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July events 1917. July events

July events 1917. July events

June 1917 turned out to be difficult for Vladimir Lenin. For the entire month he had to restrain the Bolshevik “electorate” and many of his party comrades from a premature attempt to seize power. Exhausted by this, on June 27 (July 10), he, accompanied by his sister Maria, left for the Finnish Neivola (now Gorkovskoye in the Leningrad Region) to the dacha of Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich. The vacation, however, lasted no more than a week. Early in the morning of July 4 (17), a messenger from Petrograd arrived for Lenin: unrest began in the capital.

Ukrainian crisis of the Provisional Government

However, before continuing the story about the actions of Lenin and his fellow party members during these days, it is necessary to mention the events that occurred a couple of days before, and even return to the first weeks after the February Revolution.

Then the newly formed Provisional Government adopted a number of laws that abolished all restrictions on the rights of national minorities and significantly expanded the powers of local self-government in border regions. This could not but intensify separatist sentiments, which, in particular, manifested themselves very strongly in Ukraine.

In Kyiv, the Central Rada, headed by the historian Mikhail Grushevsky, was formed, which assumed the functions of the Ukrainian Parliament, and the General Secretariat, which played the role of the government. The so-called First Universal was also published, which stated that Ukraine now independently resolves all its internal issues and disposes of the land within its borders, which were not defined at that time. The Rada also intended to create a separate Ukrainian army.

Alexander Manuilov
Minister of Public Education

Vasily Stepanov
Administrator of the Ministry of Commerce
and industry

Dmitry Shakhovskoy
Minister of State Charity

Andrey Shingarev
Minister of Finance

Nikolay Nekrasov
Minister of Railways

Let us remember that at that moment there was an unsuccessful offensive by the Southwestern Front, in the rear of which there were Ukrainian lands, so such processes threatened with disaster.

Opinions in the Provisional Government regarding the necessary actions regarding the Rada were divided. Socialist ministers were afraid of losing the 30 million Ukrainian “electorate”, so they offered to make concessions to the Rada. The Cadets categorically rejected her claims. They agreed on the decision to send a representative delegation to Kyiv, which included Minister of War and Navy Alexander Kerensky, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Tereshchenko and Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, the de facto leader of the Soviets of those days, Irakli Tsereteli.

Negotiations that lasted three days ended with a formal compromise, which in fact was an almost unconditional victory for the Rada: all the reforms it carried out more or less remained in force, and only a few of them were postponed until the convening of the Constituent Assembly. The only thing the Rada refused was the creation of its own army.

On July 2 (15), Kerensky, Tereshchenko and Tsereteli presented these results of negotiations to the rest of the government. The Cadets declared their position unchanged, noting that the agreement reached actually ends the power of the Provisional Government on the territory of Ukraine. After a fierce debate that lasted several hours, four cadet ministers - Minister of Finance Andrei Shingarev, Minister of Public Education Alexander Manuilov, Minister of State Charity Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy and the head of the Ministry of Trade and Industry Vasily Stepanov - in agreement with their party, announced their resignation from the government. Another cadet minister - head of the Ministry of Railways Nikolai Nekrasov - chose to remain in the cabinet and, on the contrary, left the cadet party.

There were two options for resolving the crisis. The first was the creation of a completely socialist government, which would correspond to the desire of the masses, who literally two weeks earlier had demonstrated under the slogans “Down with ten capitalist ministers!” and “All power to the councils!” “It’s enough to warm up this vermin in our bosom,” said literally the next morning, already at the height of the unrest in Petrograd, a delegate from one of the factories at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC). The second option was the creation of a new coalition with the participation of “capitalist ministers”.

The Soviet leadership chose the second path. At a joint meeting of the Central Election Commission and the Executive Committee of the Council of Peasant Deputies, Irakli Tsereteli presented a proposal, previously agreed upon by the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik majority, to convene a meeting in two weeks with the participation of local councils, at which party representation in the cabinet would be determined, and until then, to give full power to the remnants of the current government. At the same time, Tsereteli proposed holding such a meeting in Moscow so that its participants would not be subject to pressure or even dissolution by the masses dissatisfied with their decision.

Looking ahead, we can say that the next day the plan previously agreed upon by the Soviet leadership was adopted. But at that moment Petrograd was already boiling. And now, right during the discussion of “how to wash the coat of the coalition without getting the wool wet,” as Leon Trotsky called it, it became known that unrest had begun in the city.

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Bolshevik party historians wrote that the reason for the start of the July unrest in Petrograd was the crisis of the Provisional Government. Actually this is not true. On the day the unrest began, there was not a word in the morning newspapers about the Cadets leaving the Cabinet of Ministers. Of course, by noon rumors about this were already circulating around the city, but this topic was not raised in the speeches of the speakers at the meeting that preceded the start of the speech.

Unrest began in the 1st machine gun regiment, which we have already mentioned several times in the previous issue of our special project, the most radical part of the Petrograd garrison.

The regiment's soldiers refused to carry out orders to send personnel and machine guns to the front. Rumors spread among them about the complete disbandment of the regiment. On July 3 (16), the machine gunners decided to take decisive action. However, they did not have a specific program. At the meeting that preceded the start of the rebellion, among others, the anarchist Joseph Bleichman spoke. The memories that Leon Trotsky left about him quite well convey the mood of the machine gunners that day: “His (Bleichman - TASS note) decision was always with him: we must go out with weapons in hand. Organization? “The street is organizing us.”

Machine gunners scattered throughout the city to seize cars and spread propaganda in other regiments and factories in Petrograd, as well as in Kronstadt, Oranienbaum and other suburbs. Nikolai Sukhanov conveys the scenario of such propaganda in his “Notes on the Revolution”: “Delegations of workers and soldiers came from somewhere and, in someone’s name, referring to “all others,” demanded “speaking.” Of course, a minority “speaked” but everywhere they quit their jobs."

There were regiments and factories that rejected the calls of the machine gunners. There were those who declared neutrality. But there were many who decided to join the movement. In particular, the huge Putilov plant responded.

The workers also had something to be unhappy about. Strikes continued in the city. A memorandum sent shortly before by the trade union of locomotive crews to the Minister of Railways (the same Nikolai Nekrasov who chose to remain in the government) read: “For the last time we declare: there is a limit to patience. There is no strength to live in this situation any longer.” The authors of the note, according to the memoirs of Leon Trotsky, protested against the “endless call for civic duty and hunger abstinence.”

Within a few hours, cars and trucks captured by the rebels were rushing throughout the city, each of which was equipped with machine guns.

Naturally, it could not do without clashes. Shooting started here and there. There were even cases when the soldiers of the advancing units themselves opened fire on each other in the confusion. Maxim Gorky in his “Untimely Thoughts” wrote: “Of course, it was not the “bourgeois” who shot; it was not fear of the revolution that fired, but fear for the revolution.”

The shooting did not stop throughout the two days of unrest and for several days after that. The casualties were very great. In total, about 400 people apparently died during the July events in Petrograd.

Gradually, the rebel units and workers flocked to two points of attraction: the Tauride Palace, where the Soviets met, and the Kshesinskaya mansion, the headquarters of the Bolsheviks.

When two machine gunners arrived at the mansion, the 2nd City Conference of the Party was taking place there. Most of the members of the Central Committee at that moment were in the Tauride Palace and were preparing for a meeting of the workers' section of the Soviets. When those who appeared reported that the regiment had decided to march, then on behalf of the conference, as well as the St. Petersburg Party Committee and the “Voyenka”, located in the mansion, they were refused support and called to return to the barracks. To this the machine gunners replied that “they would rather leave the party, but would not go against the regiment’s resolution,” and left.

When the Bolsheviks in Tauride learned about what had happened, Joseph Stalin appeared at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee, reported the party’s decision and asked to record it in the minutes of the meeting. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Nikolai Chkheidze then remarked: “Peaceful people have no need to record statements about their peaceful intentions.” The Central Election Commission was quick to adopt a resolution declaring the demonstrators “traitors and enemies of the revolution.”

However, unrest continued to grow. The local Bolshevik leader Fyodor Raskolnikov called from Kronstadt to the Kshesinskaya mansion and said that thousands of sailors were rushing to Petrograd at the call of the arriving machine gunners. At some point, it became clear that the Bolsheviks could no longer refuse support to the demonstrators. The decision was changed, and the party took the lead in the movement, calling for it to be turned into a peaceful demonstration for the transfer of all power to the Soviets. One of the companies of the 1st Machine Gun Regiment was sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress located near the Kshesinskaya mansion and easily occupied it, since the garrison supported the Bolsheviks.

Gradually, the participants in the unrest flocked to the Tauride Palace, where the Central Executive Committee continued to meet. Already at night, workers from the Putilov plant approached the palace, many of whom were with their wives and children, about 30 thousand people in total. Apparently, the total number of demonstrators at Tavrichesky that night was about 60, or even 70 thousand people.

The crowd shouted the slogan “All power to the Soviets!”, shook banners, refused to disperse in response to the exhortations of the Central Executive Committee leaders who came to them, but did not take any action, although even a small part of it could easily force the Central Executive Committee to the decision it needed, since the palace was guarded no more than a few dozen soldiers. Menshevik Vladimir Voitinsky wrote that “there was nothing to defend the palace with. It was with difficulty that we managed to preserve the outer outfits and establish patrols that kept us informed of what was happening in the nearest neighborhoods.” The Preobrazhensky, Izmailovsky and Semenovsky regiments, to which the Soviets turned for help, declared their neutrality. At the disposal of the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Pyotr Polovtsev, there were, in fact, only a few Cossack units that patrolled the streets and periodically entered into firefights with participants in the unrest.

It is noteworthy that the point of attraction for the demonstrators was the Tauride Palace, and not the Mariinsky Palace, the seat of government meetings. The same Voitinsky wrote that they “really forgot about the government or, more precisely, they believed that it no longer existed, and they only argued about what kind of government should come to replace it.” “What the so-called government was doing in the Mariinsky Palace was, of course, completely uninteresting. It was an absolutely meaningless quantity and a helpless toy of events. It had to sit and wait for what the Soviet leaders or the masses would decide to do with it,” echoed to him Nikolai Sukhanov. According to him, “any group of 10–12 people could have arrested the ‘government’. But this was not done.” “The government lives by proxy of the Executive Committee, which itself is supported by the hopes of the masses that it will finally come to its senses and take power,” summed up Leon Trotsky.

The only thing that remained for the authorities was to resort to the transfer of troops from the front, namely units of the 5th Army of the Northern Front closest to Petrograd. The chairman of the army committee of this army, Alexander Vilenkin, even independently came up with such an initiative. But the government and the leadership of the Soviets have not yet dared to give such an order.

The demonstrators, having stood inactive for several hours, began to disperse.

As Nikolai Sukhanov wrote, “the rebel army did not know where and why to go? It had nothing but a “mood.” The crowds approached the Tauride Palace until late in the evening. But they had a “decayed” look. They were capable of excesses ", but not for revolutionary action, conscious and planned. They clearly did not know the purpose of their stay in this place."

Despite this, the Bolsheviks called on the demonstrators to return the next day. The initially typed call not to go to demonstrations was urgently removed from the matrices of tomorrow's issue of Pravda, but there was no time to type a new editorial, so the next day the party newspaper came out with a “hole” on the front page, and the printed call to demonstrations was distributed in in the form of leaflets.

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At the night joint meeting of the Central Committee, the St. Petersburg Committee, the Voenka and the Mezhrayontsy allied with the Bolsheviks, it was decided to urgently send for Vladimir Lenin. Bolshevik Maximilian Savelyev followed the party leader and arrived at Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich’s dacha at about six in the morning.

After listening to Savelyev, Lenin immediately got ready and took the first train to Petrograd. To Savelyev’s question: “Isn’t this the beginning of serious action?” - Lenin replied: “It would be completely untimely.”

At about 11 o'clock they arrived at the Finland Station, and soon Lenin was already at the nearby Kshesinskaya mansion.

At the same time as Lenin, the Kronstadters also moved to Petrograd. According to various estimates, from 10 to 30 thousand sailors sailed to the capital on all possible passenger and cargo transport that could be found in the port.

Having moored at Nikolaevskaya (now Lieutenant Schmidt) and Universitetskaya embankments, they moved to the Kshesinskaya mansion to hear Lenin. Ilyich at first refused, but then, after shouting at the members of the Voenka, “We need to beat you all!”, he finally went out onto the balcony.

However, his speech was very cautious. Lenin greeted the sailors and expressed confidence in the impending victory of the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” and called on the sailors to show restraint, determination and vigilance. Many sailors were left disappointed by this speech.

It is interesting that this was Lenin's last public speech until the victory of the October Revolution.

From Kshesinskaya’s mansion, the Kronstadters headed to the Tauride Palace, where other columns of demonstrators flocked. According to modern estimates, up to 400 or even 500 thousand people could have taken part in the demonstrations on July 4 (17).

This day was also not without shootings and casualties.

The Kronstadters who came under fire approached the Tauride Palace extremely embittered. A scene so vivid took place here that it is worth dwelling on it in more detail.

The Minister of Agriculture of the Provisional Government, Socialist Revolutionary Viktor Chernov, came out to the Kronstadters, who began to tell them about the resignation of the cadet ministers from the cabinet and remarked: “Good riddance to them.” However, the angry sailors attacked him: “Why didn’t you say this before? Why did you sit with them in the government?” Chernov still tried to talk to the Kronstadters, but they did not listen to him. There is a legend that one of the sailors put his fist under Chernov’s nose, shouting “Take power, son of a bitch, if they give it to you!” Seeing the futility of his attempts, Chernov tried to return inside the palace, but the sailors grabbed him and dragged him into a nearby car.

Victor Chernov
Minister of Agriculture

When Chernov’s “arrest” became known at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee, a group of delegates was sent to help him, of whom Leon Trotsky was the first to arrive. Here it makes sense to quote extensively from Nikolai Sukhanov’s “Notes on the Revolution”:

“The whole of Kronstadt knew Trotsky and, it would seem, believed him. But Trotsky began a speech, and the crowd did not let up. If a provocative shot had fired nearby now, a grandiose massacre could have occurred, and all of us, including, perhaps, Trotsky, could tear to shreds.” Trotsky, agitated and at a loss for words in the wild situation, barely forced the nearest ranks to listen to him.

You hastened here, Red Kronstadters, as soon as you heard that the revolution was in danger! Red Kronstadt again showed itself as a vanguard fighter for the cause of the proletariat. Long live red Kronstadt, glory and pride of the revolution...

But Trotsky was still listened to unfriendlyly. When he tried to go to Chernov himself, the ranks surrounding the car went wild again.

You came to declare your will and show the Council that the working class no longer wants to see the bourgeoisie in power. But why interfere with your own business, why obscure and confuse your positions with petty violence against individual random people? Individual people are not worth your attention... Give me your hand, comrade!.. Give me your hand, my brother!..

Trotsky extended his hand down to the sailor, who was especially violently expressing his protest. But he resolutely refused to respond in kind and moved his hand, free from the rifle, to the side. It seemed that the sailor, who had listened to Trotsky more than once in Kronstadt, was now really impressed betrayal(author's italics - TASS note) Trotsky.

Not knowing what to do, the Kronstadters released Chernov."

Irakli Tsereteli described the ending of this scene somewhat differently: “Seeing the hesitation of the sailors who arrested Chernov, Trotsky shouted to the crowd: “Who is here for violence, let him raise his hand!” And since no one raised his hand, Trotsky jumped off the roof of the car and, turning to Chernov, said: "Citizen Chernov, you are free."

There is evidence that Chernov was so shocked by what happened that that same evening he immediately wrote eight anti-Bolshevik articles for the Socialist Revolutionary newspaper Delo Naroda, although only four of them were included in the issue.

Another incident is associated with the participation of sailors of the Baltic Fleet in the July unrest. Assistant to the Minister of the Navy (that is, Alexander Kerensky, who was at the front at that moment) Boris Dudorov telegraphed to Helsingfors (Helsinki) the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Rear Admiral Dmitry Verderevsky, demanding that warships be brought into the Neva waters to demonstrate force and possible use against the arriving Kronstadters . However, immediately after this, Dudorov, apparently, was afraid that the crews of the sent ships might go over to the side of the rebels, and sent another telegram to Verderevsky, in which he ordered him that “not a single ship without your order could go to Kronstadt, offering not to stop even before the sinking of such a ship by a submarine."

Verderevsky showed these telegrams to representatives of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet (Tsentrobalt). “These facts (the order to sink ships - TASS note) did not fit into the stubborn sailors’ skulls,” wrote Leon Trotsky. Tsentrobalt sent a delegation to Petrograd to clarify the situation and arrest the “counter-revolutionary” Dudorov. Verderevsky responded to the telegrams from the Assistant Minister of Naval Affairs: “I cannot carry out the orders. If you insist, indicate to whom to hand over the fleet.” Soon both the Tsentrobalt delegation and Verderevsky ended up in prison, although both the sailors and the rear admiral did not stay there long.

On this day, as well as the day before, the crowd, without taking any action, besieged the Tauride Palace until nightfall, after which it began to thin out. The rain that began to fall after some time dispersed the last demonstrators. “Clashes, sacrifices, the futility of the struggle and the intangibility of its practical goal - all this exhausted the movement,” wrote Leon Trotsky.

Shootings continued in the city, soldiers broke into houses, searches in some places turned into robberies, and robberies into pogroms. “Many shops were damaged, mainly wine, gastronomic, and tobacco shops,” recalled Nikolai Sukhanov.

The Central Executive Committee continued to meet in the Tauride Palace. Already at night, those sitting at the meeting suddenly heard the tramp of thousands of feet again. They were afraid that a new manifestation was approaching, but the Menshevik Fyodor Dan, who appeared on the podium, solemnly proclaimed: “Comrades! Calm down! There is no danger! These are regiments loyal to the revolution, to protect its authorized body, the Central Executive Committee...”

The approaching soldiers belonged to the Izmailovsky regiment, which had previously declared neutrality. Members of the Central Executive Committee greeted them with “La Marseillaise,” which they then sang at least twice more, when units of the previously neutral Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments approached the palace.

But there was no one to protect the Central Election Commission members from.

Perhaps these regiments were forced to abandon neutrality and support the Central Executive Committee by reliable information that troops loyal to the government were moving from the front to Petrograd to restore order.

Or perhaps the reason was the actions of the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government, Pavel Pereverzev.

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Lenin - "German spy"

The investigation into possible connections between Vladimir Lenin and the German authorities has been conducted by the Provisional Government since May. By early July it was far from over. The investigation had very dubious data at its disposal: the testimony of a certain warrant officer Ermolenko, a former agent of the tsarist police, sent by Germany across the front line for propaganda and sabotage on the territory of Ukraine, a statement by a certain Z. Burshtein about Lenin’s connection with a spy network operating through Stockholm in the person of Alexander Parvus ( whom Lenin hated), Jakub Ganetsky (who in April helped Lenin cross to Russia from Germany), lawyer Mieczyslaw Kozlovsky and Ganetsky’s relative Evgenia Sumenson, as well as some telegrams that allegedly proved the financing of the Bolsheviks by the German government.

Jakub Ganetsky
Stockholm Bolshevik liaison

Mieczyslaw Kozlowski
Advocate

Pavel Pereverzev
Minister of Justice

Ensign Ermolenko allegedly stated during interrogation that Lenin was named among other German agents operating in Russia by the German officers who were preparing him to be thrown across the front line.

It is this “data” that Pavel Pereverzev now intends to use. However, before putting them into print, he decided to test them on the soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment who had previously declared neutrality. According to another version, the initiative came from officers of the General Staff of the Petrograd Military District, who themselves conducted this “experiment” and reported to Pereverzev about its results. One way or another, representatives of the regiment were summoned to headquarters, where they were presented with “irrefutable evidence.” The effect was enormous.

Having disgraced himself literally a couple of weeks earlier with a “military expedition” against the anarchists at the Durnovo dacha (we talked about this in the previous issue of the special project), Pereverzev, “a man of incomprehensible frivolity and complete unscrupulousness in means,” as Leon Trotsky wrote about him, decided to let the revelations case. He later explained his actions this way: “I was aware that the communication of this information was supposed to create a mood in the hearts of the garrison in which any neutrality would become impossible. I was faced with a choice: either to make public all the roots and threads of this monstrous crime in an indefinite time, or immediately suppress an uprising that could lead to the overthrow of the government."

Pereverzev did all this on his own initiative: neither other members of the government nor the leadership of the Soviets were aware of his actions. Socialist-Revolutionary journalist Vasily Pankratov and former State Duma deputy from the Bolshevik faction Grigory Aleksinsky, a man of extremely dubious reputation, were hastily brought in to transmit the materials to the press.

When his colleagues in the Provisional Government became aware of Pereverzev’s actions, he resigned under their pressure. The head of the cabinet, Prince Georgy Lvov, personally addressed the press with a request not to publish the information provided. The leadership of the Soviets also made a similar appeal.

All newspapers responded to this request, except for the Black Hundred tabloid newspaper “Living Word,” which the next morning came out with the editorial “Lenin, Ganetsky and Kozlovsky are German spies!”

The Bolshevik Central Committee immediately turned to the Central Executive Committee with a request to protect Lenin from attacks, and the Central Executive Committee issued a corresponding statement in which it urged readers to refrain from drawing conclusions until the own committee created by the Soviets had completed its investigation. However, the effect of this tended to zero.

The article from "Living Word" was immediately printed on leaflets that were distributed on every corner. By the middle of the day, all of Petrograd was discussing only that Lenin was a German spy, although in terms of the accusations against him in this publication (of promoting defeatism and organizing mass unrest in Petrograd during the offensive), it would be more correct to use the word “agent.”

The tabloid press went wild as best they could. When, during the destruction of the printing house where the Bolshevik Pravda was printed (we will talk about it below), a letter was found in German signed by a certain baron, which allegedly welcomed the activities of the Bolsheviks and expressed hope for their victory, Malenkaya Gazeta published a note with the heading “German correspondence found.” And when, after the seizure of the Kshesinskaya mansion, piles of Black Hundred leaflets were discovered in the attic, which had clearly been lying there since the time when the building was owned by the ballerina, the Petrogradskaya Gazeta reported: “Lenin, Wilhelm II and Dr. Dubrovin are in a common alliance. Proved: Leninists staged a rebellion together with the Markov and Dubrovin Black Hundreds!” Alexander Dubrovin and Nikolai Markov were the leaders of the Black Hundred "Union of the Russian People".

The serious press, however, also could not ignore this topic. Thus, the authoritative journalist Vladimir Burtsev, who became famous for exposing agents of the tsarist secret police, wrote an article for “Russkaya Volya” “Either we, or the Germans and those who are with them,” in which he said that the Bolsheviks “by their activities, always appeared, freely or unwittingly, agents of Wilhelm II (German Emperor - TASS note)", and also listed 12, in his opinion, the most dangerous persons, among whom were Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev, Alexandra Kollontai, Anatoly Lunacharsky and Maxim Gorky, who actively debated with Burtsev in the following days.

“It would seem unusually strange that this protocol in the eyes of the “public” could serve as this kind of evidence. It would seem that all sorts of conclusions could be drawn from this document, but not the conclusion about the corruption of the Bolshevik leader. But in reality it turned out not to be so. Against the backdrop of the July events(hereinafter the author’s italics - TASS note), against the backdrop of the frenzied anger of the bourgeois-right-wing Soviet elements, against the backdrop of the terrible Katzenjammer ( German"hangover". - Approx. TASS) "rebels" the published document had a very special, very strong effect. No one wanted to read into it on its merits. Document of bribery- and that’s enough,” wrote Nikolai Sukhanov. “Of course, none of the people really associated with the revolution doubted for a moment the absurdity of these rumors,” he added.

“The nature of the accusation and the accusers themselves inevitably gives rise to the question: how could people of a normal disposition believe or at least pretend to believe a deliberate and completely absurd lie? The success of counterintelligence would, indeed, be unthinkable outside the general atmosphere created by war, defeats, devastation, revolution and bitterness social struggle. The initiator of such cases, along with a malicious agent, was a lost man in the street,” Leon Trotsky echoed Sukhanov.

Most likely, you also have questions: was Lenin a German agent? Did the Bolsheviks receive money from the German government? Reasoned answers to them will take up volumes that have already been written, so we will answer briefly. Yes, the primary source of some of the money that replenished the Bolshevik coffers could indeed have been the German authorities. No, Lenin was never a German agent.

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Assault on the Kshesinskaya mansion

By the evening of July 4 (17), it became clear that the movement had exhausted itself. Government troops were moving towards Petrograd from the front. In addition, the Bolshevik leadership already knew about the actions of Pavel Pereverzev. Therefore, the Bolshevik leaders decided to call on the soldiers and workers to end the demonstrations.

In the issue of Pravda dated July 5 (18), an announcement was placed on the last page that “the goal of the demonstration has been achieved. The slogans of the vanguard of the working class are shown impressively and with dignity. We therefore decided to end the demonstration.” “This is the kind of grimace that should have depicted a smile of satisfaction,” wrote Nikolai Sukhanov.

Soon after this issue was printed, the Pravda printing house was destroyed. Vladimir Lenin, apparently, managed to leave her just minutes before the soldiers arrived.

Now they will shoot us. The best time for them

Bridges in the city had been drawn since night. Soldiers and Cossacks loyal to the government combed the neighborhoods, disarming and arresting anyone who aroused the slightest suspicion of involvement in the rebellion.

On the morning of July 5 (18), several hundred Kronstadters remained in the mansion of the Kshesin and Peter and Paul Fortress. Most of the sailors headed back to the naval base that night. Fyodor Raskolnikov, appointed commandant of the mansion, sent requests to Kronstadt and Helsingfors to send guns, shells and even a warship. “I had the firm conviction that it was enough to bring one warship into the mouth of the Neva for the resolve of the Provisional Government to fall,” he later wrote. And although Raskolnikov claimed that he took all these measures solely for defensive purposes, apparently, he still did not fully assess the situation correctly and admitted the possibility of continuing the protests. One way or another, he later treated his actions with irony. “Having started work as commandant of the Kshesinskaya house, I actually turned into an illegal commander of the troops,” he recalled.

The Menshevik Mikhail Liber, who arrived at the mansion, on behalf of the Central Executive Committee, guaranteed the non-use of repression against the Bolsheviks and the release of all those arrested who had not committed criminal offenses, in exchange for sending sailors to Kronstadt, the surrender of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the return of all armored cars to the unit. However, by the evening the position of the Central Executive Committee had changed: now the same Lieber demanded that Raskolnikov, who had arrived at the Tauride Palace, disarm the Kronstadters, constantly shortening the term of the ultimatum. “Obviously, the duration of the ultimatum decreased in direct proportion to the increase in counter-revolutionary troops arriving from the front,” Raskolnikov later wrote. Not accepting the ultimatum, he left the palace, and in the Kshesinskaya mansion they began to prepare to repel the attack.

On the morning of July 6 (19), units from the front began to arrive in Petrograd. The forces allocated to storm the mansion were, to put it mildly, inadequate for the number of its defenders. The assault was supposed to involve one full regiment, eight armored cars, one company each from three more regiments, a group of sailors from the Black Sea Fleet, several units of cadets, aviation school cadets and a front-line scooter brigade supported by heavy artillery.

Then it was the turn of the Kronstadters and machine gunners who settled in the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, there was no bloodshed. After several hours of negotiations, the soldiers and sailors agreed to disarmament, were re-signed and released.

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Lenin on the run

In the evening of the same day, Vladimir Lenin met on the Vyborg side with Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Podvoisky. Lenin stated that in the current situation “all the previous work of the party will be temporarily nullified,” but noted with satisfaction that the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries had irrevocably embarked on the path of cooperation with the counter-revolution. It was at this meeting that he first proposed changing the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” to "All power to the working class, led by its revolutionary party - the Bolshevik Communists!" This slogan and Lenin’s new theses, which he would formulate underground in the following weeks, still had to withstand the battle, not without losses, at the secret meeting of the Central Committee on strategy on July 13 (26), and then at the VI Party Congress, held from July 26 (August 8) to August 3 (16) in Lenin's absence.

Around the same hours, Alexander Kerensky returned from the front, who was dissatisfied with the inaction of his cabinet colleagues. Soon after this, the government adopted a resolution “to arrest and prosecute all those who participated in the organization and leadership of the armed uprising against the state power established by the people, as well as all those who called and instigated it, as guilty of treason and betrayal of the revolution.” Following this, an order was issued for the arrest of Vladimir Lenin, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev.

A detachment of soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, under the personal command of the chief of counterintelligence Boris Nikitin, went to Lenin’s last known place of residence - to the apartment of his older sister and her husband. Lenin was no longer there, but the apartment was searched. During the first three days of his new underground life, he changed five apartments, one of which was the apartment of Sergei Alliluyev, Stalin’s future father-in-law, who at that time had already registered there and now gave Lenin his room.

It is known that at first Lenin was inclined to surrender to the authorities, subject to security guarantees. Obviously, he was afraid that he would be killed during his arrest or during pre-trial detention. These days he left a note for Kamenev: “If they kill me, I ask you to publish my notebook: “Marxism on the State” (the title of the synopsis of Lenin’s central work “State and Revolution” that was not completed at that time. - TASS note).” However, the Menshevik Vasily Anisimov, who negotiated with the Bolsheviks on behalf of the Soviets, could not give such guarantees, and Lenin changed his decision.

It remained unclear to many. Nikolai Sukhanov was perplexed: “Why was this necessary? Did anything threaten the life or health of the Bolshevik leader? It was ridiculous to talk about this in the summer of '17! There was no talk of lynching, the death penalty, or hard labor. No matter how the trial was unfair, no matter how minimal the guarantees of justice were, Lenin could still be threatened with absolutely nothing other than imprisonment.”

"But, as you know, there was one more circumstance. After all, in addition to the accusation of uprising, a monstrous slander was erected against Lenin. A little time passed, and the absurd accusation dissipated like smoke. No one confirmed it in any way, and they stopped believing him. The accusation under this article against Lenin there was absolutely no threat, but Lenin fled with such an accusation on his brow.

It was something completely special, unprecedented, incomprehensible. Any mortal would demand trial and investigation of himself under the most unfavorable conditions. Anyone would do personally, with maximum activity, in front of everyone, everything possible for their rehabilitation. But Lenin suggested doing this to others, his opponents. And he himself sought salvation in flight and disappeared,” Sukhanov wrote.

To this Leon Trotsky objected to him: “Any mortal could not become the subject of the rabid hatred of the ruling classes. Lenin was not just any mortal and did not for a minute forget about the responsibility that lay upon him. He knew how to draw all the conclusions from the situation and knew how to ignore the fluctuations of the “social opinions" in the name of the tasks to which his life was subordinated."

On the night of July 8–9 (21–22), Lenin and Grigory Zinoviev left the Alliluyevs’ apartment and fled to the village of Razliv, about 30 kilometers northwest of Petrograd, where they first hid in the attic of the barn of the Bolshevik Nikolai Yemelyanov, and then in For greater safety, we moved to a hut on the opposite shore of the lake.

The press did not calm down even after Lenin’s flight. "Living Word" wrote that he was captured during the storming of Kshesinskaya's mansion. The Petrogradskaya Gazeta claimed that Lenin fled to Kronstadt. The Kopeyka newspaper, citing an “unconditionally reliable source,” reported on July 15 (30) that “Lenin is currently in Stockholm.” "Birzhevye Vedomosti" went even further and stated that Lenin was indeed in Stockholm, but with the help of the German envoy and the "notorious Ganetsky-Furstenberg" he had already been transported to Germany. Finally, the Living Word published radically new information: “In fact, Lenin lives just a few hours’ drive from Petrograd, in Finland. Even the number of the house in which he lives is known. But arresting Lenin, they say, will not be very easy, so how he has a strong guard, which is well armed.”

Lenin and Zinoviev stayed in Razliv until approximately July 29 (August 11), when rains and cold weather began, and it was impossible to live any longer in the hut. Under the guise of a fireman, Lenin moved to Finland, where he spent a total of about a month and a half, first in Yalkala (now Ilyichevo in the Leningrad region), then in Helsinki and Vyborg.

In the second half of September, Lenin secretly returned to Petrograd and lived on the northern outskirts of the city, only to appear in public again on the day of the October Revolution.

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Persecution of the Bolsheviks

The day after Alexander Kerensky returned to Petrograd, under his pressure, a resolution was adopted to disarm and disband the units that took part in the rebellion. In fact, this resolution was poorly implemented: it is known that at least three regiments subject to disbandment were still in Petrograd at the time of the October Revolution.

However, economic reasons for discontent were not the main ones. The people considered the ongoing war, which had been going on for three years, to be the main problem that entailed all the others. Then it was obvious to everyone that Russia’s entry into the war, and then its excessive prolongation, was beneficial only to military industrialists, who were getting rich on supplies, and to officials and quartermasters, who were getting rich from kickbacks. At the same time, the country fell into ever greater debt bondage to England, France and America. In this regard, the government, advocating war to a victorious end, was naturally not perceived as national. Anti-war sentiment was also fueled by the unsuccessful June Offensive.
Then, in the period between the two revolutions, the only layer in favor of Russia’s exit from the war was the Bolshevik party, and therefore it is not surprising that they found constant support among soldiers and sailors. Then it seemed that if you just choose an opportune moment, you can easily come to power.

This convenient moment began to take shape on July 15, when, protesting against the conclusion by the delegates of the Provisional Government (Kerensky, Tereshchenko and Tsereteli) of an agreement with the Ukrainian Rada and the declaration on the Ukrainian issue published by the Provisional Government, members of the Provisional Government from the Cadet Party, the Minister of State Charity, Prince D., resigned I. Shakhovskoy, Minister of Education A. M. Manuilov and Minister of Finance A. I. Shingarev. That day, the Provisional Government virtually collapsed, and the next day, July 16, demonstrations against the Provisional Government began in the capital. The next day, these demonstrations began to be openly aggressive.

At the epicenter of events was the 1st Machine Gun Regiment, whose soldiers adhered mainly to anarchist beliefs. The regiment sent its delegates to Kronstadt, calling on them to arm themselves and move to Petrograd.
On the morning of July 17, sailors gathered on Anchor Square in Kronstadt, who, unlike the “machine gunners,” were mainly under the influence of the Bolsheviks. Having captured tugboats and passenger ships, the Kronstadt soldiers moved towards Petrograd. Having passed through the sea canal and the mouth of the Neva, the sailors landed at the pier of Vasilyevsky Island and the English Embankment.
Having walked along the University embankment and Birzhevoy Bridge, the sailors crossed to the St. Petersburg side and, walking along the main alley of Alexander Park, arrived at the Bolshevik headquarters in the Kshesinskaya mansion.

Shooting of demonstrators on the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya

Another demonstration, consisting mainly of workers, was met with fire at the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya.
By mid-day, the square in front of the Tauride Palace was filled with a crowd of thousands of soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, sailors and workers. Moreover, the assembled crowd as a whole was not controlled by either the Council, the district headquarters, or the Bolsheviks.

The demonstrators nominated five delegates for negotiations with the Central Election Commission. The workers demanded that the Central Election Commission immediately take all power into its own hands, in view of the fact that the Provisional Government had virtually collapsed. The leaders of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries promised to convene a new All-Russian Congress of Soviets in 2 weeks and, if there was no other way out, to transfer all power to it.

When the incident seemed over to many, a group of sailors entered the Tauride Palace. At the beginning, the sailors are looking for the Minister of Justice Pereverzev, but instead they grab the Minister of Agriculture Chernov, pulls him out, having managed to significantly crush him and tear his suit during the capture. Chernov assures that he is not Pereverzev, and begins to explain the advantages of his land program, and along the way reports that the Cadet ministers have already left and are not needed by the government. All kinds of cries and reproaches come from the crowd, such as demands to immediately distribute the land to the people. Chernov is picked up and dragged to the car. Thanks to the intervention of Trotsky, who at that moment made a speech to the crowd, Chernov was released.

Juncker in the captured Kshesinskaya mansion

Rebinder, having reached the intersection of Shpalernaya with Liteyny Prospekt, was fired upon by a group of people standing on Liteyny Bridge, dressed in prison robes and armed with a machine gun. Rebinder dismounted and opened fire on them. One of the shells hit the very middle of the machine-gunner prisoners and, killing eight people on the spot, scattered the rest.

After this, the horse artillerymen began shooting at the crowd gathered at the Tauride Palace. Some began to shoot back, but most began to run away.
At night and in the morning of the next day, one part of the sailors returned to Kronstadt, and the most radically minded took refuge in the Peter and Paul Fortress. A precarious balance has been established in the capital.

In the morning, a battalion of scooter riders occupied the Peter and Paul Fortress. Somewhat later, the Kshesinskaya palace was occupied. On the same day, a warrant was issued for Lenin's arrest. The day before, in the newspaper Zhivoye Slovo Lenin was first called a German spy, and on the 21st Kerensky himself confirmed these accusations. On that day, he assumed the duties of head of the Provisional Government and, while remaining Minister of War and Navy, also became Minister of Trade and Industry.
They did not have time to arrest Lenin - he went illegal and moved to Razliv in what later became a memorial hut.

New composition of the Provisional Government: sitting (glory to the right): Efremov, Peshekhonov, Chernov, Nekrasov, Kerensky, Avksentyev, Nikitin, Oldenburg. Standing: Zarudny, Skobelev, Prokopovich, Savinkov, Kartashov.

JULY EVENTS of 1917 (July Days), a political crisis in Russia, expressed in mass demonstrations of workers under the protection of the armed Red Guard, as well as garrison soldiers and sailors of the Baltic Fleet in Petrograd. They took place under the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” They were preceded by the defeat of the June 1917 offensive and the beginning of another crisis of the coalition Provisional Government, which aggravated the political situation in the country. The July events began on July 3 (16), when, at the call of soldiers of the 1st machine gun regiment, who were under the influence of anarchists, spontaneous anti-government demonstrations began in Petrograd, in which soldiers from a number of units of the city garrison, workers of Putilov and other factories in the capital took part. The Bolsheviks, who had great influence on the soldiers and workers of Petrograd, considered the uprising premature, but could not prevent it. Considering the scope of the movement, on the night of July 3 (16) to July 4 (17), the leadership of the RSDLP (b) decided to lead it and give it a peaceful character. On July 4 (17), the demonstrators were joined by a detachment of Baltic Fleet sailors and soldiers (up to 10 thousand people) who arrived from Kronstadt under the leadership of F. F. Raskolnikov. On that day, the number of demonstrators reached, according to various estimates, 400-500 thousand people (of which 40-60 thousand were soldiers). The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which banned the demonstration, declared it a “Bolshevik conspiracy,” rejected the demands of the demonstrators, and on the night of July 4 (17) to July 5 (18) decided that “all power” should remain with the Provisional Government. Demonstrations against the Provisional Government were accompanied by counter-demonstrations by its supporters. In a number of places in the city, fire was opened on demonstrators from windows and from the roofs of buildings (by whom exactly remains unknown); 56 people were killed and 650 were wounded. To restore order, the Provisional Government called units from the front to Petrograd with a total number of 15-16 thousand military personnel. On July 5 (18), troops loyal to the government established control over the city center and destroyed the printing house and editorial office of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda. At the same time, the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) published an appeal calling for an end to the demonstrations. On July 6 (19), the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, who had taken refuge in the Peter and Paul Fortress, were forced to surrender their weapons and go to Kronstadt, and the Bolsheviks were forced to leave the mansion of M. F. Kshesinskaya, which they occupied after the February Revolution of 1917 and turned into the party headquarters. The military units that fully participated in the demonstration were disarmed and disbanded, and their personnel were sent to the front. Many Bolsheviks, direct participants in the July events, were arrested on charges of organizing and leading an armed uprising against state power (G. E. Zinoviev and V. I. Lenin escaped arrest). According to the initial results of the investigation, 13 people (among them Zinoviev, Lenin, A.V. Lunacharsky, A.M. Kollontai, F.F. Raskolnikov, L.D. Trotsky) were accused of entering into an agreement with agents Germany, in order to disorganize the army and rear, received money from abroad to propagate among the population and troops the idea of “refusal of military action against the enemy” and organized an armed uprising against the supreme power. Those arrested pleaded not guilty. The accusation against the Bolsheviks in organizing demonstrations was refuted by the witnesses brought to the investigation. Further investigation into the July events was interrupted by the October Revolution of 1917; Many aspects of the July events still remain controversial.

Under the influence of the July events in Petrograd, anti-government demonstrations took place in Moscow, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Orekhov-Zuevo, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk and other cities.

Lit.: July 3 - July 5, 1917. Based on unpublished materials of the judicial investigation and the archives of the Petrograd Committee of the RCP. P., 1922; July days in Petrograd // Red Archive. 1927. No. 4; Revolutionary movement in Russia in July 1917. M., 1959; Znamensky O. N. July crisis of 1917 M.; L., 1964; Rabinovich A. Bloody days: The July uprising of 1917 in Petrograd. M., 1992; Zlokazov G.I. Materials of the Special Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government on the July events of 1917 // Domestic history. 1999. No. 5.

On the night of the fourth there was a continuous meeting in the Tauride Palace. Central Committee, St. Petersburg Committee, and the Military Organization under the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), Interdistrict Committee, Bureau of the Workers' Section of the Petrograd Soviet. The Central Committee, through agitators and delegates, had contact with military units and factories. The issue of the 4th of July demonstration was discussed. From reports from the districts it turned out that: “1) workers and soldiers cannot be kept from demonstrating tomorrow; 2) demonstrators will come out with weapons solely for the purpose of self-defense in order to create a valid guarantee against provocative shots from Nevsky Prospekt...” The meeting, by an overwhelming majority of votes, decided to give the spontaneous movement a conscious and organized character. An appeal was adopted to the workers and soldiers of Petrograd calling for a peaceful organized demonstration under the slogan “All power to the Soviets!”

On the night of July 4th. Peterhof. A meeting of representatives of the company and regimental committees of the regiment, 1st and 2nd battalions was held in the 3rd Infantry Reserve Regiment. The meeting discussed questions about the attitude to the events taking place, about strengthening the guards, about the selection of delegates to be sent to the 1st machine gun regiment, about the convening of a meeting, about the connection of the regiment with all military organizations, about the choice of the regiment headquarters, about the organization of the regiment's security. On the first issue, a resolution was adopted demanding the transfer of all power to the hands of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. “This demand,” the resolution said, “the 3rd Infantry Regiment is ready to support immediately with the force of its weapons in agreement with the entire Petrograd garrison.” The 3rd Infantry Regiment sent 1400-1500 people to Petrograd

In the morning, rumors spread throughout the city that provocateurs were preparing another slander against Lenin. It became known that the author of the dirty slander was Aleksinsky (a well-known slanderer, defencist, member of Plekhanov’s Unity group). I.V. Stalin, at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee, protested against this slander and demanded that the Central Executive Committee take measures to suppress it. Chairman of the Central Executive Committee Chkheidze, on his own behalf, as well as on behalf of Tsereteli, as a member of the Provisional Government, was forced to telephone all newspaper editorial offices with a proposal to refrain from publishing Aleksinsky’s slander. All newspapers complied with this request, with the exception of the tabloid newspaper Zhivoe Slovo.

Kronstadt. By 7 o'clock in the morning, about 10 thousand armed Kronstadters had gathered on Anchor Square. The distribution of ammunition began, the distribution of those gathered among barges and tugs. A rally was organized, at which the Bolshevik S.G. spoke. Roshal and others. The speakers said that the purpose of the speech was to show their power and demand the transfer of power to the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The Kronstadters headed to Petrograd.

A grandiose demonstration took place in Petrograd, in which up to 500 thousand workers took part, soldiers and sailors. The regiments of the Petrograd garrison took to the street, and some units also arrived from Peterhof, Oranienbaum, Krasnoye Selo, and Kronstadt. The demonstration took place under Bolshevik slogans. From different areas, columns of demonstrators headed to the Kshesinskaya Palace. As the Kronstadters passed in front of the palace, V.I. gave a speech from the balcony. Lenin. He conveyed greetings to the revolutionary Kronstadters on behalf of the Petrograd workers and expressed confidence that the slogan “All power to the Soviets” should and will win. At the same time, Lenin called for “restraint, steadfastness and vigilance.” At the Tauride Palace, demonstrators, through their delegates, presented demands to the Central Executive Committee and the Petrograd Soviet. Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration, cadets, Cossacks and officers fired at the demonstrators with rifles and machine guns. They shot from windows and from rooftops. They shot at workers and soldiers on the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya, Nevsky and Liteiny, Nevsky and Vladimirsky. In the evening, a clash occurred between soldiers and Cossacks on Liteiny. The total number of killed and wounded that day was 400 people. The counter-revolution went on the offensive. The Central Election Commission took the path of open support for the bourgeoisie.

The Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Central Executive Committee sent out orders and instructions to the Mikhailovsky Manege of the reserve armored automobile division, to the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, to the Volyn Guards Regiment, to the Armor Department of the 1st Reserve Automobile Company, to the Committee of the Reserve Battalion of the Izmailovsky Guard Regiment, to the Executive Committee of the Oranienbaum Rifle School, to the Arsenal, to the 2nd Machine Gun regiment and other units - send soldiers, weapons and armored cars to guard the Tauride Palace from demonstrators.

In the evening at about 9 o'clock the anarchists seized the printing house of "New Time" and declared that they would not allow the next issue of this newspaper to be published. The typesetters printed an appeal to the anarchists, which the latter went to distribute; some of them remained to guard the printing house.

The CEC Bureau approved the decision of the Provisional Government on the unification of all actions to suppress the action of revolutionary workers and soldiers of Petrograd. The Central Election Commission sent its representatives (two Socialist Revolutionaries) to help the government.

The provisional government issued a decree on the unconditional prohibition of all armed demonstrations.

Minister of War and Navy A.F. Kerensky in connection with the events in Petrograd sent a telegram to G.E. Lvov demanding the suppression of revolutionary uprisings by armed force, the disarmament of military units and the bringing to trial of the participants in the uprisings.

Kerensky gave the order to the commander of the Petrograd Military District Major General Polovtsev to immediately suppress the performance of soldiers in Petrograd. Kerensky asked to give the order to the chief military prosecutor to immediately begin an investigation into the events of July 3 in Petrograd and bring all those responsible to justice.

The Provisional Government gave orders to the commander of the Petrograd Military District“clear Petrograd of armed people”, take away machine guns from the 1st machine gun regiment, arrest all participants in the revolutionary uprising, arrest the Bolsheviks occupying Kshesinskaya’s house, clear it and occupy it with troops.

General Polovtsev gave the order to the commander of the Guards reserve artillery division about sending eight light guns to Petrograd on Palace Square under the cover of detachments of warrant officer schools.

Arrived in Petrograd summoned by the Provisional Government and the Central Executive Committee of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to suppress the speech of workers and soldiers of the military school cadets of the Northern Front, soldiers of the 2nd machine gun regiment from Strelnya, cadets of the Vladimir Military School, soldiers of the 9th cavalry and 1st Cossack regiments, etc. Security has been strengthened at the district headquarters, the Winter Palace, ministries and other government institutions. A hundred Cossacks, a platoon of regular cavalry and a platoon of infantry were sent to each district to deal with the demonstrators.

Tiflis. On June 25, a rally of many thousands of the entire Tiflis garrison took place. Bolshevik resolutions, posters, banners, and Bolshevik slogans were unanimously adopted in all the stands. The leaflets of the M-Kov and the Socialist-Revolutionaries are against us. The soldiers tore them and burned them. A complete victory for our platform; tell the military congress: we didn’t have time, we received the telegram with the invitation late. Please give one hundred rubles. Daria Iosipovich. Tiflis. Krotaradze.

(Sources: Great October Socialist Revolution. Chronicle of events in 4 volumes; N. Avdeev. “Revolution of 1917. Chronicle of events”; Collection “Truth No. 1-227, 1917, issue IV)

The defeat of the July uprising

July 6, 1917 (July 19, new style) The July uprising was suppressed in Petrograd.

Soon after the February Revolution in Russia, a sharp decline in production began. By the summer of 1917, metallurgical production had decreased by 40%, and textile production by 20%. In May, 108 factories with 8,701 workers were closed, in June - 125 factories with 38,455 workers, and in July - 206 factories with 47,754 workers.
But life did not improve for those who continued to work - starting in June 1917, price growth began to outpace wage growth. (Cm.: ) Naturally, this could not but cause discontent among the workers with the Provisional Government.
However, economic reasons for discontent were not the main ones. The people considered the ongoing war, which had been going on for three years, to be the main problem that entailed all the others. Then it was obvious to everyone that Russia’s entry into the war, and then its excessive prolongation, was beneficial only to military industrialists, who were getting rich on supplies, and to officials and quartermasters, who were getting rich from kickbacks. At the same time, the country fell into ever greater debt bondage to England, France and America.
In this regard, the government, advocating war to a victorious end, was naturally not perceived as national. Anti-war sentiment was also fueled by the unsuccessful June Offensive.
Then, in the period between the two revolutions, the only layer in favor of Russia’s exit from the war was the Bolshevik party, and therefore it is not surprising that they found constant support among soldiers and sailors. Then it seemed that if you just choose an opportune moment, you can easily come to power.
This convenient moment began to take shape on July 15, when, protesting against the conclusion by the delegates of the Provisional Government (Kerensky, Tereshchenko and Tsereteli) of an agreement with the Ukrainian Rada and the declaration on the Ukrainian issue published by the Provisional Government, members of the Provisional Government from the Cadet Party, the Minister of State Charity, Prince D., resigned I. Shakhovskoy, Minister of Education A. M. Manuilov and Minister of Finance A. I. Shingarev.
On that day, the Provisional Government virtually collapsed, and the next day, July 16, demonstrations against the Provisional Government began in the capital. The next day, these demonstrations began to be openly aggressive.
At the epicenter of events was the 1st Machine Gun Regiment, whose soldiers adhered mainly to anarchist beliefs. The regiment sent its delegates to Kronstadt, calling on them to arm themselves and move to Petrograd.
On the morning of July 17, sailors gathered on Anchor Square in Kronstadt, who, unlike the “machine gunners,” were mainly under the influence of the Bolsheviks. Having captured tugboats and passenger ships, the Kronstadt soldiers moved towards Petrograd. Having passed through the sea canal and the mouth of the Neva, the sailors landed at the pier of Vasilyevsky Island and the English Embankment.
Having walked along the University embankment and Birzhevoy Bridge, the sailors crossed to the St. Petersburg side and, walking along the main alley of Alexander Park, arrived at the Bolshevik headquarters in the Kshesinskaya mansion.

Shooting of demonstrators on the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya

From the balcony of the Kshesinskaya mansion, Sverdlov, Lunacharsky and Lenin addressed the demonstrators, calling on the armed sailors to go to the Tauride Palace and demand the transfer of power to the soviets.
The demonstration of sailors took place along the Trinity Bridge, Sadovaya Street, Nevsky Prospect and Liteiny Prospekt, moving towards the Tauride Palace. At the corner of Liteiny Prospekt and Panteleimonovskaya Street, a detachment of sailors came under machine-gun fire from the windows of one of the houses; three Kronstadt residents were killed and more than 10 were wounded. The sailors grabbed their rifles and began to shoot randomly in all directions.
Another demonstration, consisting mainly of workers, was met with fire at the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya.
By mid-day, the square in front of the Tauride Palace was filled with a crowd of thousands of soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, sailors and workers. Moreover, the assembled crowd as a whole was not controlled by either the Council, the district headquarters, or the Bolsheviks.
The demonstrators nominated five delegates for negotiations with the Central Election Commission. The workers demanded that the Central Election Commission immediately take all power into its own hands, in view of the fact that the Provisional Government had virtually collapsed. The leaders of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries promised to convene a new All-Russian Congress of Soviets in 2 weeks and, if there was no other way out, to transfer all power to it.
When the incident seemed over to many, a group of sailors entered the Tauride Palace. At the beginning, the sailors are looking for the Minister of Justice Pereverzev, but instead they grab the Minister of Agriculture Chernov, pulls him out, having managed to significantly crush him and tear his suit during the capture. Chernov assures that he is not Pereverzev, and begins to explain the advantages of his land program, and along the way reports that the cadet ministers have already left and are not needed by the government. All sorts of cries and reproaches come from the crowd, such as demands to immediately distribute the land to the people. Chernov is picked up and dragged to the car. Thanks to the intervention of Trotsky, who at that moment made a speech to the crowd, Chernov was released.

Juncker in the captured Kshesinskaya mansion

Having learned by telephone about the arrest of Chernov and the violence of sailors in the Tauride Palace, the commander of the troops of the Petrograd Military District, Pyotr Polovtsov, decided that it was time to take active action. Polovtsov ordered the colonel of the horse artillery regiment, Rebinder, with two guns and a hundred covering Cossacks to move at a trot along the embankment and Shpalernaya to the Tauride Palace and, after a short warning, or even without it, open fire on the crowd gathered in front of the Tauride Palace.
Rebinder, having reached the intersection of Shpalernaya with Liteyny Prospekt, was fired upon by a group of people standing on Liteyny Bridge, dressed in prison robes and armed with a machine gun. Rebinder dismounted and opened fire on them. One of the shells hit the very middle of the machine-gunner prisoners and, killing eight people on the spot, scattered the rest.

However, in the evening a detachment arrived in Petrograd, summoned from the front by Minister of War Kerensky (Kerensky was not yet Chairman of the Government at that time). The detachment consisted of an infantry brigade, a cavalry division and a battalion of scooter riders. At the head of the detachment, Kerensky appointed a certain warrant officer G.P. Mazurenko (Menshevik, member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee) with Colonel Paradelov as chief of staff. On the night of July 19, government troops launched a counteroffensive.
In the morning, a battalion of scooter riders occupied the Peter and Paul Fortress. Somewhat later, the Kshesinskaya palace was occupied. On the same day, a warrant was issued for Lenin's arrest. The day before, in the newspaper Zhivoye Slovo Lenin was first called a German spy, and on the 21st Kerensky himself confirmed these accusations. On that day, he assumed the duties of head of the Provisional Government and, while remaining Minister of War and Navy, also became Minister of Trade and Industry.
They didn’t have time to arrest Lenin - he went illegal and moved to Razliv in what later became a memorial hut.

This day was the coldest in the history of meteorological observations.1914 year, when the average daily temperature in Moscow was +6 degrees Celsius, and the warmest - in 1890 year. That day the temperature rose to +

35,8 degrees.

Previous days in Russian history:

See also:








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