The unbearable revolutionary tension in Russia has been raised one notch higher. The general strike has already expanded in a colossal fashion. Railroad transport is down in the whole of the tsarist empire. In addition to the railroad workers’ general strike, the rest of the workers have joined the general strike in numerous cities, including Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Łódź, Kiev, Kharkiv, Samara, and so on. It is said that over a million workers are now currently on strike. Due to the complete transport standstill, and due to the strike itself, foodstuffs have become scarce and prices have shot up. This is causing the ferment to constantly increase, with people expecting a bloody civil war to break out any hour now. Despite this, the government thinks it can still rely on its bayonets. Trepov, minister of police, is said to have promised to now be in a position to paralyze any violent attack in Petersburg, and to break resistance in the provincial cities. The only condition to blame for the strike’s rapid spread is the badly organized provincial police force that has also not been informing him, Trepov, sufficiently, right up to the latest present hour, and which has not always carried out his orders correctly. This chief police thug’s way of seeing things—as perverse as it is brutal—matches with the impudent threat Trepov has made to Petersburg’s population. This runs as follows:
Rumors of forthcoming mass disturbances have stirred up the capital’s population. Measures for the maintenance of order have been taken. I therefore request that these rumors should not be believed. Any possible attempts to incite disturbance will be suppressed immediately in the most energetic way possible and shall not be allowed to spread. If during this suppression the same mobs of the people resist, then troops and police shall, in accordance with my order, not fire at first into the air but will rather immediately shoot at the crowd, and will not be saving bullets. I announce this in order that anyone taking part in the assemblies concerned with inciting disturbance knows what will await them; but also so that the sensible part of the populace stays away.
The question is whether this puffed-up police terror will break down ignominiously when push comes to shove. Considering the intensity of the movement that has taken hold of all of the people in the capital cities, it certainly is an open question, whether police and troops will not actually end up fraternizing with the people in the end.
A Russian correspondent reports:
It is impossible to generalize accurately about the mood among the troops. As a symptom however, it is remarkable that an officer held a speech on Wednesday at an assembly of railroad workers, in which he declared that the officers do not want to serve absolutism, they want to serve the people. He demanded the separation of the army from the hated gendarmerie and police force, and went on to divide the troops into three categories—those who would follow orders to shoot at the people, those who would refuse to do so, and, finally, those soldiers who would shoot at the soldiers who had shot first. A soldier spoke after the officer, declaring that because absolutism had betrayed the fatherland, “it is a soldier’s duty to fight for the fatherland against absolutism.”
According to a report in Scherl’s paper, the Petersburg Police are also in a state of ferment. “Floods of lower-level police officers have put in resignation requests, and have also been holding meetings; their situation should be improved as quickly as possible.”
It would definitely be premature to want to lose oneself in prophecies about a general mutiny in the army, but it deserves mention that in all revolutions that have taken hold of all circles of the population, the army has proven itself to be unreliable. On top of that, tsarism is receiving an omen through the renewed…
DISTURBANCES IN THE BLACK SEA FLEET
As reported from Odessa, disturbing news has reached us here from Sevastopol. According to these communications, the battleship Potemkin from the Black Sea Fleet was set on fire on Wednesday by arsonists and was completely destroyed by the flames. Concurrently, a mutiny broke out against the officers among the crew of the Battleship Empress Catherine II. The same thing happened in a company of the Fortress Artillery. It was only with great difficulty that both mutinies could be suppressed. Four hundred men were arrested.
THE TSAR’S MANIFESTO* IS PUBLISHED TODAY
This should represent the cashing in on the promise to grant the people freedom of assembly, yet considering the twelve extra points stipulated in the exemptions, it is unlikely to have anything beyond a minimal impact. It is, indeed, particularly worth considering that official overseers whom the government will dispatch to any assembly that has been registered three days in advance, will be carrying with them clever powers of attorney to close the aforementioned assemblies. The fairly dark mood in Petersburg, as depicted in a telegram in the Day newspaper, chimes with these developments:
We stand here, on the eve of the revolution, which can break out over us in all its terror at any moment. All city inhabitants are in the grip of an indescribable anxiety that cannot be expelled by the decree from Governor-General Trepov today, which reasserts that all measures for the immediate crushing of any resistance have already been taken.
FIRES RAGE IN WARSAW
Wolff’s [Telegraph] Office communicates the following official report. Since yesterday, telegrams sent to Russia are the subject of considerable delays. Connecting lines to Warsaw, Odessa, and Kiev have been disturbed. (Fires raging in Warsaw.) Another report claims that one whole district is in flames.
MOSCOW WITHOUT WATER AND GAS
Moscow, October 27. From today, there is no water and no gas. The streetcars are running only with a single carriage and only on a few lines. The bakeries are almost all closed. Those that are still open are selling their last bread and will then close too. Neither the zemstvo nor the municipal administration is functioning. Many private institutes, offices and warehouses have also suspended business. In an appeal to the population, the governor regrets that the agitation of malicious persons has filled the workers with hate; and he generally disseminates calming messages. The military is set up at posts everywhere in the city, armed with orders to fire at even the smallest crowd of people if they take the least possible step toward violent activities.
STREET BATTLES IN KHARKIV
Kharkiv, October 26 (report by the Petersburg Telegraph Agency). The telegraph service has restarted, making it possible to give a description of events since October 24. Several assemblies of workers were held at the university on October 24. During one of these assemblies, news arrived of the death of a student called Constantinidi, who had been wounded by a patrol unit; accompanying this, news arrived of acts of violence committed by holligans. When the assembly heard that troops were about to arrive, it was decided to barricade the university and defend it with weapons. Barricades were built from telegraph poles, cobblestones, cables, etc. The area that was cordoned off included the cathedral, the university and the court buildings. The court archive was badly damaged, its floor strewn with papers. The assembly then turned the university into a fortress, with doors and windows barricaded by masses of stones, coals and beams. The crowd gathered there numbered roughly 3,000 people. Many red flags bearing revolutionary slogans were flying from the roofs. Field hospitals were set up at three points in the city. In the afternoon, a heavy container arrived carrying firearms and other arms that were shared out among the rebels. Concurrently, people joined up in gangs in the city for plundering weapon stores, one of which was robbed down to the last gun. Dragoons firing from a sheltered position shot at the crowd. Ten people were killed, many wounded. Later, 300 people carried out a patriotic demonstration with a picture of the tsar and Russian national flags. These pro-manifesto demonstrators smashed up an ambulance that was coming toward them and beat up the doctors and stretcher-bearers as well as individual students, before striking out at workers who were moving toward the university—but the patriotic crowd were forced to disperse by the workers’ revolver shots.
This led workers to smash the windows of the editorial office of the reactionary newspaper Yuzhnyl Krai [Southern Area], which also houses the official municipal newssheet. Some tramps made use of the general confusion in more distant districts of the city that had been deserted by the police, by attempting to loot shops and beating up passing people. A state of siege was declared covering the university district. The governor handed over commanding powers to Lieutenant General Mau. A committee for public welfare, which had just newly convened and consisted of the city’s most respected citizens, led the negotiations with the governor.
In the meantime, troops arrived from other nearby municipalities. With the approval of the governor, the welfare committee formed a militia of armed workers and students for the maintenance of order in the city. The citizens greeted the militia with cheers. From individual points in the city, the troops shot at the militia, wounding several persons. The welfare committee negotiated with Lieutenant General Mau to agree to conditions for handing over the university. Mau proposed the following conditions: Those persons currently barricaded inside the university would have to clear the barricades without using weapons, and would be allowed to neither sing nor cry out in the process. After that, they would not be hindered in joining up with their mates, who were gathering for a big meeting on Skobelev Square. The weapons had to be handed over to the university administration. The people who barricaded themselves inside the university accepted the conditions, and left their fighting posts peaceably. Troops then occupied St. Paul’s Square. The crowd jammed in behind the troops and greeted the figures coming out, escorted by a squadron of dragoons, with loud cries of support. The students and workers made their way in a long procession to Skobelev Square, where an assembly was held that went on until 6 p.m. Then everything broke up peacefully. There were no further clashes with the troops, even though isolated shots could be heard again in the evening.
So, all this happened on October 24. A different, later report stated that rebels had proclaimed the Republic in Kharkiv. As more troops had been directed to the city, it was probable that bloody clashes would result.
Petersburg, October 26. Workers in the new admiralty employed on the construction of the warships Bayan, Gilyak, Pallada and Chivinetz have, alongside workers from the marine workshops, gone on strike. Furthermore, civil servants from the Directorate-General of State Railroads in the Ministry of Railroads have gone on strike, as have the civil servants from the Zemstvo Administration of the Petersburg Governorate.
The Social Democratic Party’s leadership organized the sale of firearms to the strikers; twenty-five cartridges were handed out with every gun.
Petersburg, October 26. The university was the stage for a few hours this evening for a large gathering of the people. Around 20,000 people gathered in the main hall, in the smaller halls and in the large courtyard, including representatives of all social estates, professions and classes of [wage] earners. The assemblies passed in a thoroughly peaceful fashion. The speakers’ ruminations were met with loud cheers of approval everywhere. In the courtyard, leaders of the party of action encouraged those present to clarify our current circumstances through use of armed force. What had until now been partial strikes had developed itself into a mighty, unified strike of the Russian people. This, everyone’s general strike, is the revolution. The government’s side had turned its weapons against the people. Nothing else could help in achieving clarity in the situation, apart from using armed force for the people’s side. During the speeches, demands from the Social Democratic Worker’s Committee were disseminated. The assemblies went on into the night.
Warsaw, October 26. Armed bands ambushed the newspaper printing works, destroyed the presses and attempted to prevent printing. The Kurjer Warzawski [Warsaw Courier] was printed nonetheless, albeit with a long delay. Other bigger newspapers were not printed at all. The foodstuff prices are increasing here and in Łódź rapidly, a coal shortage looms, the situation is tense. The general strike in all factories is starting tomorrow.
In Pabianice, the first disturbances have broken out. The military fired off several rounds, hitting several persons. More details are not available at present.
Petersburg, October 27 (report by the Petersburg Telegraph Agency). Telegrams received in the night bring disturbing news from Minsk, Kiev and Saratov. In Kiev, the newspapers have joined the strike with the exception of the Kievlyanin paper. All drug stores are closed in Saratov. The city is without lighting. Instead of newspapers, the only thing that is “published” now is telegrams. Saratov’s Duma has organized a committee to protect its citizens.
Petersburg, October 27. In the sitting held yesterday of the professional associations, the pharmacists, doctors, advocates, and other professional groups decided to join the strike on October 28. The typesetters passed the motion only to set newspapers edited in a revolutionary spirit. All schools are closed until October 31 in accordance with an official order.
Zlatoust, October 26. The railroad workers’ strike that broke out here yesterday has turned into a general strike today. Transport had to be stopped.
Krasnoyarsk, October 26. A strike has broken out on the Siberian Railroad that is planned to continue until Tuesday.
Samara, October 27. During clashes with a crowd numbering several thousand, troops fired at an assembly of peaceful citizens. A public conversation continues, labeling the convocation of a Constituent Assembly as the only means of pacifying the country.
Łódź, October 27. The streetcar system is at a standstill. Due to the suspension of rail transport, Łódź is cut off from the outside world and no post has arrived for the last two days. Basic foodstuffs, petrol and coal are rising in price; the city is peaceful.
Dnipropetrovsk, October 27 (report by the Petersburg Telegraph Agency). After solicitations by the citizens, the authorities have removed the troops from the streets. The intensified military guard in the city has now been withdrawn. The authorities are permitting assemblies again. Trade is coming back to life. The burials of the victims of the disturbances are taking place without incident.