Ten Days That Shook The World by John Reed Read Free Book Online Page B

militarism with the help of the Allies-about the "state interests" of Russia, about the "embarrassment" caused by Skobeliev's nakaz. He ended with the key-note:
     
    "Russia is a great power. Russia will remain a great power, whatever happens. We must all defend her, we must show that we are defenders of a great ideal, and children of a great power."
     
    Nobody was satisfied. The reactionaries wanted a "strong" imperialist policy; the democratic parties wanted an assurance that the Government would press for peace.... I reproduce an editorial in Rabotchi i Soldat (Worker and Soldier), organ of the Bolshevik Petrograd Soviet:
     
    THE GOVERNMENT'S ANSWER TO THE TRENCHES
     
    The most taciturn of our Ministers, Mr. Terestchenko, has actually told the trenches the following:
     
    1.       We are closely united with our Allies. (Not with the peoples, but with the Governments.)
     
    2.       There is no use for the democracy to discuss the possibility or impossibility of a winter campaign. That will be decided by the Governments of our Allies.
     
    3.       The 1st of July offensive was beneficial and a very happy affair. (He did not mention the consequences.)
     
    4.       It is not true that our Allies do not care about us. The Minister has in his possession very important declarations. (Declarations? What about deeds? What about the behavior of the British fleet? (See App. II, Sect. 9) The parleying of the British king with exiled counter-revolutionary General Gurko? The Minister did not mention all this.)
     
    5.       The nakaz to Skobeliev is bad; the Allies don't like it and the Russian diplomats don't like it. In the Allied Conference we must all 'speak one language.'
     
    And is that all? That is all. What is the way out? The solution is, faith in the Allies and in Terestchenko. When will peace come? When the Allies permit.
     
    That is how the Government replied to the trenches about peace!
     
    Now in the background of Russian politics began to form the vague outlines of a sinister power-the Cossacks. Novaya Zhizn (New Life), Gorky's paper, called attention to their activities:
     
    At the beginning of the Revolution the Cossacks refused to shoot down the people. When Kornilov marched on Petrograd they refused to follow him. From passive loyalty to the Revolution the Cossacks have passed to an active political offensive (against it). From the back-ground of the Revolution they have suddenly advanced to the front of the stage....
     
    Kaledin, ataman of the Don Cossacks, had been dismissed by the Provisional Government for his complicity in the Kornilov affair. He flatly refused to resign, and surrounded by three immense Cossack armies lay at Novotcherkask, plotting and menacing. So great was his power that the Government was forced to ignore his insubordination. More than that, it was compelled formally to recognize the Council of the Union of Cossack Armies, and to declare illegal the newly-formed Cossack Section of the Soviets....
     
    In the first part of October a Cossack delegation called upon Kerensky, arrogantly insisting that the charges against Kaledin be dropped, and reproaching the Minister-President for yielding to the Soviets. Kerensky agreed to let Kaledin alone, and then is reported to have said, "In the eyes of the Soviet leaders I am a despot and a tyrant.... As for the Provisional Government, not only does it not depend upon the Soviets, but it considers it regrettable that they exist at all."
     
    At the same time another Cossack mission called upon the British ambassador, treating with him boldly as representatives of "the free Cossack people."
     
    In the Don something very like a Cossack Republic had been established. The Kuban declared itself an independent Cossack State. The Soviets of Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg were dispersed by armed Cossacks, and the headquarters of the Coal Miners' Union at Kharkov raided. In all its manifestations the Cossack movement was