Moscow Bolshevik Uprising

Moscow Bolshevik Uprising is the armed uprising of the Bolsheviks in Moscow, from October 25 (November 7) to 2 (15) November 1917 during the October Revolution of Russia. It was in Moscow in October where the most prolonged and bitter fighting unfolded.[1] Some historians estimate the Moscow battles as the beginning of the Civil War in Russia.[2]

Conditions on the Eve of the Uprising

Following the overthrow of the monarchy, in Moscow, as well as all across Russia, the soviets began to take on more and more social organization, as well as more formal power. On March 1 (March 14 in the old calendar), 1917, the Moscow soviet (Mossoviet) was established, and on March 4 the more moderate Soldier’s Deputy’s Council was established, in which sympathies for the Socialist Revolutionaries was strong.

On June 25 of the same year, the Moscow duma held its first elections. Seven parties participated in the election. 117 seats, that is, over half, were members of the Socialist-Revolutionary party. Of the 200 possible seats in the legislature, the Bolsheviks only elected 23 officials. In this new duma, the legislature was dominated by intellectuals, and for the first time, twelve of the seats in the duma were filled by women. Vadim Rudnev, a local doctor, was elected to head the Duma during its second meeting.[3]

The Provisional Government of Russia initially planned elections to local government (zemstvos, city and district councils) and the Constituent Assembly on September 17. However, due to the complicated internal and external political situation, and delays in the regulatory framework, the elections were postponed.

In preparation for the elections, Moscow was allocated to a special constituency. On September 1, the Moscow City duma adopted a resolution on the formation of 17 districts in Moscow (instead of 44 previously existing ones) and holding elections to the regional dumas. The elections took place on 24 September. Absolute majority of seats in district dumas (359 seats out of 710) were received by representatives of the Bolshevik Party (51.5%); 26% of the seats were on the list of the Kadets Party and 14% of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The district councils copied the city council in their organizational structure.

By the end of October 1917, legitimate local self-governing bodies were formed in Moscow and the province as a result of democratic elections. In the second half of October, elections to the Constituent Assembly began in Moscow and its provinces.[4]

The September and October elections were held in the Moscow and Moscow District’s Soviets of Workers' Deputies. The Bolshevik Party won in this election. However, in Moscow, unlike Petrograd, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies did not join the Council of Soldiers' Deputies, in which sympathy for the Socialist-Revolutionaries was strong.

The Moscow Duma took steps to unite the two soviets. In this situation, the leadership of the Moscow Bolsheviks took a more cautious stance than the leadership of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(B) a few days before the insurrection, it opposed the armed seizure of power.[5]

Preparations for the Revolution

There has been some debate as to the existence of organized planning for the insurrection in advance: some Soviet historians and memoirists (Storozhev, Ia. Peche) claimed that an organized plan for the uprising was in place, while their opponents (Melgunov) claimed that there was no clear and definite plan for the insurrection. Later Soviet sources no longer wrote about the existence of a organized plan.[6][7]

Days of the Revolution

The 25th of October

On the night of October 24 to October 25, an armed uprising began in Petrograd under the leadership of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b). The uprising was aimed at overthrowing the Provisional Government and transferring power to the Soviets.

The Moscow Bolsheviks received news of the uprising in Petrograd at noon on October 25 (November 7). At 11.45, the delegate of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Nogin and VP Milyutin, sent a telegram to Moscow about an uprising in Petrograd.

On the same day, a meeting was held of the leading Bolshevik centers (Moscow Regional Bureau (MOE), Moscow Committee (MK) and Moscow District Committee (IOC) of the RSDLP (b)), at which the Party Organ was set up to lead the insurrection - Combat Center.

The party militant center of the Bolsheviks began fighting, on the afternoon of October 25, with the patrols of the city's post office. On the morning of that day, AS Vedernikov and A. Ya. Arosev went to the barracks of the 56th Infantry Regiment to form a communications detachment.[8] The regiment was entrusted with the protection of the Kremlin, the State Bank, the Treasury, loan and savings banks and other institutions with an arsenal of small arms and machine guns. The regiment was influenced by the Moscow Bolsheviks, besides it was located near the Moscow Post Office (Myasnitskaya Street, 26). The 1st Battalion and the 8th Company of the 56th Regiment were stationed in the Kremlin, the remaining companies of the 2nd Battalion were in the Zamoskvorechye area, and the regiment headquarters with two battalions was located in the Pokrovsky barracks. The Regimental Committee refused to give Vedernikov and Arosev two companies without an order from the headquarters of the Moscow District and the consent of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies. However, the Bolsheviks from the committee managed to call the soldiers to speak and soon the 11th and 13th companies moved to fulfill the mission of the Combat Center.[9]

On the evening of October 25, a special meeting of the Moscow City Duma took place, at which the constituents examined the question of how "The Moscow city government should react to the policies of the seizure of property of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers' Deputies".[10] At the meeting, a group of Bolsheviks was present. After the speech from the leader of this group, I.I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, the Bolsheviks left the session. According to the decision of the City Duma, the Public Security Committee (KOB) was created to protect the Provisional Government through the municipal government by representatives of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Cadets, and other parties. Vadim Rudnev, the mayor of Moscow, appointed Colonel Konstantin Ryabtsev, military commander of the Moscow Military District to head the committee. The committee, in addition to representatives of the city and zemstvo, included representatives of the Vikzhel, postal and telegraph unions (which were headed by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks), the executive committees of the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and the Soviet of Peasants' Deputies, and the headquarters of the military district. The City Duma, headed by the Right SRs, turned into a political center of resistance to the Bolsheviks. The Committee acted from the standpoint of defending the Provisional Government, but could only rely on officers and cadets.

Also on the evening of October 25, a joint meeting (plenum) of both Moscow Soviet of Workers and Soldiers (at that time functioning separately)[7][11] was held, at which the Military-Revolutionary Committee (MRC) was founded, for "organizational support" of an armed uprising in Petrograd. 394 deputies voted for the formation of the MRC,, while 116 voted against it, mainly Mensheviks and partyless representatives. 25 abstained. Nevertheless, the Mensheviks and their allies joined the committee. The SRs refused to participate in the voting.[12]

Seven people were elected to be in the MRC, including 4 Bolsheviks, and 3 members of other parties. Bolshevik G.A. Usievich[11] was elected to be chairman of the Committee. The Moscow MRC differed from the Petrograd MRC in that the Moscow MRC contained a large amount of cooperation with the Mensheviks, which was partly explained by the fact that the split of the RSDLP into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions was of a less acute nature in Moscow. The Mensheviks themselves explained their entry into the Military Revolutionary Committee as a desire "to mitigate the consequences of the insane adventure of the Bolsheviks." Both the presence of the Mensheviks in the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee and the absence of Lenin in Moscow to some extent influenced the nature of the actions of this body, making it less decisive than the MRC in Petrograd.[13] However, on October 27, the Mensheviks withdrew from the MRC, and on October 31, their allies followed suit. Richard Pipes in his fundamental work "The Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power" indicates that the Mensheviks "put forward a number of conditions" that were not adopted.

According to the order No. 1 of the Military Revolutionary Committee, parts of the Moscow garrison were put on alert and were only to accept instructions issued by the Military Revolutionary Committee. As well, the Military Revolutionary Committee issued an order "on stopping the output of bourgeois newspapers" by forcing printing houses to stop printing. The printing press of the Moscow Paper was seized by the anarchists, who were acting on their own initiative. The Revolutionary Military Committee declared a general strike and organized attacks on the presses of bourgeois newspapers: only Izvestia and Sotsial-Demokrat were left by the morning of October 26.

Rosengolts was instructed "to take all measures to protect the Soviets using revolutionary troops," and he demanded the immediate movement of 1,000 soldiers with machine guns from a motorized battalion. This was even before the approval and election of the MRC.[14] A spare battalion (2,500 men) was in the Sokolniki (Stromynka street, 20) and Fanagorian (61 Bauman street) barracks.

The MRC relied on troops who had defected to the Bolsheviks (the 193rd Regiment, the 56th Reserve Infantry Regiment, the Rolling Battalion, etc.), as well as the Red Guard Workers. As well, the "Dvinsti" - soldiers arrested in the summer of 1917 in Dvinsk for desertion- joined the MRC. On September 22 (October 5), they had been released by the Moscow City Council.

By this point, the regional MRC had created "red" military units led by commissars that took the side of the Bolsheviks and their allies, which were put on alert. A provisional revolutionary committee was elected to supervise the regimental and other military committees as opposed to the executive committee of the Moscow Soldiers' Deputies Council, where most were in the hands of the opponents of the Bolsheviks. Finally, measures were taken to arm the Red Guard Workers (10-12,000 people). The district MRC sent their emissaries to factories and military units.[7][11] An unfavorable factor for the Bolsheviks was the fact that in Moscow there were significant forces of junkers who were sharply anti-Bolshevik (according to some estimates they constituted up to 20,000 people).

The 26th of October

On the night of October 26, the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee issued an order to bring all parts of the Moscow garrison into combat readiness. They also ordered companies of the 193rd Reserve Regiment to take up posts at the Kremlin. Chief of the Kremlin Arsenal Colonel Viskovsky obeyed the request of the Military Revolutionary Committee to arm the workers. 1500 rifles with cartridges were issued, but the troops could not be deployed elsewhere, since departures from the Kremlin were blocked by detachments of junkers.[11]

The commander of the Moscow Military District, K.I. Ryabtsov, appealed to General Headquarters with a request to send military units loyal to the Provisional Government to Moscow from the front, and simultaneously entered into negotiations with the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee.

The 27th of October

On October 27, officers in Moscow who were ready to resist the Bolshevik uprising gathered in the Alexander Military School. They were headed by the Chief of Staff of the Moscow Military District, Colonel K. K. Dorofeev. The forces of the Provisional Government, who gathered at the school, were about 300 people (officers, cadets, and students). They took the approaches to the school from the Smolensk market (the end of the Arbat), the Povarskaya and Malaya Nikitskaya, advanced from the Nikitsky Gates to Tverskoy Boulevard and took the western side of Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street to the building of Moscow University and the Kremlin. The volunteer squad of the students was called the "White Guard" - this was the first time this term was used.[15] Colonel V.F. Rar organized the defense of the barracks of the 1st Cadet Corps in Lefortovo by the forces of the cadets of the senior classes. SN Prokopovich, the only minister of the Provisional Government who was still available, arrived in Moscow on October 27 to organize resistance against the Bolsheviks.

On October 27 (November 9), at 6pm, KI Ryabtsev and the KOB, having received confirmation from the Supreme Command on the desertion of troops at the front and information about the intervention of troops under the leadership of Kerensky and Krasnov on Petrograd, declared the city to be under martial law and presented OM Berzin and the Moscow Military-Revolutionary Committee ultimatum: to dissolve the Military Revolutionary Committee, surrender the Kremlin and disarm revolutionary-minded military units. Representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee agreed to withdraw the 193rd Regiment, but demanded the abandonment of the 56th Regiment, which was also stationed in the Kremlin.

According to other sources, the forces of the 193rd Regiment left the Kremlin in the morning, and when the ultimatum arrived at about 19:00 demanding the abolition of the MRC and the withdrawal of all the remaining revolutionary units from the Kremlin, the representatives of the ICRC responded with a refusal.[16]

On the same day, the Junkers attacked a detachment of "Dvintsi" soldiers, who had tried to break through to the Moscow City Council. 45 of the 150 people present were killed or wounded. The Junkers also made a raid on the Dorogomilovskiy MRC, after which they took up positions on the Garden Ring from the Crimean Bridge to the Smolensk Market and entered the Boulevard Ring from the Myasnitskie and Sretensky Gates, seizing the post office, telegraph and telephone exchange.[16]

The 28th of October and the Capture of the Kremlin by the Junkers

On the morning of October 28, Ryabtsev demanded that Berzin surrender the Kremlin, saying that the city is under their control. Not knowing the actual situation and having no connection with the Military Revolutionary Committee, Berzin decided to surrender the Kremlin [18]. The commander of the Armored Company of the 6th School of Ensigns demanded that the soldiers of the 56th Regiment surrender their weapons. The soldiers began to disarm and two companies of Cadets entered the Kremlin. According to the official Soviet version, based on the stories of the surviving soldiers of the 56th Regiment, after the captives surrendered their weapons, they were shot from small arms and machine guns trying to flee.[12]

On the morning of the 28th at 7 o'clock. Comrade Berzin collected us and said: ‘Comrades, I received an ultimatum and went into meditation for 20 minutes. The whole city is controlled by the other side.’ Left alone, isolated from the city, and not knowing what is happening outside the walls of the Kremlin, we decided to surrender with Comrade Berezin. Stole the machine guns to the arsenal, opened the gates and went to the barracks. In less than 30 minutes, an order was issued to go into the yard of the Kremlin and line up. Knowing nothing, we did so and saw that our "guests" came to us-the company of the cadets, the same armored cars that we did not let into the Kremlin last night, and one three-inch gun. All were built up before us. We were ordered to settle in front of the district court. The Junkers surrounded us with rifles at the ready. Some of them occupied the barracks in the doors, in the windows, too. A machine gun crackled at us from the Troitsky Gate. We were in a panic. Who rushed around. Whoever wanted to go to the barracks, they were beaten by bayonets. Some of us rushed to the school ensigns, and the ensigns threw a bomb. We found ourselves surrounded in a noose. A groan, the cries of our comrades wounded ... In 8 minutes, the massacre was over.

According to another version, when the soldiers saw that only two companies of Junkers had entered, they made an attempt to regain possession of their weapons, but this attempt failed, and many soldiers were killed or injured by machine-gun fire.[17] According to the recollections of the Junkers involved in the Kremlin's seizure, the surrender of the Kremlin was a tactical move in which the soldiers of the 56th Regiment attempted to drive the Junker Companies into a trap, which resulted in mass slaughter:

On the Senate Square was the whole regiment, in front of which was thrown a heap of weapons which they were handing over. In the barracks, I found a handful of soldiers, and, to my surprise, a lot of undiscarded weapons ... Suddenly I heard shots; glancing out the window, I saw that the soldiers, as if they had been knocked down, were falling, and there was some kind of confusion in the square; Because of this, [I] quit my occupation and with my people quickly ran to the square, but on the stairs many soldiers ran towards us. It turns out that the plan for the 56th Regiment was as follows: letting a small number of Junkers into the Kremlin and, apparently, obeying them, at the signal to rush and destroy them; The soldiers who fled to meet us were supposed to pick up weapons in the barracks and attack the cadets. [...] When everything more or less calmed down, we went to the square; there were wounded and killed soldiers and a cadet [...] It turned out that when the 56th Regiment made up of mainly cadets, and the shots that were fired from the barracks or the Arsenal were fired into the cadets - this was the signal for the remaining in the barracks to begin shooting with retained rifles from the upper rooms into the cadets on the square, behind the pile of weapons. The soldiers we met on the stairs ran. In response, the cadets opened fire ...[18][19]

In the official report of the chief of the Moscow Artillery Warehouse, Major-General Kaihorodov, it is written that the cadets opened fire from machine guns after "several shots" that were heard from "somewhere".[20] According to various estimates, as a result of the shooting, 50 to 300 soldiers were killed. According to Ratkovsky, "six cadets and about two hundred soldiers were killed and wounded".[21]

(According to various estimates, from 50 to 300 soldiers were killed). According to Ratkovsky, "six cadets and about two hundred soldiers were killed and wounded".[21]

After the capture of the Kremlin by the junkers, the position of the Military Revolutionary Committee became extremely difficult, as it was cut off from the Red Guards in the outskirts of the city, and telephone communication with them was impossible, since the telephone station was occupied by the cadets. In addition, supporters of the Provisional Government gained access to weapons stored in the Central Arsenal in the Kremlin.

At the call of the MC of the RSDLP(b), the Military Revolutionary Committee and trade unions in the city, a general political strike began. The garrison meeting of regimental, company, command and brigade committees, which gathered in the Polytechnical Museum, offered all the military units they had to support the Military Revolutionary Committee, but decided to dissolve the previous leadership of the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and hold new elections, as a result of which a fighting body was established for contacts with the Military Revolutionary Committee.[16] By the end of October 28, the revolutionary forces blockaded the center of the city.[16]

From October 28 to October 31, soldiers of the 193rd Infantry Regiment took part in the seizure of the Bryansk railway station, the Provision warehouses in battles at the Ostozhen positions, and stormed the headquarters of the Moscow Military District (Prechistenka Street, 7).[22] During the assault, the company commander, Ensign AA Pomerantsev, was seriously wounded.

References

  1. ↑ Мельгунов, С. П. Как большевики захватили власть.// Как большевики захватили власть. «Золотой немецкий ключ» к большевистской революции / С. П. Мельгунов; предисловие Ю. Н. Емельянова. — М.: Айрис-пресс, 2007. — 640 с.+вклейка 16 с. — (Белая Россия). ISBN 978-5-8112-2904-8, стр. 374
  2. ↑ Авторский коллектив (2010). Гражданская война в России: энциклопедия катастрофы (1-е ed.). М.: Сибирский цирюльник. Составитель и ответственный редактор: Д. М. Володихин, научный редактор С. В. Волков. p. 51. ISBN 978-5-903888-14-6.
  3. ↑ "Дума в эпоху перемен - Известия". archive.is. 2012-08-03. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  4. ↑ "Страница не найдена". mosarchiv.mos.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  5. ↑ Барсенко, A.C. (2005). История России. 1917—2004: Учебное пособие для студентов вузов. Moscow: Аспект Пресс. p. 826.
  6. ↑ "Октябрьское восстание в Москве // О.Н. Чаадаева". scepsis.net. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  7. 1 2 3 Пономарев, А. Н. "Вооружённое восстание в Москве". Историки отвечают на вопросы: 24–32.
  8. ↑ "Гвардия Октября. Москва (Аросев А.Я.)". leftinmsu.narod.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  9. ↑ "Октябрьское вооруженное восстание в Москве". История Москвы. Москва. 1954.
  10. ↑ Алещенко, Николай Михайлович (2004). Руководители власти Москвы. 1917—1993 годы. Исторические портреты (in Russian). "Олма-Пресс". ISBN 9785224044719.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Журнал "СОВЕТСКИЙ СОЮЗ" | Российская коммунистическая рабочая партия". rkrp-rpk.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  12. 1 2 "Красная гвардия в Москве в боях за Октябрь // Ян Пече". scepsis.net. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  13. ↑ "ОКТЯБРЬСКОЕ ВООРУЖЕННОЕ ВОССТАНИЕ В МОСКВЕ - это... Что такое ОКТЯБРЬСКОЕ ВООРУЖЕННОЕ ВОССТАНИЕ В МОСКВЕ?". Словари и энциклопедии на Академике (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  14. ↑ 1879-1956,, Melʹgunov, S. P. (Sergeĭ Petrovich),; 1879-1956,, Мельгунов, С. П. (Сергей Петрович),. Kak bolʹsheviki zakhvatili vlastʹ : Okti︠a︡brʹskiĭ perevorot 1917 goda; "Zolotoĭ nemet︠s︡kiĭ kli︠u︡ch" k bolʹshevistskoĭ revoli︠u︡t︠s︡ii. Moskva. ISBN 9785811229048. OCLC 879571789.
  15. ↑ 1879-1956,, Melʹgunov, S. P. (Sergeĭ Petrovich),; 1879-1956,, Мельгунов, С. П. (Сергей Петрович),. Kak bolʹsheviki zakhvatili vlastʹ : Okti︠a︡brʹskiĭ perevorot 1917 goda; "Zolotoĭ nemet︠s︡kiĭ kli︠u︡ch" k bolʹshevistskoĭ revoli︠u︡t︠s︡ii. Moskva. ISBN 9785811229048. OCLC 879571789.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Гусева, К. В. (1987). Великий Октябрь. — Москва: Московское издательство политической литературы. Москва: Общая редакция К. В. Гусева.
  17. ↑ Чаадаева, О. Н. (1934). Октябрьское восстание в Москве // Москва в октябре 1917 года. Москвa: Моспартиздат.
  18. ↑ "Из воспоминания юнкера Арсеньева об октябрьских днях 1917 года в Москве". his95.narod.ru. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  19. ↑ Арсеньев, B. (Сентябрь 1993). "Октябрьские дни 1917". Московский журнал: 40–43. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ↑ Исторический журнал (in Russian). Изд-во "Правда". 1931.
  21. 1 2 Ратьковский, И.С. (2017). Хроника белого террора в России. Репрессии и самосуды (1917-1920 гг.). Москва: Алгоритм. p. 24.
  22. ↑ Ворчун. "Москва. Пречистенка". trassa.narod.ru. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
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