Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
2. The White Guard gives up its arms and dissolves. The officers retain
their swords and regulations side-arms. In the Military Schools are
retained only the arms necessary for instruction; all others are
surrendered by the _yunkers._ The Military Revolutionary Committee
guarantees the liberty and inviolability of the person.
3. To settle the question of disarmament, as set forth in section 2, a
special commission is appointed, consisting of representatives from all
organisations which took part in the peace negotiations.
4. From the moment of the signature of this peace treaty, both parties
shall immediately give order to cease firing and halt all military
operations, taking measures to ensure punctual obedience to this order.
5. At the signature of the treaty, all prisoners made by the two
parties shall be released….
For two days now the Bolsheviki had been in control of the city. The
frightened citizens were creeping out of their cellars to seek their
dead; the barricades in the streets were being removed. Instead of
diminishing, however, the stories of destruction in Moscow continued to
grow…. And it was under the influence of these fearful reports that we
decided to go there.
Petrograd, after all, in spite of being for a century the seat of
Government, is still an artificial city. Moscow is real Russia, Russia
as it was and will be; in Moscow we would get the true feeling of the
Russian people about the Revolution. Life was more intense there.
For the past week the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, aided
by the rank and file of the Railway Workers, had seized control of the
Nicolai Railroad, and hurled trainload after trainload of sailors and
Red Guards southwest…. We were provided with passes from Smolny,
without which no one could leave the capital…. When the train backed
into the station, a mob of shabby soldiers, all carrying huge sacks of
eatables, stormed the doors, smashed the windows, and poured into all
the compartments, filling up the aisles and even climbing onto the
roof. Three of us managed to wedge our way into a compartment, but
almost immediately about twenty soldiers entered…. There was room for
only four people; we argued, expostulated, and the conductor joined
us—but the soldiers merely laughed. Were they to bother about the
comfort of a lot of _boorzhui_ (bourgeois)? We produced the passes from
Smolny; instantly the soldiers changed their attitude.
“Come, comrades,” cried one, “these are American _tovarishtchi._ They
have come thirty thousand versts to see our Revolution, and they are
naturally tired….”
With polite and friendly apologies the soldiers began to leave. Shortly
afterward we heard them breaking into a compartment occupied by two
stout, well-dressed Russians, who had bribed the conductor and locked
their door….
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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