13.02.1997

In Russia

From The Call, paper of the British Socialist Party, February 8 1917

The Social Democrat, a Russian socialist paper published by Lenin’s group in Geneva, Switzerland, December 30 1916, gives the text of a leaflet published in October by the Petrograd committee of the Social Democratic Labour Party of Russia ...

“On October 17 a strike began in the Renaud factory on the Vibory side of Petrograd. The workers went into other factories to request the workers there to join the strike ... A collision took place between the workers and the police. This happened near the barracks of the 181st Reserve Regiment that ... was to be sent to the front on October 26 ...

“The police intended to arrest somebody in the crowd. The man whom the police tried to arrest fired on a police constable and wounded him. The constable whistled and other policemen came to the rescue. The soldiers saw this, and they began to throw stones at the police... A big fight took place ... until darkness came.

“A junior commissioned officer stepped forth and made a revolutionary speech. The commandant of the regiment was called for. When he came in an automobile, stones flew at him ...

“The Education Command, in which non-commissioned officers are being trained, numbering 600 men, was called for (this command consists generally of the more ‘reliable’ elements). These men closed the opening that had been made in the fence in order not to let out the soldiers that had remained in the barracks, but at the same rime they declared to the crowd that they would refuse to fire upon the people ...

“When they were ordered to fire, they lowered the ends of their rifles to the ground. Cossacks were called for, but they also refused to fire; perhaps they were afraid of the 600 well armed men.

“The soldiers who were in the street and the workers went further in procession. The soldiers entreated the workers to continue the strike, and pointed out the sacrifices that would be the result of these happenings. The soldiers hoped, we do not know on what ground, that other regiments would join them ...

“The bugle sounded ... and the soldiers returned into their barracks. Those who did not return were arrested. The others were shut up, and different parts of the regiment were forbidden to communicate one with another.”

The part of the leaflet that follows refers to the continuation of the strike, to new strikes, and to mass demonstrations in the factories and in the streets, with protests against the war and against the high cost of living.

Further the same issue of the Social Democrat gives the information that the 181st Regiment has been cashiered; some parts of the regiment have been sent to the front; others have been distributed among other regiments; some soldiers have been sent to a disciplinary battalion. It is rumoured that some soldiers have been shot.