Myths about this or that historical event, once rooted in the mass consciousness, sit there firmly. The February Revolution is by no means an exception. Millions of people still believe that February revolution was spontaneous, peaceful and almost bloodless.
One example of such a mindless "A" response:
- Why was the February Revolution bloodless?
- The February revolution, almost bloodless, was the most civilized of all the previous ones (almost velvet) - and the Russians were the pioneers here. If everything stopped there, they would live like Christ in the bosom. Similar revolutions in other countries led to remarkable results (Sweden for example). But then the Bolsheviks came to power in our country - and they spoiled everything with their totalitarian thinking and terror, which first split the country, and then drove it into a humanitarian hell ... http://znanija.com/task/3307691

About the victims of revolutionary violence in the February-March days of 1917 ...

Often, the murders of representatives of the "old regime" were accompanied by abuse of their bodies: mutilated, they lay around the city, and often their stomachs were cut open, burned at the stake, and thrown into the garbage heaps. .

On March 5/18, 1917, the newspapers published the words of A.F. Kerensky, which immediately became “historical” - the February Revolution that had taken place was solemnly declared “bloodless”. Thus, Kerensky, who did not want to be the “Marat of the Russian Revolution,” hammered a propaganda myth into the public consciousness: the “Russian revolutionary Easter,” unlike the Great French Revolution, passed peacefully and without violence. These words were immediately picked up by other creators of February and became almost an axiom.

However, in reality, everything was different. Like any other uprising, the February Revolution was not without violence, and therefore blood. And there was a lot of it spilled during the first week of revolutionary events ...

The workers' strikes that engulfed Petrograd led to clashes with the police, Cossacks and soldiers, which caused the appearance of the first victims of the revolution on both sides by February 26. And soon, through the efforts of the side that won the revolution, searches, robberies and murders began in Petrograd, which then spread to other cities of the Russian Empire.

Let us recall only some of the most striking episodes of the “bloodless revolution”. On the night of February 27, non-commissioned officer T.I. . “It seems that already on the 27th, two artillery generals who worked at the Obukhov plant were killed,” Count E.P. Bennigsen noted. “Officers were killed, and members of the Duma continuously traveled around the barracks, trying in vain to calm the soldiers,” testifies State Duma deputy V.V. Shulgin.

After the infamous order of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies No. 1 ("On the Democratization of the Army"), which followed on March 1, 1917, the number of reprisals against officers only increased. Officers of the army and navy, accused of "adherence to the old order", were subjected to insults, beatings, and sometimes martyrdom. “... Unrest began in the military units, the cadets arrested the commander of the troops, the old man A.G. Sandetsky, who was insulted in every possible way, beaten on the cheeks, etc., in one of the units, the soldiers stripped the commander naked and put him in a snowdrift. ..,” recalled L.M. Savelov, who found himself in Kazan in early March 1917, in Kazan.

Events were even more tragic in the Baltic Fleet. Already on February 28, the commander of the Aurora cruiser, Captain 1st Rank M.I. Nikolsky, who was trying to call the sailors to order, was killed. On the same day, the commander of the 2nd Baltic naval crew, Major General A.K. Girs and his assistant, Colonel A.F. Pavlov, who were arrested the day before, were killed. Then the bloody wave reached the bases of the Baltic Fleet - Kronstadt and Helsingfors. In Kronstadt, a rebellious crowd killed the chief commander of the Kronstadt port, the hero of Port Arthur, Admiral R.N. Viren and the chief of staff of the Kronstadt port, Rear Admiral A.G. Butakov. On March 3, the commander of the 2nd brigade was killed battleships rear admiral A.K. Nebolsin, and the next day the same fate befell the commander Baltic Fleet Vice Admiral A.I. Nepenin. And it's far from full list: in the Navy, up to 100 people became victims of the events of March 1-4, 1917. And that's including only the dead! Over 600 naval officers was arrested. Many of them would later become victims of the "Red Terror".

As the captain of the 2nd rank G.K. Graf recalled, naval officers “they killed when they met on the street or burst into their apartments and places of service, inhumanly mocking them in the last minutes. But the crowd of killer animals was not content with this either: it mutilated their corpses and did not let their unfortunate relatives, witnesses of these horrors, approach them.. Captain 1st rank B.P. Dudorov, the organizer of aviation in the Baltic, in a letter to Admiral A.V. Kolchak dated March 10, 1917, wrote about the events in Kronstadt: “More than 100 officers were killed there... On the square in front of the cathedral, they say, there were boxes in which bodies were dumped, and they say that when one box was not full, someone shouted: “There is room for two more, catch someone.” anything." They caught a passing warrant officer and immediately killed him and threw him into a box. The officers have all been arrested."

But in its most acute form, the revolution took place in the capital of the Russian Empire - in Petrograd, where at least 1.5 thousand people were killed or injured in the February-March days. The first victims of the distraught crowd were law enforcement officers and members of their families, officers, and prominent monarchist officials. After a severe beating, with a broken leg, his head, 70-year-old General I.D. Volkov, was dragged out of the building of the Petrograd provincial gendarme department and later shot dead. On the night of February 28, after State Duma an order was received to arrest “the entire police”, in Petrograd there was a widespread beating of policemen, of whom, according to some reports, almost half died.

Crazed citizens, including women and teenagers, succeeded in beating law enforcement officers. So, a 16-17-year-old young barber enthusiastically said: “I myself killed two (...) And I didn’t shoot at random, but darted!” The writer M.M. Prishvin wrote in those days in his diary: “Two women walk with pokers, lead balls on the pokers - to finish off the bailiffs”. And Baron N.E. Wrangel recalled: “In the courtyard of our house lived a police officer; the crowd did not find his house, only his wife; she was killed, and by the way, two of her guys. Smaller pectoral - with a blow of the heel to the crown ". Gendarmes and policemen were beaten to death with rifle butts, their eyes were gouged out, they were stabbed with bayonets, shot, tied with ropes to cars and torn to pieces, drowned in the Neva, thrown from the roofs of houses ... “Those atrocities,” wrote General K.I. Globachev, “that were committed by the rebellious mob in the February days in relation to the ranks of the police, the corps of gendarmes and even combat officers, defy description. They are in no way inferior to what the Bolsheviks did on their victims in their Chests..

Speaking about the behavior in the February-March days of police officers and police officers, the well-known monarchist Colonel F.V. Vinberg wrote that they constituted "flesh from flesh and blood from the blood of that people, on behalf of which they were declared enemies and adversaries". “Soldiers and workers scoured the whole city, looking for the ill-fated policemen and police officers, expressed stormy delight, having found a new victim to quench their thirst for innocent blood, and there was no bullying, mockery, insults and tortures that vile animals did not try on their defenseless victims, Winberg recalled. - The masses of the Petersburg population actively helped these beasts: boys, frenzied revolutionary shrews, various "bourgeois"-looking young people ran hopping around each hunting group of murderers and, to please the "gentlemen comrades", indicated to them where and in what direction to look last cops in hiding".

Intoxicated with “freedom”, the crowd committed terrible crimes these days. According to the writer V.B. Shklovsky, a participant in the February atrocities, people drugged by revolutionary "They arranged ritual burnings of the 'enemies of the people' who were identified together by the crowd - they were tied to iron beds, which were put on a fire!"

Officials also became victims of revolutionary violence. Already on February 28, in Petrograd, after checking documents by soldiers, collegiate adviser L.K. was wounded by a shot, and then finished off with bayonets. von Bock for being a "damned German". The life of the last Tver governor N. G. Byunting was tragically cut short on March 2 after the bullying of the man shot dead in front of the crowd, which rushed furiously to trample his body with their feet. In the same Tver, on March 16, General Chekhovsky was stoned to death by a crowd, whom the soldiers led to the guardhouse.

Often, the murders of representatives of the "old regime" were accompanied by abuse of their bodies: mutilated, they lay around the city, and often their stomachs were cut open, burned at the stake, and thrown into the garbage heaps. After Count G.E. Shtakelberg and Senator A.V. Czartorysky were killed in Petrograd, the revolutionaries cut off their heads in front of the public.

Extralegal arrests of prominent tsarist dignitaries, which began to be carried out even before the Emperor's abdication from the throne on February 27-28, became another component of revolutionary violence. First of all, monarchist dignitaries I.G. Shcheglovitov, N.A. Maklakov, N.A. Dobrovolsky, B.V. Shtyurmer, G.E. Goremykin, A.D. Protopopov, G.G. Chaplinsky and others, most of whom were later shot by the Bolsheviks. The Metropolitan of Petrograd Pitirim (Oknov), who was dragged out of the metropolitan chambers of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra by drunken soldiers, did not escape arrest either.

But, as a rule, no obituaries for the victims of the revolution were published in the press. IN mass consciousness the myth of the “great and bloodless” was hammered in, and the revolutionary newspapers, choking with delight, reported on the “humanity” of the revolution, carried out “surprisingly quickly and amazingly skillfully”, without “unnecessary sacrifices” and “unnecessary noise” ...

Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

Champ de Mars: a communist churchyard

The latest plans for the reconstruction of the historical center have drawn the attention of the city public to the cemetery in the city center - the Field of Mars. Historian Lev Lurie thought about the saint.

The latest plans for the reconstruction of the historical center have drawn the attention of the city public to the cemetery in the city center - the Field of Mars. Historian Lev Lurie thought about the saint.

And although, of course, “let life play at the grave entrance, and indifferent nature shine with eternal beauty,” the proximity of the communist churchyard to the public amusement causes some discomfort. Moreover, there are few in St. Petersburg who know who, in fact, is buried there today. What does this monument mean in the general context of the history of Russian communism?

Every revolution is afraid of reaction. Because a revolution is a violation of the old, pre-revolutionary laws. For complacency, special rituals are important, testifying that everything was right, there will be no return to the past, no one will be punished: we are heroes, not criminals.

The same applies to February 1917. Contemporaries called this revolution "The Great and Bloodless." You can’t argue about greatness - the monarchy is gone. But bloodlessness did not work.

Quite often there are lynchings of defeated officers and policemen. Baron N.E. Wrangel recalled: “In the courtyard of our house there lived a police officer; the crowd did not find his house, only his wife; she was killed, and by the way, her two children. MM. Prishvin wrote in those days in his diary: "Two women go with pokers, lead balls on the pokers - to finish off the bailiffs." And the total number of victims in Petrograd was no less than 1315 people.

All the dead, not without grace, were called "victims of the revolution." 86 soldiers, 9 sailors, 2 officers, 32 workers, 6 women, 23 people without indicating their social status and 26 unknown bodies (how many of them were officers and policemen - it is not known, it must be quite a lot) were buried on March 23, 1917 on the Field of Mars ( originally wanted on Palace Square). It was planned to place the crypt under a huge column, next to erect “according to all the rules of science, technology and art” the parliament building. At least 800,000 Petrograders passed by the mass graves on the Field of Mars.

I. Bunin, “Cursed Days”: “I saw the Field of Mars, on which they had just performed, as a kind of traditional sacrifice of the revolution, the comedy of the funeral of the heroes who allegedly died for freedom. What a need, what it was, in fact, a mockery of the dead, that they were deprived of an honest Christian burial, boarded up in red coffins for some reason and unnaturally buried in the very center of the city of the living!

The Bolsheviks dispersed the Constituent Assembly, but the February Revolution was privatized. Therefore, they continued to bury their own here. Remaining "on the farm" in St. Petersburg, Grigory Zinoviev considered himself the second person in the party. The capital of the future Communist World Republic is, of course, the city proletarian revolution, socialist Soviet Russia. True, most of the prominent communists are now in the Kremlin

So there are only two general party sacrificial figures on the Field of Mars - the censor of the Petrograd press Volodarsky and the head of the Cheka Uritsky. Both of them, for obvious reasons, were killed by the "counter-revolutionaries". In addition, Volodarsky was named after Isaakievskaya and Liteiny Avenue, and Uritsky - Palace Square and Winter Palace. It was to their murder that the Bolsheviks responded with the "Red Terror".

In 1918, they were joined by Semyon Nakhimson, chairman of the city council, who suppressed the anti-Soviet Yaroslavl uprising (Vladimirsky Prospekt is named after him), and four Latvian riflemen.

10 people died in 1919 near Petrograd, repelling Yudenich's offensive.

In 1919, an excellent parterre square designed by Lev Rudnev was laid out on the field and an impressive monument of four granite blocks was erected. At the ends are the pretentious verses of Anatoly Lunacharsky: “The sons of St. Petersburg have now joined the host of the great heroes of uprisings of different times who have passed away in the name of the heyday of life, the crowds of Jacobin fighters 48, the crowds of Communards.”

The funeral continued - they buried two commissars who died near Taganrog.

The regular meeting Finnish workers' club, whose members were only communists. A group of hungry Finnish communists, dissatisfied with their infinitely greedy leadership (they lived in the Astoria, received unprecedented rations), staged a massacre. The victims are eight communists. On the tombstone of the Field of Mars they wrote: "Killed by the Finns-White Guards."

In 1922, D. N. Avrov, one of the main leaders in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, was buried on the Field of Mars. At the same time, nine-year-old actor's son Kostya (Vanya) Mgebrov, whom enterprising parents passed off as "Petrograd Gavrosh", rested here.

At the end of 1925, a colossal purge of the communist authorities took place in Leningrad. The team of Grigory Zinoviev was replaced by the people of Sergei Kirov. There was especially no one to bury on the Champ de Mars. Well-known communists were now buried exclusively at the Kremlin wall - Sverdlov, Frunze, Dzerzhinsky, Nogin, Inessa Armand, John Reed.

Ivan Kotlyakov, who was a member of the provincial committee and chairman of the Economic Council under the previous city leadership, was demoted to head of the financial department of the Leningrad City Executive Committee. But still, he was a member of the party since 1902, he refused the opposition, therefore, after his death in 1929, the plant, the tram park were named after him and buried on the Field of Mars.

In 1928, the "old Bolshevik", a peer of Lenin, L. Mikhailov-Poletikus, and the "disarmed" Trotskyite, a prominent red commander Mikhail Lashevich, rested here; in 1931, the essayist K. Eremeev was buried, in 1932 another peer of Lenin, the “red professor” G. Tsyperovich, was buried.

Meanwhile, a simpler place was found for the local nomenklatura. Since 1919, the "Communist site" of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra began to be used.
The last burial on the Field of Mars is the grave of Ivan Gaz, the only city communist who initially voted not for the “Leningrad opposition” of Grigory Zinoviev, but for the “general line” of Joseph Stalin. For this, he was made secretary of the party committee of the Krasny Putilovets plant. And then the secretary of the Moscow-Narva district party committee, and after his death he was buried next to Uritsky and Volodarsky.

Now the Field of Mars connects the only green space in the city free for all class groups and the strangest churchyard. So, on the outskirts of Rome, there are gigantic ruins of the baths of Caracalla, the emperor, parricide and fratricide, a sadist, the husband of his own mother. And nothing, they stand, they amaze with their monumentality. Our Field of Mars is a communist pantheon of provincial significance.

“Today was the funeral of those who died for the revolution. What an amazing performance!” recalled the sociologist and culturologist Pitirim Sorokin. “Hundreds of thousands of people carried thousands of red and black flags with the inscription: “Glory to those who gave their lives for freedom.” The funeral march was accompanied by singing. an endless procession walked for hours through the streets, exemplary order and discipline were observed everywhere. The faces of the people were solemn and sad. The sight of this crowd, human grief shook me to the core "1. The funeral of the victims of the revolution took place on March 23, 1917 in Petrograd, becoming a "model" celebration for other Russian cities. They also influenced the subsequent development of universal forms of the Soviet mass procession 2 .

IN Russian Empire each new reign began with a solemn funeral of the previous ruler. In the 19th century this ceremony emphasized the continuity of power. The first triumph of free Russia, oddly enough, was also the funeral. Only they had to perform the exact opposite function: to consolidate the correctness and inevitability of the overthrow of the autocracy; show that the sacrifices made were not in vain. Nevertheless, the order of the event, as before, was regulated by the "ceremonial". Its publication in the press was preceded by a heated discussion organizational moments.

Location selection

The issue of organizing the funeral of the victims of the revolution was raised at meetings of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in early March 1917. The city and district commissions were also involved in the organization. Initially, the burials were going to be held by districts, but then the concept of a centralized celebration prevailed. Pole of Mars, Palace Square, Kazan Cathedral, Tauride Garden, Znamenskaya Square and Summer Garden 3 were proposed as possible sites for a mass grave and installation of a memorial sign.

The first two locations seemed to be the most suitable. The soldiers stood for the Field of Mars, while the workers for the Palace Square, and this option prevailed for a while. The square in front of the Winter Palace was associated with the events of January 9, 1905, known as Bloody Sunday. It would be very symbolic to erect a monument to "freedom fighters" in front of the former imperial residence. The possibility was also considered that meetings of the Constituent Assembly would be held in the Winter Palace.

The adopted resolution read: “To designate the day of the holiday of the great liberation of the people on March 10. The funeral should be nationwide, civil without a church rite, which will be performed by relatives of those killed in their opinion. To perpetuate the memory of the victims of the revolution by creating a monument on Palace Square. must be committed by the entire population with the participation of all units of the Petrograd garrison, in in full force with banners and music. Establish the celebration of this day in calendar order" 4. News of the time and place of the event hit the newspapers, provoking further controversy.

Representatives of the Commission for the Arts, among whom were the artists A.N. Benois, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, architects I.A. Fomin, N.E. Lansere and others, made a proposal to change the decision on the place of burial of the victims of the revolution. They stated that Palace Square "from an artistic point of view is a completely complete architectural whole, not allowing clutter with new monuments", and named as a possible alternative Kazan Square, "which was the site of repeated speeches in favor of liberation", or the Field of Mars, where "there were the first shots that heralded the beginning of the great revolution." At that time, it was also assumed that next to the graves of the victims of the revolution on the Field of Mars "a building for the Russian parliament" would be erected in accordance with all the rules of science, technology and art, which would become "the center of Russia's control" 5 .

M. Gorky, who took Active participation in the organization of "folk celebrations". "Not a single revolution went along with art," he declared. "You are the first to show it. This is a big task." The association with the Champ de Mars in the capital of the French Revolution, Paris, where patriotic holidays were regularly held, could also play a role in choosing the burial place.

As a result, in terms of significance, size, location, and even the state of the soil, the Field of Mars was better than other sites in Petrograd for organizing a burial ceremony. However, the difficulties were not limited to the choice of location.

Shadow of Khodynka

The original date of the funeral was repeatedly postponed: March 10, March 12, March 16, and finally March 23. There were several reasons: the need to deal with the corpses - "they are fighters or opponents"; solve technical issues for burial; ensure safety on the streets of the city. The military commission expressed well-founded concern about possible unrest. "The beginning of our administration cannot begin with Khodynka," some said. "We must use this day for a wide-ranging agitation," others echoed them.

The problem of ensuring security when arranging celebrations with the participation of a mass audience became one of the key ones after the infamous Khodynka disaster, which occurred in the midst of the celebration of the coronation of Nicholas II in May 1896. Then 1389 people died in the stampede and 1301 were crippled. Since then, various measures have been taken to prevent a recurrence of such a tragedy: the dispersal of the public, checking the venues of the celebrations, increasing police surveillance, etc. But the number of participants kept growing. At the beginning of the XX century. there has been a trend towards decentralization of venues for celebrations. That is why the organizers of the funeral of the victims of the revolution of 1917 initially intended to organize burials by districts. However, the task then became more difficult. Processions with coffins from different districts of Petrograd were supposed to gather in one place - on the Field of Mars.

In "Notes on the Revolution" N.N. Sukhanov recalled on this occasion: "The best military authorities" categorically stated that it was absolutely impossible to let a millionth mass pass through the same point during the day. "The whole of Petrograd really had to gather, and there was a danger of provocations, panic, mass crush, execution of demonstrators "Both the risk and the difficulties were, therefore, enormous. It was up to the people themselves to ensure order in the full sense, and they had to rely on their conscience and self-discipline. The young militia and the bulky, swollen, completely inexperienced garrison in these matters could not do anything by themselves. On the other hand, if everything had gone well, it would have been a brilliant examination and a huge new victory for Petersburg democracy.

At a meeting of the Provisional Government on March 15, 1917, it was decided "to form a joint commission of representatives of the Provisional Government, the Executive Committee of the State Duma and the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to establish the procedure for burying the victims of the revolution" 9 . The commission also included the Petrograd mayor, representatives of the Military Ministry and the Ministry of Public Education. Grief, albeit for a short time, was able to rally people, and triumph - to create the appearance of unity.

"There were no bills collected..."

“Yesterday, about 180 people who died in the struggle for the revolution were buried in Petrograd on the Field of Mars. Eternal memory to them!” N.P. Okunev, a contemporary of the events, wrote in his diary, closely following the news from newspaper publications. (169 killed and 1274 wounded), the funeral was, of course, civil. Ministers, members of the State Duma, soldiers and people took part in the ceremony. Everything was grandiose and harmonious. There were no counts of the gathered crowds, but it is believed that nevertheless 2/3 of the population of Petrograd. Over time, a majestic monument will be erected on the graves of freedom fighters" 10 .

The presence at the ceremony of representatives of the Provisional Government, members of the State Duma and deputies of the Petrograd Soviet "emphasized the special, national character of what was happening" 11 . The same task was performed by numerous photographs taken during the celebration, and specially issued postcards. From the footage of the newsreel, the film "National Funeral of the Heroes and Victims of the Great Russian Revolution on the Field of Mars in Petrograd, 1917" was prepared. 12 .

According to the "Ceremonial of the funeral of the victims of the revolution", the columns of the procession participants were formed from the Vasileostrovsky district, the Petrograd and Vyborg sides, the Narva, Nevsky and Moscow regions, and then along pre-planned routes, each at one time followed to the Field of Mars 13. The processions were divided, but at the same time they had a single crossing point at which they did not linger. Upon reaching the burial place, the main part of those accompanying them returned to their areas, and those who directly carried the coffins remained to lower them into the prepared grave. Thus, the sad triumph was united by rhythm and almost non-stop movement. This approach differed from the imperial funeral processions, which had a common vector of movement, but at the same time, it was somewhat reminiscent of the movement religious processions. Probably, in order to avoid such undesirable analogies, the funeral had the status of a civil ceremony.

The first column arrived at the burial place by 10 am, the last participants left the Field of Mars late in the evening. According to various sources, the total number of people gathered that day for the celebration ranged from 800 thousand to 1.5 million people. According to N.N. Sukhanov, "it was not a funeral, but a great, unclouded folk celebration, about which for a long time there was some kind of grateful memory among all the participants" 14 .

So, from the "Amusing Field" ("Tsaritsyna Meadows"), where military parades were held tsarist army, the Field of Mars has become one of the key locations for holding 15 memorial events and nationwide celebrations of the Russian Republic, and then Soviet Russia. Similar "red funerals" or "freedom holidays" were held in the spring of 1917 throughout the country.

* The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 18-39-00080 mol_a.

1. Sorokin P.A. Long haul. Autobiographical novel. Syktyvkar, 1991, p. 92.
2. Mass festivities. Leningrad, 1926. S. 55-56.
3. Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in 1917. Minutes, transcripts and reports, resolutions, resolutions of general meetings, meetings of sections, meetings of the Executive Committee and factions February 27-October 25, 1917. In 5 vols. L., 1991. T. 1. S. 144.
4. Ibid. S. 146.
5. Ibid. pp. 151-153, 242-243, 257.
6. Ibid. pp. 180-181, 193-194, 196.
7. Ibid. pp. 182, 196, 230.
8. Sukhanov N.N. Notes on the Revolution: in 3 vols. M., 1991. T. 1. Book. 1-2. S. 241.
9. GA RF. F. 1779. Op. 2. D. 180. L. 4-7.
10. Okunev N.P. Diary of a Muscovite, 1917-1924. M., 1997. Book. 1. S. 29.
11. For more details, see: Kolonitsky B.I. Symbols of power and the struggle for power: to study political culture Russian revolution of 1917. SPb., 2012. S. 36-57.
12. Chertilina M.A. Burial of the victims February Revolution in Petrograd on March 23, 1917 in the film and photo documents of the RGAKFD // Otechestvennye archives. 2011. N 1. S. 45-51.
13. True. 1917. N 15. S. 2.
14. Sukhanov N.N. Notes on the Revolution. S. 313.
15. Smirnov N.I. Mars field. L.-M., 1947; Ivanov I.A. Mars field. L., 1958; Khomutetsky N.F. Field of Mars - a monument to the fallen fighters of the revolution // Construction and architecture of Leningrad. 1966. N 1. S. 12-15; Matveev B.M. Victims. Wrestlers. Heroes. Metamorphoses of the monument on the Field of Mars // Monuments of history and culture of St. Petersburg. SPb., 2002. Issue. 6. S. 260-276.

March 23 nationwide funeral of the victims of the old regime - fighters for the revolution. Official name The festivities were: "The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Revolution and the national holiday of the Great Russian Revolution for all time."

The Registration Information Bureau of the All-Russian Union of Cities reported 1,443 victims of the revolution (including policemen who were on the side of tsarism - 11 killed and 50 wounded). Among them: 869 military ranks (of which 70 were killed), 237 workers (22 were killed); students of higher educational institutions 25 (killed 5); 251 other citizens (including 20 children; 60 killed, including 5 children).

It was decided to bury the dead in St. Field of Mars. Under the tsar, parades were held there, besides, there were barracks of the Pavlovsky Guards Regiment, whose soldiers were the first to go over to the side of the revolution.

According to the plan, everyone (and this was almost half of the city of two million) had to pass by the mass graves on the Field of Mars. Before the funeral, there were many fears that it would be impossible, that it would be difficult to maintain order, that there would be provocations, that another Khodynka would turn out, etc.

A member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, Nikolai Sukhanov, described the problems of preparing for the funeral in the following way:

“Of course, they were afraid of provocations and Khodynka. The Black Hundred still existed after all. To take advantage of the confluence of the entire revolutionary Petersburg, to arrange a provocative panic, a mass crush, shooting and play on this during the confusion of still unstable minds - this could be very tempting for the victims of the dark forces, who had disappeared somewhere from the open horizon ...

On the other hand, the "best military authorities" categorically stated that it was absolutely impossible to pass a millionth mass through the same point during the day. It was said that this was finally and irrevocably proven by both theory and practice of mass troop movements. Meanwhile, the entire St. Petersburg proletariat, the entire garrison, was to take part in the funeral, and the entire philistine and intelligentsia masses, burning with their first enthusiasm, also gathered for the funeral ...

It was up to the people themselves to ensure order in the full sense, and they had to rely on their conscience and self-discipline. The young militia and the bulky, swollen, completely inexperienced garrison in these matters could not do anything by themselves. On the other hand, if everything had gone well, it would have been a brilliant examination and a huge new victory for Petersburg democracy.”

But all fears were in vain. The Izvestia of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of March 25 described the funeral as follows:

“From early morning, the working population of St. Petersburg took to the streets and lined up according to a plan worked out in advance. The procession moved in slender columns from all the outskirts of the city to the Field of Mars, where 4 large graves were dug. Column after column marched past the graves of the districts, bowing their banners. Banner slogans: Everlasting memory dead fighters!”, “Long live the democratic republic!”, “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”, “Long live the European revolution!” etc.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon the grandiose Vyborgsky district appeared with the largest number victims. The procession of this region stretched for 5 versts. The Narva region could only be allowed to visit the graves at 4 o'clock. In this procession there were in full force the workers of the Putilov factory in the amount of 30 thousand people; half-companies of the Izmailovsky and St. Petersburg guards regiments, the guards of the 3rd rifle regiment, the 176th infantry reserve regiment, the St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo garrisons followed here. Political speeches were made on the graves. After the funeral, rallies took place in various places in the city.”

At 9:30 in the morning, that is, half an hour before the appointed time, the Vasileostrovskaya procession appeared at the Field of Mars from Sadovaya Street. It was led by the orchestra of the Finnish and Kexholm regiments. A huge banner waved behind them, and the soldiers carried 4 red coffins decorated with flowers on their hands.<…>

Vasileostrovsky district took two and a half hours.<…>

Petrogradsky district.

The removal of bodies from the Peter and Paul Hospital begins. Eyes are riveted to the hospital gates. The first coffin appears - everyone bares their heads. On the red wall of the coffin, a large black inscription is clearly visible: "To the fallen fighters."<…>Second, third... 8 coffins red as blood.

The procession moves on. Orchestras are playing, "La Marseillaise", banners are swaying. At one o'clock in the afternoon the procession approached the mass grave...

Vyborgsky district.

The district was supposed to move from the building of the Military Medical Academy at 10 o'clock. morning. Hundreds of banners flocked to Nizhegorodskaya Street by this hour. At the head of the procession, following fifty-one red coffins, taken out of the church of the academy to the harmonious sounds of a funeral march, was the combat company of the Moscow regiment, followed by the orchestra of R.S.-D. R.P., made up of sailors from Kronstadt, members of our party ... Orderly columns are lining up ... Many old, familiar comrades; some of them have just returned from exile, from a settlement, from hard labor ...<…>

At 4 p.m., a procession of the Narva region with the orchestra of the Izmailovsky and Petrograd regiments approached the Field of Mars. This procession brought 29 coffins to the mass grave.

The Putilov plant presented a particularly impressive picture... the workers of this plant, numbering up to 30,000 people, marched harmoniously in front of the mass grave.

Nevsky district.

At 5:15, new shots rang out from the Peter and Paul Fortress - this was the Nevsky district. There were 40 coffins in this procession.

Quite by chance, the Nevsky district turned out to be the largest, due to the fact that the arrived workers of the Kolpino plant, in the amount of up to 40 thousand people, joined it.

The demonstration of the Moscow region was the last to arrive on the Field of Mars.

The day was already drawing to a close, and the sun cast its last reflections on the 45 red coffins brought from the Obukhov hospital.

The tail of this region passed by the mass grave at eleven o'clock in the evening. Since it was already completely dark, five spotlights were specially placed, which illuminated the entire field. In addition, the procession went with torches and lit the way.

Deep after midnight, the processions past the mass grave ended.

According to a rough estimate, at least 800,000 people passed by the mass graves on the Field of Mars.

In Moscow in some institutions and railway stations railways memorial services were performed for the victims of the revolution, whose funeral took place in St. Petersburg. Rallies were held in factories and plants all day long. Similar events took place throughout Russia, especially in major cities- Odessa, Kyiv, Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk) and others. Everywhere on the day of the funeral, grandiose demonstrations of soldiers, railway employees, workers and citizens of all classes took place.

Revolutionary Vladimir Voitinsky recalled:

“On March 23, the workers and soldiers of Petrograd buried their comrades who fell during the days of the February Revolution. It was not just a solemn funeral - it was a manifestation, the equal of which has not yet happened in Russia, it was a review of the forces of the victorious revolution. In my memoirs of 1917, where there are so few bright pages, I must note this unclouded day of the unity of democracy.

From morning to evening, from all the outskirts, countless crowds with red banners moved towards the center of the city and onto the Field of Mars. They walked in orderly rows, like waves running one after another in the sea. I remember, on Znamenskaya Square, I climbed the steps of the monument Alexander III- from here the columns of demonstrators seemed endless. Factory banners with portraits of Marx, Engels, Lassalle, with images of a worker and soldier fraternally embracing, with embroidered gold on scarlet velvet appeals of the proletarians of all countries to unite. Other banners were decorated with gilded tassels, and in this extravagance there was something infinitely touching, naive, festive.

Behind the factories were regiments, behind the soldiers - again workers, men and women, old, young, teenagers. Sometimes singing was heard over the crowd - a working choir passed, hundreds of voices with consonant, friendly sounds of the working anthem escorted the victims of the revolution, floating over the heads of the demonstrators, covered with flowers and greenery, to the mass grave. The order was amazing - the most implacable enemies of the Soviets had to admit this.

The bourgeois-intelligentsia public almost did not participate in the manifestation. But on that day “all” Petrograd was on the streets, columns of soldiers and workers passed by the tapestries of the public crowding on the sidewalks - and on the side of the demonstrators that day there was universal sympathy, and it gave special solemnity, impressiveness to this review of the forces of the Petrograd Soviet ... "

“I wandered the streets, looked at the only spectacle in the world and in history, at cheerful and kind people, swarming on the uncleaned streets without supervision. An extraordinary consciousness that everything is possible, formidable, breathtaking and terribly funny. A lot can happen, a minute for the country, for the state, for all sorts of “properties” is dangerous, but everything is overcome by the consciousness that a miracle has happened and, consequently, there will be more miracles. Never could any of us think that we would witness such simple miracles happening daily.

Nothing is scary, only the cooks are afraid here. It would seem that you can be afraid of everything, but there is nothing terrible, the liberty is unusually majestic, military vehicles with red flags, soldiers' overcoats with red bows, the Winter Palace with a red flag on the roof. The Lithuanian Castle and the District Court were burned to the ground, all the beauty of their facades, licked with fire, is striking, all the abomination that disfigured them inside has burned out. You walk around the city like in a dream. The whole Duma is covered with snow, in front of it are cabbies, soldiers, a car with a military driver drove some old woman with crutches (I think Vyrubova - to the fortress). Yesterday I wandered into the Merezhkovskys, who received me very well and kindly, so that I felt like a man (and not a pariah, as I used to feel at the front). I dined with them, they told me a lot, so the picture of the revolution is more or less clear to me: something supernatural, delightful.<…>

The entire Foundry and the entire Nevsky are crowded with people, the sailors are playing Chopin's march. The coffins are red, at the moment when they are lowered into the grave on the Field of Mars, a salute is fired from the fortress (by pressing an electric button).

Now I’ll go outside - watch how they disperse. ”

Maksim Gorky He described his impressions of that day as follows:

“The force that all my life firmly held and keeps me on the ground was and is my faith in the human mind. To this day, the Russian revolution in my eyes is a chain of bright and joyful manifestations of rationality. A particularly powerful manifestation of calm rationality was the day of March 23, the day of the funeral on the Champ de Mars.

In this ceremonial procession of hundreds of thousands of people, for the first time and almost tangibly felt - yes, the Russian people have made a revolution, they have risen from the dead and are now joining the great cause of the world - the construction of new and ever freer forms of life!

What a blessing to live to see such a day!

And with all my heart I would wish the Russian people to go further and further, forward and higher, just as calmly and powerfully, until the great holiday of world freedom, universal equality, brotherhood!

Do not cry over the corpses of fallen fighters,

Those who died with weapons in their hands,

Do not sing funeral verses over them,

Do not defile their ashes with a tear!

Need no hymns, no tears for the dead,

Give them the best respect:

Walk without fear over dead bodies,

Carry their banner forward!

With their enemy, under the banner of the same ideas,

Lead their fight to the end!

There is no better honor, no feast of saints

For the shadow of a worthy fighter!

An article was posted immediately after the poem. Lev Kamenev with the meaningful title "Not the last":

“Breaking their heads before the coffins of the fallen freedom fighters, remembering with bitter anguish those who died without waiting for the days of victory, we owe one thing to the bright shadows of those who laid down their lives for their friends: the truth.

Bitter and harsh is the truth.

With the deaf silence of the majority, intimidated and exhausted by tsarism, for a century they went to torment and death the best people Russia. A powerful explosion of popular indignation did not stop the hands of those who hanged the Decembrists, who put the Petrashevists under execution, who raised Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Ulyanov to the scaffold, who shot dozens and hundreds of workers, soldiers, sailors and peasants in 1906-7. And when the great Russian democrat and revolutionary Chernyshevsky stood at the pillory in St. Petersburg Square, only one woman's hand threw a bouquet of red flowers to the foot of his scaffold.

Today is not the same. Millions of people came to the lead coffins of the dead fighters to honor their sacrifice for freedom. Millions of people in Russia will proclaim glory to those who won freedom by their struggle. But the dead do not need honor, and any gratitude is below their feat. Another would be said, another would be demanded by the fighters who died in a century of struggle.

“The fight is not over,” they would say. “We are not the last sacrifices that humanity will make in its movement towards true freedom and true equality. We are not the last victims in Russia, where the consolidation of the fruits of the revolution and their expansion will require more and more new victims. Don't let history repeat itself! Surround those who follow our path with a dense ring, and when the hour of new battles comes, be with them! Not honor after a bloody battle, but support during it, we demand from those who have now come to our grave. May the shameful for a free people picture of the death of its foremost fighters amid the indifferent silence of citizens never again be repeated! May the joy of the victories achieved not obscure before you your duty to defend the revolutionary gains of the people!”

There is no power in Russia today higher than the power of the insurgent people. May his revolutionary passion never run dry! May his revolutionary enthusiasm not weaken! May the mass of millions gathered around the coffins of the fallen be the army of the revolution, and dispersing after the funeral, may it not turn into a philistine mass for which the advanced fighters die!

Today we bury not the last victims on the way to national happiness. But the fewer of them will be ahead, the stronger we rally around the red banners of the revolution raised by them.

Stand steadfastly around these banners, defend them with your whole mass, be the same mass of millions when you have to defend them from hostile forces in difficult days of struggle, as you have now appeared on the bright holiday of freedom - this is the testament of the fallen.

On March 23, many front-line military units sent their delegations to St. Petersburg. Some of them spoke at factories and factories in support of the Bolshevik slogans, especially regarding the attitude towards the war.

Izvestia of the Petrograd Soviet published on March 23 "The main program of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies", compiled by the 109th division and several units of the army in the field. It put forward demands for the immediate conclusion of peace and control over the operational part by the soldiers' executive committees. The compilers of the program declared that they were ready to support the Council in every possible way.

Passed in Kronstadt On March 23, the meeting adopted a resolution demanding the final destruction of the capitalist system and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Soldiers serving in the military departments and offices of the St. Petersburg garrison announced the creation of a United Committee, hostile to the Petrograd Soviet.

Among the soldier groups also stands out "Motherland and People's Army”, appealing to the entire army with an appeal to support such demands:

“1) to bring the war to the full guarantee of the freedom won by the people and the army;

2) liberate the destroyed and oppressed Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, Armenia, Romania, Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine;

3) grant the peoples liberated from the German yoke the right to full self-determination.”

At a conference of the Party of Popular Socialists held in Moscow on March 23, a resolution was adopted stating that the war must be waged until the danger threatening Russian freedom from Germany was eliminated. It is impossible to insist on peace at all costs - it is necessary that the Germans renounce annexations, political hegemony and enrichment at the expense of other states. The Provisional Government must only declare that our military actions do not bear any conquest goals.

"The Conference expresses its readiness to vigorously support the Provisional Government in the implementation of the program promulgated by them, and at the same time considers it detrimental to the success of the revolution and to the defense of the straps of attempts by any organizations whatsoever to appropriate the functions of government power."

On March 23, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government expressed his view on the goals of the war to newspaper reporters Milyukov:

“The liberation of the Slavic peoples who inhabited Austria-Hungary, the unification of the Italian, Romanian lands, the formation of the Czech-Slavic and Serbo-Croatian state, the merger of the Ukrainian lands of Austria-Hungary with Russia - these are the tasks of the future peace congress.

If we Russians lay claim to possession of Constantinople and the straits, then by this we in no way encroach on national law Turkey, and no one has the right to reproach us for grasping tendencies. The possession of Tsargrad has always been considered the original national goal Russia. The neutralization of the straits would certainly be detrimental to our national interests."