Bolshevism: The Enemy of Political and Industrial DemocracySpargo, John
History
Bolshevism: The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy
Spargo, John
Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
The Bolshevik authorities became excited; they did not expect such a turn
to events. "Enough said," declared the chief; "we have come not to speak,
but to act. If they do not want to go to Smolny, let them get out of here."
And they set themselves to the task.
In groups of five the peasants were conducted down-stairs, trampled on,
and, on their refusal to go to Smolny, pushed out of doors during the night
in the midst of the enormous city of which they knew nothing.
Members of the Executive Committee were arrested, the premises occupied by
sailors and Red Guards, the objects found therein stolen.
The peasants found shelter in the homes of the inhabitants of Petrograd,
who, indignant, offered them hospitality; a certain number were lodged in
the barracks of the Preobrajenski Regiment. The sailors, who but a few
minutes before had sung a funeral hymn to Logvinov, and wept when they saw
that they understood nothing, now became the docile executors of the orders
of the Bolsheviki. And when they were asked, "Why do you do this?" they
answered as in the time, still recent, of Czarism: "It is the order. No
need to talk."
It was thus there was manifested the habit of servile obedience, of
arbitrary power and violence, which had been taking root for several
centuries; under a thin veneer of revolution one finds the servile and
violent man of yesterday.
In the midst of these exceptional circumstances the peasants gave proof of
that obstinacy and energy in the pursuit of their rights for which they are
noted. Thrown out in the middle of the night, robbed, insulted, they
decided, nevertheless, to continue their Congress. "How, otherwise, can we
go home?" said they. "We must come to an understanding as to what is to be
done."
The members of the Executive Committee who were still free succeeded in
finding new premises (let it be noted that among others the workmen of the
big Oboukhovsky factory offered them hospitality), and during three days
the peasants could assemble secretly by hiding themselves from the eyes of
the Red Guard, and the spies in various quarters of Petrograd, until such
time as the decisions were given on all great questions. _A proces-verbal
was prepared concerning all that had taken place on Kirillovskaia Street. A
declaration was made protesting against the acts of the Bolshevik
government_. This declaration was to be read at the Taurida Palace when the
Soviets were in congress by delegates designated for that purpose. The
Bolsheviki, however, would not permit the delegates to enter the Taurida
Palace.
Here are the texts of the declaration and of the proces-verbal:
At the Third National Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Delegates
grouped around the principle of the defense of the Constituent
Assembly, this declaration was sent to the Congress of Workmen's,
Soldiers' and Peasants' Delegates called together by the
Bolshevist government at the Taurida Palace:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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