February 1917 of the year in the province
Rally at the Anchor Square on the occasion of the proclamation of the "Kronstadt Republic." 1917 Photo of the Year
The 1917 revolutions of the year spawned dozens of myths, most of which survived to the 100 anniversary. We observe them in the speeches of politicians, on the pages of school and university textbooks. The most false are the myths about the bloodless February Revolution, about the democratic Provisional Government, which was overthrown with German money by the Bolsheviks, the “stolen victory” myth — that is, the Bolsheviks saved Germany from defeat, etc. Almost all of our interpreters stories reduce the period of Russian life between February and October of 1917 to the events in Petrograd. The power of the Provisional Government was relatively strong there, and there was a constant confrontation between the Cabinet of Ministers and the Soviets; there were no nationalists or separatists. However, most of the territory of the former Russian Empire was very poorly controlled by the Provisional Government, and some territories, and first of all, the outskirts, were practically independent from the central government.
And let's see what happened in the province. Given the volume of this publication, I will consider only two examples: atypical - Kronstadt and typical - Tver province.
OFFICERS KILLED IMMEDIATELY
March 3 (16), 1917, that is, the day after the abdication of Nicholas II, in the Helsingfors raid on the battleship "Andrew the First-Called", the sailors demanded to lower the Andreevsky flag and raise the red one. The lieutenant commander Gennady Bubnov refused and was raised with hostility. This served as a signal for reprisal against the officers. On the gangway of St. Andrew the First-Called, Admiral A.K. Nebolsin. Admiral R.N., the chief commander of the Kronstadt port, was also killed. Viren, chief of staff of the Kronstadt port, Admiral A.G. Butakov; March 2 - Commander of the Baltic fleet Admiral A.I. Nepenin; after them the commandant of the Sveaborg fortress, Lieutenant General for the Navy V.N. Protopopov, commanders of the 1st and 2nd Kronstadt naval crews N. Stronsky and A. Girs, commander of the battleship "Emperor Alexander II" captain 1st rank N. Povalishin, commander of the cruiser "Aurora" captain 1st rank M. Nikolsky and many others naval and land officers.
By 15 in March, the Baltic Fleet lost 120 officers, of whom 76 was killed (in Helsingfors - 45, in Kronstadt - 24, in Revel - 5 and in Petrograd - 2). In Kronstadt, moreover, at least 12 land army officers were killed. Four officers committed suicide, and 11 went missing. More 600 officers were attacked. For comparison: all the fleets and flotilla of Russia have lost 245 officers since the beginning of the First World War.
In Helsingfors, around 50 officers were arrested and in Kronstadt around 300. A number of officers, fleeing from mob law, themselves wished to be arrested. In Helsingfors, most of the officers were released in the first days after the events. But the rest, about 20 people, mostly involved in suppressing the Sveaborg uprising of the 1906 of the year, were in prison, at least in July of the 1917 of the year. In Kronstadt at the end of May, 180 people continued to be under arrest. The provisional government tried to transfer them to Petrograd in separate groups. “But,” complained the Minister of Justice P.N. Pereverzev at the congress of the 25 officers' deputies in May - huge crowds gathered each time, demanding that not a single officer be taken out of Kronstadt ... And, taking into account the implacable mood in Kronstadt, we did not take decisive measures so as not to cause violence against the imprisoned officers ".
The current liberals and monarchists are killing all officers of the Bolsheviks. Well, who else? And over time, according to the formula of Dr. Goebbels, a lie repeated a thousand times becomes true. But the evidence of the participation of the Bolsheviks in the March murders, or even the direct incitement of sailors by them, no one can bring. By the way, contemporaries, eyewitnesses of the murders, do not even mention the Bolsheviks.
But the connection with the Freemasons from the Provisional Government, of course, was. A story about them is a topic for a separate work. I will give little-known details of the murder of Admiral Adrian Ivanovich Nepenin.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE KONSTADT
With the onset of unrest in Petrograd, the head of the Baltic Sea Mine Defense, Vice Admiral Andrei Semenovich Maksimov began campaigning for electing himself, dear Commander of the fleet. In this, Maximov was assisted by his flag officer, Senior Lieutenant K.E. Vasilevsky and all the staff scribes.
Maximov’s handcuffers gathered on Helsingfors Street a small rally of sailors who “chose” a new comflot. And then Maksimov and his chief assistants, captain 2 of rank L. Muravyov and senior lieutenant K. Vasilevsky, hung with red bows and ribbons, got into the car, which the armed sailors literally stuck to, also hung with red bows. Maximov went to the staff ship "Krechet" to announce the election of Admiral Nepenin. But he firmly stated to him that he did not recognize any elections, that he and the fleet had obeyed the Provisional Government, and to whom it would indicate, that he would surrender command.
Maximov left, but still raised the badge of the fleet commander on the vehicle. Soon he showed up at the Station Square. Meanwhile, Admiral Nepenin was killed, and thus, the command of the fleet had actually passed to him as the eldest. So Admiral Maximov became the commander of the fleet. The rhetorical question: could the vice-admiral act on his own, without enlisting the support of the Petrograd masons?
What is the fate of Maximov? In the position of a comflot, he remains up to 2 June 1917, and calmly looks at the massacres of officers and the complete collapse of the fleet. Well, in September 1917, Maximov - Chief of the Naval Staff of the Supreme Commander.
Already 2 March 1917, the Provisional Government issued an order No. 169 on the appointment of a member of the State Duma, Viktor Nikolaevich Pepeliaev, as commander of the port and city of Kronstadt and as commissar of the Provisional Government. 3 March 1917, the Pepeliaev arrived in Kronstadt. On the same day, a garrison meeting was held, which elected an executive body, called the “Council of Ten”. Its chairman was the government commissioner Pepelyaev. The garrison assembly decided that each military unit should send two deputies to the Council of military deputies.
The next day, March 4, deputies were elected to the Council of Workers' Deputies, and on March 5, the first meeting was held in the building of the Commercial Assembly, at which the following members were elected: FPP worker. Serov and the Executive Committee composed of 10 people. And 8 March, another 8 people were elected by the executive committee.
On March 15, at a meeting of the Council of Military Deputies, General N.V. was elected commandant of the Kronstadt fortress. Gerasimov, and the head of the Naval Forces, Senior Lieutenant Peter Nikolaevich Lamanov.
March 10 The Provisional Government offered the Kronstadt garrison and the courts to swear allegiance to him. The response of the Kronstadt Soviet was: “The free people do not need to swear. Not the people should give the oath of allegiance to the Provisional Government, but the Provisional Government to the people. ”
13 (26) March between the Commissioner of the Provisional Government Pepelyaev and the Council, a conflict arose over the candidacy for the post of chief of the Kronstadt police. As a result, Pepelyaev resigned. According to some reports, he was even arrested by sailors.
In the absence of other possibilities, the Provisional Government launched a massive ideological attack on the fortress. March 18 Comrade of the Petrograd Soviet, Member of the State Duma MI MI arrived in Kronstadt Skobelev.
Well, March 18 from Oranienbaum rolled the car procession of Kerensky himself across the ice. He reported directly to the Council (the former Maritime Club) and began to shout something at the window pane to the assembled crowd. Well, then I went to the rally at the Manege.
There, Kerensky spoke with emotions about the significance of the February revolution, then about the struggle of the Russian people against the autocracy. In conclusion, he urged those present to support the Provisional Government.
Bolshevik Council member Semen Roshal, a member of the executive committee of the Council, welcomed Kerensky only as a friend of the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, and not as a minister of the Provisional Government.
In response, Kerensky, in tears, rushed to embrace Roshal. At this presentation ended.
On April 5, the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General L.G., arrived in Kronstadt. Kornilov with the Serbian General Popovic. The gold-generals annoyed the sailors, and only a few dozen people gathered to listen to Kornilov on Yakornaya Square. I note that in Moscow and other cities, the appearance of Kornilov caused a storm of enthusiasm among the crowd of inhabitants, especially the female sex.
16 (29) of May, the Kronstadt Council adopted a Resolution, which stated: "In matters of state order, we enter into direct relations with the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies of the city of Petrograd."
In fact, this meant that the Kronstadt Soviet was the only authority in the city and the fortress. The provisional government considered the situation in Kronstadt "threatening and completely unacceptable."
VICTORY WAS STOLEN WITHOUT PARTICIPATION OF BOLSHEVIKS
It is curious that the creation of the "Kronstadt Republic" greatly angered ... Lenin. The deputy chairman of the Kronstadt Council, Fedor Raskolnikov, recalled:
“- What happened here? What's the matter? What does the creation of the Kronstadt Republic mean? .. The Central Committee does not understand and does not approve of your policy. You both will have to go to St. Petersburg for an explanation with Ilyich, ”announced Fedorov (the Kronstadt Bolshevik) to me and S. Roshal.
After consulting, we concluded that Semyon Roshal needed to stay in Kronstadt, and I would go to St. Petersburg.
The speedboat took me along with G. Fedorov to Nikolaevskaya Embankment, and after a while we knocked on the door of the Pravda editorial office, which was then located on the Moika.
“Come in,” came the well-known, distinct voice of Ilyich.
We opened the door. IN AND. Lenin sat close to the desk and bent his head low over the paper. In a nervous handwriting, he fluently wrote another article for Pravda.
The head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky (in the car - on the left) and the appointed commander of the port and city of Kronstadt, Viktor Pepelyaev. 1917 Photo of the Year[center] [/ center]
When he had finished writing, he put the pen aside and threw a gloomy look at me.
- What have you done there? Is it possible to perform such actions without consulting with the Central Committee? This is a violation of elementary party discipline. We will shoot for such things ...
I began by explaining that the resolution on the transfer of power into the hands of the Kronstadt Soviet was adopted on the initiative of non-partisans.
“It was necessary to make fun of them,” Lenin interrupted me. - It was necessary for them to prove that declaring the Soviet power in one Kronstadt, separately from the rest of Russia, is utopia, it is an obvious absurdity.
I pointed out that at the time this issue was resolved, the leaders of the Bolshevik faction were not in the Council. Then I described in detail Ilyich that, in essence, the situation in Kronstadt was all the time such that the local Council had full power, and the representative of the Provisional Government, Commissioner Pepelyaev, played absolutely no role. Thus, the decision of the Kronstadt Council only formalized and consolidated the real situation ”.
23 May in Kronstadt without any warning arrived Minister of Posts and Telegraphs I.G. Tsereteli and Minister of Labor M.I. Skobelev. At an emergency meeting of the executive committee, convened on the occasion of their arrival, Tsereteli stated that he and Skobelev were seconded by the Provisional Government with a special assignment to achieve a definite agreement with the Kronstadt Soviet.
Negotiations in the Executive Committee lasted all night. The result was a large resolution - a few pages of empty chatter, but the essence: "Regarding the Commissioner of the Provisional Government, it was decided that he would not be appointed from Petrograd, but should be elected by the Kronstadt Council and approved by the Provisional Government."
Well, the Kronstadters never arrested the arrested officers of the Provisional Government.
In the end, the compromise candidate, the teacher Parcheveki, became the commissar of the Provisional Government. He unquestioningly carried out all the instructions of the Kronstadt Soviet. I tried to find any information about Parcheveki’s identity, but to no avail.
So, in 1917, the “Kronstadt Republic” was ruled by non-partisan “pincers”. Talking about the control of the Bolsheviks over Kronstadt in the 1917 year is a big stretch. Although after October 1917, their influence has increased significantly.
Here is a typical example. 1 May of that alarming year, the meeting of the personnel of the fort "Krasnaya Gorka" decided: "Lenin's tactics do not cause us sympathy, and we are not going to stop the fight against German imperialism." The fact is that the fort "Red Hill" was in the deepest rear. His guns never shot at the Germans, and will not shoot in the future. He was sitting in the “Red Hill” garrison in warm barracks, received a good ration and was ready to “continue the struggle against German imperialism” for many more years.
Similarly, when sailors at meetings decided whether to fight the Germans in the Irbensky Strait, opinions were divided: on battleships and cruisers they were all in favor, and on destroyers, gunboats, minesweepers and other small vessels - against. The decision was determined not by party affiliation, but by the draft of ships. Who did not allow the draft to pass the strait, they were, of course, "for", and on ships with a small draft, the sailors unanimously voted against.
Can such a fleet be considered combat-ready? As we see, the “victory” was stolen in the spring of 1917, and the Bolsheviks had nothing to do with it.
Well, until October 1917, Kronstadt was a kind of Zaporizhzhya Sich with sailor freemen instead of the Square Cossacks. Simply put, Kronstadt was independent of the territory of the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet.
UNLIMITED VIOLENCE IN A QUIET PROVINCE
What happened in the rest of the former Russian Empire? Take for example the backwater - Tver province. There, until February 1917, everything was quiet and fine. February 28 Tver army radio station received a telegram about the riots in Petrograd. And the next day, in the garrison of Tver, which numbered over 20 thousand people, fermentation began. On March 2, several dozen workers with red flags moved into the barracks on the Zhelchakov field. The commander of the 196 Infantry Reserve Regiment, Major General Rutkovsky tried to stop them, but was seriously wounded by soldiers.
In Tver, the Cadets and the Zemstvo quickly created a local government that was subordinate to the Provisional Government - the Public Security Committee. It is located in the City Council. Alas, the Committee had no real power. Already 2 March in the city began the killings. For example, a young warrant officer, who demanded that soldiers give him honor, was brutally beaten and then thrown from the third floor of the building onto the pavement.
The committee sent a group of soldiers to arrest the governor N.G. Bunting They took him out into the street and began to shower him with insults. “What have I done wrong to you?” The governor tried to defend himself. “And what have you done to us good?” - answered some woman. And so, “for the inactivity” of Buying was beaten to death, and the disfigured corpse was dragged out and thrown into the square.
Committee members - cadet attorney A.A. Cherven-Vodali, member of the 4th State Duma, and Lieutenant Colonel G.V. Colonels - tried to protect the governor, but were brutally beaten by soldiers. Later, both of them were shot by the Bolsheviks. I note that the vice-governor and a number of other officials, having learned about the events in Petrograd, fled from Tver.
Practically throughout the Tver province, the revolutionary events of February-March of 1917 were accompanied by an increase in violence, cruelty, hooliganism, and crime. The source of anarchy, as a rule, were the soldiers.
So, 1 – 2 March the situation in Tver was uncontrollable. The actions of unorganized crowds of soldiers and workers were accompanied by pogroms and violence. The soldiers looted the house of the governor of Tver, N.G. von Buying, crushed the Tver prison and freed the prisoners. The prisoners, dressed in the form of officers, soldiers, students, high-school students, robbed the population, mocked all those who were considered "gentlemen".
The lower ranks of the 57, 196 and 232 infantry reserve regiments looted the bakery of the Morozovskaya factory. At the enterprises, the soldiers disarmed the sentries guarding the German and Austrian prisoners of war who were in the work.
The soldiers of the Torzhok garrison demanded that the military authorities release those who were in penalty companies and in the guardhouse. After fulfilling this requirement, they destroyed the city prison, from which all the criminals were released.
In Bezhetsk, crowds of soldiers crushed the prison, and in Vyshny Volochyok - the police department and the district council.
In the first half of March, 1917 in the Tver province appeared over three thousand deserters. On March 14, Lieutenant-General Pykhachev pointed out in a telegram that “deserters freed from responsibility, instead of returning to their units, allow themselves to attack civilians and terrorize them.”
A member of the Moscow Council of Soldiers' Deputies Shishilin, visiting the Tver garrison as an instructor in April 1917 of the year, came to the conclusion that “there are few conscious soldiers”.
In June 1917, the Provisional Government began preparations for an offensive on the front. 5 Jun. Kerensky signed an order to send full regiments from the rear garrisons. However, most of the soldiers from the reserve regiments did not want to go to the front. In this regard, even 29 April Prince S.V. Kudashev presented to the Minister of War A.I. Guchkov a memorandum with a plan for creating volunteer percussion units. They were given a large salary and pensions to families. Later, the new war minister, Alexander Kerensky, seized on this idea. June 13 issued Supreme Command Order No. 439 on the formation of revolutionary battalions from rear volunteers “with the aim of raising revolutionary inspiration and an offensive rush in the army”
Someone from the soldiers believed the chatter of Kerensky, who claimed that the Germans would not be able to resist the “revolutionary battalions” and would flee. Someone was seduced by money. As a result, in the Tver province several hundred people enrolled in these battalions.
Thus, the formation of the “death battalion” began in Tver. His goal was proclaimed "to campaign in the rear and at the front in favor of the offensive and, having formed, go to the front."
CIVIL WAR BEGINNED ALREADY IN MARCH
To maintain the power of the Provisional Government, Kerensky began to act on the principle of "divide and rule." He ordered the formation of "national units" - Polish, Czechoslovak, Ukrainian, etc., which, in his opinion, should suppress the revolutionary movement. Alexander Fedorovich turned out to be right - it was the national units that became the instigators of the civil war in Russia.
Thus, in Tver, too, they set about creating the “foreign legion” of Kerensky. In the 27 th infantry reserve brigade, which served about five thousand soldiers mobilized in the southeastern provinces, the Ukrainian National Regiment was formed. The Ukrainian "death squad" was formed in the 293 Infantry Reserve Regiment.
However, Kerensky’s plans to launch a large offensive aroused the anger and indignation of most of the soldiers of the garrisons of the Tver province. These sentiments were covered by the soldier mass, which was released on a demonstration in Tver 18 June. In the course of it, a soldier rushed at an officer of the 196 Infantry Reserve Regiment, who carried a flag with the inscription “Trust to the Provisional Government under the control of the Soviets”. The soldier was killed. Then several officers were killed.
Soldiers who did not want to be recorded in the "shock parts", engaged in robbery. In June, 1917, abusive searches and arrests, beating of officers, and the defeat of wine warehouses became the norm in the garrisons of Tver and Rzhev.
Not lagged behind the soldiers and peasants. Already in March-April, the estates were burning and sharing the land. The case of the peasants of the four villages of the Pervitinsky parish of the Tver district against the landowners of the Tails is curious. On April 7, a gathering of peasants from 200 sent a petition to the county Interim Executive Committee with a request to "send landowners from the limits of the volost for their commitment to serfdom and a crime before the revolution."
The detachments of soldiers, sent by the Provisional Government to the cities to maintain order, themselves became a source of atrocities and pogroms. For example, a detachment of soldiers from the 196 Infantry Reserve Regiment sent to Bezhetsk from Tver refused to maintain order in the city, looted the library of the city school, drank all the meth, intended for physical experiments.
The commander of the detachment, Ensign Nikolsky, stated that “he does not want to know anyone, he does not recognize any military ministers of Kerensky that he has his own Tver Republic, where he does what he wants.”
It was not better in other provinces. However, the wise Soviet, and now anti-Soviet professors-historians who have become anti-Soviet, are still dumb about the peaceful bloodless February revolution, the “lost victory”, that the Civil War began in the summer of 1918, etc.
In February – October, the Provisional Government in Petrograd was 1917, but there was virtually no centralized state. The closest analogue of Russia in February – October is the hetman’s rule in Little Russia in the second half of the 17th century. A hetman sat in Baturin, and in Mirgorod, Belaya Tserkov the power belonged to the colonels (field commanders), in the Sich - Cossacks-gorlopan, well, the capital city of Kiev was itself and was ruled by citizens and the metropolitan. But the hetman, having inflated his cheeks, conducted negotiations on behalf of the whole Little Russia with Moscow, Warsaw and Constantinople.
In my opinion, the Civil War began in March 1917. And in the course of it in Russia, by October 1917, many tens of thousands of people were killed, at least 90% of noble estates were burned, and almost all landowners' lands were divided. The provisional government never fully controlled the central provinces of Russia, and the outskirts did not obey Petrograd at all.
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