; digging the brotherhood grave for the fallen.
In the Soviet building women are sewing miles of red cloth, with faces stern and
set. The funeral procession begins at 8 am; even the coffins are stained red. Behind
the 500 coffins borne by young soldiers come shawled girls with round, peasant faces
holding wreaths of artificial flowers; behind them, bent old men, small children,
babushkas. Cavalry regiments and military bands.
21 January 1918: a huge demonstration, 250,000 people, in Petrograd. Red Guards,
Kronstadt sailors, women, children--all are working people. A peace demo at which
everyone was armed! A solemn and menacing procession, but most banners bore only the
word- Peace. German delegations have arrived in Petrograd to negotiate (a
diplomatic manoeuvre related to Brest talks): they are insulted by the parade and
that was all. But there was a much deeper significance. The people who marched
through the snow-covered streets knew that they *had* to have peace--that they were,
for the hour, at the end of things. But it was a forced peace which left every man
and woman with future wars to fight; it was an armed peace. ... Almost every
demonstration in Russia has a certain symbolic meaning.
_______________________________________________
Leninist-International mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
