The peasants found shelter in the homes of the inhabitants of Petrograd, who, indignant, offered them hospitality; a certain number were lodged in the barracks of the Preobrajenski Regiment. The sailors, who but a few minutes before had sung a funeral hymn to Logvinov, and wept when they saw that they understood nothing, now became the docile executors of the orders of the Bolsheviki. And when they were asked, "Why do you do this?" they answered as in the time, still recent, of Czarism: "It is the order. No need to talk."
It was thus there was manifested the habit of servile obedience, of arbitrary power and violence, which had been taking root for several centuries; under a thin veneer of revolution one finds the servile and violent man of yesterday.
In the midst of these exceptional circ.u.mstances the peasants gave proof of that obstinacy and energy in the pursuit of their rights for which they are noted. Thrown out in the middle of the night, robbed, insulted, they decided, nevertheless, to continue their Congress. "How, otherwise, can we go home?" said they. "We must come to an understanding as to what is to be done."
The members of the Executive Committee who were still free succeeded in finding new premises (let it be noted that among others the workmen of the big Oboukhovsky factory offered them hospitality), and during three days the peasants could a.s.semble secretly by hiding themselves from the eyes of the Red Guard, and the spies in various quarters of Petrograd, until such time as the decisions were given on all great questions. _A proces-verbal was prepared concerning all that had taken place on Kirillovskaia Street. A declaration was made protesting against the acts of the Bolshevik government_. This declaration was to be read at the Taurida Palace when the Soviets were in congress by delegates designated for that purpose. The Bolsheviki, however, would not permit the delegates to enter the Taurida Palace.
Here are the texts of the declaration and of the proces-verbal:
At the Third National Congress of Soviets of Peasants" Delegates grouped around the principle of the defense of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, this declaration was sent to the Congress of Workmen"s, Soldiers" and Peasants" Delegates called together by the Bolshevist government at the Taurida Palace:
At the Second National Peasants" Congress the 359 delegates who had come together for the defense of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly continued the work of the Congress and elected a provisional Executive Committee, independently of the 354 delegates who had opposed the power of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly and adhered to the Bolsheviki.
We, peasant delegates, having come to Petrograd, more than 300 in number, to partic.i.p.ate in a Congress called by the Provisional Executive Committee, which is that of those of the Soviets which acknowledge the principle of the defense of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, declare to our electors, to the millions of the peasant population, and to the whole country, that the actual government which is called "The Government of the Peasants and Workmen" has established in their integrity the violence, the arbitrariness, and all the horrors of the autocratic regime which was overthrown by the great Revolution of February. All the liberties attained by that Revolution and won by innumerable sacrifices during several generations are scouted and trodden under foot. Liberty of opinion does not exist; men who under the government of the Czar had paid by years of prison and exile for their devotedness to the revolutionary cause are now again thrown into the dungeons of fortresses without any accusation whatever, of anything of which they might be guilty, being made to them. Again spies and informers are in action. Again capital punishment is re-established in its most horrible forms; shooting on the streets and a.s.sa.s.sinations without judgment or examination. _Peaceful processions, on their way to salute the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, are greeted by a fusillade of shots upon the orders of the autocrats of Smolny. The liberty of the press does not exist; the papers which displease the Bolsheviki are suppressed, their printing plants and offices looted, their editors arrested._
The organizations which, during the preceding months, were established with great difficulty--zemstvos, munic.i.p.alities, agricultural and food committees--are foolishly destroyed in an excess of savage fanaticism.
The Bolsheviki even try to kill the supreme representation, the only one legitimately established, of the popular will--the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly.
To justify this violence and this tyranny they try to allege the well-being of the people, but we, peasant workers, we see well that their policy will only tighten the cord around the workers"
necks, while the possibility of a democratic peace becomes more remote every day; matters have come to the point where the Bolsheviki proclaim a further mobilization--of salaried volunteers, it is true--to renew the hostilities. They strive to represent the war with Ukraine and with the Cossacks under the aspect of a war of cla.s.ses; it is not, however, the bourgeoisie, but the representatives of the working cla.s.ses who are killed on one side and on the other. They promised the Socialist regime, and they have only destroyed the production of the factories so as to leave the population without product and throw the workers into an army of unemployed; the horrible specter of famine occupies the void left by the broken organizations of food-supply; millions of the money of the people are squandered in maintaining a Red Guard--or sent to Germany to keep up the agitation there, while the wives and the widows of our soldiers no longer receive an allowance, there being no money in the Treasury, and are obliged to live on charity.
The Russian country is threatened with ruin. Death knocks at the doors of the hovels of the workmen.
By what forces have the Bolsheviki thus killed our country? Twelve days before the organization of the autonomous administration was achieved and the elections to the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly begun, at the time when there had been organized all the autonomous administrations of volosts, districts, governments, and cities, chosen by equal, direct, and secret universal suffrage, thus a.s.suring the realization of the will of the people and justifying the confidence of the population--even then they seized the power and established a regime which subjects all the inst.i.tutions of the country to the unlicensed power of the Commissaries of the People. _And these Commissaries rely upon the Soviets, which were chosen at elections that were carried out according to rank, with open balloting and inequality of vote, for therein the peasants count only as many representatives as the workmen of the cities, although in Russia their number is sixty times greater_.
Absence of control permits every abuse of power; absence of secret voting permits that into these Soviets at these suspicious elections some enter who are attracted by the political role of these inst.i.tutions; the defeat of inequality in the suffrage restrains the expression of the will of the peasants, and, accordingly, these cannot have confidence in this system of government. The tyranny that presided at these elections was such that the Bolsheviki themselves pay no attention to the results, and declare that the Soviets that are opposed to themselves are bourgeoisie and capitalists. We, representing the peasant workers, must declare in the name of our const.i.tuents: if anything can save Russia, it can only be the re-establishment of the organs of local autonomous administration, chosen by equal, direct, and secret universal suffrage and the resumption, without delay, of the work of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly.
The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly alone can express the exact will of the working-people, for the system of election which governs it includes every measure of precaution against violence, corruption, and other abuses, and a.s.sures the election of deputies chosen by the majority; now, in the country, the majority is composed of the working cla.s.s.
Millions of peasants delegated us to defend the Const.i.tuante, but this was dissolved as soon as it began to work for the good of the people. The work of the Const.i.tuante was interrupted at the time that it was discussing the law concerning land, when a new agricultural regime was being elaborated for the country. For this reason, and for this alone, the Const.i.tuante adopted only the first articles of this law, articles which established the definite transfer of all the land to the hands of the workers, without any ransom. The other articles of this law, which concerned the order of the apportionment of lots, its forms, its methods of possession, etc., could not be adopted, although they were completely elaborated in the commission and nothing remained but to sanction them.
We, peasants a.s.sembled in Congress, we, too, have been the object of violence and outrages, unheard of even under the Czarist regime. Red Guards and sailors, armed, invaded our premises. We were searched in the rudest manner. Our goods and the provisions which we had brought from home were stolen. Several of our comrade-delegates and all the members of the Committee were arrested and taken to Peter and Paul Fortress. We ourselves were, late at night, put out of doors in a city which we did not know, deprived of shelter under which to sleep. All that, to oblige us either to go to Smolny, where the Bolshevist government called another Congress, or to return to our homes without having attained any result. But violence could not stop us; secretly, as in the time of Czarist autocracy, we found a place to a.s.semble and to continue our work.
In making known these facts to the country and the numerous millions of the peasant population, we call upon them to stigmatize the revolting policy practised by the Bolshevik government with regard to all those who are not in accord with it.
Returned to our villages, dispersed in every corner of immense Russia, we shall use all our powers to make known to the ma.s.s of peasants and to the entire country the truth concerning this government of violence; to make known in every corner of the fatherland that the actual government, which has the hardihood to call itself "Government of the Workmen and Peasants," in reality shoots down workmen and peasants and shamelessly scoffs at the country. We shall use all our strength to induce the population of peasant workers to demand an account from this government of violence, as well as from their prodigal children, their sons and brothers, who in the army and navy give aid to these autocrats in the commission of violence.
In the name of millions of peasants, by whom we were delegated, we demand that they no longer obstruct the work of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly. We were not allowed to finish the work for which we had come; at home we shall continue this work. We shall employ all our strength to effect, as soon as possible, the convocation of a new National Congress of Peasants" Delegates united on the principle of the defense of the Const.i.tuante, and that in a place where we need not fear a new dissolution. Lately we fought against autocracy and Czarist violence; we shall fight with no less energy against the new autocrats who practise violence, whoever they may be, and whatever may be the shibboleths by which they cover their criminal acts. We shall fight for the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, because it is in that alone that we see the salvation of our country, that of the Revolution, and that of Land and Liberty.
Charged by our const.i.tuents to defend the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, we cannot partic.i.p.ate in a Congress called by those who have dissolved it; who have profaned the idea which to the people is something sacred; who have shot down the defenders of true democracy; who have shed the sacred blood of our Logvinov, member of the Executive Committee of peasant deputies, who on the 5th of January was killed by an explosive bullet during a peaceful manifestation, bearing the flag "Land and Liberty."
Comrade-peasants who have come by chance to this Congress declare to these violators that the only Executive Committee that upholds the idea of the defense of the Const.i.tuante forms a center around which are grouped all the peasant workers. We call the entire ma.s.s of peasants to the work that is common to all--the fight for "Land and Liberty," for the true government of the people. "We all come from the people, children of the same family of workers," and we all have to follow a route that leads to happiness and liberty.
Now this road, which leads to "Land and Liberty," goes through the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly alone. The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly was dissolved, but it was chosen by the entire people, and it ought to live.
_Long live the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly!_ _Down with violence and tyranny!_ _All power to the people, through the agency of the_ _Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly!_
[Signed] The Third National Congress of Soviets of Peasant Delegates, United on the Principle of the Defense of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly.
PROCeS-VERBAL OF THE SESSION OF THE III NATIONAL CONGRESS OF SOVIETS OF PEASANTS" DELEGATES, UNITED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF THE DEFENSE OF THE CONSt.i.tUENT a.s.sEMBLY
The Provisional Executive Committee of Soviets of Peasants" Delegates nominated by the fraction of the Second National Congress of these Soviets, which, to the number of 359 delegates, was organized on the basis of the principle of the defense of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, had addressed to all the Soviets an appeal inviting those who believe in the defense of the Const.i.tuante to send representatives to the Third Congress, fixed by the Committee for the 8th of January, and destined to offset the Congress called for the 12th of January by the Committee of that fraction of the Congress which, to the number of 314 votes, took sides against the power of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly and joined the Bolsheviki.
The Peasants" Congress, meeting by districts and by governments, as well as the local executive committees of Soviets which have chosen us, knew well to which Congress they delegated us and had given us precise mandates, expressing their confidence in the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly and their blame of the Soviets and the Bolshevik organs that impede the work of the Const.i.tuante and call the peasants to the Congress of January 12th. These congresses and these committees have charged us to use all our efforts to defend the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, binding themselves, on their part, in case our efforts were insufficient, to rise in a body for its defense.
By reason of the disorganization of postal and telegraphic communications, and because in different localities the calls of the Committee were held up by the Bolshevist organizations, the instructions concerning the Congress fixed for the 8th of January were not received in many provinces until after considerable delay.
Some minutes before the opening of the Conference, which was to take place on the premises of the Committee (11 Kirillovskaia Street), where the delegates on hand had lodged, there arrived a detachment of sailors and Red Guards armed with guns and bombs, who surrounded the house, guarding all the entrances, and occupied all the apartments. The Executive Committee, performing its duty toward the peasant workers, which duty was to hold their flag with a firm hand, not fearing any violence, and not allowing themselves to be intimidated by the bayonets and the bombs of the enemies of the peasant workers, opened the session at the hour indicated.
The Bolshevist pretorians, however, violating the freedom of a.s.sembly, broke into the hall and surrounded the office and members of the Conference with bayonets drawn. Their leader, Kornilov, staff-commandant of the Red Guards of the Rojdestvensky quarter, made a speech to the delegates, in which he said that they were to go to the Smolny Inst.i.tute, to the Bolshevist Congress, a.s.suring them that they had come to this Congress by mistake; at the end he read a doc.u.ment ordering him to make a search of the premises, to confiscate all papers, and to arrest all who would offer resistance. In reply to this speech the delegates and the members of the Executive Committee spoke in turn; they stigmatized vehemently the criminal policy of the Bolshevist government, which dissolved the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, the true representation of the popular will, without having given it the time to register a vote on the agricultural law; which shot down workers partic.i.p.ating in peaceful negotiations; which deprived the people of the right of a.s.sembly to discuss their needs; which destroyed freedom of speech and a.s.sembly and trampled in the dust the whole Russian Revolution.
The delegates, one after another, tried to explain to the Red Guards that it was not the delegates that were deceived in coming to this conference, but those who were going to Smolny to the Bolshevist Congress, those who, by order of the Bolsheviki, kill the peasants" representatives and dissolve their Congress.
In the midst of these speeches Kornilov declared the Congress dissolved; to this Comrade Ovtchinnikov, president of the Conference, replied that the Congress would not be dissolved except by force, and, besides, that the doc.u.ment read by Kornilov did not authorize him to p.r.o.nounce its dissolution. Members of the Congress having entered into arguments with the sailors and the Red Guards, concerning the violence inflicted on the peasant delegates, the sound of the rattling of guns was heard and the leader of the pretorians declared that if the Congress would not submit to his orders he would stop at nothing. All the members of the Congress were forthwith searched and thrown out of doors in groups of five, with the idea that, having come from the provinces, and not knowing Petrograd, they would find themselves dispersed in such a way as not to be able to a.s.semble again anywhere, and would be obliged either to betake themselves to the railway and return home or to direct their steps toward Smolny, the address of which was given to each one at the exit. At the same time, without reason, the following were arrested: Minor, a deputy to the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly; Rakitnikov, Ovtchinnikov, Roussine, Sorokine, and Tchern.o.baiev, members of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Peasant Delegates; and Chmelev, a soldier. The premises of the Committee, on which were various doc.u.ments and papers which were to be sent into the country, were occupied by Red Guards, and machine-guns were placed at the entrance. The search ended about nine o"clock in the evening. Some late delegates alone were authorized to spend the night on the premises under the supervision of Red Guards.
An inquiry held among the comrades, who had come for this Third National Peasants" Congress, established that, at the time when the premises of the Executive Committee were seized, January 10, 1918, there were, among the sailors and Red Guards of the detachment that did the work, _German and Austrian prisoners dressed in Russian uniforms_; it also established the fact that many objects had disappeared in the course of the search. The Congress decided: first, to consider as a law the socialization of the soil voted by the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly and to apply the same in the country; second, to consider that the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, dispersed by brutal force, was nevertheless elected by the whole people and ought to exist and to a.s.semble again as soon as that would be possible; third, to fight everywhere in the provinces in the defense of the organs of autonomous administration, which the Bolsheviki dispersed by armed force. During these few days when the peasants were obliged to a.s.semble in secret and to station patrols to protect their meetings, they followed those methods of conspiracy that the Russian Socialists had been obliged to employ when they fought against the tyranny of autocracy. Returning to their villages, the peasants bore with them the greatest hate for the Bolsheviki, whom they considered the personification of tyranny and violence. And they took with them also a firm resolution to fight against this violence.
The Executive Committee, whose powers were confirmed by the Third Congress, found itself thus, for the second time, deprived of all its goods, its premises, and its pecuniary resources; it found itself obliged to lead a half-clandestine existence, to organize secret a.s.semblies, etc. Miss Spiridonova, who, in this fight against the peasants that rose to the defense of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, gave proof of intolerance and peculiar fanaticism, found herself at the head of the "peasants in uniform," sitting at Smolny, _adopting a decree whereby all the moneys that came by post to the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Peasant Delegates defending the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly were to be confiscated._
The action of the Executive Committee was thus rendered very difficult. But it continued to fight, to publish an organ, to commission delegates, to entertain continued relations with the provinces and the country.
XII
_Conclusion_
_Morally, Bolshevism was killed in the eyes of the workers in the course of these days_ when a peaceful demonstration was fired upon, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly dissolved, the Peasant Congress (and, very soon, the Congress of the Agricultural Committees) dispersed. The Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialist party issued an order for new elections to the Soviets, thinking thus to eliminate automatically the Bolsheviki. And, in truth, when at Petrograd and in the provinces, these elections began, the Revolutionary Socialists and the Mensheviki received the majority and the Bolsheviki were snowed under. But these new elections were thwarted by many circ.u.mstances: first, because of the lessening of production the workmen were discharged in a body and quit the factories; second, the Bolsheviki put obstacles in the way of the elections and sometimes openly prohibited them. Nevertheless, wherever they could be held, the results were unfavorable to the Bolsheviki.
Finally, when the working cla.s.ses clearly saw the shameful role played by the Bolsheviki in the matter of peace, when they saw the Bolsheviki humbly beg for peace at any price from the Germans, they understood that it was impossible to continue to tolerate such a government. _The Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialist party published a Manifesto appealing to an armed fight against the Bolshevik government and the German gangs_ that were overrunning the country.
The frightful results of this "peace," so extolled by the Bolsheviki, rendered even the name of the Bolshevist government odious in the eyes of every conscientious and honest man.
But Bolshevism still endures, for it is based on the armed force of the Red Guard, on the supineness of the ma.s.ses deprived of a political education, and not accustomed to fight or to act, and from ancient habit of submitting to force.
The causes which produced Bolshevism are: first, the acc.u.mulation of all the conditions of the historic past of the Russian people; second, their psychic character and their habits; third, the conditions of the present time; and fourth, the general situation of the world--that is to say, the war.
We also note the vague and hesitating policy of the Provisional Government; the lack of political education among the people, ready to follow him who promises the most; small development of civic sentiment; the want of any attachment whatever to the state--that of the Romanov having never given anything to the people and having taken all from them. Czarism took from the miserable peasant his last penny under form of taxes; it took his children from him for war; for the least act of disobedience to authority he was whipped. He wallowed in misery and in ignorance, deprived of every right, human or legal. How could he, this wretched and oppressed peasant develop civic sentiments, a consciousness of his personal dignity? On the other hand, we must take into account the immense weariness caused by the war and by the disorganization which it brought into the whole cycle of existence (to an incomparably greater degree than in western Europe). Such were the causes which had established a favorable scope for Bolshevik propaganda; to introduce their domination they knew how to make use of the shortcomings of the people and the defects of Russian life.
In fine, what is Bolshevism in its essence? _It is an experiment, that is either criminal or that proceeds from a terrible thoughtlessness, tried, without their consent, on the living body of the Russian people_. Thus some attempt to apply their theories, others wish to measure the height of their personal influence, while still others (and they are found in every movement) seek to profit by the circ.u.mstances.
Bolshevism is a phenomenon brought about by force; it is not a natural consequence of the progress of the Russian Revolution. Taken all in all, Bolshevism is not Socialism. The Bolshevist _coup d"etat_ was accomplished contrary to the wish of the majority of the people, who were preparing for the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly.
_It was accomplished with the help of armed force, and it is because of this that the Bolshevist regime holds out._
_It has against it the whole conscious portion of the peasant and working population and all the Intellectuals._
_It has crushed and trampled under foot the liberty that was won by the Russian people._