Through the Russian revolution PDF book (1921) by Albert Rhys Williams
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| Lenin |
Excerpt from the introduction:
In Moscow, I saw two peasant soldiers gazing at a poster being stuck up on a kiosk. "We can't read a word of it," they cried, indignant tears in their eyes. "The Czar only wanted us to plow and fight and pay taxes. He didn't want us to read. He put out our eyes." "To put out the eyes" of the masses, to put out their minds and consciences, was the deliberate policy of the Russian autocracy. For centuries the people were steeped in ignorance, narcotized by the church, terrorized by the Black Hundreds, dragooned by the Cossacks. The protesters were thrown into dungeons, exiled to hard labor in Siberian mines, and hung up on gibbets. In 1917 the social and economic fabric of the land was shot to pieces. Ten million peasants dragged from their plows were dang in the trenches. Millions more were perishing of cold and hunger in the cities while the corrupt ministers intrigued with the Germans and the court held bacchanalian revels with the notorious monk, Rasputin. Even the Cadet, Milyukov, was forced to say: "History does not know of another government so stupid, so dishonest, so cowardly, so treacherous."
All governments rest upon the patience of the poor. It seems everlasting, but there comes an end to it. It came to Russia in March, 191 7. The masses felt that more vicious even than the
Kaiser in Berlin was their own Czar in Petrograd. Their cup of bitterness was full. They marched forth against the palaces to end it all. First, out of the Viborg district, came the working women crying for bread. Then long lines of workingmen. The police turned the bridges to prevent them from entering the city, but they crossed on the ice. Looking at the red-flagged throngs from his window, Milyukov exclaimed: "There goes the Russian Revolution — and it will be crashed in fifteen minutes! "
But the workingmen came on in spite of Cossack patrols on the Nevsky. They came on in face of wilting fire from machine-gun nests. They came on until the streets were littered with their bodies. Still, they came on, singing and pleading until soldiers and Cossacks came over to the people's side, and on March 12 the Romanov dynasty, which had misruled Russia for 300 years, went crashing to its doom. Russia went mad with joy while the whole world rose up to applaud the downfall of the Czar. It was mainly the workers and soldiers who made the Revolution. They had shed their blood for it. Now it was assumed that they would retire in an orthodox manner leaving affairs in the hands of their superiors. The people had taken power away from the Czarists. Now appeared on the scene the bankers and lawyers, the professors and politicians, to take the power away from the people. They said:
"People, you have won a glorious victory. The next duty is the formation of a new state. It is a most difficult task, but fortunately, we, the educated, understand this business of governing. We shall set up a Provisional Government. Our responsibility is heavy, but as true patriots, we will shoulder it. Noble soldiers, go back to the trenches. Brave workmen, go back to the machines. And peasants, you go back to the land." Now the Russian masses were tractable and reasonable. So they let these bourgeois gentlemen form their "Provisional Government." But the Russian masses were intelligent, even if they were not literate. Most of them could not read or write. But they could think. So, before they went back to the trenches, the shops, and the land, they set up little organizations of their own. In each munition factory, the workers selected one of their number whom they trusted. In the shoe and cotton factories, the men did likewise. So in the brickyards, the glass-works and other industries. These representatives elected directly from their jobs were called a Soviet (Council) of Workmen Deputies. In like manner, the armies formed Soviets of Soldiers' Deputies, the villages Soviets of Peasant Deputies.
Contents of the book
PART I THE MAKERS OF THE REVOLUTION WITH THE WORKERS, PEASANTS, AND FIGHTERS CHAPTER I. The Bolsheviks AND THE City - II. Petrograd Demonstrates III. A Peasant Interlude - IV. The Man on Horseback - V. Comrades of the Sea - PART II THE REVOLUTION AND THE DAYS AFTER - AMONG THE WHITES AND THE REDS - VI. "All Power to the Soviets" - VII. November 7— A New Date in His - TORY VIII. Looting the Winter Palace. - IX. Red Guards, White Guards, and - Blackguards - X. Mercy or Death to the Whites? - XL The War of the Classes - XII. Building the New Order- PART III - THE OUTREACH OF THE REVOLUTION - ACROSS SIBERIA ON THE EXPRESS - XIII. The Steppes Rise Up.- XIV. The Red Convicts of Cherm.- XV. The Vladivostok Soviet - XVI. The Local Soviet at Work- PART IV. THE TRIUMPH OF THE REVOLUTION - the SOVIETS AGAINST THE CAPITALIST WORLD - XVII. The Allies Crush the Soviets - XVIII. The Red Funeral-- XIX. Exit-- XX. Retrospect -- appendix I. The Death of a Red Regiment II. The Death Train of Siberia. - III. The Burial of Yanishev - IV. A Circular for British Soldiers - V. Yesterday and Today, By Gorky - VI. Declaration of the Rights of the - Toiling and Exploited Peoples -
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Author: Albert Rhys Williams
Publication Date:1921
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