The October Rising: a feeble putsch by a few intellectuals? "... my relations with Vladimir Ilyich had been most cordial. But at that moment... I saw the full extent of [his] responsibility for the fate of the country and the revolution... " "... an armed insurrection means arming wide sections of the working class... revolutionary enthusiasm is not enough for victory..." ..... Nikolai Podvoisky. My autograph copy of Podvoisky's memoirs was given me by Nina Sverdlova-Podvoiskaya, grand-daughter of Podvoisky himself and of Yakov Sverdlov, leading Bolshevik and first president of the Soviet Republic. I met Sverdlova-Podvoiskaya in 1985 in the Old Bolshevik commune where she lived, in Serpukhovskaya Ulitsaya, Moscow. A socialist publisher before the October Revolution, Nikolai Podvoisky was Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. He was a leading organiser of the October Rising, which was coup de theatre as well as coup d'etat. Podvoisky's memoirs, excerpted below, incidentally cast a special light on some of Trotsky's claims. Podvoisky's testimony is direct and compelling. I post the following extract, taken from my book 'Storming the Heavens' (Pluto, 1987) to counter support shown on this List for the new right-wing orthodoxy associated with Richard Pipes and Orlando Figes. Mark Jones _______________________________________ ....The evening of October 17 has remained firmly fixed in my memory After a meeting in one of the regiments I hurried to the Smolny Institute The long corridors of the gigantic vaulted building resounded to the trample of many feet. Soldiers' grey greatcoats, the black jackets and smocks of the Red Guards, the dark pea-jackets of sailors with machine-gun belts strapped round them and bristling with hand-grenades, armed men everywhere -- such was the picture presented by the Smolny. At the entrance were two quick-firing guns, between them and on their flanks stood machine-guns. A big former class-room of the Institute, on the ground floor, was the headquarters of the Bolshevik group; the only furniture in the room was the desks moved up against the walls. The room was full of people. An important conference of representatives of all districts of the Petrograd Bolshevik organisation and the Military Organisation of the Central Committee was under way. The question of armed insurrection was being discussed. The chairman was Comrade Sverdlov. In the middle of the room stood a simple little table without a cover. One report after another told that the workers and soldiers of Petrograd were prepared for the insurrection. Party workers from the districts produced facts and figures showing that the time was ripe... As chairman of the Military Organisation of the Bolshevik Party, I reported to the conference on the Red Guards, the army units and the fleet. I began with the Red Guards in Vyborg District. They were in close contact with the factory and district Bolshevik organisations and with the factory committees. I mentioned the names of the organisers of the Red Guards. I made special mention of those secretaries of Party groups and chairmen of factory committees who had shown ability in drawing workers into their in the Red Guard. These organisers of the Red Guards had worked well to put into force the battle slogans of the Bolshevik Party. The former Moscow Regiment of Life Guards had given great assistance to the Red Guards of Vyborg District, where it was quartered. I spoke about the Red Guard of Petrograd District which was developing into an important force. It had had its baptism of fire during the April demonstration when a group of Tsarist officers had attacked the Red Guards in an attempt to take away and tear up their red flag. They were repulsed by armed force. I spoke of Moscow- Narva District and the giant Putilov Works with its forty-thousand strong army of workers. The February Revolution began with the demonstration and strike of the Putilov workers. As early as 5 March 1917, the Putilov workers adopted a resolution not to lay down their arms until the final victory of the proletarian revolution. The Putilov workers were a well-disciplined Red Guard. I reported on the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, on the famous Armoured-Car Detachment amongst whom were many former Petrograd, Moscow and Kolomna workers. The older soldiers amongst them remembered the battles with the Tsarist government in 1905. They had shown no fear of court-martial when, in April, they took two armoured cars to the Finland Railway Station on the memorable day of Lenin's arrival. The 17 armoured cars in possession of the detachment were an important force. The officers of the Provisional Government had got control of this force and with its aid were guarding the railway stations, telephone exchange, telegraph office, post office, the Winter and Marinskii palaces and the Army Headquarters. Then I spoke about other units. The Bolsheviks of the Motor Transport Company had all the lorries and army cars in their hands. The Bolsheviks of the Armoured-Car Repair Shops had six cars ready -- at a moment's notice they were prepared to place the cars and themselves at the disposal of the staff of the armed insurrection. The Flame-Thrower and Chemical Battalion and the Engineer Battalion, the 1st Machine- Gun Regiment and others had been disarmed. The soldiers of these units, however, were eager to wash away in blood the insult of the disarmament that had followed their demand during the July demonstrations that all power be invested in the Soviets. I reported in brief on the ten Guards' regiments. In advance of the others were the Pavlovsky and Grenadier Jaeger regiments and the Petrograd, Lithuanian, Volhynian, Finland and Izmailovsky regiments, where propaganda had taken root. The Bolsheviks had conducted very extensive propaganda in these regiments even before the July events. K.Y.Voroshilov was with the Izmailovsky Regiment and had aroused them to revolt in February. The 180th Regiment and the Siege Artillery of the Peter and Paul fortress would follow the Bolsheviks. The artillerymen considered it a matter of honour for the fortress garrison that the Colt Machine gun Battalion and the Cyclist Battalion on whose loyalty the Provisional Government had counted, were no longer amongst the defenders of the bourgeoisie. I listed the troops that would bar the roads to Petrograd from Pskov, Minsk and Mogilev in the event of the General Headquarters making an attempt to come to the aid of the Provisional Government. The garrisons quartered along the Warsaw, Baltic and Vitebsk railways, in Tsarskoye Selo, Gatchina, Luga and other places were all re-electing their company and battalion committees and placing Bolsheviks at the head of them. Groups of the Bolshevik Military Organisation were the only guiding force in these units. All these units would follow the Bolsheviks only in order overthrow the power of the bourgeoisie and establish the power of workers and peasants. These sailors of Kronstadt and Helsingfors, the artillery and infantry at Vyborg, the Lettish Rifles, the soldiers from the armies on the Northern Front, steeled in the battles against the bourgeoisie in the July- August and September days, informed the country of their loyalty to the banner of Lenin in their newspapers Soldat (The Soldier), Volna (The Wave) Okupnaya Pravda (The Trench Truth) The sailors and the soldiers of Vyborg had shown where they stood as early as March when they threw generals and officers into the sea and drowned them. They were confident of the success of the insurrection, confident that theirs was the force that would crush the bourgeoisie. Those present listened in rapt attention, trying to catch every word. I finished my report and went aside. At that moment Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov came up to me and whispered: 'Now you can go to Ilyich. He sent for you the report on the preparations. Sverdlov took me to Antonov-Ovseenko and Nevsky who were also to go to see Lenin. We were to give him an account of the way in which the Party's Military Organisation was preparing the masses for insurrection. As a precaution we decided to go separately, each of us with a guide. Night. I was accompanied by Comrade Pavlov, a Petrograd worker born and bred. We went a roundabout way to avoid being followed It was a lot farther but more dependable. There had been a noticeably keener hunt for Ilyich, dozens of plain-clothes men were roaming the city and camouflaged pickets were to be seen everywhere. The Provisional Government felt their rule coming to an end; they realised how much Lenin wan responsible for the masses having become more and more persistent in demanding the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. The plain-clothes men were beside themselves in their effort to find Lenin. Avoiding the cadet patrols we continued our way along little used back streets. We crossed Troitsky Bridge, making for Petrograd District, pretending to be going away from Vyborg District. When we were quite sure that we were not being followed we went over to Vyborg District. At last we came to the street where Lenin was living. We went round the house carefully to make sure there were no suspicious characters about. The street was deserted. We entered the yard and I was naturally very excited. We went upstairs to the first floor and looked round. Then we knocked giving the prescribed signal. The door opened and an unknown man stood before us. Vladimir Ilyich was so well disguised that I only recognised by his voice when I heard the words, 'Good-evening, Comrade Podvoisky.' While we were on the way I had given considerable thought to the sequence in which I would make my 'report'. In actual fact there was no report -- just a simple, heart-to-heart talk. When Vladimir Ilyich had seated us he began with Antonov-Ovseenko, asking him to give his views concerning the insurrection. Antonov- Ovseenko said he was not in a position to judge the situation in the Petrograd garrison but he was well acquainted with the Helsingfors fleet and to some extent with the Kronstadt Fleet. The sailors were ready for action. They could come to Petrograd by railway or, in case of necessity, could approach the city from the sea. Good propaganda work had been done amongst the troops quartered in Finland and they supported the uprising in every way. As far as the Petrograd garrison was concerned he believed that after the work done by the Military Organisation the success of the insurrection was assured. He was convinced of this by the numerous meetings held by the Party during September and October and the resolutions passed at them. Nevsky, whom the Military Organisation had sent specially to Helsingfors to find out whether it would be possible for the fleet to participate in the insurrection directly in Petrograd waters, said that the fleet would certainly take part - Antonov-Ovseenko was right - but that movement of the fleet to Petrograd would be a matter of the greatest difficulty. After the arrest of the officers, which would be necessary in the first hour of the uprising, their places would be taken by men with little experience, and who were not well acquainted with the charts of the minefields, so that it was doubtful whether they would be able to steer the vessels through them. Deployment of the ships should it become necessary to fight at Petrograd would also give trouble since the sailors in command were unable to direct a battle. Nevsky was in favour of leaving the ships in Helsingfors and bringing the sailors to Petrograd by rail. I was no better off and felt as uneasy as an inexperienced boxer in the ring... 'You said that at such and such a factory there is a good military organisation, there are 300 men in the Red Guard, there are rifles and cartridges, and, you said, there are even machine-guns. Who is the commander there, do you know him?' 'Yes. I know him.' And I told Ilyich all I knew about him. 'You say he is an excellent man? Would give his head for the revolution? And what are his military qualifications? Can he shoot, from a revolver, say? And could he handle a cannon if it were necessary? Could he bring up something essential in a car, in case of need! Can he drive a car? And then, do your Red Guard commanders know anything about the tactics street fighting?' It appeared that I knew nothing about any one of the commanders from that point of view. Vladimir Ilyich stood up, placed his fingers in his waistcoat pockets and shook his head reproachfully. 'Ai-ai-ai, and that's the chairman of the Military Organisation! How are you going to lead the insurrection if you do not know what your commanders are like? It is not enough for them to be good agitators, good propagandists, that they make good reports and are excellent organisers of the masses. Insurrection is not a meeting to hear reports, insurrection is action with arms in hand. There you not only have to act with self-sacrifice but also with skill, otherwise the slightest mistake may cost the Lives of red guards, revolutionary sailors and soldiers ... A mistake may lead to defeat of the insurrection.' I saw what a tremendous mistake we had been making. I then realised that the Petrograd Organisation of the Bolshevik Party had mustered huge masses of workers and soldiers for the insurrection, but had been paying little attention to purely military matters although that was the primary duty of the Military Organisation. There was only one thing I wanted at that moment -- to go straight back, roll up my sleeves and try to make for lost time... Noting my confusion, Vladimir Ilyich tried to help me out off the awkward position in which I found myself. 'My dear fellow', he said, 'insurrection is the most crucial form of warfare. It is a great art. Of course, bold commanders can do wonders by their own example, audacity and courage. But what sort of commander for an armed uprising is a man who cannon shoot! Such commanders must immediately replaced by others. Leaders who do not understand the tactics of street fighting will ruin the insurrection. And remember, please, that soldiers are all right in their way, but in our struggle we must depend mostly on the workers.' >From that moment on I began to look at insurrection through the eyes of Vladimir Ilyich. It was now quire clear to me what had to be done in the few days that were left before the uprising. We had to make sure that the Red Guard would not only be the leading political force, but also the leading military force that would determine the success of the insurrection. 'And are you sure', continued Vladimir Ilyich, 'that the commandeers of the army units will not let you down? Are they not Tsarist officers! I informed Comrade Lenin that during the four months of enforced underground existence the influence of the Bolsheviks in the army units had increased very greatly. Only those commanders had remained at their posts in the units who recognised the control of the soldiers' committees. The soldiers' committees, as I had already reported, were in the majority of cases under the influence of the Bolsheviks. Even in a regiment like the Semyonovsky, we were able to get resolutions passed without any special difficulty. It was true that Preobrazhenskiy Regiment was still not ours but we were confident we would win it over. I then named all those commanders-mostly of machine-gun companies and some of the Guards' regiments - who during the past few days had unconditionally come over to our side. 'What tremendous power is wielded by the revolution!' said Vladimir Ilyich with great satisfaction. 'The main thing now is to direct it so as to win and without the application of military science we cannot win.' 'The most important thing now', continued Lenin, 'is to select a corps of selfless workers, especially the youth, who are ready to die rather than retreat or give up a position. They must be formed into special detachments beforehand to occupy the telephone exchange, the telegraph office and, most important of all, the bridges. The bridges... The working-class districts of Petrograd were interconnected and were linked to the centre by eight bridges - Liteiny, Troitsky, Palace, Nikolayevsky, Okhta, Great and Little Sampson Tuchkov. It was absolutely essential that we keep these bridges in our hands. After that Lenin touched on the question of arms. 'You said that the workers were more and more persistently demanding arms. Where do you propose to get them?' It was our pride, the pride of the Military Organisation, that in most regiments we could take almost all the arms from the storehouses because the Bolshevik military groups in every regiment, on the ships and in artillery were a force to be reckoned with. The Cossacks were the only units we had not yet succeeded in influencing with our propaganda. In all other units in the region and in the nearest front-line areas we were in a position to obtain arms in almost any quantities. When I told Vladimir Ilyich this his face did not express pleasure or satisfaction but some sort of perplexity: what is the man talking about, he seemed to say. The more arms we take away from the soldiers thee lee will remain for them Is that not so?' said Vladimir Ilyich. Hmmm. That was something I had not thought about. 'That won't do. You must get into closer contact with the arsenals and the munition stores,' continued comrade Lenin. 'There are workers : soldiers there, too. Work out a plan and ensure its fulfilment so that can take arms straight from the stores at the very moment they are needed. It is good that we have the Sestroretsk Arsenal, but that is not enough. I'm sure that if you help the Bolsheviks of the Peter and Paul Arsenal, of the New Arsenal on Liteiny and the Old Arsenal in Vyborg District to develop their work in the proper way they will open the storehouses for distribution of arms to the workers the moment they are needed. Is it not so!' Never before, despite the experience of 1905, had I realised how much an armed insurrection is organically connected with the arming of the widest sections of the working class. Nor did I realise that the greatest revolutionary enthusiasm amongst the masses was far from enough to ensure victory. Victory could only be achieved by skilled leadership. It was only Lenin's masterly analysis of the problems of the armed uprising and the part to be played by the masses, their leaders and the weapons, that ensured the general participation of the workers and soldiers in the insurrection and guaranteed success. We began to talk of the Military Revolutionary Committee as the body hat must lead the insurrection. The Military Organisation of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, owing to its great influence amongst masses, had already begun to play an exceptional role in the Military Revolutionary Committee, set up by the Petrograd Soviet. It took little heed of the representatives of other organisations in the committee, and here were many of them. It seemed to us that it was too unwieldy to m operative leadership. Comrade Lenin asked me what I thought of the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee. 'The Military Revolutionary Committee', I answered, 'is actually an extended bureau of the Military Organisations of the Central Committee of our Party.' 'And that is wrong!' said Vladimir Ilyich. 'It should not be a bureau, but a non-Party insurrectionary body which has full power and is connected with all sections of the workers and soldiers. The committee must ensure that an unlimited number of workers and soldiers are armed and participate in the insurrection. The greater the initiative and activity of each member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the stronger and more effective will be the influence of the entire committee on the masses. There must not be the slightest hint of dictatorship by the Military Organisation over the Military Revolutionary Committee. The main task of the Military Organisation is to see the committee follows the correct Bolshevik line. The main thing is the victory of the insurrection. The Military Revolutionary Committee must serve that purpose and alone. At the same time Lenin pointed out the way in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee would take on a mass character. 'Call daily conferences of representatives of all army units in Petrograd and act through them.' Towards the end of our talk I asked Vladimir Ilyich a question: 'Would it not be expedient to print beforehand millions of copies of decrees on land, peace, workers' control of production and the organisation of a Soviet Republic?' Vladimir Ilyich looked up at me and burst out laughing. 'You're getting a long way ahead of yourself! First we have to win then print decrees. We parted with great warmth. It was long past midnight. I flew back though on wings. Lenin's words kept hammering at my head: the masses are there. Organise their military leadership. Put as many weapons as possible into their hands. That is what must be done. That same night every sing]e member of the Military Organisation immediately got down to the job of putting Lenin's instructions into effect. The Smolny was as crowded with people as it had been five days before. The workers had been armed and were setting out to defend Petrograd against the attacking troops of General Krasnov's army corps. On occasion they again displayed their extraordinary might and the strength of their organisation. The Smolny had practically been turned into armed camp; units were being hurriedly formed from workers sent by their districts; they were equipped somehow by the Red Guard Headquarters: or rather they were given greatcoats, cartridge pouches, haversacks, rifles and cartridges. Many of the workers had taken up rifles and formed ranks for the first time in their lives. The Republic, however, was in danger. A blow was being struck at socialist power and the volunteers, sent by factory committees, had only one thing on their minds: to fight for Petrograd and to prevent the counter revolution capturing the city and crushing Soviet power. The workers elected their own commanders on the spot each unit set up a minimum staff -- officers in charge of supplies, munitions, communications and a commandant. The marching feet of the Red Guards resounded through the streets. Behind them followed a motor lorry with stores, equipment and munitions. _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
