On the morning of October 27, the controversy within the Bolshevik leading bodies in Moscow was resumed. Those officials who disagreed with the decision of the joint meeting of the Moscow Committee, the Moscow Regional Bureau and Moscow Area Committee of the Bolshevik Party to cease negotiations demanded that the question be re-opened. A joint meeting of the available members of the Party Centre and of the Bolshevik Section of the Military Revolutionary Committee was held. At this meeting two points of view were in conflict. Some demanded the cessation of negotiations with Ryabtsev and the launching of a decisive offensive. Others insisted on a peaceful agreement in order to gain time to organise the forces.
The Party Fighting Centre, although invested with dictatorial powers, failed to exercise these powers and allowed a discussion to go on at a moment when the utmost determination was needed. Some members of the Party Centre actually hoped to avert insurrection by means of negotiations. By a majority vote—nine against five—it was decided to resume negotiations with Ryabtsev. The motives which guided the majority in voting in this way were that the insurgents lacked arms and it was necessary to gain time. As Usiyevich, the Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee, reported subsequently (on November 7) at a meeting of the Executive Committee of Soviets:
“At the critical moment, when the Military Revolutionary Committee had already been organised, it found itself without any real forces. When, at midnight, [on October 25—Ed.] the Committee went to the meeting of the Soviets in the Governor-General’s residence, the only real armed force it had at its disposal was a small detachment of cyclists. Obviously, the first thing we had to do was to exert all efforts to prevent the Soviets and the Military Revolutionary Committee from being taken unawares. We knew that the cadets were massing and were only waiting for the order to march against the Soviets. We, however, had still to muster our forces. We knew that although the overwhelming majority of the Moscow garrison was behind us and that the vast majority of the workers supported us, that majority was practically unarmed. Three-fourths of the Moscow garrison had no arms. The Red Guard was in an embryonic state. Therefore, the first measures taken by the Military Revolutionary Committee were directed towards arming the soldiers and the workers.”[1]
In the districts, the negotiations with the cadets caused bewilderment and in many cases roused indignation. All over the city detachments of the Red Guard were being hastily formed and stocks of provisions laid in. In the factories the workers were preparing for insurrection. The premises of the District Soviets teemed with activity. Suddenly the news arrived that negotiations had commenced!
When this news reached the Zamoskvorechye District Committee of the Bolshevik Party nobody would believe it. A meeting was at once held at which workers reported that a mutiny was being hatched in the city and that in all the military barracks the officers were conducting counter-revolutionary agitation. Cadets were being dispatched to the centre of the city in companies, and arms were being issued to the university students.
The meeting passed a resolution protesting against the negotiations and sent delegates to the Military Revolutionary Committee to insist on more resolute action.
At the same time a delegation was sent to the regiments quartered in the district to ascertain what temper prevailed among them. The soldiers welcomed the delegates with enthusiasm—the delegate that went to the 55th Regiment was carried shoulder high from company to company. All pledged themselves to support the insurrection. A similar welcome was accorded the delegates by the 196th Commando.
The same thing occurred in other districts. The officers abandoned their regiments and went to join Ryabtsev. From all parts of the city detachments of soldiers, without officers, marched to the Moscow Soviet.
“Where to?” asked the bystanders in alarm.
“To the Soviet!” answered the soldiers.
The premises of the Moscow Soviet were packed. Soldiers thronged the rooms, the corridors and the courtyards, and fresh groups kept on arriving in the square outside the building.
In their newspaper Vperyod the Mensheviks wrote that the guards of the Moscow Soviet were drunk. Next day they were forced to withdraw this statement and tendered an apology.[2]
Taking advantage of the crowds of soldiers which filled the square outside the Soviet, the compromisers held impromptu meetings, tried to persuade the soldiers to disperse, and carried on counter-revolutionary agitation. The Military Revolutionary Committee was obliged to prohibit these meetings.
Under pressure of the districts, the Military Revolutionary Committee, in its turn, made every effort to take advantage of the period of the negotiations to muster its forces. Things began to hum. In the morning the Committee held a meeting at which a number of urgent measures were decided upon. Members of the Committee were constantly on duty receiving reports. In the next room the Staff of the Military Revolutionary Committee was working, and here Commissars from the districts came to report on what had been done and to receive instructions. Brief conferences were held to deal with problems as they arose. The Military Revolutionary Committee made contact with the various army units. Political organisers, or “wardens,” as they were called at the meetings of the Committee, were attached to the regiments and a series of instructions were drawn up for the district military Commissars who were placed in control of the district militia and the Red Guard.
Considerable attention was devoted to the matter of organising the food supply, so as not to leave the population without bread. Food Commissars were appointed by each of the District Soviets. To combat drunkenness, the Military Revolutionary Committee decided to confiscate all stocks of liquor. Patrols were ordered to visit all the night cafés and if liquor was discovered on sale, to arrest the owners.
The Staff of the Military Revolutionary Committee formed an Intelligence Department, whose scouts, both soldiers and Red Guards, penetrated the City Duma and the district where the cadets were concentrated and collected necessary information. Numerous voluntary scouts brought information about the movement of troops and the state of morale in the enemy camp. The Military Revolutionary Committee organised a transport service and requisitioned numerous motor vehicles for the purpose. The workers of the AMO Plant provided 50 motor cars. The 2nd and 22nd Motor-Transport Companies placed themselves at the disposal of the Military Revolutionary Committee.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks spread false rumours, and their newspapers published false information to the effect that the insurrection in Petrograd had been suppressed.
As communication with Petrograd had been cut off it was decided to establish connections with the capital through the medium of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railwaymen’s Union. The latter replied that being “neutral” it could not allow another body to use its telephone line for conversations with Petrograd, but it was willing to call up anyone who was needed and make the necessary inquiry. However, when asked about the military situation in the capital the reply came that “neutrality” forbade the answering of such questions. All that could be ascertained was the composition of the Council of People’s Commissars.
After several vain attempts to get round the “neutrality” of the Railwaymen’s Executive—a “neutrality,” which, by the by, did not prevent its representative from sitting on the “Committee of Public Safety” for two days—it was decided forcibly to occupy the office of the Executive where the telephone was installed. Furthermore, it was discovered that the Executive’s telegraph wire to Petrograd was connected through the Northern Railway Exchange. The Chief Railwaymen’s Committee on this line contained a majority of Bolsheviks and soon the Military Revolutionary Committee was able to talk with Petrograd. Both telephone and telegraph communication was thus restored.
By intercepting the telegrams of the Railwaymen’s Executive the Bolsheviks learned that there was a stock of rifles at the Caucasus and Mercury Wharf in Yaroslavl. The Railwaymen’s Military Revolutionary Committee informed the Party Centre of this and the latter immediately sent a representative to Yaroslavl.
The Military Revolutionary Committee endorsed the following general plan of military operations of the revolutionary forces:
“1. All the military operations are to be directed towards one centre.
“2. The function of the districts is systematically to move their military forces towards the centre. Separate operations may be conducted, provided they do not run counter to the general plan.
“3. It must be borne in mind that the rear of the districts is not entirely safe, and it may become necessary for the revolutionary army to conduct operations outside of Moscow.
“4. Act with determination and vigour.”[3]
On the insistence of the tacit opponents of insurrection and of the waverers, the following two points were added to the plan:
“5. To ensure the minimum of bloodshed.
“6. To ensure the safety of the population.”[4]
In the course of the day the Military Revolutionary Committee achieved one more success. All the committees of the 1st Reserve Artillery Brigade were dissolved and new bodies elected. At a joint meeting of the Brigade, Battery and Commando Committees it was decided to acknowledge only the Military Revolutionary Committee. At the same meeting the artillerymen elected a Military Revolutionary Committee which practically controlled the brigade.
The artillerymen of the Moscow garrison rallied around the Bolsheviks.
The Menshevik members of the Military Revolutionary Committee, aware of Ryabtsev’s preparations for action, submitted the following terms of co-operation, threatening to resign in the event of rejection.
1. That all documents be signed by all the seven members of the Military Revolutionary Committee. If any document is signed by only one or two members, the Mensheviks have the right to appeal to the population through the medium of the newspapers and leaflets;
2. That the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies send a representative to the “Committee of Public Safety” of the City Duma;
3. That all agreements reached in the negotiations with the Staff of the Military Area be adhered to.
The Mensheviks tried to dislocate the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee and compel it to yield. The conduct of these lackeys of the bourgeoisie was fully in accord with the interests of the counter-revolutionary “Committee of Public Safety.”
When their proposals were rejected, the Mensheviks resigned from the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Meanwhile, the counter-revolutionary “Committee of Public Safety” was by no means idle. Ryabtsev summoned the commanders of the army units. He wanted to call an army unit from the environs of Moscow or from somewhere further in the Moscow Region. The commanders duly arrived but in reply to his question: “Where are your men?” they waved their hands in hopelessness and disgust:
“Over there. At the Soviet,” they said.
Ryabtsev made a hurried tour of the military training schools and cadet schools. The cadets were actively preparing. For two days they had been riding around the city in motor trucks armed to the teeth. In Arbat Street cadets issued rifles to Whiteguard students and all sorts of volunteers and sent them to the Alexandrovsky Military School.
Ryabtsev had appealed to the university students to appear at this school already on October 26. When they appeared the cadets urged them to enrol in the Whiteguard detachments. On October 27 a general meeting of students of the Moscow University was held in the Divinity Lecture Hall at which reports were heard from the Lazarev and Commercial Institutes. Without discussion, and even without a formal vote, a resolution was passed pledging armed support for the Staff of the Military Area, the City Duma and the Provisional Government.
On the morning of the 27th, the Council of Officers’ Deputies organised a meeting of army officers who supported the Provisional Government, and at this meeting a detailed plan was drawn up for crushing the Soviets and disarming the revolutionary units. This was secretly reported to the Staff of the Military Revolutionary Committee by two officers of the Lecture Courses organised in the summer of 1917 by the Cultural and Educational Department of the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies. The Whites placed their main hopes, however, on General Headquarters, with which they communicated several times. On the morning of October 27, they received the following telegram from the front:
“In the name of the armies at the front we demand the immediate cessation of Bolshevik violence, the abandonment of attempts to seize power by armed force, and absolute obedience to the Provisional Government, which is functioning in complete accord with the authorised organs of democracy, and which alone can lead the country to the Constituent Assembly—the ruling power in Russia. The army on active service will back this demand with force.
Dukhonin
Chief of Staff of the Supreme
Commander-in-Chief
Vyrubov
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Supreme
Commander-in-Chief
Lieutenant-Colonel Kovalevsky
Acting Supreme Commissar at General
Headquarters
Perekrestov
Chairman of the Army Committee.”[5]
But except for this threat and the support rendered the compromising Army Committee by Dukhonin’s prestige, the telegram contained no promise of effective assistance.
Later on, General Baluyev, the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front, sent Rudnyev the following urgent telegram:
“Cavalry are moving to Moscow to assist you against the Bolsheviks. Am applying to General Headquarters for permission to send artillery.”[6]
That same day Baluyev informed Dukhonin that the situation in Moscow was serious. He had no hope, he said, of being able to combat the Bolshevik insurrection with the forces at his command, and urgently requested that additional troops be sent, particularly artillery.
Dukhonin realised that the situation was becoming critical. He changed the route of the units which were moving to Tula, Bryansk and Orel, reinforced them with artillery and directed the whole force to Moscow.
Finally, on October 27, he sent the following telegram to Ryabtsev with a copy for Rudnyev:
“For the purpose of crushing the Bolshevik movement, General Headquarters are placing at your command a brigade of Guards with artillery from the South-Western Front. It will begin to arrive in Moscow on October 30. Also sending artillery with covering troops from the Western Front. You should send delegates to meet the units before they reach Moscow. The most resolute action must be taken by the combined forces to secure the complete suppression of the rebels who have risen in revolt in the heart of Russia.
Dukhonin
Chief of Staff of the Supreme
Commander-in-Chief.”[7]
Ryabtsev realised that no time was to be lost. The Bolsheviks were steadily increasing their forces. If no obstacles arose—which he did not anticipate then—the artillery from the Western Front would arrive not later than October 28. Moreover, the Staff of the Military Area hoped that the negotiations and the demoralising activities of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks would shake the morale of the revolutionary troops.
Ryabtsev suddenly adopted a stiffer tone. Only the day before he had agreed to consider the question of arming the workers and on the strength of this had secured the withdrawal of the Bolshevik company of the 193rd Reserve Regiment from the Kremlin. After that he had categorically demanded the withdrawal from the Kremlin of the 56th Reserve Infantry Regiment which was also under Bolshevik influence. That day, October 27, the negotiations had centred entirely around the question of replacing the soldiers with cadets. Now, at 7 p.m. on October 27, Ryabtsev broke off negotiations with the representative of the Military Revolutionary Committee and presented an ultimatum demanding the surrender of the Kremlin, the dissolution of the Military Revolutionary Committee and the prosecution of its members. The ultimatum was to be complied with within 15 minutes.
The ultimatum acted like a cold douche on the Military Revolutionary Committee. All hopes of a peaceful settlement of the conflict vanished like smoke. The Committee now realised that Ryabtsev had been deliberately dragging out the negotiations in order to gain time. The ultimatum was rejected. All the measures planned for the event of an armed struggle began to be put into effect. An order was issued to the District Commissars in Moscow fully to prepare for action and immediately to send detachments to the Moscow Soviet. Telephone messages were sent out to the army units calling upon them to obey no orders except those issued by the Military Revolutionary Committee. To protect the Moscow Soviet, the Military Revolutionary Committee summoned a detachment of “Dvinsks” from the Zamoskvorechye District.
The “Dvinsks” were soldiers from the Western Front, mostly of the Fifth Army, who had been arrested for conducting Bolshevik propaganda and imprisoned in the city of Dvinsk—hence their name. Later on they were transferred to Moscow and kept in the Butyrsky Prison. Among them were many members of Company and Regimental Committees. They were kept in prison for a long time without trial, and even without definite charges being brought against them. Two hundred of them went on hunger strike and demanded an immediate investigation of their cases. The army law authorities were greatly embarrassed by this and stated in excuse that the documents in the cases had gone astray. The Bolsheviks started a campaign for their release and in this were unanimously supported by the Moscow garrison.
Delegations of soldiers came to the Moscow Soviet and to the Military Bureau with resolutions which not only demanded the release of the “Dvinsks,” but accused the Soviet of dilatoriness and irresolution. “There has been enough talk, it is time to take action,” said the soldiers, expressing their readiness to go into battle.
On the demand of the Moscow organisation of the Bolshevik Party and on the insistence of the Bolshevik group in the Moscow Soviet an order was issued for the release of the “Dvinsks” on September 22, but on that day only 593 out of a total of 860 were discharged, the rest were released only during the October insurrection.
The “Dvinsks” were eager to go into battle. They proved to be splendid agitators and organisers. The Moscow Party Committee entrusted them with the task of conducting meetings not only in the army, but also in the factories.
At 10 p.m. on October 27, a detachment of the “Dvinsks” marched through the Red Square on the way to the Moscow Soviet in response to the call of the Military Revolutionary Committee. In the square they were stopped by cadets.
“Where are you going?” — a Colonel demanded.
“To guard the Moscow Soviet,” the men answered.
“We are guarding the centre,” the Colonel then said, and ordered the “Dvinsks” to give up their arms.
The soldiers protested whereupon the Colonel, drawing his revolver and levelling it at Sapunov, the Commander of the “Dvinsks,” shot him dead. The second in command shouted to his men: “Open order!” The engagement was short and sharp. There were dead and wounded on both sides. But the “Dvinsks” fought their way through to the Moscow Soviet, carrying their wounded with them.
Open hostilities had commenced.
At the time Ryabtsev’s ultimatum was received a meeting of the District Dumas was in progress in the Sukharev People’s Palace and there several hundred active Bolsheviks were assembled. The Military Revolutionary Committee hastened to inform them about the ultimatum. This was a meeting of all the 17 District Dumas in Moscow, 11 of which were under Bolshevik control. The Bolsheviks were resolved to secure the election of a new centre consisting of the District Dumas as an offset to the counter-revolutionary Moscow City Duma. In all about 400 members were assembled. As soon as the meeting was opened at 6:30 p.m. Prince D. I. Shakhovskoi, a Constitutional Democrat, got up and declared that “measures had not been taken to inform all the members and therefore, in his opinion, the meeting was a packed one.”[8]
This caused commotion in the hall and Shakhovskoi was obliged to withdraw his statement. The chairman of the meeting, constantly interrupted by cries of protest from the Constitutional Democrats and the compromisers, explained why the meeting had been called and read the following concrete proposals:
“1. To express complete confidence in the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee as the sole local organ of government.
“2. Immediately to organise a Joint Council of District Dumas to consist of two members from each District Duma and one from each administration.
”3. The Council is to elect from its own number an Executive Revolutionary Bureau of seven members.
“4. To instruct the Bureau immediately to draft measures concerning food distribution and supply, city finances, and the maintenance of revolutionary order in Moscow and its environs.
“5. These draft measures, after endorsement by the Joint Council, are to be submitted to the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee and enforced at once.”[9]
A motion to vote on these proposals without debate provoked another storm. One of the members demanded the floor; others loudly protested. In the midst of this turmoil, M. F. Vladimirsky, a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, appeared on the platform, and on a motion of urgency, made the following statement:
“Ryabtsev, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, has presented an ultimatum to the Military Revolutionary Committee demanding that it should dissolve within 15 minutes. The Committee has refused to yield to this demand and the square is already being shelled by counter-revolutionary units. The Committee proposes that all talking be stopped and that all the internationalist Social-Democrats (Bolsheviks) should at once go to the districts and be prepared for all emergencies.”[10]
The Constitutional Democrats and the compromisers—the minority of the meeting—noisily left the hall. Those who remained voted in favour of the resolution and then left hurriedly for their respective districts.
On the night of October 27, a joint meeting of the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Party Centre decided to call upon the Moscow proletariat to declare a general strike and to muster all its forces to crush the Whiteguards.
The side streets off the Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street leading to the premises of the Moscow Soviet were already occupied by the cadets. In view of the danger of the building being captured by the Whites it was decided to break up into two centres, one to remain in the Soviet and the other to have its headquarters in one of the districts. Between 4 and 6 o’clock in the morning, on October 28, most of the members of the Party Centre left the Moscow Soviet and transferred to premises in the City District. In this district a “reserve staff” was formed in case the Military Revolutionary Committee was broken up.
It was necessary to inform the regiments and to summon the loyal units to the Soviet. The members of the Military Revolutionary Committee dispersed to the districts where the workers and soldiers were eagerly waiting for the signal to go into action.
When the news of Ryabtsev’s ultimatum reached the Soviet, the Mensheviks, who only that morning had resigned from the Military Revolutionary Committee, once again appeared on the scene. These political stock-jobbers again offered their services as mediators in the negotiations with the “Committee of Public Safety.”
The compromisers were ejected from the building.
The only people to remain were those who were prepared to fight and die for the Soviet regime.
[1] Central Archives of the October Revolution, Copies file, 1917, Vol. II.
[2] “Temper in Moscow,” Vpeyrod, Moscow, No. 194, October 28, 1917.
[3] Moscow Archives of the October Revolution, Fund of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, File No. 495-163, folio 1.
[4] Ibid.
[5] “General Headquarters and the Moscow Committee of Public Safety in 1917,” Krasny Arkhiv, 1933, Vol. 6 (61), p. 29.
[6] Ibid., p. 30.
[7] Ibid.
[8] A. Schlichter, “Memorable Days in Moscow,” Proletarskaya Revolutsia (The Proletarian Revolution), 1922, No. 10, p. 194.
[9] “The General Meeting of Members of District Dumas,” Izvestia of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ Deputies, No. 199, October 28, 1917.
[10] A. Schlichter, “Memorable Days in Moscow,” Proletarskaya Revolutsia, 1922, No. 10, p. 197.
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