Russia in revolution : being the experiences of an Englishman in Petrograd during the upheaval

Introduction

I ARRIVED in Russia during a revolt ; I left it after a Revolution ! In November, 1905, I went to Moscow on some special business, which was to detain me six weeks, but which by a combination of circumstances extended themselves into twelve years.

During this period I have travelled all over Russia and Siberia and have therefore been able to assimilate the ideas of the Russians and become fully acquainted with their country and their innermost life. It has always been a matter of interest to me in the various countries I have visited to study how the people live, as it is by this means that one is able to appreciate one's own life in the world.

During my twelve years in Russia I have only made a few visits to England on special viii ROSSIA IN REVOLUTION

business, these visits being for a matter of at the most one or two months.

My business has brought me into intimate contact with all classes of Russian life, from the highest to the lowest, and I have always found the Russians throughout to be most kind and hospitable. When people depreciate the Russians on account of their methods of business it is invariably oecause such persons have been very little associated with them and are insular in their views. Really to appreciate the Russians as a nation you must be broad-minded and understand that their code differs somewhat from ours. It is foolish to imply that because the codes of honour of two nations do not agree that one is right and the other wrong.

To me, Russia has become practically my home, and whenever I have left its frontiers I have always felt a certain feeling of homesickness for the land with which I have been so closely associated. It is sufficient proof to illustrate my affection and respect for the nation for me to add that my wife is a Russian.

INTRODUCTION ix When I returned to England it was to find that little or nothing was known in this country of the great march of events in Petrograd during the five days of Revolution from March ioth (February 25th) to March 14th (March 1st). During those five days I was either in the streets with the crowds or in my office, which is situated in the Nevsky Prospect, and was therefore in the heart of the fighting for twenty out of the twenty-four hours. I was thus able to see things as they really happened, and from my numerous friends on the Revolutionary Committee and in the Duma was able to obtain authentic information as to the happenings at Headquarters.

Rumour I have sedulously put aside as a lying jade, and during a Revolution the air is as thick with rumours as with bullets. I have told what I saw and what I gathered from sources that cannot be questioned. I have many personal friends on both sides, Revolutionists, members of the Duma, officers and working-men. They have always been frank with me because they knew that I kept x RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION strictly aloof from politics. I accepted their hospitality with gratitude, and in return left them to manage their own affairs as to them seemed best.

To call those Five Days a bloodless revolution is absurd ; but to call it the revolution of restraint would not be very wide of the mark. I had got to respect and admire the Russian people ; but never so much as when all outward restraints were removed. Then it was they showed their splendid qualities, both individual and national. They killed where to their ideas killing was necessary ; but the blood-lust of an unlicensed democracy never gripped them to the exclusion of all else.

S. J.

Contents

CHAPTEK PAGE

I. The Old Regime . i

II. The Sleeping Giant . . . 3'

Chapter I

TO understand a great national Revolution, it is necessary to know from what the people have revolted. l0pmmunities are more long-suffering than individuals, and when huge empires such as [£hina and Russia overthrow a form of government under which they have lived for cenjluries, it is because that government is Obsolete or tyrannical, or both, and illuited to the modern conditions of the people.

This has been the case with Russia. In ^he past the Divine Right of the Tzar was sufficient to justify any act of the Bureauracy, and a patient and deeply-religious people suffered, and accepted as the will o God any act of oppression and injustice o the part of the servants of their ruler.

Hitherto the real Tzar of All the Russia has been the Almighty Rouble. Every official was as venal as a Chinese professiona witness. If you desired to save yourself the trouble of a Customs examination of youij luggage, a rouble or two would be sufficient] If you found yourself at loggerheads with as cabman, a rouble or two would gain for you the moral and physical support of the policej .The United States of America has been said to be the land of the Almighty Dollar ; but the Dollar is a muling, puling infant compare^ with the giant Rouble. "r

Human life, liberty, fame, a woman'' honour — all were liable to be sacrificed to this Moloch of Russia. Everybody knew it and everybody accepted it, at least on the surface ; but underneath there were subtle forces at work. The brains of Russia, that is to say her most enlightened sons, saw in this evil something that was threatening the vitals of the nation, and slowly but irrevo-j cably there grew up a patriotic party, known

THE OLD REGIME D

the7 Revolutionaries. They had nothing do with the Nihilists or Anarchists. They 3re the real Russians, the patriots who saw e suffering being inflicted upon millions of eir countrymen that a few thousands might merit. They were the Cromwells and the ampdens of Russia, and it is they who have ruck for the rights of the individual, the mmunity and for Holy Russia. To those who have not come actually into ontact with its inhabitants, Russia is generally thought of as a far distant land noted pr such products as bears, wolves, Cossacks, !>ombs, eternal snow, and people of a low [rder of life clothed in thick furs. Yet in \prmal times of direct railway communicaon Petrograd is only fifty hours from London. Above all, with Russia is associated •hat terrifying word Siberia, conjuring up a ;,ast collection of terrible dungeons, and fearful mines in which starved and tortured Jreatures carry on a miserable existence Jmder the control of warders and keepers Jvho are little better than beasts. I This seems to be the view of the average ntelligent person. Since the War, however, the Russian people have been brought pr^ i minently before the other nations, and thf are beginning to be understood for what the really are, a highly civilised, honourable straightforward, hospitable and gallant nation The word Russia comprises a vast territoii populated by upwards of 170 millions (e people. This population is scattered over the whole dominion. There is not a singt city in the whole of Russia with a popuJa tion of two millions. The population u Petrograd, Russia's largest city, before th war was one and a half millions : it is no^: about two millions owing to the influx ot refugees from the invaded provinces. Agair| no two large cities in the Empire are withi/ 400 miles of each other, and in many case1* villages are hundreds of miles apart. It k difficult to realise what the distribution ct so enormous a number of people under suae conditions really signifies. The means b e which such communities are linked together leave much to be desired. The roadr^ throughout Russia are by no means goode and owing to severe climatic conditions it i>- very difficult to keep such roads in decenp

THE OLD REGIME 5 repair or even passable. The railways are insufficient to supply the enormous demand for transport. This can be more easily realised when one considers that to place Russia on a par with the United States she would require an addition of at least 60,000 miles of track.

The Russians, however, have handled this difficult .problem with great skill, considering the fact that the people have had to contend with the almost unsurmountable opposition of the old Government, ably seconded by the Church. It has always been the chief object of the old regime to advance its personal interests at the terrible cost of suppressing the development of the nation, mentally, morally and physically. I The vast area of the Russian Empire, with its small scattered communities, has played into the hands of the Government, enabling |t to carry out its dire purpose. To achieve :his object the Government developed a nighty organisation and employed a tremendous staff of men who were willing to sacrifice their fellows for their own advancement. This organisation, slowly developed through generations, finally became the wonderful if terrible Police of Russia. The units were trained in so harsh a manner as to eliminate entirely their finer feelings and thus give full play to their less human instincts, making them the ideal tools of their masters.

Germany, the land of organisation, can boast of nothing to compare with the Russian police. With all her defects, Germany's organisation is schemed for the nation's development ; in Russia, on the other hand, it was an entirely obstructive organisation.

The police of Russia never lost an opportunity, no matter how degrading, of forcing its will upon the people, both high and low, the only exceptions being those at the head^ of the organisation itself, or such as were!,( willing to pay large sums as bribes. Bribery^ has been one of the most terrible weapons, in the hands of the police. They were giver a very small wage, but were permitted t<j extort bribes from the people in the form on money, food-stuffs, clothes, etc. This account) j for the belief that all Russians take bribey as a matter of course. It was by no mean: i uncommon for the police to be in league wit!

thieves, and they were frequently party to shady transactions by which the general public was deprived of its harc^-earned money.

The customs officials were particularly susceptible to bribes. Even if a traveller to Russia were carrying no contraband and, therefore, had no necessity to resort to a bribe to escape the heavy duties, it was a common practice to hand one of the officials a three-rouble note. By doing this the traveller was saved the inconvenience of having his trunks searched and thoroughly disarranged. Nothing could equal the skill with which such officials would take the money without being noticed.

With the Russian police the practice of bribery and corruption had been reduced to a fine art. They were always willing to employ this, to them, legitimate tool to further their own interests and designs, but more especially when it gave them an opportunity of using their power against the working classes. Their one object was to suppress the liberties of the subject, individually and collectively.

I can give an instance of this that came

8 RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION under my personal knowledge. A certain firm in Petrograd employed about 200 skilled workmen on important erection work. Everything was progressing very satisfactorily when a new workman applied for work. Within a few days of this man's advent dissatisfaction began to manifest itself amongst the workmen, who finally submitted drastic and impossible demands to their employers, who must either grant them immediately or lose heavily on their contracts. A strike ensued and pickets were established. For three weeks every possible method was tried to induce the men to return, but without avail.

One day a member of the firm happened to mention the fact of the strike to a woman in a Government office whom he knew in her official capacity. " You want my husband," she remarked, " he would soon settle things for you." An invitation to dinner to wife and husband followed. The man turned out to be an unimportant police official. He was told the facts and promised for the inconsiderable sum of 225 roubles (£25) to put an end to the strike in forty-eight hours.

The employers jumped at the offer, although unaware as to how he would act. The only information required by this particular police official were the names of seven of the ringleaders of the movement. These were supplied, and within forty-eight hours all the men were back at their work under the old conditions with the exception of the seven whose names were given to the police. Of these men nothing further was seen.

Upon investigation, however, it was found that the police had first of all forged a letter to themselves as from one of the seven. The letter stated that this particular workman wished to return to work but was intimidated by the other six, whose names were given. This was sufficient for the police to arrest the entire seven men and exile them from the Petrograd Government, not only the city of Petrograd but the whole province, for a period of three years. Close enquiry showed that these men had been arrested at their homes in the night and, without further ado, placed on a train and sent off, regardless of their families.

The most curious circumstance was that io RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION

the police officer actually gave a receipt for the 225 roubles !

The methods employed by the police when they wished to arrest a person without any apparent excuse, is illustrated by what occurred to a very well-known Russian Professor, now practising in Petrograd. During his younger days, and while a student and preparing for his final examination, he was wakened one night by a knock at his door, and upon asking who was there, was told there was a telegram for him. He opened the door and a police officer, accompanied by two subordinates, entered his room and told him to dress immediately and come with them, offering no excuse whatsoever for their action. Knowing that resistance was useless, he accompanied them and was taken to the terrible fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul on the banks of the Neva, opposite the Winter Palace. Here he was placed in a cell and remained there for eighteen months, after which period he was told he could leave, absolutely no excuse whatsoever being given as to the reasons for his detention.

THE OLD REGIME n

Subsequently, however, he found out that a friend of his who had been frequenting Revolutionary meetings, had been arrested and his effects searched for incriminating documents. In one personal letter this Professor's name happened to be mentioned, and this the police considered sufficient excuse to imprison him for eighteen months. Even when he was aware of the facts, there was no possibility of redress, in fact even a protest could not be lodged, because if he made such a protest it would probably have meant a still longer term of imprisonment. Needless to say, this eighteen months greatly retarded his studies which took him a still further eighteen months to complete.

The police took every opportunity of extorting money from the weaker sex, actually having a scale of bribes to be demandedirom the lower orders of women of the streets. In cases where they desired to be revenged upon a girl or woman they could, by means of false and trumped-up charges, bring her into disrepute and, unless their demands were satisfied, they would classify her as a common prostitute. This terrible classification would be indelibly stamped upon her passport* and would necessitate her being included with that class with all its degrading associations, and henceforth subjected to the weekly medical examination ordained by law.

The passport system of Russia was in itself a most wonderful organisation, for not only did it give the police absolute and definite knowledge as to the exact whereabouts of every individual in the Empire, but it also gave them an excuse to compile detailed records of the life's history of every inhabitant. Good points in the careers of the people were not notified in these records, but any bad points or slight indiscretions were invariably magnified. Thus if a person broke the law and it suited the police to take the most rigorous steps, they would, by magnifying the offence, punish the offender to suit their own ends.

In a case where a person, although having committed no offence against the law, had earned the enmity of the police who were desirous of getting him out of the way, they

* A prostitute's passport is yellow instead of white.

THE OLD REGIME 13 could by magnifying a previous offence formulate a serious charge. If no such previous offence existed, they could by means of their paid agents concoct a charge which would give the accused not even the right to a fair trial. When the police were desirous of having a person disposed of in this way, Siberia, with its sparse population and vast territories, offered an ideal spot for enforced exile. Once dispatched to Siberia there was little or no chance of return to home and family until it suited the police to permit it.

Even foreigners were by no means free from the passport system, although a foreigner generally suffered very little inconvenience, and was usually treated by the police with a certain amount of respect. Few travellers to Russia were aware that their every movement was noted ; yet such was the case, for the police of every district submitted a full report once a month to Headquarters, giving particulars of the movements and the associations of every foreigner.

In cases where foreigners overstepped the law, or otherwise got into the bad books of the police, they were given their passports with the special request that they would take themselves over the frontier within twenty-four hours. This meant that they would not be permitted to return to the country, and so complete was the system that, if a person were sent out of Russia over the German frontier and endeavoured to return, say, via Odessa, the police there would have full information regarding him and complete details as to the reason why he!was expelled.

Some idea of this really wonderful passport system may be gathered from the fact that every person was forced to have a passport, which contained a full description of that person, the members of his family and residence. If a Russian or a foreigner wished to spend a night at any particular address other than that inscribed upon the passport, it was necessary to hand his passport to the head house-man or dvornick (a sort of concierge) at the house at which he wished to stay, who 'would inscribe the circumstance upon the passport and due record would be kept at the police station. Thus at any moment the police would know where to find a person.

In Russia separate private houses do not exist except in villages and small townships. In the cities people reside in flats in large blocks of buildings. Some of these buildings contain as many as six or seven hundred flats of from four to eighteen rooms each. Such buildings have several main and back entrances. At the former is always stationed a switzar, or hall porter, who lives usually in a room in the basement of the building and is on duty day and night. Such men are responsible for knowing every person who enters the building. These main entrances are usually locked at midnight and opened at seven in the morning. Between these hours if one wishes to enter the building he has to ring for the door to be opened. If a stranger should ask admittance, he would be asked whom he wished to see, and upon giving the number of the flat and the name of the occupant, he would be escorted to the door by the porter. The back entrances to the building usually open into yards, which communicate one with the other and can be closed by means of a gate leading to the street.

The entire building is always under the control of a stachi-dvornick, or concierge, to whom the switzars are answerable. In addition to the switzars, the stachi-dvornick' s staff consists of a number of under-dvornicks who are employed in keeping the premises clean, removing kitchen refuse from the flats and in supplying them with the necessary wood fuel ; coal is never used. Day and night one of these under-dvornicks is stationed at the street gate leading to the yards, which gate is controlled in a similar manner during the night as the main entrances.

These dvornicks are in some measure servants of the police, for in the event of it being necessary for a policeman on point duty to leave his post, he would simply call the nearest dvornick to take his place. This man would then have full authority to act as a policeman, his insignia of office usually being a green sash. If the policeman required to send an arrested person to the police station, he would give him in charge of one of these dvornicks, who would be answerable for the safe conduct of that person. In the case of an unruly person being arrested, a number of such dvornicks would convey the captive to the police station.

The stachi-dvornick was compelled to keep a complete record of every inhabitant in the building, and it was to him that all passports were submitted when one wished to stay a night in the building. These men acted as police spies, and any little gossip they might overhear from the servants in the different flats would be fully reported to the head man, who would in turn record these matters in his books. These porters were always very poorly paid and were, therefore, very susceptible to the inevitable bribe. If a person wished to stay a night or so in any particular house, a rouble to the stachi-dvornick was sufficient to prevent his passport being endorsed with the fact of his visit.

Another interesting fact in connection with these large residential buildings is that the house owner is responsible for the upkeep and general maintenance of the roadway immediately adjoining his house from his walls to the centre of the road. Therefore, throughout the cities and towns in Russia it i8 RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION

is a common sight to see a most varied patchwork of roadway. One house may, for instance, favour wood-paving, the house directly opposite is prejudiced in favour of asphalt, whereas to the right may be cobbles and to the left granite sets, a different form of wood paving, or even macadam. Each particular piece of road was usually quite good in itself, but where one type of road joined another there was usually some slight unevenness. It must not be imagined that every house-owner holds different views on the subject of road-making, but nevertheless patchwork roads may be seen in many places. On main thoroughfares, such as the Nevsky Prospect, the police in recent years have issued instructions that wood-paving must be adopted throughout.

Another matter which is the responsibility of each individual house-owner is the cleaning of his particular piece of road. On this point the police are very strict, and therefore during the winter, even after a most heavy snowfall, the roads are quickly cleaned and the pavements well swept and sanded. If a person should slip on badly cleaned pavements and injure himself he can claim damages from the house-owner.

This system of managing houses in Russia certainly has its advantages, but nevertheless it was a part of the police spy organisation.

The inhabitants of Russia having such hard task-masters and with practically no say in the management of their own affairs, were naturally very embittered against the police, and they saw in Revolution their only hope of salvation.

Any person possessed of more than the average amount of intelligence, and who was conscientiously interested in the immediate and future well-being of his fellow-citizens, soon became an object of suspicion to the police, who quickly arranged that such a person should disappear. Thus during the many generations preceding the recent Revolution, the brains of Russia have been sent to Siberia to stagnate out of harm's way.

When the police decided to exile a person to Siberia, they gave no notice of their intentions. The hapless wretch had no opportunity of bidding good-bye to his relatives. He was arrested and without further ado dispatched to Siberia under a number, and from that moment all knowledge of him by his relatives ceased, unless they agreed to bribe the police to be allowed secretly to communicate with him, or the prisoner in question was sufficiently influential amongst the Revolutionary Party to be able to communicate through its Secret Agents.

Although containing an enormous number of undesirables, Siberia possessed remarkably few prisons. Owing to the size of the territory and the fact that for at least six months in the year the ground is covered by deep snow, also that the villages and towns are so far distant from one another, prisons as we understand them with stone walls, dungeons and barred windows were not necessary. They were reserved for the criminals. It was sufficient for the police to send a prisoner to any particular village with instructions that he should report twice a day to the police officer in charge to prevent him escaping. The general punishment for failing to report at the stated times was a term of confinement, or, in the case of an alleged dangerous prisoner, death.

The prisoners themselves were allowed their freedom in the particular village to which they were exiled, and for their livelihood were permitted to work for the peasants. In a number of cases their friends were allowed to send them money, but only through the medium of the police, who generally arranged that the hapless individual received little or nothing. In cases where a prisoner had shown himself in private life to be exceptionally energetic and capable of influencing his fellows against the police, he was treated by them as dangerous and generally exiled to some distant village in the far north of Siberia. This alone was a terrible torture for an intelligent mind to be thus transplanted to live among the lower orders of Siberian peasants.

In addition to the political prisoners, a large number of criminals and murderers were also sent to Siberia. These were mostly sent to prisons, which are everything that is vile. Murderers or prisoners sentenced for

22 RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION life were invariably sent to the mines, which were worked in the Government interests. Such criminals were usually chained to wheelbarrows, or, for those employed otherwise, a weight was chained to the leg or they wore an iron belt to which thedr ankles and wrists were attached by lengths of loose chain. These chains were never removed, and death was the only relief for the miserable creatures wearing them. Such prisoners wore distinctive prison dress, but as an additional precaution against their escaping without detection, one half of their heads were always kept shaved, so that should they ever escape and allow the hair to grow it would be of a different texture to that on the other side of the head and also of a different shade. Thus they would be branded for life no matter where they went.

The transport of these poor creatures from their homes to the point nearest on the railway to the place of their exile was generally by means of cattle trucks, in which as many as thirty or forty were herded together and fed through a small barred window. The trucks were not opened until they reached their destination, and such journeys might take from four to fourteen days. No regard was shown to sex, both men and women being herded together, without any sanitary provision.

Upon reaching the end of their terrible journey by rail, it by no means followed that they had finished their travels, for the railways beyond the limits of the Trans-Siberian Railway are practically nil. The rest of the journey to their final destination had, therefore, to be made on foot, or, at the best, ia springless carts in summer or open sleighs m winter. Such journeys would be anything; from fifty to several hundreds or even a. thousand miles. It is easy to realise the awful sufferings these poor wrecks of humanity had to undergo, with nothing to look forward to but a terrible existence for the rest of their natural lives.

In cases where prisoners were sentenced to a definite term of exile, never less than a period of years, and they subsequently returned to their friends and homes, it was in a most pitiable condition. Siberia always leaves its tragic mark, turning youth into

24 RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION age and the strongest man into a palsied wreck. In many instances a man would be ruthlessly snatched from his home without a moment in which to prepare for his departure, or even to say good-bye to his family. When he returned after his period of exile it was frequently to find that not only had his home disappeared, but that his wife and family had either vanished or had died of starvation, or worse still were eking out an existence worse than death struggling to keep body and soul together. Such men not unnaturally nourished the bitterest feelings towards the Government and its employees. They had only one hope — revenge.

It is quite a common thing in Russia to meet a man whose appearance would indicate that his age is anything between sixty and eighty, whereas it is actually not more than thirty or forty. Enquiry would generally elicit the fact that the unfortunate was studying as a student at one of the Universities, or as a peasant working on the land, when for some trivial offence, possibly for attending some minor Revolutionary meeting, he had been taken by the police and without trial exiled to Siberia for a period of ten or fifteen years.