The Russian Revolution полностью

The following day, the crowds, emboldened by the lack of vigorous repressive measures, grew still more aggressive. The demonstrations on that day were evidently organized, for they assumed a pronounced political coloration. Red banners appeared, with revolutionary slogans, some of which read “Down with the German Woman!” By now, virtually all the industrial plants in the city were closed, and between 200,000 and 300,000 idled workers filled the streets. A crowd of students and workers gathered at Kazan Square, in the middle of Nevsky, shouting slogans and chanting the “Marseillaise.” Not far from there, at the shopping center known as Gostinyi Dvor, three civilians were killed. Elsewhere a grenade was thrown at gendarmes. A crowd separated a police officer from his men and beat him to death. Attacks on policemen occurred especially frequently in the Vyborg District, sections of which the radicals declared “liberated.”¹³

Alexandra recounted the day’s events as follows:

This is a hooligan movement, young people run & shout that there is no bread, simply to create excitement, along with workers who prevent others from working. If the weather were very cold they would probably all stay home. But all this will pass and become calm if only the Duma will behave itself.¹⁴

The socialist intellectuals sensed a revolution in the making. On February 25, the Menshevik Duma deputies discussed convoking a “workers’ soviet.”¹⁵ And still it could be argued that the early disorders in Petrograd—and they had yet to occur in another city—were essentially a golodnyi bunt, a hunger riot, and that the political significance which the Menshevik and Mezhraiontsy intellectuals tried to give it reflected mainly their own aspirations. Such, at any rate, was the opinion of the leading Bolshevik in Petrograd, Alexander Shliapnikov. Told that a revolution was underway, he scoffed: “What revolution? Give the workers a pound of bread and the movement will peter out.”¹⁶

Whatever chance there was of containing the riots was destroyed by the arrival in the evening of February 25 of a telegram from Nicholas to Khabalov demanding that the disorders be suppressed by military force. To understand Nicholas’s action it must be borne in mind that neither he nor the generals in Mogilev realized the gravity of the situation in the capital because Protopopov had instructed the police to “soften” the reports sent to headquarters.¹⁷ The dispatches from Khabalov to Mogilev of February 25 and 26 depicted the turbulence as manageable.¹⁸ As a result, as late as February 26 no one in Mogilev knew how serious the situation really was.¹⁹

On the basis of such information as headquarters had at its disposal, it was not unreasonable to assume that a show of force would restore order. In his telegram, Nicholas wrote that at a time of war, with soldiers freezing in the trenches and about to risk their lives in the spring offensive, unrest in the rear could not be tolerated: “I order you to stop tomorrow the disorders in the capital, which are unacceptable at the difficult time of war with Germany and Austria.”²⁰ Khabalov said later that he was dismayed by the Tsar’s instructions, which called for a military confrontation with the rioters²¹—something he had so far managed to avoid. Obeying orders, he posted two proclamations. One outlawed street gatherings and warned that the troops would fire at crowds. The other ordered striking workers to return to work by February 28: those who failed to obey would have their deferments canceled and be liable to immediate induction for front-line duty.²² Many of these posters were torn down the instant they went up.²³ In one of three communications to her husband on February 25, Alexandra advised against shooting demonstrators. She expressed surprise that rationing was not introduced and that the factories had not been militarized: “This supply question is enough to drive one out of one’s mind.”²⁴

31. Crowds on Znamenskii Square, Petrograd, the scene of the first violence of the February Revolution.

During the night of February 25–26, the authorities lost control of the workers’ quarters, especially in the Vyborg District, where mobs sacked and set fire to police stations.

On Sunday morning, February 26, Petrograd was occupied by military units in combat gear. A total curfew was imposed. The bridges over the Neva were raised. In the morning all was quiet, but at midday thousands of workers crossed the river into the center of the city, milling around and waiting for something to happen. That afternoon, in several districts troops fired at crowds. The bloodiest incident occurred at Znamenskii Square, in the center of which stood Trubetskoi’s famous equestrian statue of Alexander III, a favorite gathering place of political agitators. When the crowd refused to disperse, a company of the Volynskii Guard Regiment opened fire, killing forty and wounding as many.*