Context

The Ukrainian question of independence leads to a new crisis in the Provisional Government: the cadets leave the cabinet of ministers, machine-gun regiments demand that all power be transferred to the SRSD, armed clashes occur in Petrograd, rumors spread in the capital about a coup d'etat and the arrest of government members, including A.F. Kerensky. Later it becomes clear that this is false information, but an attempt on Kerensky’s life is confirmed.

One of Plekhanov’s close people, a member of the second State Duma, Aleksinsky, writes a revealing letter to the newspaper, in which he proves that Lenin is a German agent and provides detailed schemes for receiving money and instructions from him. The published facts amaze even Lenin’s party comrades and they promise to conduct an independent investigation. The future leader of the proletariat himself suddenly disappears from Petrograd, along with Zinoviev and the entire Bolshevik leadership company.

RAPSI continues to introduce readers to legal news from a century ago. It is the beginning of July 1917*.

America offered a loan

The Provisional Government received notification from the government of the North American United States that America, in view of Finland’s refusal to arrange a loan for Russia of 350 million marks, was providing Russia with a loan of up to 500 million Finnish marks. The ruble exchange rate increased by 5 marks.

In view of this, Finnish bankers stopped issuing Russian currency from banks. There is a great excitement and desire to buy Russian money among soldiers, sailors and the population.

(evening newspaper Vremya)

Armed clash on the streets of Petrograd

Serious disagreements between members of the Provisional Government have been talked about in political circles in the capital for more than a week. The Ukrainian question, on the one hand, and the Finnish one, on the other, so strained the relationship between socialist and non-socialist ministers that the Cadet ministers resigned. In this regard, on July 3 at 10 a.m. In the morning, an armed uprising of units of the Petrograd garrison began. The first to take to the streets was the 1st Machine Gun Regiment, which at the rally decided to take advantage of the ministerial crisis and transfer all power to the hands of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The machine gunners headed to the barracks of the Moscow regiment; The Moscow regiment joined them and went out into the street armed. The purpose of the speech is to transfer all power into the hands of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

At about 7 o'clock in the evening, the machine gunners headed to the Tauride Palace and demanded that the premises of the State Duma be placed at their disposal. On guard at the Tauride Palace were the Preobrazhensky soldiers and the 1st Cossack Regiment, who declared that they would provide armed resistance to the machine gunners. The machine gunners left and scattered throughout the city.

Around 11 - 12 o'clock. In the evening the first armed clash took place: a group of Kronstadters in cars met units of 180 infantry regiment, who walked with the slogans: “Down with anarchy”, “War until victory” - and opened fire on them. Shooting began on other streets of the capital and lasted for several minutes. The wounded began to be brought into the city council. On Finlyandskaya railway Train traffic stopped because one of the trains was fired upon and stopped near Petrograd.

The meeting of the Provisional Government does not take place at night.

At night the destruction of the Gostiny Dvor began. Several shops were destroyed. Patrols are posted everywhere to prevent further robbery.

At the time when the shooting took place on the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya, there was especially heavy shooting at the Kazan Cathedral, where someone threw a bomb. A lot of wounded and killed. The Milyutinsky ranks at the corner of the Nevsky and Catherine Canals were destroyed.

It’s relatively calm in factories and factories. There is traffic on the streets until late at night. At 2 o'clock in the morning the streets began to empty. There are patrols everywhere. The printing house of Novoye Vremya was captured by the Bolsheviks, who dismantled the set of articles and began typing their sheet. The Bolsheviks are threatening to seize the printing houses of all bourgeois newspapers. The Temporary Committee of the State Duma made an attempt to intervene in the crisis in order to eliminate it. The steps of the temporary committee remained without results.

(RUssia morning)

Accusing Lenin of treason

Despite all the passion that at other times we were not easily able to suppress, we nevertheless strictly refrained from sweeping accusations and suspicions of political opponents.

We have just received a letter from a member of the 2nd State. Duma V.G. Aleksinsky, Plekhanov’s closest associate in the Unity group, claiming that Lenin was a bribed agent of Germany.

Convinced that V.G. Aleksinsky, undoubtedly, comprehends the full responsibility of such an accusation; we do not consider ourselves to have the right not to make this letter public, especially since at the same time a message was received that Lenin had suddenly disappeared from Petrograd.

We hope that the Provisional Government will not hesitate to order an impartial investigation into this matter, which will perhaps shed light on true meaning everything that is currently happening in Petrograd.

Aleksinsky's letter

The Committee of Journalists under the Provisional Government, signed by Polikratov and member of the 2nd State Duma Aleksinsky, received the following letter from Shlisselburg:

“We are the undersigned, G.A. Aleksinsky, former member of the 2nd State Duma, from the workers of the city of Petrograd and V.S. Pankratov, a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, who spent 14 years in the Shlisselburg convict prison, we consider it our revolutionary duty to publish excerpts from the documents we have just received, from which Russian citizens will learn where and what danger threatens Russian freedom, the revolutionary army and the people, who won this freedom with his blood. We demand an immediate investigation. Signatures G. Aleksinsky, V. Pankratov.

The following message is attached to the letter:

In a letter dated May 16, 1917, No. 3719, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief forwarded to the Minister of War the protocol of the interrogation of ensign Ermolenko of the 16th Siberian Rifle Regiment dated February 28 of this year. From the testimony he gave to the head of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the following is established.

Ermolenko was transferred on April 25 of this year to our rear, at the front of the 6th Army, to campaign in favor of the speedy conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. Ermolenko accepted this assignment at the insistence of the officers. German army Sheditsky and Lubes. He was informed that the same kind of agitation was being carried out in Russia by agents of the German General Staff, the chairman of the Ukrainian section of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, Askorobis-Yaltukhovsky and Lenin. Lenin was instructed to strive with all his might to undermine the trust of the Russian people in the Provisional Government. Money for campaigning is received through a certain Slevenson, who works in Stockholm at the German embassy. Money and instructions are sent through trusted persons. According only to the information received, such proxies are: in Stockholm, Bolshevik Yakov Foxtenberg, known under the name of Gonetsky, and Parvus (Dr. Goldfan), in Petrograd, Bolshevik, attorney at law M.Yu. Kozlovsky and Gonetsky’s relative, Sumenson, who is engaged in speculation together with Gonetsky. Kozlovsky is the main recipient of German money transferred from Berlin through Gesellschaft to Stockholm, and from there to the Siberian Bank in Petrograd, where he currently has over 2 million rubles in his current account.

Military censorship established continuous exchanges of telegrams of a political and monetary nature between German agents and Bolshevik leaders (Stockholm - Petrograd).

In a special note to the letter, Aleksinsky and Pankratov say that the original documents will be published additionally.

Disappearance of Lenin and Zinoviev

The biggest political news of the night is the sudden disappearance of Lenin, Zinoviev and the entire Bolshevik leadership from Petrograd. In connection with the information received of exceptional importance, the leaders of the Executive Committee of the Council of R. and S. Deputies and the largest socialist parties decided to invite Lenin and Zinoviev to a meeting. But, despite all the measures taken by both political figures and the authorities, it was not possible to find them in Petrograd - they disappeared.

(RUssia morning)

Investigation about Lenin

At a joint meeting of the bureau of the central committee of the Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies on July 5, the following resolution was adopted regarding the spreading rumors about Lenin:

“In view of the rumors that have spread in certain press organs and street newspapers, discrediting the names of some members of the executive committee belonging to the Bolshevik faction, in particular Lenin, indicating their guilt in treason, the bureau announces that it has taken measures to fully investigate this matter, as judicial bodies, and a special commission allocated from the central executive committee. The result of this investigation will be either bringing those responsible to justice or prosecuting those who spread these rumors.”

(RUssia morning)

In the Kshesinskaya mansion

Pris. believe Khesin today reported to the criminal police that the things remaining in the Kshesinskaya mansion are being stolen.

The Bolsheviks, leaving the house, took everything away.

Khesin tried several times to connect to the mansion by phone, but he failed. The telephone ladies, by special order, recorded his telephone number, but they do not connect anyone to the mansion.

Today Khesin turned to the headquarters of the Petrograd military district with a request to give him a pass to visit the mansion in order to determine on the spot the loss incurred by his trustee and find out exactly what things were missing.

Yesterday your correspondent visited the Kshesinskaya mansion, the recent citadel of the Bolsheviks, taking advantage of the kind permission of the commander of the scooter company of the regiment. Verzhbitsky.

The scooter driver (a military member of the bicycle units), on the orders of the commander, took me through all the rooms of the mansion.

Once brilliant rooms with valuable furnishings have been reduced to a condition that is difficult to describe. All the stairs are littered with scraps of paper, sand, dirt, and copies of Pravda and Soldatskaya Pravda are scattered on the floors. There are signs of forced entry on the cabinets.

The cabinet I opened, made of wonderful mahogany wood, turned out to be filled with tins of thinned paint. Posters were made here. The valuable oak tables are damaged.

The pool, which is installed on the lower floor, is completely damaged; a table has been thrown into it.

The enamel tiles of the pool are chipped. Draperies and curtains with traces of dirty hands.

The palm trees in the winter garden are broken and destroyed.

There are traces of hot dishes on the mahogany grand piano.

In general, the premises are completely destroyed.

(evening newspaper Vremya)

From the Provisional Government

1. Those guilty of publicly calling for murder, robbery, robbery, pogroms and other serious crimes, as well as violence against any part of the population, are punished:

Imprisonment in a correctional house or fortress for a period of not more than 3 years.

Those guilty of publicly calling for non-compliance with lawful orders of the authorities are subject to the same punishment. Those guilty of calling up officers, soldiers and other military officials during the war for non-compliance with the laws in force under the new democratic system of the army and the orders of the military authorities in agreement with them are punished as for high treason.

2. All those who participated in the organization and leadership of armed uprisings against state power, established by the people, as well as all those who called and incited him to be arrested and brought to justice as guilty of treason and betrayal of the revolution.

3. The Provisional Government announces:

Any unauthorized actions, arrests and searches carried out by individuals, civilian or military, as well as groups of individuals, are unacceptable, as they violate the revolutionary order, and will be suppressed in the most decisive manner by the authorities, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted with the full rigor of the law.

(RUssia morning)

Attempt on A.F. Kerensky

Rumors that the Minister of War A.F. An assassination attempt is being prepared on Kerensky, it has been circulating for a long time.

On June 25, in Elizavetgrad, the local commissariat received a notification from the headquarters of the southwestern front that the headquarters had information about the Germans sending their agents to kill members of the Provisional Government who were preventing the conclusion of peace with Germany, and A.F. Kerensky, as the inspirer of the ongoing offensive.

Now these rumors have received new confirmation. Yesterday we received the following telegram:

Petrograd, 06.07 (PTA). Today information has been received that A.F. lives in Polotsk. An assassination attempt was made on Kerensky, but fortunately it was unsuccessful.

There are no details about this attempt yet, but it should be noted that the attempt on A.F. Kerensky coincides with events in Petrograd and at the front, which now has a particularly important. (Polotsk is located almost halfway between Dvinsk and Vitebsk).

Apparently German agents who were preparing an attempt on the life of A.F. Kerensky on the southwestern front, they also worked on the northern.

Undoubtedly, an investigation into the circumstances of this assassination attempt will make it possible to identify both the persons directly involved in the assassination attempt and those on whose instructions they acted.

(RUssia morning)

Changes in the Provisional Government

Resignation of the prince. G.E. Lvov

Minister-Chairman Prince G.E. Lvov today at a meeting of the Provisional Government made a detailed report on the reasons for his resignation from the post of official head of our cabinet. Book G.E. Lvov painted in his report a detailed picture of the activities of the Provisional Government during exceptional last days, drawing attention to the incredible difficulties that he had to overcome in an effort to overcome the counter-revolutionary movement and establish order. According to the book. G.E. Lvov, all the measures he proposed met with decisive opposition from the Socialist ministers.

Prince G.E. Lvov stated that he had come to the firm conviction of the need to leave his post now, and proposed to appoint A.F. as his deputy as minister-chairman. Kerensky, with his retaining the portfolio of military and naval ministers.

At the Ministry of Justice

July 7, around one o'clock in the afternoon, A.F. Kerensky visited the Ministry of Justice and informed comrades Skaryatin, Balts, Demyanov, department director Berenstam and others who were in the office that he had just arrived from a meeting of the Provisional Government, at which it was decided to make a number of changes in the composition of the Provisional Government.

He, A.F. Kerensky was appointed minister-chairman, retaining the post of military and naval minister and temporarily entrusting him, pending the convening of the plenary meeting of the central executive committee of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, scheduled for July 15, with the duties of managing the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The temporary head of the Ministry of Justice is appointed former minister ways of communication N.V. Nekrasov. News of the appointment of N.V. Nekrasov was left with the impression of a bomb exploding. There was complete and awkward silence in the office. The atmosphere thickened even more when I learned about P.N. Kerensky’s message. Pereverzev. Those present were brought out of the awkward situation by the appearance of a number of military department officials with emergency reports from A.F. Kerensky.

(RUssia morning)

Bolsheviks

Counterintelligence message

Counterintelligence officials, who, by order of the Ministry of Justice, carried out an investigation into Lenin and others, compiled and published the following message:

“The impending armed uprising became known on the evening of July 2, which was immediately reported to the headquarters of the Petrograd military district and the Minister of Justice Pereverzev, who made an urgent report to the Provisional Government. By the evening of July 3, as is known, the first armed demonstrators appeared, and shooting began from machine guns in the hands of the demonstrators. It became known that demonstrators were spreading rumors about the arrest of members of the Provisional Government, including A.F. Kerensky, and about a coup d'etat. The usual evening meeting of the Provisional Government did not take place, despite the insistence of the Minister of Justice to convene one. An anxious night passed on the 4th of July. The Minister of Justice on the morning of July 4 was unaware of the measures taken to prevent attempts coup d'etat. At approximately noon on July 4, the drafters of this protocol, having appeared on business at the headquarters of the Petrograd military district, where the Minister of Justice was located and where, as he was supposed to appear, a meeting of the Provisional Government was taking place, had the opportunity to observe a phenomenon that cannot be called anything other than a crisis of power.

It is enough to point out that some members of the Provisional Government, together with the executive committee, were actually in captivity in the Tauride Palace, surrounded by an armed demonstration, and members of the executive committee asked by telephone to send revenue and inquired whether artillery had been sent. Members of the Provisional Government Nekrasov and Tereshchenko left headquarters without saying goodbye to anyone, even before the arrival of the troops sent by the artillery commander. They returned to headquarters, according to our information, after midnight, when the Tauride Palace was liberated. The compilers of this protocol learned that there is no accurate information about the mood military units and there can be no correct accounting in the balance of forces.

Then the drafters of the protocol came up with the idea that at this critical moment for the homeland and freedom it was necessary to immediately publish the data they had, which could serve as a sufficient basis for explaining to the people the true background of the events, believing that they had to take upon themselves all the fear and risk for publication, but not found their names to be quite authoritative. The compilers of this protocol reported this data to two separate figures: the famous people's Shlisselburger Pankratov and the former member of the 2nd State Duma, the leader of the Social Democratic faction, Aleksinsky. These persons immediately agreed with our opinion and offered to give their names. There was not an hour to lose, since we understood that in a few hours it would be too late. Documents can pass from our hands into the hands of those whom they will incriminate. It was extremely difficult to print documents in such a short time, if only because it was dangerous to transport them around the city.

Representatives of the Preobrazhensky Regiment who came to headquarters were informed of the essence of the documents. Those present say what an amazing impression this message made. From that moment it became clear what a powerful weapon the government had and how easily it could lose it. It was then that some members of the Provisional Government, including Minister of Justice Pereverzev, remained on private initiative. The Minister of Justice, after negotiations with his cabinet comrades, stated that no official statement could be made, but there would be no obstacles to private initiative on the part of the members of the Provisional Government present, especially since the documents were known to the Minister of Justice, and he considered them sufficiently incriminating material.

Then they began to compile a message signed by Aleksinsky and Pankratov, and Nekrasov in vain points to Bessarabov as the author of the message. An attempt was made to make the message in the form of a proclamation, with extracts from original documents, but technical specifications, due to the lack of typesetters, this was not possible. It was decided to print it in the printing house of “New Time”, where “ New life“, but this attempt was also unsuccessful, since during the trip it was discovered that the printing house was surrounded and guarded by rebels with machine guns. Then they settled on the idea of ​​printing excerpts from the documents and presenting the expressed data in the form of an “exposure”, and due to the shortness of time it was impossible to worry about the thoroughness of the editors.

With the assistance of one of the cabinet members, the message was submitted to the press bureau under the Provisional Government. Here this message spread among the troops, and representatives of various military units began to appear at the district headquarters, asking about the message and discovering not only enormous interest in it, but also a certain change in mood in favor of subordination to the slogan of organized democracy. Late at night it was found out that the attempt at an uprising had failed and that calm was coming in Petrograd. About 12 o'clock. At night, ministers Nekrasov and Tereshchenko finally appeared at headquarters, who, having learned about the message, raised a storm of indignation? Nekrasov, in the presence of a number of strangers, began to shout at the officials of the Ministry of Justice who took part in the publication of the message, saying that he would arrest them and bring them to trial, since the publication was treason. Nekrasov and Tereshchenko stated that they gave separate explanations to individual Bolshevik leaders, regardless of the Minister of Justice and without his knowledge (and according to the drafters of the protocol, independently of the military department).

Minister-Chairman Prince Lvov ordered to immediately stop the printing of the message already typed in the newspapers. In the presence of some of the compilers of this protocol, an exchange of views took place on the immediate arrest of Sumelson, Kozlovsky and others, as well as on the arrest and search of Kshesinskaya’s house. Pereverzev especially insisted on this, but under the conditions of the moment this turned out to be impossible, since, according to our information, Nekrasov and Tereshchenko did not take part in the conversation about arrests and searches of compromised persons. The Minister of Agriculture Chernov also expressed his opinion on the immediate execution of a search and arrest, if there are sufficient grounds for this.

July 5, at 7 o'clock. 30 min. In the morning, the drafters of the protocol dispersed. Around noon it became known that Pereverzev was leaving the post of Minister of Justice and that the publication of the message was blamed on him by the executive committee. The drafters of this protocol consider it their duty to add the following:

“Fully responsible for their actions to the public opinion of the country, they are surprised by the interview of Messrs. Nekrasov and Tereshchenko and the content of these interviews, which in many parts do not correspond to reality. The persons who published the messages did so quite deliberately, based on the clarification of many counter-intelligence data, believing that the interests of the state in this moment They urgently demand this, at least to the detriment of counterintelligence. The same exact words are heard from competent representatives of the military department: the arrest of compromised persons at all costs is by no means self-sufficient over the purpose of counter-intelligence, since in the foreground of its task is the disorganization and paralysis of the enemy’s treason and espionage. According to the conditions of the political moment, the order for searches and arrests should have followed the publication of the message. The arrest of the compromised persons was carried out at the insistence and with the participation of some of the drafters of the protocol, on the orders of the Minister of Justice Pereverzev and the Commander-in-Chief of the troops.”

Five signatures are required. True with authenticity. Former comrade of the prosecutor of the Petrograd judicial chamber I. Bessarabov.

Investigation about Lenin

Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry of the Central Executive Committee S.R. and S.D. and the investigative commission to investigate the Lenin case takes the view that the commission’s work cannot be published until it is completed. It is reported, by the way, that the investigative commission to investigate the Lenin case protested against the numerous arrests of persons whom they intended to interrogate in the Lenin case. Members of the investigative commission indicate that the arrested persons may not be willing to testify, finding the deprivation of liberty illegal, especially since some were arrested without the knowledge of the judicial authorities - only by a handful of soldiers and citizens of Petrograd. Many persons, whose testimony could be valuable for clarifying many of the circumstances of Lenin’s case, are forced, due to the hostile mood of the capital’s population, to hide in different places. Incidentally, the commission of inquiry will also investigate in detail the circumstances under which documents relating to Lenin and the Bolsheviks were published. Some members of the investigative commission believe that the persons who published these documents should also be brought into the investigation, since they do not have the right to publish these documents without the knowledge of the authorized bodies of the revolutionary organization, especially since the publication of these documents dealt a blow to the cause of the revolution and socialist organizations. In this premature publication of documents, the commission is inclined to see the intrigue of the right, to which the unconscious persons who published these documents could have succumbed. Some members of the central executive committees S.R., S. and K.D. find that the composition of the investigative commission to investigate the Lenin case needs to be replenished with new members and representatives of soldiers, different public organizations democracies that do not share socialist teachings, but for whom the cause of revolution is dear.

The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate the events of July 3 and 4 is also investigating the events and, in particular, the case of shooting from houses on July 6 and 7. The circumstances of the violence against some Bolsheviks and the destruction of the commissariat, workers' clubs and anarchist club are also being investigated. The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry set itself the task of clarifying the circumstances of both the counter-revolution on the left, which manifested itself in the military riot on July 3 and 4, and the counter-revolution on the right, the results of which have not yet been clarified.

Doctor Gardenin

It turns out that Doctor Gardenin arrived in Moscow from Kharkov, from where he brought a mandate from the Bolshevik organization there. In Moscow, Doctor Gardenin told the Bolsheviks that, as a student in Kyiv, he belonged to the Black Hundred organization “Two-Headed Eagle” and was an active assistant to the student Golubev, who was famous in his time for his Black Hundred speeches. Gardenin’s Black Hundred activities were especially evident during the famous Beilis trial. In the first days of the revolution, according to Dr. Gardenin, an alleged sharp change occurred in his worldview, and he became an adherent of Bolshevik ideas.

The Moscow Bolsheviks, despite this recognition of Gardenin, still did not consider it possible not to accept him into their midst. They were guided by the consideration that if the Kharkov comrades gave Dr. Gardenin a mandate, then, obviously, they checked how sincere was the evolution of Dr. Gardenin from extreme right to extreme left beliefs.

Dr. Gardenin's latest rally speeches attracted the attention not only of other parties, but also of the Bolsheviks themselves, who were extremely embarrassed by the calls that came from their newly revealed supporter. The Moscow organization of Bolsheviks even elected a special commission from among itself, which was entrusted with investigating the activities of Dr. Gardenin. This commission, having familiarized itself with Gardenin’s latest speeches, recognized him as “mentally ill” and decided to take away all party documents in his possession and remove him from party activities.

Gardenin, as is known, wore the uniform of a military doctor, and, as such, spoke at military rallies. By the way, all attempts to establish which military unit of the Moscow military district he belonged to did not yield any results. Gardenin himself gave some information on this matter during a speech by the Volynites in Moscow. After asking L. Deitch several Bolshevik questions, Dr. Gardenin stated:

I have the right to judge the army, because I myself suffered in the war, where I was shell-shocked and seriously ill. Thanks to this, I am completely exempt from military service.

In Moscow, rumors are persistently cited that Gardenin has disappeared from Moscow. These rumors are confirmed by the following fact:

Two ladies came to the apartment of Dr. Gardenin, who lived on Kudrinskaya Square, and wanted to take away his things. People living next door to Dr. Gardenin did not allow this to be done and reported to the 1st Presnensky Commissariat. Officials of the commissariat, on the orders of the highest ranks of the civil administration of Moscow, came to the premises occupied by Dr. Gardenin, collected all his belongings and transported them to the premises of the commissariat. Gardenin was found with a lot of all sorts of papers, 80 rounds of Browning system ammunition, 1 Nagan system revolver and a dagger.

So far, the police have not sorted out Dr. Gardenin's papers. They are sealed and stored until further notice in the premises of the Presnensky Commissariat.

Burtsev about Gorky

In a letter to the editors of Petrograd and Moscow newspapers, V.L. Burtsev asked not to defend M. Gorky as the person responsible for such a defeatist organ as “Our Life,” which brought a lot of evil to Russia during the war and revolution. Only in this sense did Burtsev put the name of Gorky along with the name of Lenin, Zinoviev and others. Gorky is not Lenin. But Gorky supported the Leninists in his organ and thereby contributed to the disintegration of Russia and the development of anarchy in it. As an artist, M. Gorky is our love and pride. How politician it cannot be justified.

Bolshevik Ryazanov

According to Aleksinsky, a member of the Bolshevik faction, Ryazanov, during the war, living in Vienna, enjoyed the rights of complete immunity and was completely free from all restrictions to which Russian people are subjected in enemy soil. After the revolution that took place in Russia, the Bolshevik Ryazanov left for Russia through Germany.

German provocation

According to available data, the shooting on the streets of the capital on July 7 was undoubtedly caused by a German provocation. Military units arriving from the front were met at train stations by unknown persons dressed in officer uniforms, who showed them completely false routes to their designated parking areas. From morning until late at night, military units wandered around, looking for the premises allocated to them, and along false routes given to them, they were brought under fire from pre-equipped points. The goal of the German provocation is clear - to drive the tired troops to such an embitterment that they open fire on the most insignificant reason, and as a result, a civil war would be caused in the capital.

(RUssia morning)

Prepared by Evgeny Novikov

*The style and punctuation of publications have been preserved

If you are confused by the date, I will remind you: January 5, 1918. The day of the first execution of a demonstration of Petrograd workers by the new revolutionary government.

January 5, 1918 - on the orders of the Bolsheviks, a peaceful demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly that took place in Petrograd was shot. According to various sources, the number of victims ranges from 7 to 100.

Together with the rear units of the Latvian riflemen and the Lithuanian Life Guards regiment, the Bolsheviks surrounded the approaches to the Tauride Palace. Assembly supporters responded with demonstrations of support; According to various sources, from 10 to 100 thousand people took part in the demonstrations. Supporters of the Assembly did not dare to use weapons in defense of their interests; according to Trotsky’s malicious expression, they came to the Tauride Palace with candles in case the Bolsheviks turned off the lights, and with sandwiches in case they were deprived of food, but they did not take rifles with them.

On January 5, 1918, as part of columns of demonstrators, workers, office workers, and intellectuals moved towards Tavrichesky and were shot with machine guns. From the testimony of Obukhov plant worker D.N. Bogdanov dated January 29, 1918, a participant in the demonstration in support of the Constituent Assembly:

“I, as a participant in the procession back on January 9, 1905, must state the fact that I did not see such a cruel reprisal there, what our “comrades” did, who still dare to call themselves such, and in conclusion I must say that after that I execution and the savagery that the Red Guards and sailors did to our comrades, and even more so after they began to tear out banners and break poles, and then burn them at the stake, I could not understand what country I was in: or a socialist country, or in a country of savages who are capable of doing anything what the Nikolaev satraps could not do, Lenin’s fellows have now done.» ... GA RF. F.1810. Op.1. D.514. L.79-80

According to official data (Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, January 6, 1918), 21 people were killed and hundreds were wounded. Among the dead were the Socialist Revolutionaries E. S. Gorbachevskaya, G. I. Logvinov and A. Efimov. A few days later the victims were buried at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery.

M. Gorky wrote about this in “Untimely Thoughts”:

... “Pravda” is lying - it knows very well that the “bourgeoisie” have nothing to rejoice about the opening of the Constituent Assembly, they have nothing to do among 246 socialists of one party and 140 Bolsheviks.

Pravda knows that workers from the Obukhov, Patronny and other factories took part in the demonstration, and that under the red banners of the Russian Social-Democratic Party. workers from Vasileostrovsky, Vyborg and other districts marched to the Tauride Palace. It was these workers who were shot, and no matter how much Pravda lies, it will not hide the shameful fact.

The “bourgeoisie” may have rejoiced when they saw how soldiers and the Red Guard snatched revolutionary banners from the hands of the workers, trampled them underfoot and burned them at the stake. But it is possible that this pleasant spectacle no longer pleased all the “bourgeois”, because even among them there are honest people who sincerely love their people, their country.

One of these was Andrei Ivanovich Shingarev, who was vilely killed by some animals.

So, on January 5, the unarmed workers of Petrograd were shot. They shot without warning that they would shoot, they shot from ambushes, through the cracks of fences, cowardly, like real murderers. ...

On January 9 (22), a demonstration in support of the Constituent Assembly in Moscow was shot. According to official data (Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 1918. January 11) the number of killed is more than 50, the number of wounded is more than 200

Of course, everyone knows the date January 9 (22), 1905 - so-called bloody sunday. Few people know that there is also bloody friday January 5 (18)1918. How much information can you find about her? Unfortunately, not much, but there is still some information. It is unlikely that we will know how many died on this day, but it laid a prologue to civil war, which claimed millions of lives.

“The peaceful demonstration that took place in Petrograd on January 5, 1918 in support of the Constituent Assembly was shot by the Red Guard. The shooting took place at the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Prospekts and in the area of ​​Kirochnaya Street. The main column of up to 60 thousand people was dispersed, but other columns of demonstrators reached the Tauride Palace and were dispersed only after additional troops arrived. The dispersal of the demonstration was led by a special headquarters headed by V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, N.I. Podvoisky, M.S. Uritsky, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 7 to 100 people. The demonstrators mainly consisted of intellectuals, office workers and university students. At the same time, a significant number of workers took part in the demonstration. The demonstration was accompanied by Socialist Revolutionary warriors, who did not offer serious resistance to the Red Guards. According to the testimony of the former Socialist Revolutionary V.K. Dzerulya, “all the demonstrators, including the PC, walked without weapons, and there was even an order from the PC in the districts so that no one would take weapons with them.”

The trial of the socialist revolutionaries (June-August 1922). Preparation. Carrying out. Results. Collection of documents / Comp. S.A. Krasilnikov, K.N. Morozov, I.V. Chubykin. -M.: ROSSPEN, 2002.

“From November 12 to 14, 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly took place. They ended with a major victory for the Socialist Revolutionaries, who won more than half of the mandates, while the Bolsheviks received only 25 general electoral votes (Out of 703 mandates, the P.S.-R. received 299, the Ukrainian P.S.-R. - 81, and other national Socialist-Russian groups - 19; the Bolsheviks got 168, the left Socialist-Revolutionaries - 39, the Mensheviks - 18, the Cadets - 15 and the people's socialists - 4. See: O. N. Radkey, “The elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917”, Cambridge, Maza., 1950, pp. 16-17, 21). By decision of the Central Committee of the P.S.-R. dated November 17, the question of convening the Constituent Assembly took a central place in the party’s activities. To protect the Constituent Assembly, the Central Committee recognized the need to organize “all the living forces of the country, armed and unarmed.” The Fourth Congress of the P.S.-R., held from November 26 to December 5 in Petrograd, pointed out the need to concentrate “sufficient organized forces” around the protection of the Constituent Assembly in order, if necessary, to “take the fight against the criminal encroachment on the supreme will of the people.” . The same fourth congress, by an overwhelming majority of votes, restored the left-center leadership of the party and “condemned the Central Committee’s delay in coalition politics and its tolerance of the “personal” policies of some right-wing leaders.”

The meeting of the Constituent Assembly was initially scheduled for November 28. On this day, about 40 delegates, with some difficulty, managed to get through the security posted by the Bolsheviks to the Tauride Palace, where they decided to postpone the official opening of the Assembly until a sufficient number of deputies arrived, and until then come to the Tauride Palace every day. That same evening the Bolsheviks began arresting the delegates. At first it was the cadets, but soon it was the SR’s turn: V.N. was arrested. Filippovsky. According to the Central Committee of the P.S.-R., the Bolshevik commander-in-chief V.N. Krylenko, in his order for the army, stated: “Let your hand not tremble if you have to raise it against the deputies.”

In early December, by order of the Council People's Commissars The Tauride Palace was cleared and temporarily sealed. In response to this, the Social Revolutionaries called on the population to support the Constituent Assembly. 109 deputies of the Socialist Republic wrote in a letter published on December 9 in the party newspaper “Delo Naroda”: “We call on the people to support their elected representatives by all measures and means. We call everyone to fight against new rapists over by the people's will. /.../ Be ready, at the call of the Constituent Assembly, to stand together in its defense.” And then, in December, the Central Committee of the P.S.-R. called on workers, peasants and soldiers: “Get ready to immediately defend it [the Constituent Assembly]. But on December 12, the Central Committee decided to abandon terror in the fight against the Bolsheviks, not to force the convening of the Constituent Assembly and to wait for a favorable moment. The Constituent Assembly nevertheless opened on January 5, 1918. It bore little resemblance to parliament, as the galleries were occupied by armed Red Guards and sailors holding the delegates at gunpoint. “We, the deputies, were surrounded by an angry crowd, ready every minute to rush at us and tear us to pieces,” recalled a deputy from the P.S.-R. V.M. Zenzinov. Chernov, elected chairman, was targeted by the sailors, and the same happened to others, for example, with O.S. Minor. After the majority of the Constituent Assembly refused to recognize the leading role of the Soviet government, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries left the hall. After one day of meetings, at which the land law was also adopted, the Soviet government dispersed the Constituent Assembly."

In Petrograd, on the orders of the Bolsheviks, a peaceful demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly was shot. There were killed and wounded. Some claimed that 7-10 people were killed and 23 were injured; others - that 21 people died, and there were still others who claimed that there were about 100 victims." Among the dead were the Socialist Revolutionaries E.S. Gorbachevskaya, G.I. Logvinov and A. Efimov. In Moscow, a demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly was was also shot; among the dead was A.M. Ratner, brother of the member of the Central Committee of the P.S.-R. E.M. Ratner.”

Socialist Revolutionary Party after October Revolution 1917. Documents from the AKP Archive. Collected and provided with notes and an outline of the history of the party in the post-revolutionary period by Mark Jansen. Amsterdam. 1989. pp. 16-17.

“The peaceful demonstration that took place in Petrograd on January 5, 1918 in support of the Constituent Assembly was shot by the Red Guard. The shooting took place at the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Prospekts and in the area of ​​Kirochnaya Street. The main column of up to 60 thousand people was dispersed, but other columns of demonstrators reached the Tauride Palace and were dispersed only after additional troops arrived.

The dispersal of the demonstration was led by a special headquarters headed by V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, N.I. Podvoisky, M.S. Uritsky, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 7 to 100 people. The demonstrators mainly consisted of intellectuals, office workers and university students. At the same time, a significant number of workers took part in the demonstration. The demonstration was accompanied by Socialist Revolutionary warriors, who did not offer serious resistance to the Red Guards. According to the testimony of the former Socialist Revolutionary V.K. Dzerulya, “all the demonstrators, including the PC, walked without weapons, and there was even an order from the PC in the districts so that no one would take weapons with them.”

Telegram, P. Dybenko - Tsentrobalt, January 3, 1918:“Urgently, no later than January 4, send 1000 sailors for two or three days to guard and fight against the counter-revolution on January 5. Send a detachment with rifles and cartridges - if not, then the weapons will be issued on the spot. Comrades Khovrin are appointed commanders of the detachment and Zheleznyakov.”

P.E. Dybenko:" On the eve of the opening of the founding, a detachment of sailors, united and disciplined, arrives in Petrograd.

As in the October days, the fleet came to defend Soviet power. Protect from whom? - From ordinary demonstrators and soft-bodied intelligentsia.

JULY EVENTS of 1917 (July Days), a political crisis in Russia, expressed in mass demonstrations of workers under the protection of the armed Red Guard, as well as garrison soldiers and sailors of the Baltic Fleet in Petrograd. They took place under the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” They were preceded by the defeat of the June 1917 offensive and the beginning of another crisis of the coalition Provisional Government, which aggravated the political situation in the country. The July events began on July 3 (16), when, at the call of soldiers of the 1st machine gun regiment, who were under the influence of anarchists, spontaneous anti-government demonstrations began in Petrograd, in which soldiers from a number of units of the city garrison, workers of Putilov and other factories in the capital took part. The Bolsheviks, who had great influence on the soldiers and workers of Petrograd, considered the uprising premature, but could not prevent it. Considering the scope of the movement, on the night of July 3 (16) to July 4 (17), the leadership of the RSDLP (b) decided to lead it and give it a peaceful character. On July 4 (17), the demonstrators were joined by a detachment of Baltic Fleet sailors and soldiers (up to 10 thousand people) who arrived from Kronstadt under the leadership of F. F. Raskolnikov. On that day, the number of demonstrators reached, according to various estimates, 400-500 thousand people (of which 40-60 thousand were soldiers). The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which banned the demonstration, declared it a “Bolshevik conspiracy,” rejected the demands of the demonstrators, and on the night of July 4 (17) to July 5 (18) decided that “all power” should remain with the Provisional Government. Demonstrations against the Provisional Government were accompanied by counter-demonstrations by its supporters. In a number of places in the city, fire was opened on demonstrators from windows and from the roofs of buildings (by whom exactly remains unknown); 56 people were killed and 650 were wounded. To restore order, the Provisional Government called units from the front to Petrograd with a total number of 15-16 thousand military personnel. On July 5 (18), troops loyal to the government established control over the city center and destroyed the printing house and editorial office of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda. At the same time, the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) published an appeal calling for an end to the demonstrations. On July 6 (19), sailors of the Baltic Fleet, who took refuge in Peter and Paul Fortress, were forced to surrender their weapons and go to Kronstadt, and the Bolsheviks were forced to leave the mansion of M. F. Kshesinskaya, which they occupied after February Revolution 1917 and turned into the party headquarters. The military units that fully participated in the demonstration were disarmed and disbanded, and their personnel were sent to the front. Many Bolsheviks, direct participants in the July events, were arrested on charges of organizing and leading an armed uprising against state power (G. E. Zinoviev and V. I. Lenin escaped arrest). According to the initial results of the investigation, 13 people (among them Zinoviev, Lenin, A.V. Lunacharsky, A.M. Kollontai, F.F. Raskolnikov, L.D. Trotsky) were accused of entering into an agreement with agents Germany, with the aim of disorganizing the army and rear, received from abroad cash to promote the idea of ​​“refusal of military action against the enemy” among the population and troops and organized an armed uprising against the supreme power. Those arrested pleaded not guilty. The accusation against the Bolsheviks in organizing demonstrations was refuted by the witnesses brought to the investigation. Further investigation into the July events was interrupted by the October Revolution of 1917; Many aspects of the July events still remain controversial.

Under the influence of the July events in Petrograd, anti-government demonstrations took place in Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Orekhov-Zuevo, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk and other cities.

Lit.: July 3 - July 5, 1917. Based on unpublished materials of the judicial investigation and the archives of the Petrograd Committee of the RCP. P., 1922; July days in Petrograd // Red Archive. 1927. No. 4; Revolutionary movement in Russia in July 1917. M., 1959; Znamensky O. N. July crisis of 1917 M.; L., 1964; Rabinovich A. Bloody days: The July uprising of 1917 in Petrograd. M., 1992; Zlokazov G.I. Materials of the Special Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government on the July events of 1917 // National history. 1999. № 5.

July uprising

Oleg Nazarov
Doctor of Historical Sciences

Shooting of the July demonstration in Petrograd in 1917. Hood. I.I. Brodsky. Sketch. 1923

At the beginning of July 1917, a mass uprising of soldiers, sailors and workers took place in Petrograd. And although the uprising was quickly suppressed, it had very serious consequences

These events are often called the "July Bolshevik Uprising". This definition is not entirely correct, since it ignores important “nuances”. Not only the Bolsheviks took part in the movement demanding the transfer of full power to multi-party Soviets. And they didn’t start it...

RIOT OF MACHINE GUNNERS

The first to rebel were the soldiers of the 1st machine gun regiment, the largest unit of the Petrograd garrison at that time (over 11 thousand people). Two weeks earlier, on June 20 (July 3), the regiment received an order to allocate about half of its personnel and up to 500 machine guns to be sent to the front. Rumors spread that the regiment would be disbanded.

There was talk among the soldiers about the need to prevent the attempt to disband by taking to the streets with weapons in their hands. On the morning of July 3 (16), a rally began in their ranks. The soldiers elected a Provisional Revolutionary Committee, which included anarchists and Bolsheviks and was headed by a Bolshevik ensign Adam Semashko. Messengers were sent to enterprises and military units calling for people to take to the streets with weapons by 5 p.m.

When it became known about this initiative of the machine gunners, the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) categorically ordered its Military organization not to participate in the action. Not all Bolsheviks liked this decision. In 1932, in the magazine “Katorga and exile”, a former member of the “military unit” Vladimir Nevsky said: “Some comrades are currently wondering who was the initiator of the July events - the Central Committee or the Military Organization or whether the movement broke out spontaneously. In some respects this question is pointless and doctrinaire. Of course, the movement matured in the depths of the broadest masses, dissatisfied with the policies of the bourgeois government and longing for peace. And so, when the Military Organization, having learned about the speech of the machine-gun regiment, sent me, as the most popular speaker of the “military commissar,” to persuade the masses not to speak out, I persuaded them, but persuaded them in such a way that only a fool could conclude from my speech that You shouldn’t perform.”

Some researchers, based on Nevsky’s confession, conclude that in July 1917 the Bolsheviks planned to take power. At the same time, for some reason the position of the Central Committee is not taken into account. It is worth agreeing with a slightly different view of the historian Alexandra Shubina: “Nevsky’s memoirs confirm only what has long been known: there were disagreements between the “military commissar” and the Bolshevik Central Committee. While restraining the uprising and giving it a peaceful character, the Bolshevik leaders led by Lenin were forced to overcome the radical sentiments of part of their activists, including the “military commissars.” It is clear that when Nevsky had to obey the decision of the Central Committee, he carried it out without enthusiasm.”

Envoys of machine gunners rushed around Petrograd and its environs. They visited the Moscow, Grenadier, 1st Infantry, 180th Infantry, Pavlovsky, Izmailovsky, Finland and Petrograd reserve regiments, 6th engineer battalion, armored vehicle division and other military units, visited the Putilov plant and enterprises of the Vyborg region.

Despite the decisive spirit of the messengers, their initiative did not meet with support everywhere. “In some regiments, calls for machine gunners did not make it past local committees and were completely rejected,” notes the American historian Alex Rabinovich. – These are, first of all, the Lithuanian, Volyn and Preobrazhensky regiments, which played a decisive role in the February Revolution. Some units responded by declaring their neutrality. So, for example, it happened in the Petrograd regiment, where the regimental committee decided “not to interfere with the demonstration, provided that it was peaceful.”

“There is such a party!”

I All-Russian Congress of Soviets. June 1917. Hood. A.A. Kulakov

Exactly one month before the uprising - June 3 (16), 1917 - the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies began in Petrograd. It was attended by 1,090 delegates (822 with a casting vote, the rest with an advisory vote). 285 mandates belonged to the Socialist Revolutionaries, 248 to the Mensheviks, 105 to the Bolsheviks.

On the second day of the congress, a significant event occurred, which was included in all Soviet history textbooks. During the debate on the report of the Menshevik Mikhail Liber “The Provisional Government and Revolutionary Democracy,” the Menshevik leader Irakli Tsereteli, who served as Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, justifying the correctness of the idea of ​​a coalition government, said: “At the moment in Russia there is no political party that would say: give The power is in our hands, go away, we will take your place.” In response, Vladimir Lenin’s voice was heard from the audience: “Yes!” Having taken the floor, the Bolshevik leader announced that not a single party could give up power. “And our party does not refuse this: every minute it is ready to take power entirely,” he concluded. This remark was met with applause and laughter.

As subsequent events showed, the opponents of the Bolsheviks laughed in vain. In the book “Memoirs of the February Revolution,” written by Tsereteli already in exile, he admitted that the statement made by Lenin testified “to the extraordinary courage of the Bolshevik leader, who, having the overwhelming majority of the people and organized democracy against him, expressed readiness and was really ready to take on own hands full power in a country experiencing a deep economic crisis and a very real danger of external defeat.”

Criticizing the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, Lenin urged them: “We must be the power in the state. Become it, gentlemen, the current leaders of the Council - we are for this, although you are our opponents... As long as you do not have national power, as long as you tolerate the power of ten ministers from the bourgeoisie over you, you are confused in your own weakness and indecision.”

“HOW LONG WILL WE TOLERATE BETRAYAL?”

Nevertheless, the machine gunners’ proposals received significant support both in parts of the Petrograd garrison and in the factories. Workers of many enterprises took up arms.

Until the late evening of July 3 (16), people walked to the Tauride Palace. Soviet historian Sofia Levidova wrote: “At about one o’clock in the morning, 30 thousand Putilovites with their wives and children, workers and workers of the Peterhof, Moskovsky and Kolomensky districts, walked along Sadovaya Street to Nevsky Prospekt with waving banners and singing revolutionary songs. The Putilovites sent delegates to the Central Executive Committee, while they themselves positioned themselves around the palace on the street and in the garden, declaring that they would not leave until the Soviet [Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. – HE.] will not agree to take power into his own hands.”

Soon a group of Putilovites burst into the meeting room of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. One of the workers jumped up onto the podium. Trembling with excitement and shaking his rifle, he shouted: “Comrades! How long can we, the workers, endure betrayal? You have gathered here, reasoning, making deals with the bourgeoisie and landowners. You are betraying the working class. So know that the working class will not tolerate this. There are 30 thousand of us Putilovites here, every single one of us. We will achieve our will. No bourgeois! All power to the Soviets! The rifles are firmly in our hands. Your Kerenskys and Tseretelis will not deceive us..."

This turn of events did not discourage the presiding Menshevik Nikolai Chkheidze. He handed the worker the appeal adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee banning the demonstration and calmly said: “Here, comrade, please take it, I ask you, and read it. It says here what you and your fellow Putilovites need to do.”

“The appeal said that all those who took to the streets should go home, otherwise they would be traitors to the revolution,” he later testified Nikolay Sukhanov, active participant in Russian revolutionary movement, at that time a Menshevik internationalist. “The confused sans-culotte, not knowing what to do next, took up the appeal and then, without much difficulty, was pushed from the podium. Soon they were “convinced” to leave the hall and his comrades. Order was restored, the incident was liquidated, but I still have in my eyes this sans-culotte on the podium of the White Hall, in self-forgetfulness shaking a rifle in the face of the hostile “leaders of democracy”, in agony trying to express the will, melancholy and anger of the genuine proletarian lower classes, sensing betrayal , but powerless to fight it. It was one of the most beautiful scenes of the revolution. And in combination with Chkheidze’s gesture it is one of the most dramatic.”

Vladimir Lenin, not being completely healthy, from June 29 (July 12), 1917, was in Finland, in the village of Neivola near the Mustamäki station, at the dacha of his old Bolshevik friend Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich. A Bolshevik who arrived from the capital informed him about the events in Petrograd in the early morning of July 4 (17). Max Savelyev. Lenin quickly got ready and left for Petrograd, where he arrived at 11 o’clock in the morning.

That same morning, several thousand sailors from Kronstadt landed on the English and University embankments, responding to the call of the machine gunners. When asked by the townspeople about the purpose of their arrival, the sailors answered: “The comrades called, they came to help create order in Petrograd, since the bourgeoisie here were too divided.” On the balcony of the Kshesinskaya mansion, where the Kronstadters went, they saw Yakova Sverdlova And Anatoly Lunacharsky. The latter, according to one of the eyewitnesses, “made a short but passionate speech, characterizing in a few words the essence of the political moment.”

Leaflet of the Central Committee of the RSDLP protesting against the slander of Vladimir Lenin

Having learned that Lenin was in the mansion, the sailors demanded a meeting with him. Bolshevik Fyodor Raskolnikov with a group of comrades entered the mansion. They began to beg Lenin to go out onto the balcony and say at least a few words. “Ilyich at first refused, citing ill health, but then, when our requests were strongly supported by the demands of the masses on the street, he gave in,” Raskolnikov recalled. – Lenin’s appearance on the balcony was met with thunderous applause. The ovation had not yet completely died down when Ilyich had already begun to speak. His speech was very short."

Menshevik leader Irakli Tsereteli, later commenting on this speech, noted that the sailors wanted “to receive clear instructions about the task of an armed demonstration,” but Lenin “evaded a direct answer and made a rather vague speech about the need to continue the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power in Russia with the belief that this struggle will be crowned success, and called for vigilance and perseverance.”

Sukhanov also admitted that the speech was “very ambiguous in content.” “Lenin did not demand any specific actions from the seemingly impressive force standing in front of him,” he emphasized. Biographer of Lenin Robert Payne, in turn, noted that such words “do not inspire the revolutionary army, preparing it for the upcoming battle.”

“All power to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies!” - this was the main slogan of the July speech in Petrograd. 1917

Lenin himself, in the article “Response,” written between July 22 and 26 (August 4 and 8), 1917 in connection with the investigation launched by the prosecutor of the Petrograd Judicial Chamber into the recent unrest in the capital, stated that the content of his speech “was as follows: (1) I apologize that due to illness I limit myself to a few words; (2) greetings to the revolutionary residents of Kronstadt on behalf of the St. Petersburg workers; (3) an expression of confidence that our slogan “All power to the Soviets” must and will win, despite all the zigzags of the historical path; (4) a call for “endurance, fortitude and vigilance.”

Summer offensive

After two days of artillery preparation, on June 18 (July 1), 1917, the offensive of the troops of the Southwestern Front began. In total, more than 1 million people were involved in the operation.

Russia's Entente allies put pressure on the Provisional Government throughout the spring of 1917, demanding an intensification of military action. Plan offensive operation troops of the Southwestern Front was developed by June. In material terms, the Russian army, as recognized by both allies and enemies, at that time was better equipped than in 1914–1916. However, the morale of the soldiers fell, and desertion increased sharply.

The news of the start of the offensive caused an explosion of enthusiasm among supporters of continuing the war to a victorious end, but at the same time it was a catalyst for protest sentiments. The transition to the offensive required the transfer of additional forces to the front, which could not but provoke unrest in parts of the Petrograd garrison. Having lost faith in the Provisional Government, many soldiers increasingly demanded the transfer of power to the Soviets, pinning their hopes on making peace.

Meanwhile, the summer offensive ended in major failure. On July 6 (19), the Germans launched a counterattack, breaking through the front near Tarnopol (now Ternopil) to a width of 20 km. Soon the enemy threw the Russian troops far beyond their original positions, capturing all of Galicia. The most combat-ready units suffered the greatest losses. Historian Vladlen Loginov described the current situation as follows: “The newspapers regularly published lists of those killed. Trainloads of wounded were coming from the front. With the beginning of the June offensive, the number of casualties increased. Every day in the cities and villages of Russia some families mourned the loss of their breadwinners - father, brother, son. And from the endless discussions about the war that were conducted at various congresses and conferences, meetings and meetings, meetings and rallies, arose a feeling of not only chatter, but also shameless deception, because for soldiers the war was not a problem of words, but of life and death.”

And although the Tarnopol breakthrough was made far from Petrograd and after the suppression of the July unrest in the capital, the press declared the Bolsheviks to be the main culprits of the defeat at the front.

"TAKE POWER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Lenin’s call for “restraint and vigilance” did not stop the Kronstadters. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, when their column was approaching the Tauride Palace, shots were heard. Some sailors lay down on the road, others opened random fire, and others rushed into the entrances of nearby houses. Later, newspapers wrote that machine guns were allegedly found on the upper floors of neighboring buildings, and several people suspected of shooting were allegedly shot.

Soon the movement of the sailors who arrived in Petrograd resumed. “...The inhospitably received Kronstadters set off on their interrupted journey,” Raskolnikov testified. “But no matter how much effort the vanguard of the procession made to build the correct columns again, it was never possible. The balance of the crowd was disrupted. The enemy seemed to be lurking everywhere.” Characterizing the mood of the Kronstadters approaching Tauride, the Bolshevik Ivan Flerovsky concluded that “they would gladly break the necks of all the ‘compromising’ leaders.”

The first person the angry sailors wanted to see was the Minister of Justice Pavel Pereverzev who dared to arrest an anarchist sailor Anatoly Zheleznyakov- the same “sailor Zheleznyak” who, six months later, in January 1918, would actually dissolve the Constituent Assembly.

Then one of the most striking scenes of the revolution took place. Leader of the Cadet Party Pavel Milyukov wrote: “Tsereteli came out and announced to the hostile crowd that Pereverzev was not here and that he had already resigned and was no longer a minister. The first was true, the second was false. Deprived of an immediate pretext, the crowd became a little embarrassed, but then shouts began that the ministers were all responsible for each other, and an attempt was made to arrest Tsereteli. He managed to hide through the doors of the palace.”

The leader of the Mensheviks was replaced by the ideologist of the Socialist Revolutionaries Victor Chernov, who served as Minister of Agriculture. He sought to calm the heated sailors and workers. In his official statement to the investigative commission of the Provisional Government, Chernov later noted that as soon as he came out, a cry was heard: “Here is one of those who shoot at the people.” The sailors rushed to search the “village minister,” and calls were heard to arrest him. Chernov tried to explain the position of the Council on the issue of the Provisional Government, which only raised the degree of popular indignation. A tall worker stood out from the crowd and, raising his big fist to the minister’s nose, said loudly: “Take power, son of a bitch, if they give it!” The sailors dragged the government member into the car, intending to take him somewhere...

The future chairman of the Constituent Assembly Chernov was saved Leon Trotsky, sent from a meeting of the Central Election Commission to rescue the leader of a competing party. Raskolnikov, who was accompanying Trotsky, saw Chernov, who “could not hide his fear of the crowd: his hands were shaking, deathly pallor covered his distorted face, his graying hair was disheveled.” Another eyewitness to the event recalled: “He knew Trotsky and, it would seem, all of Kronstadt believed him. But Trotsky began to speak, and the crowd did not let up. Trotsky, agitated and at a loss for words in the wild situation, barely made the nearest ranks listen to him.” Stating that “red Kronstadt has again shown itself to be a leading fighter for the cause of the proletariat,” the speaker secured Chernov’s release and took him to the palace. Then the ardor of the people surrounding Tauride was cooled by a sudden downpour, which forced the sailors and workers to seek shelter.

However, skirmishes and shootings also occurred in other parts of the city. At Liteiny Bridge a battle broke out between the 1st Infantry Reserve Regiment and the Cossacks. Total in July days about 700 people were killed and wounded. Criminals also contributed to these statistics. However, the criminal situation in the capital was acute before the July events and remained so after.

Troops loyal to the Provisional Government at the Kshesinskaya mansion. July 1917

“FROM ENDLESS DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE WAR A FEELING OF SHAMELESS DECEPTION WAS BORN, FOR FOR THE SOLDIERS THE WAR WAS A PROBLEM NOT OF WORDS, BUT OF LIFE AND DEATH”

On the night of July 5 (18), the Provisional Government began to suppress the unrest. The rapid success was facilitated by the entry into Petrograd of a large combined detachment of soldiers and Cossacks from the Northern Front, loyal to the government, and the news that Lenin was a German spy. “The news that the Bolshevik uprising served German goals immediately began to spread throughout the barracks, making a stunning impression everywhere,” recalled the Socialist Revolutionary N. Arsky. “Earlier, the neutral regiments decided to move out to suppress the rebellion.”

Finale of the uprising historian Andrzej Ikonnikov-Galitsky described this way: “The remnants of the relatively controlled anarcho-Bolshevik masses (several hundred sailors, machine gunners and grenadiers) tried to hold the Trinity Bridge and the Kshesinskaya mansion. Several thousand sailors locked themselves in Petropavlovka. Surrounded by Preobrazhentsy, Semyonovtsy, Volyntsy and Cossacks, by the morning of July 6 they all laid down their arms.”

"GERMAN MONEY"

The July uprising gave rise to organizing the persecution of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party. Preparation for Lenin’s “spy case” began long before these events in the capital. “The evidence was based on the testimony of a certain warrant officer of the 16th Siberian Rifle Regiment D.S. Ermolenko, who fled from German captivity, writes historian Oleg Airapetov. – Having appeared in Russia at the counterintelligence agencies, he stated that he had been recruited by the Germans and sent to the Russian rear in order to prepare explosions, uprisings and the secession of Ukraine there. He was given... Lenin as a liaison. The ridiculousness of this kind of “evidence” was obvious even to the heads of counterintelligence, who, after the July events, were very serious about dealing with the Bolsheviks.”

Nevertheless, the case was allowed to proceed without waiting for the results of the investigation. On the initiative of the Minister of Justice Pereverzev, on the afternoon of July 4 (17), when the power of the Provisional Government was under threat, a message was sent to the capital's newspapers, prepared with the help of counterintelligence officers, that Lenin was a German spy.

Head of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky (center) on Nevsky Prospekt in Petrograd. July 4, 1917

It is very significant that even the Mensheviks, to whom the Bolsheviks caused a lot of unrest in those days, did not want to disseminate information discrediting Lenin. Chkheidze after contacting him Joseph Stalin called newspaper editors with a request not to publish the “materials” sent by Pereverzev. On July 5 (18), almost all newspapers refrained from publishing this “information.”

The exception was the Living Word, which wrote about Lenin’s spy connections. This publication had the effect of a bomb exploding. In the following days, articles about Lenin's “espionage” appeared in many newspapers. The Cadet Rech came to the conclusion that “Bolshevism turned out to be a bluff, inflated by German money.”

However, the joy of Lenin’s opponents was short-lived, and the victory they won was Pyrrhic. Summing up the July events, Miliukov concluded that for the Bolsheviks they were “extremely encouraging” because they demonstrated “how easy it is in essence to seize power.”

"July Days"

July days - anti-government unrest on July 3-5 (new style July 16-18), 1917 in Petrograd, organized by the Bolsheviks after the defeat at the front in June 1917 (see June offensive). The unrest took place under the slogan of the immediate resignation of the Provisional Government and negotiations with Germany to conclude peace. The unrest was attended by Kronstadt sailors, soldiers of the 1st machine gun regiment, workers of Petrograd factories, whose armed uprising was supported by the Bolsheviks

Failure of the June offensive Russian army on the Southwestern Front, largely due to the demoralization of troops in the conditions of the revolution, ended with the disbandment of the revolutionary military units, which caused criticism of the Provisional Government from left and right forces.

On July 2 (15), 1917, members of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets) left the government, threatening representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) to break the government coalition. Supporters of anarchy took advantage of the government crisis and agitated to oppose the government.

On July 3 (16), 1917, spontaneous anti-government demonstrations of soldiers, workers and sailors began in Petrograd. It all started with a meeting of the 1st Machine Gun Regiment, at which the anarchists called on the soldiers to open armed action. The soldiers sent a delegation to Kronstadt, calling on the sailors to arm themselves and move to Petrograd.

The Bolshevik Party (RSDLP (b)) considered the action premature. Members of the Central Committee spoke out against participation in the demonstration, and it was decided to publish a corresponding appeal in Pravda. The Bolsheviks had great influence on the soldiers and workers of Petrograd, but among the Kronstadt sailors the anarchists and their agitators were more popular.

The Bolshevik leaders were unable to hold back the onslaught of the masses, and on the night of July 4 (17), the party decided to lead the uprising. On the same day, a detachment of sailors from the Baltic Fleet under the leadership of F. F. Raskolnikov, who arrived from Kronstadt, joined the demonstrations of workers and soldiers. The demonstration took place under the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” The number of demonstrators, according to various estimates, reached 400-500 thousand people, of which 40-60 thousand were soldiers.

Demonstrators gathered at the Kshesinskaya mansion, where the Bolshevik headquarters were located. The leaders of the party spoke before them: Lenin, Lunacharsky, Sverdlov. They called for demanding the “expulsion of capitalist ministers from the government” and the transfer of power to the Soviets.

Anarchists simultaneously put forward the slogans “Down with the Provisional Government!” and “Anarchy and self-organization.” Soon, an armed crowd of thousands moved to the Tauride Palace, where the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) met.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee had banned the demonstration the day before, declaring it a “Bolshevik conspiracy.”

Demonstrators surrounded the Tauride Palace. They allocated 5 delegates for negotiations with the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The workers demanded that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee immediately take all power into its own hands, eliminating the Provisional Government. The leaders of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries promised to convene a new All-Russian Congress of Soviets in 2 weeks and, if there is no other way out, to transfer all power to it.

To protect the Tauride Palace, the Volynsky regiment and other detachments with a total number of 15-16 thousand military personnel were called from the front, and supporters of the Provisional Government went out to counter-demonstrations.

Thus, in those days there was a huge, uncontrollable crowd on the streets of the capital. The Bolsheviks, who tried to attract as many people as possible to the performance, themselves got stuck in this crowd and were unable to competently coordinate its actions. The revolutionary sailors, among whom there were many criminal elements, quickly scattered throughout the city, and robberies and violence began. A group of sailors and workers broke into the Tauride Palace, where they very impolitely arrested the Minister of Agriculture and leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party V. Chernov. According to eyewitnesses, an unknown worker, raising his fist to the minister’s face, shouted: “Well, take power if they give it!” They refused to let Chernov go until the Council announced its decision to lead the country.

Trotsky managed to free Chernov with great difficulty, but the news of his arrest and the violence of the sailors in the Tauride Palace was received by the commander of the military district, P.A. Polovtsov as a signal to action.

Polovtsov ordered the colonel of the horse artillery regiment, Rebinder, with two guns and a hundred Cossacks of the 1st Don Regiment to move to the Tauride Palace. After a short warning, or even without it, Rebinder should have opened fire on the crowd.

Having reached the intersection of Shpalernaya with Liteyny Prospekt, Rebinder’s group was fired upon from a machine gun installed on the Liteyny Bridge. The colonel ordered return artillery fire. One shell exploded near the Peter and Paul Fortress, another dispersed a rally near the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, and the third hit the very middle of the machine gunners, who at that moment surrounded the lagging first gun of Rebinder’s detachment.

The crowd near Tavrichesky, hearing nearby artillery fire, fled in panic.

By the evening of July 4 (17), troops loyal to the Provisional Government established control over the city center. At night, most of the sailors returned back to Kronstadt. Only part of them, led by anarchists, settled in the Peter and Paul Fortress. A detachment was moved against them under the leadership of the deputy commander of the troops of the Petrograd military district, revolutionary captain A.I. Kuzmin.

From dawn on July 5 (18) combined detachments St. George Knights and cadets began arresting Bolshevik combat detachments.

The cadets occupied the editorial office and printing house of the newspaper Pravda, which Lenin had left literally a few minutes earlier. The Junkers searched the building, beating several employees, breaking furniture, and throwing freshly printed newspapers into the Moika.

On July 6 (19), the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, who had taken refuge in the Peter and Paul Fortress, were forced to surrender their weapons and go to Kronstadt, and the Bolsheviks were forced to leave the mansion of M. F. Kshesinskaya, which they occupied after the February Revolution and turned into the party headquarters.

On the same day, troops called from the front began to arrive in Petrograd, and A.F. Kerensky himself arrived. The number of troops sent did not exceed the number of the agitated Petrograd garrison. However, with their help, all military units participating in the demonstration were disarmed, reorganized and sent to the front.

Results

The main result of the July events was the end of the so-called “dual power” (the period from March to July 1917).

After the failed coup, the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Soviets transferred all power to the hands of the Provisional Government, which organized a Special Commission of Inquiry to clarify the circumstances of the July mass uprisings.

The Bolsheviks were forced to go underground. Charges of espionage and national treason were brought against them.

According to the order of the Provisional Government, the following were subject to arrest: Lenin, Lunacharsky, Zinoviev, Kollontai, Kozlovsky, Sumenson (Ganetsky's cousin Sumenson Evgenia Mavrikievna), Semashko, Parvus, Ganetsky, Raskolnikov, Roshal. On July 7, a search was carried out at the apartment of Lenin’s sister Elizarova, where Krupskaya lived, and a few days later an unsuccessful attempt was made to arrest Kamenev. In total, about 800 Bolsheviks were arrested. During the events, a Cossack patrol killed Pravda correspondent Voinov I.A. on Shpalernaya Street.

Lenin and Zinoviev, as is known, hid in Razliv. F.F. Raskolnikov and Roshal were arrested in Kronstadt. Trotsky spent 40 days in “Kresty”, whom the grateful V. Chernov tried to save from arrest, but Trotsky himself demanded arrest out of solidarity with his comrades.

The Petrograd Soviet actually ignored Lenin's accusations of high treason, and the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik All-Russian Central Executive Committee called the Bolsheviks “misguided but honest fighters.” The Menshevik Dan stated that “today the Bolshevik Committee is exposed, tomorrow the Council of Workers’ Deputies will be brought under suspicion, and then the war against the revolution will be declared sacred.”

In August, at the VI Congress of the RSDLP(b), after the failure of the July speech, Lenin removed the slogan “All power to the Soviets.”

Stalin commented on this decision as follows: “We cannot count on a peaceful transfer of power into the hands of the working class by putting pressure on the Soviets. As Marxists, we must say: it is not the institutions that matter, but the policies of which class this institution pursues. We are, of course, for those Soviets where we have the majority. And we will try to create such Councils. We cannot transfer power to the Soviets, which have entered into an alliance with the counter-revolution.”

However, already in September, with the beginning of the active “Bolshevization of the Soviets,” the slogan “All power to the Soviets” returned, and the Bolsheviks headed for an armed uprising.