The revolution is currently dominated by military revolts. The “uprising” is spreading so violently in what was until now the guard protecting absolutism, that the greatest optimist on earth wouldn’t have thought it possible just a few months ago. Marines, land troops, privates, officers up to the highest circles of nobles of the guard, Cossacks, border soldiers, yes, even constables and other law enforcement officers: all caught up in the purest rebellion. And we’re talking about a peaceful uprising of the slaves previously sewn into the “tsar’s tunic,” one which is purposeful about its political aims and highly honorable in its outer appearance. Economic and political demands are being formulated everywhere. It is a general awakening of the spirit of citizenship and of proletarian class spirit. The following reports bear witness to that.
Petersburg, December 12 (Laffin’s News Agency). From Moscow, Rus’ has received the following threatening news about the mood within the city’s military. According to these reports, communicated by telephone: Officers and men from all categories of weapon regiments, including the Cossacks, held a meeting, at which they decided to construct a general register of the complaints of all the Moscow garrisons. A mass military assembly will be organized for this purpose. Three hundred soldiers in Moscow who accompany prisoners’ transports have also joined the walkout, after it became known to them that their comrades in Kursk had done the same. The striking soldiers in both cities demand better treatment and political rights. The first demand has already been met by the authorities, yet the soldiers’ strike is still continuing.
The third sotnia [century, or hundred] of the first regiment of Don Cossacks has produced a series of demands of an economic nature. These people received doubled rations immediately, yet had their lances and guns removed from them simultaneously. (Which is the best proof that this isn’t just about “economic demands!”—The editor.)†
Petersburg, December 14 (from a private correspondent, via Chernyshevskoye). The papers contain reports about disturbances among the sappers in Warsaw. In Lublin, troops from the Ryazan infantry regiments organized a rally with red flags. The papers report about plans among resident troops to instigate an officer’s evening and to found a progressive military paper in 1906. On the Austrian border, 600 men from the Border Guards went on strike.
In Sevastopol on the ninth of this month, an extraordinary general meeting of all marine officers from the 14th equipage of the Black Sea Fleet was held, at which the following resolutions were passed:
(1) The marine officers wish that no blood be shed. (2) They wish not to leave the port of Sevastopol. (3) They regret that thanks to the tactless role played by Admiral Chukhnin, who ignored the officers’ wishes, the sailors have lost trust in their superiors. (4) They insist that the sailors’ economic demands be fulfilled. (5) They ask the tsar that the mutinying sailors not be handed over to a drumhead court martial, but rather be tried in a public military court with a civil defense attorney being permitted. (6) They demand Admiral Chukhnin’s demotion and the convention of an assembly of all Black Sea Fleet officers, which should adopt resolutions on the various questions regarding the reorganization of the Black Sea Fleet.
Disturbances have broken out in the Troitsko-Sergiyevsky infantry regiment in Moscow. The soldiers demand: (1) Reservists be discharged from active service immediately. (2) Better food. (3) A rise in salary. (4) Better clothing. (5) Decent treatment by the officers. (The semi-official news services regularly hush up political demands, as was the case during the uprising of the Sevastopol marines.)
APPEAL OF THE RUSSIAN RAILROAD WORKERS
TO THE MANCHURIAN ARMY
The Russian military administration is attempting to bend the rumors about the Manchurian Army that have surfaced in the last few days to its own purposes, presenting the story as if the dissatisfaction was confined to those reservists striving to return home and was unavoidable due to the various strikes and the poor service potential of the Siberian railroad. Now the Central Office of Striking Russian Railroaders has launched an action of agitation to benefit the soldiers striving for home, with the result that telegraphic messages are coming in from almost all Russian train stations on this and the other side of the Urals, stating that the Russian railroad workers are prepared to make all necessary arrangements to bring the Manchurian Army back to Russia. This written appeal, just now distributed at all Russian stations and sent to Harbin on the twelfth of this month, is of interest in this context:
Comrades, soldiers! Don’t believe the fallacious claims of General [Ivan Pavlovich] Nadarov and your other superiors who state that it is the railroaders who have blocked your passage home. They are defrauding you in order to defame all of us, and to hide the truly guilty ones into the bargain. Comrades, soldiers! We railroad workers hereby declare that we will, irrespective of the strike, bring each one of you back home; we have never refused to do this and we will not refuse to transport you home in the future either. We are with you and for you! We demand that they bring you home immediately. We demand freedom and the truth! Down with drumhead court martials! Down with the death penalty! Long live the fraternity of soldiers! We ask you comrades to distribute this telegram in all divisions of Manchurian troops, so that they know who their friend is and who their enemy.
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC RULE IN RIGA
Petersburg, December 14 (via Chernyshevskoye from a private correspondent). Riga is completely cut off from the rest of the empire. According to the scarce information available to us, all factories are on strike there. Only the waterworks and the electricity stations are still in service. Armed workers are even preventing wheeled transport on the streets. Goods deliveries are only possible via water routes. Workers’ guards prevent entry into the city. Because of a lack of troops, martial law exists only on paper.
Syn Otechestva [Son of the Fatherland] publishes the following telegram from the Livonian governor Sveginshev to the minister of the interior:
Riga, December 10. The commands of all river steamers are on strike. There is therefore no contact with the incoming steamers. A cruiser and two torpedo boats are needed here. The Baltic railroad service has been suspended in the districts affected by the strike. Troops must be sent by water. Necessary to send a significant mass of troops rapidly. Your couriers have been intercepted.
The same paper reports that the Latvians (i.e., the peasants.—The editor.)* streamed into Riga and joined forces with the workers. Government buildings are said to be in flames. Train station service and telegraph service are said to be in the hands of the insurgents. Warships have departed to Liepāja from Riga.
The news of the conflagrations proves—if it is not invented—that in Riga too the last “guard” of the last Nicholas—the Black Hundreds—is trying to save throne and altar.