New Year 1917 events on January 1st. View from switzerland

The first day of 1917 in Russia fell on a Sunday. They ended the 127th week of the war.

On January 1, the newspapers reported: on the Riga sector of the front, the troops were holding firm and, going over to the counteroffensive, "dispersed the enemy units"; on the Romanian front, the enemy captured one of the nameless heights, on the Caucasian - no significant changes occurred.

For millions of soldiers, it was another day face to face with death, without faith in themselves, without trust in their commanders. In letters home, they said: “The longer life goes on, the worse it gets. Our authorities are strangling us, squeezing out the last blood, of which there is very little left. You can't wait until the end of all this ... ".

Anti-war sentiment grew in the country.

In 1916, about one and a half million people deserted from the army. Unrest in units and formations became more frequent. The massacre was swift and brutal. On January 1, according to the verdict of the military field court, 24 soldiers of the 17th Siberian Rifle Regiment were shot on the Northern Front, and the regiment itself was disbanded and transferred to the South-Western Front. On January 3, in all units of the 12th Army, the order of General Radko-Dimitriev was read out, which threatened death penalty for disobedience to superiors and refusal to go on the offensive.

However, courts-martial could not intimidate the soldiers. The Central State Military Historical Archive (TsGVIA) stores soldiers' letters for January 1917:

“How long will we be silent? Oh, comrades, it’s time to break these chains, comrades, be bolder for the salvation of wives and children, we will stand up against the bandits with our chest, we will deliver Rus' from the chains.

“I look forward to the moment when the front turns into reverse side face and demand payment of bills ... everyone is in a bad, embittered mood.

According to official data from military censorship, in December 1916 there were 11 percent of the total number of such letters, in January 1917 they already accounted for 19 percent.

The harsh winter of 1917 brought new hardships. Rising prices. Railways they could not cope not only with transportation around the country, but also with the supply of food to the army. The economy of backward Russia could not withstand the stress of wartime.

Mobilization, according to the 1917 census, in Russia as a whole took up to 50 percent of workers from the villages. Those who left for the army were replaced by women, children and the elderly. In 1917, for work in agriculture attracted up to 600 thousand prisoners and 250 thousand refugees. But their work was unproductive and inefficient. Cultivated areas have decreased, productivity has decreased, livestock production has fallen. Whereas before the war an average of 4.5 billion or more poods of grain was harvested per year (with the exception of the 1913 harvest of 6 billion poods), in 1917 only about 2,950 million were harvested.

In December 1916, the government decided on the forced distribution of bread. Requisitions of grain and cattle began.

Increasing economic dependency tsarist Russia from the allies, for whom the very help of a partner became a purely commercial enterprise. So, in January 1917, England confirmed its readiness to deliver to Russia 3.72 million tons of goods "related to the needs of defense", only for this she now demanded, in addition to 30 million poods of wheat, which were requested earlier, 100 thousand tons of flax , 250-300 thousand hectoliters of alcohol, a large number of forests, manganese, asbestos, eggs, lentils, beans.

In the January reports of the Okhrana, it was noted:
“The mothers of families, exhausted by endless standing in the tails at the shops, tormented at the sight of their half-starved and sick children, are perhaps now much closer to the revolution than the Milyukovs, Rodichevs and others, and, of course, they are much more dangerous, since they represent that storage of combustible material, for which one spark is enough to start a fire.

New Year seemed like a year of change. Even in such a right-wing newspaper as Novye Dni, the issue of January 3 said: “Events of life have never made me feel something higher so closely ... And whoever feels this higher, majestic and formidable is full of concern, which - something of sacred anxiety, he peers inquisitively into the distance of the future, felt in the anxiety and unusualness of every day experienced ... ".

The layman was alarmed by everything: the December murder of Grigory Rasputin, a peasant who “prophesied” and enjoyed unlimited influence at court; and the continuous change of ministers, the so-called “ministerial leapfrog” (these days, instead of A. F. Trepov, N. D. Golitsyn became the chairman of the Council of Ministers; the minister of war was again replaced, the protege of Rasputin, the minister of internal affairs, A. D. Protopopov, gained more and more weight ). The Council of Ministers was ironically called the “somersault collegium”. The Duma opposition, rushing about with ideas of "expanding public participation" in state affairs, received a kind of New Year's gift from the monarch. On January 1, a personal imperial decree was published on changes in the composition of the State Council - the upper legislative chamber. Instead of 17 members of the center group, right-wing and non-Party, only right-wingers were appointed. The Chairman of the Council was also replaced. They became a reactionary, former Minister of Justice I. G. Shcheglovitov.

"Program
Prince I. D. Golitsyn

The other day we pointed out that the program of the new cabinet is clear without any statements. Its purpose, obviously, is to concentrate all the attention and all the forces of the government on the defense of that system of government, against which the whole country has just strongly spoken out. A conversation published in print. N. D. Golitsyna with an employee of Novoye Vremya quite definitely confirms what was already taken for granted before. The new prime minister “sets one of the main foundations of his activity”: “The preservation of the state system established by the current laws in full integrity, because it is clear to everyone that the government, as such, cannot undertake any experiments in the field of government controlled which are in the nature of a coup d'etat, especially at such a historical moment as our fatherland is now experiencing, since the result of such a step, among other things, may be general disorganization.
From what has been said, the conclusion follows that I cannot allow the idea of establishing in our country such a system of state administration in which the government would be responsible to the legislature and institutions.

If the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers were more familiar with the order of government which exists among all our European allies and which he feels so disgusted with that he "cannot admit the thought" of establishing it in Russia, he would not have remained unaware that for no "coup d'état" is needed at all to introduce the political responsibility of the ministry, and that the transition to this institution took place everywhere without any upheavals and even without any changes in the fundamental laws.

The mood of Kazan society is elevated, the vast majority of it is opposed to the government, which no one hides, they talk about it quite openly. Condemned the new adopted by the government course, they say that this is a turn back, but what was possible before is now unacceptable.

From a private letter
Saratov Governor S. Tverskoy

What is being done? Exactly 11 years have not passed since 1905. The same characters, the same words, on the one hand, and the same paralysis of power. On the ground again, the zemstvo-nobles hit politics. Again ringing resolutions about the hated government, etc. Well, what's next? Then again the peasant will say the word, or, rather, the peasant will do the job. The mood is bad.

From notes
Petrograd security department

1
...The mood in the capital is exceptionally alarming. The wildest rumors circulate in society, both about the intentions of the government authorities (in the sense of taking various kinds of reactionary measures), and about the assumptions of groups and sections of the population hostile to this government (in the sense of possible and probable revolutionary undertakings and excesses). Everyone is waiting for some exceptional events and performances from both sides. They are equally seriously and anxiously awaiting both sharp revolutionary outbreaks, and equally undoubted allegedly in the near future. palace coup”, the herald of which, according to common belief, was the act against the “notorious old man”.
(note - refers to the murder of Rasputin).

Among such chaotic judgments, gossips and rumors, the repeated talks and talks about terror as a phenomenon not of a party character, but of a general one, draw special attention to themselves everywhere and everywhere. In this respect, rumors about the likely possibilities of the manifestation of terror are usually associated in the public advanced circles with the question of the final dissolution of the State Duma.

How general characteristics of the current political moment in the internal life of the country, in all circles and strata of metropolitan society without exception, such prospects are now being drawn: “The present political moment to the strongest degree resembles the situation of the events that preceded the revolutionary excesses of 1905 ... The inevitable riots of student youth ... , workers' strikes, their demonstrative antics and the sympathetic attitude of the advanced and progressive-minded circles of intelligent society towards all of the above - all this, taken together, will create the atmosphere necessary for further actions of underground revolutionary parties, general terror and street scandals and riots. In such approximate strokes, the situation of the near future is now being drawn.

2.
... The idea of a general strike from day to day gains new supporters and becomes popular, as it was in 1905.

It should be noted that if the working masses have come to realize the necessity and feasibility of a general strike and the subsequent revolution, and the circles of the intelligentsia have come to believe in the salvation of political assassinations and terror, then this clearly enough shows the oppositional mood of society and its thirst to find one or another way out. from the politically abnormal situation that had been created. But that this situation ... is becoming more abnormal and more tense every day, and that neither the masses of the population nor the leaders of political parties see any natural peaceful way out of it - there is no need to talk about it.

From the message of the Vladimir Governor Creighton

Anger in some, especially factory districts, is barely contained. The strike movement in the factories has taken on a stubborn character and entails more than alarming moods among the factory owners. The Orekhovo and Ivanovo manufacturers feel almost panic fear for the fate of themselves and their enterprises.

On January 6, a decree of Nicholas II to the Senate was published on the postponement of the resumption of classes of the State Duma and the State Council until February 14. This was not so much a blow to the opposition in the Duma as an open demonstration that the autocracy intends to act with the old, tried and tested methods of repression, not even trying to meet the demands of liberal-monarchist circles.

Anti-monarchist, anti-autocratic, revolutionary sentiments were born in Russian society- in different layers and classes with varying degrees of severity and severity, not in January 1917, but much earlier. Back in November 1916, speaking in the State Duma, the leader of the Cadets P.N. as the declaration of the bloc said: we will fight you, we will fight with all legal means until you leave.

Conspiratorial moods were ripening among some representatives of the ruling elite: to change the king, to kill the empress. However, things did not go further than talks. True, G. Rasputin was killed, but most members of the Progressive Bloc in the State Duma saw the creation of a "Government of Trust" as a "tit in the hands" - the replacement of individual ministers, indulgences for public bourgeois organizations, some reforms while maintaining autocracy.

Left socialist parties - the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries saw future Russia a free democratic republic, but it was believed that this was a long-term prospect. The Social Democrats Mensheviks were also split into several currents (defencists, internationalists), the Socialist-Revolutionaries also did not have a single cohesive organization. Some Socialist-Revolutionary leaders were in exile, moreover illegal revolutionary activity in wartime, the authorities, of course, suppressed. Several Menshevik Social Democrats were deputies of the State Duma, Bolshevik deputies were arrested.

In circles close to the autocrat, the prospects were discussed: either disperse this Duma and elect more "correct" deputies, or postpone the meetings for some more time. For the time being, they decided to postpone the work of the Duma until February 1917.

Of the political forces opposed to the autocracy, the most consistent and radical were the Bolsheviks. Of course, Lenin's slogan "Let's turn the imperialist war into a civil war" remained only a slogan, but the Bolsheviks tried to carry out work among the masses. As part of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), there were, as it were, two Central Committees - the Foreign Bureau and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee. The membership of the party was about 24 thousand people, in Petrograd - about 2,000 people (paying membership dues). The largest was the Narva regional organization - 800 people, Vyborgskaya (about 500 people), Vasileostrovskaya (300 people), there were about 150 people in the military organization. Leaflets were distributed, occasionally newspapers were printed. The Bolsheviks participated in the organization and conduct of strikes and strikes, during which not only economic demands were put forward, but also political slogans were voiced, the main of which was the overthrow of the autocracy. Periodically there were failures and arrests.

At the end of 1916, the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee proposed to the St. Petersburg Committee and the Moscow Regional Bureau to discuss the issue of organizing street protests and a general strike.

It was decided to time the transition to active actions (street demonstrations, strikes, rallies) on January 9, the twelfth anniversary of the execution of the workers' demonstration in 1905. Attempts by the tsarist government to thwart the planned action by mass arrests, patrols of working districts, etc., did not produce the desired result.

However, in a short time the citywide committee was restored, the Vyborgsky and a number of other metropolitan district committees of the Bolshevik Party were actively operating.

In 11 cities, the Bolsheviks issued 24 leaflets in thousands of copies, explaining the meaning of the ongoing events and calling for struggle. The texts of the leaflets were discussed and approved by the Moscow, Yekaterinoslav, Donetsk, Rostov-Nakhichevan, Kharkov, North-Baltic Committees of the Bolsheviks, the Bolshevik organizations of Tver, Odessa and other cities.

“The memory of the tsarist crime of January 9, 1905 lives and will not die among the workers,” the Moscow Bolsheviks wrote in their leaflet. “Thousands of workers consecrated this day with their blood, and January 9 became a day of awe for the murderers, a day of struggle and hope for the proletariat” .

From the leaflet of the Moscow organization,
dedicated to the anniversary of the execution of St. Petersburg workers by the tsarist government on January 9, 1905

We are living through unprecedented times, bloody days: under the tsarist banner, for the cause of capital, millions of workers are fighting at the front, the rest are groaning under the weight of high prices and all economic ruin. The workers' organizations have been smashed, the voice of the workers has been strangled. The soul and body of the worker was raped. Where is the exit?

The traitors to the workers' cause... are also calling us, who remained in the rear, under the banner of the bourgeoisie. No, only the revolutionary action of the working class under its own, under the red banner of socialism will put an end to the war and all violence. It is necessary to wrest power from the hands of the tsarist government and hand it over to the government created by the revolution, in order to conclude the kind of peace that the working class needs, to create the kind of political system that the working class needs—it is necessary to fight for a democratic republic and to end the war with the forces of the workers of all countries.
We call on the Moscow workers for a general strike on January 9... Long live the RSDLP! Long live the democratic republic! Down with the war! Down with autocracy!

From the proclamation
Yekaterinoslav Committee

Isn't it time to properly commemorate the year 1905? Who else, besides the workers, can stop the manufacture of cannons, shells and stop the slaughter? Who else can raise high the glorious banner of the Russian Revolution? The hour of the great denouement, the great trial of the perpetrators of the greatest crime against humanity in history is near... Enough sacrifices for the glory of capital. Our common enemy is behind us.

From the leaflet of the Tver organization

Only a revolution can end the war, only on the barricades can we win our rights, overthrow the autocracy, save ourselves from starvation. Organize, comrades! Get ready for civil war!

From lithographed leaflets distributed by the Bolsheviks of the village of Shostka, Chernihiv province

Comrades, it's time to end the war with the Germans and start fighting your real enemy - the tsar and the government ... We will prove to the police that we have not forgotten the year 1905. To the front - the police, that's where they belong. Get ready, brothers, come to an agreement, consult one with another, and when necessary, we will stand up for ourselves ... So get up, get up, working people! Get up to fight, hungry people, go, go!

From a leaflet posted in the city of Murom, Vladimir province

Free citizens of the city of Murom! How long will you look at the injustice of the government? At the whim of the sovereign, both the people and the fatherland itself suffer disasters. Let us rise, brothers, against the sovereign and the government, and let us raise the red flag of the freedom of the people. Let's get down to business immediately.

From the proclamation
Rostov-Nakhichevan-on-Don Committee

Down with autocracy! Long live the democratic republic!

Let us mark the day of January 9 with our united and resolute action together with the all-Russian proletariat under the red banner of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, and on the day of January 9 we will quit work and take to the streets, adding our voice to the voice of the workers of all Russia.

From a leaflet
Executive Commission of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP
on the celebration of the anniversary of January 9 in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kharkov

You know that the comrades were mercilessly shot by the government of Nicholas II on January 9, 1905. That day marked the beginning of the Great Russian Revolution. Continuing their work, from year to year the Social Democratic Labor Party calls on all those who value the creation of political freedom to declare on this day their solidarity with the demands of the workers that were heard on January 9th.

As early as December last year, the committee of our Party, having ascertained the mood of the masses in the localities, decided to call on the Petrograd proletariat to a one-day political strike with the organization of meetings at which the purpose of this political strike should be clarified and the need to especially intensify the revolutionary struggle now, when the unheard-of disasters of war ruling the classes think to divert the attention of the people from their true enemies. It was decided to issue leaflets with the same content, but the police attacks that continuously rained down on our organization in December limited this possibility; only one district managed to issue a proclamation approved by the committee in a small number of copies. True, long before January 9, a proclamation dedicated to this day was published in the Latvian language by the Latvian District Committee of the Petersburg Committee.

However, the very mood of the masses, the tireless work of the district committees and factory collectives affected the fact that on January 9 up to 50 enterprises went on strike with about 150,000-160,000 workers. Some comrades, when discussing the question of how to mark the day of January 9 this year, spoke in favor of extending the action this time in depth and breadth, up to a decisive battle. But, given the fact that the crisis is still growing, that discontent is embracing ever wider circles of the population every day, the committee quite correctly points out the impossibility of foreseeing how events can develop, definitely sees its task only in this day only to strengthen its agitation for revolutionary slogans: “Down with the tsarist monarchy! Down with the war! Information coming from other places indicates that the workers in many cities are showing a desire to fight. It is known so far that all large factories were not working in Kharkov, rallies were organized; in Moscow, one third of the enterprises did not work, a demonstration was organized on Theater Square (the number of participants is called up to a thousand people) with the singing of revolutionary songs and the proclamation of our slogans: “Down with the war! Down with the tsarist monarchy!” You yourself, comrades, can draw conclusions from these events. Let us carry on our work even more stubbornly and persistently...

Demonstrations of workers on January 9, 1917 took place in many cities of the country: in Baku, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Novocherkassk, Donbass and a number of other places. In total, 270,000 workers went on strike in January alone, of which 177,000 were in Petrograd. The capital became the arena of protests by the proletariat against the war and the autocracy that almost never stopped for a single day.

At the call of the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party on January 9, 1917, over 30,000 workers stopped work and took to the streets of Moscow. A 2,000-strong demonstration took place on Tverskoy Boulevard, dispersed by mounted police. By three o'clock in the afternoon, a group of workers and students appeared on Theater Square in Moscow with red banners and slogans: "Down with the war!", "Long live the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party!" The demonstration soon grew to a thousand people and moved to Okhotny Ryad. Tram traffic has been suspended. There were crowds of people along the streets. Many sang along with the demonstrators "Let's renounce the old world." Sympathetic cheers were heard. Near the Metropol Hotel, the convoy was blocked by police officers. Mounted police arrived. She charged into the crowd. Some of the demonstrators were arrested.

The action of the St. Petersburg workers on January 9, 1917 was the largest proletarian action during the war. About 145,000 workers took part in the strike here. In the Vyborgsky, Narvsky and Moskovsky districts of the capital, almost all enterprises did not work.

For the first time during the war years, workers from state-owned enterprises, the Obukhov Plant and the Arsenal, also took part in a political strike. In a number of districts, the Bolsheviks organized and held rallies at factories and plants.

The workers of the Petrograd Alexander workshops staged a demonstration, passing several blocks of the Petersburg Highway, singing "You fell a victim." Met by Cossacks and mounted policemen, the demonstration was dispersed. The attempt of the Obukhovites to follow the example of the workers of the Alexander workshops also ended in the dispersal and beating of the demonstrators. Due to strikes in the Petrograd printing houses, the next day, January 10, the newspapers Rech, Sovremennoye Slovo, Den, and others were not published.

Considering the autocracy strong enough, Minister of the Interior Protopopov feared that the Duma opposition might grow stronger by establishing contact with the "working masses." By the "working masses" Protopopov had in mind the so-called working groups created under the military-industrial committees in November 1915*. It was to them that he turned his attention first of all; on January 6, members of the working group of the Moscow Military-Industrial Committee were arrested for several days, and in mid-January - of Samara. On the night of January 27, nine members of the working group of the Central Military Industrial Committee were also arrested.

* Approx. The Bolsheviks blocked the first elections of workers to the military-industrial committees in September 1915, passing a resolution at a meeting of electors about the inadmissibility of the participation of representatives of the proletariat "in organizations that in any way contribute to this war." In November, the Menshevik-defencists, having gathered for the second time electors-workers, managed to elect 10 people (representing a small part even of their own party) to the working group of the Central Military-Industrial Committee, which was chaired by a major Russian capitalist, leader of the bourgeois-landlord Octobrist party A. And Guchkov

There was cause for concern - after all, the working group of the TsVPK proposed for discussion in the working collectives a draft resolution on the demonstration near the Tauride Palace, timed to coincide with the opening of the State Duma on February 14, which, in particular, said:

The working class and democracy cannot wait any longer. Every missed day is dangerous. The decisive elimination of the autocratic regime and the complete democratization of the country is now a task requiring urgent resolution, a question of the existence of the working class.

Only a government organized by the people themselves, based on popular organizations that will arise in the struggle, can lead the country out of the impasse ...

At the same time, Protopopov ordered the Department for the Protection of Public Security and Order in the capital to monitor the mood of the population and, if necessary, take emergency measures. According to the developed plan for the protection of Petrograd, the city was divided into six departments headed by police chiefs in case of "popular unrest". Each department was divided into districts, which in turn were distributed between the regiments of the capital's garrison and police stations. The police were armed with machine guns. In early February, by decree of the tsar, the Petrograd Military District was separated from the Northern Front, General Khabalov, appointed commander of the district, was endowed with the broadest powers.

The Bureau of the Central Military Industrial Committee instructed A.I. Guchkov and A.I. Konovalov to ask the government to mitigate the fate of the arrested members of the working group of the military-industrial complex. The request, of course, was ignored and the arrested were released only in the days of the revolution by the insurgent military units.

When discussing the fate of those arrested at the Central Military Commission, the leader of the Cadets, P. Milyukov, was also present, speaking out against the "unleashing of the people's elements." The leader of the Mensheviks, Chkhedze, accused the main liberal of trailing behind events: "This is a blow to the working class, but remember that your death will follow the death of the workers."

IN AND. Lenin July 1916 February 1917. Lenin lives in Switzerland, in Zurich (in the summer - in the mountain town of Flums). Directs the revolutionary work of the Bolshevik Party, conducts correspondence with party organizations and party leaders located in Russia, as well as with foreign sections of the RSDLP; edits Nos. 56-58 of the Central Organ of the Party - newspapers "Social Democrat" and Nos. 1-2 "Collection of the Social Democrat". Accepts Active participation in the work of the Zimmerwald Left Group, assists the Swiss Left Social-Democrats. in their struggle against social chauvinists and centrists.

(Meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in April 1917)
Letters: January - February 1917. volume 49

First day of 1917 in Russia came on Sunday. They ended the 127th week of the war. 1st of January the newspapers reported: on the Riga sector of the front, the troops held firm and, going over to the counteroffensive, "scatter the enemy units"; on the Romanian front, the enemy captured one of the nameless heights, on the Caucasian - no significant changes occurred. For millions of soldiers, it was another day face to face with death, without faith in themselves, without trust in their commanders. In letters home, they said: “The longer life goes on, the worse it gets. Our authorities are strangling us, squeezing out the last blood, of which there is very little left. You can't wait until the end of all this ... ".
Anti-war sentiment grew in the country.
In 1916 deserted from the army one and a half million people. Unrest in units and formations became more frequent. The massacre was swift and brutal. On January 1, according to the verdict of the military field court, 24 soldiers of the 17th Siberian Rifle Regiment were shot on the Northern Front, and the regiment itself was disbanded and transferred to the South-Western Front. On January 3, in all units of the 12th Army, the order of General Radko-Dimitrieva, who threatened the death penalty for disobeying his superiors and refusing to go on the offensive.
According to official figures from the military censorship, letters calling for war against the tsar in December 1916 accounted for 11 percent of the total, in January 1917 they already accounted for 19 percent. The harsh winter of 1917 brought new hardships. Rising prices. The railways could not cope not only with transportation around the country, but also with the supply of food for the army. The economy of backward Russia could not withstand the stress of wartime.
Mobilization, according to the 1917 census, in Russia as a whole took up to 50 percent of workers from the villages. Those who left for the army were replaced by women, children and the elderly. In 1917, up to 600 thousand prisoners and 250 thousand refugees were attracted to work in agriculture. But their work was unproductive and inefficient. Cultivated areas have decreased, productivity has decreased, livestock production has fallen. Whereas before the war an average of 4.5 billion or more poods of grain was harvested per year (with the exception of the 1913 harvest of 6 billion poods), in 1917 only about 2,950 million were harvested.
In December 1916, the government decided on the forced distribution of bread. Requisitions of grain and cattle began.

(SR militia. June 1917.)
From the report of the head of the Kazan gendarme department on January 8, 1917.
"The mood of Kazan society is elevated, the vast majority of it is opposed to the government, which no one hides, they talk about it quite openly. They condemn the new course adopted by the government, they say that this is a turn back, but what was possible before is now unacceptable".
From a private letter from the Saratov Governor S. Tverskoy
"... What is being done? Exactly 11 years have not passed since 1905. The same characters, the same words, on the one hand, and the same paralysis of power. On the ground, again, the Zemstvo nobles hit politics. Again, sonorous resolutions about the hated government etc. Well, and then what? Then again the peasant will say the word, or, rather, the peasant will do the deed. The mood is bad "
From the message of the Vladimir governor Creighton
"... Anger in some, especially factory, districts is barely contained. The strike movement in the factories has become stubborn and entails more than anxious moods among the factory owners. The Orekhovo and Ivanovo factory owners are experiencing almost panic fear for the fate of their own and their enterprises " .
January 2, 1917 year, the entire composition of the St. Petersburg Committee of the Bolsheviks was arrested ...

From lithographed leaflets distributed by the Bolsheviks of the village of Shostka, Chernihiv province: "Comrades, it's time to end the war with the Germans and start fighting with your real enemy - the tsar and the government ... We will prove to the police that we have not forgotten the year 1905. To the front - the police, their place is there. Get ready, brothers, conspire, consult one with the other, and when necessary, we will stand up for ourselves... So get up, get up, working people! Get up to fight, hungry people, forward, forward!"
From a leaflet pasted in the city of Murom, Vladimir province - "Free citizens of the city of Murom! How long will you look at the injustice of the government? At the whim of the sovereign, both the people and the fatherland itself are in distress. Let us rise, brothers, against the sovereign and the government and throw out the red flag of the freedom of the people. Let's get down to business immediately"

Worker demonstrations occurred in many cities of the country: in Baku, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Novocherkassk, Donbass and a number of other places. In total, 270,000 workers went on strike in January alone, of which 177,000 were in Petrograd. The capital became the arena of protests by the proletariat against the war and the autocracy that almost never stopped for a single day.
At the call of the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party January 9, 1917 over 30,000 workers stopped working and took to the streets of Moscow. A 2,000-strong demonstration took place on Tverskoy Boulevard, dispersed by mounted police. By three o'clock in the afternoon, a group of workers and students with red banners and slogans appeared on the Theater Square in Moscow: “Down with the war!”, “Long live the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party!” The demonstration soon grew to a thousand people and moved to Okhotny Ryad. Tram traffic has been suspended. There were crowds of people along the streets. Many sang along with the demonstrators "Let's Renounce the Old World". Sympathetic cheers were heard. Around the hotel "Metropol" the road was blocked by police officers. Mounted police arrived. She charged into the crowd. Some of the demonstrators were arrested.

(A rally against the tsar on Palace Square. January 1917.)

January 2- Economic strikes at the Langenzipen plant and at the Nevsky Shipbuilding and Mechanical Plant (13.5 thousand workers).
January 5–7- Rallies and meetings of workers with speeches by the Bolsheviks at all the large factories of the Vyborg side, the Petrograd side and the Moscow outpost in connection with the upcoming anniversary of January 9th.
January 9- Strike of about 200 thousand workers on the day of the twelfth anniversary of January 9 (general strike in the Vyborgsky and Nevsky districts; strike of most enterprises in the Gorodsky district and on the Petrograd side, several enterprises of Vasilevsky Island. At the Putilov plant, Lessner, Phoenix, Nobel factories and others - rallies, processions of workers with red banners and revolutionary songs).
January 10- Strike of workers of the factory of the joint-stock company "Lutsch and Chesher" (over 220 people),
January 11- The strike of the workers of the Koppel plant.
January 12- Strike of workers of the plant of the Russian-Baltic Society (600 people) and the cotton-printing factory of the Leontiev brothers (600 people) demanding an increase in wages,
January 14- Strike of workers of the plant of the Northern Joint-Stock Company of Iron Structures (470 people) demanding higher wages.
January 16- Strike of the workers of the Baranovsky plant (400 people).
January 17- Strike of workers of the plant of the Northern Joint-Stock Company of Iron Structures (1100 people) and workers of the Struna emery factory (200 people) with economic demands.
January 17-18- A strike of workers in the tool and repair workshops of the Aivaz plant (550 people) demanding higher wages.

(English deputies between revolutionary soldiers and officers)
January 18— A meeting of two thousand workers of the Petrograd Metal Plant to discuss the current political moment.
January 26- Strike of workers of the Alexander Mechanical Plant (2100 people) in protest against fines for refusing to work overtime.
January 31- The strike of the workers of the Obukhov plant (2300 people) with economic demands.

(Soldier demonstrations)

(Demonstration of employees of restaurants and taverns. Petrograd)

"ON THE CARICATURE OF MARXISM AND ON "IMPERIALIST ECONOMISM" ( )
"No one will compromise the revolutionary Social Democracy if it does not compromise itself." This adage must always be remembered and kept in mind when one or another important theoretical or tactical proposition of Marxism wins, or at least becomes the order of the day, and when, in addition to direct and serious enemies, such friends “attack” it, who hopelessly compromise it - in Russian: shame - turning him into a caricature. This has happened more than once in the history of Russian Social-Democracy. The victory of Marxism in the revolutionary movement in the early 90s of the last century was accompanied by the appearance of a caricature of Marxism in the form of the then “economism” or “strikeism”, without which the “Iskrists” could not have defended the foundations of proletarian theory and politics without a long struggle against petty-bourgeois populism, nor against bourgeois liberalism. This was the case with Bolshevism, which triumphed in the mass labor movement of 1905, among other things, thanks to the correct application of the slogan "boycott the tsarist Duma"46 during the most important battles of the Russian revolution, in the autumn of 1905, and which had to survive - and overcome struggle - a caricature of Bolshevism in 1908-1910, when Aleksinsky and others raised a great fuss against participation in the Third Duma.47
This is how things stand now. The recognition of this war as imperialist, the indication of its deep connection with the imperialist era of capitalism, along with serious opponents, meets frivolous friends for whom the word imperialism has become a "fashion", who, having memorized this word, bring the workers the most desperate theoretical confusion, resurrecting a whole a number of past mistakes of the former "economism". Capitalism has won - therefore, there is no need to think about political issues, the old "economists" reasoned in 1894-1901, going so far as to deny political struggle in Russia. Imperialism has won, and therefore there is no need to think about questions of political democracy, modern "imperialist economists" argue. As an example of such sentiments, such a caricature of Marxism, the article by P. Kievsky, published above, gains significance, which for the first time gives an attempt at a somewhat coherent literary exposition of the vacillations of thought that have been noticed in some foreign circles of our Party since the beginning of 1915.
The spread of "imperialist economism" in the ranks of the Marxists, who resolutely took a stand against social chauvinism and on the side of revolutionary internationalism in the present great crisis of socialism, would be a most serious blow to our direction - and to our party - for it would compromise it from within, from her own ranks, would turn her into a representative of caricatured Marxism. Therefore, it is necessary to stop at a thorough discussion of at least the most important of the countless errors in P. Kievsky's article, no matter how "uninteresting" in itself, no matter how often it leads to too elementary chewing of too elementary truths, for the attentive and thoughtful reader for a long time already known and understandable from our literature of 1914 and 1915 .....
... The slogan of defending the fatherland is very often a philistine-unconscious justification for war, given the inability to historically analyze the meaning and meaning of each individual war.
Marxism gives such an analysis and says: if the "real essence" of war consists, for example, in the overthrow of foreign national oppression (which is especially typical for Europe in 1789-1871), then the war is progressive on the part of the oppressed state or nation. If the "real essence" of war is the redistribution of colonies, the division of booty, the plunder of foreign lands (such is the war of 1914-1916), then the phrase about defending the fatherland is "a complete deception of the people."
How to find the "real essence" of war, how to define it? War is a continuation of politics. It is necessary to study the politics before the war, the politics that led and led to the war. If the policy was imperialist, i.e., defending the interests of finance capital, plundering and oppressing colonies and foreign countries, then the war resulting from this policy is an imperialist war. If the policy was national liberation, i.e., expressing a mass movement against national oppression, then the war resulting from such a policy is national liberation war.
The layman does not understand that war is a “continuation of politics,” and therefore he confines himself to saying that “the enemy is attacking,” “the enemy has invaded my country,” without understanding why the war is being waged, by what classes, for what political goal. P. Kievsky descends completely to the level of such a layman when he says that the Germans have occupied Belgium, which means, from the point of view of self-determination, “the Belgian social patriots are right,” or: the Germans have occupied part of France, which means “Guesde can be satisfied ”, because “it comes to the territory inhabited by a given nation” (and not a foreign one).
For the layman, it is important where the troops are, who is winning now. For a Marxist, it is important why this war is being waged, during which one or another army can be victorious.
Why is this war being waged? This is stated in our resolution (based on the policy of the belligerent powers that they pursued decades before the war). England, France and Russia are fighting for the preservation of the plundered colonies and for the robbery of Turkey, etc. Germany is for taking away the colonies for itself and robbing Turkey itself, etc. Suppose the Germans even take Paris and St. Petersburg. Will this change the nature of this war? Not at all. The aim of the Germans and, more importantly, the feasible policy in the event of a German victory, would then be the seizure of colonies, domination in Turkey, the seizure of foreign territories, for example, Poland, etc., but not at all the establishment of foreign oppression over the French or Russians. The real essence of this war is not national, but imperialist. In other words: the war is not going on because one side overthrows national oppression, the other defends it. The war is going on between two groups of oppressors, between two robbers over how to divide the booty, who should plunder Turkey and the colonies.
Briefly: a war between imperialist (that is, oppressing a number of foreign peoples, entangling them in networks of dependence on finance capital, etc.) great powers or in alliance with them is an imperialist war. Such is the war of 1914-1916. "Defence of the fatherland" is a deception in this war, it is its justification ......"

The first day of 1917 in Russia fell on a Sunday. They ended the 127th week of the war.

For millions of soldiers, it was another day face to face with death, without faith in themselves, without trust in their commanders. In letters home, they said: “The longer you live, the worse. Our authorities are strangling us, squeezing out the last blood, of which there is very little left. You can't wait until the end of all this ... ".

Anti-war sentiment grew in the country.

In 1916, about one and a half million people deserted from the army. Unrest in units and formations became more frequent. The massacre was swift and brutal. On January 1, according to the verdict of the military field court, 24 soldiers of the 17th Siberian Rifle Regiment were shot on the Northern Front, and the regiment itself was disbanded and transferred to the South-Western Front. On January 3, in all parts of the 12th Army, an order was read by General Radko-Dimitriev, who threatened the death penalty for disobeying his superiors and refusing to go on the offensive.

After battle

However, the military field courts could not intimidate the soldiers. The Central State Military Historical Archive (TsGVIA) stores soldiers' letters for January 1917:

“How long will we be silent? Oh, comrades, it’s time to break these chains, comrades, be bolder for the salvation of wives and children, we will stand up against the bandits with our chest, we will deliver Rus' from the chains.

“I look forward to the moment when the front will turn its face in the opposite direction and demand payment of the bills ... everyone is in a bad, embittered mood.”

According to official data from military censorship, in December 1916 there were 11 percent of the total number of such letters, in January 1917 they already accounted for 19 percent.

The harsh winter of 1917 brought new hardships. Rising prices. The railways could not cope not only with transportation around the country, but also with the supply of food for the army. The economy of backward Russia could not withstand the stress of wartime.

Mobilization, according to the 1917 census, in Russia as a whole took up to 50 percent of workers from the villages. Those who left for the army were replaced by women, children and the elderly. In 1917, up to 600 thousand prisoners and 250 thousand refugees were attracted to work in agriculture. But their work was unproductive and inefficient. Cultivated areas have decreased, productivity has decreased, livestock production has fallen. If before the war an average of 4.5 billion and more poods of grain was harvested per year (the exception was the harvest of 1913 - 6 billion poods), then in 1917 only about 2950 million were harvested.

In December 1916, the government decided on the forced distribution of bread. Requisitions of grain and cattle began.

Women - builders

The economic dependence of tsarist Russia on the allies increased, for whom the very help to a partner became a purely commercial enterprise. So, in January 1917, England confirmed its readiness to deliver to Russia 3.72 million tons of goods "related to the needs of defense", only for this she now demanded, in addition to 30 million poods of wheat, which were requested earlier, 100 thousand tons of flax , 250-300 thousand hectoliters of alcohol, a large amount of wood, manganese, asbestos, eggs, lentils, beans.

In the January reports of the Okhrana, it was noted:
“The mothers of families, exhausted by endless standing in the tails at the shops, tormented at the sight of their half-starved and sick children, are perhaps now much closer to the revolution than the Milyukovs, Rodichevs and others, and, of course, they are much more dangerous, since they represent that storage of combustible material, for which one spark is enough to start a fire.

The new year seemed like a year of change. Even in such a right-wing newspaper as Novye Dni, the issue of January 3 said: “Events of life have never made me feel something higher so closely ... And whoever feels this higher, majestic and formidable is full of concern, which - something of sacred anxiety, he peers inquisitively into the distance of the future, felt in the anxiety and unusualness of every day experienced ... ".

"Program
Prince I. D. Golitsyn

The other day we pointed out that the program of the new cabinet is clear without any statements. Its purpose, obviously, is to concentrate all the attention and all the forces of the government on the defense of that system of government, against which the whole country has just strongly spoken out. A conversation published in print. N. D. Golitsyna with an employee of Novoye Vremya quite definitely confirms what was already taken for granted before. The new prime minister “sets as one of the main foundations of his activity”: “The preservation of the state system established by the laws in force in full integrity, because it is clear to everyone that the government, as such, cannot undertake any experiments in the field of public administration that are in the nature of a coup d'état, especially at such a historical moment as our fatherland is now experiencing, since the result of such a step, among other things, may be a general disorganization.
From what has been said, the conclusion follows that I cannot allow the idea of establishing in our country such a system of state administration in which the government would be responsible to the legislature and institutions.

If the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers were more familiar with the order of government which exists among all our European allies and which he feels so disgusted with that he "cannot admit the thought" of establishing it in Russia, he would not have remained unaware that for no "coup d'état" is needed at all to introduce the political responsibility of the ministry, and that the transition to this institution took place everywhere without any upheavals and even without any changes in the fundamental laws.

The mood of Kazan society is elevated, the vast majority of it is opposed to the government, which no one hides, they talk about it quite openly. They condemn the new course adopted by the government, they say that this is a turn back, but what was possible before is now unacceptable.

From a private letter
Saratov Governor S. Tverskoy

What is being done? Exactly 11 years have not passed since 1905. The same characters, the same words, on the one hand, and the same paralysis of power. On the ground again, the zemstvo-nobles hit politics. Again ringing resolutions about the hated government, etc. Well, what's next? Then again the peasant will say the word, or, rather, the peasant will do the job. The mood is bad.

From notes
Petrograd security department

1
...The mood in the capital is exceptionally alarming. The wildest rumors circulate in society, both about the intentions of the government authorities (in the sense of taking various kinds of reactionary measures), and about the assumptions of groups and sections of the population hostile to this government (in the sense of possible and probable revolutionary undertakings and excesses). Everyone is waiting for some exceptional events and performances from both sides. They are equally seriously and anxiously awaiting both sharp revolutionary outbreaks, and equally undoubted, supposedly in the near future, a “palace coup”, the forerunner of which, according to common belief, was the act against the “notorious old man”.
(note - refers to the murder of Rasputin).

Among such chaotic judgments, gossips and rumors, the repeated talks and talks about terror as a phenomenon not of a party character, but of a general one, draw special attention to themselves everywhere and everywhere. In this respect, rumors about the possible manifestations of terror are usually associated in progressive public circles with the question of the final dissolution of the State Duma, which is probable under the present situation.

As a general characteristic of the current political moment in the internal life of the country, in all circles and strata of the metropolitan society, without exception, such prospects are now being drawn: ..., workers' strikes, their demonstrative antics and the sympathetic attitude of the advanced and progressive-minded circles of intelligent society to all of the above - all this, taken together, will create the atmosphere necessary for further actions of underground revolutionary parties, general terror and street scandals and riots " . In such approximate strokes, the situation of the near future is now being drawn.

2.
... The idea of a general strike from day to day gains new supporters and becomes popular, as it was in 1905.

It should be noted that if the working masses have come to realize the necessity and feasibility of a general strike and the subsequent revolution, and the circles of the intelligentsia have come to believe in the salvation of political assassinations and terror, then this clearly enough shows the oppositional mood of society and its thirst to find one or another way out. from the politically abnormal situation that had been created. But that this situation ... is becoming more abnormal and more tense every day, and that neither the masses of the population nor the leaders of political parties see any natural, peaceful way out of it - there is no need to talk about it.

From the message of the Vladimir Governor Creighton

Anger in some, especially factory districts, is barely contained. The strike movement in the factories has taken on a stubborn character and entails more than alarming moods among the factory owners. The Orekhovo and Ivanovo manufacturers feel almost panic fear for the fate of themselves and their enterprises.

Anti-monarchist, anti-autocratic, revolutionary sentiments were born in Russian society - in different strata and classes with varying degrees of severity and severity, not in January 1917, but much earlier. Back in November 1916, speaking in the State Duma, the leader of the Cadets P.N. as the declaration of the bloc said: we will fight you, we will fight with all legal means until you leave.

The left socialist parties - the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries saw the future of Russia as a free democratic republic, but believed that this was a distant prospect. The Social Democrats Mensheviks were also split into several currents (defencists, internationalists), the Socialist-Revolutionaries also did not have a single cohesive organization. Some Socialist-Revolutionary leaders were in exile, moreover, illegal revolutionary activity in wartime conditions was naturally suppressed by the authorities. Several Menshevik Social Democrats were deputies of the State Duma, Bolshevik deputies were arrested.

However, in a short time the citywide committee was restored, the Vyborgsky and a number of other metropolitan district committees of the Bolshevik Party were actively operating.

“The memory of the tsarist crime of January 9, 1905 is alive and will not die among the workers,” the Moscow Bolsheviks wrote in their leaflet. “Thousands of workers consecrated this day with their blood, and January 9 became a day of awe for the murderers, a day of struggle and hope for the proletariat” .

From the leaflet of the Moscow organization,
dedicated to the anniversary of the execution of St. Petersburg workers by the tsarist government on January 9, 1905

We are living through unprecedented times, bloody days: under the tsarist banner, for the cause of capital, millions of workers are fighting at the front, the rest are groaning under the weight of high prices and all economic ruin. The workers' organizations have been smashed, the voice of the workers has been strangled. The soul and body of the worker was raped. Where is the exit?

The traitors to the workers' cause... are also calling us, who remained in the rear, under the banner of the bourgeoisie. No, only the revolutionary action of the working class under its own, under the red banner of socialism will put an end to the war and all violence. It is necessary to wrest power from the hands of the tsarist government and hand it over to the government created by the revolution, in order to conclude the kind of peace that the working class needs, to create the kind of political system that the working class needs—it is necessary to fight for a democratic republic and for ending the war with the forces of the workers of all countries.
We call on the Moscow workers for a general strike on January 9... Long live the RSDLP! Long live the democratic republic! Down with the war! Down with autocracy!

From the proclamation
Yekaterinoslav Committee

Isn't it time to properly commemorate the year 1905? Who else, besides the workers, can stop the manufacture of cannons, shells and stop the slaughter? Who else can raise high the glorious banner of the Russian Revolution? The hour of the great denouement, the great trial of the perpetrators of the greatest crime against humanity in history is near... Enough sacrifices for the glory of capital. Our common enemy is behind us.

From the leaflet of the Tver organization

Only a revolution can end the war, only on the barricades can we win our rights, overthrow the autocracy, save ourselves from starvation. Organize, comrades! Get ready for civil war!

From lithographed leaflets distributed by the Bolsheviks of the village of Shostka, Chernihiv province

Comrades, it's time to end the war with the Germans and start fighting your real enemy - the tsar and the government ... We will prove to the police that we have not forgotten the year 1905. To the front - the police, there is her place. Get ready, brothers, come to an agreement, consult one with another, and when necessary, we will stand up for ourselves ... So get up, get up, working people! Get up to fight, hungry people, go, go!

From a leaflet posted in the city of Murom, Vladimir province

Free citizens of the city of Murom! How long will you look at the injustice of the government? At the whim of the sovereign, both the people and the fatherland itself suffer disasters. Let us rise, brothers, against the sovereign and the government, and let us raise the red flag of the freedom of the people. Let's get down to business immediately.

From the proclamation
Rostov-Nakhichevan-on-Don Committee

Down with autocracy! Long live the democratic republic!

Let us mark the day of January 9 with our united and resolute action together with the all-Russian proletariat under the red banner of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, and on the day of January 9 we will quit work and take to the streets, adding our voice to the voice of the workers of all Russia.

From a leaflet
Executive Commission of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP
on the celebration of the anniversary of January 9 in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kharkov

You know that the comrades were mercilessly shot by the government of Nicholas II on January 9, 1905. That day marked the beginning of the Great Russian Revolution. Continuing their work, from year to year the Social Democratic Labor Party calls on all those who value the creation of political freedom to declare on this day their solidarity with the demands of the workers that were heard on January 9th.

As early as December last year, the committee of our Party, having ascertained the mood of the masses in the localities, decided to call on the Petrograd proletariat to a one-day political strike with the organization of meetings at which the purpose of this political strike should be clarified and the need to especially intensify the revolutionary struggle now, when the unheard-of disasters of war ruling the classes think to divert the attention of the people from their true enemies. It was decided to issue leaflets with the same content, but the police attacks that continuously rained down on our organization in December limited this possibility; only one district managed to issue a proclamation approved by the committee in a small number of copies. True, long before January 9, a proclamation dedicated to this day was published in the Latvian language by the Latvian District Committee of the Petersburg Committee.

However, the very mood of the masses, the tireless work of the district committees, the factory collectives, affected the fact that on January 9 up to 50 enterprises went on strike with the number of workers about 150-160 thousand people. Some comrades, when discussing the question of how to mark the day of January 9 this year, spoke in favor of extending the action this time in depth and breadth, up to a decisive battle. But, given the fact that the crisis is still growing, that discontent is embracing ever wider circles of the population every day, the committee quite correctly points out the impossibility of foreseeing how events can develop, definitely sees its task only in this day only to strengthen its agitation for revolutionary slogans: “Down with the tsarist monarchy! Down with the war! Information coming from other places indicates that the workers in many cities are showing a desire to fight. It is known so far that all large factories were not working in Kharkov, rallies were organized; in Moscow, one third of the enterprises did not work, a demonstration was organized on Theater Square (the number of participants is called up to a thousand people) with the singing of revolutionary songs and the proclamation of our slogans: “Down with the war! Down with the tsarist monarchy!” You yourself, comrades, can draw conclusions from these events. Let us carry on our work even more stubbornly and persistently...

Demonstrations of workers on January 9, 1917 took place in many cities of the country: in Baku, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Novocherkassk, Donbass and a number of other places. In total, 270,000 workers went on strike in January alone, 177,000 of them in Petrograd. The capital became the arena of protests by the proletariat against the war and the autocracy that almost never stopped for a single day.

In Moscow

The workers of the Petrograd Alexander workshops staged a demonstration, passing several blocks of the Petersburg Highway, singing "You fell a victim." Met by Cossacks and mounted policemen, the demonstration was dispersed. The attempt of the Obukhovites to follow the example of the workers of the Alexander workshops also ended in the dispersal and beating of the demonstrators. Due to strikes in Petrograd printing houses, the next day - January 10 - the newspapers Rech, Sovremennoye Slovo, Den, and others were not published.

* Approx. The Bolsheviks blocked the first elections of workers to the military-industrial committees in September 1915, passing a resolution at a meeting of electors about the inadmissibility of the participation of representatives of the proletariat "in organizations that in any way contribute to this war." In November, the Menshevik-defencists, having gathered for the second time electors-workers, managed to elect 10 people (representing a small part even of their own party) to the working group of the Central Military-Industrial Committee, which was chaired by a major Russian capitalist, leader of the bourgeois-landlord Octobrist party A. And Guchkov

The working class and democracy cannot wait any longer. Every missed day is dangerous. The decisive elimination of the autocratic regime and the complete democratization of the country is now a task requiring urgent resolution, a question of the existence of the working class.

Only a government organized by the people themselves, relying on popular organizations that will arise in the struggle, is capable of leading the country out of the impasse ...

From the chronicles of strikes and rallies in Petrograd in January 1917:

January 2 - Economic strikes at the Langenzipen plant and at the Nevsky Shipbuilding and Mechanical Plant (13.5 thousand workers).

January 5-7 - Rallies and meetings of workers with speeches by the Bolsheviks at all large factories of the Vyborg side, the Petrograd side and the Moscow outpost in connection with the upcoming anniversary of January 9.

January 9 - Strike of about 200 thousand workers on the day of the twelfth anniversary of January 9 (general strike in the Vyborgsky and Nevsky districts; strike of most enterprises in the Gorodsky district and on the Petrograd side, several enterprises of Vasilevsky Island. At the Putilov plant, the Lessner factories, "Phoenix" , Nobel and others - rallies, processions of workers with red banners and revolutionary songs).

January 12 - Strike of workers of the plant of the Russian-Baltic Society (600 people) and the cotton-printing factory of the Leontiev brothers (600 people) demanding an increase in wages,

January 14 - Strike of workers of the plant of the Northern Joint-Stock Company of Iron Structures (470 people) demanding higher wages.

January 17 - Strike of workers of the plant of the Northern Joint Stock Company of Iron Structures (1100 people) and workers of the Struna emery factory (200 people) with economic demands.

January 17-18 - Workers of the tool and repair workshops of the Ayvaz plant (550 people) went on strike demanding higher wages.

January 18 - A 2,000-strong rally of workers at the Petrograd Metal Plant to discuss the current political moment.

January 26 - Workers of the Aleksandrovsky Mechanical Plant (2100 people) strike in protest against fines for refusing to work overtime.

January 31 - Strike of the workers of the Obukhov plant (2300 people) with economic demands.

There is a common expression: "The newspaper lives one day." For contemporaries, this is indeed the case. But for posterity, old newspapers can say much more about the era than the authors of distant publications assumed. You just need to carefully read the lines faded from time to time. Opening the column "Seal of the Epoch" with an analysis of the newspapers of 1917, Rodina intends to keep it until November 2017, when the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution will be celebrated. We look forward to your feedback, dear readers. And wishes: what would you like to know from the newspapers of the revolutionary year?

Meeting the New Year always provokes reflections about what it will become, how it will differ from the previous one. IN Russian newspapers for January 1, 1917, the past visibly rises in its incompleteness and unpredictability. A sophisticated politician and an experienced financier, a worker and a peasant, a military officer and a layman - everyone hoped that the coming year would finally untie numerous Gordian knots in the economy and politics.

And all Russians, regardless of class, longed for peace. The past year, despite the grandiose success of the Brusilov breakthrough, did not bring an end to the world slaughter. But the authors and heroes of newspaper publications believed that 1917 would be the year of victory for the Allies and the defeat of the Central Powers.

That's just the real Russian reality was in obvious contradiction with bright hopes.

The slogan of the moment is revolution

January 1, 1917.... All printed publications, without division into party affiliation and political sympathies, speak of the inevitability of the revolution. A hundred years later, it even seems that the newspapers gradually prepared fellow citizens for the inevitable social upheavals. Of course, this is just an illusion, but at the beginning of January 17, for the most educated and insightful Russians, the inevitability of radical changes in the near future was obvious.

Deputy of the State Duma of the 1st convocation Fyodor Kokoshkin realized that Russian empire celebrates the New Year in the conditions of a growing state crisis, prophesied a political revolution for Russia and was not afraid to formulate a radical conclusion in the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper:

"It is necessary to replace the collapsing system of irresponsibility with responsible management ... Changing the management system is again becoming the slogan of the moment ..." 1

Economist Alexander Sokolov in the same "Russian Vedomosti" argued that the country's economy is mortally ill and only a radical surgical intervention can end the protracted disease. The argument is tough: there are about 8.5 billion paper money in circulation, the value of which is falling every day. The Russian Empire covered its military expenses to a large extent by issuing paper money. The author of Russkiye Vedomosti suggested imposing a progressive income and property tax on all Russians, otherwise an excess of depreciating paper money every day would lead to the inevitable collapse of the entire financial system and to a halt in production 2 .

Mikhail Mikhailovich Zhvanetsky was not yet born, so his catchphrase is "Economists! Shut up everyone!" in January 1917 was unknown to the Russians.

For our Victory!

However, on the state Olympus, the situation was seen as strong and unshakable. On January 1, 1917, as evidenced by the Novoe Vremya newspaper, at four o'clock in the afternoon, Emperor Nicholas II deigned to accept congratulations at the Grand Palace of Tsarskoye Selo, where the monarch was congratulated by the first ranks of the Court, ministers, persons of the Sovereign's retinue, and among them the Grand Dukes, representatives of the diplomatic corps . Everything is familiar, solemn and blissful. The Tsar graciously talked to the rare lucky ones from among those gathered, and at six o'clock he left the Grand Palace.

"Russian word"informed readers about how the New Year was celebrated at the headquarters of the South-Western Front. The commander-in-chief of the armies of the front, Adjutant General Alexei Alekseevich Brusilov 3 delivered a pathetic speech:

"... Now a new year is coming, 1917. Personally, both from the information at my disposal and from my deep faith, I am quite convinced ... that this year the enemy will finally be finally defeated. We will destroy him we do not want him at all, but we must punish him for the sea of blood with which he flooded Europe... I raise a glass to the Supreme Leader of the Russian land, the Sovereign Emperor, to Holy Russia, to our Victory! Long live the Sovereign Emperor! Long live Holy Russia ! Hurrah!.." 4

(Looking ahead, we recall that on March 2, 1917, General Brusilov, along with other front commanders, will speak out in favor of the abdication of the tsar from the throne "for the sake of the country's unity in a formidable time of war.")

Against this major background, the warning voices of serious and well-meaning people were not very audible.

GOELRO-1917

The newspaper "Russian Vedomosti" in the Sunday issue of January 1, 1917 published an article "Our Industry" by its regular author, professor-economist Lev Borisovich Kafengauz:

"The extreme discrepancy between the supply and demand of commodities, and the absolutely exceptional rise in prices associated with it, naturally should have caused intensified work industrial enterprises; however, this work, carried out in wartime conditions, led not so much to a general increase in production as to modifications in internal structure our industry" 5 .

One of these "modifications" was the appropriation by the Council of Ministers of 32 million rubles for the construction of a hydroelectric power station at the Malaya Imatra (Imatrankoski) waterfall, which was located on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland, near Petrograd. Until now, the waterfall has been a fashionable picnic spot and has only attracted tourists. From now on, it was to become a place for the introduction of technical innovations. Petrogradskiye Vedomosti, No. 3, published a life-affirming article, Our Technical Progress, in which an optimistic picture was drawn: construction work "will be started immediately, in the midst of deep winter, and with the expectation that by the autumn of 1918 all new grandiose technical construction was completed. According to the project, the white coal of Imatra will give Petrograd half of all the energy consumed by the capital" 6 .

Was it not from this ambitious project a few years later, in December 1921, that the famous Leninist plan GOELRO (abbreviated from the State Commission for Electrification of Russia) grew?

It was the third year of the war, the capital was faced with a noticeable lack of energy. "Severe frosts in Petrograd, reaching up to 30-35 degrees, showed in all their ugliness the helplessness of the capital with its six-story bulks, in which the heat barely reached 8-9 degrees. The situation of residents in houses with steam and gas heating was especially miserable: .. .the pipes were not heated, the water froze, and the benefactors of heat, the stokers, made unexpected claims that the coming frosts would cause them too much trouble and unnecessary work ... "7

An article in the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper, signed by the pseudonym Putnik, was accompanied by a metaphorical speaking person with a classical education heading "A million torments" 8 . There were still 62 years left before the release of the series "The Rich Also Cry" on television, otherwise the author would have preferred to use a different metaphor...

Chaliapin, Kshesinskaya and the deficit

Meanwhile, the daily life of the home front went on as usual. The Russians went to the theater and cinema, read books, were interested in sports.

In the first days of January 1917, Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin staged a charity performance at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. Wagner's opera Don Carlos was performed for the first time with his participation.

In Moscow, a skating competition for the Cup took place in honor of the famous champion N.V. Strunnikov. Yakov Fedorovich Melnikov won. Novoye Vremya reported the technical results: "Melnikov won the distance of 1,500 meters in 2 minutes 42 seconds ... Melnikov finished the distance of 10,000 meters in 20 minutes 4.6 seconds." 9

In Petrograd, at the skating rink of the Putilov circle, a match for the Cup of the Petrograd Hockey League took place. In hockey with a ball (there was no other yet) the hosts played with "Sport". The total score is 8:1 in favor of "Sport".

On the stage of the Mikhailovsky Theater, during the performance, famous primas Karsavina, Kshesinskaya, Geltser competed in favor of the theater troupe. "A little of everything!" - this is how an anonymous strict theater critic titled his article in Novoye Vremya, thirsting for artistic finds, sensations and revelations, but never found them:

"... An ancient dish, prepared without pretense, to the taste of the good old days. Fun, vaudeville, naive."

A very short period of time will pass, dividing History into two periods - "before" and "after", and how much the unlucky critic will regret this good old time, which he so arrogantly treats on January 6, 1917.

However, the critic does not cross boundaries and speaks of the former favorite of the tsar with all respect: "M.F. Kshesinskaya was a magician. She owns the secrets of technology, which is not accessible to anyone from modern dancers. E.V. Geltser is much inferior to her ..." 10

However, even the ballet fairies were forced to reckon with the new realities of the wartime. The commodity deficit also affected their closed little world, albeit in a very specific form, as Birzhevye Vedomosti informed its readers in the evening issue of February 10, 1917:

"Ballet dancers are now experiencing a shoe crisis. Until now, ballet shoes with hard toes were received exclusively from Milan. True, there was a workshop in Moscow that produces these shoes, but domestic production was not in favor with ballerinas. Recently, one of them ordered from Milan a batch of shoes worth 800 rubles, but they perished along with the ship, which was sunk by a German submarine" 11 . The penultimate sentence contained a transparent allusion to Matilda Kshesinskaya. Who else among the ballet dancers could afford such expenses?

Ordinary ballet dancers, graduates ballet school, received only 600 rubles a year. Only at the beginning of February 1917 did the directorate of the Imperial Theaters become generous with an "increase", which amounted to ... ten rubles a month 12 . At the same time, the soloist of the Imperial Theatres, lyric-dramatic tenor Dmitry Alekseevich Smirnov received, as Petrogradskaya Gazeta wrote, 1,250 rubles for an exit. And the average budget of a female student at the Bestuzhev Courses was 38 rubles a month, and "the average expenditure on housing and food is 80 percent of this 'amount'" 14 . And finally, the average annual cost per medical care factory worker in the Moscow province was 7 kopecks 15 .

Such a blatant disproportion created a breeding ground in the minds of the intelligentsia, first of all, for extremist and leveling slogans.

Home Front Marauders

The extreme discrepancy between demand and supply of goods caused an unprecedented rise in prices. In this troubled water, the "looters of the rear", earning 400-500% on each transaction, felt very comfortable 16 . Petrograd restaurants were swept by a real "reveling epidemic". Huge jackpots, acquired by speculators on supplies to the army, were thoroughly "ventilated" in the capital's entertainment establishments. Speculators filled the first-class restaurants, theaters, cinemas, and exhibitions of Petrograd. During the premiere of "Masquerade" at the Alexandrinsky Theater, a seat in the 6th row cost 22 or 23 rubles. (In order to appreciate the fabulousness of this amount, it should be taken into account that a pound of sugar from speculators cost 1 ruble 60 kopecks, five times more expensive than with cards.)

The abundance of money contributed to the rise of art. The Petrograd artists who took part in the vernissage of the "Union of Russian Artists" sold out all their paintings on the very first day of the opening of the exhibition. Popular among the metropolitan bohemia cafe "Halt of Comedians", painted by Sudeikin himself, in which the most famous poets of Petrograd - from Akhmatova to Mayakovsky - ceased to be accessible to the inhabitants of the attic. "Halt of Comedians" turned into "Halt of Speculators" 17 .

Despite the high cost of tickets - a ticket to the box cost 3 rubles - with crowded cinema halls there were films with Vera Kholodnaya. Gypsy choirs experienced their better days. Riders on the run earned huge sums. It was said about one of the best riders that he earned at least 200 thousand rubles in a year 18 . The sweepstakes flourished on the run.

"Marauder bacchanalia" went hand in hand with the rise in crime. changed dramatically appearance a robber and a swindler: they put on expensive fur coats and began to dress in the latest fashion. Newspapers complained that it became difficult to distinguish a bank robber from a financier. The swindlers did not disdain to "go to work" in an officer's uniform or the clothes of sisters of mercy, appealing to the patriotic feelings of fellow citizens. The authorities unsuccessfully fought both speculation and crime: only small fry came across. For example, in Rostov-on-Don, five merchants were arrested "for speculative concealment of meat." Unlucky speculators, under police escort, were taken to the market, where they were forced to sell meat not at black market prices, but at the state tax.

"This measure had a calming effect on the population..." wrote the newspaper Russkoe Slovo with satisfaction. But the newspapers of 1917 frankly wrote about the main thing: the food question had become a political one.

Golden days of crime

The townsfolk looked with concern and confusion at the menacing growth of crime, including armed crime. criminal world insolent. Those were the golden days of the underworld. The situation in the capital was getting worse day by day. On Wednesday, January 4, Petrogradskiye Vedomosti, for example, reported:

"Chronicle. During the transfer to prison of the clerk V. Petrov, arrested on the eve of the New Year, who committed theft of 130,000 rubles ... the latter escaped from the escorts accompanying him ..." 20

A much more egregious case: at the end of January, while walking on Krestovsky Island, Admiral Grigorovich, the Minister of Marine, was unexpectedly attacked by two hooligans. The admiral, walking without guards, did not lose his head and pulled out a revolver from his pocket. The hooligans rushed to run and disappeared through the gates of an empty cottage. The pursuit of results did not give 21 .

The everyday life of the capital Petrograd has lost its former serenity. The usual measures to combat armed crime have shown their ineffectiveness. Emergency measures were needed. The Petrograd mayor convened a special meeting to determine measures to prevent theft and robbery. The authorities were inclined to explain the rise in crime by military circumstances. Society met such explanations with indignation. The Novoye Vremya newspaper wrote:

"But after all, the police did not suffer any damage from the war: the bailiff, the police officers, and the policemen successfully avoid being drafted to the front, and, consequently, their cadres have not thinned out ..." 22

You can't live like this

Reading old newspapers convinces: by the end of January 1917, dissatisfaction became general, it was expressed by the inhabitants of the attic or "corners", and the owners of mansions. Russian businessman, banker, Old Believer, representative of the Ryabushinsky dynasty - Pavel Pavlovich Ryabushinsky became one of the initiators of the All-Russian Trade and Industrial Congress, at which, for the first time in its history, Russian business intended to openly formulate and present its own claims to power.

The congress was to be held in Moscow. The authorities banned the forum. On Sunday, January 22, Ryabushinsky was invited to the Moscow mayor. As Russkoye Slovo wrote, "in the town authorities, they talked with P.P. Ryabushinsky ... about the prohibition of the trade and industrial congress and about the inadmissibility of replacing the congress with any private meetings" 23 . Pavel Pavlovich ignored this prohibition. On Tuesday, January 24, at 4 pm, all the metropolitan, as well as the provincial representatives of trade and industry who had gathered in Moscow, gathered at Ryabushinsky's apartment: the congress pretended to be a private meeting.

Pavel Pavlovich delivered a keynote speech:

“The funds that we own were not the fruit of an award, but were created by us and our ancestors through hard work from almost nothing ... And yet the state makes increased demands on us. ... We feel that the social atmosphere is becoming more tense. .. What should we do in the name of saving Russia? We only know that this cannot go on like this…” 24

The rhetorical question remained unanswered. The conclusion was correct. A month later, the February Revolution began.

How did the fate of the authors of publications

Fyodor Kokoshkin, the founder of constitutional law in Russia, was arrested in the very first days October revolution and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, then transferred to the Mariinsky Prison Hospital, where he was brutally murdered on the night of January 6-7, 1918.

Alexander Sokolov, one of the most prominent Russian theorists in the field of finance and law of the early 20th century, the author of a large number of works on the problems of money circulation and taxation, was shot in 1937.

Lev Kafengauz, an economist and politician, was arrested twice after the revolution, but this did not break his spirit: he continued to write articles on the history of Russian industry in Butyrka prison. He was convicted and sent to Ufa for three years. He died in Moscow in 1940. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1987.

ONLY NUMBERS

The discrepancy between supply and demand, on the one hand, and the frugality inherent in the layman against the backdrop of New Year's high prices, on the other, gave rise to an increase in deposits by the end of 1916:

"According to information received by telegraph, the increase in cash deposits in all savings banks from December 23 to December 31 of the past year amounted to 25.4 million rubles, and for the whole of December - 82.5 million rubles" 25 .

The growth of deposits slowed down inflation, but, of course, could not get rid of it.

1. Kokoshkin F. Our state crisis // Russian Vedomosti. 1917. January 1st. N1 // 1917. M.: Interros Publishing Program, 2007. P. 4.
2. Sokolov A. War and our financial prospects // Ibid.
3. Smirnov A.A. Brusilov waves // Motherland. 2016. No. 7. S. 68-73.
4. 1917. M.: Publishing program "Interros", 2007. P. 6.
5. Ibid. C.5.
6. Ibid. S. 9.
7. Ibid. S. 27.
8. "A million torments" - a critical article by the famous Russian writer I.A. Goncharova. Written in 1872 and dedicated to the comedy of A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit". The very title of the article comes from Chatsky's phrase from the comedy "Woe from Wit". The phrase has become catchy.
9. 1917. M.: Publishing program "Interros", 2007. P. 8.
10. Ibid. S. 11.
11. Ibid. S. 45.
12. Ibid. S. 36.
13. Ibid. S. 38.
14. Their life // Exchange Vedomosti. 1917. February 9. N 16090 (morning issue) // Ibid. S. 43.
15. Survey of the life of workers // Day. 1917. February 10. N 40 // Ibid. S. 46.
16. Commercial and industrial shamelessness // Moscow Vedomosti. 1917. January 27. N 22 // Ibid. S. 27.
17. Ostrozhsky K. "The halt of speculators" // New Time. 1917. February 23. N14716 // Ibid. S. 54.
18. Drawing of the Imperial prize of 24,000 rubles // Petrogradskaya gazeta. 1917. February 11. N41 // Ibid. S. 45.
19. Impact on merchants // Russian Word. 1917. January 18. N14 // Ibid. S. 19.
20. Ibid. S. 8.
21. Attack on the naval minister // Russian Word. 1917. January 28. N23 // Ibid. S. 28.
22. Every day, thefts and robberies // New Time. 1917. January 7th. N14670 // Ibid. S. 12.
23. Ibid. S. 23.
24. Ibid. S. 25.
25. Ibid. S. 11.
26. Reid D. 10 days that shook the world. M.: Gospolitizdat, 1957. S. 253, 254.

The growth in the number of Russian newspapers was especially intensive in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In 1860, seven daily newspapers and 98 were published in Russia, published from one to three times a week. In 1913 there were 417 daily newspapers, 10 of which were published twice a day.

At the end of the 1890s, the circulation of individual newspapers reached 50-70 thousand copies. "Russian Vedomosti" had a circulation of 25 thousand, "Svet" - 70 thousand, "Petersburgskaya Gazeta" - 30 thousand, "Odessky Listok" - 10 thousand, "Kiev Slovo", "Kievlyanin", "Southern Territory", "Volzhsky Herald" - from 2 to 5 thousand copies.

At this time, "Petersburgskaya Gazeta" occupies a leading position in retail sales in St. Petersburg: in a year, "Petersburgskaya Gazeta" sold 2,495,393 issues (for comparison: "New Time" - 1,824,857 copies, "Petersburg Leaf" - 1,722,885 copies). N.S. Leskov characterized the newspaper as a "gray" leaf, which is read by 300,000 lackeys, janitors, cooks, soldiers and shopkeepers. everyday life capital Cities.

After the revolution of 1905-1907. Newspaper circulation increased significantly. Russkoye Slovo had 250,000, the second edition of Birzhevye Vedomosti and Peterburgsky Listok - from 80,000, the largest and most expensive newspaper Novoye Vremya - about 60,000, Russkiye Vedomosti - 50,000 and etc. The largest provincial newspapers - "Kievskaya Mysl", "Southern Territory", "Odessa News", "Odesskiy Listok", "Priazovsky Territory" - from 12 to 40 thousand per day. Ordinary provincial newspapers - 1-3 thousand.