The Russian Revolution

World War to Civil War, 1917–1921

Nik Cornish

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781783038763
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Erster Weltkrieg

Often the drama of the October Revolution and the Bolshevik seizure of power overshadow the disastrous Russian-German war that preceded it and the extended, confusing, many-sided civil war between the Reds and the Whites that followed. But Nik Cornishs vivid photographic history gives equal coverage to each of these momentous events and shows how the Russian empire of the Romanovs was transformed into the Soviet dictatorship. Contemporary photographs show the leading characters in the drama Tsar Nicholas II, Kerensky, Lenin and Trotsky and other Bosheviks, and the White commanders Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel and the rest. But they also record, in an unforgettable way, the ordinary people who were caught up in the surge of events civilian crowds on the city streets, peasant groups in the villages, the faces of common soldiers on all sides who fought on multiple fronts across Russia from Poland, the Baltic states and the White Sea to the Black Sea and Siberia. The scale of the conflict was remarkable, as was the intensity of the experience of those who took part and witnessed it, and this collection of historic photographs gives a poignant insight into the conditions of their time. It is a fascinating introduction to a period that saw a sea change in Russian history.

Chapter One

Events in Petrograd are Far from Calm

Nicholas’ abdication was met with almost universal jubilation, tinged with not a little relief that virtually no one had raised a hand in protest. Having, illegally under Russia’s Fundamental law, abdicated for his sickly son and himself, the former Tsar had granted succession to his brother, the Grand Duke Michael. The Grand Duke declared that he would only accept the title should it be granted to him, ‘by our great people … through its representatives in the Constituent Assembly’.

The Constituent Assembly was to be Russia’s new parliament, elected by universal suffrage in the near future. During the time lapse between the end of the monarchy and the establishment of the Constituent assembly a collection of committees and ministers entitled the Provisional Government would lead Russia. The Provisional Government was cobbled together on 15 March from members of the last Duma. Simultaneously, a more radical group had formed the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldier’s Deputies (‘soviet’ being the Russian word for council). From the outset both groups monitored each other’s activities and utterances with deep suspicion. Politically, the members of the Provisional Government tended to be democratically liberal with few socialist policies; in the main it was made up of members of the Cadet (Constitutional Democratic) Party. The Soviet, on the other hand, had assembled on 12 March and formed an Executive Committee which limited membership to representatives of specific socialist parties. Therefore, although the Provisional Government was the apparently legal authority, the Soviet exerted a significant influence from the outset. Symptomatic of this power was the issuing of the infamous Order Number 1 which granted soldiers and sailors a variety of rights, such as the election of unit committees (down to company level) to control arms, armoured cars, artillery, machine guns and side arms and to elect representatives who would speak for them in the Petrograd Soviet. Order Number 1 also conferred the right to disobey orders that were at odds with those issued by the Petrograd Soviet. However, order Number 1 was intended to apply only to the Petrograd garrison with the purpose of stifling any counter-revolutionary activity by officers. But, knowledge of its contents soon spread through the rear areas and reached the front lines. Within days the officer corps was marginalized as soldiers and sailors embraced their new found freedom with delight, gathering to hold meetings at the slightest opportunity. So widespread was this phenomenon that a verb was coined to describe it – mitingovat, to ‘meetingify’.

Considering how momentous the events of early March were, there was remarkably little violence and few casualties. Almost no one raised a hand in defence of the dynasty or the old order. There were two senior cavalry officers that offered their units to restore the monarchy but they were ignored, and the former Tsar joined his wife and children in protective custody at Tsarskoe Selo. By a twist of fate the Tsaritsa had been informed of her arrest by the new commander of the Petrograd Military District, General of Infantry L. G. Kornilov, of whom much more would be heard during the following 12 months. For the army the revolution was remarkably bloodless but for the navy, particularly the Baltic Sea Fleet at its main base on the for tress island of Kronstadt near Petrograd, it was a different matter. Scores of officers, including the fleet’s commander, had been murdered. However, as dozens of cities, towns and provinces across Russia elected soviets of varying shades of leftist political opinions, the nation’s future hung in the balance whilst the Provisional Government considered the future and how to balance the demands of so many interest groups against a background of debate, confusion and above all an ongoing world war.

The Petrograd Soviet and the general public were ambivalent towards the prosecution of the war, whereas the Provisional Government was in favour of honouring the former regime’s obligations to carry on fighting. When, in early May, the Foreign Minister P. N. Miliukov declared that Russia would adhere to the Imperial government’s treaty obligations regarding the war and the rewards Russia would expect, which included former enemy territory, there was an outcry from the socialist parties. The so-called April Crisis (under the old dating system) resulted in the resignation of Miliukov and the war minster A. I. Guchkov. A. F. Kerensky, supported by the Soviet, took Guchkov’s place. There was now a new coalition Provisional Government that included representatives of the Social Revolutionary (SR) and Menshevik parties. The SRs were the major force in the Petrograd Soviet, however; their position was under threat from the Bolsheviks whose leader V. I. Lenin had returned from exile in Switzerland with German cooperation.

Lenin was ruthless, adaptable and calculating but above all focused on one thing – the achievement of power for the Bolsheviks. To do this he insisted on party discipline and was consequently intolerant of internal dissent. From the outset he made his party’s programme clear. Avoiding wordy phraseology, his pithy declarations of ‘All Power to the Soviet and peace, bread and land’ struck a chord with the vast mass of his listeners. Nevertheless, he recognized the need to move cautiously and garner support. Power was Lenin’s goal and he was not prepared to jeopardize his opportunity by premature action from a position of political or military weakness. The first objective Lenin targeted was an increase in Bolshevik representation on the Petrograd Soviet. Meanwhile, Kerensky was not idle. Having secured support for the war from the soviet, he undertook a tour of the front lines to address staffs, officers and the rank and file to enthuse them with his own brand of motivational speaking. A born performer and orator, Kerensky achieved a veneer of success and returned to Petrograd convinced that the upcoming summer offensive, conducted by the ‘freest army in the world’, would sweep all before it. The Russian high command, Stavka, the Front commanders and the Supreme Commander in Chief General M. V. Alexeyev were less sanguine. Alexeyev was replaced, along with hundreds of other senior officers, by General A. A. Brusilov who was a more bellicose leader and an adherent of Kerensky’s policies, as well as a renowned strategist. Unfortunately, when the offensive began on 1 July 1917, although it made some headway, the enthusiasm instilled by Kerensky’s speeches proved hollow as many of the supporting troops refused to back the advance. The situation quickly deteriorated and within days troops of the South-Western Front, the main attacking force (Kornilov’s new command), were in retreat, fleeing in many cases before inferior opposition as far back as the Russian border. By re-imposing the death penalty in the field and organizing punitive formations from the more loyal elements of his army group, Kornilov re-established the front. However, in Petrograd the Bolsheviks took advantage of the situation at the front to attempt a coup. For several days in mid-July the position of the Provisional Government looked decidedly uncertain as troops and sailors from Kronstadt paraded through Petrograd in an attempt to take power. Lenin wanted no truck with what he viewed as a foolish undertaking but was swept along by events. By 18 July the arrival of men loyal to the Provisional Government and the skilful use of propaganda that purported to prove that the Bolshevik leadership was in the pay of the Germans scuttled the ‘uprising’. Kerensky now assumed the mantle of minister President as well as minister of war and promptly installed Kornilov as Supreme Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Kornilov’s appointment was applauded by those on the right who felt that the revolution had moved too far to the left. They saw in him a personality who would save Russia from anarchy, as it was put – a man on a white horse – even a potential military dictator. To cap everything, on 25 July Finland demanded independence, with Ukraine calling for similar autonomy in certain affairs including the establishment of a separate army.

At the front the army regained its composure as Kornilov pressed for the re-introduction of discipline and the affirmation of the death penalty for the armed forces. Indeed, officers regained their confidence to issue orders the rank and file usually obeyed, although sometimes resentfully. As the summer drew on a meeting was called to be known as the Moscow State Conference with the declared intention of ‘restoring national unity’. It was timed for the last week of August. Only the Bolshevik Party declined to attend. Kornilov and Kerensky were both present, the latter receiving a warm welcome from the right wing which irritated Kerensky not a little.

When the Germans launched a surprise attack and Riga fell on 3 September Kornilov placed the blame on cowardice and Bolshevized mutineers. However, this time Kornilov’s criticisms were not championed by Kerensky. Supporters of both rallied behind their leaders. There then followed a strange incident known as the Kornilov Affair. Kornilov was assembling a force, the Petrograd Army, to defend the capital against the anticipated German advance along the coastline. It was to consist of troops who were felt to be resistant to the negative influence of the Petrograd Soviet, such as the Caucasian Native Cavalry Corps, a unit comprising Moslem Caucasian tribesmen and other mounted formations, such as III Cavalry Corps, who had resisted the worst excesses of the committees system and the decay of discipline since the revolution. Kornilov, who was described by his predecessor Brusilov as having ‘the courage of a lion but the brains of a goat’, appeared to be bidding to topple the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Kerensky therefore issued orders to arm the city’s workers (thus resurrecting the Red Guards banned since the July Days), and dispatched agitators to convince the Caucasians of Kornilov’s duplicity – he had claimed that they were going to Petrograd to suppress...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements and Photographic Credits
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Events in Petrograd are Far from Calm
• Chapter Two: A Time of Confusion and Hope
• Chapter Three: The Opposition Emerges
• Chapter Four: Confusion be their Epitaph
• Chapter Five: Black, Red, Green and White – the Rainbow at War
• Chapter Six: Adrift in a Counter-revolutionary Sea
• Chapter Seven: Zeniths and Nadirs – Target Moscow
• Chapter Eight: Crimean Sunset
• Chapter Nine: Bolsheviks Triumphant