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The Petrograd Workers
in the Russian Revolution
Historical Materialism Book Series
David Mandel
Haymarket Books
Chicago, IL
First published in 2017 by Brill Academic Publishers, The Netherlands
© 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISBN: 978-1-60846-006-9
Trade distribution:
In the US, Consortium Book Sales, www.cbsd.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
All other countries, Ingram Publisher Services International, ips_intlsales@
ingramcontent.com
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation
and the Wallace Action Fund.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
••
Contents
Introduction 1
Conclusion 474
Bibliography 485
Index of Names and Subjects 494
List of Tables and Maps
Tables
Map
Few historical events arouse stronger political passions than revolutions, and
no statement about the events in Russia in 1917 provokes more controversy than
the claim that it was a proletarian revolution, a view that some historians have
summarily relegated to 'the realm of revolutionary mythology'. 1 Yet, the present
study of the workers of Petrograd, the heart of the revolution, supports the view
that the Russian Revolution was, in fact, a workers' revolution.
Of course, so complex and multi-faceted an event cannot be reduced to any
simple formula. The revolutions of 1917 were also, among other things, a sol-
diers' mutiny, a peasant uprising, a movement ofliberation of national minor-
ities. Moreover, the overthrow of the monarchy in February was facilitated by
the krizis verkhov, the disaffection of the propertied classes, which had ripened
towards the end of 1916 and embraced even the most conservative members of
the dominant classes, represented by the United Nobility, 2 as well as significant
sectors of the state bureaucracy and the military elite. While these privileged
elements certainly did not desire a popular revolution, once it broke out, they
were not prepared to join battle to save the deeply discredited Tsarist regime.
Despite these other dimensions of the revolution, the workers constituted
the main force in the political struggle that culminated in the soviets' seizure of
power in October. They provided the revolutionary movement with leadership,
organisation and a disproportionate proportion of its active participants.
The aim of this book is to present a coherent account and analysis of the
evolution of the attitudes and collective actions of the industrial workers of
Petrograd in 1917 and in the first half of 1918, as they related to the major issues of
the revolution: the war, the organisation of the economy, and the one question
that subsumed all others - political power.
Too often historians of the revolution have left the workers at the margins
of their accounts. When workers entered the picture, they were frequently por-
trayed as an elemental, anarchistic force that the Bolsheviks, the true authors
and victors of October, were able to harness and manipulate for their own pur-
poses. That version was promoted in particular by the Mensheviks following
their defeat: the conscious, urbanised workers, they argued, had been diluted
by the wartime influx into industry of peasants, a stikhiya, an elemental force,
disoriented and politically illiterate, that drowned out the voice of the discip-
The workers' radicalisation in the course of 1917 was largely a defensive reac-
tion to the threat posed by the propertied classes to the 'bourgeois-democratic'
revolution of February. In that revolution, the workers' main goals had been
the establishment of a democratic republic, an active peace policy aimed at
bringing the war to a rapid and democratic conclusion, the introduction of the
eight-hour workday, and land reform for the peasantry. The radicalisation of
the workers' aims over the following months to include workers' control of the
factories, state regulation of the national economy, and the transfer of power
to the soviets, was a response to concrete problems they faced. In the end, it all
came down to their realisation that defence of the revolution, still conceived
in largely 'bourgeois-democratic' terms, demanded the exclusion of the prop-
ertied classes from influence on government policy. Hence, their support for
soviet power, which meant a government of workers and peasants with no rep-
resentation of the bourgeoisie and landowners.
Even so, most workers in October were not rushing to join battle. Most
adopted a cautious, wait-and-see attitude, preferring to leave the initiative
to others. For they had a quite sober understanding of what the transfer of
power to the soviets meant: people who had spent their lives carrying out
orders issued by others, would be assuming responsibility for running the
state and the economy; and moreover, they would be doing so against the
active, and no doubt armed, opposition of the propertied classes, who had
the support of the vast majority of the intelligentsia, people with higher and
specialised education. For that reason, the initiative in the October Revolution
fell to the most determined section of the working class, members of the
Bolshevik party or workers close to it. This was a stratum of workers whose class
consciousness, whose sense of personal and class dignity, and whose aspiration
to independence from the propertied classes had been forged over years of
intense struggle against the autocracy and the industrialists.
But the other workers almost unanimously welcomed their initiative. And
most continued to support Soviet power in the spring of 1918, despite the ser-
ious deterioration of their material situation and coercive measures against
opposition protest adopted by the Soviet government. The alternative to Soviet
power that the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries (sRS) were pro-
posing- an all-class, 'all-national' (vsenarodnoe ), i.e. all-class government to be
created by the Constituent Assembly, a government, so they argued, that could
avert civil war, was indeed tempting. And yet most workers did not consider
that option realistic. They saw the alternatives in the same way as the Bolshev-
iks: Soviet power and civil war imposed by the propertied classes or a victory
of the counterrevolution.
It follows from the preceding that the evolution of the workers' politics in
the period covered by this study is best understood against the background of
4 INTRODUCTION
the changing relations among the principal classes of Russian society. These
relations are the basis of this study's periodisation.
The weeks between the February Revolution to the April crisis were the so-
called 'honeymoon period' of the revolution, when a certain sense of national
unity prevailed. But even though 'census society' (the propertied classes) had in
the end rallied to the revolution, the workers, at least those who were not new
arrivals to industry, had not forgotten the recent history of bitter opposition of
the bourgeoisie to their aspirations. Hence, the soviet's conditional support for
the liberal government and the establishment of 'dual power', understood by
workers as the exercise of 'control' over the government.
In the months between the April crisis and the July Days, the old class polar-
isation broke through the veneer of national unity. A majority of the capital's
workers came to suspect the employers of conducting a 'hidden lockout', of
sabotaging production with the aim of creating mass unemployment in order
to weaken the workers' movement. The government's decision to pursue the
imperialist war further angered the workers. Meanwhile, the bourgeois press
and politicians were speaking out with increasing boldness against the perni-
cious influence of the soviets on Russia's political life. A majority of workers
reached the conclusion that dual power had failed and that the soviets had to
directly assume power. The demand for transfer of power to the soviets meant
just that: establishment of a 'democratic dictatorship' of workers and peasants,
of 'revolutionary democracy' to the exclusion of the propertied classes from
influence on state policy.
But matters took a tum for the worse in the July Days, when the Men-
sheviks and SRs, the moderate socialists who controlled the Central Executive
Committee of Soviets (the TsIK) and who were now participating in a coali-
tion provisional government with the liberals, supported repressive measures
against the workers. Suddenly, the workers were made acutely aware of their
situation: they faced an alliance of the propertied classes with that large part
of 'revolutionary democracy' that supported the TsIK. That included most of
the peasantry and the intelligentsia, and a large part of the workers and sol-
diers outside of the capital. The political situation seemed to have entered a
dead-end, since the workers who wanted soviet power could not move for-
ward without provoking a civil war within the ranks of the popular classes,
something they did not want and they knew they could not win. The soviets,
which until that time had been viewed as vehicles for realising the workers'
aspirations, suddenly appeared as obstacles. Nevertheless, the workers' attach-
ment to the soviets remained strong and they did not support Lenin's position,
who called (at that time) to abandon the soviets as the future organs of popular
power.
INTRODUCTION 5
By September 1917, the Bolsheviks had won majorities in the major urban
soviets and garrisons, so that the fears of isolation subsided, though they
remained very much in the workers' minds since the peasants' disillusionment
with the SRS, their traditional party, was still far from complete. As for the
intelligentsia, it was clear that it would be hostile to exclusion of the propertied
classes from representation in the government. These political concerns, and
the deepening economic crisis, made workers hesitate.
It was in this period, therefore, that the initiative shifted to the Bolshevik
party, which included in its ranks the most determined elements of the work-
ing class. The working class of Petrograd was virtually unanimous in welcoming
the October insurrection and the formation of a Soviet government. But most
workers, including Bolsheviks, hoped that, now that the Rubicon had been
crossed, it would be possible to restore the unity of revolutionary democracy.
They overwhelmingly supported negotiations among all the socialist parties
with a view to the formation of a coalition government. But when it became
clear that the moderate socialists, the Mensheviks and SRS, would not parti-
cipate in a government responsible solely to the soviets, that they continued
to insist on inclusion, in one way or another, of representatives of the proper-
tied classes, worker support for a coalition evaporated. In addition, their fear
of isolation was assuaged when the Left SRs decided to join the Bolsheviks in a
coalition government and when the peasant TsIKjoined with the workers' and
soldiers' TsIK a few weeks later.
The workers' strong attachment to Soviet power also determined their para-
doxical attitude to the Constituent Assembly, which met briefly on 9 January
1918: in their view, the sole legitimate function of the Assembly, a body elected
by all the classes of Russian society, was to confer national legitimacy on Soviet
power, a dictatorship of the toiling classes that excluded the bourgeoisie and
landowners from power. When the election returns made clear that the Con-
stituent Assembly would not support Soviet power, most workers lost interest
in it. By all accounts, their participation in the protests against its dissolu-
tion was weak. And despite their severe economic problems of the following
months, most workers remained convinced that Soviet power was the only
real alternative to counterrevolution. And from the experience of the defeat
of the Revolution of 1905-6, as well as the defeats of the revolutionary forces
in Ukraine and Finland in early 1918, they had no trouble imagining what a vic-
torious counterrevolution would mean.
In writing this book, I tried as far as possible to rely on materials emanating
from workers in order to let them speak for themselves. I hoped, in that way,
to lend more credence to my contention that the workers were 'conscious'
political actors and that the working class as a whole was the central, creative
6 INTRODUCTION
force in the revolution. From that point of view, my most valuable sources were,
obviously, statements made by workers as reported in meeting and conference
protocols, letters to the press, press reports and memoirs.
In statements of delegates to conferences and workers' letters to the press,
one is dealing mainly with the more literate and politically active workers.
Nevertheless, they were workers in close contact with the factory masses.
Some letters were collectively written and put to a vote at factory meetings.
A. Buzinov, a Petrograd worker and member of the SR party, described in the
following terms the relationship between worker agitators, the politically active
workers, and the factory 'masses' in the years preceding the revolution:
The 'self-made' agitator said what was in the head of each person but for
which the others, less developed workers, could not find expression in
words. After each of his words, the workers could only exclaim: That's it!
That's exactly what I wanted to say. 5
Many of the resolutions were clearly composed locally, even if they did
reflect party positions. These were sometimes amended from the floor. In other
cases, resolutions originated from the floor. Thus, while the resolutions were
often written in more literary language, this should not be taken to mean they
did not express the attitudes of ordinary workers. One should bear in mind
that the relationship between leaders and rank-and-file in this period was far
from one-sided. Workers frequently recalled their elected deputies from the
city and district soviets and from the factory committees. Local leaders not
only had to consider the mood of the rank and file but they were themselves
often infected by it, even when it put them in conflict with their party. At
the start of the July Days, local Bolsheviks ignored the party's position and
led their workers in the demonstrations. In the weeks that followed, most
Bolshevik workers refused to abandon the demand for soviet power, although
the party had officially done so, albeit temporarily. In the days following the
October Revolution, the Menshevik-Intemationalists complained that, while
the workers were supporting their call for an all-socialist coalition government,
they demanded that it be responsible exclusively to the soviets, a position that
the Menshevik-Internationalists were firmly rejecting.
And resolutions adopted by worker meetings were taken seriously by con-
temporary observers as genuine expressions of their positions. In 1918, A.L.
Popov, a Menshevik, published a book-length analysis of the workers' attitudes
on the question of power based exclusively on resolutions of workers' meet-
ings.6
Another important source of information on workers' attitudes are the 're-
ports from the field' that were a regular feature of worker conferences and party
gatherings. Finally, press reports, some written by workers themselves, are an
additional, important contemporary source.
Leaving aside contemporary materials, one comes to memoirs. The most
valuable belong to workers and were written at or close to the time of the
events. Of memoirs by non-workers, those of N.N. Sukhanov, an editor of the
Menshevik-Intemationalist paper Novaya zhizn', are without doubt the most
incisive, although he was more closely familiar with the higher political circles
than with the factory rank and file. In the late 1920s under the sponsorship of
Maksim Gorky, a series of factory histories was commissioned. They were soon
terminated but resumed again in the late 1950s. These works, based on archival
and memoir materials, are of very uneven value, but when used in conjunction
with other sources can yield useful information.
I am well aware of the often partisan nature of the sources used in this
book. This, of course, is a problem for any social scientist or historian. But it
is especially serious when the subject is a revolution that profoundly divided
society and, indeed, the world. I have tried to make allowance for this, pointing
out the particular bias of the sources when I cite them. On major questions, I
have not relied on any single kind of source.
I did not set out in this study to prove a theory, nor did I select the evidence
with a view to validating a parti pris. My purpose was to shed light on the
nature of the workers' participation in the revolution. I sought to do this on
the basis of all the evidence available to me. Of course, it is impossible to
write about important historical events, and especially one so controversial
as the Russian Revolution, without having a point of view. I have not tried
to conceal my sympathy for the workers and their struggles. Nevertheless, I
have considered all the data that was available to me. A book that uses the
terms 'proletarian' and 'capitalist' is not necessarily less scientific than one
that prefers the terms 'worker' and 'entrepreneur', although it may violate the
dubious norms of positivist social science.
CHAPTER I
Skilled Workers1
john Reed referred to the Vyborg District as the 'Faubourg St-Antoine of Pet-
rograd'.2 Such was its reputation, earned during the pre-war upsurge of labour
militancy, that I.K. Naumov, recalling his arrival from Tula in 1915 as a young
worker activist, was moved to write: 'To work in Piter - that is happiness. To
work on the Vyborg Side - that is my longstanding dream'. 3
Statistics on the social and industrial composition of the district give some
insight into the sources of this radicalism. Not only did this predominantly
proletarian district have the largest concentration of factory workers of any
1 This section deals mainly with metalworkers, who in 1917 accounted for 60 percent of the
industrial workforce and the large majority of the skilled workers. Apart from the printers
(treated below in the section on the 'aristocracy'), the only other groups in which there was
a significant stratum of skilled workers were wood- and needle-workers.
2 This popular district of Paris was the radical heart of the French Revolution.
Printing 94.7
Machine-construction 83.6
Metalworking 76.5
Clothing 74.9
Chemicals 70.0
Woodworking 69.6
Paper 68.1
Food 66.o
Leather and fur 64.1
Cotton 52.2
All industry 64.0
district (18 percent of the capital's total industrial workforce), but fully 84
percent of its workers were employed in the metalworking industry. In fact,
the number of metalworkers in the Vyborg District alone exceeded the total
number of industrial workers in any of Petrograd's other districts.4
There were two main types of metalworking: machine construction, which
involved much complex, skilled work; and more simple types of metalworking,
including metallurgy, founding, pipe-and-wire making, munitions, and the like.
In the Vyborg District, 15 of the 21 large factories were engaged in machine-
construction. Other districts in which metalworking predominated typically
were dominated by one, sometimes two, giant factories that combined both
types of production. The journal of the Metalworkers' Union described the
giant Putilov Works in the following terms: 'This factory is a universal one,
where metallurgy and machine construction are combined ... It is a plant with
a high proportion of unskilled labourers ... Metallurgy in comparison with
machine construction has an extraordinary percentage of unskilled labour'. 5
the workers of the engineering shop, the machinists and turners, looked
down on me from above. I realised the humble position of the hot depart-
ments: the founding, rolling and forging shops. In these, I saw people of
an uncouth and oafish nature, in both their bearing and their speech.
Through their robust ruddiness, one could clearly distinguish in each
individual face the coarse features which said that force, not mental agil-
ity, predominates in their work. I saw clearly that next to an experienced
founder even a shabby machinist seemed an educated, thoughtful person.
The machinist held his head higher, was more accurate and forceful in his
speech. He could put in a dozen words, including a stinging bit of irony,
where the foundry worker found time for only one, and even that would
be of a rather simple type. With a machinist you automatically felt like
talking about something general and not just about wages. In short, the
worker of the engineering shop was no longer the semi-raw material of
In the 31 European provinces of Russia, there were on average 28.4 women workers for every
100 males in metalworking, but only 17.4 per 100 in machine construction. Female workers
were almost invariably employed in unskilled work. A survey of the Petrograd metalworking
industry found that the average skill level among males was 54.2 (on a scale of 1-100),
whereas only 12.1 among women workers. Ekonomicheskoe polozhenie Rossii nakunune Velikoi
Oktyabr'skoi Sotsialisticheskoi revofyutsii (henceforth cited as Ek. Pol.) (M.-L., 1957), vol. 1,
pp. 43-4; D.A. Chugaev (ed.) 1967, p. 255.
6 E.A. Kabo 1928, p. i95.
12 CHAPTER 1
the founding and forging shops. Indeed, he seemed to have himself under-
gone the shaping action of the lathes and instruments. 7
Contemporary observers agreed on what set the more skilled workers apart: a
more refined personal culture, greater facility with words and complex ideas,
keener interest in broader socio-political issues, and more acute sense of dig-
nity. 8
As Buzinov indicated, these traits had some relationship to the nature of
skilled work itself, which was lighter, less routine, allowed for more autonomy
and was more thought-demanding. The wage agreement concluded in July
1917 in the Petrograd metal industry described workers in the highest skill cat-
egory as independently carrying out particularly complex, exact tasks, guided
by drawings and using exact measuring instruments. Workers in category II
carried out less complex tasks requiring less accuracy, but nevertheless a quite
lengthy learning period and the ability to read drawings. Workers in category
III did various uncomplicated but responsible tasks, as well as precise work
in mass production that required the use of certain measuring instruments.
Workers in category IV minded simple machines - lathes, presses, ovens, etc.
This would include most work in ordnance production. A final category, the
chemorahochie (literally blackworkers), worked at heavy unskilled tasks, such
as carrying, washing, loading, sorting. 9 A. Shapovalov, a skilled Petersburg met-
alworker, recalled that 'work on a turning lathe quite often demands a high
level of intelligence, 10 an ability to read technical drawings and knowledge of
arithmetic. Some jobs, for example, the turning of cones, also required a certain
familiarity with geometry, algebra, and trigonometry'. 11
The following is a description of the machinist's work before the introduc-
tion of Taylorism (which eliminated a large part of the mental component of
skilled factory work):
The machinist of Taylor's day started with the shop drawing and turned,
milled, bored, drilled, planed etc. and otherwise machine-and-hand-pro-
cessed the proper stock to the desired shape as specified in the drawing.
The range of decisions to be made in the course of this process ... is
enormous ... Taylor himself worked with twelve variables, including hard-
ness of the metal, the material of the cutting tool, thickness of the shaving,
shape of the cutting tool, use of a coolant ... etc. Each of these variables
is subject to a large number of choices ... But upon these decisions of the
machinist depended not just the accuracy of the product, but also the
pace ofproduction.12
Go to a factory where they build new machines and do not just repair
locomotives. Leave the Varshavka, Sashka. You will learn how to work,
gain more experience, become a skilled worker, learn to be bold. You will
stop being afraid of the foremen, forge freedom for yourself. You will stop
fearing being without work. You will gain a broader outlook of life. 15
S-skii, a liberal journalist writing in 1911, called the Petersburg workers 'the
salt of the conscious working people' and he went on to describe the skilled
metalworkers:
A group of workers comes out of the gates. They are wearing work clothes,
not exactly in the freshest condition, but undoubtedly well-sewn and
of durable quality. Their facial expressions are very serious and concen-
trated. Through the layer of soot, one can see sullen thought at work. They
15 Ibid., p. 74- 'Varshavka' - the Workshops of the N.W. Railroad linking Petrograd and
Warsaw.
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mustanpunervaa vettä.
Sen yön jälkeen oli Fiinan luonto toisenlainen. Hän oli lempeämpi
ja ystävällisempi ja aivankuin voitettu mieleltään. Erämaan kummitus
oli rangaissut häntä. Toisinaan meni hän kirkkoonkin ja antautui
keskusteluihin uskovaisten joukon kanssa, joka teki työtä
voittaakseen uusia sieluja oikeaan kotiin.
Kaksi vanhusta.
1.
Mutta vaikka hän oli tullut niin huonoksi, niin ei hän saanut
kokonaan luopua merimieselämästään.
"Sillä vielä tänäkin tulevat ne tänne saadakseen minut luotsiksi
milloin Vaasaan, milloin Pietariin."
"Se on nyt siten, että sen täytyy ikäänkuin kulkea isältä pojalle.
Meillä on monta merkitsemätöntä väylää, joiden läpi me kuljemme
silloin kun muiden täytyy kulkea kiertotietä. Ne olen minä oppinut
isältäni ja hän hänen isältään ammoisista ajoista alkaen ja minun
tulee jättää ne pojalleni perinnöksi ja oikeus pysyy oikeutena."
"Mutta nuoret?"
2.
Ohi vanhojen tuttujen niemien ja kivien kiiti alus saaristoon. Pilvi oli
jo korkealla, se oli hajautunut useampiin eri joukkioihin, joiden syrjät
olivat loistavan valkoisia, yksi ulottui aina keskitaivaalle asti. Mutta
pian olen minäkin perillä. Tuolla näkyi jo punainen tupa ja savu
tuprusi uuninpiipusta. He elivät siis vielä, nuo vanhukset — vai
olikohan mahdollisesti muita ihmisiä asettunut heidän sijaansa? Tuuli
kävi suoraan lahteen. Minun täytyi purjehtia sen ohi ja luovailin ylös
pojan torpan kohdalla, joka sijaitsi puolen kilometriä itäänpäin ja
jonka minä myöskin tunsin ja jossa olen käynyt.
"Nyt täytyy keittää kahvia, kun tuli näin harvinainen vieras," sanoi
mummo ja sipsutti sukkasillaan muurin luo, samalla kun
kissanpoikanen ryömi ulos korista ja keikahutteli itseään lattialla.
"Herra Jesus", alotti hän, mutta sitten näki hän minut — "vai niin,
herra on jo varmaankin kertonut kaikki."
"Ei suinkaan heillä liene hätää. Siellä on kyllä niitä, jotka hoitavat
heitä."
Kevät
1.
Talvi on pohjoisen luonnon lepoaika. Hiljaisena ja kalpeana ja
juhlallisena lepää maa, tummina seisovat metsät vuorten harjanteilla.
Valkea lumi peittää kivet ja aidat, mättäät ja kallionjyrkänteet, ja
levittää kaikkialle yhden ainoan eheän suuren tunnelman, kuin kellon
kumina yli äärettömän avaruuden.
2.