The Petrograd Workers and the Soviet Seizure of Power

266 Pages·1984·5.782 MB·English

by  David Mandel

THE PETROGRAD
WORKERS AND THE
SOVIET SEIZURE OF
POWER
From the July Days 1917 to July 1918
David Mandel
St. Martin's Press New York
© M. David Mandel 1984
All rights reserved. For information, write:
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Printed in Hong Kong
Published in the United Kingdom by The Macmillan Press Ltd.
First published in the United States of America in 1984
ISBN 0-312-60395-9
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Mandel, David, 1947-
The Petrograd workers and the Soviet seizure of power.
"Intended to complete the study begun in the Petrograd
workers and the fall of the old regime" - Pref.
"In association with the Russian Institute of Columbia
University in the city of New York."
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Labor and laboring classes-Russian S.F.S.R.
Leningrad-History. 2. Strikes and lockouts-Russian
S.F.S.R.-Leningrad-History. 3. Labor and laboring
classes-Russian S.F.S.R.-Leningrad-Political
activity-History. 4. Leningrad (R.S.F.S.R.)-Politics
and government. 5. Soviet Union-History-Revolution,
1917-1921.1. Title.
HD8530.L5M365 1984 322'2'0947453 83-13960
ISBN0-312-60395-9
For Sonia and my parents
This book was sponsored by the
Russian Institute of Columbia University
in the City of New York
Contents
List of Tables ix
Glossary and Abbreviations xi
Prefa ce xiii
1 RETHINKING THE REVOLUTION REVOLUTION
ARY DEMOCRACY OR PROLETARIAN DIC-
TATORSHIP? 211
Census Society on the Offensive 211
The Workers' Response 218
2 FROM THE KORNILOV RISING TO THE EVE OF
OCTOBER 244
The Komilov Rising 244
The Democratic Conference 25 3
Setting Course for Soviet Power 25 9
3 CLASS STRUGGLE IN THE FACTORIES 264
The Factory Committees under Attack 264
The Struggle for Production-Workers' Control Checked 265
4 ON THE EVE 287
5 THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND THE DE-
MISE OF REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRACY 310
Attitudes towards the Insurrection 312
The Debate over a 'Homogeneous Socialist
Government' 323
6 THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY AND THE
EMERGENCE OF A WORKER OPPOSITION 343
The Elections 343
Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly 351
The Chemorabochie and the Anarchist Upsurge 357
The Lines Harden 361
7 THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION IN THE FAC-
TORIES 364
vii
viii Contents
8 SOVIET POWER FOR BETTER OR WORSE 379
Dispersal and Transformation of the Petrograd Work-
ing Class 379
The 'Obscene Peace' 384
The Opposition - Growth and Failure 390
CONCLUSION 414
Notes and References 420
Selected Bibliography 442
Index I.1
Page-numbering in this book follows on consecutively from the com
panion volume, The Petrograd Workers and the Fall of the Old Regime.
List of Tables
1.1 Returns in Petrograd elections to district dumas (27
May-5 June), central duma (20 August) and Constituent
Assembly (12-14November1917) 219
1.2 District breakdown of Petrograd duma election returns,
20 August 19 i 7 220
6.1 District breakdown of Constituent Assembly election
returns in Petrograd 344
6.2 District breakdown of returns in Petrograd elections to
district dumas (27 May-5 June), central duma (20 Au
gust) and Constituent Assembly (12-14 November
1917) 345
8.1 Number of employed industrial workers in Petrograd and
vicinity, 1January1917-1September1918 379
8.2 Changes in sectoral distribution of industrial workers of
Petrograd and vicinity, 1 January 1917-1 September
1918 382
8.3 Party affiliation of delegates elected to the Petrograd
Soviet from operating factories, 18-24 June 1918 406
ix

Glossary and Abbreviations
Until 14 February 1918 Russia used the Julian calendar which was thirteen
days behind the Gregorian in use in the West. Events occurring before 1/14
February 1918 are dated here according to the Julian calendar; after this date -
according to the Gregorian. For events occurring between 1/14 February and
15/28 February 1918 both dates are given.
census society the propertied classes Left SRs-who maintained that
and those members of the intel the war being waged by the Provi
ligentsia who identified with them sional Government, which refused
chemorabochii literally, black work to renounce the annexationist
er: unskilled labourer treaties of the overthrown regime,
conciliator contemptuous term ap continued to be imperialist and
plied to the moderate socialists should be opposed
(Menshevik and SR defencists), Kadet member of the Constitutional
who argued that an alliance be Democrat Party, Russia's liberal
tween the workers and peasants, party
on the one hand, and census socie nizy literally, those on the bottom;
ty, on the other, was necessary if the rank and file; the lower classes
the revolution was to survive PSFMO Petrograd Society of Fac
defencist after February 1917, the tory and Mill Owners
moderate socialists, who main revolutionary democracy (or simply,
tained that as a result of the revolu democracy) the workers, peasants
tion the war on Russia's part had and soldiers and those members of
ceased to be imperialist and that the intelligentsia who identified
the people therefore had a duty to with them; for all practical pur
support the efforts of the Provi poses, synonymous with the consti
sional Government to defend the tuency of the socialist parties
revolution against the Central Sovnarkhoz Council of National
Powers. Economy, established by a decree
duma municipal government, after of 23 December 191 7, essentially
the February Revolution elected replicas of the VSNKh on the reg
by universal suffrage ional level
intelligent (collectively: intelligent Sovnarkom Council of People's
sia) one earning (or looking for Commissars, elected by the Second
ward to earning) a living in an oc Congress of Soviets in October and
cupation recruited chiefly from headed by Lenin; essentially the
among those with a higher or at cabinet, formally responsible to the
least secondary education TsIK and ultimately the Soviet
internationalist after February 1917, Congress
the left socialists - Bolsheviks, State Duma the 'parliament' granted
Menshevik-Internationalists and by the Tsar as a result of the 1905
xi