Ten Days That Shook the World, John Reed [intellectual books to read .txt] 📗

violence in our hard-working life, however depressing it be to know that our Country and the Revolution are on the verge of ruin, we, nevertheless, all of us, from the highest to the lowest, employees, artelshtchiki, counters, labourers, couriers, etc., are continuing to fulfil our duties which are connected with the ensuring of provisions and munitions to the Front and country.

�Counting upon your lack of information, comrades workers and soldiers, in questions of finance and banking, you are being incited against workers like yourselves, because it is desirable to divert the responsibility for the starving and dying brother-soldiers at the Front from the guilty persons to the innocent workers who are accomplishing their duty under the burden of general poverty and disorganisation.

�REMEMBER, WORKERS AND SOLDIERS! THE EMPLOYEES HAVE ALWAYS STOOD UP FOR AND WILL ALWAYS STAND UP FOR THE INTERESTS OF THE TOILING PEOPLE, PART OF WHICH THEY ARE THEMSELVES, AND NOT A SINGLE KOPEK NECESSARY FOR THE FRONT AND THE WORKERS HAS EVER BEEN DETAINED AND WILL NOT BE DETAINED BY THE EMPLOYEES.

�From November 6th to November 23d, i.e., during 17 days, 500 million rubles were dispatched to the Front, and 120 millions to Moscow, besides the sums sent to other towns.

�Keeping guard over the wealth of the people, the master of which can be only the Constituent Assembly, representing the whole nation, the employees refuse to give out money for purposes which are unknown to them.

�DO NOT BELIEVE THE CALUMNIATORS CALLING YOU TO TAKE THE LAW INTO YOUR OWN HANDS!�

Central Board of the All-Russian Union of Employees of the State Bank.

Central Board of the All-Russian Trade Union of Employees of Credit Institutions.

 

*

 

To the Population of Petrograd.

�CITIZENS: Do not believe the falsehood which irresponsible people are trying to suggest to you by spreading terrible calumnies against the employees of the Ministry of Supplies and the workers in other Supply organisations who are labouring in these dark days for the salvation of Russia. Citizens! In posted placards you are called upon to lynch us, we are accused falsely of sabotage and strikes, we are blamed for all the woes and misfortunes that the people are suffering, although we have been striving indefatigably and uninterruptedly, and are still striving, to save the Russian people from the horrors of starvation. Notwithstanding all that we are bearing as citizens of unhappy Russia, we have not for one hour abandoned our heavy and responsible work of supplying the Army and population with provisions.

�The image of the Army, cold and hungry, saving our very existence by its blood and its tortures, does not leave us for a single moment.

�Citizens! If we have survived the blackest days in the life and history of our people, if we have succeeded in preventing famine in Petrograd, if we have managed to procure to the suffering army bread and forage by means of enormous, almost superhuman, efforts, it is because we have honestly continued and are still continuing to do our work�.

�To the �last warning� of the usurpers of the power we reply: It is not for you who are leading the country to ruin to threaten us who are doing all we can not to allow the country to perish. We are not afraid of threats; before us stands the sacred image of tortured Russia. We will continue our work of supplying the Army and the people with bread to our last efforts, so long as you will not prevent us from accomplishing our duty to our country. In the contrary case the Army and the people will stand before the horrors of famine, but the responsibility therefor belongs to the perpetrators of violence.

Executive Committee of the Employees of the Ministry of Supplies.

 

*

 

To the Tchinovniki (_Government Officials_).

It is notified hereby, that all officials and persons who have quitted the service in Government and public institutions or have been dismissed for sabotage or for having failed to report for work on the day fixed, and who have nevertheless received their salary paid in advance for the time they have not served, are bound to return such salary not later than on November 27th, 1917, to those institutions where they were in service.

In the event of this not being done, these persons will be rendered answerable for stealing the Treasury�s property and tried by the Military Revolutionary Court.

The Military-Revolutionary Committee.

December 7th, 1917.

 

*

 

From the Special Board for the Supplies CITIZENS

�The conditions of our work for the supplying of Petrograd are getting more and more difficult every day.

�The interference with our work�which is so ruinous to our business�of the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee is still continuing.

�THEIR ARBITRARY ACTS, their annulling of our orders, MAY LEAD TO A CATASTROPHE.

�Seals have been affixed to one of the cold storages where the meat and butter destined for the population are kept, and we cannot regulate the temperature SO THAT THE PRODUCTS WOULD NOT BE SPOILT.

�One carload of potatoes and one carload of cabbages have been seized and carried away no one knows where to.

�Cargoes which are not liable to requisition (khalva) are requisitioned by the Commissars and, as was the case one day, five boxes of khalva were seized by the Commissar for his own use.

�WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO DISPOSE OF OUR STORAGES, where the selfappointed Commissars do not allow the cargoes to be taken out, and terrorise our employees, threatening them with arrest.

�ALL THAT IS GOING ON IN PETROGRAD IS KNOWN IN THE PROVINCES, AND FROM THE DON, FROM SIBERIA, FROM VORONEZH AND OTHER PLACES PEOPLE ARE REFUSING TO SEND FLOUR AND BREAD.

�THIS CANNOT GO ON MUCH LONGER.

�The work is simply falling out of our hands.

�OUR DUTY is to let the population know of this.

�To the last possibility we will remain on guard of the interests of the population.

�WE WILL DO EVERYTHING TO AVOID THE ONCOMING FAMINE, BUT IF UNDER THESE DIFFICULT CONDITIONS OUR WORK IS COMPELLED TO STOP, LET THE PEOPLE KNOW THAT IT IS NOT OUR FAULT�.�

15.

ELECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY IN PETROGRAD

There were nineteen tickets in Petrograd. The results are as follows, published November 30th:

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| Party | Vote |

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| Populist Socialists | 19,109 |

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| Cadets | 245,006 |

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| Christian Democrats | 3,707 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Bolsheviki | 424,027 |

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| Socialist Universalists | 158 |

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| S. D. and S. R. Ukrainean and Jewish Workers | 4,219 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| League of Women�s Rights | 5,310 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Socialist Revolutionaries (oborontsi) | 4,696 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Left Socialist Revolutionaries | 152,230 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| League of the People�s Development | 385 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Radical Democrats | 413 |

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| Orthodox Parishes | 24,139 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Feminine League for Salvation of Country | 318 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Independent League of Workers, Soldiers, Peasants | 4,942 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Christian Democrats (Catholic) | 14,382 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Unified Social Democrats | 11,740 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Mensheviki | 17,427 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| Yedinstvo group | 1,823 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

| League of Cossack Troops | 6,712 |

+–––––––––––––––––+–––+

16.

FROM THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE�s COMMISSARS TO THE TOILING COSSACKS

�Brothers-Cossacks.

�You are being deceived. You are being incited against the People. You are told that the Soviets of Workers�, Soldiers� and Peasants� Deputies are your enemies, that they want to take away your Cossack land, your Cossack �liberty�. Don�t believe it, Cossacks�. Your own Generals and landowners are deceiving you, in order to keep you in darkness and slavery. We, the Council of People�s Commissars, address ourselves to you, Cossacks, with these words. Read them attentively and judge yourselves which is the truth and which is cruel deceit. The life and service of a Cossack were always bondage and penal servitude. At the first call of the authorities a Cossack always had to saddle his horse and ride out on campaign. All his military equipment a Cossack had to provide with his own hardly earned means. A Cossack is on service, his farm is going to rack and ruin. Is such a condition fair? No, it must be altered for ever. THE COSSACKS MUST BE FREED FROM BONDAGE. The new People�s Soviet power is willing to come to the assistance of the toiling Cossacks. It is only necessary that the Cossacks themselves should resolve to abolish the old order, that they should refuse submission to their slave-driver officers, landowners, rich men, that they should throw off the cursed yoke from their necks. Arise, Cossacks! Unite! The Council of People�s Commissars calls upon you to enter a new, fresh, more happy life.

�In November and December in Petrograd there were All-Russian Congresses of Soviets of Soldiers�, Workers�, and Peasants� Deputies. These Congresses transferred all the authority in the different localities into the hands of the Soviets, i.e., into the hands of men elected by the People. From now on there must be in Russia no rulers or functionaries who command the People from above and drive them. The People create the authority themselves. A General has no more rights than a soldier. All are equal. Consider, Cossacks, is this wrong or right? We are calling upon you, Cossacks, to join this new order and to create your own Soviets of Cossacks� Deputies. To such Soviets all the power must belong in the different localities. Not to hetmans with the rank of General, but to the elected representatives of the toiling Cossacks, to your own trustworthy reliable men.

�The All-Russian Congresses of Soldiers�, Workers�, and Peasants� Deputies have passed a resolution to transfer all landowners� land into the possession of the toiling people. Is not that fair, Cossacks? The Kornilovs, Kaledins, Dutovs, Karaulovs, Bardizhes, all defend with their whole souls the interests of the rich men, and they are ready to drown Russia in blood if only the lands remain in the hands of the landowners. But you, the toiling Cossacks, do not you suffer yourselves from poverty, oppression and lack of land? How many Cossacks are there who have more than 4-5 dessiatins per head? But the landowners, who have thousands of dessiatins of their own land, wish besides to get into their hands the lands of the Cossack Army. According to the new Soviet laws, the lands of Cossack landowners must pass without compensation into the hands of the Cossack workers, the poorer Cossacks. You are being told that the Soviets wish to take away your lands from you. Who is frightening you? The rich Cossacks, who know that the Soviet AUTHORITY WISHES TO transfer the landowners� lands to you. Choose then, Cossacks, for whom will you stand: for the Kornilovs and Kaledins, for the Generals and rich men, or for the Soviets of Peasants�, Soldiers�, Workers� and Cossacks� Deputies.

�THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE�s COMMISSARS elected by the All-Russian Congress HAS PROPOSED TO ALL NATIONS AN IMMEDIATE ARMISTICE AND AN HONOURABLE DEMOCRATIC PEACE WITHOUT LOSS OR DETRIMENT TO ANY NATION. All the capitalists, landowners, Generals-Kornilovists have risen against the peaceful policy of the Soviets. The war was bringing them profits, power, distinctions. And to you, Cossack privates? You were perishing without reason, without purpose, like your brothers-soldiers and sailors. It will soon be three years and a half that this accursed war has gone on, a war devised by the capitalists and landowners of all countries for their own profit, their world robberies. To the toiling Cossacks the war has only brought ruin and death. The war has drained all the resources from Cossack farm life. The only salvation for the whole of our