WeeklyWorker

22.06.2017

Bolsheviks take to the streets

‘1917: the view from the streets’ - leaflets of the Russian Revolution, No12-13

One hundred years ago today, on June 22 (9) 1917, the Bolshevik Party circulated among Petrograd workers the first proclamation below (drafted by Joseph Stalin). Nine days later, the Bolsheviks’ slogans won mass support at a giant, soviet-called demonstration.

In mid-May, the Bolshevik Military [soldiers] Organisation (BMO) proposed to the Bolshevik Party central committee a demonstration opposing the Provisional Government’s planned military offensive. Fearing that such an action was premature, the CC was not receptive. BMO organisers became more insistent over coming weeks, as soldiers worried about attempts to restore military discipline and feared transfer to the front.

BMO leaders hoped to time a demonstration to coincide with the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which met in Petrograd June 16-July 7 (June 3-24). The CC remained undecided - Lenin supported a demonstration, as did most Petersburg [Petrograd] committee members, while Kamenev was against.

Worker unrest over the Provisional Government’s attempt to expel anarchist-communists from their headquarters created more friction. An expanded meeting of Bolshevik Party organisations on June 21 (8) revealed majority support for a demonstration by workers and soldiers on June 23 (10). The Bolshevik leaflet, translated below, helped prepare for the demonstration.

The second document we reproduce is the response by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets to the Bolsheviks’ appeal. The proposed demonstration encountered opposition in the Congress, which appealed to military units and factory workers not to march. In the early morning hours of June 23 (10), a small meeting of Bolshevik CC members called off the demonstration.

In an attempt to bolster support for its policies, the Soviet arranged a demonstration on July 1 (June 18), which attracted almost 500,000 participants. Due to the efforts of Bolsheviks, Left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists, however, the demonstration was dominated by radical slogans (ending the war, opposing the coalition government and its military offensive, and transferring all power to the soviets).

This series is edited by John Riddell and the leaflets have been translated and annotated by Barbara Allen.

First published at: http://johnriddell.wordpress.com.

 

Proclamation of RSDLP(B) posted in Petrograd districts

To all labourers, workers and soldiers of Piter [Petrograd]

Comrades!

Russia is experiencing difficult trials. The war, which has carried off millions of victims, continues. Millionaire bankers are intentionally prolonging it, because they’re making a fortune out of the war.

The war has devastated industry, leading to factory stoppages and unemployment. The greedy capitalists, who lock out workers, while making fantastic profits, exacerbate this trend.

Shortages of bread and other food supplies are becoming more acute. The increase in the cost of living is throttling the population. Prices keep increasing, as per the whims of robber-speculators.

The sinister spectre of hunger and ruin looms over us. At the same time, the black clouds of counterrevolution are approaching.

Imposed by the tsar to strangle the people, the [illegitimate] June 3 duma1 now demands an immediate offensive at the front. But for what purpose? To drown in blood the freedom that we have obtained.

The state council, which supplied the tsar with hangmen ministers, is quietly braiding a traitor’s noose, while shielding itself behind the law. What is this for? It is so that at a convenient time they may come out into the open and hang the noose around the neck of the people.

The Provisional Government - positioned between the tsarist duma and the soviet, and containing 10 bourgeois members - obviously has fallen under the influence of gentry landowners and capitalists. Instead of securing soldiers’ rights, Kerensky’s ‘declaration’ violates their rights in several very important points.

Is it really any surprise that counterrevolutionaries are becoming more insolent and inciting the government to repress soldiers, sailors, workers and peasants?

Comrades! It’s impossible to endure such things in silence any more. It is a crime to keep silent after all this! Protest is already beginning in the depths of the working class. We are free citizens. We have the right to protest and we should avail ourselves of this right before it is too late.

We still have the right to demonstrate peacefully. We will go to a peaceful demonstration and will make our needs and wishes known!

Raise the flags of victory today to make the enemies of freedom and socialism afraid!

Let our call, the cry of the sons of the revolution, fly round all Russia today to the joy of all those who are oppressed and enslaved!

Workers! Join together with soldiers and support their just demands. Indeed, don’t you remember how they supported you during the revolution? Everyone onto the streets, comrades!

Soldiers! Hold out your hands to workers and support their just demands. The strength of the revolution is in the union of soldiers and workers. Not one regiment or company should sit in the barracks today!

Everyone into the streets, comrades! March on the streets of the capital in orderly ranks.

State your wishes calmly and confidently, as befits the strong:

Notes

1. Socialists regarded the state duma as illegitimate, because it was elected under undemocratic voting rules enacted in 1907 that gave landowners and capitalists a predominant voice. The tsarist regime enacted these rules after having arbitrarily dissolved the previous duma on June 3 that year.

 

Proclamation of All-Russian Congress of Soviets

Soldier and worker comrades!

The Bolshevik Party is calling you out onto the street.

Their appeal was prepared without the knowledge of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the All-Russian Congress, the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, or any other socialist parties. It rang out right at the critical moment, when the All-Russian Congress called upon worker comrades of Vyborg District to remember that any demonstrations during these days can harm the cause of the revolution. Comrades, on behalf of millions of workers, peasants and soldiers in the rear and at the front, we say to you, don’t do what they are calling upon you to do.

At this critical moment, they are calling upon you to go onto the street to demand the overthrow of the Provisional Government, which the All-Russian [Soviet] Congress only just recognised as necessary to support.

Those who call you out cannot help but know that bloody riots may arise from your peaceful demonstration. Knowing your dedication to the revolutionary cause, we say to you, they are calling upon you to demonstrate in favour of the revolution, but we know that hidden counterrevolutionaries want to make use of your demonstration.

We know that counterrevolutionaries eagerly await the moment when internecine war in the ranks of revolutionary democratic forces will make it possible for them to crush the revolution.

Comrades!

In the name of all Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, armies in action and socialist parties, we say to you:

Signed by:

All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies

Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies

Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasant Deputies

Organisational Committee of the RSDRP [Menshevik]

Central Committee of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries

Central Committee of the Bund

Central Committee of the Labourite Group [Trudoviks]

Ukrainian fraction of the All-Russian Congress

Fraction of United Internationalists of SD Bolsheviks and Mensheviks of the All-Russian Congress

Military Section under the Organisational Committee and Committee of the Petrograd Organisation of the RSDRP.

Both documents are translated from AG Shlyapnikov Semnadtsatyi god Vol 4, 1931, pp404-06.

Other sources:

A Rabinowitch Prelude to revolution: the Petrograd Bolsheviks and the July 1917 uprising Bloomington 1991, pp54-79.

RA Wade The Russian Revolution 1917 Cambridge 2000, pp179-80.