Ten Days That Shook the World

by John Reed

Table of Contents

Preface.
Notes and Explanations.
Chapter 1. Background.
Chapter 2. The Coming Storm.
Chapter 3. On the Eve.
Chapter 4. The Fall of the Provisional Government.
Chapter 5. Plunging Ahead.
Chapter 6. The Committee for Salvation.
Chapter 7. The Revolutionary Front.
Chapter 8. Counter-Revolution.
Chapter 9. Victory.
Chapter 10. Moscow.
Chapter 11. The Conquest of Power.
Chapter 12. The Peasants' Congress.
Appendices I – XII

Preface

This book is a slice of intensified history—history as I saw it. It does not pretend to be anything
but a detailed account of the November Revolution, when the Bolsheviki, at the head of the
workers and soldiers, seized the state power of Russia and placed it in the hands of the Soviets.

Naturally most of it deals with "Red Petrograd," the capital and heart of the insurrection. But the
reader must realize that what took place in Petrograd was almost exactly duplicated, with greater
or lesser intensity, at different intervals of time, all over Russia.
In this book, the first of several which I am writing, I must confine myself to a chronicle of those
events which I myself observed and experienced, and those supported by reliable evidence;
preceded by two chapters briefly outlining the background and causes of the November
Revolution. I am aware that these two chapters make difficult reading, but they are essential to an
understanding of what follows.

Many questions will suggest themselves to the mind of the reader. What is Bolshevism? What
kind of a governmental structure did the Bolsheviki set up? If the Bolsheviki championed the
Constituent Assembly before the November Revolution, why did they disperse it by force of arms
afterward? And if the bourgeoisie opposed the Constituent Assembly until the danger of
Bolshevism became apparent, why did they champion it afterward?

These and many other questions cannot be answered here. In another volume, "Kornilov to Brest-
Litovsk," I trace the course of the Revolution up to and including the German peace. There I
explain the origin and functions of the Revolutionary organisations, the evolution of popular
sentiment, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the structure of the Soviet state, and the
course and outcome of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations....

In considering the rise of the Bolsheviki it is necessary to understand that Russian economic life
and the Russian army were not disorganised on November 7th, 1917, but many months before, as
the logical result of a process which began as far back as 1915. The corrupt reactionaries in
control of the Tsar's Court deliberately undertook to wreck Russia in order to make a separate
peace with Germany. The lack of arms on the front, which had caused the great retreat of the
summer of 1915, the lack of food in the army and in the great cities, the break-down of
manufactures and transportation in 1916—all these we know now were part of a gigantic
campaign of sabotage. This was halted just in time by the March Revolution.

For the first few months of the new régime, in spite of the confusion incident
upon a great Revolution, when one hundred and sixty millions of the world's
most oppressed peoples suddenly achieved liberty, both the internal situation and
the combative power of the army actually improved.

But the "honeymoon" was short. The propertied classes wanted merely a
political revolution, which would take the power from the Tsar and give it to
them. They wanted Russia to be a constitutional Republic, like France or the
United States; or a constitutional Monarchy, like England. On the other hand, the
masses of the people wanted real industrial and agrarian democracy.

William English Walling, in his book, "Russia's Message," an account of the

Revolution of 1905, describes very well the state of mind of the Russian
workers, who were later to support Bolshevism almost unanimously:

They (the working people) saw it was possible that even under a free
Government, if it fell into the hands of other social classes, they might still
continue to starve....

The Russian workman is revolutionary, but he is neither violent, dogmatic, nor

unintelligent. He is ready for barricades, but he has studied them, and alone of
the workers of the world he has learned about them from actual experience. He
is ready and willing to fight his oppressor, the capitalist class, to a finish. But he
does not ignore the existence of other classes. He merely asks that the other
classes take one side or the other in the bitter conflict that draws near....

They (the workers) were all agreed that our (American) political institutions
were preferable to their own, but they were not very anxious to exchange one
despot for another (i.e., the capitalist class)....

The workingmen of Russia did not have themselves shot down, executed by
hundreds in Moscow, Riga and Odessa, imprisoned by thousands in every
Russian jail, and exiled to the deserts and the arctic regions, in exchange for the
doubtful privileges of the workingmen of Goldfields and Cripple Creek....

And so developed in Russia, in the midst of a foreign war, the Social Revolution
on top of the Political Revolution, culminating in the triumph of Bolshevism.

Mr. A. J. Sack, director in this country of the Russian Information Bureau, which
opposes the Soviet Government, has this to say in his book, "The Birth of the
Russian Democracy": The Bolsheviks organised their own cabinet, with
Nicholas Lenine as Premier and Leon Trotsky—Minister of Foreign Affairs. The
inevitability of their coming into power became evident almost immediately
after the March Revolution. The history of the Bolsheviki, after the Revolution, is a history of
their steady growth....
Foreigners, and Americans especially, frequently emphasise the "ignorance" of
the Russian workers. It is true they lacked the political experience of the peoples of the West, but
they were very well trained in voluntary organisation. In 1917 there were more than twelve
million members of the Russian consumers' Cooperative societies; and the Soviets themselves are
a wonderful demonstration of their organising genius. Moreover, there is probably not a people in
the world so well educated in Socialist theory and its practical application.

William English Walling thus characterises them:

The Russian working people are for the most part able to read and write. For
many years the country has been in such a disturbed condition that they have had
the advantage of leadership not only of intelligent individuals in their midst, but
of a large part of the equally revolutionary educated class, who have turned to
the working people with their ideas for the political and social regeneration of
Russia....

Many writers explain their hostility to the Soviet Government by arguing that the
last phase of the Russian Revolution was simply a struggle of the "respectable"
elements against the brutal attacks of Bolshevism. However, it was the
propertied classes, who, when they realised the growth in power of the popular
revolutionary organisations, undertook to destroy them and to halt the
Revolution. To this end the propertied classes finally resorted to desperate
measures. In order to wreck the Kerensky Ministry and the Soviets,
transportation was disorganised and internal troubles provoked; to crush the
Factory-Shop Committees, plants were shut down, and fuel and raw materials
diverted; to break the Army Committees at the front, capital punishment was
restored and military defeat connived at.

This was all excellent fuel for the Bolshevik fire. The Bolsheviki retorted by
preaching the class war, and by asserting the supremacy of the Soviets.

Between these two extremes, with the other factions which whole-heartedly or
half-heartedly supported them, were the so-called "moderate" Socialists, the
Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and several smaller parties. These
groups were also attacked by the propertied classes, but their power of resistance
was crippled by their theories.

Roughly, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries believed that Russia was
not economically ripe for a social revolution—that only a political revolution
was possible. According to their interpretation, the Russian masses were not
educated enough to take over the power; any attempt to do so would inevitably
bring on a reaction, by means of which some ruthless opportunist might restore
the old régime. And so it followed that when the "moderate" Socialists were
forced to assume the power, they were afraid to use it.

They believed that Russia must pass through the stages of political and economic
development known to Western Europe, and emerge at last, with the rest of the
world, into full-fledged Socialism. Naturally, therefore, they agreed with the
propertied classes that Russia must first be a parliamentary state-though with
some improvements on the Western democracies. As a consequence, they
insisted upon the collaboration of the propertied classes in the Government.

From this it was an easy step to supporting them. The "moderate" Socialists
needed the bourgeoisie. But the bourgeoisie did not need the "moderate"
Socialists. So it resulted in the Socialist Ministers being obliged to give way,
little by little, on their entire program, while the propertied classes grew more
and more insistent.

And at the end, when the Bolsheviki upset the whole hollow compromise, the
Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries found themselves fighting on the side
of the propertied classes... In almost every country in the world to-day the same
phenomenon is visible.

Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were the
only party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it on
the country. If they had not succeeded to the Government when they did, there is
little doubt in my mind that the armies of Imperial Germany would have been in
Petrograd and Moscow in December, and Russia would again be ridden by a
Tsar....

It is still fashionable, after a whole year of the Soviet Government, to speak of

the Bolshevik insurrection as an "adventure." Adventure it was, and one of the
most marvellous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into history at the head
of the toiling masses, and staking everything on their vast and simple desires.
Already the machinery had been set up by which the land of the great estates
could be distributed among the peasants. The Factory-Shop Committees and the
Trade Unions were there to put into operation workers' control of industry. In
every village, town, city, district and province there were Soviets of Workers',
Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, prepared to assume the task of local administration.

No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable that the Russian Revolution is one of
the great events of human history, and the rise of the Bolsheviki a phenomenon of world-wide
importance. Just as historians search the records for the minutest details of the story of the Paris
Commune, so they will want to know what happened in Petrograd in November, 1917, the spirit
which animated the people, and how the leaders looked, talked and acted. It is with this in view
that I have written this book.

In the struggle my sympathies were not neutral. But in telling the story of those
great days I have tried to see events with the eye of a conscientious reporter,
interested in setting down the truth.

J. R.

New York, January 1st 1919.

Notes and Explanations

To the average reader the multiplicity of Russian organisations- political

groups, Committees and Central Committees, Soviets, Dumas and Unions—will
prove extremely confusing. For this reason I am giving here a few brief
definitions and explanations.

Political Parties

In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, there were seventeen tickets in

Petrograd, and in some of the provincial towns as many as forty; but the
following summary of the aims and composition of political parties is limited to
the groups and factions mentioned in this book. Only the essence of their
programmes and the general character of their constituencies can be noticed....

1. Monarchists, of various shades, Octobrists, etc. These once-powerful factions

no longer existed openly; they either worked underground, or their members
joined the Cadets, as the Cadets came by degrees to stand for their political
programme. Representatives in this book, Rodzianko, Shulgin.
2. Cadets. So-called from the initials of its name, Constitutional Democrats. Its
official name is "Party of the People's Freedom." Under the Tsar composed of
Liberals from the propertied classes, the Cadets were the great party of political
reform, roughly corresponding to the Progressive Party in America. When the
Revolution broke out in March, 1917, the Cadets formed the first Provisional
Government. The Cadet Ministry was overthrown in April because it declared
itself in favour of Allied imperialistic aims, including the imperialistic aims of
the Tsar's Government. As the Revolution became more and more a social
economic Revolution, the Cadets grew more and more conservative. Its
representatives in this book are: Miliukov, Vinaver, Shatsky.

2a. Group of Public Men. After the Cadets had become unpopular through their
relations with the Kornilov counter-revolution, the Group of Public Men was
formed in Moscow. Delegates from the Group of Public Men were given
portfolios in the last Kerensky Cabinet. The Group declared itself non-partisan,
although its intellectual leaders were men like Rodzianko and Shulgin. It was
composed of the more "modern" bankers, merchants and manufacturers, who
were intelligent enough to realise that the Soviets must be fought by their own
weapon-economic organisation. Typical of the Group: Lianozov, Konovalov.

3. Populist Socialists, or Trudoviki (Labour Group). Numerically a small party,

composed of cautious intellectuals, the leaders of the Cooperative societies, and
conservative peasants. Professing to be Socialists, the Populists really supported
the interests of the petty bourgeoisie clerks, shopkeepers, etc. By direct
descent, inheritors of the compromising tradition of the Labour Group in the
Fourth Imperial Duma, which was composed largely of peasant representatives.
Kerensky was the leader of the Trudoviki in the Imperial Duma when the
Revolution of March, 1917, broke out. The Populist Socialists are a nationalistic
party. Their representatives in this book are: Peshekhanov, Tchaikovsky.

4. Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Originally Marxian Socialists. At a

party congress held in 1903, the party split, on the question of tactics, into two
factions—the Majority (Bolshinstvo), and the Minority (Menshinstvo). From this
sprang the names "Bolsheviki" and "Mensheviki"-"members of the majority"
and "members of the minority." These two wings became two separate parties,
both calling themselves "Russian Social Democratic Labour Party," and both
professing to be Marxians. Since the Revolution of 1905 the Bolsheviki were
really the minority, becoming again the majority in September, 1917.
a. Mensheviki. This party includes all shades of Socialists who believe that
society must progress by natural evolution toward Socialism, and that the
working-class must conquer political power first. Also a nationalistic party. This
was the party of the Socialist intellectuals, which means: all the means of
education having been in the hands of the propertied classes, the intellectuals
instinctively reacted to their training, and took the side of the propertied classes.
Among their representatives in this book are: Dan, Lieber, Tseretelli.

b. Mensheviki Internationalists. The radical wing of the Mensheviki,

internationalists and opposed to all coalition with the propertied classes; yet
unwilling to break loose from the conservative Mensheviki, and opposed to the
dictatorship of the working-class advocated by the Bolsheviki. Trotzky was long
a member of this group. Among their leaders: Martov, Martinov.

c. Bolsheviki. Now call themselves the Communist Party, in order to emphasise

their complete separation from the tradition of "moderate" or "parliamentary"
Socialism, which dominates the Mensheviki and the so-called Majority
Socialists in all countries. The Bolsheviki proposed immediate proletarian
insurrection, and seizure of the reins of Government, in order to hasten the
coming of Socialism by forcibly taking over industry, land, natural resources and
financial institutions. This party expresses the desires chiefly of the factory
workers, but also of a large section of the poor peasants. The name "Bolshevik"
can not be translated by "Maximalist." The Maximalists are a separate group.
(See paragraph 5b). Among the leaders: Lenin, Trotzky, Lunatcharsky.

d. United Social Democrats Internationalists. Also called the Novaya Zhizn

(New Life) group, from the name of the very influential newspaper which was
its organ. A little group of intellectuals with a very small following among the
working-class, except the personal following of Maxim Gorky, its leader.
Intellectuals, with almost the same programme as the Mensheviki
Internationalists, except that the Novaya Zhizn group refused to be tied to either
of the two great factions. Opposed the Bolshevik tactics, but remained in the
Soviet Government. Other representatives in this book: Avilov, Kramarov.

e. Yedinstvo. A very small and dwindling group, composed almost entirely of the
personal following of Plekhanov, one of the pioneers of the Russian Social
Democratic movement in the 80's, and its greatest theoretician. Now an old man,
Plekhanov was extremely patriotic, too conservative even for the Mensheviki.
After the Bolshevik coup d'etat, Yedinstvo disappeared.
5. Socialist Revolutionary party. Called Essaires from the initials of their name.
Originally the revolutionary party of the peasants, the party of the Fighting
Organisations-the Terrorists. After the March Revolution, it was joined by
many who had never been Socialists. At that time it stood for the abolition of
private property in land only, the owners to be compensated in some fashion.
Finally the increasing revolutionary feeling of peasants forced the Essaires to
abandon the "compensation" clause, and led to the younger and more fiery
intellectuals breaking off from the main party in the fall of 1917 and forming a
new party, the Left Socialist Revolutionary party. The Essaires, who were
afterward always called by the radical groups "Right Socialist Revolutionaries,"
adopted the political attitude of the Mensheviki, and worked together with them.
They finally came to represent the wealthier peasants, the intellectuals, and the
politically uneducated populations of remote rural districts. Among them there
was, however, a wider difference of shades of political and economic opinion
than among the Mensheviki. Among their leaders mentioned in these pages:
Avksentiev, Gotz, Kerensky, Tchernov, "Babuschka" Breshkovskaya.

a. Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Although theoretically sharing the Bolshevik

programme of dictatorship of the working-class, at first were reluctant to follow
the ruthless Bolshevik tactics. However, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries
remained in the Soviet Government, sharing the Cabinet portfolios, especially
that of Agriculture. They withdrew from the Government several times, but
always returned. As the peasants left the ranks of the Essaires in increasing
numbers, they joined the Left Socialist Revolutionary party, which became the
great peasant party supporting the Soviet Government, standing for confiscation
without compensation of the great landed estates, and their disposition by the
peasants themselves. Among the leaders: Spiridonova, Karelin, Kamkov,
Kalagayev.

b. Maximalists. An off-shoot of the Socialist Revolutionary party in the

Revolution of 1905, when it was a powerful peasant movement, demanding the
immediate application of the maximum Socialist programme. Now an
insignificant group of peasant anarchists.

Parliamentary Procedure

Russian meetings and conventions are organised after the continental model
rather than our own. The first action is usually the election of officers and the
presidium.

The presidium is a presiding committee, composed of representatives of the

groups and political factions represented in the assembly, in proportion to their
numbers. The presidium arranges the Order of Business, and its members can be
called upon by the President to take the chair pro tem.

Each question (vopros) is stated in a general way and then debated, and at the
close of the debate resolutions are submitted by the different factions, and each
one voted on separately. The Order of Business can be, and usually is, smashed
to pieces in the first half hour. On the plea of "emergency," which the crowd
almost always grants, anybody from the floor can get up and say anything on
any subject. The crowd controls the meeting, practically the only functions of the
speaker being to keep order by ringing a little bell, and to recognise speakers.
Almost all the real work of the session is done in caucuses of the different
groups and political factions, which almost always cast their votes in a body and
are represented by floor-leaders. The result is, however, that at every important
new point, or vote, the session takes a recess to enable the different groups and
political factions to hold a caucus.

The crowd is extremely noisy, cheering or heckling speakers, over-riding the

plans of the presidium. Among the customary cries are: "Prosim! Please! Go
on!" "Pravilno!" or "Eto vierno! That's true! Right!" "Do volno! Enough!"
"Doloi! Down with him!" "Posor! Shame!" and "Teesche! Silence! Not so
noisy!"

Popular Organisations

1. Soviet. The word soviet means "council." Under the Tsar the Imperial Council
of State was called Gosudarstvennyi Soviet. Since the Revolution, however, the
term Soviet has come to be associated with a certain type of parliament elected
by members of working-class economic organisations—the Soviet of Workers'
of Soldiers' ', or of Peasants' Deputies. I have therefore limited the word to these
bodies, and wherever else it occurs I have translated it "Council."

Besides the local Soviets, elected in every city, town and village of Russia-and
in large cities, also Ward (Raionny) Soviets-there are also the oblastne or
gubiernsky (district or provincial) Soviets, and the Central Executive Committee
of the All-Russian Soviets in the capital, called from its initials Tsay-ee-kah. (See
below, "Central Committees").
Almost everywhere the Soviets of Workers' and of Soldiers' Deputies combined
very soon after the March Revolution. In special matters concerning their
peculiar interests, however, the Workers' and the Soldiers' Sections continued to
meet separately. The Soviets of Peasants' Deputies did not join the other two
until after the Bolshevik coup d'etat. They, too, were organised like the workers
and soldiers, with an Executive Committee of the All-Russian Peasants' Soviets
in the capital.

2. Trade Unions. Although mostly industrial in form, the Russian labour unions
were still called Trade Unions, and at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution had
from three to four million members. These Unions were also organised in an All-
Russian body, a sort of Russian Federation of Labour, which had its Central
Executive Committee in the capital.

3. Factory-Shop Committees. These were spontaneous organisations created in

the factories by the workers in their attempt to control industry, taking advantage
of the administrative break-down incident upon the Revolution. Their function
was by revolutionary action to take over and run the factories. The Factory-Shop
Committees also had their All-Russian organisation, with a Central Committee at
Petrograd, which co-operated with the Trade Unions.

4. Dumas. The word duma means roughly "deliberative body." The old Imperial
Duma, which persisted six months after the Revolution, in a democratised form,
died a natural death in September, 1917. The City Duma referred to in this book
was the reorganised Municipal Council, often called "Municipal Self-
Government." It was elected by direct and secret ballot, and its only reason for
failure to hold the masses during the Bolshevik Revolution was the general
decline in influence of all purely political representation in the fact of the
growing power of organisations based on economic groups.

5. Zemstvos. May be roughly translated "county councils." Under the Tsar semi-
political, semi-social bodies with very little administrative power, developed and
controlled largely by intellectual Liberals among the land-owning classes. Their
most important function was education and social service among the peasants.
During the war the Zemstvos gradually took over the entire feeding and clothing
of the Russian Army, as well as the buying from foreign countries, and work
among the soldiers generally corresponding to the work of the American Y. M.
C. A. at the Front. After the March Revolution the Zemstvos were democratized,
with a view to making them the organs of local government in the rural districts.
But like the City Dumas, they could not compete with the Soviets.

6. Cooperatives. These were the workers' and peasants' Consumers' Cooperative

societies, which had several million members all over Russia before the
Revolution. Founded by Liberals and "moderate" Socialists, the Cooperative
movement was not supported by the revolutionary Socialist groups, because it
was a substitute for the complete transference of means of production and
distribution into the hands of the workers. After the March Revolution the
Cooperatives spread rapidly, and were dominated by Populist Socialists,
Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and acted as a conservative political
force until the Bolshevik Revolution. However, it was the Cooperatives which
fed Russia when the old structure of commerce and transportation collapsed.

7. Army Committees. The Army Committees were formed by the soldiers at the
front to combat the reactionary influence of the old regime officers. Every
company, regiment, brigade, division and corps had its committee, over all of
which was elected the Army Committee. The Central Army Committee
cooperated with the General Staff. The administrative break-down in the army
incident upon the Revolution threw upon the shoulders of the Army Committees
most of the work of the Quartermaster's Department, and in some cases, even
the command of troops.

8. Fleet Committees. The corresponding organisations in the Navy.

Central Committees

In the spring and summer of 1917, All-Russian conventions of every sort of

organisation were held at Petrograd. There were national congresses of
Workers' ', Soldiers' and Peasants' Soviets, Trade Unions, Factory-Shop
Committees, Army and Fleet Committees-besides every branch of the military
and naval service, Cooperatives, Nationalities, etc. Each of these conventions
elected a Central Committee, or a Central Executive Committee, to guard its
particular interests at the seat of Government. As the Provisional Government
grew weaker, these Central Committees were forced to assume more and more
administrative powers.

The most important Central Committees mentioned in this book are:

Union of Unions. During the Revolution of 1905, Professor Miliukov and other
Liberals established unions of professional men-doctors, lawyers, physicians,
etc. These were united under one central organisation, the Union of Unions. In
1905 the Union of Unions acted with the revolutionary democracy; in 1917,
however, the Union of Unions opposed the Bolshevik uprising, and united the
Government employees who went on strike against the authority of the Soviets.

Tsay-ee-kah. All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of

Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. So called from the initials of its name.

Tsentroflot. "Centre-Fleet" —the Central Fleet Committee.

Vikzhel. All-Russian Central Committee of the Railway Workers' Union. So

called from the initials of its name.

Other Organisations

Red Guards. The armed factory workers of Russia. The Red Guards were first
formed during the Revolution of 1905, and sprang into existence again in the
days of March, 1917, when a force was needed to keep order in the city. At that
time they were armed, and all efforts of the Provisional Government to disarm
them were more or less unsuccessful. At every great crisis in the Revolution the
Red Guards appeared on the streets, untrained and undisciplined, but full of
Revolutionary zeal.

White Guards. Bourgeois volunteers, who emerged in the last stages of the
Revolution, to defend private property from the Bolshevik attempt to abolish it.
A great many of them were University students.

Tekhintsi. The so-called "Savage Division" in the army, made up of Mohametan

tribesmen from Central Asia, and personally devoted to General Kornilov. The
Tekhintsi were noted for their blind obedience and their savage cruelty in
warfare.

Death Battalions. Or Shock Battalions. The Women's Battalion is known to the

world as the Death Battalion, but there were many Death Battalions composed
of men. These were formed in the summer of 1917 by Kerensky, for the purpose
of strengthening the discipline and combative fire of the army by heroic
example. The Death Battalions were composed mostly of intense young patriots.
These came for the most part from among the sons of the propertied classes.

Union of Officers. An organisation formed among the reactionary officers in the

army to combat politically the growing power of the Army Committees.

Knights of St. George. The Cross of St. George was awarded for distinguished
action in battle. Its holder automatically became a "Knight of St. George." The
predominant influence in the organisation was that of the supporters of the
military idea.

Peasants' Union. In 1905, the Peasants' Union was a revolutionary peasants'

organisation. In 1917, however, it had become the political expression of the
more prosperous peasants, to fight the growing power and revolutionary aims of
the Soviets of Peasants' Deputies.

Chronology and Spelling

I have adopted in this book our Calendar throughout, instead of the former
Russian Calendar, which was thirteen days earlier.

In the spelling of Russian names and words, I have made no attempt to follow
any scientific rules for transliteration, but have tried to give the spelling which
would lead the English-speaking reader to the simplest approximation of their
pronunciation.

Sources

Much of the material in this book is from my own notes. I have also relied,
however, upon a heterogeneous file of several hundred assorted Russian
newspapers, covering almost every day of the time described, of files of the
English paper, the Russian Daily News, and of the two French papers, Journal de
Russie and Entente. But far more valuable than these is the Bulletin de la Presse
issued daily by the French Information Bureau in Petrograd, which reports all
important happenings, speeches and the comment of the Russian press. Of this I
have an almost complete file from the spring of 1917 to the end of January,
1918.

Besides the foregoing, I have in my possession almost every proclamation,

decree and announcement posted on the walls of Petrograd from the middle of
September, 1917, to the end of January, 1918. Also the official publication of all
Government decrees and orders, and the official Government publication of the
secret treaties and other documents discovered in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
when the Bolsheviki took it over.

Ten Days That Shook The World

Chapter I

Background

Toward the end of September, 1917, an alien Professor of Sociology visiting

Russia came to see me in Petrograd. He had been informed by business men and
intellectuals that the Revolution was slowing down. The Professor wrote an
article about it, and then travelled around the country, visiting factory towns and
peasant communities-where, to his astonishment, the Revolution seemed to be
speeding up. Among the wage-earners and the land-working people it was
common to hear talk of "all land to the peasants, all factories to the workers." If
the Professor had visited the front, he would have heard the whole Army talking
Peacе....

The Professor was puzzled, but he need not have been; both observations were
correct. The property-owning classes were becoming more conservative, the
masses of the people more radical.

There was a feeling among business men and the intelligentzia generally that the
Revolution had gone quite far enough, and lasted too long; that things should
settle down. This sentiment was shared by the dominant "moderate" Socialist
groups, the oborontsi (See App. I, Sect. 1) Mensheviki and Socialist
Revolutionaries, who supported the Provisional Government of Kerensky.

On October 14th the official organ of the "moderate" Socialists said:

The drama of Revolution has two acts; the destruction of the old régime and the
creation of the new one. The first act has lasted long enough. Now it is time to
go on to the second, and to play it as rapidly as possible. As a great revolutionist
put it, "Let us hasten, friends, to terminate the Revolution. He who makes it last
too long will not gather the fruits..."

Among the worker, soldier and peasant masses, however, there was a stubborn
feeling that the "first act" was not yet played out. On the front the Army
Committees were always running foul of officers who could not get used to
treating their men like human beings; in the rear the Land Committees elected by
the peasants were being jailed for trying to carry out Government regulations
concerning the land; and the workmen (See App. I, Sect. 2) in the factories were
fighting black-lists and lockouts. Nay, furthermore, returning political exiles
were being excluded from the country as "undesirable" citizens; and in some
cases, men who returned from abroad to their villages were prosecuted and
imprisoned for revolutionary acts committed in 1905.

To the multiform discontent of the people the "moderate" Socialists had one
answer: Wait for the Constituent Assembly, which is to meet in December. But
the masses were not satisfied with that. The Constituent Assembly was all well
and good; but there were certain definite things for which the Russian
Revolution had been made, and for which the revolutionary martyrs rotted in
their stark Brotherhood Grave on Mars Field, that must be achieved Constituent
Assembly or no Constituent Assembly: Peace, Land, and Workers' Control of
Industry. The Constituent Assembly had been postponed and postponed —would
probably be postponed again, until the people were calm enough-perhaps to
modify their demands! At any rate, here were eight months of the Revolution
gone, and little enough to show for it….

Meanwhile the soldiers began to solve the peace question by simply deserting,
the peasants burned manor-houses and took over the great estates, the workers
sabotaged and struck.... Of course, as was natural, the manufacturers, land-
owners and army officers exerted all their influence against any democratic
compromise....

The policy of the Provisional Government alternated between ineffective

reforms and stern repressive measures. An edict from the Socialist Minister of
Labour ordered all the Workers' Committees henceforth to meet only after
working hours. Among the troops at the front, "agitators" of opposition political
parties were arrested, radical newspapers closed down, and capital punishment
applied-to revolutionary propagandists. Attempts were made to disarm the Red
Guard. Cossacks were sent to keep order in the provinces....

These measures were supported by the "moderate" Socialists and their leaders in
the Ministry, who considered it necessary to cooperate with the propertied
classes. The people rapidly deserted them, and went over to the Bolsheviki, who
stood for Peace, Land, and Workers' Control of Industry, and a Government of
the working-class. In September, 1917, matters reached a crisis. Against the
overwhelming sentiment of the country, Kerensky and the "moderate" Socialists
succeeded in establishing a Government of Coalition with the propertied classes;
and as a result, the Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries lost the confidence
of the people forever.

An article in Rabotchi Put (Workers' Way) about the middle of October, entitled
"The Socialist Ministers," expressed the feeling of the masses of the people
against the "moderate" Socialists:

Here is a list of their services.(See App. I, Sect. 3)

Tseretelli: disarmed the workmen with the assistance of General Polovtsev,

checkmated the revolutionary soldiers, and approved of capital punishment in
the army.

Skobeliev: commenced by trying to tax the capitalists 100% of their profits, and
finished—and finished by an attempt to dissolve the Workers' Committees in the
shops and factories.

Avksentiev: put several hundred peasants in prison, members of the Land

Committees, and suppressed dozens of workers' and soldiers' newspapers.

Tchernov: signed the "Imperial" manifest, ordering the dissolution of the Finnish
Diet.

Savinkov: concluded an open alliance with General Kornilov. If this saviour of

the country was not able to betray Petrograd, it was due to reasons over which he
had no control.

Zarudny: with the sanction of Alexinsky and Kerensky, put some of the best
workers of the Revolution, soldiers and sailors, in prison.

Nikitin: acted as a vulgar policeman against the Railway Workers.

Kerensky: it is better not to say anything about him. The list of his services is too
long....

A Congress of delegates of the Baltic Fleet, at Helsingfors, passed a resolution

which began as follows:

We demand the immediate removal from the ranks of the Provisional

Government of the "Socialist," the political adventurer-Kerensky, as one who
is scandalising and ruining the great Revolution, and with it the revolutionary
masses, by his shameless political blackmail on behalf of the bourgeoisie....

The direct result of all this was the rise of the Bolsheviki....

Since March, 1917, when the roaring torrents of workmen and soldiers beating
upon the Tauride Palace compelled the reluctant Imperial Duma to assume the
supreme power in Russia, it was the masses of the people, workers, soldiers and
peasants, which forced every change in the course of the Revolution. They
hurled the Miliukov Ministry down; it was their Soviet which proclaimed to the
world the Russian peace terms-"No annexations, no indemnities, and the right
of self-determination of peoples"; and again, in July, it was the spontaneous
rising of the unorganised proletariat which once more stormed the Tauride
Palace, to demand that the Soviets take over the Government of Russia.

The Bolsheviki, then a small political sect, put themselves at the head of the
movement. As a result of the disastrous failure of the rising, public opinion
turned against them, and their leaderless hordes slunk back into the Viborg
Quarter, which is Petrograd's St. Antoine. Then followed a savage hunt of the
Bolsheviki; hundreds were imprisoned, among them Trotzky, Madame Kollontai
and Kameniev; Lenin and Zinoviev went into hiding, fugitives from justice; the
Bolshevik papers were suppressed. Provocators and reactionaries raised the cry
that the Bolsheviki were German agents, until people all over the world believed
it.

But the Provisional Government found itself unable to substantiate its

accusations; the documents proving pro-German conspiracy were discovered to
be forgeries;[1] and one by one the Bolsheviki were released from prison
without trial, on nominal or no bail-until only six remained. The impotence and
indecision of the ever-changing Provisional Government was an argument
nobody could refute. The Bolsheviki raised again the slogan so dear to the