File No. 861.00/393
The Consul at Petrograd ( Winship) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 21.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 274 of March 20, 1917, “Revolutionary movement in Petrograd,”1 and to report that as soon as the text of the note to the Allied Governments accompanying the declaration of the Temporary Government of the 10th [9th] of April2 became known to the public of this city through the morning newspapers of May 3, it was evident that there would be serious and intense opposition to this accompanying note, especially from the radical socialist-pacifists. The text of the note was received in the editorial rooms of all the newspapers during the night from the 2d to the 3d of May and all the socialist organs, without exception, printed the text of the note on the 3d of May with the sharpest criticism. With one voice they declared the note to be a step backward and a slap in the face of the “Revolutionary Democracy of Russia.” It must not be forgotten that in their mouths the words, “Revolutionary Democracy of Russia,” refers only to the socialistic democracy, not to the democracy of all classes.
The Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies assembled at midnight of May 2, and sat until 3.30 o’clock in the morning of the 3d. It also reassembled in the forenoon of that day and called an extraordinary meeting of the full Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies for that night at 6 o’clock. At this meeting [of] the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, the Executive Committee urged extreme caution and care on the Council in this matter, and requested the Council’s permission to have a joint meeting-conference with the Temporary Government which would be reported to the Council before further action. This permission was granted. During this day, May 3, the Finland Regiment left its barracks and marched to the Mariinski Palace where the meetings of the Ministry are held. Soon after the Finland Regiment, the Moscow, the Kexholm and the 180th Regiments also marched toward the palace with placards inscribed, “Down with imperialistic (annexationist) policies!” “Down with Milyukov!” “Down with Milyukov and Guchkov!” These regiments had been called out by persons pretending to be authorized to do so by the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, but as soon as it became known the Executive Committee at once took measures to persuade the soldiers to return to their barracks, which they did quietly.
[Page 43]By nightfall the enormous square in front of the Mariinski Palace was covered with people and the Morskaya Street, leading into the square, was jammed with paraders both for and against the Temporary Government. During this time two placards were placed on the building formerly occupied by the German Embassy, now vacant, with the inscriptions, “Hurrah for the German working class!” and “Down with Milyukov!” At 10 o’clock the joint meeting of the Temporary Government with the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies and the Executive Committee of the Duma began. In view of the secret announcements to be made by the Minister of War and the Minister of Agriculture concerning the military and food situations, the press was excluded from the meeting. The meeting began by a declaration of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies that they had not called out the soldiers to protest against the Temporary Government.
The Minister of War announced that the situation in the army is extremely serious and that everything possible must be done at once to weld together its forces, which the events of the day would only separate and disorganize. He was followed by the Minister of Agriculture who made a short announcement that the food situation was favorable but not secure. The Minister of Finance then called attention to the danger that the day’s events threatened in weakening the ties between Russia and the Allies on whom Russia is most dependent at the moment for military supplies and finances, particularly America. He also stated that the Ministry is preparing laws regarding large direct taxation and direct war tax on capital and income, but that time is needed for these measures and that a loan, whose success is put in jeopardy by the day’s events, is the only possible means the Government has of raising the funds immediately needed. The Minister of Ways of Communication also made a short announcement.
After the Minister of Ways of Communication, N. S. Cheidze, President of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, stated that the note accompanying the declaration of May 1 [March 27/April 9] contains statements absolutely unacceptable to the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies. The note confuses the objects of the war, he said, contains no mention of the surrender of annexations and contributions, and may give our allies an absolutely false conception of the position assumed by the democratic classes of Russia.
He was followed by I. I. Ramashvilli, a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, who demanded that the Temporary Government send another note to the Allies. He stated that the present Minister of Foreign Affairs had [Page 44] completely failed to understand the psychology of the new revolutionary Russia, that everything in the Ministry of Foreign Affair was the same as it had been before the revolution, and that the ambassadors and ministers in foreign countries had not been replaced.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, P. N. Milyukov, then spoke. He stated that the note in question was merely a note enclosing the declaration of the 1st of May [27 March/9 April], which remains the more important of the two. He reminded the meeting that this question concerns the Allies also and must be handled most carefully, and stated that the opposition to it is based on a mistaken interpretation of its phrases and a desire to find sentiments in it which do not really exist. He further pointed out the unpleasant effect the recent events would have on the Allies, and that Mr. Ramashvilli’s proposal to send a second note is utterly impossible. He continued that if Russia undertakes to act in this way with her allies, with whom she is bound by a whole series of intricate and delicate relations, she will meet with decided opposition from the Allies. He then read to the meeting a secret telegram just received.
After Milyukov’s speech Cheidze and Ramashvilli stated that the facts brought before them by the members of the Temporary Government persuaded them to meet the Temporary Government half way, that the Council of “Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies had supported the Temporary Government all the time, but that the Temporary Government must at once issue an explanation of the note of May 1.
In the debate following this announcement, I. G. Tseretelli, a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, stated that the note of May 1 was unsatisfactory in certain parts. The announcement, “War to a complete victory,” contains the entire meaning which was given to the war by the overthrown Tsar. Therefore these words inevitably aroused the discontent now visible on the streets. He stated it was absolutely necessary to explain these words, so that their meaning would be perfectly and indisputably clear. He added that this explanation should be sent to the same address as was the note itself. This, he declared, was the only exit from the present crisis.
After a speech by Shulgin, a member of the Executive Committee of the Duma, V. M. Chernov, a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, demanded that the methods and personnel of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs be changed radically. It must be plainly stated that Milyukov, who has always been an advocate of certain solution of the Dardanelles and Bosporus question, expresses only his personal opinion and not that of the Temporary Government itself.
The former member of the Second Duma, now a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ [Page 45] Deputies, Mr. Zurabov, stated that if the Allies were not willing to go hand in hand with Russia in the surrender of annexations and contributions, then Russia cannot continue the fight for them.
After a speech by Adzhemov, a member of the Executive Committee of the Duma, the debates were closed and the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies requested that the Temporary Government write out the text of a new declaration explaining the note of May 1.
On May 4 groups formed on the sidewalks of all the principal thoroughfares throughout the city. By 4 o’clock the workmen of many factories struck and formed parades. These demonstrations were all hostile to the Temporary Government and bore placards and flags inscribed, “Down with the war!” “Down with Milyukov!” and “Down with the Temporary Government!” One of the largest of the parades formed on the Petrograd side and crossed the river heading for the Nevski Prospekt. This parade consisted mostly of adherents of Lenin. Among the placards and flags it bore a large black flag with white skull and crossbones. As it approached the corner of the Catherine Canal and the Nevski, going in the direction of the Mariinski Palace where the Temporary Government was supposed to be sitting, a crowd of unarmed soldiers which had formed at the corner shouted to pedestrians to support them in dispersing this procession of armed anarchists. This appeal was immediately responded to and the crowd thus gathered halted the advancing procession. Soldiers started to tear the anarchistic banners from the hands of the Leninists and some one of the workmen fired two shots, killing one noncommissioned officer and wounding a Red Cross nurse; after this the Leninites dispersed. A very large parade of Government sympathizers immediately formed and proceeded to the Mariinski Palace. In the evening about 9 o’clock a similar conflict took place between soldiers and another Leninist manifestation parade in which three persons were killed and seven wounded.
By 10 o’clock, the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, which was then still sitting, issued an order forbidding all street parades and gatherings for two days and the streets were cleared by armed soldiers. The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, after listening to the report of the joint meeting between its Executive Committee and the members of the Temporary Government, adopted the following resolution:
The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies greets the revolutionary democracy of Petrograd which has showed, by its meetings and parades, the intense attention it is giving to foreign politics, and the anxiety aroused by any threatened departure in the direction of the old annexationist-imperialistic policies.
[Page 46]The note of the Minister of Foreign Affairs dated May 1 and accompanying the declaration of April 10 [9], gave ground for such anxieties. This now forces them to express themselves before all democracies and before the entire world, regarding annexations and regarding the aims of the war in general.
The note of May 1 could only be taken as an attempt to belittle the real meaning of the declaration of April 10 [9]. Its tone, its phrases, its formulas, were all taken from the verbal arsenal of the Tsar’s old diplomacy, now hated by the people. This note was such as to arouse the just apprehension that the Temporary Government intended to depart from the position assumed by the declaration of the 10th [9th] of April.
The unanimous protest of the workmen and soldiers of Petrograd has showed the Temporary Government and the whole world that the revolutionary democracy of Russia will never permit a return to the aims and methods of the Tsar’s foreign policy and that the task of the revolutionary democracy is, and will be, a ceaseless struggle for international peace.
The new explanation of the Temporary Government, demanded and called forth by this protest, and announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Ambassadors of the Allies, puts an end to any possible interpretation of the note of May 1 in the sense opposed to the interests and demands of the revolutionary democracy. The fact that the first step toward the international discussion of the question of the surrender of annexations and contributions has been taken must be admitted to be a great victory for democracy.
Declaring its firm determination to continue the fight for peace, the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, calls on the entire Russian revolutionary democracy to gather closer and closer around its councils and expresses the firm belief that the democracies of all the belligerent countries will break down the opposition of their governments and force their governments to commence negotiations on the basis of a surrender of annexations and contributions.
In the opinion of this consulate, the importance of the crisis just passed is not at all in the nature of the conflict or in the merits of the question as to whether the note of May 1 accompanying the declaration of April 10 [9] was, or was not, a departure from the declaration itself. The fact that stands out clearly and indisputably from the events of the 3d and 4th of May is that the Temporary Government realizes its lack of authority over the troops in Petrograd and its inability to police the city. On the day following the shooting the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies issued a manifesto to “all citizens” calling on them to maintain order, quiet and discipline. A part of the manifesto is addressed to the soldiers and reads as follows:
Comrade Soldiers: Do not go out on the streets with arms in your hands without a summons from the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies. Only the Executive Committee of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies has [Page 47] the right to make use of you. Every order for military detachments to go on the streets (except the usual parties) should be written on the letterhead of the Executive Committee, sealed with its seal, and signed by not less than two of the following members of the committee: Cheidze, Skobelev, Binassik, Filipovski, Goldman, Bogdanov. Each order should be verified by calling telephone number 104–06.
By the phrase, “except the usual parties,” is meant the usual detachments sent out to guard public buildings, to drill, etc. While the order was in part meant to prevent the calling out of troops by irresponsible persons, as occurred on the morning of May 3, it has the effect of transferring the entire garrison of Petrograd from the hands of the military authorities, the regiment commanders, the chief of the military district of Petrograd, and the Ministry of War, to the hands of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies.
It is considered worth while to quote here in full an editorial in the Sunday edition of the Workmen’s Gazette. This paper is the organ of the so-called Minimalist fraction of the Social Democratic Party and stands at the left of the moderate socialists. It is distinctly opposed to the Maximalists and the Maximalist Lenin. The editorial sums up the situation very clearly.
two days’ lessons
Petrograd has lived through two stormy days. Mr. Milyukov’s note was a match in a barrel of gunpowder. The phrase about a decisive victory was understood by the masses of workmen and soldiers in the only way it could be understood; namely, in the sense of war until a complete defeat of Germany is achieved, etc. And since this threatens to drag out the terrible war the answer to the note in the form of a demonstrative protest became not only possible but also psychologically inevitable.
Unfortunately this protest did not take the form of organized action but took form in a series of isolated parades. Further, at times, the street’s protest took the form of attempts, gentle, to be sure, but attempts, to overthrow the Temporary Government. This was sure to call forth action from the other side. And in fact we saw how the march of the Finland Regiment to the Nevski and the Mariinski Palace called forth (other parties)1 to the support of the Temporary Government. In these days the green flag of the Constitutional Democratic Party (the Cadets, or the Party of the People’s Freedom), the party of the majority of the Ministers of the Temporary Government, appeared on the streets for the first time, showing that the street is beginning to free itself from the exclusive control of the proletariat.
And the crazy answer to the crazy attempt to tear down placards (bearing inscriptions calling for the overthrow of the Temporary Government) was in the nature of conscious or unconscious provocation. (The word provocation is used here to mean the work of agents-provocateurs.) After those shots had been fired, people went over to the support of the Temporary Government who would not support Mr. Milyukov’s Dardanelles policy, and the adherents of the Temporary Government filled the central portions of the city.
[Page 48]It was plain to all who watched events that new forces came into being on those two days, forces that are ready to defend the Temporary Government against attacks from the left (i. e., from the socialists).
Taken by itself this is a good thing. The democracy (by “democracy” is meant socialists) can only be pleased to see a distinct force, knowing what it wants, growing up before it in place of a formless mass. This gives the democracy (socialists) a chance to estimate their strength. The existence of classes that can outline their own intentions so swiftly proves that it is no light task to overthrow the Temporary Government upheld by them. It is a task much harder than the overthrow of the old regimé. The old régime was supported only by bayonets. Therefore the difficulty was to overthrow it, not to maintain power once it was overthrown. The difficulty of overthrowing the present government is of a different sort. It is very easy now to arrest and to seize power; but it is hard to hold power once it is gained. The last few days have shown that civil war would immediately follow the overthrow. Both sides would suffer by such a war and the only gainer would be the tertium gaudens now symbolized by the prisoner at Tsarskoe Selo.
Therefore all attempts to seize the governmental power by partial attacks is not only a crazy attempt but also a terrible crime against the revolution and against the interests of the working class which are inseparable from the revolution.
So far the editorial confines itself to a statement of the developments of the last few days. Further it goes on to state that the socialists must fight on two sides, on one side against anarcho-communism, as represented by Lenin and the Maximalists, and on the other against the advocates of the annexation of the Dardanelles as represented by Milyukov and the English and French newspapers. The paper declares that both tendencies lead toward civil war.
In another editorial in the same issue of the same paper another question is touched upon which is also most significant of the state of mind of the socialists and on which they all agree who now control the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, which is to-day the power behind the throne in Petrograd at least.
the solution
In the declaration of the 10th of May [9th of April?], now again confirmed, it is clearly stated that the aim of free Russia is not the control over other peoples, nor the seizure of their national inheritance, nor the violent annexation of their territory, but the foundation of a permanent peace on the basis of the right of each nation to determine its own future. If the war was being waged only between Germany and Russia, then after this declaration it would rest upon Germany to say the decisive word. It would rest upon her to end the war, by announcing, in her turn, that she does not desire that Russia, in the words of the declaration of the Temporary Government, should “issue from the war humiliated and injured in her vital strength.”
But not only Russia and Germany are opposed in this war. Almost the whole world has split into two coalitions. Beside Russia in one coalition stand England, France, Italy and other countries united by common treaties. And in the declaration of April 10 [9] the Government states that it will maintain complete faith with the obligations already undertaken toward the Allies. And [Page 49] it is these very obligations toward the Allies that create the greatest anxiety in the Russian revolutionary democracy at the present moment. It is impossible to close one’s eyes to the fact that now that Russia has given up annexationist desires the existence of these obligations toward the Allies threatens to postpone the liquidation of the war according to the principles enunciated by the democracy (i. e., workmen, soldiers and socialists).
It would be a great mistake to propose to simply tear up these obligations toward the Allies because they were signed under the old regimé. It is not the aim of the democracy to get a speedy peace for Russia but to establish as soon as possible, together with the democracies of the world, a permanent peace for the whole world. The one-sided tearing up of the treaties of alliance now would increase the split in the international democracy and would be taken by the democracies of the countries in alliance with Russia as a stab in the back.
There is only one solution; namely, that the democracies of all the countries allied with Russia should unite in a common struggle to have the treaties of alliance revised in the sense of a common surrender of annexations and in the sense of a clear statement of the conditions on which peace, based on these surrenders, could be concluded. The declaration of the Temporary Government has changed the character of the treaties of alliance with the Allies. Russia gives up annexations, and this annuls the paragraphs in the treaties which provide that the Allies should help Russia to make and maintain such annexations. This fact gives moral force to the demand that Russia should be freed from the obligation to fight for the annexationist desires of any one of the Allies. The declaration of the Temporary Government logically leads to the revision of the treaties in this sense, since obligations must be mutual. The democracy should urge the Temporary Government to maintain the dignity of Russia as a member of the coalition with equal rights.
But the methods of the revolutionary democracy of Russia are not limited by national boundaries. It should address itself to the democracies of England and France and the other countries in the belligerent alliance with Russia over the heads of all governments, bring pressure on these democracies to demand the same things at home. The efforts of the Russian democracy may be paralyzed without the active support of the democracies of other countries. Therefore steps in this direction should be taken at once. The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies must organize delegations to all these countries as soon as possible and empower them to press on the democracies of those countries in the above sense.
Simultaneously with this there should be an energetic campaign to summon an international socialist congress which would unite the democracies of all countries on a common peace platform, including neutrals as well as belligerents.
The active labors of the revolutionary democracy of Russia will strengthen its position in Russia itself and will make it the leader (in the struggle) for a permanent world peace. The active labors of the revolutionary democracy of Russia will dispel the shadow of a separate peace which cannot unite, but can only disunite international democracy. This method of international action is harder and more difficult than any other but it is the best from the point of view of the welfare of democracy.
The paper from which the editorial was taken agrees with the other socialist papers, the only difference being that some of the others adopt a violent and shouting tone, whereas the Workmen’s Gazette is restrained in its choice of words. The danger in such editorials, [Page 50] which are appearing daily in all socialist organs, is that the ignorant masses, who profess socialism and follow socialist leaders, may misunderstand and apply the propositions brutally, clumsily, and immediately. The statement that the war is not being waged alone between Russia and Germany is being interpreted among the masses as meaning that if only Germany and Russia were at war a solution of the war could be easily reached at once, that it is the capitalist classes of England and France that are forcing the continuance of the war in their own selfish interests. It has been said Russia is fighting so that England may annex the German colonies. That this is the case has been preached all the time by the man Lenin and his followers. The respectable socialist papers, such as the People’s Task, stating on its first page that it is edited “with close collaboration of A. F. Kerensky” (Minister of Justice), and such as the New Life, edited by Maxim Gorky, and the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies’ News, official organ of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies, continually say and hint the same thing. The same idea is also given open and authoritative expression in the resolution of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies adopted on Saturday, May 5, regarding the new loan. This resolution states that the “Loan of Liberty” is necessary and should be supported, but it also contains the following clause:
The Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies supports the loan because the loan is the quickest way to raise funds and the failure of the internal loan would place Russia in still further dependence on the imperialistic (annexationist) circles of France and England.
This distrust of the Allies and this feeling of being forced to continue a distasteful and irksome war which is being preached openly and [un]disguisedly by all the socialist organs and leaders, was the hidden cause of all the events of the 3d and 4th of May. The socialistic masses feel that Milyukov, and more indirectly the whole Temporary Government, is acceptable to the Allies and is willing, if not anxious, to force Russia to fight the Allies’ battles. This belief is an imminent and tremendous danger.
The fact that extensive fraternizing between the Russian and German troops is going on at the front is being explained in the Petrograd socialist press as a sign of the truth of the words used above “that if only Germany and Russia were at war a solution of the war could easily be reached at once.” The orders of General Brusilov (commander of the southwestern front), and of General Gurko (commander of the western front), condemning this fraternizing and forbidding it, are also being exploited against the Temporary [Page 51] Government. That the fraternizing is a fact is to be seen from General Gurko’s order which begins:
The statistics of the losses from the enemy’s fire prove that neighborly relations have actually arisen between our troops and the enemy on [some] sectors of the front, neighborly relations that are absolutely not to be permitted especially now when rivers of our allies’ blood are flowing in the common cause of the freedom of enslaved and ruined small races … Having reached a lull on our front the Germans are using it to free their hands for a decisive struggle with the French and English, The lull relieves the Germans of any threatened danger and enables them to concentrate their attention and their free reserves on the western front.
This order has been bitterly criticized by the Petrograd socialist press as reactionary, written in the interests of the counter-revolution, and an unwarranted excursion into politics on the part of a military commander. At the same time it demands absolute freedom of propaganda for its delegates to the front.
The political revolution was the first step and was accomplished by the democratic middle classes and the socialistic masses, the upper classes showing indifference. The social revolution now begins to be imminent.
This consulate feels that if the Temporary Government should at any time be unable to anticipate and realize fully the desires and fancies of the masses and to spontaneously offer satisfactory forms of realization—as happened on the 3d and 4th of May before the compromise was reached—it will lose its authority notwithstanding its merits.
The power which the Temporary Government now administers is fictitious to a certain extent (as explained above and especially as regards its control of the troops in Petrograd). If this power is not handled with the greatest versatility and tact it will pass to the leaders of the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies who openly profess and personify the expectations of the majority of the lower classes.
If the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies openly assumed authority it could, after street fighting, control Petrograd, but all the provinces would not support it. Secession and civil war would follow, in all probability, degenerating into anarchy in many localities.
I have [etc.]