While promising aid to Moscow, General Dukhonin failed to take into account the fact that at a number of extremely important points along the route to be taken by the troops, power had already passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Thus, on October 28, the workers were in control of Vyazma, Kolomna, Shuya, Kazan, Tsaritsyn, Minsk, Novgorod, Toropets, Rechitsa, Vitebsk, Rzhev, Podolsk, Bryansk, Yegoryevsk and Ryazan.
Kerensky countermanded the order to dispatch the dragoons from Kaluga to Moscow and, instead, ordered them to be sent to Petrograd by passenger train. A number of armoured cars which were to have been sent to Moscow from Kaluga were also ordered to Petrograd.
In place of the dragoons two Hundreds of Kuban Cossacks were sent to Moscow, but about thirty kilometres from Vyazma the local Soviet had torn up the rails. The Cossack officers then tried to get their men to Moscow by a roundabout route, but they were held up in Tula.
The Cavalry Brigade which had been sent from the South-Western Front via Gomel, Orsha and Vyazma met with an unexpected obstacle in Orsha. The 623rd Infantry Regiment, which had been ordered to Petrograd, blocked the station with its trains and declared that not a single unit would be allowed to pass either to Petrograd or to Moscow.
Dukhonin’s attempt to summon Cossacks from the Don also failed. In reply to his request, Ataman Kaledin stated that to send forces to Moscow “extreme urgency would have to be proved in order to justify it in the eyes of the Cossacks.”[1]
The slanderous statements of the representatives of the “Committee of Public Safety” circulated among the soldiers at the front to the effect that “the Bolsheviks had organised a pogrom in Moscow” and that “in Moscow drunken gangs were burning everything and slaughtering innocent people” also proved unavailing.
The vigilant revolutionary workers and soldiers prevented counter-revolutionary reinforcements from reaching Moscow, and the “Committee of Public Safety” received no armed assistance from outside. But they were buoyed up by the thought that help was on the way. Troops were expected to arrive from the South-Western Front by October 30. The fall of Petrograd, where the cadet insurrection had started, was expected hourly. If only they could gain time, even a day or two! In this the “Committee of Public Safety” had the support of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railwaymen’s Union.
On October 29, this Railwaymen’s Executive, through its Moscow Bureau, presented the following ultimatum to the Military Revolutionary Committee and to the “Committee of Public Safety.”
“Immediately cease civil war and unite for the purpose of forming a homogeneous revolutionary-Socialist government.”[2]
It threatened to call a general strike of railwaymen at midnight on October 29
“if hostilities in Petrograd and Moscow do not cease by that time.”[3]
The Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee again agreed to enter into negotiations. At midnight, on October 29, an armistice was declared and announced by telephone and special messengers. The Red units would not believe the report. Victory was already in their grasp and suddenly an armistice was declared! When an artilleryman was handed the order to cease fire he read it, crumpled it up and threw it aside, saying:
“I can’t make it out!” and he went on firing.
A second order was needed to compel him to cease fire.
It was only with great difficulty that a suspension of hostilities was achieved.
The bombardment of the Telephone Exchange continued.
This ultimatum of the Railwaymen’s Executive served the interests of the counter-revolution. One of its active defenders subsequently wrote:
“The railwaymen’s ultimatum greatly raised the spirits of the ‘Committee of Public Safety’. . . .”
And therefore “the ‘Committee of Public Safety’ readily agreed to an armistice.”[4]
The Railwaymen’s Executive took the initiative in forming a Conciliation Committee consisting of representatives of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, the “Committee of Public Safety,” the Moscow Menshevik organisation, the (former) Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies, the Council of the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Union and the Moscow Bureau of the Railwaymen’s Executive, and submitted to it the following draft of an agreement:
“1. The units, both of men and of officers, specially formed in connection with the armed conflict, shall be disbanded.
“2. Both sides shall issue an order to surrender the arms seized for the purpose of organising fighting squads during the period of hostilities.
“3. A committee consisting of representatives of both sides on a parity basis, and of representatives of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railwaymen’s Union shall be formed for the purpose of supervising the fulfilment of the above obligations.
“4. A body shall be set up in Moscow to co-ordinate and direct the normal functioning of all government bodies and be vested with extraordinary powers. This body shall continue to function until the question of the organisation of local authority is decided by the central government. It shall consist of the following: seven representatives of the City Administration, seven representatives of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, two representatives of the Gubernia Zemstvo and one representative each from the Soviets of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies in the gubernia, the Central Council of Trade Unions, the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Union and the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railwaymen’s Union. The Military Revolutionary Committee and the ‘Committee of Public Safety’ shall be abolished.
“5. The Provisional Committee (i.e., the body specified in the foregoing point) shall appoint a special commission of enquiry to ascertain the causes which gave rise to civil war in Moscow and to fix the responsibility of individuals and organisations.
“6. When agreement is reached the troops of both sides shall return to their respective units and place themselves at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Moscow Military Area, who shall act by authority of the Provisional Committee.”[5]
The Military Revolutionary Committee, on its part, submitted the following draft of an agreement to the Conciliation Committee:
“1. All power in Moscow shall be vested in the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies.
“2. Special units (both officers’ and men’s) shall be disbanded.
“3. In the interests of defending the revolution, the Red Guard shall remain; the White Guard shall be disbanded. All superfluous arms shall be transferred to the arsenal.
“4. When agreement is reached the troops of both sides shall return to their respective units."[6]
It goes without saying that the Conciliation Committee accepted the Railwaymen’s Executive draft as a basis for discussion.
The representatives of the two camps met in the “Royal Pavilion,” at the Kursk Railway Station, on the night of October 30.
The situation was extremely tense. Now and again shots were heard. Rudnyev, reproaching the Bolsheviks, charged that the Red Guards were violating the armistice. The Soviet representatives expressed astonishment at Rudnyev’s fine sense of hearing which enabled him to determine who was responsible for the shooting. The members of the Railwaymen’s Executive—several of whom were present—pleaded with the two sides to refrain from bickering and to get on with the discussion.
The Bolsheviks’ draft was declared to be utterly unacceptable. Rudnyev and Scherr did all they could to drag out the negotiations. They insisted on the dissolution of the Red Guard and the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Points 1, 3 and 6 of the draft submitted by the Railwaymen’s Executive were accepted by all, including the representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee; but the latter objected to points 2 and 5 and to that part of point 4 which concerned the composition of the governing body. They finally accepted them only upon the categorical demand of the Railwaymen’s Executive. As the discussion had not finished, it was resolved to prolong the armistice for another twelve hours.
At last, the negotiations came to an end. The representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee left the station and were about to enter their automobile when Rudnyev and Scherr came hurrying from the building. Their automobile had disappeared. The Military Revolutionary Committee representatives agreed to take them to the Moscow Soviet, and from there they were taken to the City Duma, in an ambulance waggon.
That same day, October 30, the terms of a likely agreement became known in the districts. The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Blagusha-Lefortovo District, in conjunction with representatives of the district staff of the Red Guard and the district staff of the military units, demanded that the agreement should include recognition of the authority of the Congress of Soviets, the provisional transfer of power to the Moscow Soviet, including the administration of Area Headquarters, the surrender of arms and the arrest of all Whiteguards, whose fate was to be decided by the Congress of Soviets, or by the government authorised by it.
Similar resolutions were adopted at meetings of the military units. Thus, already on October 29, when the news of the conclusion of the armistice was received, a full meeting of representatives of Battery Committees of the 1st Reserve Artillery Brigade resolved:
“To obey the order of the Military Revolutionary Committee and to cease hostilities, but at the same time. . . to urge the Military Revolutionary Committee to make no concessions during the negotiations, for the salvation of Russia and the revolution must be placed above the interests of the capitalists.”[7]
Similar resolutions were adopted in all the other districts.
The Whiteguards, however, failed to adhere to the armistice proclaimed at midnight on October 29.
At 6:30 p.m. on October 29, Ryabtsev issued a formal order to cease all hostilities, but an hour before the official commencement of the armistice, at 11 p.m., that night, the chief of the guard of the White Headquarters in the Nikitsky District ordered a detachment of cadets commanded by a lieutenant to meet the “Death Battalion” which was to arrive at the Bryansk Railway Station from the front, and to clear its route of Bolsheviks. The Arbat was still in the hands of the cadets. The detachment reached the Smolensk Market without hindrance just when the armistice commenced. The Whiteguards sent out a party to reconnoitre the position at the Borodinsky Bridge, which was held by twenty Red Guards. On reaching the bridge the cadet patrol told the Red Guards that they were from the 193rd Regiment and were allowed to pass. They proceeded to the Bryansk Station and then doubled back towards the Smolensk Market and attacked the Red Guards on the bridge. The latter, taken by surprise, opened fire, but they were surrounded and overcome. The cadets threw two of the men into the river, killed six, and took the remainder prisoner. Leaving a patrol on the bridge to meet the expected “Death Battalion,” the Whiteguards stormed the 2nd Khamovniki Militia Station, where they took ten prisoners and captured eighteen rifles.
At 6:25 a.m. next day, the “Death Battalion,” numbering 176 men, arrived at the Bryansk Station. They marched unhindered to the Smolensk Market, where they were met by a detachment of cadets and directed to the Alexandrovsky Military School.
The news of the cadet raid and of the arrival of this shock battalion caused a furore in the Khamovniki District.
The local Military Revolutionary Committee ordered to the Bryansk Railway Station a half-company of the 193rd Infantry Reserve Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Sulatsky, a Bolshevik. The station was occupied at 10 o’clock that night. The representatives of the Railwaymen’s Executive and the station commandant protested and threatened to summon the cadets, but the Chairman of the Regimental Committee ordered the men to remain pending further instructions from the Military Revolutionary Committee.
That day another detachment of shock troops arrived at the Bryansk Station, where they surrendered to the Red Guards. The men stated that they had been deceived and had been sent to Moscow ostensibly for the purpose of receiving equipment. On learning that a struggle was on between the soldiers and the cadets, they decided to place themselves at the disposal of the Khamovniki Military Revolutionary Committee.
Simultaneously with the raid in the Khamovniki District and the Bryansk Station, the cadets in the vicinity of the Nikitsky Gate began to occupy positions in the so-called neutral zone which had been mapped out by a special commission. From here they launched an attack upon the positions held by the Red forces from the Nikitsky Gate to the Tverskoi Boulevard. They were hurled back, however, by artillery fire from the guns near the Pushkin Monument. The Red Guards recaptured their positions that same day.
In the City District the indignation of the Red Guards and soldiers at the perfidy of the Whites found expression in a resolute attack on the Central City Telephone Exchange. In the Lefortovo District the assault on the Alexeyevsky Military School ended at noon on October 30 with the surrender of the cadets. Thirteen machine guns, numerous rifles and other war material were captured.
One of those to fall in the fighting for this school was an old Bolshevik worker, P. P. Shcherbakov. At the beginning of the imperialist war he had been the secretary of the District Committee of the Bolshevik Party. At the end of 1915 he was arrested together with Comrade Molotov—who was on Party work in Moscow at that time—and exiled to the Irkutsk Gubernia. On his return from exile after the February Revolution Shcherbakov organised the textile workers in the Lefortovo District. In the October days he performed ambulance work in a small detachment of Red Guards.
The purpose of the ultimatum presented by the Railwaymen’s Executive was now obvious to everybody. Under cover of negotiations they wanted to lull the vigilance of the Moscow workers and soldiers, bring up reserves, occupy points of vantage and strike a decisive blow at the Moscow proletariat.
The designs of the Whites failed, however; the unflagging vigilance and revolutionary initiative of the workers and soldiers upset the plans of the counter-revolutionaries. On the other hand, the exposure of the treacherous designs of the compromisers silenced the advocates of a “bloodless” cessation of the insurrection; they now confined themselves to protests against the extensive use of artillery.
The breach of the armistice by the Whiteguards roused indignation also in the provinces. Detachments of Red Guards and soldiers arrived in Moscow daily to go to the assistance of the Moscow proletariat and garrison.
The Moscow Revolutionary Committee rejected a proposal to prolong the armistice, refused to accept the draft agreement submitted by the Railwaymen’s Executive and at 11:55 p.m. on October 30 it sent the “Committee of Public Safety” the following telephone message:
“The armistice ends at midnight tonight. The All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railwaymen’s Union has proposed that it be extended for twelve hours. In view of the fact that the agreement which was adopted (by the Conciliation Committee) is unacceptable both in principle and in form (points 2, 4, 5 and 6) the armistice cannot be prolonged. If you consider it necessary and desirable to prolong the armistice please inform us by telephone. Negotiations are possible only on the basis of the platform adopted by the Soviets in their last resolution. The text of our resolution will be sent to you tonight through the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railwaymen’s Union.”[8]
The text of the resolution referred to in the above-mentioned telephone message reads:
“To the Committee of Public Safety.
“The Military Revolutionary Committee submits the following as the essential terms for ceasing hostilities (peace):
“1. All power in Moscow shall be transferred to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, which shall set up a body vested with full power and to consist of: 7 (seven) representatives of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies (the political parties to have proportional representation) and one representative each from the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies (1), the Gubernia Soviet of Workers’ Deputies (1), the Moscow City Duma (1), the Zemstvos (1), the Council of District Dumas (1), the Central Bureau of Trade Unions (1), the Municipal Workers’ and Employees’ Union (1), the Red Guard (1), the All-Russian Railwaymen’s Union (1) and the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Union (1), 17 (seventeen) in all.
“This body shall be set up at the first plenary meeting of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, and shall remain in existence pending the formation of a government by the Constituent Assembly.
“2. The cadets and Whiteguards shall be disarmed, the Military Revolutionary Committee guaranteeing their freedom and personal safety. (Adopted unanimously.)”[9]
Convinced of the utter collapse of their plans, the counter-revolutionaries made one more attempt to put off the moment of their defeat.
On the night of October 30, after the armistice had expired the “Committee of Public Safety” convened a conference of representatives of the Menshevik Unionists, “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Bund, the old Executive Committee of the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and the Menshevik Regional Bureau of the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. This conference proclaimed itself a “united inaugural body” and decided to bring pressure to bear upon the belligerent sides with a view to putting a stop to further bloodshed and to forming in Moscow a special organ of government to take the place of the Military Revolutionary Committee and the “Committee of Public Safety” which were to be “immediately dissolved.”
The counter-revolutionaries counted on gaining time with the aid of the compromisers and “neutral” organisations, for they had not yet given up hope of reinforcements arriving from the front.
On October 31 this “inaugural body” sent its delegates—Mensheviks and Unionists—to the Military Revolutionary Committee, and “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries at the City Duma, with the object of “intervening in the struggle.” The Military Revolutionary Committee refused to treat with them, however.
That same day a delegation from the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies came to the Military Revolutionary Committee and offered their platform as a basis for an agreement to cease hostilities. Their standpoint was almost identical with that of the Military Revolutionary Committee. The delegates stated that they had not given their representatives on the “Committee of Public Safety” any mandate to fight the Soviet troops.
The decrees of the Second Congress of Soviets and the Council of People’s Commissars on land and peace had had a powerful effect upon the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies. The members completely veered round in their opinion, and this marked the end of Socialist-Revolutionary influence.
While the negotiations were proceeding, Military Area Headquarters made feverish efforts to secure assistance. Lieutenant Rovny pulled all the wires at his command in an endeavour to secure the dispatch of a detachment reinforced with armoured cars from Kaluga. If they could not send a full detachment, let them send at least part of one, he pleaded.
Kravchuk, one of Ryabtsev’s deputies, secretly left Moscow and on reaching Smolensk tried to ascertain through General Headquarters the whereabouts of the cavalry which had been promised for October 30. Kravchuk was put in touch with Dukhonin.
“The position of the troops in Moscow is critical owing to the shortage of ammunition and provisions,” he reported. “The men are firm and steadfast. The ammunition and food depots are occupied by the Bolsheviks. At the time of my departure a detachment was being organised for the purpose of attacking the depots. Whether this has been successful, I cannot say. If it was not successful, the garrison cannot hold out for long, and it is quite possible that we shall have to fight our way out of Moscow. . . .
“The Committee for the Salvation of the Revolution urgently requests the speediest and most energetic assistance.”[10]
In reply Dukhonin informed Kravchuk which units had been dispatched to Moscow and added that a formation of six battalions with artillery was being got together on the Rumanian Front specially for the purpose of being sent to Moscow. Moreover, another request had been sent to the Don to send Cossacks immediately.
“With your assistance we shall save Moscow,” answered Kravchuk, overjoyed at this news.[11]
In the evening of October 30 a crowded meeting was held in the City Duma. Among those present were the “Committee of Public Safety,” the old Executive Committee of the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies, the Moscow Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, and representatives of various political groups in the City Duma. The tone of the assembly was more like that of a funeral than of a political conference. Amidst gloomy silence Rudnyev announced the breakdown of the negotiations. A further struggle was inevitable, he said, and for this the blame rests with the Bolsheviks. He and several other speakers commented on the special role which had been played by the Railwaymen’s Executive. The representatives of the latter got up and said that the Bolsheviks had rejected their terms, whereas the “Committee of Public Safety” had agreed to them. In view of that, the Railwaymen’s Executive would now actively oppose the Bolsheviks and would create no further obstacles for the transport of troops to Moscow.[12]
This statement was received in silence, for all those present were perfectly well aware that the transport of troops in no way depended upon these people who had accidently found themselves on the crest of the revolutionary wave like foam on the incoming tide.
Suddenly the electric lights went out; the Bolsheviks had cut off the light in the districts occupied by the Whites and the feeble glimmer of candles accentuated the funereal character of the assembly.
The Whiteguards received no assistance, but a constant stream of reinforcements flowed into the ranks of the revolutionary forces. Sailors came from Petrograd. While the cadet insurrection in Petrograd was at its height and the troops of Krasnov and Kerensky were moving toward the capital, Lenin and Stalin found it possible to send aid to Moscow. On October 29 Lenin, addressing a conference of representatives of the Petrograd garrison referred to the attempted cadet revolt, and reported on the situation in Moscow. “In Moscow,” he said, “they [the cadets—Ed.] have seized the Kremlin, but the suburbs, where the workers and the poorest section of the population in general, live, are not in their power.”
That very day, on Lenin’s instructions, 500 Kronstadt sailors were dispatched by special train to assist the revolutionary forces in Moscow. They arrived in the evening of October 30 and immediately joined the ranks of the revolutionary fighters.
On October 30 Sverdlov sent a group of technicians from Petrograd to man the Moscow radio station.
[1] Ibid., p. 39.
[2] Sketches of the History of the Union in 1917. Compendium compiled by the Commission for Studying the History of the Trade Union Movement in the Transport Industry. History of the Trade Union Movement in the Transport Industry Publishers, Moscow, 1924, p. 80.
[3] Ibid.
[4] A. N. Voznesensky, Moscow in 1917, State Publishers, Moscow-Leningrad, 1928, p. 172.
[5] Sketches of the History of the Union in 1917. Compendium compiled by the Commission for Studying the History of the Trade Union Movement in the Transport Industry, Istproftran Publishers, Moscow, 1924, pp. 86-87.
[6] “From the History of the October Revolution in Moscow,” Proletarskaya Revolutsia, 1923, No. 9 (21), p. 226.
[7] Moscow’ Archives of the October Revolution, Fund of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, File No. 48/48, folio 1.
[8] Moscow Archives of the October Revolution, Fund of the Moscow Soviet. The Bulletin of the Committee of Public Safety, No. 4, October 31, 1917.
[9] Sketches of the History of the Union in 1917. Compendium compiled by the Commission for Studying the History of the Trade Union Movement in the Transport Industry, Istproftran Publishers, Moscow, 1924, pp. 115-116.
[10] “General Headquarters of the Moscow Committee of Public Safety in 1917,” Krasny Arkhiv, 1933, Vol. 6 (61), p. 41.
[11] Ibid., p. 42.
[12] “In Moscow,” “The Conference,” Trud, No. 181, October 31, 1917.
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