The History of the Civil War in the U.S.S.R
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THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE U.S.S.R. EDITED BY M. GORKY, V. MOLOTOV, K. VOROSHILOV, S. KIROV, A. ZHDANOV, J. STALIN VOLUME I THE PRELUDE OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION (From the beginning of the War to the beginning of October 1917) This book is a translation of the Russian edition 1936 Reprinted in 2020 by Red Star Publishers www.RedStarPublishers.org Contents CHAPTER I THE EVE OF THE BOURGEOIS-DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION1 1. War .................................................................................................................. 1 2. Disintegration ................................................................................................ 23 3. Disintegration of the Army ............................................................................ 35 4. Tsarist Russia—a Prison of Nations ............................................................... 44 5. Two Conspiracies .......................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER II THE FEBRUARY BOURGEOIS-DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION 1. Revolt in the Capital ....................................................................................... 81 2. Success of the February Revolution ............................................................... 89 3. Dual Power................................................................................................... 100 4. The Provisional Government Strives for the Undivided Power of the Bourgeoisie............................................................................................ 113 CHAPTER III LENIN RETURNS TO RUSSIA 1. Seeking a Way into Revolutionary Russia .................................................... 133 2. Lenin in Petrograd........................................................................................ 137 CHAPTER IV THE APRIL CONFERENCE OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY (BOLSHEVIKS) 1. Lenin’s Theses .............................................................................................. 142 CHAPTER V THE BOLSHEVIK PARTY WORKS TO WIN THE MASSES 1. The April Demonstration ............................................................................. 168 2. The Coalition Government in Action ........................................................... 175 3. The National Policy of the Provisional Government .................................... 184 4. The First All-Russian Congress of Soviets ..................................................... 192 5. The June Demonstration.............................................................................. 201 6. The Russian Military Offensive .................................................................... 206 7. Spread of Revolution in the Army ................................................................ 213 CHAPTER VI THE RED GUARD 1. The Proletarian Militia ................................................................................. 220 2. The Red Guard in the Capital ....................................................................... 225 CHAPTER VII THE JULY DAYS 1. Workers’ Actions in the Capital ................................................................... 235 2. The July Demonstration in the Capital ......................................................... 240 3. The July Demonstration Smashed ............................................................... 244 4. The Proletariat Loses Faith in the Compromisers ........................................ 260 CHAPTER VIII THE SIXTH CONGRESS OF THE BOLSHEVIK PARTY 1. ...................................................................................................................... 263 CHAPTER IX THE KORNILOV REVOLT 1. Preparations for a Military Dictatorship ...................................................... 286 2. The Bourgeoisie Starts Civil War .................................................................. 300 3. The Revolt of the Generals Crushed ............................................................ 309 CHAPTER X ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 1. Capitalist Sabotage ...................................................................................... 314 2. Financial Collapse ........................................................................................ 324 3. Transport Disorganisation ........................................................................... 328 4. Spread of the Agrarian Movement .............................................................. 331 5. Approaching Famine .................................................................................... 343 CHAPTER XI THE ECONOMIC PLATFORM OF THE BOLSHEVIK PARTY ON THE EVE OF THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION 1. Bolshevik Slogans ......................................................................................... 351 2. Nationalisation of the Land ......................................................................... 354 3. Workers’ Control over Production ............................................................... 358 4. Nationalisation of the Banks and Industrial Trusts ...................................... 360 CHAPTER XII THE REVOLUTIONARY CRISIS GROWS 1. A New Wave of Economic and Revolutionary Strikes .................................. 362 2. Peasant Revolts and the Spread of the National Emancipation Movement 371 CHAPTER XIII THE ARMY AND NAVY ON THE EVE OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION 1. The Situation at the Front ............................................................................ 380 2. The Navy on the Eve of the October Revolution ......................................... 390 3. Bolshevisation of the Army .......................................................................... 395 CHAPTER XIV THE MANOEUVRES OF THE COMPROMISERS AND THE PLANS OF THE BOURGEOISIE IN FACE OF THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION 1. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks—The Last Buttress of the Bourgeoisie ...................................................................................................... 408 2. Bourgeois Efforts to Stem the Revolution ................................................... 414 CHAPTER XV DISPOSITION OF THE COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY FORCES ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION 1. Bourgeois Shock Detachments .................................................................... 425 2. The Officers’ Corps....................................................................................... 435 3. Bourgeois National Regiment’s ................................................................... 440 4. The Cossacks ................................................................................................ 447 5. The Counter-Revolutionaries Incite the Front Against the Rear ................. 450 6. The Counter-Revolutionary Offensive ......................................................... 457 CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT RUSSIAN EVENTS 1917 ................................ 472 THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER I THE EVE OF THE BOURGEOIS-DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION 1 WAR On July 20, 19141, Tsar Nicholas II declared war. Choked by the dust of the primitive country roads, marching past fields of ungarnered grain, the Russian regiments hastened to the German frontier. Mobilisation had not yet been completed. Guns stood in the arsenal yards in disordered array. Transport facilities for the artillery were lacking. In village and hamlet, at the very height of the harvest season, the young men were driven from the fields straight to the recruiting stations. For the tsar was bound by his treaties with France. He had borrowed billions of francs from the Paris bankers. The military treaties stipulated that Nicholas was to launch his armies against Germany fourteen days after war was declared. In the West, the German army corps were driving irresistibly through Belgium and rapidly approaching Paris. From Paris came panicky calls to Petrograd urging the Russians to take the offen- sive against Germany without delay. On July 30, the Russian Military agent in Paris sent an urgent report to General Headquarters: “It is now hardly likely that the French army can as- sume the offensive in the very near future. The most I ex- pect is a slow retreat.... The success of the war will entirely depend on our movements in the next few weeks and on the diversion of German army corps to the Russian front.”2 1 August 2, 1914. All dates in this volume are old style, unless otherwise stated.—Trans 2S. Lukirsky, “Authoritative Opinions in Foreign Military Literature on the Influence of the Movements of the Russian Army on the Course of Events in the World War of 1914-1918,” Who Is The Debtor? Moscow, 1926, p. 102. 1 2 THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR In vain did General Zhilinsky, Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front, declare that the invasion of East Prussia was doomed to certain failure. In vain, did General Yanushkevich, Chief of Staff, plead against an immediate attack. Paris was insis- tent. The French Ambassador, Maurice Paléologue, haunted the Foreign Ministry, demanding that the Russian armies should at- tack. And on July 31 the Supreme Commander, Grand Duke Nicholas, the tsar’s uncle, nicknamed “Big Nicholas,” informed Paléologue that the Vilna and Warsaw armies would take the of- fensive “to-morrow at dawn.”1 Unprepared for war, the Russian armies invaded Germany. Not expecting such precipitate action on the part of the Rus- sian generals, Kaiser Wilhelm was obliged to retard the advance on Paris. The German High Command transferred the Reserve Corps of the Guards, the Eleventh Infantry Corps and the Second