The counter-revolutionaries tried to nullify the achievements of the victorious people by other means than sabotage. One of these was their attempt to convert the Petrograd City Duma into a centre of the anti-Soviet struggle. This body had already acquired experience in the struggle and it was now to be used in furthering it. Under its auspices an “Assembly” of urban and rural local government bodies was called for the purpose of setting the local City Dumas and Rural Councils in opposition to the Soviets. The “Assembly” did not take place, however, as the representatives of no more than twenty towns arrived in Petrograd. The Petrograd City Duma also directed the sabotage of the officials in the various municipal departments, entered into communication with foreign ambassadors and helped to muster the counter-revolutionary forces.
On November 15, the subversive activities of the Petrograd City Duma were discussed at a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars and a resolution was passed stating:
“The Central City Duma has clearly and utterly lost all right to claim that it represents the people of Petrograd as it is in complete disharmony with their sentiments and aspirations.”
It went on to say that the Petrograd City Duma took advantage of its privileges “to offer counter-revolutionary opposition to the will of the workers, soldiers and peasants, and to sabotage and disrupt methodical public activities.” The Council of People’s Commissars therefore ordered the counter-revolutionary Petrograd City Duma to be dissolved. The Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks tried to ignore this order, and the Duma continued to function even after the decree of its dissolution had been promulgated.
On November 20, when the members of the City Duma began to assemble, they found the building filled with armed Red Guards and sailors. At 7:30 p.m. the Mayor of Petrograd and the Chairman of the Duma, donning their regalia, wended their way to the Council Chamber, followed by a crowd of Councillors and members of the staff. The sailors barred their way, but the Duma members went in by another entrance. . . . The meeting of the Duma was opened, but at that moment the armed Red Guards and sailors forced their way into the Chamber and called upon the Councillors to disperse, giving them five minutes in which to do so. In this interval the following resolution was drafted and read:
“Having heard, through the Chairman of the Duma, the statement made by citizen the sailor that the Duma must relinquish its functions by order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the City Duma protests against violence. . . .”[1]
At this juncture the sailor who had brought the order of the Military Revolutionary Committee glanced at his watch impatiently and observed: “Only two minutes left.”
The Councillors hurriedly adopted the resolution, which went on to say that the Council would not dissolve, but would take advantage of the first opportunity to re-assemble.
The period of grace expired. Minutes were drawn up to the effect that the Duma had been dispersed and was signed by Councillors and sailors.
At the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee held on November 24, the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionaries tried to raise a debate on the question of the dissolution of the City Duma. On behalf of the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionary group Karelin moved a resolution, the first part of which annulled the decision of the Council of People’s Commissars to dissolve the Duma, while the second part proclaimed it dissolved on the grounds that it had “run counter to the sentiments and opinions of the broad masses of the population.”[2] This resolution very vividly revealed the character of the “Left” Socialist-Revolutionary windbags. They dared not come out openly in defence of the City Duma, but thought the moment opportune to set the All-Russian Central Executive Committee against the Council of People’s Commissars. This manoeuvre failed, however. By a large majority the All-Russian Central Executive Committee endorsed the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars to dissolve the Petrograd City Duma.
Having met with a reverse in connection with the Petrograd City Duma, the Constitutional Democratic leaders of the counter-revolution tried to hatch another anti-Soviet plot. Acting as the puppets of the Constitutional Democrats, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks called upon the people of Petrograd to come out in a demonstration against the Soviet Government on November 28, the day which the Council of People’s Commissars had fixed for the opening of the Constituent Assembly provided not less than 400 deputies had assembled in Petrograd by that date. The members of the deposed Provisional Government who were still at large and of the legally extinct All-Russian Central Executive Committee called upon the deputies to assemble in the Taurida Palace, where the Constituent Assembly was to sit, at 2 p.m. on November 28. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks called upon the workers to come out on strike that day. It was obvious that under cover of the Constituent Assembly a plot was being hatched to overthrow the Soviet Government.
At a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars held on November 20 Stalin proposed that the opening of the Constituent Assembly be postponed. The Council instructed Stalin and Petrovsky to take control of the Committee that was in charge of convening the Constituent Assembly and to scrutinise all the documents in the Committee’s possession with a view to ascertaining the actual state of affairs.
Meanwhile, Lenin drafted a decree which empowered the local Soviets to recall deputies from the Constituent Assembly. This decree was adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 21, after which a number of Socialist-Revolutionary deputies were recalled, among them being Avksentyev, Gotz, Likhach, Argunov, Breshko-Breshkovskaya and Bulat.
The Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party made strenuous efforts to organise an armed demonstration against the Soviets on November 28, and all the members of the Moscow organisation of this party were ordered to come to Petrograd to take part in it.
The Constitutional Democratic Party acted as the political staff of all the counter-revolutionary organisations. In the course of that year it had been extremely active in organising counter-revolutionary demonstrations, but after the October Revolution it preferred to remain in the background and push the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, mainly the former, to the front. The leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party went underground.
On November 17, all the anti-Soviet newspapers published a manifesto issued by the underground Provisional Government, in which this handful of ex-Ministers called upon the people to rally around the Constituent Assembly and solemnly announced that the opening of the Constituent Assembly would take place in the Taurida Palace at 2 p.m. on November 28. Next day the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered the arrest of the members of the Provisional Government who were still at large.
It was quite evident that the Constitutional Democrats, who had planned this comedy, could not count on immediate success. The reports concerning the election of deputies for the Constituent Assembly throughout the country showed that no more than 100 deputies could arrive in Petrograd by November 28. But their plan was a simple one: they banked on the Bolsheviks prohibiting the illegal opening of the Constituent Assembly. This would provide them with the opportunity of raising the cry that the Bolsheviks were suppressing the Constituent Assembly and of converting the demand for the convocation of that Assembly into a call to defend it as if it were already in existence. This would serve to unite the counter-revolutionary forces in the border regions of the country with the anti-Soviet elements at the centre.
The Constitutional Democrats, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks made energetic preparations for the “opening.” The legally extinct All-Russian Central Executive Committee provided funds for the purpose of organising the demonstration. The Congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which was then being held, decided to take part in the demonstration as a body.
The organs of the proletarian dictatorship were fully aware of these preparations. At a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars held on November 20 it was decided to reinforce the Petrograd garrison and to arm the sailors. It was proposed to concentrate in Petrograd by November 27 ten to twelve thousand sailors, and for this purpose to take advantage of the Sailors’ Congress which was then in session in Petrograd.
On the morning of November 28, Shingarev, Kokoshkin and Prince Dolgorukov, members of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and Konstantinov, ex-Vice-Minister for Ways and Communications, were arrested, by order of the Military Revolutionary Committee, at the apartments of Countess Panina.
Only 172 members of the Constituent Assembly had arrived in Petrograd on the day fixed by the plotters for the “opening,” but the absence of a quorum did not trouble the counter-revolutionaries in the least. That day, November 28, the Constitutional Democrats, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks organised a counter-revolutionary demonstration. A crowd of excited bourgeois, government officials and army officers marched past the Taurida Palace carrying white and green banners bearing the inscription: “All power to the Constituent Assembly!” and headed by a band playing the “Marseillaise.” This hymn of the formerly revolutionary bourgeoisie was intended to inspire these present counter-revolutionaries who had decked themselves in the garb which the bourgeoisie in the West had discarded long ago. The “Marseillaise” and such terms as “Convention,” “Committee of Public Safety” and others taken from the period of the French Revolution were quite current among the Russian counter-revolutionary parties in 1917.
Standing behind the railings of the Taurida Palace, Schreider, the Mayor of Petrograd, harangued the multitude and in a voice trembling with pathos declared that November 28 was the greatest day in the history of Russia. Pointing to the Taurida Palace he exhorted the crowd “to swear to prevent anybody from encroaching upon this last refuge of Russia. Let us swear to defend the Constituent Assembly to our last drop of blood.” And the crowd in costly fur-lined overcoats or smart and warm army officers’ or government officials’ greatcoats answered with a loud discordant shout: “We swear!”
After this ceremony Schreider made for the side entrance of the palace followed by a crowd of several thousand armed Whiteguards, cadets, bourgeois and sabotaging officials who swept past the guard, which was too feeble to resist it, and flooded the building. A handful of Socialist-Revolutionaries and Constitutional Democratic deputies then proclaimed themselves an unofficial conference of the members of the Constituent Assembly. The force employed by the Whiteguards is not the only reason why this could have happened. The fact is that a number of the soldiers constituting the guard of the Taurida Palace had been influenced by counter-revolutionary propaganda and these at once unloaded their rifles.
That evening the Council of People’s Commissars met in the Smolny. The demonstration and the attempt on the part of the Constitutional Democrats to “open” the Constituent Assembly had completely revealed the plan of the counter-revolutionaries. The sporadic activities of the Kaledinites, Dutovites and of the Ukrainian Nationalists were to be politically united by the counter-revolutionary demonstration in the capital and by the “opening” of the Constituent Assembly. But the genius of Lenin was required to discern the hand of the political staff that was directing this counter-revolutionary plot, viz., the Constitutional Democratic Party. On the surface, only the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were seen, playing the part of the mad dogs of the counter-revolution. The Constitutional Democrats modestly kept in the background, controlling all the activities of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. It was necessary to strike at the political centre of the counter-revolution. This centre was the Constitutional Democratic Party. Lenin said:
“It is not true to say that the Constitutional Democratic Party is not a formidable group. The Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party is the political general staff of the bourgeois class. The Constitutional Democrats have absorbed all the propertied classes: the elements to the right of the Constitutional Democrats have merged with them.”[3]
The party which drew its strength from the economic might of the bourgeoisie, from the political training it had received in the reactionary period of the Third of June Monarchy and from its contacts with the officials in the state administration, was profoundly inimical to the people and extremely dangerous to the revolution. Lenin perceived this.
At 10:30 p.m. the Council of People’s Commissars, on Lenin’s motion, passed a “Decree to Arrest the Leaders of the Civil War Against the Revolution.” This decree read as follows:
“The members of the leading bodies of the Constitutional Democratic Party, being a party of enemies of the people, shall be arrested and tried by a revolutionary tribunal. The local Soviets are hereby charged with the duty of keeping the Constitutional Democratic Party under special surveillance in view of its connection with the Kornilov-Kaledin civil war against the revolution. This decree shall come into force the moment it is signed.”[4]
The decree was signed by Lenin, Stalin, Petrovsky, Menzhinsky, Schlichter, and others.
At that time the Constitutional Democratic leaders—Shingarev, Kokoshkin and Dolgorukov—were already in custody in room No. 56 in the Smolny, the office of the Investigating Commission. Taking advantage of the inadequate organisation of the new administration, the Constitutional Democrats succeeded in penetrating to the Smolny and in establishing communication with the prisoners. Shingarev made the following entry in his diary:
“Numerous visitors came to see us all day long. Among these were members of the City Duma, representatives of the ‘Committee of Public Safety’ and others.”
At about midnight a Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee entered the room where the prisoners were detained and read to them the decree which had been passed by the Council of People’s Commissars. As soon as he had finished the prisoners were surrounded by armed Red Guards. That same night they were lodged in the Fortress of Peter and Paul.
After the July days in Petrograd, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks had threatened to proclaim the Bolsheviks enemies of the people. Referring to this at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee held on December 1, Lenin said:
“We said to them: ‘Yes, do so if you can. Try and tell the people that the Bolsheviks, as a Party, as a trend, are enemies of the people.’”[5]
But the Constitutional Democrats and Socialist-Revolutionaries dared not carry out their threat. They vented their class hatred on individual members of the Bolshevik Party.
The Bolsheviks, however, boldly and publicly proclaimed the Constitutional Democratic Party, or the “People’s Freedom Party” as it called itself, an enemy of the people. Already in August 1917, the terms “Cadet” (abbreviation of Constitutional Democrat) and “Kornilovite” had become synonymous terms for the masses. Lenin’s decree gave legal sanction to this expression of popular contumely, and throughout the civil war the masses referred to the Krasnovites, Denikinites, Kolchakites and Wrangelites by the common term of “Cadets.”
Popular hatred of the Constitutional Democratic Party had been accumulating long before the October Revolution. Milyukov, Shingarev and Lvov were the incarnation of the policy pursued against the people by the Provisional Government. The Constitutional Democrats, organisers of the sabotage and inspirers of the Kaledin mutiny, stood in the path of the mighty popular movement and threatened to turn it back to the hated past. A government communiqué published at the time stated:
“All the people’s gains, including an early peace, are at stake. In the South there is Kaledin, in the East Dutov, and lastly, in Petrograd, the political hub of the country, we have the plot of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party which is directing a continuous stream of Kornilovite officers to the South to help Kaledin. The slightest irresolution or weakness on the part of the people may result in the collapse of the Soviets, in the collapse of the cause of peace, the doom of land reform, and the restoration of the omnipotence of the landlords and capitalism.”
The communiqué went on to say:
“The Council of People’s Commissars pledges itself not to lay down its arms in the struggle against the Constitutional Democratic Party and its Kaledinite troops. The political leaders of the counter-revolutionary civil war will be arrested. The bourgeois revolt will be crushed, cost what it may.”[6]
On November 30 a detachment of sailors stopped the illegal “unofficial conference” of the members of the Constituent Assembly in the Taurida Palace.
[1] Utro Rossii, No. 267, November 21, 1917.
[2] Minutes of Proceedings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, Peasants’ and Cossack Deputies. Second Convocation, Published by the All-Russian C.E.C., 1918, p. 83.
[3] V. I. Lenin, “Speech Delivered at a Meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. on December 12 (November 29), 1917, on the Constituent Assembly and on the Arrest of Members of the Constitutional Democratic Party,” Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. VI, p. 437.
[4] The Decrees of the October Revolution (Governmental Acts signed or ratified by Lenin as Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars). 1. From the October Revolution to the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, Party Publishers, Moscow 1933, p. 210.
[5] V. I. Lenin, “Speech Delivered at a Meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P., December 12 (November 29), 1917, on the Constituent Assembly and on the Arrest of Members of the Constitutional Democratic Party,” Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. VI, p. 439.
[6] “To All the Toilers and Exploited.” “Government Communication,” Pravda, No. 202, November 30, 1917.
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