The revolt of the "Potemkin"

Front matter

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BOOK 947.08.F333R c. 1 FELDMAN # REVOLT OF POTEMKIN

THE REVOLT OF tii"

Chapter I The Rising In Odessa Before The Arrival

OF THE '' POTEMKIN ''

The 9th of January* found the proletariat of Odessa unprepared for political action. Their voice was not heard in the general chorus of angry protest from the workmen, who went out on strike in all parts of Russia. The industrial crisis, which followed upon the war, and which had brought the greater part of Russia to the verge of famine, had not yet reached its height in Odessa. There, too, it was beginning to be felt, and many of the manufacturers were ceasing work, but the misery of the masses was not yet so extreme as to beget the h^oism of despair, and the systematic organization of labour had made little progress among them.

* On January 9, 1905 — '' Bloody Sunday'' — the workmen of St. Petersburg, led by Father Gapon and accompanied by women and children in holiday attire, and by priests carrying crosses and holy standards, attempted to go in procession to lay their sorrows before the Tsar in the naive belief that he would hear and help them. The crowd, perfectly peaceable and orderly, was dispersed by soldiers with rifle-fire, many being killed and wounded.

The loc^l branch of the Social Democrat party found their efforts to rouse the people to a general strike at first unavailing, but the economic conditions soon provided a more favourable field for their agitation. Though the workers still found some sort of existence possible, there was great uneasiness among them, and a growing apprehension of the complete closing of the factories. The employers were cutting the hours of labour shorter and shorter with a corresponding decrease of the daily wages. Many of the factories which had barely maintained their footing were closed altogether.

And hunger was driving thousands of workers into the streets, and bringing the courage of despair into their poverty-stricken homes.

At the same time there was a strike movement among the workpeople on purely economic grounds. The Social Democrats met this movement half-way, and undertook its organization. Acting in co-operation with the Bund, they formed a united committee for the management of the strike. Step by step, the strike gained ground, and more and more workshops joined it.

By May the whole of Peresyp* and a great part of the towTL itself was on strike. In many factories and workshops the employers had consented to the workpeople's demands, mostly under pressure from the police, who feared that the strike would assume a political character, and the men had returned to

* A working-class suburb of Odessa, and centre of its manufactures.

THE RISING IN ODESSA 5

work. In some cases — in the railway works, for instance — the managers met the employes' demands half-way, and so prevented a strike.

But all this only strengthened the hands of the Social Democrats. The workmen began to feel their power, and that incresised their confidence in the leadership of the party. By June almost all the works in Odessa had been affected by the strike, and the movement seemed to be dying down. But by that time the organization and revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses had reached such a pitch that the moment seemed to have come for a political rising.

The authorities, as always, hastened the outbreak.

On some trifling pretext the police summoned delegates from the workmen on strike, and then arrested them. The whole of Peresyp rose on the instant ; the workers, men and women together, formed a long procession to the police-station, and demanded the release of their comrades. The police, alarmed, released their prisoners. The crowd welcomed them with loud shouts of *' Hurrah !'' and marched along the principal thoroughfare of Peresyp, singing the " Varshavianka."

This spontaneous outbreak showed the revolutionary temper of the masses, and the Social Democrats determined to proclaim a general strike. A series of meetings was held, and the speakers, who advocated the strike, were favourably received by the workmen. The temper of the people was rising, and the strike was fixed for June 14.

On the evening of June 12 a group of Peresyp delegates, who had met together, were arrested. The news of their arrest roused the people's anger, and on the 13th five hundred workmen assembled at the Gena works in Peresyp to consider the position.

'* We had hardly assembled,'* a comrade who was present told me, '' when a police-captain rode up to the works with a company of Cossacks and ordered us to disperse."

" ' Release our comrades ; then we will disperse,* the workmen answered. ... A few minutes later the Cossacks were riding down upon us as we sat peaceably on the stones. ' Lads, pick up the stones,' someone shouted, and a hail of stones came flying at the Cossacks. The valiant soldiers of the Don faltered, turned, and fled in different directions pursued by the workmen. They were so terrified that they did not think about ' retreating in good order.'

" The workmen were triumphant at their victory. Some of them pursued the Cossacks, others began building barricades ; two tramcars and some carts were turned over. I made an attempt to appeal to the men, and to organize^ their actions, but in the hubbub I could not secure their attention.

'' Meantime the Cossacks were hastily making ready to open fire. I rushed up to a comrade, Medviedev, an ' illegal ' who was standing near me, and asked him whether he hadn't a flag by means of which he could attract the attention of the workmen. Without a moment's hesitation he pulled a

THE RISING IN ODESSA 7

pamphlet in a red cover from his pocket, and, leaping on the barricade, brandished the red book above his head, and shouted in a loud voice : ' Comrades '

" At that instant a bullet struck him dead from the barricade.

'' A yell of horror broke from the crowd, which began to disperse, leaving two dead and several wounded.

" The poUce made a rush to pick up the bodies, but the workmen rallied again, and carried off the body of Medviedev. Several men lifted him up, and carried him through the streets of the suburb.

" From aU the houses, factories, and workshops the working people came running out to join the mournful procession ; women tore their hair, and filled the air with sobs and curses on the murderers. The wailing and moaning did not cease till the police had torn the corpses away again. . . .

'' All Peresyp had risen by now, and we called the crowd to a meeting. Thousands of workmen from aU parts of the town streamed to it, and the soldiers who were present did not touch the crowd, and showed entire sympathy with it.

" It was the first time I had seen such a majestic and mighty scene of the sohdarity and brotherhood of the workers.

" The oppressors trembled before the raging sea of

wrath of the working class," my comrade concluded.

The same evening it was decided to declare a

general strike next day by way of mourning for our

murdered comrades.

On the morning of June 14 there appeared a sinister warning of murders to come. A brief notice, placarded by the Governor, announced in three Unes that : " Yesterday, in a conflict between the troops and the people, two workmen were killed and three wounded ; the Governor calls upon peaceful citizens, for the avoidance of accidents, to abstain from joining the crowds of workmen/'

Peaceful citizens are bidden not to mingle with the working people, since the latter are liable to be fired on !

At eleven o'clock in the morning the firing began ; shots were fired at the workmen who had gone to " fetch away " their comrades from work. A crowd of three thousand men went to " fetch away " the men at work at the Municipal Water Supply and at the factories outside the town. They carried out this task successfully, till the police-guards drove them off by opening fire upon them. The latter were few in number, and the workmen could easily have overpowered them, but the absence of weapons of any sort disheartened the crowd, and robbed them of confidence and courage.

Striking scenes were taking place in the town where all the efforts of the workmen were directed to stopping the trams and omnibuses from running. Immense crowds of people were moving along Preobrazhensky Street, the chief thoroughfare of Odessa. All seemed in holiday mood. Spectators stood in the balconies and at the windows. . ^. . Suddenly a tramcar appeared on the scene ; at once

THE RISING IN ODESSA 9

thirty or forty working lads dashed at it. In a moment they unharnessed the horses ; the frightened passengers hurried out of the car, and amid deafening shouts and the cheers of the spectators, the tramcar fell over in the middle of the road. The bold youths were pelted with flowers from the balconies ; they caught the flowers with pride, and then scurried off before the Cossacks had time to gallop up.

The latter scarcely reached the spot before, to the delight of the public, they were called off to another place, w^here tramcars had been turned off the rails in the same way.

The children of the proletariat, speaking generally, played a splendid part in this strike. Everywhere they were the first to appear, and it was pleasant to see their daring young faces and the childish hands with which, before the very eyes of the Cossacks, they overturned cars and built barricades.

The latter had sprung up already in many places It is true they were mere toy fortifications, defended with stones by two or three dozen people ; but the very fact of their being thrown up showed the revolutionary temper of the people.

Acts of terrorism, assaults on police captains and district superintendents, went on without interruption all day long. I met two comrades who told me that two hours before they had killed the assistant police captain and a district superintendent ; the police were in pursuit of them, but they had managed to escape detection. After calmly telling me this, they walked away into the crowd, regardless of my urgent advice to keep out of sight for a few days, or at least to get rid of their revolvers, which would connect them with the crime. So intense was the desire of vengeance for their murdered comrades that day.

The strike had all at once assumed the proportions of a popular revolt. The temper of the people was rising, the masses were being drawn into the revolution. . . .

But there was one thing lacking, which cooled the ardour of the crowd, and had an overwhelming effect on it. When the Cossacks rode up, presenting arms, one thought possessed the people, one cry broke from their breasts : '' Weapons !'' But they had none, and they ran — ran before a handful of men whom they could have overpowered with their empty hands. . . .

At eight o'clock in the evening a comrade and I, disguised in workmen's clothes, set off to Peresyp. All was quiet now in the streets that had yesterday been watered with blood. On the way we met some workmen who were Social Democrats. They all told us that the temper of the people was despondent, that the masses were clamouring for weapons, and refusing to go into the streets unarmed.

The cry for arms rose up on all sides, and we felt that unless the Social Democrats could satisfy it, the masses would turn away from us, and the strike would be over.

Meantime news reached us of a threatening

THE RISING IN ODESSA ii

agrarian movement in the district round Odessa, and of fresh orgies of cruelty on the part of the frenzied authorities. We clenched our fists in fury ; but they were empty, those strong, sinewy fists, and they dropped helplessly by our sides. . . .

As I walked home that evening I heard, not far from the Cathedral Square, a deafening explosion. I ran in the direction of the sound, but a band of Cossacks, suddenly springing up before me, wildly brandishing their loaded whips, forced me to turn back. But from the flying crowd I learned that a bomb had been thrown at a policeman in the Cathedral Square.

The Cossacks made a frenzied rush, trampling down the crowd, and I made haste to get away from that place of danger.

What had the morrow in store for us ? Everyone of us fell asleep that night with that question in his mind, and no one found the real answer, no one was bold enough to imagine that a new force was coming to the aid of the revolution, that force we had felt such woeful need of during those days — that a mighty battleship, full of weapons, was at hand.

Chapter II The Arrival Of The '' Potemkin *'

At ten o'clock in the morning I went out into the street, and walked towards the Nikolaevsky Boulevard.

An immense and handsome flight of steps connects the latter with the port of Odessa. The magnificent view over the open sea and the bay of Odessa makes the boulevard the favourite promenade of the aristocratic public. Elegant ladies lounge away the day in its shady avenues ; rich, gaily-dressed people drive up and down with trotting thoroughbreds on the smooth asphalt road. This resort of idleness, of frivolous gaiety and mirth, forms a striking contrast to the port lying below it.

Clouds of coal-dust, the shrill whistles of tugs and the deep notes of steamer sirens, the rumble of hurrying carts, the roar of thousands of human voices, are all about us as we descend into that centre of exploited labour. Here we see not smartly dressed ladies, but barefoot men in dirt and rags ; here we hear not the gay strains of the boulevard orchestra, but the unceasing roar of triumphant Capital.

OUR HOPELESS POSITION 13

That day the scene of action was to be shifted to the town itself, and aU the Labour agitators had received orders to be in the central streets. I was setting off, therefore, to a Liberal of my acquaintance, with whom I had left my student's uniform overnight.

It was with no cheerful feelings that I walked through the town ; we were living through tremendous events, and we were not equal to dealing with them ; the masses w^ere ready for battle ; we could not lead them, for we had no weapons. The strike could not be prolonged on pacific lines : it had reached its logical end. It had stirred and excited the whole working population of Odessa, it had aroused the peasant movement in the surrounding districts, had shaken the administrative machinery of the Odessa bureaucracy, and had led the troops to sympathize with the people. Now it must either pass into an armed insurrection or — cease.

For the former alternative arms, in small quantity at least, were essential. We had none. . . . And our hands dropped powerless before this blank wall.

We resolve4 to do our utmost that day to prolong the strike, to lefad the workmen on. But to what ? The whole tragedy of our position lay in the fact that we could fii^d no answer to that question. What had we to tell the people that day ? Call them on to battle ? But aU these days they had been giving one answer to our appeals : " We are ready ; give us arms and lead us. . . /* Again the same blank wall, and the movement coming up against it must stop short. I pictured to myself the depression I should find already in the ranks of my comrades, and the drooping of the warlike spirit of the previous day.

But I found no justification for my gloomy reflections in the streets ; far from being deserted, the street was full of a vast, eager crowd moving rapidly in the direction in which I was going myself. The crowd grew denser and denser as I got nearer the Nikolaevsky Boulevard, and similar crowds came streaming from all the adjoining streets. That peculiar hum, always heard in a crowd that is learning of something new and unexpected, hovered over the street.

I was surprised at this excitement, but my ragged workman's clothes were likely to attract the attention of the police in that aristocratic quarter, so I did not feel free to stand still and inquire into the state of mind of the crowd. I simply quickened my pace. I soon reached my friend's house, and successfully slipping by that Russian Cerberus, the dvornik, I ran up the stairs to his flat. Here the inexplicable excitement of the crowd was at once explained to me.

I had scarcely got through the tedious process of changing my. clothes, when my good-natured acquaintance ran in and informed me that an ironclad had steamed into the port, the crew of which had mutinied and killed their officers, and were now resolved to throw in their lot with the people.

This was such great and startling news that I did

SCENE IN THE PORT 15

not dare believe it. I ran out into the street to convince myself of its truth.

The sea stretched in its vast immensity before me, and on its Titanic bosom proudly floated another mighty colossus — a battleship with the red flag fluttering over it.

I stood in dumb, awestruck ecstasy before this marvellous apparition. . . . But there was no standing still for long — one must hurry dowTi to it ; the work that had been begun must be finished, the great battle must be fought at last. . . . And with the joyful feeling of a soldier, who at the very moment of retreat suddenly sees powerful and unexpected reinforcements approaching, I rushed down to the port.

With me ran a crowd as joyful as I was. The farther I went the denser it became. The breath of freedom was already floating over it ; it transformed men's countenances, and instead of the furious hate I had seen yesterday, an expression of clutching, trembling ecstasy was on all their faces. Shouts of " Down with Autocracy !'' *' Hurrah for Freedom !'' rose all round, and to-day they were not followed by the clatter of the Cossacks' horses and the angry cries of the trampled crowd.

At last I reached a tent in which lay the body of a dead sailor. An immense crowd had gathered round it, and it was difficult to squeeze one's way through. But the masses were looking for leaders, who would tell them what to do, w^ould give them new watchwords, and would lead them out of their uncertain position. And so as soon as they saw I was a student, they let me pass through into the tent.

In the middle of the tent lay the dead man. His face was full of a marvellous peace and radiance. On his breast was the following inscription : *' Men of Odessa ! before you lies the body of Grigory Vakulintchuk, a sailor savagely killed by the senior officer of the ironclad Prince Potemkin^ for saying * The soup is not good.* Let us make the sign of the cross, and say, ' Peace to his ashes.' Let us avenge ourselves on the bloodthirsty vampires ! Death to the oppressors ! Death to the blood-suckers ! And hurrah for freedom !

'' Crew of the squadron flagship Prince Potemkin : ' One for all, all for one !* "

I went out of the tent, and learned in rough outline the history of the mutiny. The crew had mutinied on account of the meat served them, had killed their officers, and come to Odessa to join the workmen. The sailors had routed the Cossacks and the police, and were now taking in coal and provisions.

A picture of our whole position rose vividly before me : the authorities amazed and thrown into confusion— the soldiers few in number, and not to be relied upon. They had already refused to fire upon the people, and would certainly not fire on the sailors. On the other side, the heightened spirit of the workmen — organization — immense fighting forces. The sailors must at once be induced to land, to join the workmen, to take the town, and set up a republic

♦ Pronounced Pahtyomkin.

I RESOLVE TO GO ABOARD 17

in Odessa ; then to create out of the workmen a revolutionary army, and to march on, gradually extending the field of the insurrection, and fortifying one position after another for the revolution. All haste must be made to the ironclad to begin the agitation ; there was no time to wait for authorization from the party, and I resolved to act on my own responsibility.

The workmen, to whom I said that I was a representative of the Social Democratic organization, at once procured me a boat, and I was rowed to the ship. At the same time an immense coal-barge was towed out of the harbour by a torpedo-boat. Thousands of heads could be seen on it, and the strains of the *' Varshavianka *' floated from it. Every moment the crowd from the shore responded with a mighty " Hurrah !" A mihtary cutter came smoothly and swiftly through the water to meet me.

" Where are you going ?" they shouted to me from it.

'' To the free revolutionist ship,'' I answered.

" And who may you be — a Social Democrat ?"

" And what proof have you to show ?"

'' Social Democrats don't have psissports to show ; they let us go to rot in Siberia and prison without them."

" Well, get in with us."

I got into the cutter. The man who had spoken to me was Matushenko. With his short figure, his firm, vigorous features, his prominent cheek-bones and httle eyes, he gave the impression of a statue cast in bronze.

" This is our chief and commander/* one of the sailors said to me.

Matushenko was undoubtedly one of the leading men who took part in the Poiemkin rising ; his personality was the lever of the whole movement ; and so I will ask the reader to forgive me for a brief digression, in which I will try to show this figure in its true light.

Matushenko was not a Social Democrat in the sense of one who fully comprehends and believes the tenets of Social Democracy, though he used always to call himself one. I believe, indeed, that he never was a member of the organization, and was unacquainted with Social Democratic literature ; his whole knowledge of the subject was confined to a few manifestos and pamphlets.

But nature had gifted him with power of thought, decision of character, and exceptional daring.

His superior officers, even, had always been impressed by his resourcefulness, his quickness and deftness in carrying out instructions. He was considered the best of the sailors, and had been promoted to be a chief petty officer.

He was endowed by nature with an intuitive instinct, too ; he had a wonderful power of divining the mood of the mass.

But he was not a leader; he was a son of the mass, and he was only the first among them. When the

MATUSHENKO 19

crowd was silent, he was silent ; when they began to awaken, he was the first to snatch up a weapon, the first to shout ''Down with the oppressors !'' Brave as a lion when the crowd was strong, he was at a loss and was the first to lead the retreat when the crowd ceased to feel its strength. Cruel when the crowd was full of hate, he impressed all by his gentleness when the crowd was forgiving ; full of boiling energy when the temper of the crowd was rising, he sank into apathy as soon as it dropped. And his thought moved in advance of the people, but never got beyond the circle of the prejudices that hem them in. He could not understand the position, and, relying on the strength of it, force the ?rowd to follow him. But he had a rare intuition, and instinctively felt not only the ruling temper of the crowd, but also what was brooding within it, and he acted in accordance with that. And so it seemed as though he were leading it when he was following it, and that he was rousing the multitude when he was being roused with it.

He knew the people, knew their psychology, and therein lay his power and his influence. He was the foremost of them. . . .

We had scarcely got under way again w^hen one of the sailors noticed a boat not far off with two students in it. The cutter turned its course to meet it.

" Are they your folk ?*' the sailors asked me.

There were two Social Democrats of my acquaintance in the boat, members of the local group of the

2 — 2

Minority* section. I was inexpressibly delighted to see them, as it was so much easier to act, the three of us together ; and we could judge better, too, of the position. So I hastened to tell the sailors that these were comrades, and after a brief exchange of greetings they, too, were taken up by the cutter.

Swift as an arrow the cutter bore us to the gigantic ship. It got nearer and nearer to us, and at last we mounted the ladder and were on board.

Here it was at once apparent that the position was by no means so propitious as we had supposed, that we should need to make great efforts before we could succeed in inducing the sailors to go ashore. Instead of the enthusiasm we expected, we met with a ukewarm reception, and found vacillation and uncertainty. The sailors seemed, as it were, bewildered at their own action ; they could not yet accustom themselves to the novelty of their new position, did not know what to do and where to go. Their one firm and definite determination was opposed to our plan. It was not to Leave the ship under any circumstances, and not to take any decisive action before the arrival of the w^hole squadron.

From the Social Democratic organization they

* The Russian Social Democrat party is divided into two sections — the Majority and the Minority. The original cause of the division was difference of opinion as to the degree of centralization necessary and practicable in the organization of the party.

POSITION ABOARD THE " POTEMKIN '' 21

desired nothing but moral support, and the dispatch of a delegate to Sevastopol to make known what had happened to the whole fleet.

We were taken to the admiral's stateroom, where all the members of the Committee were assembled. Only there a clear account of the actual mutiny was given us, and it became obvious to us that the sailors of the Potemkin were a crowd of men very far indeed from possessing real revolutionary convictions. We had to proceed cautiously, not to set them against us at once.

Comrade B. addressed them first. His speech was short ; but there was such force and fire in it that the temper of the sailors at once changed, and several of them began to come over to our side. Then Comrade B. informed them that he w^as returning to the town to lay all the facts before the organizations, and left the ship, promising the sailors to come back. Unhappily he was unable to keep this promise, as he was detained for the time by another important affair.

I was left now with Comrade Z. in the admiral's stateroom.

It was impossible to carry on propaganda among the crew at the moment, as all were occupied in loading coal ; many of the committee went aw^ay to various duties, and w^e were condemned to a brief inactivity.

I will take advantage of this interval to describe what had happened in the ship before my arrival.

Chapter III The Causes Of The Mutiny

Revolutionary agitation and propaganda were set afoot in the Black Sea Fleet as long ago as 1903. " Circles *' were organized among the sailors in that year, and the dissemination of leaflets had begun. And this agitation had taken a firm hold on the mass of the sailors, a process greatly assisted by the intolerable conditions in which they found themselves.

Everyone is familiar with the hideousness of the soldier's life in barracks. The same barbarous treatment, the same senseless drill, the same thieving on the part of the officers, prevail in an even grimmer form among the sailors. In the Navy the dishonesty of the officers went to monstrous and ridiculous extremes. Thus, for instance, the sailors are supposed to be provided with biscuit* and galettesf during the voyage. As the latter are more expensive than the biscuit, the sailors were served at first rations of biscuit only ; meanwhile the galettes went mouldy, and by the time the store of biscuit

* Biscuit consists of black bread sliced and dried. f Cakes or rolls of white bread.

THE CORRUPTION IN THE NAVY 23

was exhausted, the sailors had to eat maggoty galettes.

The exploitation of the sailors became more scandalous than ever after the appointment of Tchuhnin to the command of the Fleet. This Admiral invented a new means of enriching the '' gallant " officers at the expense of the sailors ; he gave instructions for reducing the number of free hired labourers in the Government dockyards and replacing them with sailors. The money saved by this clever device of the head thief of the Black Sea Fleet went into the pockets of the good Christian officers.