Many leading counter-revolutionaries, especially among the military, were convinced that the victory of the revolution in Central Russia was inevitable. They therefore recommended that a place d’armes should be chosen beforehand, where their forces could be concentrated in order to continue the struggle. Their choice fell upon south-east Russia. While continuing the struggle in the centre, the Provisional Government took measures to transform the Don Region and North Caucasus into strongholds of the counter-revolution. The troops commanded by the Ataman of the Don, General Kaledin, who had been accused of complicity with Kornilov and had been acquitted by the Government Commission of Enquiry, resolutely set to work to clear the region of revolutionary elements. On the pretext of a shortage of fodder at the front, Cossack regiments were transferred to this region, while the reserve battalions that were under Bolshevik influence were withdrawn. The army officers who had been expelled from their units by the rank and file fled to the Don and North Caucasus. Here, in October 1917, was formed the South-Eastern League, which was to embrace the Kuban, Don, Terek and Astrakhan Cossacks, the highlanders of the North Caucasus and the peoples of the Don Steppes and the Astrakhan Gubernia. This League was to serve as one of the bulwarks in the struggle against the proletarian revolution.
The Bolshevik organisations in the Don Region, and primarily the Rostov organisation, waged a determined struggle against the counter-revolution in order to win over the masses.
In this struggle the Bolsheviks relied on the workers and the Rostov garrison. In August there were about 300 Bolsheviks in this city. The Bolshevik Party Committee had its headquarters in a pavilion in the public park which it shared with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. The workers and soldiers who came to this place for literature, or to invite speakers to their meetings often came to the “wrong door” and found themselves in the Bolsheviks’ room. The compromisers speedily realised what dangerous neighbours they had and made haste to find other premises. The Bolsheviks thus remained in sole possession. Work proceeded briskly. In the park and in the adjacent streets, meetings were held almost uninterruptedly, and crowds of people heatedly discussed the speeches delivered by the Bolsheviks. Copies of Pravda were distributed as well as of the local Bolshevik newspaper Nashe Znamya, which had a circulation of over 15,000. Mainly, however, activities were conducted in the trade unions, among the metal-workers and railwaymen.
Considerable harm was caused the Bolshevik organisations in Rostov by a group of Right-wingers, headed by Syrtsov, and by a group of Trotskyites, headed by Vasilchenko. Both these anti-Party groups fiercely opposed Lenin’s line. Virtually, they were masked allies of the counter-revolutionary Cossack Force government of the Don. They proposed that the Bolsheviks should unite with the Mensheviks and support the Cossack government, opposed Lenin’s April Theses and the decision of the Sixth Congress of the Bolshevik Party which had turned the Party’s course towards armed insurrection. The Rostov Bolsheviks resolutely combated the treacherous policy of the Right-wingers and the Trotskyites. The latter were expelled from the Rostov-Nakhichevan Committee, but they continued their anti-Party activities. Denouncing the compromisers and their henchmen in the camp of the Right wing and Trotskyite traitors, the Bolshevik organisation successfully built up its political army on the eve of October.
The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party closely followed the activities of the Bolsheviks in the Don Region. Sverdlov called for frequent reports and gave them valuable advice. Party workers were sent to Rostov, and the Moscow organisation was instructed to maintain communication with the city. During the Sixth Congress of the Party the delegates from the Don Region visited Sverdlov and Stalin, to whom they reported on the work of their organisations and from whom they received a number of instructions. The Rostov Bolsheviks were informed about the course which had been taken towards armed insurrection.
Bolshevik activities greatly increased after the Kornilov mutiny. Red Guard units began to be formed in the towns and on September 6, a Central Red Guard Headquarters were set up in Rostov. The counter-revolutionary character of the conduct of the militarists caused even the Cossack regiments to waver. Kaledin failed to move his units to assist Kornilov. The bulk of the rank-and-file Cossacks refused to obey their generals. As Lenin wrote at the time:
“Whatever the case may be, the extreme weakness of a mass Cossack movement in favour of a bourgeois counter-revolution appears historically proven after the experience of August 26-31” [i.e., September 8-13 New Style, the period of the Kornilov mutiny—Ed.].[1]
Revolutionary sentiments spread among the Cossacks. The agitation conducted by the Bolsheviks among them was centred around concrete issues, and such as the Cossacks could easily understand. They made splendid capital out of the election, on Kaledin’s recommendation, of Rodzyanko, a big landlord and ex-Chairman of the State Duma, to the Cossack caste, which was accompanied by a grant of land. “A new Cossack has occupied your land while you are writhing in the clutches of want,” the Bolsheviks said to the poorer classes of the Cossacks, thus tearing them away from the influence of the wealthy Cossacks.
In Belaya Kalitva, E. A. Shchadenko conducted propaganda work in the 39th Cossack Regiment. He organised fraternisation between the workers and the Cossacks. Under his leadership, the miners from the neighbouring collieries—Vassilevsky, Bogurayevsky and Svinoretsky—marched to the Cossacks’ camp, carrying posters and banners, and singing revolutionary songs. The Cossacks gave the workers a hearty welcome, and this fraternisation completely won them over. In spite of Kaledin’s orders to the contrary, the Cossacks elected their deputy to the Soviet. This facilitated Bolshevik propaganda work in the regiment.
It was particularly difficult to conduct propaganda work in the Cossack stanitsas, or villages. The Bolsheviks induced the Rostov Soviet to establish a Settlers’ Department, and with a mandate from this department the Bolsheviks found it easier to carry on their work in the stanitsas. Extensive propaganda work was also conducted among the “settler peasants,” as the non-Cossack peasants who had migrated to this region from other parts of Russia were called. Nashe Znamya had regular subscribers in the rural districts and often published letters from peasants.
Bolshevik groups were formed in a number of Cossack stanitsas. In Morozovskaya there was a railway depot, a small iron foundry and three or four flour mills. The local Bolsheviks had their propaganda headquarters in the railway depot and peasants from the neighbouring villages and stanitsas often visited the place.
In their agitational work the Bolsheviks skilfully made use of individual grievances. For example, a local stationmaster wanted to discharge a disabled soldier who was employed as a watchman. The Bolsheviks called a meeting of the railwaymen and got them to pass a resolution containing two points: 1. That the disabled soldier was not to be discharged; 2. That Lenin’s article on workers’ control of industry be published as a practical guide in the railwaymen’s struggle against the administration. In the Morozovskaya Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies the Bolsheviks formed a group consisting of farm labourers and poor peasants. This group, in its turn, organised a squad of 26 persons, of whom nine were women, to help the poorer peasants in the district. This squad procured a threshing machine and other farm implements and helped the poorer peasants in their farming. This was a practical demonstration of how the Bolsheviks proposed to solve the agrarian problem.
The Bolsheviks were particularly successful in the city of Rostov.
On September 11, at a meeting of factory committees in this town, the Bolshevik resolution on the question of state power received 49 votes and that of the Mensheviks 58 votes. A month previously the Bolsheviks were barely able to scrape together five or six votes. This shows how rapidly the compromisers were being isolated.
To consolidate their successes the Bolsheviks proposed at the next meeting of the factory committees held on September 26 that the existing Soviet and factory committees be dissolved and that new elections be held. The workers approved of this proposal. At the same meeting it was decided to form a Red Guard.
Preparations were made for the new elections to the Soviet. To weaken the influence of the Bolsheviks, Ataman Kaledin ordered the reserve companies to be dispatched to the front. The Rostov-Nakhichevan Committee of the Bolshevik Party passed a resolution to detain these companies in the town, and sent agitators to the regiments. These agitators succeeded in addressing even the Cossack regiments. The soldiers heartily supported the Bolsheviks; the compromisers, however, could not obtain a hearing.
On September 29, the men of the 225th Reserve Regiment refused to detail companies to be dispatched to the front. General Chernoyarov and General Bogayevsky, the Ataman’s second in command, arrived and tried to persuade the soldiers to obey the order, but the soldiers drove the counter-revolutionary generals from the meeting. The chief of the garrison then issued a secret order to deprive the Guard Company of the regiment of its rifles, but the men got wind of this and placed a reinforced guard near the rifle stacks.
The entire Rostov garrison supported the men of the 225th Regiment. The Bolsheviks called for a demonstration against the war for October 1.
The bourgeois press howled:
“If you demonstrate in the streets you will be dispersed with bayonets. . . . The Provisional Government and Kaledin will not stand any nonsense,” said the compromisers, trying to intimidate the men.”[2]
Late at night, on the eve of the demonstration, the chief of the garrison issued orders by telephone to serve out arms to the troops that were loyal to the government, as a demonstration of “Bolshevik gangs” was anticipated. The officer on duty in the 225th Regiment was asleep when the telephone message arrived and it was taken down by a private whose sympathies lay with the Bolsheviks and who happened to be in the room at the time. The regimental clerk ordered this private to convey the order to the company commanders, but instead of doing that, he hastened to the committee rooms of the Bolshevik Party, but found nobody there. He then warned the Company Committees and the soldiers. The Training Company and the 12th Company, which the chief of the garrison had intended to use against the demonstration, decided to come out with the Bolsheviks.
On October 1 a huge demonstration took place in the city, in which the entire garrison participated. The workers marched from the factories in a seemingly endless column, carrying posters bearing Bolshevik slogans.
On October 7 the elections to the Soviets took place. The Bolsheviks had made thorough preparations for these elections and had conducted numerous meetings at the factories. Bolshevik agitators had also visited all the regiments of the garrison. In many of the factories there were still a number of compromisers who tried to prevent the Bolshevik speakers from addressing the meetings, but no sooner were these attempts challenged than it was found that the workers had entirely deserted their recent leaders. This was the case at the tramway depot, which was a Menshevik stronghold. One day several Bolshevik speakers arrived at the depot to address a meeting that had been arranged there but received a very cool reception from the depot committee. The chairman drily informed them that no meeting would be held as the representatives of the other parties were absent. The Bolsheviks were about to leave when they were detained by several workers who led them into the depot. Suddenly the local Menshevik leaders appeared on the scene and were very much surprised to find the Bolsheviks in the place. It turned out that this trick had been arranged beforehand between the Mensheviks and the depot committee, but it was foiled by the workers.
The meeting was opened and a Menshevik elected chairman, but when the discussion started it soon became evident that a wide gulf separated the leaders from the masses. The Mensheviks accused the workers of being responsible for “disorder and destruction.” The audience loudly protested. Feeling began to run high.
The plain words of the Bolshevik speakers telling how the war could be brought to an end and the people could obtain bread at once, won the sympathy of the workers, who listened to the Bolsheviks’ message with the closest attention. There was not a single interruption. Towards the end of the meeting the Mensheviks quietly disappeared. The Bolshevik speakers were greeted with loud cheers. Similar scenes were witnessed in other factories.
The new elections resulted in the Bolsheviks obtaining the largest number of votes, but it was not yet clear how the non-party delegates would act. At the first meeting of the new Soviet the question of choosing a delegate for the All-Russian Congress of Soviets came up. Acting on instructions received from Petrograd, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks made feverish efforts to get their representative elected. It was a stormy meeting and at times it seemed that the Soviet would split into two halves, as the Mensheviks still appeared to exercise considerable influence.
At last the debate drew to a close and the election of a delegate to the Congress was proceeded with. The Bolsheviks received 20 or 30 votes more than the Mensheviks and a Bolshevik delegate was sent to the Congress. This vote proved to be decisive. From that day the Rostov Soviet became a Bolshevik Soviet.
Thus, strongholds of the proletarian revolution were formed in the Don Region.
[1] V. I. Lenin, “The Russian Revolution and Civil War,” Collected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. XXI, Book I, p. 235.
[2] The Proletarian Revolution on the Don, Vol. II, State Publishers, Rostov-on-Don, 1922, p. 61.
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