In the North Caucasus the Bolsheviks were obliged to fight under extremely difficult conditions. The very intricate national situation, the antagonisms among the Cossacks, the strife between the higher caste of the Cossacks and the Mountain People, and between the Cossacks as a whole and the peasant settlers from other parts of the country, the national strife among the Mountain People, and the numerical weakness of the proletariat in the region—all this necessitated the employment of exceptionally cautious tactics. An example of thoughtful, Bolshevik handling of problems was set in the Terek Region in 1917 by Sergei Mironovich Kirov.
Kirov had been away in Petrograd on a mission on behalf of the Vladikavkaz Bolshevik organisation and the Vladikavkaz Soviet. He returned on September 2 and immediately plunged into revolutionary work. Every day, and sometimes several times a day, he addressed meetings of workers and soldiers. A brilliant speaker, and well read, be had a gift for illustrating his arguments with vivid metaphors and examples. His inspired speeches, breathing profound faith in the victory of the revolution, literally fired his audiences. In preparing the proletariat and the working people in the North Caucasus in general for armed insurrection Kirov attached enormous importance to propaganda activities among the poorer sections of the Mountain People, among whom he was already extremely popular.
The counter-revolutionaries among the Cossacks and Mountain People did their utmost to foment national strife. Rumours were deliberately spread in the Cossack stanitsas to the effect that the Bolsheviks were inciting the Mountain People to set fire to and destroy the stanitsas. On the other hand, the mullahs and kulaks among the Mountain People spread the rumour that the shaitans (devils), the Bolsheviks, were urging the Cossacks to wreck their mosques and seize their wives and children. The poorer sections of the Mountain People and the Cossacks, however, knew Kirov as a courageous Bolshevik who had already on one occasion averted what had seemed an inevitable sanguinary collision. On July 6, the soldiers in Vladikavkaz, incited by the counter-revolutionaries, brutally assaulted the unarmed Mountain People who had come to market. The flames of national war threatened to engulf the city, the Cossack stanitsas and the auls, or mountain villages. Foreseeing the frightful bloodshed that would result in the extermination of the best revolutionary forces and the strengthening of the counter-revolutionary forces among the Cossacks and the Mountain People, Kirov went off alone to the Ingush village of Bazorkino, where preparations were in progress for an armed attack on Vladikavkaz and succeeded in revealing to the Ingush people the provocative designs of the counter-revolutionaries among the Cossacks and Mountain People. His courage and daring made such a profound impression upon them that they abandoned their intention of attacking the city. Through Kirov, the best representatives of the Ingush people, such as Sultan Kostayev and Yusup Albagachiev, made contact with the Vladikavkaz Soviet of Workers’ Deputies.
Kirov also established connections with the poorer sections of the Ossetian people through the Ossetian revolutionary party known as “Kermen,” which was formed in the summer of 1917. This party took its name from the legendary Ossetian hero, Kermen, a slave, who had fought for his rights and had been treacherously killed by his oppressors. True, this organisation lacked a definite program and clung to a number of nationalist prejudices and fallacies, but it exercised considerable influence among the poorer sections of the Ossetian peasants. In May 1918 the best elements of the “Kermenists” joined the Bolshevik Party and formed an Ossetian Area Bolshevik organisation.
By the autumn of 1917 the Vladikavkaz Party organisation had undergone considerable change. Under Kirov’s leadership, the Bolsheviks had won over the proletarian nucleus in the united Social-Democratic organisation, and from the very first days of the revolution had acted as an independent group. They were backed by the workers in the railway workshops and the Alagir Works.
The split in the Social-Democratic organisation occurred at the end of October 1917. At a general Party meeting held in Vladikavkaz, of the 500 members present, only eight supported the Menshevik platform. In face of this overwhelming defeat the Mensheviks withdrew from the meeting.
Thus, on the eve of the Great Proletarian Revolution the Vladikavkaz Bolsheviks were united in a strong and solid Party organisation. This was an extremely important factor in securing the victory of the Soviet regime in the North Caucasus. Already at the end of September the Bolsheviks had gained control of the Vladikavkaz Soviet.
On October 5 the Vladikavkaz Soviet elected Kirov as one of its delegates to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. He was also elected as a delegate to this Congress by the Nalchik Soviet. On October 21, after Kirov had left for Petrograd, the Vladikavkaz Soviet re-elected him in his absence a member of the new Executive Committee that was chosen that night.
Preparing to combat the maturing revolution, the Provisional Government proclaimed martial law in the Grozny, Vedeno and Khasav-Yurt Areas of the Terek Region, and on October 16 martial law was extended to the entire Terek Region. Although the state of martial law facilitated the execution of the measures taken by the government to combat the maturing revolution, all its efforts were in vain. The influence of the Bolsheviks continued to grow in Vladikavkaz as well as in the mountain villages. The Soviet followed the lead of the Bolsheviks, and the Vladikavkaz garrison, too, was on their side.
The Bolsheviks also conducted extensive activities in the other large centre of the Terek Region, namely, Grozny, which is famous for its oil wells and oil refineries. Here, already during the imperialist war, there was a small group of Bolsheviks working underground. After the tsarist regime was overthrown the Bolshevik organisation came into the open and began to grow rapidly. At the time of the April Conference it already had a membership of 800, and when the decisions reached by this Conference became known among the oil-workers, the influx of members increased still further. The Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was controlled by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. There were only a few Bolsheviks in the Soviet at first, but Bolshevik influence was particularly strong in the working-class districts. In Grozny the bourgeoisie had powerful organisations which were backed by the bourgeois engineers and technical personnel in the oilfields.
Around Grozny were numerous Cossack stanitsas and Chechen villages, the inhabitants of which were at daggers drawn. In the summer of 1917 there were even open collisions between Cossacks and Chechens. There was a fairly large garrison in the town consisting of the 111th Reserve Regiment, the 21st Regiment, and the 252nd Samara Detachment. The Bolsheviks conducted extensive activities among the troops of the garrison and their influence among the men spread rapidly.
A “Security Detachment” was organised among the workers and was practically a unit of the Red Guard. The Grozny Bolsheviks were in contact with Petrograd and Moscow, and often visited Vladikavkaz.
From the very first days of the February Revolution the Grozny proletariat had waged an intense struggle against the owners of the oilfields and the refineries. With the aid of revolutionary soldiers the workers captured 700 rifles and 100 revolvers belonging to the Terek Oil Owners Council.
The growing influence of the Bolsheviks in Grozny caused anxiety not only to the local organs of the Provisional Government, but to the Provisional Government itself. Grozny was of too great importance to the bourgeoisie for them to surrender it to the workers without a fight.
After the July days the combined counter-revolutionary forces among the Cossack and Mountain People took the offensive. In the beginning of August the 21st Regiment, which was under strong Bolshevik influence, was disarmed and disbanded by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Front. The disarming of this regiment served as a signal to the counter-revolutionary Cossack higher caste—which had raised its head after the July days in Petrograd—to intensify disorderly activities. On August 17 a gang of Cossack officers attacked the premises of the Grozny Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and dispersed the Soviet.
In August an Ingush-Cossack Congress was held, presided over by Pshemakho Kotsev, a Kabardinian horse breeder, and one of the leaders of the “Central Committee of the Union of Mountain People.” This Congress was to have been a symbol of “peace” between the Ingush people and the Cossacks. Karaulov, the Ataman of the Terek Cossacks, stated in his speech at the Congress that all the trouble in the region was due to anarchy, and anarchy was due to the activities of all sorts of committees. A strong and united government was needed, he said, and only a government of the Terek Cossack Forces could serve the purpose.
After the suppression of the Kornilov mutiny, the situation in the town changed again. On September 8 a report on the Kornilov mutiny was made at a meeting of the Grozny Soviet by the Bolshevik, Ivan Malygin, one of the 26 Baku Commissars who were treacherously shot by the intervention forces in 1918. Malygin was a member of the Presidium of the Grozny Soviet. At the beginning of 1917, and during the first months of the revolution, he was a private in the 113th Reserve Infantry Regiment which was quartered in Pyatigorsk. Together with G. Andzhievsky, another private in this regiment, he became Party organiser in Pyatigorsk and helped to organise the Pyatigorsk Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. The summer of 1917 found him in Grozny where he was one of the leaders of the local Bolsheviks. In August he travelled to Petrograd to attend the All-Russian Conference of representatives of Regional Soviets and on his return to Grozny he reported on the revolutionary temper prevailing in the country and on the suppression of the Kornilov mutiny.
Malygin’s vivid report and the resolution he moved were greeted with outbursts of applause at the meeting of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
Malygin was followed by Nikolai Anisimov, another Bolshevik, who had also just returned from Petrograd, where he had been the Grozny delegate at the Sixth Congress of the Party and had reported on the growth of the Grozny Bolshevik organisation. Although still a student, Anisimov was the actual leader of the Grozny Bolsheviks. He was a splendid organiser and was highly respected by the Grozny workers.
His speech at the meeting of the Grozny Soviet on September 8 was also well received. This was too much for the Mensheviks, and the Chairman of the Soviet, the Menshevik Bogdanov, requested the “guests”—workers and soldiers—not to applaud, threatening to have them ejected if they did. This statement caused an outburst of indignation. The Bolshevik delegates in the Soviet protested and together with the workers and soldiers demonstratively left the hall with the result that the meeting had to be adjourned. After the recess, the Bolsheviks and their sympathisers returned. Two resolutions were put to the vote: a Menshevik resolution submitted by the Presidium, and a Bolshevik resolution moved by Malygin. The Bolshevik resolution polled 207 votes, but the Menshevik resolution was adopted by a majority of 44.
The Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary leaders of the Grozny Soviet steadily turned the workers against themselves. Meetings of workers in the oilfields and in the refineries openly expressed lack of confidence in the Executive Committee of the Soviet. Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary speakers were refused a hearing. At the end of September the Executive Committee of the Soviet was obliged to resign. The grounds for this were given by the Menshevik Bogdanov, the Chairman of the Soviet, at a meeting held on September 29, when he said that “the members of the Executive Committee cannot address a single workers’ meeting . . . the workers have no confidence whatsoever in us.”[1]
This frank confession of the leader of the Mensheviks and Chairman of the Soviet was greeted with rounds of applause by the Bolshevik workers, and by an outburst of fury on the part of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik bloc. In view of the critical position in which the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik leaders found themselves, they called for several Socialist-Revolutionary members of the Regional Executive Committee to come to their assistance. The latter failed to impress the assembly, however, and the Bolsheviks demanded the election of a new Soviet and the annulment of the agreement with the bourgeoisie. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks moved a resolution protesting against the charge of “disloyal conduct” levelled against the Executive Committee. Nevertheless, under pressure of the workers, they were compelled to accept an amendment calling for new elections at the earliest date. This time the resolution moved by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries was adopted by a majority of only six votes.[2] This marked the end of Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik rule in Grozny.
The strongest Bolshevik organisation in the Kuban was that in Ekaterinodar. On the eve of the February Revolution more than one-third of all the industrial enterprises and about one-half of all the workers in the Kuban were concentrated in that city. At the end of April, the Ekaterinodar Bolshevik organisation had a membership of about 200. A Bolshevik newspaper, Prikubanskaya Pravda, was published and soon became popular among the working-class population. The Bolsheviks were extremely active in the City Duma. The preparations for the City Duma elections had proceeded under great difficulties. The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries had formed a strong bloc, and supported by a section of the local intelligentsia and by the petty-bourgeoisie, had conducted a bitter struggle against the Bolsheviks. Nevertheless the Party succeeded in winning 20 seats out of a total of 101. This provided the Bolsheviks with a public platform from which to address the working people of the city and obtain publicity for the Bolshevik slogans.
On several occasions deputations came from the suburbs to present demands to the City Duma and appealed directly to the Bolsheviks for support. As a result of the insistence of the Bolsheviks in the City Duma a number of practical measures were adopted which improved the workers’ conditions. For example, the poorer section of the workers could receive allotments of six hectares of land outside the city rent free; workers were exempted from paying the house and water rates; homes were opened for orphan children; poor people in the city were exempted from paying arrears of rates for 1916, which had to be paid by the bourgeoisie.
In August the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies came completely under the control of the Bolsheviks. In the newly elected Executive Committee they had two-thirds of the seats, while the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries had only one seat each.
After capturing the Soviet, the Bolsheviks set out to obtain the effective support of the troops. Besides the Cossacks, there were quartered in the city, the Samur Regiment, and also an Artillery Battalion which had been withdrawn from the Caucasian Front on the grounds that it was “revolutionary.” Both units became armed supports for the proletariat.
Pursuing their plan to isolate the south-eastern part of the country, the counter-revolutionaries formed a Kuban Territory Government, of which Bardizh, the Commissar of the Provisional Government, Colonel Filimonov, the Ataman of the Kuban Cossack Forces, and D. Sverchkov were members. To protect themselves from the revolutionary soldiers, the two first mentioned called for a regiment of the “Savage Division” to reinforce the Cossack units. The Artillery Battalion, which supported the Bolsheviks, was disarmed. The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries decided to render the Kuban counter-revolutionaries effective assistance and with the aid of the Tiflis Commissar of the Provisional Government called out the 39th Division, which took up a position on the railway line at the approaches to Ekaterinodar and occupied the Kavkazskaya, Tikhoretskaya, Armavir and other stations. The Bolsheviks, however, carried on work among the units of this division.
The disarming of the Artillery Battalion gave the counter-revolutionaries a superiority of forces. The Executive Committee of the Soviets, therefore, decided to set up a Military Revolutionary Committee, but this Committee contained representatives of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who were filled with anxiety by the way events were developing. Naturally, a Military Revolutionary Committee of such a composition could not become the organiser and leader of the struggle against the counter-revolutionary Cossacks, the more so since the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries practically boycotted this Committee.
Aware of the growing danger, the Bolsheviks decided to set up a secret Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee to function simultaneously with the legal Military Revolutionary Committee of the Soviets.
The Ekaterinodar Soviet elected a Bolshevik as its delegate to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets and voted in favour of the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” The Armavir Soviet did likewise and this slogan was also supported by the Armavir Area Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies.
On the Black Sea coast, the Bolsheviks gained control of the Soviet in the important towns of Tuapse and Novorossiisk both of which elected Bolshevik delegates to the Second All-Russian Congress.
Thus, the counter-revolution failed to transform the North Caucasus into their place d’armes. By dint of self-sacrificing effort, the Bolsheviks succeeded in creating a number of revolutionary strong-holds in the region. The enemy’s rear was threatened, the forces of the counter-revolution were weakened, and the possibility of an immediate attack on the revolution was removed.
[1] Central Archives of the October Revolution, Fund 1235, Catalogue No. 40, File No. 55, folio 7.
[2] Ibid.
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