The circumstances under which the Great Proletarian Revolution developed on the South-Western, Rumanian and Caucasian Fronts were more complicated than on the Northern and Western Fronts. The struggle for Soviet power in the south was waged not only against the generals and the counter-revolutionary organisations, but also against the nationalist bodies in the respective areas which were hostile to the Soviet regime. These were the Ukrainian Central Rada, the bourgeois organisations in Transcaucasia, and the Rumanian authorities.
On hearing of the events in Petrograd, the Front Committee of the South-Western Front decided to take measures to prevent a Bolshevik insurrection. The temper of this Committee, however, did not by any means reflect that of the masses of the soldiers at the front and in the rear. These men received the news of the insurrection in Petrograd much later than the men on the other fronts, but as soon as they heard of this great event they hastened to express their solidarity with the Petrograd workers and soldiers. On October 31, General Grishinsky, Chief of Staff of the Seventh Army, reported to Staff Headquarters of the South-Western Front as follows:
“In the 22nd Corps intense Bolshevik agitation is being conducted by the men of the 6th Regiment who have passed a resolution supporting the Bolsheviks. . . . At a joint meeting of the Regimental, Divisional and Corps Committees of the 1st Guards Corps, after a stormy debate, the following resolution was passed: ‘This joint meeting declares its complete solidarity with the Petrograd garrison and the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies in their struggle for the establishment of a strong revolutionary government. . . .’”[1]
On November 2, General Promotov, Commander-in-Chief of the Eleventh Army, telegraphed to Front Headquarters:
“The 5th Army Corps is in a very restless mood and sympathy towards the Bolsheviks is growing, especially among the infantry. In the 7th Infantry Division the men’s attitude towards the commanding personnel has grown much worse. In the 32nd Army Corps, the 403rd Polish Regiment, with the exception of the machine-gun and other small detachments, has passed a Bolshevik resolution protesting against the withdrawal of troops from the front. The 48th Heavy Artillery Detachment has passed a similar Bolshevik resolution. . . . Bolshevik temper among the units of the corps is growing.”[2]
The centre of the revolutionary movement in the rear of the South-Western Front was Vinnitsa, where there was a strong Bolshevik organisation. The local Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was entirely on the side of the Bolsheviks, and the large local garrison also followed their lead. In this town events began to come to a head before the insurrection in Petrograd. Meetings were held by the different army units at which resolutions were passed demanding the immediate transfer of power to the Soviets. In view of the “dangerous mood,” the authorities decided to withdraw from Vinnitsa and send to the front the units which had been most infected with Bolshevism. Among these was the 15th Reserve Regiment. On learning of this decision, the regiment marched in full strength to the Vinnitsa Soviet, where its representatives stated that the men would not leave for the front without the Soviet’s orders. After a meeting outside the premises of the Soviet the regiment returned to barracks in full marching order. This action met with the approval of the other units of the garrison. A Military Revolutionary Committee was formed, which decided to hold up the dispatch of the 15th Regiment to the front and to allow no arms to be issued without its sanction. It ordered the aircraft unit to patrol overhead, ostensibly for the purpose of making training flights, but actually to watch for the approach of Provisional Government troops.
On October 24, N. I. Jordansky, the Provisional Government Commissar of the South-Western Front and a Menshevik, was informed of the action of the 15th Regiment and forthwith dispatched to Vinnitsa a detachment of troops with armoured cars under the command of his assistant T. D. Kostitsin and Colonel Avraamov. The detachment arrived in Vinnitsa on October 25 and made a futile attempt to remove the arms from the local depot. The guards stated that they would allow no arms to leave the place without the sanction of the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Soviet. Kostitsin was obliged to enter into negotiations with these bodies. At a joint meeting of the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Executive Committee of the Soviet, Kostitsin submitted proposals to the effect that the 15th Regiment be sent to the front immediately; that arms be issued, and that the Bolsheviks who were fomenting sedition among the troops be arrested. These proposals were referred for discussion to a full meeting of the Soviet, which almost unanimously, only four voting against, rejected them. The Soviet, in its turn, demanded the immediate dismissal of all the Commissars of the Provisional Government, the arrest of Kostitsin and the disarming of his detachment. Kostitsin called for assistance, and that same day detachments of cadets with armoured cars and artillery arrived.
On receiving the information that Kostitsin was dispatching armoured cars against the Soviet and that the cadets were preparing for an attack, the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered the units of the Vinnitsa garrison to go into action. The cadets suddenly opened fire on the Soviet. Fighting commenced. The armoured car detachments and the aircraft unit joined the insurgents and were also brought into action.
The insurgents outnumbered the cadets and the latter were forced to retreat. On the morning of the 29th, the cadets, receiving fresh reinforcements, began to bombard the town with artillery and launched an attack from the railway station. The Vinnitsa garrison and the workers put up a stubborn resistance, but this time the weight of numbers was on the enemy’s side. The insurgents were obliged to retreat. Late at night they stated that they wanted to negotiate. Kostitsin got into communication with Jordansky on the direct wire and asked for instructions. Jordansky demanded the unconditional surrender of the revolutionary troops. After this, part of the insurgents scattered in the surrounding countryside, and part were disarmed. Individual detachments continued for some time to offer stubborn resistance, but at last even they were obliged to surrender.
The events in Vinnitsa roused the attention of General Headquarters, and Dukhonin was evidently anxious about the probable outcome of the struggle. On October 29, in a conversation he had over the direct wire with Baluyev, in which he informed the latter of the events in Vinnitsa, he said: “We have remained masters of the battlefield in spite of the fact that the Bolsheviks bombed the troops who are loyal to the government from the air.”[3]
Nevertheless, on October 30, he again enquired of Staff Headquarters of the South-Western Front: “Has the affair in Vinnitsa definitely been liquidated?”[4]
General Stogov, the Chief of Staff, replied: “No definite report to that effect has been received yet, but it has been reported that the fighting is over and that the insurgents are in flight, but the loyal troops are so fatigued that they cannot go in pursuit.”[5]
General Headquarters had every reason to be alarmed about the insurrection in Vinnitsa.
Near by, in the environs of Zhmerinka, the 2nd Guard Corps was stationed. A representative of the Vinnitsa Military Revolutionary Committee appealed to the nearest artillery brigade of this corps for assistance. At meetings of the different units of the brigade reports were made on the fighting in Vinnitsa. A committee of three was elected to organise active operations. A neighbouring regiment of infantry decided to act in conjunction with the Artillery Brigade. Bolshevik delegates from Vinnitsa visited other regiments of the corps. In some of them they were obliged to call the men together themselves as the Regimental Committees, consisting, in the main, of Socialist-Revolutionaries, declared that they would not permit any meetings to be held or action to be taken.
Next day, the corps was ready for action. A meeting of delegates from all the units was held at which the plan of operations was discussed. It was decided to advance in three directions: Vinnitsa-Kiev-Bar. The leadership of the operations was vested in the Military Revolutionary Committee, which was then and there elected. Commissars were appointed to the different units. On the following day the corps marched off in conformity with the plan. Several of the officers who refused to accompany their men were arrested. The Kexholm Regiment set out with its commander at its head, and with all its other officers.
The Artillery Brigade and the Kexholm and Volhynia Regiments entered Zhmerinka with band playing and flying colours, inscribed with the motto “All power to the Soviets.” They occupied the railway station, removed the guard, stopped the movement of Provisional Government troop trains to Moscow, and dispatched some of their units to Kiev and the artillery to Vinnitsa. The railwaymen rendered the insurgents every assistance.
But the assistance of the 2nd Guards Corps came too late. The insurrection in Vinnitsa was already crushed. A Commission of Enquiry was sent to Vinnitsa to punish the offenders. On October 30, the representatives of the City Administration expressed their gratitude to Assistant Commissar Kostitsin for his “firmness and lack of hesitation, so rare among representatives of the government these days.”[6]
The front, too, failed to render the Vinnitsa Bolsheviks timely assistance. The compromisers on the South-Western Front did all in their power to hinder the triumphant progress of the proletarian revolution. They formed “Committees for the Salvation” which operated in conjunction with the Ukrainian Rada, as was the case, for example, in the Special Army. The “Committees” practically entrusted political authority to the tsarist generals in command of the army.
In the middle of November a Special Congress of the Armies of the South-Western Front was called by the compromising higher bodies of the army organisations with the object of securing support for the government which was being formed at General Headquarters with Chernov at the head. In the course of preparing for this Congress however, the whole plot burst like a soap bubble. Striking proof of its failure were the instructions received by the delegates who were elected to this Congress. A summary of these instructions showed that 150 units, two armies, two corps, one garrison and one divisional staff were in favour of the Soviet regime and of recognising the Council of People’s Commissars. On the other hand, 102 units, three corps, one division and one garrison favoured a homogeneous Socialist government comprising all Socialist parties. All the instructions called for the immediate transfer of the land to Land Committees, and the immediate conclusion of an armistice and peace.
The Congress was opened on November 18 in Berdichev. Approximately 700 delegates were present with a right to voice and vote, and about 100 with the right to voice only. Of the delegates with a right to voice and vote 267 were Bolsheviks, 213 Socialist-Revolutionaries—of whom about 50 were “Lefts”—47 Mensheviks, 73 Ukrainians—of whom some were Nationalists—and a number of non-party delegates.
The Socialist-Revolutionary centre attached exceptional importance to this Congress and had mobilised its leading forces for it. Before the Congress opened a meeting of the Socialist-Revolutionary group was held attended by Avksentyev, who arrived specially for the purpose, but meeting with the open hostility of a section of the group, he abandoned the idea of addressing the Congress. The Central Committee of the Menshevik Party was represented at the Congress by Weinstein.
Reports from the different units were taken as the first item on the agenda. These once again proved that the majority of the soldiers on the South-Western Front backed the revolution. Of the 25 speakers, who read the instructions they had received, 14 demanded the organisation of Soviet government in the localities and support for the Council of People’s Commissars; 11 spoke in favour of forming a homogeneous Socialist government on the basis of the platform and decisions of the Second Congress of Soviets. The overwhelming majority of the speakers urged the necessity of holding new elections for the All-Army, Front and Army Committees.
Many of the delegates, acting on their instructions, demanded the prosecution of the organisers and ringleaders of the counter-revolution, including Kerensky, the dissolution of the Cossack government in the Don Region, and the disbandment of the shock battalions. A heated debate arose over a telegram received from the Executive Committee of the Soviet of the Rumanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet and the Odessa Region—which was still controlled by the compromisers—calling upon the Congress to assist the All-Army Committee in its preparations to offer armed resistance to the revolutionary troops who were marching on General Headquarters. Despite the efforts of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to secure this support, the Congress declared that “the Central Army Committee was out of harmony with the temper of the broad masses” and called upon it to resign forthwith.[7]
The question of power was debated for three days. Weinstein, speaking on behalf of the Mensheviks, stated that the Bolsheviks “were leading Russia into an abyss.” Bulat, the spokesman for the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, told such fantastically wild stories about the Bolsheviks that the entire hall rocked with mocking laughter. A sharp struggle ensued over the three resolutions that were submitted to the Congress, one by the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik bloc, another by the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries, Ukrainian Nationalists and non-party bloc, and the third by the Bolsheviks. The Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik resolution was put to the vote first and was defeated. Then, in order to secure the defeat of the Bolshevik resolution, the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik
The vacillation of the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries threatened to disrupt the further proceedings of the Congress. When the resolution as amended was put to the vote it was defeated by the votes of the Bolsheviks and the non-party delegates, as well as of its original authors, the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries. Attempts to reach an agreement on a common resolution failed. The Bolsheviks withdrew from the Congress and decided to appeal to their constituents. They were followed by the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries and the non-party delegates. Many of the soldiers from the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik bloc also left. The Congress was thus broken up. Next day, however, the various party groups reached an agreement on the organisation of a Provisional Military Revolutionary Committee, which was to be the supreme authority on this front, on the understanding that another Congress of the front would be held three weeks later. The Military Revolutionary Committee, which was elected that same day, consisted of 18 Bolsheviks, nine Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, five “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries, two Mensheviks and one non-party. A Bolshevik was elected chairman. The Ukrainians, stating that they would submit only to the Ukrainian Central Rada, refused to sit on the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Two days later the Military Revolutionary Committee issued its Order No. 1 proclaiming that supreme power in the country was vested in the Council of People’s Commissars. It also ordered the release of all political prisoners and the withdrawal of all legal proceedings on charges of having conducted political propaganda against the offensive and of having failed to carry out military orders.
Thus, the attempt of the opponents of the Soviet regime to find support on the South-Western Front came to nought. Nevertheless, during the subsequent course of events it became necessary to resist the strong pressure of the counter-revolution on this as well as on the neighbouring Rumanian Front.
On the Rumanian Front the compromisers felt themselves masters of the situation even more than on the South-Western Front. When the first news of the insurrection in Petrograd arrived they at once, in conjunction with the generals, exerted all efforts to organise the counter-revolutionary forces for the purpose of counteracting the impending events. The Staff of the front, which was headed by the monarchist General Shcherbachev, had its headquarters in Jassy. Here a peculiar sort of “Military Revolutionary Committee” of the Rumanian Front was formed on the initiative of the Commissar of the front Tiesenhausen. This committee consisted of Tiesenhausen himself, who was a Right Socialist-Revolutionary, his deputy Andrianov, also a Right Socialist-Revolutionary, and of two Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and three Mensheviks from the Front Department of the Executive Committee of the Rumanian Front, Black Sea Fleet and Odessa Region Soviet.
Cloaked by a name which the soldiers regarded as a symbol of the struggle for establishing a Soviet regime, the compromisers feverishly began to organise their forces. Imitating the other Military Revolutionary Committees whose name they adopted as a shield, they first of all proclaimed that henceforth all authority at the front was vested in their fictitious Military Revolutionary Committee. Then they called for the immediate formation of similar committees in the armies, corps and divisions throughout the Rumanian Front and placed them in control of the telegraph, instructed them to scrutinise all orders that were resumed, and also imposed upon the duty of “preventing unauthorised action.” For the determined suppression of “every sort of outrage and anarchy,” it was decided to form a “mixed Revolutionary Division of the three arms to consist of comrades who were most loyal and devoted to the cause of the revolution.”[8]
Planning to organise a punitive detachment to combat any attempt at insurrection—the “Revolutionary Division” was actually intended for this purpose—the compromisers strove to obtain more active assistance from the front for their operations. With this aim in view, they decided to convene a Special Congress of the Front on October 30 in the Rumanian town of Romana, the headquarters of the Fourth Army.
The greatest care was devoted to the formation of the “Revolutionary Division.” On October 26 an urgent telegram signed by General Shcherbachev and the “Military Revolutionary Committee” was sent to all army and corps commanders and Commissars instructing them to proceed immediately to form the “Revolutionary Division,” and to do it in such a way as to ensure that its personnel would be “most reliable and devoted to the cause of combating insurrection which was spreading to the front.” It was intended to supply the division with an abundance of munitions of every type and to concentrate it at specially chosen points by the evening of October 30.
The process of forming this mailed fist of the counter-revolution proved to be a slow one, however. Try as they would, the compromisers could not prevent news of the revolutionary events in Petrograd from reaching the regiments at the front. Some of the units disposed near the South-Western Front received the news rather early. This is evident from the fact that already on October 26, a joint meeting of Regimental Committees of the 32nd Division of the Eighth Army resolved to send the following telegram to the Petrograd Soviet:
“The 32nd Division greets the true fighters for freedom, land and peace, and declares that if the Provisional Government attempts to arrange another blood bath for the working people, the 32nd Division will place all its armed forces at the disposal of the Bolsheviks.”[9]
That same day, the 165th Division of the same army sent the Petrograd Soviet a telegram, which left no doubt whatever about the true sentiments of the soldiers.
The Special Congress of the Front was opened on October 31. About 80 Socialist-Revolutionaries, 40 Mensheviks and 15 Bolsheviks were present. There were only two items on the agenda: current events, and the formation of a “Revolutionary Division.” Assistant Commissar Andrianov addressed the Congress and outlined the program of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. In the course of his speech he stated that the Bolshevik insurrection was a challenge to the other parties and that “those who joined them must bear responsibility for a grave crime against the state.”[10]
Andrianov was followed by the representative of the Bolsheviks who showed that the insurrection against the Provisional Government had been a necessity. “If the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Menshevik Social-Democrats attempt to suppress this movement, they stand in danger of finding themselves on the same side of the barricade as the bourgeoisie,” he said with great emphasis in concluding his speech.[11] Another Bolshevik delegate spoke in the same strain.
The reports afterwards delivered by delegates from the different units revealed that the mood and sentiments of the soldiers were by no means in favour of the organisers of the Congress. Even some of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik speakers were obliged to admit that the soldiers sympathised with the Bolsheviks. Thus, the representative of the 3rd Turkestan Division, a Menshevik, stated that he had been elected only because he had been in the division for three years, but the division itself was entirely Bolshevik. In his opinion, it had been corrupted by “reinforcements from Tsaritsyn.” Another representative of this division stated with emphasis that the insurrection of the Petrograd proletariat was a fight “for their rights, for their liberation from the yoke of capital. The division would render the Provisional Government no support whatever.”[12] The proposals adopted by the Congress as the basis for a resolution on current events contained the following point: “This Congress of the Front deems the Bolshevik insurrection to be revolutionary, but inopportune and inadmissible.”[13]
On behalf of the Socialist-Revolutionaries the Chairman of the Congress, Lordkipanidze, moved an amendment to this point, condemning the Bolshevik insurrection. After a stormy debate this amendment was adopted, whereupon the Bolsheviks left the Congress.
The “Military Revolutionary Committee” which was endorsed by the Congress contained the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks who had been on the Provisional Committee. The Bolsheviks and the Ukrainians refused to appoint their representatives to it.
The Congress approved of the proposal to form a “Revolutionary Division” and instructed the “Military Revolutionary Committee” to proceed with this.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries had intended to use this Congress as a means of mobilising forces to combat the impending insurrection of the soldiers at the front, but it failed to achieve this object. It revealed that, notwithstanding their apparent majority, the position of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks on the Rumanian Front was as precarious as it was on the other fronts. Here, too, the masses were swinging to the side of the Bolsheviks, and this compelled the various Army Committees to refrain from taking part in the formation of the “Revolutionary Division.” Thus, the Committee of the Sixth Army stated:
“We are of the opinion that the preservation of order and unity in the army is the best pledge of its loyalty to the revolution and that participation in the formation (of the “Revolutionary Division”) may cause discontent and give rise to excesses among the masses of the soldiers.”[14]
A Congress of Peasants’ Deputies of the Rumanian Front, held later, also condemned this plan. In its resolution this Congress stated:
“Having received news of the formation on the Rumanian Front of a division to be dispatched to Petrograd, this Congress expresses the opinion that such action is impermissible and emphatically protests against it.”[15]
The “Revolutionary Division” was never formed.
In spite of the compromising resolutions passed by Army and Corps Committees, individual corps and divisions, and later entire armies, began to go over to the Soviet regime. A vivid picture of the revolutionary events that were maturing on the Rumanian Front was presented by the Special Congress of the 48th Division of the Fourth Army. Counter-revolutionary officers who attempted to speak at this Congress were howled down and pelted with abuse; and when feeling developed to the pitch that insignia badges and stripes were ripped off, the officers made for the doors amidst the jeers and derision of the soldiers.
On the last day of the Congress General E. F. Novitsky, the Commander of the Division, was arrested. The movement which began at the Congress of the 48th Division ended with a revolution throughout the Fourth Army. General A. F. Ragoza, the Commander-in-Chief, was arrested and the Army Commissar, the Socialist-Revolutionary Alexeyevsky, was obliged to give an undertaking to leave the Rumanian Front. Released several hours after his arrest, General Ragoza wrote a statement to the Journal of the Fourth Army requesting that he be released of his command. “No new commander could now cope with his task in the army,” he stated.[16]
A Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee was set up in this army. The old Army Committee, which had kept back from the soldiers the orders issued by the new government, was dissolved. At the last meeting of this Committee, which was held in the presence of a large audience of soldiers, a number of these telegrams were read.
“Comrades, did you know about this telegram?”—asked a Bolshevik soldier, reading a telegram proposing that peace negotiations be opened.
“No, we did not. The scoundrels! Down with them! Chuck them out!”
“And did you know about this telegram?”—and the soldier read the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to cease military operations along the entire front.
“No, we did not. They kept it from us, the traitors! Put a bullet through their heads. They have fooled us long enough!”—came the reply.
The Chairman, a Menshevik, swooned. The old Committee went out of existence.
That is how the masses of the soldiers on the Rumanian Front reacted to the October Revolution. Their sympathies were entirely on the side of the Soviet Government. Nevertheless, here as on the South-Western Front owing to the circumstances already indicated, the complete triumph of the Soviet regime was delayed. The action of the Ukrainian Central Rada and of the Rumanian authorities created on these fronts the complicated situation of civil war.
On the Caucasian Front there were five Army Corps: the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th Caucasian Corps and the 2nd Turkestan Corps. In October 1917, these, together with smaller units comprising a total of about 200,000 men, were held in readiness for action against the Turks. There was also a special Expeditionary Corps in Persia.
The news of the Great Proletarian Revolution quickly roused the masses of the soldiers on this remote front too. The confidential dispatches of the Staff of the Caucasian Front noted this with alarm during the very first days of the insurrection in Petrograd. Thus, the dispatches sent between October 21 and 28 stated:
“The majority of units at the front and in the rear calmly received the news of the Bolshevik insurrection in Petrograd.”
Nevertheless, they contain statements like the following:
“As a result of the Bolshevik insurrection and the latest order concerning disciplinary authority, the mood of the 4th Cossack Rifle Division has undergone a definite change for the worse. As a result of the agitation conducted by certain individuals, the 25th Caucasian Rifle Regiment is rapidly disintegrating. . . . Excitement prevails in the 6th Caucasian Rifle Division.”[17]
Later the dispatches of the Staff of the Caucasian Front began to note the growth of Bolshevik influence. According to the dispatches sent in the period from October 28 to November 4 this was particularly to be observed in the 506th Pochayevsky and 508th Cherkassky Regiments. Later a still further increase of Bolshevik influence and the growing popularity of Bolshevik slogans among the soldiers was noted. Still later this growing Bolshevik influence was emphasised even more strongly.
This was also commented on in the dispatches of commanders of individual units and of fortified zones. Thus, the Commander of the 5th Turkestan Rifle Division reported to Front Headquarters that Bolshevism predominated in his regiments. Major-General Siegel, Commander of the Erzerum Fortified District, in characterising the influence of different political parties in the units under his command, noted the growth of the number of Bolsheviks in the district. This growth must have been very rapid, for in his next dispatch, under the heading “Influence of Political Parties,” he wrote that the Bolsheviks were predominant.
In the rear of the Caucasian Front events had taken the same turn. For instance, a confidential dispatch of the Staff of the Caucasian Military Area dated October 27 observes that: “In Tuapse, on October 26, the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies resolved to seize power.” The dispatch went on to say that the soldiers’ committees in the other garrisons of the Caucasian Military Area were working “in contact with the army commanders” and that “the Socialist-Revolutionaries exercised most influence.”[18]
Soon, however, the “influence” of the Socialist-Revolutionaries began to wane. Thus, in a dispatch dated November 18 we read:
“In Pyatigorsk, Botlikha, Temir-Khan Shura, Kutais, Tuapse and Novorossiisk, the Bolsheviks exercise most influence.”
The same dispatch stated that the Baku Bolsheviks had appointed their Commissars to all the military bodies. “This latter measure,” says the dispatch, “met with the approval of the majority of the soldiers.”[19]
Later, the dispatches of the Staff of the Caucasian Military Area noted the growing influence of the Bolsheviks in the garrisons of Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, Georgievsk, Petrovsk, Erivan, Sarikamysh and other towns. Here, too, the Great Proletarian Revolution was ardently welcomed. As was noted in one of the dispatches, the soldiers eagerly watched the events that were unfolding in Petrograd and Moscow.
Nevertheless, the specific features of the Caucasian Front put their impress on the development of the revolutionary events in this region. The conditions under which the Russian soldiers found themselves here were different from those on the other fronts. The inhabitants of the war zone and the hinterland belonged to different nationalities. The customs and languages of the local inhabitants were alien to the Russian soldiers. In the past the autocracy had fomented enmity among the different nationalities of this region as well as between them and the Russians. The Russian soldiers felt like aliens here. The population distrusted them, for they associated the Russian military with tyranny and slavery. The dominant idea among the soldiers in the Caucasian Army was: “Let’s get back home as soon as possible.” They wanted to return to Russia, where the last fight was proceeding against the landlords and other exploiting classes. Even the auxiliary forces began to arm. In a dispatch to General Przhevalsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Front, General Odishelidze, the Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Army stated: “A new form of psychosis has appeared in the army—a universal demand for arms by all the auxiliary units and commandos.”[20]
On November 11 the “Transcaucasian Commissariat,” a counter-revolutionary body consisting of Georgian Mensheviks and representatives of other Transcaucasian petty-bourgeois parties, was formed in Tiflis. With the aid of the Bolsheviks the soldiers at the front quickly discerned the class character of this Commissariat and heartily distrusted it. In this connection it is interesting to note the statements made by the officers, quoting the words of the men: “The commandos which demand arms usually advance the following motive: the Transcaucasian government has seceded from Russia; the arms are Russian and therefore should be taken back to Russia.”[21]
The Commander-in-Chief of the 6th Caucasian Corps reported to Staff Headquarters of the Front that the 18th Caucasian Rifle Regiment had openly sided with the Bolsheviks. It had decided:
“Not to recognise the Caucasian Regional Soviet (the Transcaucasian Commissariat) but to obey Lenin, to whose assistance we must go.”[22]
Such was the temper of the soldiers on the Caucasian Front. Here, too, the counter-revolution failed to find support.
[1] Ibid.
[2] Ibid.
[3] “The October Revolution and General Headquarters,” Krasny Arkhiv, 1925, Vol. 1 (18), p. 166.
[4] “The October Revolution and General Headquarters,” Krasny Arkhiv, 1925, Vol. 2 (9), p. 163.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Izvestia of the Army Committee of the Eighth Army, No. 170, November 6, 1917.
[7] “The Extraordinary Congress of the South-Western Front,” Soldatskaya Pravda (Soldiers’ Truth), No. 93, December 1, 1917.
[8] “The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Rumanian Front,” Izvestia Frontovovo Otdela Rumcherod (The Gazette of the Front Branch of the Executive Committee of the Rumanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet and the Odessa Military Area), No. 33, October 27, 1917.
[9] Central Archives of Military History, Fund of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Administration of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Military Political Department, File No. 2075, folios 223, 224.
[10] “The Special Front Congress,” Izvestia Frontovovo Otdela Rumcherod, No. 37, November 1, 1917.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid., No. 38, November 2, 1917.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Central Archives of the October Revolution, Fund No. 347, Military Revolutionary Staff of the Sixth Army on the Rumanian Front, File No. 12, folio 371.
[15] “The Resolution of the Second Congress of Peasants’ Deputies of the Rumanian Front,” Izvestia Frontovovo Otdela Rumcherod, No. 44, November 9, 1917.
[16] “From the Commander of the Fourth Army,” Vestnik Chetvertoi Armii (Fourth Army Messenger), November 2, 1917.
[17] Materials of the Secretariat of the Head Editorial Board of The History Civil War, Fund of Vol. II of “H.C.W.”
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
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