The following was first posted in 2017:
They appeared on page 160....the most demonstrative and frightening words in the book. That book being Caught In The Revolution, Petrograd, Russia, 1917-A World On The Edge by Helen Rappaport, told primarily through the dispatches, diaries and correspondence of American, British, French and others who were present before during and after the February revolution right on through the October revolution to the end of 1917. The first eight chapters takes the reader through the extreme tension of a nation at war with Germany, and an imperial government almost at war with its own people. The violent February revolution had then taken place....huge crowds were in the streets of Petrograd.....a million man march to be specific....and they were now peaceful in the streets. Hymns were actually sung....God was acknowledged.....but tremors of a greater revolution rumbled. The words that I alluded to above were these:
"I say! There's an amazing fellow over there on the other side of the Troitsky Bridge, an excited English resident told Negley Farson one day in early April: He's talking rank anarchy! Immediate peace, no annexations, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, world revolution! Never heard anything like it in my life!...Advocates the soldiers coming back from the front and overthrow of the Provisional Government....now! Doesn't he know there's a war on?"
Lenin had returned.....the extreme radical "maximalist" who had been exiled in Europe......who few knew anything about.....but who had worked feverishly "sowing the seeds of discontent from a distance, via a network of underground archivists across Russia who illegally circulated his seditious political pamphlets...calling for a people's revolution led by a dedicated intellectual elite." All the French ambassador seemed to knew about Lenin was that he was instructing others to "kill all people who have property and refuse to divide." Russia had its revolution....a provisional government was in place....but the Bolsheviks were just beginning to be heard from. Blood-thirsty lyrics were now sung in the streets to the tunes of hymns..."We will pillage! We will cut throats! We will disembowel them!"
One diary noted on Lenin..."Utopian dreamer and fanatic, prophet and metaphysician, blind to any idea of the impossible or the absurd, a stranger to all feelings of justice or mercy, violent, Machiavellian and crazy with vanity." Another observer noted as the Orthodox Easter approached..."the (church) bells were ringing" and it was as if "the Russia of old (were) rising again with Christ." This would not last. Yet another well-known French socialist observer noted that these..."...were not socialists at all but what we call in France Anarchists and Communards."
Caught In The Revolution had taken the reader to the the very middle of numerous mobs and violent outburst in the streets during the February revolution. Peace only lasted for a short while before the Bolsheviks stirred up revolution once again, this time against the provisional socialist government. The terrors were returning with an even greater vengeance. One commentator could see the evil in the eyes of marching factory girls..."...placid Slav faces lighted with a look of perfect ecstasy"...and a huge black banner with a skull and crossbones on it as if...flaunting invitation to indulge in all sorts of beastliness."
July had arrived and the Bolsheviks were looking for their opportunity to overthrow the Provisional Government. The second revolution was starting. One observer noted that unlike the February revolution there was no..."cheering, with people singing and shaking hands..." Evil was noted on the faces of soldiers and sailors lured into rebellion by the Bolsheviks. Satan had taken direct command. The tide turned against the Bolsheviks when it was learned that they were receiving funding from the hated German General Staff. A day of mourning for the dead was held, similar to the one after the February revolution, crosses and icons were seen throughout the throng of mourners. What was noted among the observers was that the new prime minister of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, was a strong orator but did not seem to have the fanatical devotion that Lenin displayed. An arrest warrant was out for Lenin.
The Russian army was involved in a terrible war throughout both of these revolutions. The war on the German front had taken its toll when the tsar led them and now it was taking its toll when Kerenesky led them. Many journalists who were present at the beginning were deciding to leave, one commenting...."I see Russia going to hell, as no country never went before." Meanwhile the Tsar and his family, now prisoners, were moved by the Provisional Government to Western Siberia until they could figure out what to do with them. (when the Bolsheviks took over they knew what to do with them...they murdered the entire family. I recommend to you Helen Rappaport's earlier book The Romanov Sisters for an equally vivid and intoxicating account.)
The various embassies knew that this coming revolution would not be as the last and were preparing evacuation scenarios. The world was now watching with intense interest and new journalists appeared in Petrograd including Somerset Maugham and the socialist American John Reed of whom Warren Beatty fashioned his film Reds. Reed thought that what he was experiencing was "thrilling" and wanted to meet Lenin. One journalist whose writings appeared throughout the book wrote that he was sickened by this American "playing revolutionary."
Anarchy and misery were everywhere on the streets of Petrograd come October and people were buying revolvers for protection when they ventured out of their house. Peasants in the country were killing landowners. Lenin was plotting in Finland while Trotsky was rallying the Bolsheviks in Petrograd.
Kerensky had many opportunities but was considered by all observers to be weak. The Bolsheviks simply took over the government in late October but Moscow did not fall as easily. One observer wrote in November...."These crazy people are killing each other just like we swat flies at home." And yet another observer wrote..."I never knew of a place where human life is as cheap as it is now in Russia." Rappaport supplies this testimony from one of the witnesses..."....a typical example of the mindless, arbitrary violence ....two soldiers bargaining for apples with an old woman street vendor.....Deciding that the price was too high, one of them shot her in the head while the other ran her through with his bayonet. Naturally, nobody dared to do anything to the two soldier murderers who went quietly on their way watched by an indifferent crowd...." Anarchy, murder and hate were everywhere.
Lenin's first order after taking full control of Russia was to abolish private ownership of land. Freedom of the Press came next. Everyone knew that Russia was lost.....its beauty marred by the empty faces. The embassies had one last Christmas celebration....but there was no joy....only remembrances of what once was.
Note: Helen Rappaport's latest book in this series is now out......The Race To Save The Romanov's. Her previous two books books were Caught In The Revolution and The Romanov Sisters. I highly recommend all three but especially Caught In The Revolution because we may be playing out this very same scenario today in America.
