THE BOLSHVIKS SEIZE POWER

from

"Glipmpses of World History",

by

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU

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During the revolutionary period history seems to march with seven-league boots. There are rapid change takeing place in the consciousness of the masses. They learn little from books, as they have not much opportunity of a bookish education; and books, often enough, hide more than they reveal. Their school is the harder but truer one of experience. During the life- and -death. struggle for power in a period of revolution, the masks that usually hide people’s real motives come off, and the reality on which society is based can be seen behind them. So during this fateful year 1917 in Russia, the masses, and especially the industrial workers in the towns, who were at the heart of the revolution, learnt their lesson from events, and changed almost from day to day.

There was no stability or equilibrium anywhere. Life was dynamic and changing, and people and classes were pulling and pushing in different ways. There were still people hoping and conspiring for the return of Tsardom, but they did not represent an important class, and we can ignore them. The main conflict developed between the Provisional Government and Soviet; and yet the majority in the Soviet was for co-operation and compromise with. the government. Those anxious for compromise were afraid of being put in charge of the government and the State power. “ Who will take the place of government? We? But our hands tremble…” said a speaker in the Soviet. It is a familiar cry, which we have, and a terrified heart. But strong hands and stout hearts are not lacking when the time comes for them.

The conflict between the Provisional Government and the Soviet was inevitable, however much the compromising elements on either side tired to avoid it. The government wanted to please the Allies by carrying on the war, and the possessing classes in Russia by protecting as far as possible their properties. The Soviet, being more in touch with the masses, sensed their demand for peace and land for the peasants, and many demands from the workers, such as the eight-hour day. Thus it happened that the government was paralyzed by the Soviet, and the Soviet itself was paralyzed by the masses, for the masses were far more revolutionary than the parties and their leaders.

An effort was made to bring the government more in line with the Soviet, and a radical lawyer and an eloquent orator, Kerensky, became the leading member of the government to which the Menshevik majority in the Soviet sent some representatives. He also tried hard to please England and France by launching an offensive against Germany. The offensive failed, as the army and the people were in no mood for more war.

Meanwhile, All-Russian Soviet Congresses were being held in Petrograd, and each subsequent Congress was more extreme than the last. More and more Bolshevik members were elected to them, and the two dominant parties, the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries (an agrarian party), had their majority lessened. The Bolshevik influence increased, especially with the Petrograd workers. All over the country Soviets had sprung up, and they would not obey the orders of the government unless they were countersigned by the Soviet. One of the reasons why the Provisional Government was weak was the absence of a strong middle class in Russia.

While a tussle for power was going on in the capital, the peasantry took the law into their own hands. As I have told you, these peasants were not very enthusiastic about the March Revolution, nor were they against it. They waited and watched. But the landlords of the large estates, fearing that their property would be confiscated, divided it up into smallholdings and gave it to dummy owners who would keep it on their behalf. They also transferred much of their property to foreigners. In this way they tried to save their lands.

The peasantry did not like this at all, and they asked the government to stop all land sales by a decree. The government hesitated; what could it do? It did not want to irritate either party. Then the peasants began to take action themselves. As early as April, some of them arrested their landlords and seized and divided the estates. The Soldiers back from the front (who were, of course, peasants) played the leading part in this. The movement developed till the lands were seized on a mass scale. By June even the Siberian steppes had been affected. In Siberia there were no big landlords, so the peasantry took possession of Church and monastery lands.

It is interesting to note that this confiscation of the big estates took place entirely on the initiative of the peasants, and many months before the Bolshevik revolution. Lenin was in favour of the immediate transfer of the land to the peasants in an organized way. He was wholly against haphazard anarchist seizures. Thus, when the Bolshevik came to power later on, they found a Russia of peasant properties.

Exactly a month after Lenin’s arrival ,another prominent exile came back to Petrograd. This was Trotsky, who had returned from New York after being detained on the way by the British. Trotsky was not one of the old Bolsheviks, nor was he now a Menshevik. But soon he lined up on the side of Lenin, and he took his place as the leading figure of the Petrograd Soviet. He was a great orator, a fine writer, and very much of an electric battery, full of energy, and he was of the greatest help to Lenin’s party. I must give you rather a long extract from his autobiography- My life the book is called-, in which he describes the meetings he addressed in a building called the Modern Circus. This is not only a fine piece of writing, but it also brings a vivid and pulsating picture before our eyes of those strange revolutionary days of 1917 in Petrograd.

( writes..TROTSKY).

“ The air, intense with breathing and waiting, fairly exploded with shouts and with the passionate yells peculiar to the Modern Circus. Above and around me was press of elbows, chests, and heads. I speak from out of a worm cavern of human bodies; whenever I stretched out my hands I would touch someone, and a grateful movement in response would give me to understand that I was not to worry about it, not to break off my speech but to keep on. No speaker, no matter how exhausted, could resist the electric tension of that impassioned human throng. They wanted to know, to understand, to find their way. At times it seemed as if I felt, with my lips, the stern inquisitiveness of this crowd that had become merged into a single whole. Then all arguments and words thought out in advance would break and recede under the imperative pressure of sympathy, and other words, other arguments utterly unexpected by the orator but needed by these people, would emerge in full array from my subconsiousness. On such occasions I felt as if I was listening to the speaker from the out side, trying to keep pace with his ideas, afraid that, like a somnambulist he might fall of the roof at the sound of my conscious reasoning.

“Such was the Modern Circus. It had its own contours, fiery, tender and frenzied. The infants were peacefully sucking the breasts from which approving or threatening shouts were coming. The whole crowd was like that, like infants clinging with their dry lips to the nipples of the revolution. But this infant matured quickly.”

So the ever- changing drama of revolution went on in Petrograd and in other cites and villages of Russia. The infant matured and grew big. Everywhere, as a result of the terrible strain of the war, economic collapse was becoming evident. And yet, profiteers went on making their war profits!

The Bolshevik strength and influence went on increasing in the factories and Soviets. Alarmed by this, Kerensky decided to suppress them. At first there was a great campaign of slander against Lenin, who was described as a German agent sent to bring to trouble to Russia. Had he not come across Germany from Switzerland with the connivance of the German authorities? Lenin become terribly unpopular with the middle classes, who considered him a traitor. Kerensky issued a warrant for Lenin’s arrest, not as a revolutionary, but as a pro-German traitor. Lenin himself was keen on facing a trial to disprove this charge; his colleagues would not agree to this, and forced him to go into hiding. Trotsky was also arrested, but later released on the insistence of the Petrograd Soviet. Many other Bolsheviks were arrested; their newspapers were suppressed; workers, who were supposed to favour them, were disarmed. The attitude of these workers had been growing more and more aggressive and threatening towards the Provisional Government, and huge demonstration had been held repeatedly against it.

There was an interlude when counter- revolution raised its head. An old general, Kornilov, advanced on the capital with an army to crush the whole revolution, including the provisional Government. As he drew near to the city his army melted away.

It had gone over to the side of the revolution.

Events were marching rapidly. The Soviet was becoming a definite rival to the government and often cancelled the government’s orders or issued contrary directions. The Smolny Institute was now the seat of the Soviet and the headquarters of the Revolution in Petrograd. This place had been a private school for the girls of the nobility.

Lenin came to the outskirts of Petrograd, and the Bolsheviks decided that the time had come to seize power from the Provisional Government.

Trotsky was put in charge of all the arrangements for the insurrection, and everything was carefully mapped, what vital points to seize and when. November 7^th was fixed for the rising.

On that day there was going to be a session of the All - Russian Congress of Soviets.

Lenin fixed this date, and his reason for it is interesting. “ November the 6^th will be too early,” he is reported to have said. “ We must have an All-Russians basis for a rising, and on the 6^th all the delegates to the Congress will not have arrived. On the other hand, November 8^th will be too late. By that time the Congress will be organized, and it is difficult for a large body of people to take swift, decisive action. We must act on the 7^th, the day the Congress meets, so that we may say to it, ‘ Here is the power! What are you doing to do with it?’ ” Thus spoke the clear-headed export in revolution, knowing full well that the success of revolution often depends on apparently trivial happenings.

November 7 came, and Soviet soldiers went and occupied government buildings, especially the vital and strategic places like the telegraph office, telephone exchange, and the State Bank. There was no opposition. “ The Provisional Government simply melted away,” said the official report sent to England by a British agent.

Lenin became the head of the new government, the President, and Trotsky, the Foreign Minister. The next day, November 8, Lenin came to the Soviet Congress which welcomed the leader with a mighty cheer. An American journalist, Reed, who was present on this occasion, has described what the “ great Lenin” looked like when he marched to the platform.

“ A short, stocky figure with a big head set down on his shoulders, bold and bulging. Little eyes, a snub nose, wide, generous mouth and heavy chin; clean-shaven now, but already beginning to bristle with the well-known beard of his past and future. Dressed in shabby clothes, his trousers much too long for him. Unimpressive to be the idol of the mob.

A strange popular leader-a leader purely by virtue of intellect; colorless, humourless, uncompromising and detached, without picturesque idiosyncrasies but with the power of explaining profound ideas in simple terms, of analysing a concrete situation. And combining with shrewdness the greatest intellectual audacity.”

The second revolution within the year had succeeded, and it had been a remarkably peaceful one so far. The transfer of power took place with very little shedding of blood. There had been much more fighting and killing in March. The March Revolution had been spontaneous, unorganized one, the November one had been carefully planed out. For the first time in history the representatives of the poorest classes, and especially of the industrial workers, were at the head of a country. But they were not going to have such on easy success. Tempests were gathering all round them, to burst on them with uncontrolled fury.

What was the situation that faced Lenin and his new Bolshevik Government? The German war was still on, although the Russian army had gone to pieces and there was no chance of its fighting; there was a disorder all over the country and roving bands of soldiers and brigands did much as they liked ; the economic structure had broken down ; food was scarce and people were hungry ; all round him were representatives of the old order ready to crush the Revolution ; the organization of the State was capitalist, and most of the old government servants refused to cooperate with the new government ; bankers would not give money ; even the telegraph office would not send telegrams. A difficult enough situation to frighten the bravest.

Lenin and his colleagues put their shoulders to the wheel. Peace with Germany was their first anxiety, and they immediately arranged for an armistice. The delegates of the two countries met at Brest Litovsk. The Germans knew well enough that there was no fight left in the Bolshevik and, in their fried and folly, they made tremendous and humiliating demands. Much as the Bolshevik desired peace, they were taken aback by this, and many of them were for a rejection of the terms. Lenin stood out for peace at any cost. There is a story that Trotsky, who was one of the Russian delegates at the peace conference, was asked by the Germans to go to a function in evening dress. He was perturbed; was it proper for a workers’ delegates to put on this kind of bourgeois clothing? He telegraphed to Lenin for advice, and Lenin immediately replied: “ If it will help to bring peace, go in petticoat!”

While the Soviet argued about the peace terms, the Germans started advancing on Petrograd, and they made their peace offer stiffer than before. Lenin’s advice was accepted in the end by the Soviet, and they signed the peace of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, much as they hated it. By this peace a huge slice of Russian territory on the west was annexed by Germany, but peace at any cost had to be accepted as, according to Lenin, “ the army had voted for peace with its legs”.

The Soviet had tried at first to bring about a general peace among all the Powers involved in the World War. On the very next day after their seizure of power they had issued a decree offering peace to the world, and the made it quite clear that they renounced all claims under the Tsarist secret treaties. Constantinople, they said, must remain with the Turks, and there should be no other annexations. The Soviet’s suggestion went unanswered, as both the warring parties still had hopes of success and were keen on taking the spoils of war. Partly the object of the Soviet in making the offer was no doubt propaganda. They wanted to influence the masses for revolution in other countries. For they were after world revolution; only thus, they thought, could they protect their own revolution. I have already told you that Soviet propaganda had great effect on the French and German armies.

Lenin looked upon the Brest-Litovsk peace with Germany as a temporary affair which would not last long. As it happened, it was annulled by the Soviet nine months later, as soon as Germany was defeated on the western front by the Allies. What Lenin wanted was to give a little rest, a breathing-space, to the weary workers and peasants in the army so that they might go back home and see with their own eyes what the Revolution had done. He wanted the peasants to realize that the landlords had gone and that the land belonged to them, and the industrial workers to feel that the exploiters had also gone. This would make them appreciate the gains of the Revolution and eager to defend them, and they would realize who their real enemies were. So Lenin thought, knowing full well that civil war was coming. His policy was triumphantly justified later. These peasants and workers went back from the front to their fields and factories; they were no Bolshevik or socialists, but they become the staunchest supporters of the Revolution because they did not want to give up what they had got by it.

While they were trying to settle with the Germans somehow, the Bolshevik leaders also turned their attention to internal conditions. Large numbers of ex-army and adventurers with machine guns and war material were carrying on a brigand’s trade, shooting and plundering in the heart of the big cites. There were also some members of the old Anarchist parities who disapproved of the Soviets and gave a lot of trouble. The Soviet authorities came down with a heavy hand on all these gangsters and others and crushed them.

A greater danger to the Soviet regime came from the members of the various civil services, many of whom refused to work the Bolshevik or co-operate with them in any way. Lenin laid down the principle that “ he that will not work, neither shall he eat”; no work, no food. All civil servants who did not co-operate were immediately dismissed. The bankers refused to open their safes; they were opened by dynamite. But the supreme example of Lenin’s contempt for the servants of the old order who refused to co-operate was seen when the commander-in-Chief refused to obey orders. He was dismissed, and within five minutes a young Bolshevik lieutenant, Krylenko, was made the commander-in-Chief!

In spite of these changes, much of the old structure of Russia remained. It is no easy matter to socialize a huge country suddenly, and it is possible that the process of change in Russia might have taken many long years if matters had not been forced by events. Just as the peasant had driven out the landlords, the workers in many instances, angry with their old bosses, drove them out and took possession of the factories. The Soviet could not possibly give back the factories to the old cabalistic owners, and so it took possession of them. In some cases these owners, during the civil war what that followed, tried to damage the plants of the factories, and again the Soviet Government intervened and took possession of these factories to protect them. In this way the socialization of the means of production, that is, a kind of State socialism, or State ownership of the factories, etc.- went on much more rapidly than it might have done under normal conditions.

Life was not very different in Russia during the first nine months of Soviet rule. The Bolshevik tolerated criticism and even abuse, and anti-Bolshevik papers continued appear.

The population generally was starving, but the rich still had plenty of money for ostentation and luxury. The night cabarets were crowded, and racing and other sports went on.

The richer bourgeois was very much in evidence in the great towns, openly rejoicing at the expected downfall of the Soviet Government. These people, who were so patriotically keen on carrying on the war against Germany, now actually celebrated the advance of the Germans on Petrograd. They were quite cheerful at the prospect of Germans armies occupying their capital city. The dislike of social revolution was far greater for them than the fear of alien domination. This is almost always so, especially when classes are concerned.

Life was thus more or less normal, and there was certainly no Bolshevik terror at this stage. The famous Moscow ballet continued from day to day before crowded houses. The Soviet Government had moved to Moscow when Petrograd was threatened by the Germans, and Moscow has been their capital ever since, the ambassadors of the Allies were still in Russia. They had run away from Petrograd when there was danger of the city falling into Germans hands, and established themselves in safety in Vologda, a small country town far from all activities. There they sat together in a continuous state of perturbation and excitement at the wild rumours that reached them. They would make anxious and frequent inquires from Trotsky whether the rumours were true. Trotsky grew rather tired of this nervous agitation of these old diplomats, and he offered to write “ a bromide prescription to calm the nerves of their Excellencies of Vologda”! Doctors give bromide to soothe the nerves of hysterical and excitable people.

Life seemed to go on normally on the surface, but below this apparent calm were many currents and crosscurrents. No one, not even they themselves, expected the Bolsheviks to survive for long. Every one was intriguing. The Germans had set up a puppet State in the Ukraine in South Russia, and in spite of the peace, always seemed to threaten the Soviet. The Allies, of course, hated the Germans, but they hated the Bolsheviks even more. President Wilson of America had indeed sent a cordial greeting to the Soviet Congress early in 1918; he seems to have repented and changed his mind later. So the Alies privately subsidized and helped counter-revolutionary activities, and even took a secret share in them. Moscow buzzed with foreign spies. The chief agent of the British secret service, known as the master spy of Britain, was sent there to create trouble for the Soviet Government. The dispossessed aristocrats and bourgeoisie were continually fomenting counter-revolution with the help of money from the Allies.

So matters stood about the middle of the year 1918. The life of the Soviet seemed to hang by a slender thread.

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( April 9, 1933)