Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
In leisurely manner the meeting gathered momentum. A delegate from the
Russian troops on the Macedonian front spoke bitterly of their
situation. “We suffer there more from the friendship of our ‘Allies’
than from the enemy,” he said. Representatives of the Tenth and Twelfth
Armies, just arrived in hot haste, reported, “We support you with all
our strength!” A peasant-soldier protested against the release of “the
traitor Socialists, Mazlov and Salazkin”; as for the Executive
Committee of the Peasants’ Soviets, it should be arrested _en
masse!_Here was real revolutionary talk…. A deputy from the Russian
Army in Persia declared he was instructed to demand all power to the
Soviets…. A Ukrainean officer, speaking in his native tongue: “There is
no nationalism in this crisis…. _Da zdravstvuyet_ the proletarian
dictatorship of all lands!” Such a deluge of high and hot thoughts that
surely Russia would never again be dumb!
Kameniev remarked that the anti-Bolshevik forces were trying to stir up
disorders everywhere, and read an appeal of the Congress to all the
Soviets of Russia:
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies,
including some Peasants’ Deputies, calls upon the local Soviets to take
immediate energetic measures to oppose all counter-revolutionary
anti-Jewish action and all _pogroms,_ whatever they may be. The honour
of the Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Revolution demands that no
_pogrom_ be tolerated.
The Red Guard of Petrograd, the revolutionary garrison and the sailors
have maintained complete order in the capital.
Workers, soldiers and peasants, you should follow everywhere the
example of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd.
Comrade soldiers and Cossacks, on us falls the duty of assuring real
revolutionary order.
All revolutionary Russia and the entire world have their eyes on us….
At two o’clock the Land Decree was put to vote, with only one against
and the peasant delegates wild with joy…. So plunged the Bolsheviki
ahead, irresistible, over-riding hesitation and opposition—the only
people in Russia who had a definite programme of action while the
others talked for eight long months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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